The SweatSox have made it to the Tier II Championship Series! We going to the Ship! But how did this happen?
The SweatSox path to the finals started with a first round series against the Winchester Sox. Game 1 at Kinsmen featured a pitching matchup of former Tier II Pitchers of the Year: OMS vs GangleTron. After the SweatSox took a 7-1 lead through 4 innings, chasing Havekes from the game in the process, a SweatSox win looked like a sure thing. The relentless Winchester squad kept fighting though and got the Mark Dorrington pitch count into triple digits, which forced Tier II Manager of the Year frontrunner Cory “The Authority” Bond to do something that no manager has ever done, visit the mound twice and pull the OMS. The move, like all his others this year, proved to be the right call, and the SweatSox took a 1-0 series lead.
The Sox celebrated their first playoff win in two seasons (missed playoffs last year) by finally planning the 2012 SweatSox Golf Tournament, with a tee-off scheduled for exactly 12 hours after the Hyjinx ended. Since this was put together at the last-minute, we didn’t have time to recruit teams, so the 2012 tournament was played using individual stroke play rules. Shoutout to Cory Bond who won by 14 strokes over the next best finisher.
Game 2 of the Winchester series took place in Winchester, where the SweatSox have had unprecedented success this year (2-0). After Josh “Mr. Winchester” Ramage came down with the Winchester flu, causing him to stay home and miss his start, the Authority turned to John Groves to lead the SweatSox to the semi-finals. OMG responded to this opportunity by giving up a HR on the first pitch he threw. As expected though, OMG settled down then threw 5+ innings of 0 run ball before turning it over to Eric White, who had gotten the SweatSox the lead with a 2-run HR, for the save. With 2 wins, and now a save & HR in 3 appearances in Winchester this year, Eric will now forever be known as: Professor Winchester! SweatSox win 4-1, and advance to the semi’s!
The Après Baseball Hyjinx gave us this unfortunate image will forever be burned into my memory, not that there’s anything wrong with that:
With Cardinals taking care of business against the Mudd in 3, and a Cornwall River Rat upset of the Gryphons, the stage was set for the SweatSox to take on the two-time defending champion Athletics, who had just come off beating Barnes (Expos) twice in the quarterfinals. The SweatSox and Athletics have only met once in the playoffs, way back in 2008: It was a 2 game sweep for the SweatSox, with Mark Dorrington and Cory Bond throwing back to back shutouts. Many NCBL historians say that playoff series was what forced the Athletics to recruit harder, faster, strong players, which turned them into the Tier 2 powerhouse they are today. And now these two teams meet again, 5 years later, with a trip to the finals at stake. We’ve come full circle…
Game 1 featured a pitching matchup of Dorrington vs the SweatSox Killer Kevin Lamarche. With the game tied heading into the 3rd, the Sox broke the game open with 3 runs thanks to RBI’s from Denver Hunt (1) and Cory Bond (2). The SweatSox would go on to score 5 more runs, but those runs in the 3rd would prove to be all we needed for the Game 1 win. OMS goes the distance, but gave up a run in the 3rd, ending the SweatSox shutout streak of the Athletics in the playoffs at 16 innings.
The Après Baseball Hyjinx, hosted by our great lefty, featured the first ever official OM circle:
We also had a Fruit-RollUp-Off, Lady and the Tramp style. First matchup, two ladies:
Second matchup: Two tramps:
Finally, what Hyjinx would be complete without two guys checking out Two Girls One Cup for the very first time:
Game 2 of SweatSox-Athletics took place at Heritage, with the Athletics sending former Tier 2 MVP Dustin Paquette to the mound. We countered with Eric White, making his first ever Tier 2 playoff start after spending most of his NCBL career down in Tier 3, something we tried to keep hidden from the A’s but to their credit, they did their research on him. THC gave up 3 runs (2 earned) in the first two innings, and settled down the rest of the way but the damage was already done. SweatSox lose 3-0, series tied 1-1.
The Après Baseball Hyjinx was hosted by the Blair Road Royal Oak, where Denver decided to apply for employment by showing some initiative. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a valid passcode.
In an effort to expand his silverware and condiment collection at home, the Shostappa got creative with his exit strategy:
Then, just before calling it a night, the Shostappa decided to take seat in a motorized wheelchair. Oh how the tables would turn just a few weeks later…
With the bright lights, a loud crowd, and a 3 man umpire crew, the stage was set for the most intense game beginning to end the SweatSox have ever played. Before the beginning though, there was a warmup; and the key to a good warmup is a good team stretch:
With a trip to the finals on the line, it made sense that both teams sent pitchers to the mound who have pitched in big games before, two pitchers who together once represented the NCBL in a tournament down in a United State of America, and two pitchers with such opposite styles from each other, you just knew it was going to be epic: John Groves vs Eric Boisvert.
For the first 5 innings, the fans in the stands were treated to some amazing baseball, with incredible clutch defensive plays by both teams keeping the score 0-0. In the 6th though, Boisvert got into a bit of trouble and had to be replaced by Dave Farquharson, and with runners at 2nd and 3rd withtwo outs, Cory Bond stepped up and got the SweatSox on the board with a 2 run single to LF. Unfortunately, Tier 3 gave those two runs back in the bottom and we were all square at 2 heading into the 7th.
After getting shutout in the top, the SweatSox had their backs to the wall in the bottom on the 7th when the Athletics had the series-clinching run on 1B with 1 out. OML had seen enough, and made the call to bring the GLE out of his bullshit retirement to save the day. 2 batters, 2 outs, we’re going to extra innings.
OML led the 8th off with a walk, and got to 2nd after the Bus Cop was hit in the head. We later learned that this was NOT retribution for the Bus Cop hitting all 15 Athletics in the head a couple of years ago; so Mark, they’re still coming for you! When Kent Johnston couldn’t execute on his own rule, and Cory flew out to the OF for 2 quick outs, we thought we’d have to try to hold-on for a 9th inning, but back to back errors by the Athletics got Lett & Bond home and the SweatSox had a 2 run lead! All Cory had to do was get 3 outs before 2 runs scored and the SweatSox would advance to the finals:
Cory was on the mound when the SweatSox made it to the Tier 3 finals, so it’s fitting he was on the mound 8 years later when the SweatSox made it to the Tier 2 finals:
The Après Baseball Hyjinx was a special one, not because we were going to the finals, but because we had our first ever SweatSox TwerkOff (Bridget wins by default):
The rest of the night was a blur, thanks to Silas and his friend Jose:
See you in the finals!
#WONTHEHYJINX