2004 Summer Wrap!

Beat Title Streak Ends at 4
Team wide batting slump dooms The Beat to 4th place in “High C”

Just as it had started, the summer season of 2004 ended badly for The Beat with a 12-8 loss to 1st place Flor de Cana on September 25. The newly-named, revamped team formerly known as Dominic’s Club and Straight out of the Hood that shocked the supercharged division by eventually going 7-0-1, clinched the division with the win. The boys in gray, trying to salvage the season with a winning record after a thrilling 15-14 come-from-behind victory over Ronin the week before, kept the game close until the 6th inning when Flor de Cana finally put the Beat away.

The Beat finished with a 3-4-1 record and landed in 4th place, the team's first losing season since spring 2002. In between, the team won 4 straight division titles including the spring of 2004 when it went 7-1 in the first advanced C league division. Before the Beatniks’ 2nd half stumble, the team had put together a remarkable 33-6-2 run going back to May 2002.

Despite the losing record, the team was competitive in all 8 games this summer and with a few breaks could have had a better record. The Beat was shorthanded for half of the season due to the usual summer holiday commitments and an injury to rookie sensation Terry Hempleman. In a tough division that included 3 one-time C-league Champions, The Beat lacked roster depth, struggled at the plate, exhibited inconsistent defense and played from behind in all but 2 games all summer.

Sadly, it wasn’t a formula for success.

2004 Summer Standings

Team W L T PCT Pts GB

Flor de Cana 7 0 1 .937 15 –

SF Ballers 5 3 0 .625 10 2.5

Il Pirata 4 4 0 .500 8 3.5

The BEAT 3 4 1 .437 7 4

Ronin 0 8 0 .000 0 7.5

Having squeaked out of the 4th game against Flor de Cana with a 9-9 tie in the face of several key player absences and buoyed by Dennis (OB) O’Brien’s clutch mound performance, most observers thought The Beat appeared well positioned for an exciting finish. After losing the opener on July 24 against the SF Ballers, the Beat had reeled off two straight wins against defending C-league champs Il Pirata (7-6) and Ronin (17-6) before the comeback tie with Flor de Cana left them at 2-1-1 and 1/2 game behind the division leaders.

Instead the Beat lost 3 of 4 in the second half and finished in 4th place ahead of only the hapless Ronin, which finished the summer at 0-8 and 3-13 overall in 2004 after a C-league title in summer 2003. Il Pirata tumbled to 3rd place at 4-4 and the Ballers were the division bridesmaids at 5-3.

Misery loves company?

Playoff Postscript
In what must have been one of the lowest scoring softball playoff games of all times, Flor de Cana was defeated 5-3 in the first round of the playoffs on October 7 by Papa Potrero’s Pizza. Since C-7 champs Solid Smack (a.k.a. 9 Inch Snails) were also beaten in the first round (21-6 by Reddawg), it marked the 1st time since summer 2002 that a Saturday team had failed to win the C-league title. After a closely fought championship tournament, C-5 titlist Bloom’s Bros. went on to win it all on October 21 by a tally of 15-11 over league runner-up Mahoney’s from C-4.

Anatomy of a summer meltdown
The summer season was essentially lost in week 5 (August 28) at Jackson #2 when the Beat dropped a 9-8 heartbreaker to the SF Ballers. This turned out to be a devastating loss for the Beat after they had battled all the way back from an early 7-2 hole to take the lead at 8-7 in the top of the 7th. The Beat looked to be on the verge of a Houdini-like escape in spite of missing veteran stars Jacque (The Jet) Wilson and Jim (The Thrill) Colletto to pre-planned engagements. Additionally, Hempleman’s ankle injury reduced him to EP and the 10th spot in the lineup after he had sparked the offense in the #2 hole in the previous 2 weeks. As it turned out, Terry wasn’t at full speed for the rest of the season and missed the final 2 games in September.

