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	vs. Broadway Bob's, July 29, 1995			vs. The Clippers, September 9, 1995
	vs. Bain, August 12, 1995			vs. The Humanoids, September 23, 1995
	vs. The Consumers, August 19, 1995			vs. Top Gun, September 30, 1995
	vs. The Door Mats, August 26, 1995

by #6

Game One

Broadway Bob's, July 29, 1995

Coming off a 4-5-1 Spring, The BEAT used the offseason for a little fine tuning and came back in the Summer like a well-oiled machine.

Opening day pitted the boys in gray against Broadway Bob's. Pitcher Dennis O'Brien started the season with a walk of Bob's leadoff hitter, but quickly shook the cobwebs and exited the inning allowing only a single. Mike "Butts" Buttafuso led the bottom of the inning with a single. One out later, slugger John Palmer scorched a ball over the right fielder's head to put The BEAT on the board 2-0.

Bob's scratched its way back in the second with a 2-out triple followed by an RBI single to cut the score to 2-1. The BEAT answered back with three more as Frank "Pepe" Green reached on an error at short. Pete Wenner followed that with a single as did Dan Carroll and O.B. picking up two ribbies as Frank and Pete scored. Shortstop Austin picked up the third run on a fielder's choice, knocking in Carroll. The BEAT was up 5-1.

But Bob's would not give up as they scraped together three consecutive singles. The BEAT started to lose it's concentration allowing two infield errors and a walk. With a sacrifice fly to close out the scoring, Bob's had picked up four runs and tied the game at five heading into the bottom of the third.

But The BEAT would not be outdone as Chris Young and Mike Laffey led off with back to back singles. Jeff Ricketts stepped up and drilled a liner down the third baseline that kept rolling for a 3-run homer. This time The BEAT was up to stay.

Both teams went quietly in the fourth and Bob's again in the fifth. The BEAT struck for two more in the bottom of five on Green and Wenner's second set of back to backs followed by 'D' Moody's 2-RBI triple to bring the score to 10-5 BEAT.

Bob's scored one in the top of the sixth and in the bottom The BEAT scored two more stringing together a nice enough rally that the game was called for time and the sixth inning was erased from the books. The 10-5 final stood and The BEAT went home 1-0 for Summer.

The games hot hitter was Mike "Butts" who went 3-3 (4-4 if you counted the sixth inning). Palmer, Rocks, Moody and O.B. all picked up two or more RBIs and the runs were well spread among nine BEAT players with Pepe picking up two.

See the game scoresheet in pdf (237k)

Game Two

Anderson, August 5, 1995

Well, maybe Anderson could read the writing on the wall. Whatever their excuse, these bottom-feeders never showed up for this season and The BEAT was left holding their bats and balls and took this disappointing victory by forfeit. Score it 1-0 BEAT!

Game Three

Bain, August 12, 1995

After the forfeit by Anderson in week two, game three put The BEAT against a shorthanded Bain playing with only three outfielders and The BEAT took full advantage. After setting Bain down with only two hits and one strikeout in the first, The BEAT tormented Bain's pitcher who proved to be the bane of his own team's existence as he walked the first two BEAT batters. Once he found the strikezone, The BEAT teed off with back to back triples by Frank Green and 'D' Moody and a 2-run line drive homer by Jeff Ricketts, his second of this short season.

Bain went down 1-2-3 in the second and The BEAT came back to add to their 5-0 lead. Once again the first two batters were walked. BEAT pitcher Wilfred Spoon reached on an error by the shortstop scoring Dan Carroll from second. John Palmer rounded out the inning with a 2-RBI double and The BEAT was up 8-0.

Bain got on the board in the third with a 3-run shot following Spoon's second 'K' of the day. They squeezed out another in the fourth on back to back doubles. But The BEAT came back hard in the bottom of the inning. Opening with back to back singles, The BEAT picked up their first out as "Butts" accidentally stepped on the plate. That out was followed by three more consecutive singles, a run scoring fielder's choice by Peter Wenner then four more consecutive singles for six runs and a 14-3 BEAT lead.

Bain picked up three more runs in the fifth, but it was too little, too late as The BEAT cruised to a 3-0 record on a 14-7 victory.

Rocks and Mike Laffey led the hitters going 3-3 on the day and John Palmer, Frank Green and Jeff Ricketts all picked up two or more RBIs. Seven BEAT players had ribbies and ten scored runs in this well-balanced offense.

See the game scoresheet in pdf (238k)

Game Four

The Consumers, August 19, 1995

Game four sent The BEAT to beautiful Lang Field for a matchup against longtime rivals, The Consumers. Check out "BEAT Comeback!" by O.B. for the whole story on this one.

Game Five

The Door Mats, August 26, 1995

Game 5 against the Door Mats started slowly, with neither team scoring until the bottom of the third inning when The BEAT finally decided that enough was enough. The BEAT sent 14 batters to the plate in the third for nine runs on nine hits capped off by a 3-run homer from the bat of Danny Carroll.

The Door Mats continued to struggle until they squeezed three across in the fifth. The BEAT answered back with three of their own, with two of those coming off the bat of pitcher Dennis O'Brien on a long single. The BEAT extended their lead to 13-3 picking up one more in the sixth on three consecutive singles and by the time the Mats had logged their last two runs in the seventh, the game was long over. The BEAT was now 5-0 with a 13-5 victory.

For the third straight game, the scoring was well distributed as eight BEAT players picked up RBIs with MSG, Frank Green, Dan Carroll and O.B. picking up two or more. Nine players scored, led by Chris Young (4-4), 'D' Moody, Greg Lukoski, and Kevin Austin with two apiece.

