by Pete

Other Guys ruin The Beat finale, 9-3 Beatniks end spring at 4-4, tied for 5th with Renegades in 9-team division

The Beat came out to Jackson #1 on June 9 looking for another winning season in the spring, a consolation prize for falling out of contention 3 weeks ago. However, veteran knuckleballer Ron Hamilton put the Other Guys on his back and held the gray & black scoreless until the 5th while his mates took advantage of some defensive miscues and jumped out to a 7-0 lead before the Beat even got on the board. 

Unlike previous themes, this game wasn’t a microcosm of the season as had several before. For a low scoring game, this contest never felt all that close after the OGs jumped out to a 4-0 second inning lead. The Beat had played tight, nail-biting affairs following its opening 22-6 rout over Finnegans, but it became apparent as the innings wore on after the fateful second that our heroes had hit a brick wall against Hamilton’s dancing knuckler and, to an extent, themselves. After starting the rain-marred spring 2001 season at 2-0 with an easy win and exhilarating walk-off 10-9 victory over long-time nemesis Nicoya, The Beat’s battle to stay over .500 ended with a lackluster defeat. 

However, overall in a tough division, there were more positives than negatives. More on that in a minute. 

First the game.

The happy warrior Dennis (OB) O’Brien started on the mound for the boyz in gray under typically windy Jackson #1 conditions. The great equalizer gale swirled out to right so conditions were just right for OB, whose screwballs cut through the cross-wind into right-handed hitters. O’Brien sailed through the first getting batterymates Jay Katz and Hamilton on flyballs after Dave Backus and Cyrus Craft reached on singles.

Hamilton got The Beat to go down easily in the first 2 innings as the white-haired craftsman repeatedly induced grounders to smooth OGs shortstop and manager Ken Sommer. Infield errors and a 2-RBI single by #11 hitter Bill Pair sunk the Beatniks to a 4-0 deficit that may as well have been a 12-0 lead the way Hamilton was pitching.

Date Visitors Home March 24 Finnegan's Wake 6 THE BEAT 22 April 14 THE BEAT 10 Nicoya 9 April 28 THE BEAT 8 Cool Dudes 13 May 5 Renegades 15 THE BEAT 11 May 12 Van Ness Monsters 13 THE BEAT 14 May 19 Joey J's 8 THE BEAT 5 June 2 THE BEAT 17 Rhinos 13 June 9 THE BEAT 3 The Other Guys 9

The Beat kept pounding the ball in Sommer’s direction for the next 3 frames before the Other Dudes broke it open for good against Javier Urdiales in the 5th. With 1 out and the top of the order coming up, Sommer, Backus, Craft, John Rohaly and Hamilton singled off Jav in only his second Beat pitching appearance to extend the lead to 7-0. A close play at the plate in the OG’s favor on Backus’s single turned the momentum away from the boys in gray as the batter pulled into second and Sommer moved into third. Both runs scored on Craft’s 2-run single. 

The top of the Beat order made it interesting in the 6th as Gunnar Rosenquist, Jacque Wilson, and big D Moody reached base. With 1 out and 1 run in, Jim (The Thrill) Colletto sliced an opposite-field single just inside the left-field foul line to score Jacque and Donnell to cut the Other Guy lead to 7-3. With his 100th career Beat at-bat, Jim qualified to move ahead of fabled John (The Bomber) Palmer into first place in career batting average with a lifetime .547 mark.

Time was called by the umps with 2 out in the home 6th after the Other Guys had tacked on 2 more runs on some Beat defensive hijinks and the pre-game beer bet was won by the OGs. Following the merciful end of the Joey J’s 15-0 pasting of the Renegades—gee at least we were in our ballgame—the boyz joined what was left of the Other Guys for refreshments at nearby Potrero Brewery. 

The season in general

Although a 4-4 record is nothing to write home about—and The Beat cost themselves in a couple of those games they should have won—it was the most competitive division they've ever played in. The Beatniks played tough, close games all around—except for Saturday when we were flat—and that's something to feel very positive about. There were some fine individual performances and with a few breaks the team could have been 5-3 or 6-2. A see-saw battle with Nicoya ended in an electric, sudden-death 10-9 victory on April 14. Against the division winning Cool Dudes, The Beat jumped out to an 8-3 4th inning lead before the CDs roared back to win 13-8 on the back of a titanic homerun onto the tennis courts. 

2001 Final Spring Standings Team W L T PCT GB Cool Dudes 7 1 0 .875 – Joey J's 6 1 1 .812 .5 Nicoya 5 2 1 .687 1.5 The Other Guys 4 3 1 .562 2.5 The BEAT 4 4 0 .500 3 Renegades 4 4 0 .500 3 Rhinos 3 5 0 .375 4 Finnegan's Wake 1 7 0 .125 6 The Van Ness Monsters 0 7 1 .062 6.5

A 7th inning collapse on May 5 saw a tidy 10-5 victory (after a 7-0 early lead) suddenly turn into a shocking 15-11 defeat. The 3 runners thrown out the plate in an 8-5 loss to Joey’s Js still sticks in the team’s collective craws.

But The Beat hit 60 points better as a team than last summer with a .450 team clip. Several Beat hitters had fine springs with Colletto winning yet another season team batting title with a .619 mark. JC also led the club in slugging with a 1.190 clip and RBIs with 14. Cottonmouth King “Marky D” St. Georges joined Colletto among the top-5 leaders in all 8 important offensive categories. MSG let the team in hits with 16 and batted .593 flirting with .700 and above most of the spring. He was 2nd in runs and RBIs with 11. Scrappy Gunnar (The Splendid Stump) Rosenquist batted leadoff for most of the spring and hit .565 with a .741 on-base percentage and teamed with rookie speedster Jacque Wilson to form an often-explosive top of the order. Jacque used his wheels to sprint out to a .600 batting average (2nd on the team), with 11 runs and a .684 OBP in his inaugural season in black & gray. Brian Arcuri made the leaderboard in 5 offensive categories with a team-leading .769 ,OBP and .520 batting average. Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody was again a fearsome presence in the middle of the Beat lineup with 14 hits, 11 runs and 11 ribbies.

The pitching was as competitive as ever. Kevin (Special K) Austin and OB divided most of the workload with 24 Innings pitched apiece. OB led the staff with a brilliant 5.54 ERA and Kevin posted an 8.46 mark. Javier Urdiales made his long-awaited Beat pitching debut and saved Kevin’s June 2 win over the Rhinos. Jav has shown the team he can pitch in C-league and gives the team a valuable third starter, who figures to see more action in the summer.

What will the Beatniks do with themselves between seasons? Look for a patchwork Beat squad in the July Metro Tournament and an exhibition with the Other Guys on July 7 before the summer season begins on July 27. 

Why take 2 months off. Softball is life.

On The BEAT News Archive