Week 4 Scores
Season Standings
Mid Season Pub Crawl
On Saturday, Venice Beach was invaded by Dogtown players dressed as Golfers and Tennis players. From Islands, to Baja Cantina, to The Terrace, to Cabo Cantina and finally the Whaler, pitchers of beer, margaritas, shots, and any other liquor flowed. Thanks to Keven Brooks for documenting the day.
To see th full album: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.240071519371159&type=1#!/media/set/?set=oa.240071519371159&type=1
Theme Week
Team Recaps
Team Kick in the Box
Team Kick in a Box brought their Jungle Swag to the kickball field and walked away with a 4-2 victory over Two Girls One Base. The game may have been over before it started as Kick in a Box brought the intimidation factor by walking on to the field with a live Gorilla (Mike) and bringing their own entrance music in "Racks on Racks" by YC.
Kick in a Box exploded to a 4-0 lead in the first inning behind the big kicks by Lauren, Mike, Nick, and Aaron. That was more than enough for pitcher Jacob Miskabi and the rest of the Kick in a Box tenacious defense. Two Girls One Base had a great comeback attempt late in the game, but not even their stylish suspenders could provide enough support to overcome the big Kick in a Box first inning.
Kick in a Box has been up and down in their first season in the Dogtown league, but for some strange reason they seem to perform better underneath the lights during the late games. The team seems to show up to the field a little more motivated after captain Lauren Hunt's motivational pre game speeches at Brennan's. The team continued it's hot streak this weekend during the mid season bar crawl event. Lauren, Hope, and Mike made us all proud by executing a triple body shot for eagle at Baja Cantina.
Kick in a Box has overcome several obstacles during the course of the season but they seem to be more focused than ever and have an unmatched passion for partying. They will certainly be a force to be reckoned with over the next few weeks as we head into the playoffs.
Los DP
How long does it take to get drunk before a game?
Well it depends. If you are shooting Patron, give it 10 minutes. If you are leisurely sipping a Cowboy-themed cocktail, it might take closer to an hour. So when Find the Hole showed up after a solid hour and a half of pre-partying, you can imagine what state they were in.
How long does it take to play a game while drunk? Apparently an hour and a half.
Because that’s how long it took for FTH and Balls Deep to wrap up a nail-biter game and get off the field. We won’t lie -- it was entertaining at first to see a drunken Indian climb the backstop in a fit of rally fever, only to get stranded 8 feet in the air before her teammates pushed benches together to carry her down (after the appropriate amount of time staring at her thong, because let’s face it, she has a nice badonkadonk). But it got old as the field got darker and the pleas from both Hot Box and the DPs to be able to play their game went unheard.
The dramatic climax of the FTH/BD hard-fought game, a close slider into home, was overshadowed by Ninad, who extols no arguing or screaming over a call, running outside the park’s fence line in a fit of rage, screaming “He was safe, he was safe!,” in what can only be described as an octave 6-year-old girls hit when confronted with a spider.
We didn’t care if the runner was safe or out. We cared that it was 9:25 pm and we were just getting to take the field. No warmups, no waiting. We were there to play.
This was a clash of the titans after all. Both the DPs and Hot Box were clad head to toe in black (of course ours was for the theme night as we channeled the Jabbawockeez, complete with masks that didn’t fit anyone’s face. Thanks Allison! Hot Box just rocks the black. And after multiple seasons as Dogtown champions, they don’t do theme nights.)
These two teams were undefeated and long time rivals/friends, whose average team member’s age skewed closer to 40, making late games past our bed times.
It took another five minutes to track down three people to ump - one of them an Indian wearing only a loin-cloth and fur boots who asked us to hurry it along. Really? You who took five minute huddles between each inning and delayed us 30 minutes were rushing us? Get back in the cupboard!
Box kicked first using its trademark bunt, bunt, kick strategy and sailing a ball into right field, where unfamiliar lights messed up our ability to catch it (way to let the girls play Keven!), giving them a quick 3-0 lead. The DPs fought back going up 4-3 in the next two innings with a sweet double play to keep Box scoreless in the second. A few careless DP throws gave Box a 5-4 lead going into the bottom of the third. DPs had two runners on base with mighty Charlie coming up to kick. You know what happened next?
Neither do we!
Because the lights went out at 10:01 pm. We couldn’t play the game because it was too dark. We couldn’t call the game because we hadn’t finished 3 full innings. We got screwed. Guess this is how the Indians felt.
On the upside, both DPs and Hot Box are still undefeated for another week. Can’t say the same for FTH…
Find the Hole
In Week 4, 2 of the top 3 teams met for a battle of the undefeated. In the first inning FTH played amazing, I mean truly amazing defense to keep Balls Deep’s best 3 kickers in check with 3 up and 3 down. In the 2nd to 4th innings it seemed the game would end in a 0-0 tie as both defenses held their own. Then, late in the 4th, Balls Deep was able to find some space and score 2 runs to go up 2-0. However, FTH will always find your holes. FTH penetrated up the middle and were able to score 1 run in the 4th to make it 2-1.
We go to the 5th.
Balls Deep was held to 0 runs with FTH playing the most concentrated and focused inning of the year.
To the bottom of the 5th inning we go. The game had run late. Tempers were flaring. Babies were crying. In the 5th FTH was able to get the players on base to possibly seal the win. In an extremely intense and “dark” environment FTH was up for the challenge. It literally and I mean literally came down to the last throw with FTH rounding 3rd and heading home as fast as possible to tie the game only to be thrown out by an impossible yet very impressive throw from the pitcher to then be called out at home. The teams were ecstatic. Some of the calls iffy but this was absolutely the most exciting game for Dogtown this year. Game ended in 2-1. We’ll see you in the playoffs.
We go to the 5th.
