STNB Kicked off the fall '07 season in fine fashion (one week late), with a great group of players, a great day, and no little Tommy with his hord of trained mutants. So PLAY BALL!!
Knighter had the ball for the Bionic Boys, and let it be written that the first batter he would face for the Fall stretch drive would be Fluff. Knight erased Fluff on a 6-3, K'd MM and retired Irish on a 6-3. No worries for Knight Man, Man of the People, Prince of Darkness, and glowing ember of convoluted humanity.
Bullet took the hill for the Fall Guys and quickly retired Abe 'Man Cake' Klein on a pop up to SS. Greg Elbaum then drove a ball to the RC gap for a triple and was quickly driven home bt Jim 'Stick' Fogerty. 1-Zip Bionics. Bullet K'd the dark One and retired Kenny G on a fly to right.
Fluff, MM, Irish, Duse and MonC
roughed up Knighter in the 3rd for 3 runs; the big blow a 2 bagger from Duse.
The Bionics fought right back with knocks by Jim (his second hit off Bullet, he better duck next at bat) Knighter and MediJ, followed by a 3-bagger blast
off the bat of Jesse, Cake's Buddy. The Bionics cruise into the 4th with a 4-3 lead
Disaster struck the Bionics in th3e 4th. With 2 outs, Knight drilled MM. Irish and Duse followed with singles, and Al reached on a miscue. Some more fielding mayhem on a Nails flair and just like that, 3 runs score before the fire was out. The Fall Guys added single runs in the 5th and 6th on ribbi's by Fluff and Irish, Kenny G pitching now, as Bullet retired the Bionics in order in the 4th and 5th. The Bionics plated a run in the 6th without a hit. After 6, 8-5 Fall Guys.
The game would be knotted in the 7th, with Hammer in for the Fall Guys and Greg in for the Bionics. The FG's went down easily in the 7th but the bionics, on the strength of singles by Kenny G, Medi and Abe plated 3. Greg and Hammer threw up 0's in the 8th.
In the FG 9th, with 2 outs, Hammer and Fluff single. MM reached on an E-6 with Hammer scoring, bad foot and all.
Fluff took the ball for the bottom of the 9th and sluttered Jesse and Cake to death with K's and induced Greg to fly out to left, after a 12 pitch at bat, to end the game. Great game, FG's 9, bionics 8
Box Score for September 22, 2007
October 13, 2007
By York
Well, we managed to play this game with 13 people, Indian Ball style. And, to be honest, it was a Damn good game, except for the part where Hammer got drilled in the shin by a line drive in the 2nd. It was actually the 4th for Hammer, since he was pitching for both teams at the time of the drilling.
Indian ball can be confusing to the unitiated, since at any one time, 2 of your team's players are playing defence for the opposing team. The Fall Guys scored a run in the top of the first, and then the fun started. Fun, if you are a Bionic, that is. The Bionics scored 9 first inning runs, on a hail of singles, bloopers and comatose Fall Guy defense. Tom Simpson, the umpire of the day, I am sure was dreading 9 innings of this. $70 or no $70.
By the time Hammer was driven off the mound, and Duse retired the Bionics in the bottom of the 2nd, the score was 11-1 Bionics. Ugly. But wait!, this is a TNB game, so you know that won't last.
Duse settled in for the FG's and Knighter for the Bionics, and after 5 it was 14-4 Bionics. At this point, both Nails and Knighter had 4 ribbi's each, and MM and Jim Fogerty had 8 hits between them.
But wait, the Fall Guys explode for 4 in the 6th and 6 in the top of the 7th to tie the freakin' score. MonC shut the Bionics down quickly in the bottom of the 7th, like a good pitcher is supposed to do when you tie the score, and after 7, 14-14, can you believe it. Evan and Jimmy Kerr had 4 hits in the 2 rally innings .
Fresh off his save in the Sept 22 game, Fluff came in from the bullpen to start the 8th. Safeties by Knighter, Matt Taggert, Nails, Kenny G off the staggering Fluff, and a dagger liner ip the middle on a hanging curve ball, from MM untied the game, and the Fall Guys would need to rally AGAIN to get to the bottom of the 9th and a chance to win. Matt Taggert took the FG's down in order, and the Series is knotted at 1 game apiece.
Box Score for October 13, 2007
On a beautiful Fall day, game 3 will be played in Indian ball style...again. Anything to right field is a single (unless you are a lefty), 7 on 7.
If you like getting 7 at bats in a game, you'll like Indian ball.
Duse has the ball for the Fall Guys today, and draws a tough assignment; outpitch the Terminator. Unfortunately, for Duse and the Fall Guys, the Bionics jumped on the Stuntmen with both boots AGAIN in the 1st inning, as MM, Pat, Nails Termie and MediJ reached safely before Duse could induce Kenny G into a 1-3. Duse got out cheaply enough, giving up just a 3 spot, but Termie can make a 3 spot stand. We'll see.
