The Beat entered the Spring 2008 playoffs on a high note, coming off a 5-game win streak in arguably the toughest division in City C. There was a feeling of destiny. With the pickup of Bryan Williams and Brett Goldstein from the Horseshoe, this was possibly the best team in Beat history. There was talk of what would happen should the Beat and the Horseshoe meet in the semi's on June 26th. Maybe both teams took too much for granted.

In the opener, the Horseshoe (7-0-1) played a close match but ultimately lost 12-8 to C5's own Old Clamhouse, a 6-4 team that snuck into a wildcard spot in the last week of the season. So now the Beat had a rubbermatch against Clamhouse to look forward to next week. The only hurdle was a team called Bloom's Brothers, a 7-1 powerhouse that dispatched the Swing Kids in their divisional playoff last Wednesday to win C4 with an 8-1 record.

Whether the Beat was looking past this game or was just unprepared to play an unfamiliar night game after a long work week against a Friday night team, the Beat came out flat and let this one get away early.

The first play of the game was grounded to short but a bobble and overthrow to first allowed the runner to second. Next up, Sylvestri, the second in a long line of lefties on this team, Ichiro'd another grounder to short and beat out Bryan Williams' strong throw (word after the game was that Sylvestri is a bit of a ringer having played a few years of AAA ball plus a year in the pros). Another infield error, this one at second, opened the floodgates and Bloom's jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead. With only one out and a runner on second it was looking to get worse when Jacq Wilson came up big. Eight hitter Fellion flew out to Jacq in right. Jacq gunned the ball to Brett covering third who placed the tag on Cafini trying to advance for an inning ending double play. Fellion was injured on the play and left the game. The Beat breathed a big sigh of relief; we'd made it through that first inning mess. It was only 5 runs, we've been there before. Now let's go get them back.

So how many times has it been said that a guy makes a great play in the field comes up to bat next? Now it was the Beat's turn with Jacq leading off. But like last summer's playoff against Bloom's Kamikazes, the Beat had no idea just how flat they were until they tried to hit. Jacq grounded out to short, the first of a game high eight plays turned in by Bloom's shortstop. Kev Austin drew a 4-pitch walk to reach but Q Wilson, like his brother, grounded to short who turned a 6-4-3 double play to set the Beat down in order and before you could say "there's Jim in that cute tutu again" the Beat was back on the field.

Bloom pounced on the reeling Beat in the second. Following a couple leadoff singles and a fielders choice, a double-clutch on a tailor-made DP ball netted zip for another error at second. Bloom dodged another bullet when Jacq raced down a foul fly to right going horizontal but the ball popped out of his glove when he hit the ground. A couple more hits and a sac fly gave Bloom's another four runs for a 9-0 lead. When 5-man Serna stepped in, Kev turned back to Brett and asked "is everyone on this team a lefty?" Kev got Serna to lunge for a 2-strike pitch away for an inning ending strikeout but Bloom's lead was looming large.

D Moody led off the Beat second with a fly out to deep right. With two down, Jim Colletto roped a ball to left center that skipped by the fielders. Jim stutter stepped around second then made a "what the hell" attempt for third coming in just ahead of the tag. But Bloom pitcher Wilson was not to be outdone as Jim's triple came sandwiched between TWO strikeouts, by Tim Smith and Goldstein; two players who combined for a .555 average with 6 home runs, 18 RBI and no strikeouts over the spring season.

Bloom's started off the third with a high pop fly to straight-away center. Two fielders converged but no one charged and the ball fell unfettered to the grass for a single. A few more singles upped the score to 11-0 and Bloom had runners at first and second with only one out looking to slam the Beat with their third big inning. This time is was Brian Greenblatt's turn to play hero as he took a 1-out fly ball from leadoff hitter Wilson then gunned down the lead runner at third for the Beat's second inning-ending double play turned in by the outfield in just three innings. The Beat defense was doing what it could to stop the bleeding but it was up to the offense now to catch up.

The offense, however, continued its struggles to figure out lefty Wilson and looked anemic as it limped through the 3rd with the only base runner a walk to MSG. With two down and MSG at first, Gunnar looked to have the second Beat hit, a bloop to the right side. Second baseman Sylvestri turned in the play of the day making a diving, over-the-shoulder catch going away to end the Beat third. You've got to tip your cap to that one; that was one of the best plays I've seen on a softball diamond. 

