Split City Consistent in Season 3 Even Thru the Tourney

10-7 One Bad Inning won their final game of the Season 3 Tourney to claim 3rd Place after finishing the regular season in third as well. The 19-13 beat down of Midlife Crisis came on the heels of a 12-3 first round victory vs. Murphys Law,,, and a 9-12 loss to a tournament team in Blue Ballers...

Game 1 was a wind blown affair early on with gusts coming in from CF. DC had the RC fielder measured and KC hit a liner of the 315 sign in LF for a double. OBI was consistent on offense scoring in 4 of the first 5 innings while the defense was aces and allowed only the 3 runs (none in the 4th thru the 7th) ...

Was wonderful to see Spillane back out in LC. His wheels have certainly been missed. This weeks OF gave OBI a good view into what lies ahead. Well done all ...

Game 2 was interesting a this was our first battle with Blue Ballers. They play a 5 man infield and the 3 OFers cover ground well. An experienced tournament team they are, however, they are certainly beatable with the team OBI puts on the field.

We played good defense, putting up 3 eggs while giving up 4 in 3 innings as well. This was a back and forth game and we took a 7-4 lead to the bottom of the third only to give up 4 then. Once down 12-7, only two single runs were scored the rest of the way. Blue Ballers went on to Run Rule the Runnin' Fools for the championship. I believe we would have as well.

Game 3 was all about offense for OBI. KC and JuanR homered, DC had 5 RBIs,,, Matt, Larry, and Michael all had 3 hits... After Midlife Crisis tied it at 5 in the top of the 4th,,, OBI scored 14 in their next two at bats leading to a final of 19-13...

*** Failure to mention 3-pitch walks by Jayse, Matt, Larry, and JR could get me fined. Thus, this blog post has been updated to notate said fact. If any other transgression has occurred in the writing (or lack thereof) of this blog post, please send a text or email at Get.A.Life@KissMyGrits.com ***

An excellent Season 3 in all,,, however, Season 4 finds OBI with quite some turnover. Here is the list of changes:

DC & KC: Out 1-2 seasons ...
Steven: Retired, Injuries ...
Tino: Released, 'nuff said ...

Juan Cena: Returning in Week 3 after extended hiatus ...
Nuta: Returning around mid-season after injury ...
JuanR, Jacob, and Joe: Joining for Season 4 ...
Also missing time: Clint in Weeks 1 & 2 ...

Should be fun as we retool... Here are the Season 3 and YTD Stats ...

Split City Sputters Losing 2 Low Scoring Games to the Runnin' Fools

A few weeks back, 7-7 One Bad Inning controlled their own destiny to claim 2nd place in the league with a more than 50/50 shot at over taking the Runnin' Fools for first place. However, good defense will not always overcome all obstacles ... Let me count the ways:

-- Quiet Offense, scored 32 runs in last four games. Though, only allowed 41 !!!
-- Missed Games, injury, sickness, family, vacation, etc.  Life Happens ...
-- Earth's Axis, seems tilted a little more than normal ...

Whatever the reason,,, OBI simply needs to snap out of it for 3 games during the tournament and that will be that... This team is capable and with all the pieces in place for the Season 3 Tourney,,, there are good things on the horizon ...

For the tournament,,, we just need to focus on what we each do well. Don't try to be someone you are not,,, well, at least not right now. We can work towards goals later... We have walked our way through Season 3 to get to the playoffs... Now, are you gonna be the Spurs or the Heat? You decide and bring it on Thursday,,, btw,,, Fuck the Heat !!! Let's go OBIers ...

Clint and I are finalizing the lineup as I type this blog post. We are also reviewing the players we have returning for Season 4,,, since that starts next week,,, bring your $$ with so we can get our down payment in...

Here are the Season 3 stats..

Split City Keeps on a Rollin'

And we are not talking double plays here ... 7-5 One Bad Inning lost for a second time to a 5-6-1 Midlife Crisis that is on a 4 game roll, and then fought mightily-ish to down 1-9-2 Mamma's Boys 9-8 on a walk off single by DC.

We welcomed back Borracho Juan this week. His 4-6 effort included a Big Fly and 2 Doubles (the doubles may or may not have made it onto the first run of the stat sheet, d'oh. Okay, they didn't, but they are there now ;~) ...

Game 1 against a fun rival in Midlife Crisis was a tale of two cities type experience,,, the top half of the order (1-6) was a combined 5 for 19, scoring and driving in exactly no runs at all. Our 7-11 hitters did all the damage going 8 for 14 while scoring and driving in all 5 of our runs in the 5-10 loss.

Game 2, the top 6 rolled better to the tune of a 12 for 20 clip and the second half of the lineup also raked it decently at 6-15 (down a bit from game 1). The hitting was more consistent and OBI, errr, Split City was able to happily earn the right to be called our new moniker one more week with the 9-8 win. Whew ...

