The Brady Bunch and the Cougar Club

Here's the story, of Cougar teammates

Who were fielding ten very athletic guys

All of them had shirts of green, like their captain,

They came in every size.

Here's the story, of a team named Tappers,

Who were busy with ten boys of their own,

They were ten men, playing all together,

On the field they were at home.

Till the one day when the Cougars met the Tappers

And they knew it was much more than a game,

That this group would somehow form a matchup.

That's the way we all became a rivalry.

A Rivalry.

A Rivalry.

That's the way we all became a rivalry.

The Tappers stole our playbook last night and then bruised our nose by swinging their tiki bats to a 14-6 victory.   We should have taken Mrs. Brady's advice and not played ball in their house.

As I woke this morning, the loss was consuming me and I knew it was time to change my outlook.  A little Brady Bunch wisdom was needed.

So I went for a walk outside because the summer sun knows me by name.

While on my walk, I realized that there's no sense in walking around with my feet stuck to the ground.  It would be much better to put myself together and create a lot of love and good vibes for humanity.  I had plenty of blues and now I needed to buy some cheer and listen to some good time music.

There is no need for the Cougars to go on a game show to win a contest and get a silver platter.  We have one championship and we plan to earn our second golden challis on the field.  We will then keep on moving, singing and dancing all thru the night.

Hot Streak

After his minty green Izod showing last week, the Cougars submitted Preschlack's new outfit to the website hotornot.com. 

With almost full attendance, we also decided to turn in our team picture from last night.

The pretty play of the Cougars was the big winner last night.  We were so hot we could have beat Robert Bunsen's team.

We won 4-0 on solid defense by the entire team.  Shutouts don't happen very often around here.  Of the 60 total games played in the league this season, there have been only seven shutouts.  We have two of them.

On the offensive front, we torched our opponent in the third inning. 

Lipinski led off with a blazing single followed by a Flannery fielder's choice.  Hoglund smoked a single to place runners on first and second.  Melchiorre hit a sizzling grounder and moved the runners to second and third.  Next up was Fortier, who blistered a hard shot to left field, which scored our first two runs.  Then, back to back scorching singles by Boomgaarden and Radtke gave us a 4-0 lead.

Of course, the Cougars had to give our wonderful fans in the stands some drama. 

In the bottom of the seventh, Gulliver's first hitter had an infield single to the hole between second base and short center.  After receiving the throw at first base, Danielsen smartly tagged the runner after he jerked towards second base.  Crucial first out. 

The next batter hit a ball to deep left field.  That was not a smart move.  Otsuka doesn't miss.  Two outs.

The next three batters for Gulliver's all singled but were unable to score because our outfielders had laser throws back to the infield. 

Bases loaded.  Two outs.  Tying run at the plate.  Heat index 104 degrees.  Martin rocked his arm and placed a sweet arc on the ball to McDonnell behind the plate.  The batter scalded it to Bobis at second base, who threw it with heat to first base to put out the fire. 

Cougars win!

If our fiery play continues in this sweltering weather, the Cougars may shed some clothes next week and give a whole new meaning to hot streak.

Achy Breaky

Rather than writing the Cougar blog, much of the morning was spent on WebMD discovering cures for our aliments after we got beat up last night by Chicken Shack 11-8.   It turns out that ACHE is an acronym for A Cougar Heartbreaking Event.

The Cougars had the following painful aches after last night's game:

Headache:  From reliving the game all last night and today.

Bellyache:  After the umpire's lousy calls, the Cougars were bellyaching.

Earache:  From the deafening screams on the Shacker bench in the first half of the game and the same from the Cougar bench in the second half of the game.

Heartache:  Our hearts are heavy as our man Stabber moves out to California to conquer Silicon Valley.  We will miss him and his wonderful family.

Stomachache:  We can't beat Chicken Shack so we eat Chicken Shack.  Here is a picture of Preschlack gobbling up some chicken soon after his first home run.  Presch was certainly not lacking in his debut.

We all know the best cure for our aches is a good postgame.  Thanks to Flandog for hosting a pain-free party for both the Cougars and the Shackers.

Our only incurable ache is our backache from carrying last year's championship trophy all over town.