We're Goin' Streaking!

Couldn't decide which "streaking" picture should stay... Lemme know. Anyway, the Bad Gnus have now won consecutive games after their 11-8, wire-to-wire victory over the relatively tough T-Sox! The Gnus are peaking just in time for the post season tournament starting next week. Watch out old men, roadies, meatheads, crappy-beer drinkers and Brett!

The Gnus were set up with good karma from the get go. The promotions department at the last minute switched the promotion from Big Sexy Leather Thong night to the much more watchable, Throwback Night! All Bad Gnus were encouraged to wear a vintage Bad Gnus T-shirt from the bottom of their painting clothes drawer and take pride in the long history of this remarkable collection of softball talent. There was a nice variety on hand, but nobody reached back for the colorless effort of the Hardball era. The best part of the promotion was the dusting off of two, first-ballot Bad Gnus Hall of Famers (Hall of Fame inductions will take place in fall... stay tuned). Kevin Bakkie and Derrick Rebensdorf made their first appearances of the year. It was dang good to see my old buddies!

The Gnus went 1-2-3 about as quietly as a team could possibly go in the first, but turned the same trick on the T-Sox in the home half. But in the second inning, keeping with the throwback theme, the Bad Gnus reached into their past and put together a "Gnu Inning". The team pieced together 4 runs on solid hits, walks and misplayed balls. It was going smoothly until the top of the order once again weekly ended things, capped by Mike not being able to keep it on the fairway and hitting his third strike foul.

The Bad Gnus kept a solid 3-4 run lead until they exploded for 3 more in the 6th by long shots by Mike (he kept one fair!) and Keith to give them an 11-4 lead. The T-Sox quickly answered with 4 of their own to cut the lead to 11-8. A quiet top of the 7th for the Bad Gnus set the stage for the a come-from-ahead loss, but they quickly put the T-Sox down in the bottom half to preserve the victory.

The Newcastle Player of the Game is a clear choice this week. Obviously, for the Bad Gnus to win there needs to be contributions for several players and I'll try not to overlook them. Bill came out and toughed out a stiffy (calf from what he's saying) and knocked out a few hits and seemed to always be calling for a pinch runner. Erik played very well. Making some big catches and getting some hits. Sean made a couple nice catches in the outfield and had at least one hit. Seems like I saw him pinch running for Bill a lot. But the hands down winner of the frosty brew has got to be Keith. I think half of the outs we got were Keith making catches a varying difficulty all over the unmowed grass in left field. Plus he drilled a triple that he turned into a double for a needed insurance run. Great game, Keith.

Keeping up with Gnus around the world, here's a picture of me at the beautiful Jackson Meadows Lake north of Truckee. That is a very special place for me and it never gets any less beautiful. Thumbs down for Greg not bringing his shirt. I know there are lots of traveling Gnus in August. Take your shirt and send me the pics. I don't want the next picture posted here to be of me again.

The next post will be on the upcoming post season tournament. That will be up tomorrow at the latest. First game is Tuesday, August 5 at 7:00 against WIN Financial.

10 More Years...

And the Hanks will be our Be-yotch! We keep getting closer and closer. This time only giving up 7 runs in the 7-1 loss. Ima say we beat them when they turn 70. I'm sure that half of the Hanks 7 runs were unearned. (Math geek joke...).

There wasn't much to say about this game. We were able to recruit two talented subs (future Gnus??) after many of the 14 people on our roster did not show. Scott Pettinato and Greg Young picked up the slack and played great defense but were unable to single handedly push us above a single run. I know Bill was out with a pulled vagina and Seanny apparently couldn't be there without Bill as noted during their beautiful committment ceremony held in Key West. But several other Gnus were sadly MIA on this beautiful summer night.

There was a very non-competitive field for Newcastle Player of the Game. Greg had two hits after missing half the last game and all of the one previous. He was able to keep the Hanks from stringing together 10 straight hits like they usually do when they face the purple, blue, green and white of the Bad Gnus. The award this week is going to Doug Wormald. He had two solid hits and kinda scored our only run. Mike actually scored the run after he got to run for Doug since he wasn't getting any hits of his own. In fact, the Hanks and the umpire were having a good time reminding the Big Sexy that he was the last out in three different innings. Whatever... f's. Doug also brought cold and tasty Newcastles that hit on me for a couple of hours in the park after the game.

Good news for Bad Gnus not traveling in August... Our season was extended with a double elimination tourney that starts August 4-5! Second game is August 11-12 and if we win one of those we play August 18-19. I know several Gnus cannot make the first game or two. We'll do a headcount closer to the date.

Circle the date! Our monthly feel-good-about-being-a-Bad Gnu game is next Tuesday, as Don't Panic stumbles out of their smokey vans in their faded Pink Floyd t-shirts. Game time, 7:00. See ya then!