This weeks games will be even more challenging as we will be missing 4 more players due to other important life happenings (work, retirement, church, and the like). We will be adding KC and Dean back to the mix. Plus Dre' was volunteered to help us out ... Should be a good warmup at 106 degrees for next weeks tournament.

The stats sadly reflect our ability to be consistently inconsistent,,, read at your leisure:

Top Seed Within Reach, With a Little Help ...

With two weeks left in Season 3's regular season, 6-4 One Bad Inning is in a three-way tie for 2nd place with Diamondback Pools and the Blue Ballers. We have the tie breaker against Diamondback Pools by virtue of a 9-7 win and versus the Blue Ballers on Point Differential (+59). We do not play either of these two teams in the remaining two weeks.

8-2 Runnin' Fools has a full last two weeks of the regular season. They play Diamondback Pools twice this week, and then 5-4-1 Murphy's Law and OBI next week. Definitely a possibility that the two loss differential can be made up, especially given one of the games is against our squad.

The key to One Bad Inning's opportunity to capture the #1 seed for Season 3 is simply this,,, Win Out. Win them one at a time but capture them all and we are guaranteed the #2 seed and will have an opportunity for the Runnin' Fools to come back to us with one loss in their next three games.

Let's continue to build on our Week 5 momentum of Teamwork and Consistency ,,, win each of our four remaining games ,,, and regain our rightful place atop the standings ,,,,, muahhahahahahhhh ...

Split City -- Team Ownership Meeting to Discuss Name Change

6-4 One Bad Inning continues a blistering consistently inconsistent pace as Season 3 rolls along. This has prompted a cry for a new team name,,, suggestion being Split City ... OBI has not been "Taking Care of Business" against much of anyone this season. In fact, I believe that the rest of the league is happy to see us come their way. Knowing that although they are most likely to get thumped in one game, the other game is pretty much theirs for the taking.

Split City ,,, errrr, OBI has been extremely giving during Season 3. In fact, both Mamma's Boys and Midlife Crisis have 1 win in 10 games played over the first 5 weeks of the season. Both have come against Split City ,,, errrr, One Bad Inning.

OBI did give forth a better team effort this week! Base coaches and courtesy runners were on top of every situation. Productive outs were made. Mental mistakes minimal. We simply won a close game and lost a close game because we did not score enough runs to win both ... The team work tells me that we are heading in the right direction with the Season 3 tournament only 3 weeks away ...

In game 1, OBI answered Mamma's Boys opening 3-run salvo with a 4-spot of their own, capped by KC's first HR of Season 3. Larry broke the tie scoring the first run in the bottom of the second inning a few hitters after legging out a single to RC field (whew). DC pushed the lead back to 4 with his 3-run Big Fly to finish off the second inning scoring.

OBI scored in each of the five innings, including another 4 run inning in the 4th where all the runs were scored with 2 outs. Matt and Jayse drilled back to back RBI Doubles and J.R. singled the last run home in the inning. DC led the way with a 4-4 performance, while Steve, KC, and Jayse collected 3 hits apiece.

Game 2 started with another 4 run first inning by the OBI crew. With 2 out, 2 on, and no one in,,, Steven, Clint, and Michael went triple, double, single, respectively,,, to drive in the four runs. This would be the only runs the top of the order would push across this game (sad face) ...

And, in true Split City giving nature,,, Mamma's Boys were allowed to hit and hustle their way to a 6-run spot of their own to take a 6-4 lead after one. The score could have been worse if not for two fine running catches by Paul in RF and Michael on a looping liner in shallow right.

KC, Spillane, and Matt continued to rake the ball well and led the bottom half of the order. Michael hit his first HR since Season 1 2013 and earned this weeks Han Solo title,,, only to have it taken from him two batters later by a hard-swinging, cursing (eh, give or take) KC ... Just what the doctor ordered for Mamma's Boys as DC homered for an out to end the game (ugh, sucks being 6'4", 280 lbs. with a swing that,,, well, I think we all get the picture) ...

Anyways, I would be remiss if I did not point out a new OBI Single Season record (stats dating back to late 2012) set after only 5 weeks of the season,,, Steven took a pass four times this week to bring his season total of Base on Balls to 13. At this rate, the record may reach into the 20s. Or possibly even into the teens... Yes, technically 13 is a teen, however,,, most high rise buildings do not even recognize 13 as a number / floor,,, therefore,,, we challenge Steven to continue his assault on this category in order to boost sales,,, errr,, run production ...


Way to lead by example! In another note, 4 other players also walked this week. A few of those didn't even give a courtesy swing, bravo to all ye' late game, non-courtesy swinging animals.