The official hashtag of the 2013 SweatSox was #Lettsanity, referring of course to Marc Lett’s championship winning walkoff grand slam. Even before the 2014 SweatSox season was over, we already knew what we’d be remembered for this year: #Protest2014.
This story begins on a calm Friday night in July when the SweatSox took on the Winchester Sox at the field commonly referred around the NCBL as: JetForm, Lynx Stadium, Rapidz Stadium, the place Josh got a triple, and/or Ottawa Stadium. The SweatSox and Winchester Sox share a lengthy and interesting history: we’ve played Winchester more than any other team in the modern SweatSox era, we’ve won and lost playoff series’ to each other, they have a former SweatSock on their team (Delorey), their coach (Hart) keeps trying to get us to sign him to the SweatSox, and Josh Ramage guaranteed he’d name his firstborn son Winchester in honour of his longtime foes; so it probably wasn’t a coincidence #Protest2014 happened between these two teams.
#Protest2014 may not have happened if not for what took place during pregame warm-ups. After seeing that his Winchester team had enough players, or possibly that Mark Dorrington was pitching for the SweatSox, former Winchester manager and current assistant coach Chris Hart made his way back up the Stadium steps and headed home to bed, or possibly Calypso, leaving the keys to the house to Manager Adrian Delorey and Beat Reporter Matthew Uhrig – which as you’ll see turned out to be an important piece of the #Protest2014 puzzle.
The game started off like just about any other normal game, with strikes being called balls and outs being called safe, much to the chagrin of both the original 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP Mark Dorrington, and Mark Stinson aka “the Catcher”. As a result, Winchester took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, when Cam Shaw scored on a Matt Uhrig fielders choice. To be fair to the umpires though, they did make up for it later in the game by calling balls strikes and by calling safes outs.
Heading into the bottom of the 4th inning, Winchester still held a 1-0 lead; and then things got interesting. With two outs and a runner on 2nd, Winchester pulled starter Tyler Bray from the mound, giving the ball to their 2nd baseman Hacksaw Joe Duggan. It didn’t take long for the SweatSox to capitalize on this pitching change as Mark “Bus Cop” Bond recorded an RBI single on the very first pitch; game tied 1-1. No sooner than the run crossed the plate, Winchester management made the call to bring Bray back onto the mound, which immediately caught the attention of Craig Cornell, who was sitting quietly on the bench combing his prize-winning hair. The Consultant offered his thoughts on this illegal switch to the Authority Cory Bond, who also recognized that this was a big NCBL faux pas under By-law 2.14:
By-Law 2.14 (a) Further to Official Baseball Rules 8.06 and 3.03: On a coach or manager’s first mound visit to a pitcher in an inning, he/she may elect to move the pitcher to another defensive position. In that case, the player may not return to the mound until the next inning or later. On a coach or manager’s second mound visit to the same pitcher in the same inning, he/she must remove the pitcher from the mound. The pitcher may take another defensive position but may not return to the mound for the remainder of the game.
(b) In the case of player-managers, such people shall identify themselves to the umpires, and the umpires shall charge a mound visit to the manager whenever he/she leave his/her defensive position to converse with the pitcher. Attempts to circumvent this rule by having other players talk to the pitcher shall also be charged with a mound visit.
Naturally, the next course of action was to approach the umpires with this information. A quick back-and-forth took place as both SweatSox and Winchester management pleaded their case. The argument from the combined 25 years of NCBL experience between Cory Bond, the two-time & defending Tier II Sportsmanship winner, and Craig Cornell, the NCBL’s Treasurer and member of the NCBL’s Executive (maybe), that this was indeed a rule, was defeated by the argument from rookie manager Adrian Delorey. Delorey brilliantly brought up a precedent set by the second year Cornwall River Rats team that they had done this exact same move a week earlier, and that was “allowed” by the Cornwall umpires. The Stadium umpires liked that argument more, so Bray was allowed to return to the mound. At that moment, the SweatSox officially lodged #Protest2014.
For all intents and purposes, what happened statistically the rest of that game that day was meaningless. Josh’s 2 hits never happened, nor did my two-run single. Cory’s diving catch in left center field? Never happened. Somewhere, someplace, Daniel Villeneuve is sitting with a Little Caesars pizza in one hand and a team pitcher in the other laughing at us.
Winchester went on to win the game 6-4, but we were confident that wouldn’t hold up in court.
After the game that we believed was only half done, the SweatSox opted to head to Boston Pizza rather than join the Winchester Sox and their preset table with pre-ordered pitchers at East Side Mario’s. As we sat down and tried to put what just happened behind us, it was clear that our protest was quickly becoming the topic of discussion around the league. As league officials were obviously discussing it amongst themselves, one of their texts was mistakenly forwarded to our manager Cory Bond. Whoops!
While the author of that message has chosen to remain anonymous, we believe we’ve narrowed the list of suspects to one of three people. This investigation is still ongoing.
The evening continued with a visit from the clear frontrunner for 2014 Umpire of the Year: Philippe Marc Beauregard. Beauzy got his first taste of the Mindy Experience, as well as witnessed how intense some of the SweatSox get when it comes to Fantasy Baseball. He also paid for his own beer.
That night ended with a four “person” visit to the outdoor facilities, which under the new amendment to the SweatSox constitution had to be photographed under the 3+ rule. What sadly wasn’t captured on video was the Bus Cop/Shostappa ride home, which I hear got a little nasty when Cop wasn’t following the orders of his passenger.
