In a summer season to remember, The Beat shook off a mind-numbing 4-4 spring to post its first-ever C-league division title. It was the culmination of a 6-year growth process, which began after a DD division championship in summer 1995, progressed steadily through the end of the Spoon era in 1997, before falling back to a rebuilding phase following the exodus of much of the seminal team nucleus that began under Jim Harvey in the late 80s. 

When we arrived in C-league in the spring of 1996 after a surprisingly easy 8-0 season the previous summer, we quickly discovered how superior the talent level is from DD. Players are more athletic, pitching and defense more efficient. Just slugging your way to wins is the way to get through DD, but once in C-league, that strategy doesn’t work as well. Team veterans remember the Connecticut Yankee (a.k.a. Altered States, DOA) that first year as the gold standard for Saturday afternoon softball performance. We weren’t sure then if we could ever get to that level, but we sure didn’t want to go back. Then there were teams like HGA in our early days in C, which could do it sloppy and dominate us with attitude. The Cool Dudes, who did it first with pitching and defense, then added a powerhouse offense to become a consistent pennant winner, were another model of excellence. The list goes on—Hammertime, Nicoya… 

In view of competition like that, we found we needed not only to adapt our approach, but also to assimilate new blood and a different kind of team chemistry. This was especially true after 1998 when we were forced into a transition mode after the team turned over due to moves and retirements.

Rebuilding Finally Paid Off 
In the summer of 2001, three years of rebuilding finally reaped dividends. Following the roller coaster .500 spring of 2001, we got new life as some faces changed in July mid-stride with the welcome additions of extra-base hit men and outfielders Jacq (The Rock) Wilson, joining his speedy brother Jacque, who turned heads in the spring, and Steve Hinkebein. This summer we arrived as a team talented free agents want to come to. 

On September 29, 2001, The Beat became the first team other than the Cool Dudes or Nicoya to win a Saturday C-league title since Hammertime did it in the spring of 1999. Joey J’s edged out the Cool Dudes in the other Saturday division C-6 on October 5 to join The Beat in the playoffs. Both teams are hopeful of starting a new championship era in Saturday C-league softball.

First Tournament Win Ever? How 'Bout the Whole Damn Division?
Dusting ourselves off after a difficult spring, we entered the summer months with a determination to play more games together as a way to improve our team chemistry and fundamentals. As a forerunner of things to come, the boys in gray were undefeated in three July exhibition games and a three-game sweep of a C-league tournament to benefit the Sports for the World’s Children Foundation on 7/21. Jacq Wilson and Kevin Austin were named team MVPs for the tourney and leadoff man Gunnar Rosenquist was 8 for 12 and drove in the winning run in a 5-4 semi-final thriller over Magilla’s Guerilla’s. Impressively, The Beat swept a Magilla’s team that comprised a nucleus of excellent players from the Open C division-winning Mud Hens and 2001 league champion Free Agents, as well as old nemesis the Other Guys. 

In the summer season that began on 7/28 with a 20-1 annihilation of old nemesis HGA, The Beat sprinted out to a 5-0-1 summer season record to essentially clinch the C-7 division title with a suspenseful 5-2 pitcher’s duel win over the Other Guys in what has turned out to be, sadly, a year of death marked by the ominous numbers 9-11. 

Final C7 Summer 2001 Standings Team W L T PCT Pts GB x - The BEAT 5 2 1 .687 11 – Nicoya 4 4 0 .500 8 1.5 Rhinos 4 4 0 .500 8 1.5 The Other Guys 3 4 1 .437 7 2 H.G.A 3 5 0 .375 6 2.5

Continuing with the up and down theme that was symptomatic of 2001, the ensuing half-month between 9/29 when we lost 11-5 to Nicoya, yet still backed into a title, and 10/16 when we were eliminated by the Mindless Ones, became a humbling fall back to earth, but in our usual orbit, we were still ascendant. We may have lost our final two regular season games and a first round playoff game, but we made our way back to the dance. We have a lasting reminder of our accomplishment in what Jim Harvey lovingly refers to as “the hardware”; the trophy i.e., the Grail! 

Legend has it that Jack Kerouac came up with the term “Beat” to describe a movement that signified Beatitude, or in literal parlance “bliss”. Looking at an ugly, yet towering trophy won for playing a child’s game may well provide that kind of perspective as the rainy winter wears on.