Date
Visitors

Home

Jul 24 SF Ballers 8 THE BEAT 4

Jul 31 Il Pirata 6 THE BEAT 7

Aug 7 THE BEAT 17 Ronin 6

Aug 14 Flor de Cana
9
THE BEAT 9

Aug 28 THE BEAT
8
SF Ballers 9

Sept 11 THE BEAT 8 Il Pirata 10

Sept 18 Ronin 14 THE BEAT 15

Sept 25 THE BEAT 8 Flor de Cana 12

Due to a lack of team depth following the departure of key players Mike (Butts) Buttafuso and Jason Pendergast from the spring division champs and Gunnar Rosenquist’s return to Washington, DC for law school, manager Pete Wenner tried to fill the holes against the Ballers by turning to 2 unproven replacement players.

Unfortunately the stand-ins committed 3 costly outfield errors that led to 3 decisive unearned runs. While the Beat showed the moxie to come back on the strength of key hits by Mark (MSG) St. Georges, Mark Briscoe and Armando (Mondo) Lopez, the defensive miscues were too much to overcome against a tough Baller squad itching for retribution after 2 losses to The Beat in the spring. A dropped fly ball by a stand-in with the bases loaded and 1 out in the bottom of the 7th finally sunk the Beatniks.

After Flor de Cana kept rolling in the next game of the day with a mercy ruling of Il Pirata, the Beat came into its post-Labor Day match up with the defending champs under pressure, but undaunted. The whole squad was back, loose and seemingly at full strength.

However, the Beat bats were silent early and suspect infield defense led to 4 unearned runs as Il Pirata jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the 2nd inning. Again the boys in gray scratched back. Starting pitcher Kevin (Special K) Austin stiffened his spine and shut down the champs for 4 innings. This enabled The Beat to claw back with 3 runs in the 3rd on Briscoe’s home run, a run in the 4th and 4 runs in the 5th capped off by Hempleman’s 2-run triple. Unfortunately, that mad dash around the bases finished Terry for the season. Tied at 8-8 in the 6th, the Beatniks stranded 2 runners and failed to push across a run.

Taking advantage, Il Pirata scored 2 more in their half of the 6th to make it 10-8, which was all it took as The Beat went down in order in the 7th. That loss effectively ended the team’s division title streak at 4.

One brief shining moment
Playing for pride, the boys once again fell way behind on September 18, this time, by a seemingly insurmountable 14-5 deficit to Ronin by the 5th inning. The frustrated manager, who had brought the team’s spring division championship trophy to the game for inspiration suddenly lashed out, challenging the team to start playing like the champions they once were. The team rose to the bait with a furious rally in the 6th keyed by Jacque’s 3-run homer into the wind in left-center at Jackson #2.

The team scored the winning runs in sudden death fashion in the 7th on MSG’s 2-out single with the bases loaded. Jacque scored easily from 3rd, but as the throw home looked to be wide of home, 3rd base coach Austin sent rookie Paul Sanders for the win. As the Ronin catcher caught the ball and lunged toward the plate, Paul slid in under the tag as the umpire cried “safe!” Ronin burst into protest, but it was all over and the Beat repaired up the right field line to party and contemplate the great escape.

MSG was 4 for 5 on the day with 3 RBIs. Jacq (The Rock) Wilson went 2 for 3 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs and Sanders was 3 for 4 with 4 runs scored.

Turn out the lights, my darlin’
The Beat tried to take its momentum from the exhilarating Ronin win into week 8 against Flor de Cana. The league leaders were still way out in front of the 2nd place Ballers, but the Beat still had a chance to play spoilers. They quickly jumped out in front with 3 quick runs in the top of the 1st on Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody’s 2-run triple and Sanders’ RBI single. However, the division leaders came back with 5 first inning runs of their own on the strength of triples by Berrios and Lopez. The Beat tied it at 5-5 in the 2nd on Greg (Lucky Luki) Lukoski’s 2-run homer, which ignited the bench but Flor added 2 runs apiece in the 2nd and 3rd to increase its lead to 9-5. As Special K shut down the Flor de Cana bats in the 5th and 6th, the boys in gray clawed back to make it a game at 9-7. But Flor took advantage of a botched rundown to set up 3 runs in the 7th to stretch its lead to 12-7. The Beat scored 1 more on Big Daddy’s single, but the big 1st baseman was called out in a cloud of dust at 2nd trying to stretch the hit into a double.

