by K	END OF AN ERA BEAT Finishes Second with Fairwell Tribute to Coach Spoon

On the day the San Francisco Giants would clinch the National League West title, The BEAT arrived at Jackson 2 to discover that their pennant hopes were over. After last week's drubbing by HGA, Cool Dudes became the front runner and needed only to win their final game against the struggling Connecticut Yankees. The Dudes squeaked out a one-run lead in the sixth to take the title with a 6-5 win riding high on five unearned runs, complements of the Yankees faultering defense.

So The BEAT entered the final match with a clinch of at least a tie for second place and an attitude of "let's have some fun." Unfortunately, the only fun today was in the other dugout as the Kezar Rhinos whipped The BEAT 13-3 for the once division leaders second straight blowout loss. The BEAT was outscored in those last two games by a total of 31-8, but unlike the offensive spanking by HGA, this loss was no more than a lackluster effort by the boys in gray. The BEAT managed only 11 hits, and even with the help of four Rhino errors, consistently failed to come up with the clutch hit and stranded nine baserunners. The BEAT also had four errors on defense, and the Rhino's capitalized on those for five unearned runs.

It seemed like a close matchup until the Rhinos took their 3-1 lead into the bottom of the third. They strung together three doubles, a single, a walk by pitcher Dennis O'Brien, and a throwing error by shortstop Kevin Austin and turned it into a six-run rally before the first out was made. Two singles and an error in the fifth gave them one more to put the Rhinos up 10-1 going into the sixth.

Following leadoff line-outs to right by pinch hitter John Palmer and to third by Austin, The BEAT finally got on the board again. Mike Buttafuso picked up his third hit in an outstanding 3-3 performance followed by a single by Chris Young. Donnell Moody reached on an error at short scoring Butts, and Mike Laffey plated Young with a single to right. But the excitement of the two-out rally is there for a reason and as soon as it had begun, it was over. The BEAT had picked up two, but entered the bottom of the sixth down 10-3.

The Rhinos bounced right back hammering the nail in the coffin with a two-out rally of their own. Following the Rhinos' sixth double of the game, Austin picked up an easy third out grounder to short, checked the runner and threw to Pete Wenner at first. But Pete's foot was called off the bag and the Rhino rally was alive with two on. The next batter lined a 3-0 pitch to Jeff Ricketts in left field. Rocks charged in then lost his footing as the ball hopped over his head for a 3-run dinger.

All told, there was not a lot to write home about this game. But I look back over the season and I can only say how proud I am to be a part of this team.

Date Visitors Home July 26 THE BEAT 12 Granada 12 August 2 THE BEAT 6 Nine Inch Snails 3 August 9 Connecticut Yankee 8 THE BEAT 9 August 16 Cool Dudes 4 THE BEAT 5 August 23 Mushy Bucketheads 4 THE BEAT 5 September 6 TMJ 6 THE BEAT 12 September 20 THE BEAT 5 HGA 18 September 27 THE BEAT 3 Kezar Rhinos 13

This is a team that had been sitting just outside the basement door since moving up to 'C' League two years and four season's ago. 1996 brought two very weak showings with the team finishing 2-5-1 in the Spring and 3-5 in the Summer, barely surviving the cut to stay in the "bigs" for another year. The Spring of '97 brought another 3-5 season, but unlike '96, this time the losses were close. The BEAT came just a handful of runs short of going 6-2. Coming into the Summer of '97, the powers that be asked Coach Wilfred Spoon if we wanted to go down a notch, and Wilf said "Thanks, but no thanks. We'll stay right where we are." And in this last season, The BEAT turned around those one-run games and became the team to beat.

Of all the turning points, one has to look back to the opening game of Summer, a 12-12 tie with Granada. The BEAT didn't know better at the time, but that tie was the half game they needed to remain in the chase on this last week of the season and could have forced The BEAT's first tie-breaker since they lost to the Van Ness Monsters in 1990! But it was a game that could have easily been lost when Granada put a runner on second with no outs in the last inning. The BEAT defense became a wall that held the home team scoreless to preserve the tie. That defense carried The BEAT through the next five games and set the tone for the season. They defeated the Snails for the first time in Game 2, then backed that up with a huge 9-8 first victory over Connecticut Yankee in Game 3. The hope for their first .500 season in 'C' League was kicked up a notch on August 16, when a come-from-behind five run rally in the sixth gave The BEAT a 5-4 victory over division leading Cool Dudes in Game 4 and sent the boys in gray into sole possession of first place where they would stay until September 20th.