The Summer Season In-Between
After the 19-run pasting of HGA courtesy of booming home runs from Jacq and Jacque, Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody and Jim (The Thrill) Colletto, The Beat was faced with a huge challenge on 8/4 as we met our old friends the Other Guys without the slugging Wilson twins, Steve and shortstop Dave Maxion, who would miss the season with a separated shoulder. The OGs had beaten us in 3 straight regular season games and would end up going neck and neck with us (3-0-1) through the first half of the season as pre-season favorite Nicoya lost its first 4 games and fell out of the race before a run as the division spoiler in September. 

Date Visitors Home July 28 THE BEAT 20 HGA 1 August 4 THE BEAT 7 The Other Guys 7 August 18 THE BEAT 15 Nicoya 11 August 25 Rhinos 11 THE BEAT 23 September 8 HGA 7 THE BEAT 18 September 15 The Other Guys 2 THE BEAT 5 September 29 Nicoya 11 THE BEAT 5 October 6 THE BEAT 7 Rhinos 8

BJ Bateman and Brian Arcuri returned from a July hiatus to pace the team along with outfielders Greg (Luki) Lukoski and Javier Urdiales to a come-from-behind 7-7 tie with the Other Guys when we appeared on the ropes with a 7-3 deficit in the top of the 6th. Big Daddy hit a chip shot single in front of an outfield playing him virtually on the opposite diamond to tie the score and Kevin shut down the OGs in the bottom of the 7th to seal the stalemate. While a tie is never ideal, it reflected a dodged bullet that carried us for more than a month as we cruised through the interim games before the Beat/OGs showdown on 9/15.

For the next 5 weeks, The Beat went on to dominate C-7 with convincing wins over Nicoya (15-11), Rhinos (23-11) and HGA again (18-7). Hitters Deluxe Hinkebein, Jacq Wilson and Mark (The Cottonmouth King) St. Georges won game balls as the defense solidified around Mike (Pizza Man) Weiss at shortstop to team with rifle-armed second baseman Brian Arcuri to form an exciting double-play combination. 

Then following the 9/11 disaster, Dennis (OB) O’Brien returned from the disabled list to inspire the team to win a game of small ball like old times. The Beat came out and adapted to the defensively minded competition to win a 5-2 defensive battle over the Other Guys as Kevin (Special K) Austin won the pitchers duel over OGs’ ace Ron Hamilton and Donnell and Jim supplied what offense was needed. 

The Beat lost its final two games of the regular season 11-5 to Nicoya, as Jacq Wilson went on the DL with a sprained ankle, and 8-7 to the Rhinos with Donnell (who was a rock at third base and in the cleanup spot all summer) and me (.519 season average) in absentia. However, the OGs went into a deeper slide, losing its final 4 games to fall into 3rd place, just a half game in front of last place HGA. The resurgent Nicoya and Rhinos tied for 2nd place with matching 4-4 records. Nicoya recovered from an 0-4 start to sweep through the division in the second half

Sudden Death in the C-league Playoffs
Following three practices during the weekend preceding the playoffs, the season ended anti-climactically for The Beat in a first round loss to the hard hitting C-2 champions, the Mindless Ones. The one-bad-inning syndrome once again bit The Beat as the boys in gray were pounded for 9 runs in the 2nd as the Mindless crowd jumped out to a comfortable 10-1 lead. After going up 13-2 in the third, the Beatniks gamely scratched back to make it 14-10 in the 6th courtesy of Donnell’s bases clearing triple before Gunnar was clanked on the head behind the plate on a batter’s follow through. From there, the wind seemed to come out of The Beat hopes as the Mindless Ones scored 2 unearned insurance runs in the top of the 7th to make it 16-10 before the Beat went down quietly to end it.

Incre-what??
The process that led to a division championship was incrementalism at its frustrating best. We had tastes of the pennant race in Wilfred Spoon’s final 5-2-1 season of 1997. Similar to this summer, we were also 5-0-1 and in first place before falling out of the race with 2 straight losses to end the season. Only MSG, Kevin, OB, me, Donnell, Pizza Man and BJ remained from that team as the nucleus to build around starting with the lost season of 1998.