With a face full of infield dirt, Donnell walked off with his Beat mates to congratulate the new division champions.

Brass Beat
The prestigious honor of the Brass Beat was again awarded following the last regular season game of the year. The 2004 award went to Jim Colletto, bestowed upon him by 2003 winner Jacq Wilson, who gave a moving speech in which he said “any time I see Jim’s name in the lineup, I know we have a chance to win.” The Tiburon native known as “The Thrill” because of his Will Clark looks and sweet left-handed swing has been a consistently stellar performer with The Beat since his arrival as the 2nd cyber rookie in 1998. Jim has a lifetime batting average of .519, second only in team history to Jacq Wilson’s .523 clip and has supplied the lefty power the team had lacked since the departure of John (The Bomber) Palmer in 1996.

Although big Jim struggled with the bat in the summer as did many of his teammates, he was the undisputed MVP of the spring season when he led the team with 16 hits, a .696 average and .714 on base percentage. Jim ended the year with a solid .489 average (4th on the team) and was 2nd on the team in RBIs with 16.

Stat Wrap
What would a final year recap be without stats? Drum roll on the team leader board please…..

For all of 2004, leadoff man Jacq Wilson topped the offensive leader board in 5 categories. Jacq led the team with a .527 batting average, a .631 on base percentage, 29 hits, 28 runs and 9 walks. Big Daddy Moody paced the Beat in 2 categories with 23 RBI and 6 extra base hits. He was also 2nd on the team both with 27 hits and a .655 slugging percentage. Mark Briscoe once again showed the form he flashed in his rookie season by coming in 1st on the team in slugging with a robust .743. Mark was 2nd in extra base hits with 5, batted .486 (tied for 5th) and got on base at a .571 clip (3rd).

In the summer, Pete Wenner found a new friend in Jim Colletto’s DeMarini Fat Boy. He used it to rebound from a moribund spring slump to lead the team in batting and on base percentage with a .667 BA and .778 OBP. Jacq the Rock led the team in runs and RBIs with 10 apiece and hits with 14. Terry Hempleman, who batted only 5 times in the spring, led the team in slugging at .944 and tied with Moody in extra base hits with 4 before missing the final 2 games.

Kevin Austin was 10-5 overall with a sparkling 4.72 ERA, but deserved better. Special K posted a superior ERA to the 4.84 he put up in 2003 when he pitched the Beat to 2 division titles in the spring and summer. Kev’s 5.57 ERA in the summer was over a run and a half higher than the Beat record 3.94 mark he put up in the spring, but this shows how spoiled the team is with him on the mound.

Including OB’s solid complete game against Flor de Cana in August, the opposing team was held to only 9 runs a game which should be enough to win every time out. Unfortunately, The Beat as a team batted almost 50 points lower than the spring with a .436 clip and drew fewer walks, averaging just 9 runs a game themselves, which was skewed by 2 high scoring games against Ronin. The tale of the season was that the Beatniks scored in single digits in 6 of 8 games.

Wait til next year
So much like 2002, it was a tale of 2 seasons with a division title followed by a disappointing finish (summer 2001-Spring 2002). With the team in need of a much needed rest—the season actually started in late February when many Beatniks helped Greg Lukoski’s Park Ratts move up from a 7th seeding (out of 8) to a 3rd place finish in the Winter League Playoffs—the Beat went into hibernation. The front office will be busy after the new year looking for another big bat for the spring, preferably an outfielder, to make up for the depth it lost in the summer.

As always when the New Year rolls in, the spring roster forms will be mailed out to managers any day now. Could Puxatawney Phil and spring softball be that far off?

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