The next day SweatSox management submitted their reports on #Protest2014, expecting a verdict within a few days. It wasn’t until about 3 weeks later that we officially heard back: the protest was upheld. The game would be resumed from the moment it was protested, bottom of the 4th, 2 outs, runner at 1st, score tied 1-1.
During that period of limbo, we learned that in similar playoff qualifying situations like the one where #Protest2014 was filed, Winchester altered their substitution policy and had the player they were trying to qualify start the inning, rather than enter with 2 outs.
After our final scheduled regular season game, we finally got the details about the where and when of the protest continuation. We had already clinched last place, so the league got cute and sent us to Trillium to perhaps get us used to playing there if we drop to Tier 3 next season.
Two players who would not be playing in this game were Mark Stinson (the catcher) and Denver Hunt (aka Dylan), who were ejected in the original protested game. Despite some interesting logic from the SweatSox liaison to China Kent Johnston, who was finally on the same page as his carpool buddy, ejections are both irreversible and retroactive, even if they occurred after the protest was lodged.
Just getting this game replayed was historic as this was probably the 1st NCBL protest ever upheld, but when the SweatSox and Winchester get together we always try and raise things to the next level. As the teams exchanged lineups, with Winchester’s lineup looking absolutely nothing like the original lineup whereas the SweatSox’ was perfectly in sync, Assistant Coach Chris Hart lodged a protest about the protest! Hart referred the umpires & Cory to his interpretation of the MLB Protest replay rule, which apparently says an upheld protest should lead to full replay, rather than just a continuation from the protested point. Not one to turn down even more free baseball, GLE immediately offered his support to this unconventional request. The umpires were not so appreciative about working an extra half game after already being promised full pay for 3.33 innings of work. Protesting the protest denied.
The continuation began with Bus Cop stealing 2nd on the very 1st pitch, something he had discussed with leadoff hitter Cornell in the parking lot before the game. The plan was also for Craig to knock Cop in from second, and sure enough that prearranged strategy worked when the Consultant hit him in on a long Trillium single. This perfectly executed plan was historic, as it was the closest thing the SweatSox have ever come to having signs – usually we just wing it; sometimes it works and we win championships, other times we miss playoffs and finish last. SweatSox up 2-1 through 4.
The SweatSox extended the lead to 3-1 in the 5th on a Kent Johnston RBI foul ball double, and then blew the game open in the 6th with 6 additional runs off the Winchester closer (Hart). Mark Dorrington picked up where he left off back at the Stadium and threw a dirty complete game, allowing just 2 base runners during the Trillium portion.
The winners of the 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP Award were: Mark Dorrington and Craig Cornell. OMS threw a complete game 3 hitter with 12 strikeouts, while The Consultant was the key figure in #Protest2014 & getting this game replayed (his 2 hits didn’t hurt his cause either). Honourable mention goes to Cory Bond, who showed once again that he’s one of our most versatile players, playing 2nd base for a couple innings, his 7th different position played this year.
THE BATTING CHAMPION
While Martin Trepanier had the SweatSox Pitcher of the Year title locked down heading into Trillium, what still needed to be decided was the batting title. Just like the NCBL (Bylaw 4.8), the SweatSox Batting Champion (not to be confused with Top Batter) shall be the player with the highest batting average for the regular season. To qualify, a player must have at least two plate appearances times the number of games played by the team (lets see if I can figure this out without a spreadsheet: 2 x 24G = 48PA). Three SweatSox were left in the running come the finale: Mark Bond, Eric White, and Cory Bond. Here’s how the leaderboard looked through 4 innings.
The 5th inning saw some change to the batting title race; a Mark Bond strikeout dropped him out of the lead, while a rare Cory Bond opposite field hit against the shift brought him a little closer to the leaders. Eric White’s average stayed the same, since he aggravated one of his injuries in Winchester the week before and didn’t make it out.
Heading in what would be ultimately be our final offensive inning of the year, Eric, Cop, and Cory were all still mathematically in the running for the batting title. GLE was the first Bond up in the inning, and he recorded a two-run double, vaulting him up to the lead with a .300 average. This meant the batting title would be won by a Bond; but which one? If Cop got a hit in his final at bat, he’d finish with a .302 average and win the title, otherwise he’d have to settle for the bronze medal. Cop wound up getting hit by a pitch, which meant for the first time in his career Cory wins a SweatSox batting title!
GLE was so excited to be batting champion, he forgot we’d eventually end up at Summerhays and ordered expensive & small wings at East Sides during the Après Baseball Hyjinx. Word of his great victory actually spread to Summerhays before we got there, as a legion of unnamed fans were there waiting for him!
Perhaps even more impressive, Cory became the 2nd person in the modern SweatSox era (2003+) to win the career triple crown, joining Mark Dorrington as the only players to do it. We don’t count my single season triple crown in 2002 since that was the tail end of the Dorion era.
And so ends the great tale of #Protest2014, filled with anger, sadness, disgust, fear, trust, anticipation, joy, and surprise. It certainly brought a bit of excitement to an otherwise dreadful season.
While we were done playing officially sanctioned NCBL games for the year, we still had the Kingston tournament left to play. Stay tuned for a full tournament recap, which most certainly will not be as long as this one was. For now, we leave you with a final timeline of #Protest2014 events:
#WONTHEPROTEST
#WONTHEHYJINX