587 MAIN STREET– Last night, the SweatSox closed out our 2022 regular season with a 10-4 loss to the Winchester Heat at the beautiful, exquisite, and always heavenly Morgan Field. The SweatSox finish the regular season with a 13-10-1 record, and we’re now locked in as the #4 seed for the upcoming playoffs, where we’ll host the 5th place Rockets in the 1st round starting next Thursday.
It was a historic night for Eric White, who broke the NCBL single season stolen base record after a 5 SB game against the Heat. Eric finished the year with 47, 3 ahead of the old record (44) set by Paul Brown of the Tier 4 Coyotes in 2012. White also had a 2-hit game, putting him at 41 for the season, becoming the first player in NCBL history to join the 40-40 club (H:SB).
Despite this record setting performance, Eric was not the quickest man on the field yesterday, that honour went to Winchester’s Cam Shaw. So picture this: In the 1st inning there’s a wild pitch, and Shaw takes off for home from third. Pretty standard move, or is it?
NOTE: For those who have never played in Winchester before, and shame on you if you haven’t, the plate ump is basically leaning against the backstop all game, it’s not like Faulkner where you can park a 747 between the plate and the fence.
So Shaw’s booking it down the line, clearly on some sort of kamikaze mission. All Eric (our catcher for the evening) had to do is turn around, pick up the ball, move 1, maybe 2 steps back to the plate, take a swig from his water jug, check his phone for any missed texts, maybe do a couple pushups, and eventually tag the runner out whenever he gets there.
But Shaw was too quick, beating the all-time and now single season SB champ to the plate, and scoring Winchester’s first run of the game. Now that’s speed!
It was a pretty standard game for the SweatSox: we were up early, blew the lead right away, fell behind, clawed back a little, gave up a triple-bogey on a Par 3, and then just went through the motions until it was over.
Josh Ramage took over from starter Dave Rotari in the 4th inning, and threw 3 efficient innings to keep us (mathematically) in the game. Our Hero of Hydration credited his strong relief performance to the great warm-up he had with our new traveling bullpen catcher: Phil Leduc.
Osh Kosh B’Josh also had a 3RBI game from the clean-up spot; not bad for a guy who made the Winchester ace literally undress on the mound right before we started.
As expected, in the days leading up to this game the Winchester Flu ran rampant through our clubhouse (or we just have a bunch of Backstreet Boys fans): Mark Bond, Drew Clark-Brewin, Craig Cornell, Ross Hughes, Jason Klein, Marc Lett, and Dillon Lowry all ruled themselves “definitively out” for this game. Mark Bond had it the worst; hours before the game he was spotted at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital by one of our many sources, where he had to have been seeking treatment for the infamous W-Flu (why else would he be there?).
Man, if this game was in Ottawa we could’ve set an unbreakable record for youngest player ever at 0 days old. Baby just wasn’t ready for Winchester yet, but word is he’s already throwing harder than Ramage. Congratulations Cop!
With the SweatSox seriously shorthanded, we happily welcomed back 2 former players to the starting lineup: Joe Majic and Shane White. Joe last played for us in 2016, where he crushed it at second base (2 assists – 1 putout – 0 errors) during a 9-1 loss vs the Brewers. Shane last played for us in 2017, also at second base…
Big THANKS to both players for coming all the way out to Winchester and helping us avoid an automatic out or possible default situation. We had no expectations for our two returning alumni other than to show up, but both held their own and played great.
- The Majic Stick drew a 4-pitch walk in his first at bat, and was puzzled when a tee wasn’t then brought out for him to hit from (NOT because it’s a tee-ball field, it’s NOT, but because that’s what they do in the league where he coaches his daughter). Joe also had a stolen base, but took no credit for it, saying he only ran because he thought it was “full count with 2-outs”, it was not. Still counts though.
- It’s been over 5 years since Shane O’ White made his SweatSox debut, but he doesn’t have to wait any longer for his first SweatSox hit, he got that in his final at bat on a solid base hit to left. Hope that hit was worth the wait!
Finally, we were all very aware throughout the night that this may be the last time, for a long while, that the SweatSox play a regular season game at majestic Morgan Field. Sadly, the Heat will be moving up to Tier 2 next year, taking their home field advantage with them. So how will we get back there then?