It's Summertime and the Gnus Feel Fine

I hope that y'all are enjoying your summer. I appreciate those Gnus who have put off vacation until the end of the season. When you are packing for that trip, don't forget to bring the tie-dye and represent! Our latest installment from Gnus Around The World is Clayton saying "G'day!" right before he put another shrimp on the barbie. Wait, this is Mexico! Playa Del Carmen if Clayton is to be trusted. I think the hat and beautiful blue water threw me off. The only Mexican beach I have seen was in Ensenada where the water is a little browner and has floating Chicklet boxes in it.

Since I have you... I may as well talk about our most recent game. Fueled by the fact that the Muscleheads on WIN Financial either don't know this web address or have had their laptops repossessed, the Big Sexy was a little harsh in my preview last week. Well, after playing them, I don't think I was harsh enough. I don't know whether they were more a bunch of toolboxes or a bunch of douchebags. We may need to put up a website poll. And I don't mean the stripper pole that these guys have custom built into their Bret Michael's inspired bedroom. This vitriol is not just because the Bad Gnus took another 11-7 loss. These guys just were not like the other 7 teams in the league. Wearing team uniform wife beaters, sliding to break up double plays and referring to everyone on the team as "kid" were just symptoms of a bigger, overall team personality disorder happening over there. I'm sure their after game ice chest was full of vodka Red Bulls.

The Gnus competed gamely in this one, tying the score at 7 in the 5th inning. An early inning defensive cluster ffffffffff-udge hand delivered WIN 5 runs. With the slumping Bad Gnus offense, it was just too much to overcome. To their credit, WIN played pretty solid defense throughout, including robbing this bitter author of extra bases in his third at bat.

Next week, the Hanks roll into the Bad Gnus den. We have been getting closer and closer this year to beating the Hanks, narrowly losing 22-1 the last time we met. This week might be our week!

Bad Gnus Lose Squeaker

I guess we would really need to check the definition of "squeaker". When Dog Sexy, Mojo, loses a squeaker, it's because he has ripped his toy "a new one" and the squeaker was then lost. When something just "squeaks" past me at home, it is usually a rat squeaking as he avoids my swinging broom in my garage. This game was somewhere between those outcomes but still involved destruction and smelly beasts. Ahern beat the Bad Gnus on the scoreboard 14-5. That doesn't seem very close when you just look on the surface. This game was much closer than that score indicated.

The important thing was by keeping the game within 16 runs, we didn't have to see B Diddy show at the park in his thin, ripped jockeys trying to tea bag the Big Sexy. The park rangers had been alerted to this threat of sexual assualt and had set up lawn chairs around the perimeter to not miss any minute of it. Freakin' rent-a-cops...

If Ahern played the Bad Gnus 10 times, they would likely beat us 9. The frustrating part of this game for the Bad Gnus is this really felt like this was the 1 time. If we could have only got the occassional clutch hit or spectacular defensive play or if Brett was there to kill a rally or two, the Gnus could have taken them on this night.

It started off on the right foot for the good guys. After two innings, the Bad Gnus held a 2-0 lead but ominously left 5 runners on base. In the top of third, Ahern got a handful of breaks that they neither need nor deserve. Blooping hits here, sneaking hits between infielders there and taking advantage of some defensive miscues, Ahern put up 7 runs. It seemed more like 5 and I wouldn't put it past the scorekeeper to trade some extra runs for some Coors Lights.

So with the score either 7-2 or 5-2 depending on who you believe, the Bad Gnus kept getting runners on, scoring a couple and leaving a few on. The turning point was the bottom of the 4th. With the Bad Gnus trailing 8-5, they promptly loaded the bases with one out and didn't get any runs. That rejection was all the action the Gnus had in them. After they shot blanks that inning, they rolled over and went to sleep for the rest of the game.

Ahern put together at least one other big inning to stretch out the lead. But we all know the game was well within reach.

It was a very difficult call regarding the Newcastle Player of the Game this week... Bill Moebs pitched spectacularly. He even got a hit! In the late innings, he came over and gave Mike a much needed hug in the middle of the inning after they were both too slow to catch a pop up in foul ground. Grabbing Mike's significant ass was a little unnecessary, but Bill can get handsy. The winner this week goes to Erik. He made a great catch in the outfield. Had a solid, two-run single when we were rallying. The tiebreaker goes to Erik as he also brought both and ice chest and a water jug full of beer.

Next week, the new blood of Arden Park gets their first taste of the tye-dyed wonder of the Bad Gnus. WIN Financial is a team that each of the other teams in the league want to beat. Not only for their barbed-wired arm tats coming out of wife beaters, their fancy cars and boats, their plastic women and their generally cocky attitude, but that monstrosity of a house they built across from the park needs to be answered for. Tuesday - 6:00.