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Final 2002 Record: 34-32Ames, IowaLast updated: December 14, 2002 |
Fall Ball ended at 6-6 with a loss to Brown's Heavy Equipment and a win over the Drunken Masters by forfeit. The final result was a less-than-stellar 34-32 record for the year.
...when you combine a first baseman, the shortstop position, and a bad hop? Answer
At the half-way point of Fall League Tradewinds stands at 3-3. The wins were against Demons, Drunken Masters and O'Malley & McGee's/Sportsmans. The losses were to Brown's, Gookin Ford and O'Malley & McGee's/Sportsmans.
If it weren't for the slightly milder temperatures and change in hotels, this year's trip to the Annual National Invitational Tournament at Miller Woods in Overland Park, Kansas would not have been discernable from the past three Labor Day trips. A dropped double-play ball in the openner against Swarm from Waterloo, Illinois transformed what was a close game into a 13-6 loss in the first game of pool play. A 9-8 victory over the Turtleheads from Fort Scott, Kansas was not enough to get out of the basement of pool E.
The tournament portion began with a frustrating 10-13 loss to the good hitting, but whining C-Ya from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Starting tourmament play with a loss doomed Tradewinds to having to play five games on Saturday. The 7:30 pm game was delayed and did not start until 9 pm. It was nearly an identical rematch against the Turleheads, ending with an 11-10 walk-off single. Finally, the evening and tournament would end with a 10 pm loss to the Warriors and their drunk spouses. The game started with the Warriors leading 11-1 after one and a half innings before Tradewinds battled back for a 15-10 loss.
In all-too-familiar fashion, Tradewinds let down in the first game of a big tournament. In the 8 PM Friday night openner of the 2002 Class D State Tournament Tradewinds suffered a disappointing 4-5 walk-off loss. The troops were rallied on Saturday with wins over Budweiser and Top "Mo Fo" Dawgs. Unfortunately, the weekend ended at 9:15 AM on Sunday with a 25-12 loss to Journeymen from Swisher, Iowa--the same team that eliminated Tradewinds in the 2001 Class E State Tournament.
At the end of the weekend, it was decided that a return trip would be made to the Labor Day Invitational Tournament in Kansas City.
Similar to the 2001 District Tournament, Tradewinds came out for the opening game tighter that Shawn's wallet at the Bar. The result was a 13-8 loss to previously unheard of J & J Tap. After a four-hour break, Tradewinds loosened up and rolled to three straight victories over Kelly Cleaning, Corona Extra and Brown's Heavy Equipment. The three victories earned Tradewinds the opportunity to return on Sunday morning and face Tsunami. Tsunami scored 11 in the third inning to take a 14-4 lead, but Tradewinds battled back to within one to 15-14 after 6 innings. Tsunami then scored once in the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the seventh, Tradewinds loaded the bases with one out, but two well hit balls and excellent defensive plays prevented Tradewinds from scoring.
The 5th place finish was just enough to earn Tradewinds a trip to the Class D State Tournament to be held in Burlington, Iowa on August 16-18.
Despite finishing the league by winning seven in a row, Tradewinds was unable to catch Kreg Tool and the coveted "League Champions" T-shirts. The winning streak pulled Tradewinds to 12-12 in league play, ahead of Brown's Heavy Equipment, but behind Kreg Tool (13-11).
The final game featured a come-from-behind of galactic proportions. Facing the second-to-worst team in the league, Randle's Team, Steve passed the pitching duties on to Shawn Slezak. Shawn proceeded to give up 13 runs while getting only one batter out before Steve had to make a disgusted walk out to the mound. The end result was a seven-inning, walk-off 23-22 victory. Tradewinds' top scientists are still trying to calculate Shawn's astronomical ERA.
A lazy, sloppy evening in the hot sun against both Division leaders somehow resulted in a rare victory for Tradewinds (6-12, 13-17). The strategy of lulling opponents to sleep nearly worked against undefeated Gookin Ford, and did work against Kreg Tool. The 9 runs scored by Gookin Ford in their 9-4 victory over Tradewinds is most likely one of their lowest outputs of the season; unfortunately 4 runs is even more pathetic. In the second game, Tradewinds were able to overcome shaky defense and division leaders Kreg tool to post a 17-7 victory.
A two-game win streak against Pizza Pimps and Randle's Team took Tradewinds to within two games of .500 for the season (9-11 including tournaments). Unfortunately that win streak was snapped with a 9-10 loss to Dublin Bay (formerly People's) and then an 8-20 hitting clinic from Ron's Auto.
Although Dublin Bay does not seem to have the same talent that People's once had, they still have the same attitude that is NOT fun to lose to. Although Steve's new magic bat introduced a season high 3 home runs, a total of 9 runs isn't going to win games in this league.
It seems all the fire-power was used in the first game of Tuesday night's double-header. A 21-9 victory over Sportsman's was followed by an 18-8 loss to Brown's Heavy Equipment.
If you want to read about your pathetic solo home runs, you will have to send me something to post.
Tuesday night was deja vu again. The first game was a 17-4 thumping from undefeated Gookin Ford who are currently the best team in Ames. That was followed by a typical "close, but not quite," 20-18 loss to Kreg Tool (Formerly Big 8 Tyre). With the victory, Kreg Tool (5-4) was able to extend their lead in the 2nd Division to 1.5 games ahead of Brown's Heavy Equipment (3-5) and 2.5 games ahead of Tradewinds (2-6).
The loss to Kreg Tool marks the third time in six league losses that Tradewinds has lost by one or two runs.
Being short-handed on Saturday ultimately led to winning the B bracket on Sunday. By going 1-2 on Saturday, we qualified for the lower bracket on Sunday. Thank you to Doug Wunder, Rick Anderberg, and Brent ? for playing on Saturday. Herb, Mark, and Marty joined us for the three victories on Sunday, including the 5-inning 39-3 massacre of the Army ROTC from Fort Dodge.
The three wins on Sunday is one more Sunday victory than the Clippers experienced in all of 2001. Last year the Clippers were 2-7 on Sundays.
The league team has started 2-4 with the two wins coming against the two worst teams; one by forfeit. The most recent pair of losses came when 4 players failed to let anyone know that they weren't coming to the game.
