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| My first opponent on Friday
night was Chuck Lucas and his Northside Hitmen. Chuck is a pretty
amiable fellow but he came out with both fists flying (see photo).
Now Chuck's Hitmen probably have the most potent lineup
in Illowa League history. Take a look at some of his players: |
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| Yes, that's Bonds, Delgado, Javy
Lopez, and oh yes, in case you can't quite make it out, that's A-Rod,
too. In addition, he has Manny Ramirez, Hank Blalock, and Pedro
Martinez as well. I'm not jealous... Really I'm not.
We ended up getting shut out by Pedro in the first game
despite Kirk Rueter pitching a two-hitter. After losing game
two as well (we pitched a combined 4-hitter), we were tied going into the
bottom of the ninth in game 3. We needed something to get us going.
Then it hit me. Where was my team mascot?? I
called timeout, ran to my suitcase and got: |
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| ...Chuck the Chicken! Chuck is
the official Twin City Thunderchicken mascot Two outs later, Albert Pujols
hit a solo homerun to win the game! We were to win only one more game
against the Hitmen as they defeated us 4-2. The Hitmen had Chicken
for dinner that night. |
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| Saturday morning brought Rob
Moore and his Chicago Highlanders. Rob and I have a history of
playing close, tight series. This was no exception as we split our
series 3-3. Unfortunately for us, a couple games we lost the
lead. Erubiel Durazo had two pinch hit homeruns for the
Highlanders. |
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| After my Highlander series, I had a short
break so I snapped a few photos. Marcus and Tedd are intensely
playing. Don is in the background hoisting a cold one. Is it
me or does it look like Todd is going to hawk a loogie at Mark? |
Mike and Rob playing. After a great
March, Mike just couldn't get it going in May. Rob on the other hand
went 21-9. |
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| Saturday afternoon, I played the
State Street Sluggers. The Sluggers' manager Nick Ventresca was home
sick with the flu or something so brother Todd pinch managed for
him. I should have known better than to agree to this. I
haven't beaten Todd and his Gamblers for 4 years. I won the first
and last games. The rest was just a blur.
I got my revenge, though. My next series was with
Todd and his Aurora Gamblers. We ended up going 5-1 against
him. First time in at least 4 years that we beat this
team. Albert Pujols clinched it in game 5 with a 10th inning
walk-off homer. |
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| We kept rolling 64-12 during our Gambler
series so Chuck the Chicken got into act. I think it helped. |
John was hoping he would have a good series
against the rebuilding Chicago Champions. Tedd had other ideas as he
wasted the Beanos 5 games to 1. John's a pretty laid back guy so I
was kind of surprised to hear him talk like a sailor. John had the
last laugh though. Tedd had to face the wrath of Maggie, John's
girlfriend via cellphone. |
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| Delgado is up in this photo. I don't
know why Chuck is looking at the boards cuz he probably hit another
homerun. Carlos had an awesome weekend. At one point, he hit
11 hrs in 11 games. |
Mike and Todd battling it out. Note
Chuck the Chicken watching the series from a safe distance. |
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| Saturday night, the IAL
participated in the 1979 All-Star game for the season replay that John and
I are doing. I had the NL. John had the AL. Here are the
NL starters: |
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| Here are the AL starters: |
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| The reason you can't see them
correctly is because they were indeed stars and shone so brightly that
they defeated the NL 13-6. (That and idiot that I am, I can't take a
simple picture correctly). |
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| Finally, Sunday morning I took
on Tedd and his Chicago Champions. Any other year, the idea of
playing Tedd would instill fear into my heart. Not this year.
We easily disposed of Tedd and his "Champions" 5 games to 1. The
only interesting stat from this series was that Jose Valentin ended his 20
game streak with at least one strikeout. |
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| John and I left the hotel around
11:30am Sunday. We let Tedd off at the Naperville train station and
made our way back to Champaign-Urbana listening to the Sox game. |
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| Twin City Thunderchickens: 17-13 |