The Stunt Men went meekly in the 1st and the Bionic Boys tacked on 2 more in the top of the 2nd on a Termie blast and another ribbi for MediJ, his 2nd of the young game.Duse scored the first run for the Fall Guys in the second, on a Duse single and a rare termie error. After 2, 5-1 Bionics.
Bullet had been lurking on the edge of Sherwood forest with his chipper, and took a break to pitch the 3rd for the FG's. Resplendent in John Deer coveralls and 7 pound work boots, he pitched an effective 3rd, yielding an unearned run. At 7-2, things weren't giong the Stuntmen's way. However, the 4th proved fruitful for the home team as Irish, MonCap, Abe, Duse, and Lundy hit safely before Fluff popped out to Termie for the 2nd out. Greg Elbaum then launched a back breaking double to the gap for 2 more runs and , voila, we are tied at 7. TNB, baby!
As Tony and MonCapitan breezed thru the7th with 4 sparkling innings of 1 run pitching for the Home team Fall Guys, Termie yielded 2 more runs in the 6th on Ribbis from Irish and Greg. The FG's had come all the way back and after 7, led 9-7
Fluff and Greg had to nail this game down. Not so fast. Before you can say E-6, E-6, E-6, single, single, F-9, the Bionics were back on top 11-9. Kenny had the ball for the last 3 innings for the Bionics, and had been roughed up last week. Maybe he can get it done today.
He did. Kenny pitched 3 sterling 1-hit innings for the win and taking Termie off the meat hook. The Bionics tacked on 3 more in the 9th for the 14-9 win. The Bionic Boys come back to take the series, 2 games to 1.
Great game on a beautiful day. Next week is the finale. Doesn't seem possible, but it happens every year.
The Last game of the year. We have some of our Vermont friends in the lineup and Supe and Chap are back from injuries. Neither one of them is fully recovered, but, the last game of the year is not worth missing. It is a beautiful day, but a rain front came thru last night, bringing our first brisk legit Fall weather.
I have been looking forward to this all week; full squads with Termie and Bullet facing off for the last game of the season. Let's get it on. The Supes were home team and "Mike" led off for the Ghosts, digging in for Termies first pitch. "Mike" worked a 10 pitch walk off Term, who was having trouble gripping the ball in this Fall weather to throw his patented slider. (It seems hardly possible that we were playing in near 90 degree weather in Leominster 3 weeks ago) Blapi, who, along with MM and Bullet would torture the Supes all day, stroked a single. Bullet sac'd them to second and third (my man). Fluff got one in with a FC grounder and Irish clutch singled in Blapi for the second run. Get 'em over get 'em in, good start for the Ghosts. Bullet pitched a patented 1-2-3 inning on about 6 pitches. After 1, 2-0 Ghosts.
The second inning started ominously for the Supes when Rookie Steve Stanley reached on a error to open the frame. "Mike" then took one for the team, as Termie was still feeling for it on the mound. A rare occurance. Blapi singled and Bullet ripped a double to RC. Fluff, MM,and Nails singled, in a variety of ways, and then Steve Stanley hit a twisting Atomic seed toward LC that hooked a good 40 feet, and right at Kenny G like a heat seeking missle. This lethal drive ticked off Kenny's webbing, ripped his hat off and skinnid the top of Kenny's head on it's way toward the freshly cleared tree line in dead left field. Kenny was OK (100,000 damaged hair follicles), but Steve had a 4 bagger and the Ghosts took a 7-0 lead.
The Ghosts added 2 in the 4th and the Supes plated one finally in the 5th . After 5 11-1 Ghosts, and Bullet vs Terminator was over for the day. The game would be turned over to the Bullpens. Anything cold still happen.
Kenny G and Fluff pitched the 6-7 and were pretty effective. Kenny was touched for a MM ribbi double, and Fluff gave up a ribbi double to Jimmy Fog. Irish and Supe would take the 8-9.
Supe pitched a clean 1-2-3 8th, but the hammer came down on the Ghosts in the bottom of the 8th. Greg and Abe started the Supe 8th with singles and Supe was drilled to load the bases. Andy then reached on an error, for a run. term grounded out, but Jimmy Fogerty continued his red hot hitting with another ribbi. Greg and Abe both reached on their second hits of the inning, and all of a sudden the score was 11-7, bases loaded with Supe up. Like we ALWAYS say, you gotta play till the last pitch in TNB, because your team will always get a chance if you keep on grinding.
With the Ghosts digging in for a battle, Supe hit a high pop the 3rd, and the Ghosts could breath again. But, we had a game. After 8, 11-7 ghosts. Supe and Irish pitched clean 9th innings, and the last TNB game of 2007 was history. It was a good game to end on, and we can look forward the a month off and then rebirth in the Dome December 3.
The wheel turns one more time.
2007 The End