After the Heat win the Tier 2 ship next year, they’ll be up in Tier 1 in 2024. They’ll play in the big leagues for a couple of seasons, they might even merge with someone to keep them afloat, but all good things must come to an end, and they will inevitably fold. Some time later, a current Winchester T-Baller (no Brett, we’re NOT talking about Paas or Byers, we mean an actual current T-Baller) will be all grown up and looking for somewhere to play after Little League; they’ll discover the NCBL, and then make a pitch to start a team. They’ll have the support of then Commissioner Craig Cornell, and then the general managers (led by SweatSox GM Evan Lett) will vote this expansion team in unanimously. That new Winchester squad will start in Tier 4 and unfortunately come in last place in their inaugural season (assuming the Bandits are good by then), so they’ll have drop down to Tier 5 the following year, where the SweatSox will be waiting. Then, and only then, will we see Morgan Field again. See you in 14 years Winchester!
Final SweatSox vs WinchesterHeat Notes/Thoughts:
- Jas thinks the SweatSox should factor in his personal schedule when rescheduling games.
- Craig’s favourite Pokemon is Ditto.
- Liddy bailed on a trip to Montreal so he could golf with the Bonds.
- I’m almost out of bubblegum.
- It takes Jas quite a bit of time to prepare for the week.
- Ross is out for all baseball related activities, indefinitely.
- Josh is pro-cigars on the course, unless he shoots a poor round while smoking one, then they’re cut.
- Doug is ok with the grass.
- A hot dog is a sandwich if it’s between two separate pieces of bread, and it’s also a straw if you poke a hole through it.
- Kent is humble.
- The SweatSox couldn’t handle a second Josh.
- Matt Moore doesn’t play baseball anymore.
- Josh is a fan of Cornell Iral Haynes Jr.
- Liddy was volunteering at the CP Women’s Open.
- Lett is the OG Big Daddy.
- Cop is incorrectly choosing childbirth over golf.
- Kent always appreciates Josh’s input.
- Serenity now.
- He thrives on the confirmation.
- The only catching Kent will ever do is on fly balls to center field, and maybe to center field adjacent.
- Kent wanted to be part of the “out” team.
- Liddy also wanted to be part of the “out” team.
- Cory would play in Winchester with 8 spares if he had to.
- Back in 2008, Cory was throwing real gems.
- Kent doesn’t have to worry, the 0.0 has him covered.
- Joe coming is the only plus. That’s what she said.
- Winchester is here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and they’re all out of gum.
- Cory needs to know earlier when it’s gon rain.
- Holes 15 through 17 was an incredible display of mendaciousness.
- Cory was an honorary Keay last weekend.
- Do I have 2 uncle Bruce’s? Yes.
- Rob is not a gum chewer.
- Tums fix everything.
- “If you’re less than an hour, go hit the showers.”
- My dad merely adopted the “Keay Fairway”, I was born in it.
- You never have to hit out of the sand if you never hit into the sand.
- Cory’s positivity for this team is outstanding.
- Cop knows Karl Malone?
- Craig spotted both Kent and Josh at Park Safari.
- Jerk Store is a way better line than Unaccountable.
- Are we the Sweater Sox now?
- Our bench smelled like smoke for most of the game. Cory was blissfully unaware.
- For those who may have felt the ground shake at about 9:30PM, that was no earthquake, that was Josh Ramage tripping over first base.
- There were a combined 0 HBP’s. We call that mutual respect. Or good pitching.
- Is it a pickle if nobody calls it?
- Or maybe someone did call it but we couldn’t hear it over Kent yelling like a madman from center field.
- We had not one, but two 3-4 putouts at 1B. Where the hell were the pitchers?
- Lefty Cory (3B) now has at least 1 putout at every position this year (except catcher). He should’ve caught an inning vs the Reapers and used the Eagle Creek guy’s glove.
- I, Shaun Keay, avoided a golden sombrero with a 7th inning groundout vs J-Shaw.
- My (Shaun Keay) streak of consecutive strikeouts against Cochrane is still very much active, currently at 6.
- Rotari (P) and Eric (C) combined for 69 pickoff attempts vs the Heat. None were successful.
- Longtime friend of the SweatSox Matthew P. Uhrig hit a jack that would’ve probably been out in Winchester.
- The SweatSox did not hit any balls that would’ve been out in Winchester.
- The book starts him, Justine finishes him.
- Joe’s coaching philosophy is: “Here to win, not have fun.”
- Winners don’t choke on their gum.
- If you need a fish sitter, call Cory.
- Where was my Jamaica invite?
- When the crazies show up, it’s time to go.
See you in the playoffs.