When Doug Dorion founded the SweatSox in 1981, it was so he could get out of the house a couple extra times in the summer, have a few beers with his friends, and smoke a few king sized cigarettes when times got tough.\u00a0 Little did he know that the rec league team he once called D.L. (before staring at his unusually dirty and smelly socks on his bedroom floor one day and decided to change his team name to something more fitting), was going to develop into a team playing in the most elite tier of the largest amateur baseball\u00a0league in Canada.<\/p>\n
When I, Shaun Keay, first joined the NCBL in 1998, the SweatSox were a terrible team in the worst tier.\u00a0 Even after picking up a rookie Marc Lett in 2002, we still finished 5 games under .500, causing several tenured players to finally call it a career.\u00a0 During that offseason, we recruited unusually hard, signing a flowing haired east coaster and a tall lanky local lefty, who thankfully weren\u2019t aware of what failures we had been for many years. \u00a0That season, the SweatSox finished above .500 for the first time since 1986, beginning the greatest turnaround\u00a0story in the history of the NCBL.\u00a0 14 years, 3 pennants, 2 championships, and 1 more Tier 4 free agent after that, the SweatSox made it to Tier 1.\u00a0 That became official earlier tonight, when the SweatSox played the Outlaws at the Sportsplex to open the 2016 NCBL Tier 1 season.\u00a0 Yo Adrian (Balboa, not Delorey), we did it!<\/p>\n
The game was scoreless through 2, and in the top of the 3rd after scoring 3 runs, the SweatSox were officially on top of the NCBL universe.\u00a0 If the playoffs were to start right then and there, the SweatSox would\u2019ve been the #1 seed with the greatest +\/- in the tier. \u00a0We had not hit the new drop-dead time just yet, so the game would continue as scheduled.<\/p>\n
As a rule, when the\u00a0GLE Cory Bond is our\u00a0starting pitcher, we relieve him from all his game day managerial duties so he can focus on throwing balls and strikes.\u00a0\u00a0 Today was one of those games, and somehow a trio of Mark Bond, Craig Cornell, and Kent Johnston were tasked with filling the role of Authority, and they couldn\u2019t even do that right. \u00a0During the pregame meet & greet at home plate, Mark \u201cKindergarten Cop\u201d Bond tried handing the umpires the pink & yellow copies of the starting lineups, hording the white copy to tape up in the dugout.\u00a0 Not the best first impression.<\/p>\n
Their biggest blunder of the night though was letting GLE go back out to the mound in the 3rd inning despite\u00a0taking a hard Tony Carbonetti liner off his knee to end the 2nd.\u00a0 Between innings it was clear GLE was in excruciating pain, the amount of blood pouring off the wound was sickening, and it was already starting to swell, growing to about the size of a tennis ball by the time the next inning rolled around; yet still he was allowed to go back out there.\u00a0 Naturally, he gave up 5 runs and the lead, effectively keeping our preseason projection of an 0-24 season alive.\u00a0 Thanks for nothing coaches.<\/p>\n
\nFINAL: Outlaws 7. SweatSox 3.<\/p>\n
WP- Daviault
LP- CBond<\/p>\n*The SweatSox officially become the 1st team to play in all 4 tiers.#notamercy<\/a>#L1<\/a><\/p>\n
— SweatSox (@SweatSox) May 11, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n