by Pete

The Beat Shocks Hammertime! Opportunistic Beat Holds Off Division Leaders in 13-10 Thriller.

In front of an audience of C-league peers that included the Cool Dudes, HGA and 9 Inch Snails, the Beat earned a measure of respect by knocking off yet another team it had never beaten. In this case, the jinx went all the way back to Summer 1991, the first Beat championship season. Amid the gloom of a light rain and an unusually gentle breeze blowing out to straightaway center, the Beatniks held off mighty Hammertime, which had bombed its first two opponents of the Spring, Nicoya and HGA 10-1 and 28-0, respectively.

Pinch yourself, The Beat took early command of this game and it was one that featured some high drama. Veteran pitching stalwart Dennis O'Brien came on in relief of starter Kevin Austin with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth and the Beat up 12-7. However, OB closed down the Hammer rally, allowing just 2 inherited base runners to score for a still-comfortable 12-9 lead. He permitted just 1 earned run over 3 and 2/3 innings of sparkling relief work for his first save. Kevin wasn't too shabby himself, holding Hammertime to only 5 earned runs in 3 and 1/3 with a flittering knuckler that danced in the mild Jackson #1 updraft. However, it was OB, who shut the door and clinched the game ball with a clutch RBI single in the top of the 5th for the 13th and final insurance run.

Insightfully, rookie Gunnar Rosequist quipped late in the game that "the difference between Kevin and OB is like that of a surgeon and a magician."

More importantly, the Beat offense showed convincing evidence it is for real for the 1st time since Summer 1995 in slapping out 15 hits against the class of the Open C6. This following an 18-4 opening day rout of HGA. Moreover, most of the hits took advantage of 6 Hammertime fielding miscues. Mark St.Georges, Donnell Moody and BJ Bateman each drove in 2 runs on 2 hits apiece and Gunnar-man broke through with a 2 for 2 day, highlighted by an error-aided 4-bagger in the second inning. All-time Beat batting average-leader Chris Young stepped into departed slugger Steve Harper's 6-spot in the lineup with a clutch 2 for 4, 1 RBI day.

Following the game, bewildered HGA manager Robert Finney commented yet again "I can't believe it. I've never seen The Beat hit like this. Where did you get all these new players? I can't even get my guys to show up." At last count, The Beat lineup only featured 2 new players this day. The lineup was just shaken up differently to front-load young speedsters in the top 5 spots of the lineup.

The visiting Beat started off the top of the 1st by taking advantage of what turned out to be a shaky HT defense. With one out, Greg Lukoski cruised in to 2nd on a shortstop overthrow which started a trend of errant throws from the left side of the Hammertime infield. After an MSG single out of the 3-hole, Big Daddy D tripled in 2 runs with a screaming shot to center that rolled to the fence. BJ followed with an Rbi-single to make it 3-0. The 4th run scored courtesy of another shortstop overthrow on a grounder by Butts. Kevin singled in the 5th run to satisfy Donnell's 1st inning 5-run rule for Beat success.

But Hammertime answered back in their half of the 1st with 4 runs of their own. Indeed, it was the heart of their order that did the most damage this day vs. the Elvis Costello-inspired Beat. Manager Joe Williams tripled in the 1st run and scored on an RBI single by the cleanup hitter Faatigila. Two errors sandwiched around a pop-up to short by the #6 hitter led to the 3rd and 4th runs.

The Beatniks capitalized again on the same brand of erratic Hammertime defense that had shown itself in the March exhibition opener. With 1 out, righty Gunnar dropped an opposite-field single in front of the rover. However, the ball took a funny hop on the rain-ravaged Jackson outfield terrain and hopped towards the chain-link right-field fence. The speedy Gunnar-man (hey man, that's quicksand) scooted all the way around the bags for a 6-4 advantage which held up until the bottom of the 3rd.

