Archive - 1996
So, the 1996 season, and the Blazzers were in the first division, admittedly by the back door, having beaten Amdahl in a play-off game to replace the now defunct Lotus team.
Based on our experiences against first division opposition at blitzes, and in all truth, more probably naivity, we believed that we could make a go of it. A comfortable win against the Amdahl side in the playoffs reinforced this questionably founded belief, and we entered the season with spirits high and some optimism in the air at the challenge ahead of us.
Admittedly our opening of the two best Oddsox teams, along with league champions Dodder looked daunting, but figuring we had nothing to lose we turned up at St. Benildus to play Oddsox Red, one of the top teams. The weather was pretty horrendous, with lashing rain and strong winds, and there was an attidude present that we might as well retire to the warm pub as the result was a foregone conclusion anyhow.
However, sense prevailed and we prepared to start our offence on division one. A quick huddle (for warmth as much as anything), where yours truly tried to drum up some fire by telling the team that we had nothing to be scared of, and we were off.
There may have been some grins at the sentiment, but as the game wore on, and we were still very much in the match, people slowly realised that we could actually compete at this level.
Despite being slightly weaker than our 'optimum' team, we played a very controlled game, helped by the inability of the Sox to adjust to the pitching requirements on the night. Highlights of the game included a great three run homer by Martin and an excellent out by Pete at third.
So, scarcely believing that we were joint top of the league, we figured that we would go and repeat the exercise against the so-called weaker side, The Greens. However, we may have been a trifle overconfident, or maybe it was the more 'normal' weather but a Greens team, playing with an extra girl, provided stern opposition. However, the crucial moment of the game proved to be at the bottom of the seventh, with two outs, when with runners on one and two and a girl up next, the Greens pitcher looked to walk yours truly, cleary aiming to opt for the 'easier' out. Being all tied, KK decided to go for it, and smacked an outside short pitch over centre field for what should have been the wining hit. Malhereusement, the ump ruled that it was out of the batters box. So an extra innings and advantage Oddsox, who duly took the result.
Frustrated would be an understatement, and the inevitable backlash happened a week later against the reigning champions, Dodder Dynamoes, with what must rank as one of our finest performances. Excellent defence and solid hitting helped us to our second win and the season was on a roll. Suddenly we were being talked about as a team to watch, and IT FELT GOOD !!
The Wild Turkey Warriors were next on the plate, and we made sure to bring the cranberry sauce. We had decided that we need to work on getting the ball in early to shortstop and looking to pick the runners from there. This worked a treat against the Warriors, gaining us at least 3 or 4 outs. More controlled hitting and a hilarious miscounting of the outs by their pitcher helped us to bring in the extra runs and the celebrations were on. We were DA BOYZ.....we were gonna kick ass......first division......who cares.......roll on...
Which is pretty much what our next opponents did when they played us. Marlay was never going to be easy, despite our good form, and we learned a valuable lesson in humility, not to mention softball, when we were blown away by the skills and mental toughness of a rampant Marlay side. If only they were human... That result had a deflating effect on our confidence, and despite playing creditably we lost our next game against the Angels by a narrow margin. Thus, despite our fine form, we found ourselves bottom of what was undoubtedly the toughest of the three conferences, level with the Angels.
Then disaster struck. They say you only miss someone when they are gone....which is pretty damn self evident if you ask me....Anyhow, our short-stop Bryan Murphey managed to break his hand playing a friendly game and we were facing the second half of the season without arguably our star player and organiser in chief for the infield.
Our next game was against old rivals the Flyers, and a weakened side once more fell prey to the jinx of the Airport ground. Next up were the Reds, who were smarting from the first defeat. Despite putting up a fight, a motivated Reds side were just too strong and won comfortably and deservedly. We were now slipping towards the relegation end of the division, and no amount of cursing the draw which put us in so tough a conference was going to help. We needed a confidence booster, a win, to get things back on track. The upcoming game against winless 10 AM seemed to be ideal, but they had other ideas and didn't turn up at all. So, we got the points, but not the practice. This was to prove costly as we went down too easily to a strong Batpak side, our batting just never getting going at all. By now we were almost certainly going to end up in the play-offs, but we were still confident that a few wins would see us getting a good draw, and staying up seemed well on the cards. Fellow strugglers the Oddsox Blue were next up, and we were confident of being able to do something to arrest the slide. However, the Blues showing far more hunger, punished our sloppy play and thrashed us. Marlay was hardly the match required to dig us out, but perversely we did some credit to ourselves by taking the game to them with a very weak side and,
Based on our experiences against first division opposition at blitzes, and in all truth, more probably naivity, we believed that we could make a go of it. A comfortable win against the Amdahl side in the playoffs reinforced this questionably founded belief, and we entered the season with spirits high and some optimism in the air at the challenge ahead of us.
