Time to Get Caught Back Up...

So it's been a while since the last post... The last time we checked in we heard about how a shorthanded WWs team easily handled Austin Ave. Since then, WW has handed Rick's Appliance Repair and Hiro a loss to put their magic number at one with two games left to play. Let's summarize these two games...

WW had their work cut out for them when they faced Rick's(1-3) for a second time this season. The first time these two tangled, WW managed to escape with a 17-2 victory. This time around it wouldn't be so easy as Rick's made some adjustments that all but assured their second win of the season. Always thinking one step behind, Uncle Jesse (Rick's Manager/Brian trust) came out of retirement/off the DL to play firstbase. This allowed Uncle J to orchestrate his strategy a little closer to the action. We also saw Hannibal Lector move to the outfield so that Rick's could try out a new pitcher in the hopes that giving WW a new look from the mound would slow down their offensive assault. These managerial moves along with some pre-game misfortunes for WW seemed to spell victory for Rick's. First we saw Brian Macek show up to the park without any shoes. Byron received a call on his cell phone from Chris H. in the parking lot explaining the situation. Byron, always the improviser looked into the cab of his truck and noticed his golf shoes sitting next to his workout shoes. They were white/brown saddle shoes... Nice! Crisis averted. WW got off to a slow start and at one point trailed Rick's by a couple of runs. This was do in large part to a calamity of errors on a single play from Byron. Byron's bad play put him in the running with Brian for BOTW. During the third inning WW offense got rolling and began to put the game out of reach. Once the game began to get out of hand WW began shifting their defense around to try some players out at different positions. This move allowed Byron to redeem himself from his first inning blunder by mowing down a potential base stealer at second. WW also was able to turn a couple of double plays and managed to hold Rick's to three runs on the day. Once the dust settled it was a 15-3 victory for WW. The Boner of the week would go to Brian for ShoeGate. It's tough to pick a player of the week when everyone is hitting and not making mistakes... I can tell you who wasn't a player of the week. That might be easier.

WW then set their sights on Hiro(1-4) who fell to WW 17-6 earlier in the season. I'm not sure what the family friendly way is to describe what happened when WW was supposed to play Hiro so I am just going to abstain from trying to describe it. Basically, No one from Hiro showed up to the park. No one called in a forfeit. This was obviously premeditated or else there would've been about 7-8 guys in the other dugout calling their friends on cell phones going "Hey man... Where you at?". This wasn't the case. At any rate, WW took some BP and the forfeit and went to HooHoo's. On the way to Hoots some of the WW players stayed behind to watch the rest of the Austin Ave. GoodFellas game. AA had given away a 5 run lead to niceguys and couldn't manage to get a runner from second to home with one out. With time expired the game went into a one pitch extra inning format. AA was able to get out of the top half without any damage and then manged to score a run with two outs on a cluster foofah play. It really wasn't as exciting as it sounds.

After the two victories to the one win teams WW had a bye week to get ready for Goodfellas(now 3-2). WW would only need one win with two games left of a loss of less than 5 runs to niceguys to clinch thier second championship of the year.

Mid-Season Call-Ups Help WaterWorks Coast Past Austin Ave.

Although no one said it out loud, there was a little bit of uncertainty going into this past Friday's game against AA. WW would play this game with only 6 of it's regulars in the lineup against a team that had put up 14 or more runs in their only two games of the season. This uncertainty lingered through the first inning as WW was only able to hang a one on the board. AA followed by scoring a run of their own to tie up the game. It wasn't until the bottom of the second that WW seemed to control the games as they put five runs on the board and shut down AA. Again Mike C. pitched a gem and was backed by a strong defense that only allowed two runs. WW even managed to turn a 4-6-3 double play (We aren't going to mention that the runner was recovering from hernia surgery). When it was all said and done WW walked away with a run rule in the fifth with fifteen minutes left on the clock and a 13-2 lead.
On hand for the post-game festivities were Buckshoot, 8-Ball, JW and Nine. Everyone else chose to be losers.
Out of the lineup this past Friday was Rik who is still recovering from a foot injury, Chris H. who is seeing an ankle specialist in Erie, PA. and Chris W who couldn't break away from a contractual agreement with one of his sponsors. The most newsworthy absentee was Pete Bergan who again was a game day scratch as he assisted Maureen with the birth of their second baby. We are still awaiting more details of the birth but the word from our sources is that all are recovering fine. This will give Pete the player of the week... Congratulations Pete and Maureen! Way to procreate! Boner of the week is going to have to go to Fred. While playing first, Fred took a throw from third off this chin. We are going to have to add that this ball wasn't in the dirt. And the Sun was behind Fred. And it wasn't that windy.
Called up to play this week was Travis (WaterWorks Developmental League), Fred (WDL), Brian M.(WDL/Out-of-retirement) and Dave W. (Unsigned).

Apparently softball is played outside of Plano by bigger losers than us.

