Bad Gnus Have Come to Play!

After several mediocre seasons in a row, the Bad Gnus have shown up to the Spring league ready to kick ass and take names. Or is it kick names and take ass? Either way there will be some names and ass involved.

The first game of the season started out slowly, but once the Bad Gnus put together a Gnu inning, they held the lead going into the last inning. Unfortunately, they were unable to hold the lead and lost to the Silver Bullets and their watered down, piss-water ice chest. I think the score was 8-7. It was well too many good beers ago to remember the details. The only thing I remember is that Howard never made an out and it was his homer in the top of the last inning that gave the Bad Gnus the lead. Howard takes the first Newcastle Player of the Game of the year!

A rain out saved the muscleheads from WIN Financial from further humiliation last week. First, their eyesore of a home sits unsold for over a year and I imagine they may be feeling the sting of the depressed capital markets more than most. On top of that, I'm sure the cost of Red Bulls and Creatine has only been going up. They would not have handled the beatdown we were sure to administer to them very well.

Last night, the Bad Gnus rose from the softball pergatory that they have been floating in and put together a breakout game against a tough Long Islanders squad. The night didn't start off too well for the Gnus. Greg was late for the game to ensure that he was properly fed before the game. I thought Greg always ate dinner at 4:30, so the 6:45 start time should not have been an issue.

That pressed relief pitcher, Doug Wormald into the starting role. I've created a whole "Wheel of Excuses" for what went wrong for Doug last night. Here's the choices: He didn't expect to pitch. It was the first time he's pitched in 8 months. The wind was really blowing hard. Those guys were just looking for walks. John C called a poor game from behind the plate. The Bengals suck. Let's give it a the wheel a spin... Actually, Doug is a very solid pitcher, but he clearly didn't have his stuff working last night. The Long Islanders also surrounded the walks by several hard hit balls. After the top of the first inning, the Gnus trailed 8-0.

Some teams would have thought that the game was over then. But the Bad Gnus have been the Bad Gnus for a long time. They have won games with larger deficits (I believe 14 at the Complex) and they have lost games with bigger leads. In the bottom of the second, a Bad Gnus inning blew in on the north wind and tied the game up at 8. After a couple of back and forth innings, the Bad Gnus came to bat trailing 14-13 as the sun was setting. The Gnus put up two runs to take a one run lead going into the last inning. The Long Islanders were unable to score, but there were 5 minutes left. The Gnus decided to waste the time by tacking on more runs. When time was called with the bases loaded, the final score was 19-14.

There were many, many offensive stars in this game and I'm sure I'll be missing someone. Newest Gnu Stuart Nelson had his second consecutive 3 hits game. We need to get some tie dye on that man. Kirk and Greg had a bunch of hits too. But what stood out for me was the beating both John C and Erik put on the ball all night. They each had multiple hits but they also went deep over the outfielders heads. The Gnus don't do that much. With the exception of the Newcastle Player of the Game, Howard.

Once again, Howard just smoked the ball all over the field. He was a triple away from the cycle and his homer this game was at another key point of the game. Howard must have an imaginary room in his house dedicated to storing all of his imaginary NPoG awards. On top of dominating on the field so far this season, he also dominated off of it. Check out his contribution to Gnus around the world from Cabo for his wife's 40th. (Be looking for the first Bad Gnu double shot around the world as Pete and I represent in Europe on Anna's 40th.) Don't be shy about sending me your travel pix!

There wasn't one defensive play that really stood out during the game, but Sean takes away the Defensive honors (Award Name to be determined) with several nice plays on fly balls during the game. He was covering all sorts or ground out there. From what I heard from Karen, he was getting all sorts of action all night. Take from that what you will.

Next game is Monday at 5:45 against Ahern, um I mean, Last Call. A win there will definitely announce our arrival. The Big Sexy will need a new keyboard after all the blogging that will take place after we bounce Last Call.