The slumping SweatSox took their first 4-game losing streak since 2012 with them to Kinsmen last Friday night to face the Gatineau Marc Sports in the rubber match of their season series. Now in general, whenever the SweatSox play a game all NCBL eyes are squarely focused on that bout; but we’re the first to concede on those very rare occasions when we take a back seat to a superior matchup. Friday was one of those games, as the Kanata Athletics hired Jose Canseco to be their teammate for their game vs the Bytown Battalion at the Sportsplex.
Meanwhile in Kanata, things got out of hand rather quickly as Marc Sports jumped out to a 3-0 top-of-the-first inning lead. In the bottom, the SweatSox answered with 2 runs, highlighted by Armando Navarro stealing home after realizing nobody was going to hit him in. An honourable mention goes to the Marc Sports catcher who got ejected for questioning an admittedly bizarre play at the start of the inning.
From the second inning onward, it was smooth sailing…for Marc Sports. They scored 5 runs in the 2nd, 4 in the 3rd, and 4 in the 4th en route to a 16-2 beat-down. Things got so bad, Mark Stinson made his SweatSox pitching debut, throwing 1/3 of an inning, giving up 3 walks and 0 runs, which means The Fisherman sits atop the SweatSox career ERA rankings (0.00). Craig Cornell also got in on the action, making his standard biennial pitching appearance, throwing 1 inning of 0-run ball.
The winner of the 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP Award was: Armando Navarro. #12 went 1/3 with an RBI double, but it was his steal of home that was the highlight of our night, plus he was the only outfielder to not make an error. Honourable mention goes to Josh Ramage who went 2/2 with 2 singles. The winner of the anti-award Odlid was: Mark Bond. Cop gets the “Black Beauty” not for committing an error in CF, but for what he did in the seconds afterwards: TROTTING! Honourable mention goes to Josh Ramage, who did a pretty good Rafael Castillo impression with a non-slide at second base.
Immediately after the game, the SweatSox split into 3 different subgroups, each with a different set of priorities. One group, led by the Brothers Bond, stayed at the field and had an impromptu batting practice. A second group, led by the MindyMobile, went straight to the cooler to start the Hyjinx ASAP. A third group, the OM’s (L, G, and C), got in their cars and raced to the Sportsplex to try and get a whiff of Canseco’s jockstrap. So to recap: one group practiced to try and help the team out of a now 5-game losing streak, a second group worked on #winningthehyjinx, and a third ran away from a cooler full of 72 beers to maybe (they didn’t) see someone who is an admitted PED user, a snitch, and professional fame-whore.
For those who weren’t able to watch Athletics-Battalion, here’s a piece of what you missed, a called strike 3 on a 3-2 count. How very NCBL of us:
Shoutout to Athletics management for pulling the Canseco stunt off, but how do you bring 60 hot dogs to the ballpark without a heat source? Lucky for them, Marc Lett came through in the clutch at the Splex yet again.
The rest of a night was pretty much a blur, thankfully I experimented with “live tweeting” the Hyjinx, so there is some sort of record of events.
Here we have one teammate with some words of encouragement to a fellow teammate:
A team shotgun couldn’t possibly hurt our chances at winning another game this season, could it?
Even the SweatSox have our limits…
It was either this comment or the follow up: “Why are you mad, normally you’d do it”, that led to a pretty good nutshot.
Turns out someone (last name rhymes with Flintstone) might be ready for the magic blue pill. Fortunately we have a few OM’s (and a Doctor) on our team that can probably hook him up.
It’s hard to shotgun a beer while simultaneously taking a selfie, but I think I nailed it.
After going around in the circle and sharing our feelings for one another:
From a distance, we could see something strange going on with the Kinsmen sprinkler system. We went to investigate, and it looks like there was a very “White” ghost running through one.
Spilling beer on the snack formerly known as beer nuts:
I believe this was his own design, the unknown female’s work of art was a few parking spaces over…
Better sit Lidstone next game, no way he’ll be able to walk.
When all else fails, lets try a sacrifice…
Usually we leave the field at midnight and hit the bar until closing time. This time we left just after 2:41am to catch the “back end” of a birthday party.
I truly am a cuddly guy.
The Hyjinx went from about 10:15pm until 10:15am, which was an hour shy of the all time Hyjinx record (the 13-hour Boston Pizza marathon).
#WONTHEHYJINX
“I HURT MY TOE FALLING OFF THE TOILET TODAY”
Next up for the SweatSox was a matchup with the River Hawks this past Sunday night at Quebec’s Allen Park, where we were looking to avoid our first 6-game losing streak since the infamous 1-win 2001 season. To get our first win since the last time we were at Allen, we’d have to beat the 2013 Tier III Pitcher of the Year: Mathieu Beauchamp. We did not.
In the top of the first we’d load the bases but come away with nothing; in the bottom of the inning the River Hawks scored 2 runs, then put it in cruise control the rest of the game. SweatSox lose 2-0, still haven’t scored a run against the River Hawks this year (or ever), tie our longest losing streak in 14 seasons, and we’re more than half way towards our all-time 11-game winless streak that was also set in 2001 (9L, 2T). It was just another day at the office.
The winner of the 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP Award was: Josh Ramage. Mr. Winchester threw his first complete game of the season, giving up 5 hits & 5 walks, 1 earned run, and what he believes to be a lifetime high 4 strikeouts. Honourable mention goes to Martin Trepanier, who was 2/2 with a double and HBP in the loss. The winner of the anti-award Odlid was: Craig Cornell. The Consultant was spotted taking his helmet off his and throwing it towards the ground near the dugout after one of his at bats. The problem here is his helmet should’ve already been on the ground after falling off his head hustling down the baseline. Perhaps he needs a haircut to loosen things up under that lid, and get the whole team back on track.
The Après Baseball Hyjinx was no match for the previous Super’ish Hyjinx, where some teammates ended up having a slumber party at another teammates house. We simply plowed through the 48+ cooler beers, didn’t cause much ruckus (almost witnessed a parking lot T-Bone though), and didn’t go out anywhere afterwards…well, some of us did try and track down Winchester, but they were nowhere to be found….
Well that does it for the first half of the 2014 SweatSox season, where we currently sit in last place with a 3-9 record (7.5 games back of 1st). Stay tuned right here on Thursday for a full 1st half review, including midseason awards, lists of who dominated us the most (teams/individuals), a different set of stats, a look ahead at the second half of the season including our playoff predictions, and much more (but probably much less).
The boxscore from the Marc Sports game can be found by clicking here.
The boxscore from the River Hawks game can be found by clicking here.
Updated Team Stats (through 12 games) can be found by clicking here.
#WONTHEHYJINX