See the game scoresheet in pdf (256k)

Game Six

The Clippers, September 9, 1995

On September 9th vs. The Clippers, The BEAT took off and never looked back scoring 14 runs in the first three innings led by the outstanding performances of Jeff Ricketts and Mark St.Georges, and cruised to a 17-9 victory. With Rocks in the leadoff spot and MSG batting #2, The BEAT went to town on Clipper pitching. Rocks went 3-4 with two doubles, reached on an error, scored four runs and knocked in two. MSG followed suit going 3-4 with three runs and three RBIs, while Donnell Moody picked them up in the number five slot also going 3-4 with two runs and two ribbies.

The BEAT's 5-run first came with only four hits and was aided by three Clipper errors. The BEAT came back with five runs in the second and four more in the third. The Clippers tried chipping away at the lead but could never quite catch up against O.B.'s pitching and the potent BEAT offense. The BEAT rolled on to an easy 17-9 victory and was well pumped leading into next weeks big showdown with the rival Humanoids.

Game Seven

The Humanoids, September 23, 1995

The BEAT had rolled through the first six games outscoring opponents 71-39. But facing longtime rivals The Humanoids, the only other undefeated team in the division, The BEAT would have to show what they were really made of. A loss to the Humanoids could certainly bring The BEAT back down to earth and could easily cost them the division title.

The Humanoids came out strong looking to take the division for themselves. Following a leadoff walk, the Humanoids posted seven hits with only one pause for a sacrifice fly to take a 5-0 lead before The BEAT even picked up a bat.

The BEAT read the writing on the wall and realized that they would have to answer quickly before this game got out of hand. Jeff Ricketts led off with a walk before The BEAT got metal on the ball. But once they did, they racked out 11 hits in the inning sending 18 hitters to the plate. The BEAT's top four of Rocks, Mark St.Georges, Mike Buttafuso and John Palmer each scored two runs in the inning as The BEAT surged ahead to take a 13-5 lead heading into the second.

The Humanoids fought back as best they could parlaying a walk and four consecutive singles into three runs but still trailed 13-8. The BEAT left no doubt in the bottom of the second as they batted around again with six hits and three walks leading to seven more runs for an insurmountable 20-8 lead.

The hit parade took the wind out of the Humanoids as they were able to post only three more runs in the last three innings. The BEAT answered with three of their own. The boys in gray took advantage of eight walks and three errors by the Humanoids' shaky defense, added 23 hits and four sacrafice flies to eat the Humanoids alive to the tune of 23-11.

MSG led the hit parade going 4 for 4 with 3 runs and 3 RBIs. Rocks, Palmer, Dan Carroll and Kevin Austin each had three runs scored. Rocks, Mike Laffey and 'D' Moody had three RBIs each and Mike Butts had four. Every BEAT member had a hit and scored at least one run and all but one had at least one RBI.

See the game scoresheet in pdf (273k)

Game Eight

Top Gun, September 30, 1995

With the season pretty well wrapped up, The BEAT had one last hurdle to jump on the way to their first perfect season and first 'DD' title. That hurdle was a bottom dwelling team called Top Gun that posed little challenge for a BEAT team that was on fire coming off a 12 run blowout of the second place Humanoids. In the last meeting between the teams in July of '93, The BEAT murdered Top Gun 24-2 with a 14-run third. (That beating was so bad that the only BEAT player that went hitless in the game still scored two runs!)

Well, to make a short story shorter, The BEAT barreled through Top Gun with a 12-4 blowout on 17 hits with three walks and three errors by Gun. The BEAT offense was led by outstanding performances from Mike Buttafuso (3-4, 3 runs), Mike Laffey (3-4, 1 RBI), Chris Young (3-4, 1 RBI), Donnell Moody (2-4, 2 runs, 2 RBI), and Mark St.Georges (2-4, 2 runs, 1 RBI).

See the game scoresheet in pdf (256k)

The final game of this outstanding season was capped off with the annual presentation of the coveted Brass Beat Award. Presented by the rock of the battery and 1994 Brass Beat winner Frank Green, it was Pepe's difficult choice to decide who represented the "heart and soul" of The BEAT for 1995.

"Rocks"

With many great performances to consider, Pepe pulled a rabbit out of his hat with a choice that not only surprised most members of the team, but was embraced by them as well. The 1995 Brass Beat winner was Jeff "Rocks" Ricketts. Following a quiet .385 spring, Rocks took over as leadoff hitter in the summer hitting a solid .636 with 14 runs and 12 RBIs. Even though Jeff did not lead any batting categories, he took either the number two or number three spots in all of the top eight categories including a .741 on base percentage and .909 slugging percentage and was well deserving for his five years of hard work and hustle (not to mention one of the best left field gloves around). Summer batting leaders were rounded out with Donnell Moody taking the power spot from John Palmer and leading the team with 16 hits, 13 RBIs, and a .958 slugging percentage. Mark St.Georges led the team in runs with 15 and Chris Young posted an awesome .722 batting average. Greg Lukoski took the On Base Percentage with an .824 without a fielders choice.

The 1995 Full Season batting title went to Chris Young who hit .632. Donnell Moody led the team with 28 hits, Mark St.Georges led with 24 runs scored, and Frank Green, Donnell Moody and John Palmer tied for the RBI lead with 23 each. Palmer typically led the team with extra base hits (11) and slugging percentage (.933) and MSG took the On Base Percentage title with a .729.

Stats for the Division Championship Summer Season

On The BEAT News Archive