Manager Lucas brought his Northside Hitmen over to Crackerjack Park adding another chapter in the ongoing battle of APBA that has been going on for decades. Being a History Major, Luke remembered one of the first times he came to my place to play shum APBA, it was circa 1977, the Midwest Monarchs hosted his River Park Solons, and Ed Figueroa tossed a perfect game against us. My lineup included the likes of “Disco” Danny Ford, John “The Hammer” Milner, Rick Manning, George Brett, Jerry Remy, & Tim Foli. But that was a lifetime ago, seems surreal, almost like a dream, who were those people, were they really us???
On this day it would be a nine game set featuring the explosive Chicago Champions taking on the Hitmen of the Northside. The Hitmen wasted no time jumping out to an early lead when Alexei Ramirez hit the 1st pitch of game one off Tim Lincecum over the leftfield wall. Interesting fact pointed out by Chuck: much maligned Alexei is batting .293, with power numbers of 24, 1, 14, while the highly regarded Hanley is batting .286, 23, 2, 16, I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’. In the bottom of the first AROD bit the hand that once fed him, giving the Freak a one run lead when he launched a two run shot, then hit another two run dinger in the 3rd, giving Chicago a three run advantage, which was upped by another when Justin Morneau, aka Jason Monroe, left the yard. Lincecum left the game after seven, despite never having to pitch from the stretch, allowing only Alexei’s first pitch bomb. Hidecki Okajima allowed a leadoff pinch double in the top of the 9th, followed by a one out walk, before giving way to “AK-47” “Papa Grande” Jose Valverde. AROD booted a ball, filling the bases for Manny Ramirez, who took care of business, just Manny being Manny, as he belted a game tying grand salami. Ryan Perry pitching in the 10th allowed two runs to give the Hitmen a hard fought game one win, despite AROD hitting a solo in the bottom of the 10th off closer Joakim Soria to make the final 7-6 Northside.
Dualing homers were the second game’s theme as the game was knotted at four thru four, courtesy of Chase Utley & Brian McCann two run homers for them and an RBI double by “Paul Bunyan” and solo shots by AROD & 2 by Grady Sizemore for us. McCann can, thank you sir, may I have another?, did it again in the 6th off Josh Beckett was the difference as the Northsiders, behind former Champ Jake Peavy, took game 2, 5-4, series two to zip Hitmen.
Matt “Raisin’” Cain held the Hitmen to one unearned run over six as “El Caballo”, Carlos Lee, put it on the board, YES!, in the 4th, a two run tater, which put Chicago up 4-1, Champs scored two more in the 7th, and cruised to a 6-1 victory. Still down in the series, 2-1.
Mark Buehrle lossed his shutout bid with one out in the 9th, but the Champions showed their power, scoring all eight of the runs playing long ball, two three run pokes, one by Victory “Hulk” Martinez, the other by “Lumberjack” Morneau, to go along with solos by G-Size & Jeff “Frenchy” Fracoeur. Series all tied up at two.
Did you ever not know what was going on until it was over, till it was too late??? This is a common phenomenon in my life, nothing unusual there for me, but in game five I switched my lineup around to take advantage of walks versus Wildman Micah Owings, who would earn another nickname after this game was through. Jason Marquis, the leader in wins took the mound for the Champs opposing Owings. The Hitmen loaded the bases against Marquis in the first, but the crafty veteran pitched out of trouble, allowing only one run. Then they nicked Jason for another in the third when Manny hit into a doubleplay with runners on 1st & 3rd. The Champs had a golden opportunity to get back into this thing in the bottom of the 5th, when Owings walked Ian “Stewie” Stewart, Miguel “Bombon’” Olivo, & Jason Marquis, but with two outs, Micah got Felipe “FILO” Lopez to ground to first. Northside batters scored another run in the 7th when Miguel Cabrera doubled home Utley. The Champions only managed two other bases on balls against Owings, outside of the 5th inning, so when Bombon’ bounced to 1st in the 9th, it was official, put it in the books, and give him a new nickname, Micah “No-No” Owings. I had no idea a no-hitter had been thrown until Chuck told me, guess that’s called focus or called, lost in a fog. A no-hitter for Owings, I can’t roll no friggin’ dice!!! I think PaPa Bunchie will be rolling better dice next year for Josh Hamilton, Evan Longoria, Adam Dunn, & Delmon Young, funny how good dice rolls seem to be pretty much aligned with having good players to roll numbers on. Now I needed to regroup, grab some water, guzzle it down, and get ready for the four games left to be played on the road in this series, trailing in the series 3-2.
“The Freak”, Tim Lincecum took the mound for the Champs, in an effort to right the ship, in a first game rematch against rookie lefthander Brett Anderson. JROLL took Anderson deep to start the game and V-Mart also went yard in the 1st, 2-0 after one. A 2nd inning sac-fly cut the lead in half. Frenchy came through with a two out RBI single to plate AROD from 2nd base in the 4th, to put us up again by a deuce. El Caballo put icing on the cake with a 7th inning big fly. Lincecum went the distance for the complete game win. Now the series was back to even with three games to be played.
Again the Champs played long ball, knocking four balls out, to pace a 10-2 win. The four amigos doing yard work for Chicago were AROD, JROLL, Lopez (2-run), & Lee (2-run). Josh Beckett hardly broke a sweat, allowing only one hit over 5+ innings, and was relieved by Dice-K, who worked the final four for a save. Hitmen’s Hurler Hiroki Kuroda was hit hard & hit often, and it could have been worse had there not been an official scorer giving him the benefit on a couple of errors where it was questionable as to whether or not RBI’s should have been denied or awarded. Advantage, Good Guys, 4-3.
Things looked bleak when things unraveled for Matt Cain in the 5th, a walk, a double, another walk, a couple of base knocks, and a 1-0 lead turned into a 3-1 deficit. Manager Luke turned the game over to his team’s best asset, his pen. With 2-outs & one on, MO, Olivo cracked one long gone, high & deep, off the leftfield foul pole off Joakim Soria, to tie this one up at three in the 8th. Two batters later, a single by C-Lee & two basehit by Stewie, and it was 4-3 Champs. Chicago’s pen was outstanding over the last four innings, making that lead hold up. But not feeling all that confident, AROD gave up a day of rest in an effort to extend the lead, pinch-hitting in the 9th, when nothing came of that decision, a one run lead would have to do. Colby Rasmus greeted Papa Grande with a basehit up the box and with 2 outs, Chase Utley walked after fouling off a dozen pitches, bringing up Cabrera. Valverde dropped to a knee, pointed to the sky, screamed in delight, after getting Cabrera to swing at a slider in the dirt for strike three, ending the game, giving Chicago a 5-3 series lead, heading into the finale.
Miguel Cabrera hit a three run 5th inning bomb off Buehrle, then Manny being Manny knocked one out himself, to put the Hitmen up four. Brad Penny held us in check, before surrendering a meaningless two out run in the 9th, when El Caballo’s ribbie double scored Morneau to end Penny’s bid for a shutout. There was some controversy when Ian Stewart, with 2nd column 11’s, appeared to steal second, on a H & R 35, but was called out. Manager Mallasch came sprinting out of the dugout, arguing the call, but to no avail. Neither the president nor the vice president could be reached during the contest. Interestingly, the vice president called after the game to say, he’d have ruled him out. While the president said, he was safe, because the board states, the runner must have a 10 or 11 on his card, not necessarily in the 1st column, to be considered safe on a 35 Hit & Run. Reading it’s such an important, necessary, skill, which is so often under utilized. Final score 4-1 Northside. But the Champions held on to capture the series 5-4.