Then it slowly, but steadily turned around. We stayed with mighty Hammertime in the spring of 1999 when we started with a 4-1 record and a stunning upset of the Hammers before we sunk to 5-3 and a second-place finish. In spring 2000, we were again the bridesmaid. Bunyanesque slugger John (The Bomber) Palmer returned and helped us to an exciting 6-2 record when two losses to the many-time C-league division champion Cool Dudes doomed us to a distinguished, yet unsatisfying 2nd place finish. 

Pizza Man

2001 Team Leaders
Michael (Pizza Man) Weiss won the 14th annual Brass Beat award given to the team’s most inspirational player. For the first time in the history of the award, previous winner Gunnar Rosenquist decided to bestow the prize on a defensive player. Long the team’s best defensive outfielder, Pizza established himself at shortstop in the July tournament when Dave Maxion went down to injury. In two thrilling, low-scoring affairs, Pizza’s stalwart defense closed the door on Magilla’s Guerillas’ rallies to help us win the crown. Though he didn’t win a game ball all season, the tournament performance set the tone for the summer when Mike’s steady, often flashy play provided the backbone to an efficient run over the team’s first 6 decisive games.

Continuing the defensive theme, if there had been a Cy Young award in C-7, Kevin Austin would’ve won it. As OB missed the first 6 games due to nagging injuries, Special K was masterful in the summer with a 5-1-1 record and a 5.60 ERA. OB led the staff in the spring with a brilliant 5.54 ERA and in limited duty finished the year at 6.00. 

On offense, Mark St. Georges was the team leader in 4 important categories—batting average (.582), on-base percentage (.717), RBIs (23) and hits (32). Jim Colletto had another great year, despite a mid-summer slump, to lead the team in slugging percentage (.894) and extra base hits (8), including 4 home runs and 22 RBIs. Jim was 4th on the team in average (.511) and OBP (.618) and established the team mark for hits in 2+ years of consecutive games with 33, breaking Kevin Austin’s previous record of 30.

Rookie-of-the-year Jacque Wilson was team runner up in 5 categories—average (.574), OBP (.680), slugging (.809), extra base hits (7) and hits (27). Brian Arcuri had a consistent, breakthrough season making the leader board in 5 categories—3rd in average (.522), slugging (.660) and hits (24), and 4th in extra base hits (4) and slugging (.609). As usual, Donnell Moody was among the leaders in 4 brackets—tying for the team lead in runs (21), 3rd in RBIs (19), 5th in hits (24), and tied for 4th in extra base hits (4). BJ Bateman cracked the leader boards in batting (5th, .472) and slugging (5th, .583).

Rookie Jacq Wilson walked on to lead the team in summer slugging with a powerful 1.158 mark courtesy of 3 doubles, 3 home runs and 11 RBIs. Fellow rook Steve Hinkebein led the team in hitting for the summer with a .611 clip followed by yours truly at .588. MSG led the team in OBP with a remarkable .742 mark followed by me at .647 and Steve at .632.

The 2001 Division Champions! Back:  MSG, Jacq the Rock, Pizza Man, Jav, Pete, B.J., Jacque Front:  Lucky Luki, The Thrill, G-Man, O.B., Hink, Special K (w/Ceilidh), The Rifleman

Postscript
The boys and gray are hopeful that the championship of 2001 will be a building block; the first of several trips to the C-league playoffs. Unlike lower divisions, it takes a league championship to move to the next level—CC—so we can expect to remain in contention. The entire team is expected back in 2002. 

And to stay sharp and continue to build our excellent team chemistry, most of us will play winter ball with Greg Lukoski’s SF Park Ratts, a loose (by design) but competitive contender with Jav Urdiales on the mound and a revolving cast of walk-ons behind him. After 2 weeks of doubleheaders and halfway through the regular season, the Ratts stand atop its division at 4-0. Is a championship hat trick—tournament, summer, and winter—in the cards for this band of brothers? 

We’ll keep you apprised.

Stats for the Division Championship Summer Season

Individual Game Articles from the 2001 Championship Season
	vs. HGA, July 28, 2001			vs. HGA, September 8, 2001
	vs. The Other Guys, August 4, 2001			vs. The Other Guys, September 15, 2001
	vs. Nicoya, August 18, 2001			vs. Nicoya, September 29, 2001
	vs. Rhinos, August 25, 2001			vs. Rhinos, October 6, 2001

On The BEAT News Archive