So, all in all, a season to be proud of. The BEAT close out C7 tied for second with a 5-2-1 record. But more than that, The BEAT made a name for themselves as the team to look out for. The Comeback Kids with whom "no lead is safe", a reputation that will carry this team into next spring with even higher expectations. The BEAT is now a "true" 'C' League team, and they're here to stay!

Following today's game was the annual presentation of the Brass Beat Award. The Brass Beat is handed down every year by the prior year's winner to the most inspirational player on and off the field, the player that represents the "Heart and Soul" of The BEAT. The 10th Annual Brass Beat was presented by last year's winner, Kevin Austin and could not have gone to a more deserving soul, player/coach Wilfred Spoon. Wilf has been with the team since 1989 and has been managing since the Summer of 1993.

Wilf with O.B.

He took over a team in turmoil and saw them dropped back to 'D' League after his first year at the reigns. But Wilf pulled the team together and brought a championship in just his second season bringing the team back to 'DD'. The following Summer he took the team to their highest level yet as they won their 'DD' division with an impressive 8-0 record and were promoted to 'C' League for the first time in BEAT history. Two seasons later, they were within half a game of challenging for the 'C' League division title. In a year that saw his very first career homer on opening day, Wilf closed the season with the team lead in dingers. He placed second on the team with 11 RBIs and fourth in slugging percentage with a .525.

Kudos also go out to Anne Spoon, the team's dugout coach & scorekeeper for all of her direction, advice on hitters, and for not killing Wilf following any of his post-loss drunken stupors over the years. The Spoons have held up the tradition of The BEAT these many years, hosted all night parties (and you know softball players don't pick up after themselves), and held their heads high through thick and thin. Anne and Wilf are ending their stay in the Bay Area this offseason and are moving back to North Carolina to get on with the rest of their lives. This is truly the end of an era in the history of The BEAT. The BEAT sends many heartfelt thanks and best wishes to Wilf and Anne as two more numbers are retired forever.

Wrapping up the '97 season, we'll take a look at how the boys faired at the plate this year. Kevin Austin led the team with 24 hits, 15 runs scored, and five walks, took his second batting title with a .511 average, and hit .714 with a .750 on base percentage leading off games. Austin set team career marks this year with a 30 game hitting streak that ended August 23rd and extended his career walks record to 64. Austin placed in all eight leader categories for the first time in his career including second in OBP (.604) and third in RBIs (10) and slugging (.574). Donnell Moody took the RBI title with 16, also leading the team with seven extra base hits and a .688 slugging percentage. 'D' was second on the team with 23 hits and placed third in average with .479 and OBP with .592. Mike Buttafuso finished the season off strong with a 3-3 performance that gave him a one point lead into the OBP title with a .605 and second on the team with a .488 batting average. Butts was second on the team with six extra base hits and a .674 slugging percentage and tied Peter Wenner for second in runs scored with 12 and third in hits with 21. Along with Pete's accomplishments in hits and runs scored, he also made the top five with a .477 batting average and .522 on base percentage and is the current team hit streak leader with 15 consecutive games, stroking a hit in every game he played this year.

Special mention goes to Greg DeMaestri who had an awesome year going 15 for 25 at the plate for a .600 mark but missed the final game of the season following a 3-3 performance last week to drop him from the race. Greg had nine runs and seven ribbies in just 25 at bats and took the summer batting title with a .615 average. Mike Laffey also tore up the boards this summer with an 8 for 15, .533 average and a healthy .464 for the year. Chris Young bounced back from a year on the DL posting a very respectable .462 average, .538 slugging and .607 on base percentage with eight runs and eight ribbies in only 26 at bats. Chris is sure to be back in the race for his record fourth batting title next year. Mark St.Georges struggled at the plate this year hitting .404 but still extended his lead as The BEAT's all time at bats leader to 419. Mark ended the season one hit and five runs shy of John Palmer's career marks for the team. Look for MSG to tie up the career record board next spring. Jeff Ricketts shined again this year as one of the league's premiere left-fielders. Rocks showed signs of taking on next year's batting leaders in a serious way after rediscovering his mighty left-field swing. Mike Weiss and B.J. Bateman both struggled through summer slumps but showed much promise for next year with 2-3 performances in today's game. And last, but never least, is of course, O.B.  Denny showed signs of greatness this summer when he posted an unbelievable 4.34 e.r.a. through 29 consecutive innings in this hard hitting division (if only we could take back the last two games!).

View The BEAT's 1997 Final Batting Statistics

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