Bloom pushed one more across in the 4th on two hits and a hard chopper up the middle that Special K knocked down but couldn't pick up. In four innings, Bloom had gone through their lineup almost three times. The Beat stepped up in the bottom of the 4th with the top of the order batting for just the second time; they went down quietly 1-2-3 including two weak infield grounders. After four complete, the Beat had managed just three base runners, two on walks and Jim's triple, the team's only hit of the game. They had struck out twice, grounded weakly to the infield five times and hit into a double play. This is clearly not what we expected from the team that went 8-2 against a strong division, the two losses by only one run each, and scored 125 runs over 9 games. Was this truly the Beat Gestalt; that the whole is different than the sum of it's parts? This team that averaged 14 runs and 17 hits per game in the spring was currently the victim of a 1-hit shutout through four and losing 12-0.

By the fifth, the Beat defense had shaken its early inning jitters and Special K, pounding the strike zone all night with the big backspin, started hitting the outside corners as well. With one down and a runner on first, Bryan took a grounder up the middle, stepped on the bag and gunned out the batter at first for the Beat's third inning ending double play and the team's first quick dispatch of Bloom's offense.  Now all they had to do was try to erase that 12 run deficit.

With one down in the bottom of the 5th, Tim and Jim broke the drought with the team's second and third hits with Tim advancing to third. Brett sacrificed in the Beat's first run of the game. The curse was over and the butterflies were gone; but with two down now Bryan's grounder to short ended the 5th; that means Beer Beatch honors to Mr. Williams for the mid-season break (has anyone told him about this? hmmmm).

The Beat had broken the shutout but was still down 12-1 and was running out of time. After retiring Bloom in order in the 6th, MSG singled but was erased on Greenblatt's fielders choice. You could sense that Bloom's offense had begun sitting on their big lead, but in the bottom of the 6th their defense started regifting some of those unearned runs. With Brian on first, Gunnar and Jacq both reached on infield errors. When Jacq's grounder to second scooted into shallow right, Brian rounded third then bolted for the plate for Beat run #2. Kev lined a shot through a hole on the right side to plate G, but when the ball skipped past the right fielder the bases cleared and K moved to third. A sac fly by Q gave the Beat four unearned runs in the inning but that's all they could manage. The team was still down 12-5; now with only one frame left.

Once the Beat hit the scoreboard, Bloom's offense got serious again. Cleanup man, Selsor, led off the 7th with a single. Serna then roped a first pitch knuckler for an RBI triple. "That was the only first pitch knuckler I threw all night," said K. "That one's on me." Wind singled in Serna to put Bloom up 14-5 before the Beat retired the next three.

So now it's hammer time. A nine run deficit with 3 outs to erase. Jim opened the inning with his team high third hit of the day. Williams scored his first hit putting runners at first and second. But with one out, MSG grounded back to that wall of a middle infield for a game-ending double play. The call on MSG at first was questionable at best but as it was closing in on 10pm with a 9-run difference, you had to feel that the blues were just ready to end this one and go home and the Beat was showing no sign that they would be able to erase nine runs this night.

All told, as Pete grumbled later ruefully, "it was an embarrassment." The Beat managed only one earned run on offense, yet gave away seven unearned on defense. The team had a season low eight hits in seven innings and hit a sub-Mendoza .296 as a team. Jim was about the only shining light, going 3-3 with a triple (and now sports a lifetime .667 average in 27 playoff at bats), but unfortunately never came up with runners in scoring position. Kev had the only clutch hit in the game for the Beat. To be sure, there were few opportunities but the team did convert two sac flies while two runs scored on errors. Six players wore collars and only three hit .500 or better.

The outfield came up with huge plays by Jacq and Brian, each turning a fly into inning ending double plays gunning down runners at third to kill rallies. The Beat defense followed their pattern of shutting the door in the second half by allowing only 3 Bloom runs after the third inning. With the help of Bryan's double play in the 5th, they retired 8 straight between the 4th and 6th. That gave the Beat defense three inning ending double plays for the game. Alas, by then it was already too late.

The real damage had been done by the third inning. You can give up a few runs on defense if you hit the ball. You can work through hitting slumps by playing lights-out defense. But you can't give up nine runs in the first two innings and not hit. MSG was saying after the game, "you need to step up in the playoffs, you need to elevate your game." The Beat didn't do that.

So as Jacque remarked later, about all we can do at this point is come back in the summer and take another shot at it.

Seven division titles, one wildcard, and one runners-up trophy in the last 14 seasons is nothing to sneeze at. That's a pretty dominant record. But when you get to the playoffs all bets are off. You need to step up, elevate your game, and a little luck doesn't hurt. So don't get your dauber down. Remember, the Atlanta Braves won 14 straight division titles. They only made it to the dance five times during that run, but they did eventually win the World Series. So the Beat can be the Braves of City C if we can get that elusive trip to the big dance. Until then, we're the softball version of Billy Beane's A's. We can play dominant ball during the season, but we struggle in single-elimination scenarios. Someday, somehow, the stars will align and this team will bring home the gold. Until they do, we just keep plugging away.

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