Balls Deep was held to 0 runs with FTH playing the most concentrated and focused inning of the year.
To the bottom of the 5th inning we go. The game had run late. Tempers were flaring. Babies were crying. In the 5th FTH was able to get the players on base to possibly seal the win. In an extremely intense and “dark” environment FTH was up for the challenge. It literally and I mean literally came down to the last throw with FTH rounding 3rd and heading home as fast as possible to tie the game only to be thrown out by an impossible yet very impressive throw from the pitcher to then be called out at home. The teams were ecstatic. Some of the calls iffy but this was absolutely the most exciting game for Dogtown this year. Game ended in 2-1. We’ll see you in the playoffs.
Wow What A Game
Whiskey Kick
Holy cow things have gone from bad to worse for Whiskey Kick. I received the below letter from unknown league officials blasting me and my recaps for being honest. Well I won’t be silenced, and luckily I’ve got an in on the newsletter staff and they have agreed to publish both the letter I received from the league and my original recap. Sadly they won’t print the un-edited recap as they themselves feel that the eyes of the league are on to them and their freedom of speech loving ways. I hope no one else is suffering from the same persecution as Whiskey Kick.
Most Supreme Office of the Peoples Kickball League of Dogtown
1 Dogtown Plaza
Caracas, Venezuela
August 26, 2011
Dear Sir,
It has come to our attention that your recent recap posts have caused confusion and anger in the Dogtown League. Henceforth all your recaps will undergo a screening process before they are allowed to see print. We do this in the most glorious fashion befitting the Peoples’ Most Supreme Dogtown League
Your compliance is expected, if you attempt to circumvent this process the repercussions will be most severe indeed. For too long the Peoples’ League of Dogtown Kickball has tolerated your subversive and counter-productive recaps. The Peoples’ League of Dogtown Kickball will not allow opinions that differ from our prescribed path of righteousness.
Please continue to submit your recaps to the same e-mail address but 48 hrs before the deadline other teams have as we require more time to peruse your scandalous and rebellious literature.
Signed,
The Peoples’ Most Glorious Office of Information for the Peoples’ Most Glorious League of Dogtown Kickball
P.S. Also please remember that the date auction is coming up on October 1st 2011 and if you or any members of your team are interested you should contact Julie Fei.
Pretty insane right? Has anyone else received these letters? Check out how they mangled my recap; all omissions have been blacked out. It really is a piss poor editing job:
Whiskey Kick -4 Team Kiki- 7 (unofficial score)
Last night’s game against Team Kiki was pretty crazy. Reporters on the scene are calling it a bigger travesty than the 1972 Men’s Basketball Gold Medal game. Apparently Whiskey Kick faced a new, and severely depleted, Team Kiki. Whiskey Kick posted 12 players to TK’s 8. However league officials decided this was too unfair an advantage and ordered WK that if they wanted to play with 11 people on the field they would be was made to take their shoes off in order to play.
WK leadership balked at this notion but were told failure to comply would result in a forfeit. So WK played sans shoes. Even without shoes WK went up 15 runs in the first inning alone. Again league leadership intervened and quickly removed all but 2 runs from the scoreboard because in their words “The way your players ran the bases wasn’t very graceful and so you lose those points.” WHAT!?!?!?! This is outrageous and even Team Kiki were becoming upset. One Team Kiki member even told me when they approached league leadership about the one-sided affair they were told to “mind their own business and take the gifts given to them. Team WK must be taught a lesson about compliance.”
So on the game went for 5 hours as WK tried to post more runs only to have them removed for minor infractions such as celebrating or an errant cell phone ringing in the dugout. But through it all they held a brave face and took their loss with their heads held high because they will never back down.
In the end team Whiskey Kick were even able to laugh about the travesty and have decided to change their team motto to “Whiskey Kick, Making Other Teams Dreams Come True Since 2011!”
Team Kiki
The rag tag team of free agents known to the league as Team Kiki came together to notch their first win of the season 6-5 over Whiskey Kick. Coming off a forfeit the prior week, Whiskey Kick needed a win to get their mojo back. Standing in their way was an undermanned team looking for a win after losing 3 straight. In a battle lost in the shuffle with all of the unbeaten team playing this week, this game went down to the wire with the team in orange winning it and hopefully starting a new trend in their young existence.
“Five more minutes, five more minutes” Find the Hole kept chanting as their undefeated season slipped from their grasp. Believing five more minutes is what they needed to save their season by tying or maybe beating Balls Deep. In the end, they needed more than just five minutes; they needed the heart of a champion. A heart like Bryan Benamor, who showed what makes a champion by pitching five strong innings and scoring the go ahead run at the top of the fourth after kicking a triple, leading Balls Deep to a 2-1 victory over their rivals. The win keeps Balls Deep undefeated and in first place in Dogtown this season. Over five innings, both teams duked it out in a cage match that lived up to its hype.
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| Josh Horwitz before kicking in the winning run. |
Going to the wire, the game was determined in the fifth inning. Down 2-1 with two outs and a man on second, Find the Hole needed to find a way to tie the game. Time was running out as the game was over the 60 minute mark and pushing the next game back. With the next pitch, the ball is kicked over the infield’s heads and out to short center field, hitting the ground just before the center fielder. The runner on second sprints and tags third and rounds towards home. Jackie Wyler catches the ball after the bounce and quickly relays it back to Benamor. As the runner nears home, he slides. As he enters his slide, Benamor throws a laser and pegs him milliseconds before he reaches home. In a cloud of dust, both teams are on the field, waiting for the umpire’s decision. Time feels frozen until the umpire raises his thumb, signaling “out”. Balls Deep rushes the field in excitement as Find the Hole is in disbelief and argues the call.
Post Game at Brennan's
Charity Date Auction