Here is a link to deadspin's weekly post about softball failures... Hopefully we won't ever have any material to contribute.

http://deadspin.com/5294063/sir-your-foot-appears-to-be-dying

Carroll Shines as WaterWorks Drops Goodfellas

In a game day decision Mike Carroll was called to mound to pitch against WaterWorks' summer league rival, Goodfellas. Carroll, who was filling in for a scratched Pete Bergan, was relentless in pounding the strike zone, getting in front of most of the batters he faced. Despite a couple of mistake pitches that turned into extra base hits, 8-ball was able to pitch out of jams giving up only one earned run in seven innings. It was a defensive laps in LC by Chris Weyand that lead to two unearned runs on a basehit turned little league homer. Due to a solid defensive performance by WW there really aren't any other nominations for boner of the week so we are going to give that to Weyand.
WW's game against GF lived up to it's expectation as the game stayed tight for much of the first half. WW was able to string together some hits followed by some timely extra-base hits to get a 6 run lead. As GF tried to fight back WW would always answer by coming back and winning the inning. Throughout the game the 6 run lead never seemed comfortable, but Mike was able to close the door and stayed strong through all seven innings. The win against GF gave WW sole possession of first place with one more game left before the first half of the season is complete. WW will face long time nemesis Austin Ave. this Friday at 7:00. A dangerous AA team will be looking for it's first win of the season after dropping their only two games of the season by one run. Making matters more interesting for this game will be the internal struggles of Jay's allegiance. If you don't recall, we were first introduced to Jay on Friday nights when he was playing for AA in their last fall season. Buckshoot was quick to recruit Jay and bring him into the WW family but some internal sources have revealed that Jay's heart may have never left AA. I think we will all find out this Friday night, where Jay's loyalties lie.

Cool... Another Friday where I get to drive into Plano only to turn around and go home.

This cell has the potential to break up. I sure hope so. With any luck my next post won't be how we have a lot of losers on the team that won't go to Hooters after a rain out.

***UPDATE. Looks like the cell strayed south. We were able to get the game in with dark skies and some distant lightning. For future reference... There are a lot of guys on this team that won't go to Hoots after a rain out.

Well... We've got the easy work done.

Two weeks into the Summer season there are only two teams that remain undefeated. WaterWorks, who improved to 2-0 after coasting past Hiro(1-1) and Goodfellas(1-0) . GF edged out AustinAve(0-2) 16-15 last Friday to notch their first and only win. Despite the close win against a team that hasn't won a game this season, WW is going into Friday night with a lot of respect for a GF team that finished third in the Spring EOS Tournament. You might recall GF as the team that caused an hour long delay while they protested their opponent's (ToppsTown) roster. Oh... you didn't hear about that? yeah... there were some other teams thinking what we were thinking. I guess GF thought the tournament was worth risking $50 (cash!) on an appeal on ToppsTown's roster. One problem. The front office couldn't find the rosters. After about 10-15 minutes of searching the administration realized they sent the rosters from any team that won their league to the main office in Plano. After a quick drive to the other side of the city and back there was definitive proof that an illegal player was on the TT roster. Unfortunately he was the worst guy on the field. An hour after the appeal TT administered a triple decker pecker wrecker on GF and knocked them into the losers bracket where they went on to get railed by the team that knocked us out. Long story short. GF cares a lot about softball... and they appear to be on our level.
Now that I'm done with my incoherent rambling about this weeks matchup, let's have a flashback to last week when we coasted past Hiro. Not much to report in this game except that we took a new hit to the lineup when Rik jacked up his knee. Buckshot should have some broken ribs from repeatedly bodyslamming/dry humping the outfield. There was no clear cut player of the game so I need to figure out what to do about that. The Boner of the week goes to TJ for the throw back to Pete that ended up in the outfield letting the leagues slowest base runner make it to third.

Hannibal Lector and Uncle Jesse unable to save Rick's Appliance Repair

WaterWorks and gravity got the best of Rick's Appliance Repair this past Friday at Heritage Yards #3. After Staking WWs to an 11-2 lead by the second inning, Rick's was unable to get anything going with the bats and eventually let the lead drift to 17-2 before the game was called in the fourth. What appeared on paper to be an offensive outburst by WW was really just a showcase of RAR's inability to get their gloves in between the ball and the ground. RAR's defense seemed to be in the right place thanks to the brilliant softball mind of uncle Jesse from 'Dukes of Hazard', but the outfielders couldn't manage to execute.
The lack of defense was a major disappointment to Hannibal Lector who did a great job of getting WW hitters to hit his pitches. Lector 's defensive support was not the only thing missing from the game as WW infielder Byron was a game-time scratch. The reason for the removal from the lineup was not disclosed leaving only speculation as to why the player was a no show. The early rumors from the WW clubhouse was that 'Nine' had hit a low point in his struggle with sex addiction and had to seek help. That gossip was later dismissed as a WW spokesman confirmed that there was a contract dispute and that WW was ready to release the player if a contract wasn't signed under their terms. B's agent was not available for contact. Actually, the agents phone appeared to be disconnected.