In the Hammertime 3rd, number 2 hitter Grantham singled leading off and scored on slugger Williams' second RBI triple to cut the deficit to 6-5. The behemoth number 4-hitter Faatigila plated Williams on a tough dropped fly ball by left-fielder Lukie to tie it up and the number 5 hitter Karl Ravitch singled in Faatiglia to give Hammertime the 7-6 lead with none out. Kevin then recovered to get the next 3 hitters on fly balls to end the 3rd. Nevertheless, the tide seemed to be turning toward Hammertime, the Vegas oddsmakers' favorites.

However undaunted, the Davidian Beat hung up a 6-spot in the top of the 4th. EP Pete Wenner started the rally off with a hard hit grounder that glanced off the Rasputin look-alike pitcher Rivera's glove and dribbled toward short for an infield single. With 1 out, singles by Gunnar and leadoff-man Brian Arcuri loaded the bases. Two runs scored on Lukoski's dropped fly-ball by the Hammertime left-fielder to make it 8-7 Beat. Then the floodgates opened.

With runners at 2nd and 3rd, "motherfucker" MSG singled in 2 more runs to make it 10-7. Successive singles by Big Daddy, BJ and CY made it 12-7 before Butts and Kevin flied out to end the 4th.

After the lengthy top of the 4th, Kevin appeared to run into a brick wall in the Hammer end of the inning. With 1 out, a single and 2 walks loaded the bases. Having seen enough, Wenner escorted OB out to the mound, surprising the departing Austin by pointing him toward the catcher's spot to complete the battery.

In the midst of this chaos, the tide once again seemed to be turning toward the 1st place Hammertime. To underscore the mood change, the infamously loquacious Cool Dude pitcher "Slick Vic" could be heard urging on Hammer and, with spittle flying, blathering loudly to the umps about perceived slights to his heroes.

However, the unflappable Magical Mystery Man O'Brien came on to retire Slugger Joe Williams and the clean-up man Faatiglia on fly balls that enabled The Beat to exit with a 12-9 lead.

After that, with 15 minutes left, the game turned into a race against the clock. With 1 out in the top of the 5th, Pizza Man Mike Weiss tripled and scored on OB's bloop Texas leaguer over the right side of the infield to make it 13-9. Then OB retired Hammertime in order in the bottom of the 5th to maintain the Beat's 4-run lead. The 6th inning saw a continuation of 1, 2, 3 innings on both sides.

The Beat went down in order again in the top of the 7th, setting the stage for late-inning heroics by Hammertime. In fact, a voice could be heard from the Hammertime bench pleading, "C'mon you guys, we scored 14 runs in one inning last week." But that was against doormats HGA. This, for Godsake, was The Beat.

Number 2-hitter Grantham led off with a single and advanced to 2nd on the throw. OB then induced the 3 and 4-hitters to fly out to BJ in right and Lukie in left. Ravitch singled to close the deficit to 13-10. However that's where it would end. The 6-hitter bounced a chopper off OB's balls that seemed to hang in suspended animation as newly-installed shortstop Pizza Man waited with his foot firmly planted on second for the impending forceout. The ball landed squarely in Mike's glove for the final out just in time to beat the sliding Ravitch.

Game, set, match. Hasta la vista, baby!

But the sullen Hammersteins were feeling vengeful. "We gave you that," said one of the opposing players during the obligatory post-game handshakes. "We'll see you next time." Okay. Another meaningful division game this Spring against the oddsmaker's favorites? We'll take it.

"They seemed to think they could just show up and beat us," said Manager Wenner during the jubilant post-game party in the O'Brien Party Wagon. "But we're a different team than the one they've beaten 4 times over the past year. I've thought all along that there was something special about this team. We've got good chemistry, and just do whatever it takes to win. I've got the feeling going out there we're gonna win and then these guys go out and do it. Screw all that stuff about the Beat gestalte. This is a different crowd this year."

Pizza Man added that "It's fun this year. Before it was just a recreational team where we played some ball, then went to the Rat and got drunk. Now we're hungry to win!"

After that, we party!!

View The BEAT's 1999 Final Batting Statistics

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