Repeat!

We da champs again in 2009!

Clueless Critics Continue to Show Their Ignorance

Gary got an earful from one of our Mod-mates today. The peanut gallery continues to complain about our tactic of using walks to our advantage (drawing many ourselves while giving up almost none to our opponents). I guess 22 hits (1 triple, 5 doubles, and 16 singles) isn't enough to satisfy them that we do a lot more than walk. Because we drew 13 walks between those 22 hits yesterday, we're still not playing the game right. Yeah, we'd be so much better off making outs between those hits like their teams do. Let's hope our opponents keep thinking that outs are better than walks.

THE COACH/GRANDPA IS BACK. I KNEW THE CHICKEN (four-letter term for "feces" deleted) TD'S WAS GOING TO PULL OUT OF THE GAME YESTERDAY. IT DOESN'T MATTER TO ME. WE CAN RESCHEDULE WHEN JAMES COMES BACK AND IS WELL RESTED FROM HIS LONG FLIGHT. WE NEED A NEUTRAL SOFTBALL COMMISSIONER. I'M SICK AND TIRED OF THE CAPTAINS COMMITTEE'S STUPIDITY.

Enough Already!

While Brandon and I were in the bleachers at the Richmond vs. Master Batters game yesterday, we talked about something that's been annoying the **** out of us. That's the continuing complaints from our opponents who maintain we aren't really beating them -- we're just taking advantage of the rules.

These complaints first appeared about a month into the 2008 season and they haven't stopped. Apparently, our opponents believe our style of play is somehow unfair to them. They think we should be swinging at the slop they bounce around everywhere but in the strike zone instead of waiting for them to throw us some strikes. They're sick of watching us take our walks. You know what? There's a simple solution to this. If they don't want us to draw so many walks, they can QUIT WALKING US! The rules do not favor us. They apply equally to both teams. We're doing everything we can to maximize the talents of the players on our team while minimizing those of the opposition. That's not unfair. It's the wise thing to do and rather than be criticized for it, we should be praised.

On offense we're going to make every effort to load up the bases for our big hitters. On defense, we'll do everything we can to ensure the opposition's big hitters come up with the bases empty. To complain that we are doing something unfair is patently absurd. It sounds like a boxer complaining that his opponent won't stand still and drop his hands so he can be hit squarely in the jaw. “Wah! The PC Bricks won’t do stupid things so we’ll have a better chance of beating them. Mommy, it isn’t fair. Make them stop! Wah!” Enough is enough. It’s time for the rest of the league to get used to us. We’re going to do everything we can within the rules to win every game we play. We practice at least once every week after work. Some of us get together on Saturdays for extra batting practice. We do these things because we want to play well. We enjoy winning and we don’t owe anyone any apologies for it. We know we’re going to be beaten at some point. It could be in our next game. And when it happens you won’t hear us putting down the other team or their style of play (as others have done so freely to us). We’ll just wear it.

The Mod Squad is Huffin' & Puffin' to Bring Our House Down

If we play up to our potential, they should be as successful as the The Big Bad Wolf was when he employed that strategy against the third little pig's brick house.

From the Mod Squad's Blog:

fxebrwn Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:58:09

TODAY IS GAME DAY

I GOT MY GAME FACE ON

IM READY TO BLOW DOWN SOME BRICKS.....LETS HUFF AND PUFF TO THEY ALL COME FALLIN DOWN..

GO MOD SQUAD As for the game face, the Lady Bricks say, "Bring it on!"

Pop Ups and High Flies

Our first two games have made one thing about our team very clear -- we need to work on turning fly balls and pop ups into outs. We're giving away way too many outs and runs by letting playable flies drop. We have the players to turn these batted balls into outs but we're just not executing. I'm not saying this to point fingers or place blame. It's nothing like that. I think it's the natural result of the way we've conducted our practices. We've spent too much time on hitting when we probably should have been devoting a lot of that time to our fielding. At our last practice we shook things up a little bit to improve our infield defense. I think it was successful as our footwork and handling of short throws on the infiled was pretty good in the game against the Master Blasters. Now we need to put that same kind of focus into our outfield play at Monday's practice. In my opinion, the main thing we need is a lot of repetition. We have players with the ability to catch routine fly balls. There's no doubt about it. We just need to work on judging the flight of the ball and getting into position to catch it. I know from experience that when I go a long time without practicing, I lose my sense of judging the flight of a ball. I can't tell if it's hit right at me or if I need to charge it, or if it's going over my head. I try to hold my position until I can figure it out but most of the time, that hesitation costs me. By the time I can tell where the ball is headed, it's too late for me to get there in time to catch it. I feel disoriented and I lose confidence. But when I go out to the park with some friends and we hit each other a few buckets of fly balls, it comes back to me. After I get the chance to follow the flight of the ball off the bat several times, it becomes easier to tell if it's going deep or falling in front of me. I reduce that period of hesitation when the ball is first hit and I can recognize more quickly if I need to turn and go back or charge the ball. I think that kind of repetition is primarily what we need now. The tricky part is to find a way of doing it that allows our outfielders to get in the work they need without it resulting in a bunch of standing around for everyone else. I think I have some drills that will help us in that regard --sort of like the infield drills we ran last week. Everyone will be participating and constantly shifting positions and tasks. There should be very little (if any) dead time. By the time we're done with practice on Monday, everyone will have seen a lot of flies, worked on getting under them, executing the catch, and making a quick throw to the infield. I want to make it fun but without taxing us so much that we don't have enough gas for Tuesday's game. Assuming my hamstring is okay, I will be available on Wednesday for those who want to reinforce the work we do on Monday. We'll also have time to work on other things as needed.

Ethan

That was way too funny!!! I almost peed my pants on that one!!! Very good LJ!!