Admittedly our opening of the two best Oddsox teams, along with league champions Dodder looked daunting, but figuring we had nothing to lose we turned up at St. Benildus to play Oddsox Red, one of the top teams. The weather was pretty horrendous, with lashing rain and strong winds, and there was an attidude present that we might as well retire to the warm pub as the result was a foregone conclusion anyhow.
However, sense prevailed and we prepared to start our offence on division one. A quick huddle (for warmth as much as anything), where yours truly tried to drum up some fire by telling the team that we had nothing to be scared of, and we were off.
There may have been some grins at the sentiment, but as the game wore on, and we were still very much in the match, people slowly realised that we could actually compete at this level.
Despite being slightly weaker than our 'optimum' team, we played a very controlled game, helped by the inability of the Sox to adjust to the pitching requirements on the night. Highlights of the game included a great three run homer by Martin and an excellent out by Pete at third.
So, scarcely believing that we were joint top of the league, we figured that we would go and repeat the exercise against the so-called weaker side, The Greens. However, we may have been a trifle overconfident, or maybe it was the more 'normal' weather but a Greens team, playing with an extra girl, provided stern opposition. However, the crucial moment of the game proved to be at the bottom of the seventh, with two outs, when with runners on one and two and a girl up next, the Greens pitcher looked to walk yours truly, cleary aiming to opt for the 'easier' out. Being all tied, KK decided to go for it, and smacked an outside short pitch over centre field for what should have been the wining hit. Malhereusement, the ump ruled that it was out of the batters box. So an extra innings and advantage Oddsox, who duly took the result.
Frustrated would be an understatement, and the inevitable backlash happened a week later against the reigning champions, Dodder Dynamoes, with what must rank as one of our finest performances. Excellent defence and solid hitting helped us to our second win and the season was on a roll. Suddenly we were being talked about as a team to watch, and IT FELT GOOD !!
The Wild Turkey Warriors were next on the plate, and we made sure to bring the cranberry sauce. We had decided that we need to work on getting the ball in early to shortstop and looking to pick the runners from there. This worked a treat against the Warriors, gaining us at least 3 or 4 outs. More controlled hitting and a hilarious miscounting of the outs by their pitcher helped us to bring in the extra runs and the celebrations were on. We were DA BOYZ.....we were gonna kick ass......first division......who cares.......roll on...
Which is pretty much what our next opponents did when they played us. Marlay was never going to be easy, despite our good form, and we learned a valuable lesson in humility, not to mention softball, when we were blown away by the skills and mental toughness of a rampant Marlay side. If only they were human... That result had a deflating effect on our confidence, and despite playing creditably we lost our next game against the Angels by a narrow margin. Thus, despite our fine form, we found ourselves bottom of what was undoubtedly the toughest of the three conferences, level with the Angels.
Then disaster struck. They say you only miss someone when they are gone....which is pretty damn self evident if you ask me....Anyhow, our short-stop Bryan Murphey managed to break his hand playing a friendly game and we were facing the second half of the season without arguably our star player and organiser in chief for the infield.
Our next game was against old rivals the Flyers, and a weakened side once more fell prey to the jinx of the Airport ground. Next up were the Reds, who were smarting from the first defeat. Despite putting up a fight, a motivated Reds side were just too strong and won comfortably and deservedly. We were now slipping towards the relegation end of the division, and no amount of cursing the draw which put us in so tough a conference was going to help. We needed a confidence booster, a win, to get things back on track. The upcoming game against winless 10 AM seemed to be ideal, but they had other ideas and didn't turn up at all. So, we got the points, but not the practice. This was to prove costly as we went down too easily to a strong Batpak side, our batting just never getting going at all. By now we were almost certainly going to end up in the play-offs, but we were still confident that a few wins would see us getting a good draw, and staying up seemed well on the cards. Fellow strugglers the Oddsox Blue were next up, and we were confident of being able to do something to arrest the slide. However, the Blues showing far more hunger, punished our sloppy play and thrashed us. Marlay was hardly the match required to dig us out, but perversely we did some credit to ourselves by taking the game to them with a very weak side and,