NORTH DUNDAS– On July 28th, the SweatSox hit the road for our first of two trips to Winchester this year to play the Heat. We put up a good fight for 2 innings, holding a 3-0 lead heading into the 3rd, but for some reason we’ve been giving up triple bogey innings lately, and this game was no different (par 4), so we ended up losing the game 8-4.
Long before the Coronavirus, Covid-19, and Monkeypox, there was the original self isolation sickness: the Winchester Flu; a dangerous illness that can affect anyone scheduled to play at Winchester’s Morgan Field, the 2nd greatest field in the NCBL. There is no vaccine, and the only cure is to grow a set; although it never hurts to pound some Ibuprofen and Tums, paired with a nice glass of water, just to be safe. Symptoms can include:
- not wanting to pitch with the short porches in left, center, and especially right
- not wanting to bat against the always strong Winchester pitching staff
- and of course, diarrhea
For this game, several SweatSox reported symptoms of the Winchester Flu: Ross Hughes, Mark Bond, Chris Lidstone, Dillon Lowry, Eric White, Drew Clark-Brewin, and Josh Ramage. Actually, Josh swears he was fine, he was just late because he had to pick up his dry-cleaning. Big shoutout to everyone who powered through and made it out there on time.
4 years ago, on June 17, 2018, Kent Johnston hit a HR off Frank the Tank against the Rockets at Trillium. That was the last HR hit by the SweatSox, until now when Cory Bond took Brayden Cochrane “deep” in the 2nd inning of this game. We did the math, and don’t believe it’s possible to hit a non inside-the-park HR anywhere in the NCBL any shorter than this one ended up being. It still counts the same though, so good on our reigning Home Run King.
When the SweatSox woke up the morning of this game, we were stunned to see that our 2018 Rookie of the Year Justin Pidhirny, who was forced to retire after suffering his fourteenth concussion, had been signed by the Tier 1 Pirates.
When our Brockville Bunny left us in ‘18, we felt really bad about his situation and let him temporarily hold on to his SweatSox jersey as a reminder of our time spent together, and to brigten his mood on a cloudy day. When we saw he got called up to the big leagues though, we took immediate and aggressive steps to ensure we got our property back, including threatening to force a forfeit if we didn’t get what was ours. It all worked ifself out, Authority Cory met up with Pirate Pidhirny before our game and got back Army’s old #12.
And you can forget about Cory’s HR, Eric’s 2 hits, or Josh’s 2 perfect innings pitched, the winner of the 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP Award was the rabbit himself: Justin Pidhirny. Bunny went 3/3 in his Tier 1 debut, meaning he has to be in at least a tie for the all time lead in Tier 1 AVG. Way to go kid!!
Final SweatSox vs Winchester Heat Notes/Thoughts:
- What is the NCBL’s going rate for a team jersey that is never returned?
- It’s not gameday until Jas has his pants on.
- Rookies always get the short end of the stick on Winchester roadies.
- Ballpark dogs are nothing more than a novelty.
- Dollar dogs are always worse than the regular dogs.
- Kent ate two dogs for lunch.
- It does not rain in North Dundas.
- Chang still plays.
- Ross saw the POOP.
- Only I, Shaun Keay, can strike out twice in one at bat.
- We believe this was Eric’s first career loss in Winchester.
- The Boys is a good show on Prime, and also a good porn on Hub (per Ms. Hyjinx 2019).
- Eric’s face is a chair.
- I like stupid jokes, not simple ones.
- Salt and pepper is a topping, not a condiment.
