Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The Dead Cougars Can Play Eight Innings!

This week's update is brought to you by - DaMoJoe Magic Beans Coffee! I am enjoying a few cups of the Magic Blend this morning. The backstory is that my kids think Melchiorre is a superstar.

First, they see this most excellent performer onstage at the McK Variety Show in all of his awesomeness and they end up singing the S'mores and the Grill Daddys song (Steak and Chicken! Frankfurters too. We do the T-Bone two step. Yes we do.) for weeks and now months. Heck, he even had a page in the show's program honoring his achievements. Then, Julie and I reminded the kids that he plays lead guitar and sings at times for Pop Rocks and his status went up even higher. So the season starts and the kids come out to one of the first early games and they realize that this same cool guy is the also pitcher for the DC's (I think my own power ranking went up for that) and the kids are beside themselves. Finally, to round out his Renaissance Man persona, I find out that Dave roasts his own coffee as a side business. Cup number two has been consumed already this morning and on to cup three for the game update.

Buy your very own at DaMoJoeBeans@gmail.com.

I am going to try and get DateACougar.com to sponsor next week's update. Guaranteed that I will not be testing that product out.

Three cups of coffee are needed when the postgame lasts just past midnight and we were so fortunate that Mr. Lipsey supplied us with such a wide variety of beer.

We lost the game 4-2 in eight innings against The Chieftons. These kids were a mirror image of our team except that we are old enough to shave. We were the home team and only let up one run in the first inning, which has been our Achilles heel. We came back soon after and tied it up and were even ahead for a bit. They tied it up and we went to overtime. They scored two in the top of the eighth and we pooped out. We just didn't have the stamina or the swings in the end. Eight innings for us is basically a doubleheader.

Our hitting was anemic at times but we did have some nice hits that did fall for us. We played outstanding defense highlighted by Otsuka's left field heroics. He must have had seven or eight balls hit out there and he was flawless - running, diving, jumping - and catching every ball. Both Otsuka and Lipsey had line shots over their heads that they each caught and left them looking italicized in the air while making the catch. My little brother played an impassioned first base and even caught a ball one handed. My guess is that Little Rads (as he is known on the South Side) has no voice this morning because of his King Kong enthusiasm over at first base. Melchiorre has had enough pub in this update but, simply put, he is quickly becoming an all-star.

Our highlight of the game would absolutely make the SportsCenter Plays of the Week. We got snookered last week by the Hitmen with the ol' man on first and second pickoff play. We decided in the pregame that Melchiorre and Little Rads would "pull a Dead Cougar" on the Chieftons if the situation was right. They had first and second with no outs and the game was tied in the top of the sixth, I believe. Dave throws it to Marc, Marc lets it get past him, the runners advance (with the guy on second running all the way home and then into the dugout), Marc throws it to Flannery who has everyone screaming at him to tag everything in sight - runners, bases, the pitching rubber - anything (see, we knew we wanted to run the play but never talked about how to actually execute it). Flannery takes care of business and all of a sudden we have two outs and get the next guy for the the final out of the inning - it was huge!

In the end, we couldn't close the deal (coffee is for closers according to Alec Baldwin but I will be enjoying cup number four soon). We should be proud for our improvements.

A couple of postscripts:

Huge props to my wife and sister-in-law for encouraging Greg and I to leave our MI vacation and drive three hours to play in the game.
Great to have the Coach (Bobis' dad) out for the game and the postgame.

We really need more bp. I may send out an email to get some swings in this weekend. Also, heard from Melchiorre that another team in the league hired a batting coach a few years ago and they significantly improved. I am signing the DC's up for that next year.

Next week, I have Lipsey and Fortier out with Lipinski in charge of the brews. Speaking of brews, we play the Brew-Ha's at 8pm. Let me know if you are in or out next week.

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