Champions League

Game 4
Game 5

Game 3

Game 1
Game 2

That’s right, ladies, it’s true. The Hairys, as improbable as it seems, woke up this morning to find that they are still PTP champions. How long it takes for another team to man up and take the title from them remains to be seen, but if recent playptp.com activity is any indicator, the rest of the managers are content to remain curled in the fetal position whimpering for their mothers. And oh yes, I DID just say that.

ps. Manager Ockey urges ptp fans everywhere to check out Comissioner Utley’s recent blog post on his long and storied history with books. As you all know, Utley has a singular gift for writing - he manages to effortlessly and simply convey his thoughts and instill inspiration without even trying. I read that thing and I was scrambling for the nearest book just so I could start to try and be like Bri. Thank you Bri. Thank you Ted. For that 2021 Championship that you gave me.
Love,
Jerry

Sorry I’m a little late with the news, everyone, but I was gone last night checking out my favorite new band Fleet Foxes. Think My Morning Jacket + The Shins with 3 and 4 part harmonies that would make Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young) proud.

Anyway, Monday night was an epic night in Gary Hairys history. Having split the first two games of the World Series, the series shifted to Shea and the Hairys inconceivably swept all three games to becomes the most unlikely World Champs in ptp history. Here’s how it all went down:

Game 3 - Scorp Meche vs Hairy Young. Young finally acts like the ace he was supposed to be all season long as he holds the Scorps to one run on three hits in 5 innings while striking out 8. The Hairys build a 3 run lead on a 2-run Youk bomb down the line and an RBI double by Escobar. The Scorps are freaking fast, though, and they manufactured a run off Young via Roberts single, stolen base and RBI single by Johnson. With a 3-1 lead and Young’s pitch count real high, Ockey is taking no chances as he goes to his pen with Perez, who has been solid as an effing rock all season. Naturally, he picks this as the time to implode. He gives up 3 straight hits to start the 6th and just like that the lead is gone. It stays tied at 3 as Ockey makes boner move after boner move, apparantly trying to sabotage his team’s chances. I get picked off TWICE in the 7th inning, and caught stealing AGAIN in the 9th. Meanwhile, Huston Street has been locking it DOWN, going 2 shut-out innings giving up only one hit. In the 10th, I’m at the bottom of my order and wondering how long this thing will go when Jacque Jones of all people (no homers in the regular season) hits a walk-off solo shot off of Guerrier and Shea goes NUTS.

Game 4 - Oswalt vs El Duque. The much-maligned El Duque is an absolute STUD in this one, going 6.1 innings allowing only 3 hits and a run. Meanwhile, the Hairys chip away at Oswalt. Game 3’s hero Jones leads off the 3rd and eventually scores with 2 out on a passed ball. Little Buddy Pedroia comes up huge with another clutch 2-out hit that scores Markakis and it’s 2-0. The Scorps finally touch El Duque in the 7th with a run on a sac fly. Jones leads off the 9th with another hit on his way to a 3/4 day at the plate and scores on a Markakis double. Wagner and Street go 2.1 shut out innings with Street getting the save in this one after getting the win in Game 3

At this point, I though I had a day off (which is why I’d used Street so much -figuring I’d have a day to rest him). Imagine my surprise when I remembered it’s 2-3-2 in the World Series and I had another game with no rest. And I had to face effing Webb again. Crap.

Game 5 - Webb vs. Maine. Webb is simply amazing AGAIN, going 7 innings allowing one measley run on 5 hits…..and losing. On this night, John Maine was Webb’s equal, throwing 6 innings of 1-hit ball. He started REAL shaky, walking speed-demons Roberts and Reyes, but at this point, I know what’s gonna go down, so I cut down Roberts with a pitchout and Maine works around the rest. The scoreboard is all zeroes until the bottom of the 6th when, with 2 out, Captain Clutch Russell Martin goes deep into the pen right to make it 1-0. And that’s how this game would end as Marte and Betancourt combine with Maine on a 2-hit shutout that has to go down as one of the greatest World Series pitching performances ever.

So, in the end, the Hairys win it with a total team effort - every guy in the lineup except one had an RBI at some point, and with the exception of Perez, every pitching performance was brilliant. The Hairys’ staff, once easily the worst in the league, allowed a TOTAL of FIVE EARNED RUNS in the entire Series. Giving up one run a game is a great way to win. Everyone was deserving of post-season MVP honors, but in the end it has to be Russell Martin with his 2-run 9th inning miracle bomb to save the season and then his solo shot off Webb to win the whole thing. That is really clutch. And how fitting is it that this year of the pitcher ends in a 1-0 ballgame. Fantastic.

Congrats to Ted on the 3rd year anniversary of his amazing Davis league BCSB team that dominated and finished the season with a sweep and 12 game winning streak.

3 YEARS AGO TODAY.

Game 1

Game 2

Yes, I know. Everyone knows. But I couldn’t leave the site unacknowledged anymore. My 1st PTP Championship in 522 days. No kidding. That was like before Vietnam.

Anyway, I could go on and on, and I probably will soon, but I’m too busy celebrating to analyze this remarkable achievement. It’s all about drafting good hitting pitchers, forget OPS.

I still wasn’t quite sure this morning if it was really true, but the boxscores below confirm that the Hairys of Gary are the 2017 World Champions. In a mind-blowing post-season weekend, the Hairys went a combined 7-1 against the Foxes and Knights to win it all and thus validate their regular season success. Manager Ockey was elated as he finally got the Champions’ League post-season monkey off his back after 2 seasons of frustrating failure. I haven’t got time to give a super-detailed recap now, but the story of the series was, unbelievably, the Hairy starters. After getting wins in only HALF the Hairys victories in the regular season (relievers got the wins in 14 out of 30 Hairy wins), the Hairy starting rotation of Ojeda, Gooden, Downs and even Darling was brilliant, getting victories in each of the 4 games and giving up a grand total of THREE earned runs COMBINED over the course of the 4 games. It was truly unbelievable against the best hitting team in ptp, the Knights. I don’t know how or why at this point, but somehow, as Bri pointed out, the computer seemed to forget that his guys are really good hitters. As was the story all year, every Hairy in the lineup contributed on the offensive end. With the wins, the Hairys final record on the year stands at 37-11 (.771) and I really feel that with the Championship, this team deserves to go down as one of the greatest ever alongside the ‘05 Sand Bitches and ‘04 Slappers among others. They’re certainly the best and EASILY the funnest team I’ve ever managed and a part of me wants to retire and go out on a George Costanza-esque high note because I pretty much know this is the best I can ever do (but of course I can’t retire - I love this game and you guys too much). The only bitter part about the win was having to watch Bri suffer through it on the other end - it was truly the most unluckiest thing I have seen - if his guys had gotten just a couple key hits with the many opportunities they had, this series would have been totally different. Add in some hellacious errors, uncharacteristically poor performances from his pitchers and a whole lot of bad luck on so many occasions, and it was just one of those things where everything turned to crap….kind of like my world series LAST season - the difference being Bri handled it way better than I did - he didn’t try and put his fist through a table or call me lucky (even though I totally was). With that, I want to thank Bri and the Knights and congratulate them on a great season - they are obviously back as force to be reckoned with and believe me, I feel lucky as a duck to have sneaked away with a Championship this year.

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4