Balmy Balmy Night

The only things that could have made viewing conditions better at the Blue Sox Multiculturalists clash on Friday evening would’ve been a steady supply of pina coladas and a Thai massage (no happy ending necessary). As late afternoon turned to dusk and the field became bathed in a warm golden light (look at your old pal getting all poetic on the readers right there!), the Defensive Specialist leaned back in his well located seat, surveyed the surroundings and decided that it really doesn’t get much better than this from a baseball viewing perspective.

While we’re on the viewing experience, the Defensive Specialist had the opportunity to chat with a buddy who’d been at the Brisbane Bandits home opener on Thursday night. Interestingly he said that if he hadn’t  been at the league launching game last week he would have rated the Brisbane experience as quite good. However, the Blue Sox experience really stood out for him with components that worked for all range of fans – kids, parents and baseball purists. Another interesting aside gleaned from his travels is that the ABL seems to be operating a cash-only economy. If you’re the type of person who only carries plastic then you’re going to be in a world of hurt and look like a degenerate when you have an armful of merchandise and not the prerequisite $495 in cash needed to seal the deal. Fortunately the Defensive Specialist always rolls with fat wads so he’ll be fine (did that just set the Defensive Specialist up to be jumped in the car park?).

Anyway, back to the game.

As you know, the Defensive Specialist applied the print equivalent of a blowtorch to both teams’ coaches responsible for infield outfield, and more specifically the catchers pop-up, in the past week. Both efforts last week were best described as feeble and while that may have been acceptable in the amateur Claxton Shield, we’re now in the big boys league and excellence is demanded. Canberra took the field first and coach Brent Phelan showed physical signs of being rattled with some less than stellar fungo work. When it came time to nail his dime piece, he tried unsuccessfully to covertly wipe the sweat off his hands – clear signs that his nerves had got the better of him. The ball toss looked ok but when it came to contact, well put it this way if he was playing tennis the cut backhand that resulted would have been exceptional. Unfortunately such a shot on the baseball diamond results in the ball heading out of the stadium rapidly. Phelan knew that he didn’t have the intestinal fortitude for another attempt and exited the playing field hastily.

Rumour has it that Blue Sox coach Jason Pospishil (that name NEVER gets any easier to spell and always auto corrects to popsicle so from now on its going to be Jason Popsicle) had spent the entire week working on his dime piece. The fungo work looked crisp and clean during the innie outtie but the proof would be in the pudding when it came to the money shot. Popsicle didn’t look as physically rattled as Phelan but stress doesn’t always manifest outwardly and who knew how badly his insides were twisting. To the untrained eye it would appear that Popsicle arched his back and put a good hack on it. To the Defensive Specialist’s acute eye Popsicle had a slight nerve induced micro twitch a nano second before contact. Although he managed good height, the slight hitch in his swing caused him to be late on the ball which sent it straight back. Although it stayed in the yard and in line with the plate, catcher Andy Graham snared it right on the screen which is barely acceptable at this level.

If things don’t improve on Saturday night, the Defensive Specialist may have to convene an emergency dime piece hitting session! The Blue Sox take the win in this contest but it’s a cheap W and one that you don’t tell your friends about over a beer.

The week break in between games gave both managers the flexibility to reuse their staff aces. Blue Sox skipper Glenn Williams seized that opportunity and wheeled his pitching coach Chris Oxspring back out to the mound. Oxspring was looking to replicate his first outing which would once again enable him to tell the rest of his pitching staff that he still has it and that they should all do it exactly as he does. The Multiculturalists had changed up their line-up offensively by adding the dangerous bat of Michael Collins and adding a new second baseman from parts unknown Tylor Purdhomme.

The Sydney in game entertainment crew has received positive reviews in this forum but perhaps does not get enough credit for the psychological battles they wage on opposing hitters. You’ve heard of hitters having walk up music as they approach the plate – typically a hitter will pick a song they like or that fires them up. Well the Blue Sox crew go the opposite direction and play the schmaltziest and schlockiest tunes they can find in the hope that it’ll drain every ounce of testosterone out of the hitters and prevent them from getting the ball out of the infield.

That approach definitely worked with Didi and Moon who both feebly grounded out to second but Nick Kimpton proved to be smarter than your average bear by stuffing toilet paper in his ears and then punching a ball into the 5.5 hole that Michael Lysaught couldn’t make a play on. Collins succumbed to the musical hypnosis and ended the inning by grounding out 4-3.

J.H Heo took the ball for the Multiculturalists and decided that his first ABL start was the perfect time to bust out his shiny white spikes with Velcro tabs instead of laces. This is a bad look on so many levels A) these shoes should only be worn by 65+ year olds at a lawn bowl match and B) nowhere in the baseball fashion universe does it say that white spikes are acceptable with an orange and black uniform. The baseball Gods will have their revenge the Defensive Specialist predicts!

Both pitchers cruised through 2 innings surrendering only 1 hit apiece (Heo gave up a crushed double by the Bossman to the right centre gap in the second) At the start of the third inning the Blue Sox in-game entertainment came crashing down with a dumb game that had 2 kids racing to put on oversized uniforms. It dragged on for what seemed like an hour and felt like a women’s change room at a major department store during a 75% off sale. It was so bad that it scrambled the announcing team who left Trent D’Antonio’s walk up music running during his at bat. Fortunately it happened to be the Defensive Specialist’s favourite band – Pearl Jam and inspired D’Antonio enough that he hammered a first pitch fastball out of the yard for the Blue Sox’s first run. Techno Tim pulled a double down the left-field line just as his lasers and 11,000 beats per minute walk up routine was turned off. Heo was on the ropes, but fortunately for him Mitch Dening has chosen a walk up song that is fairly soft to start with so he has to take a long slow walk to the plate in order to draw the song out enough until it gets to the macho part. This gave Heo enough time to regroup and get Dening on a 4-3 groundout.

The Multiculturalists struck back in the top of the 4^th when Nick Kimpton crushed a homerun to right. Kimpton broke out a somewhat disjointed homerun trot which appeared to be the result of the toilet paper in his ears getting caught in his spikes. Donald Lutz came up with a chalk raising double down the left line and Tom Vincent plated him with a  single to leftfield. As Lutz chugged for home there was a moment of indecision when Andy Graham weighed up blocking the plate and trying to back hand a short hop (and being steamrolled by Lutz who is a solid unit) or clearing out and avoiding all contact. He decided to avoid all contact, which was disappointing because Lutz Vs. Graham would have been the meeting of two immoveable objects.

The Blue Sox were at it again in the 5^th. David Kandilas led off with a firm line drive to right for a single and D’Antonio walked. Multiculturalist manager Steve Schrenk had seen enough and went to his pen, bringing in Jung-Min Lee. As Lee finished his warm up, the lights suddenly cut out and 13000 beats per minute came over the loud speakers. The fans leapt to their feet as the following instructional video was shown on the jumbotron. Yes, it was Techno Tim Auty time! Auty punched a ball through the infield for a single to load the bases. Dening unsuccessfully mugged his way to the plate, yet again denying the crowd a chance to hear the cool part of his song, but made up for it by belting a long drive to the right centre gap that hopped over the fence for a ground rule double plating two runners. Stone Hands Maat put an excuse me check swing on a ball to short that scored Techno and moved Dening to third. A scary moment took place when Graham scorched a line drive down the third base line that smashed in to Dening as he took his lead. For a second the Defensive Specialist thought the ball had struck Dening directly in his baby makers but when he promptly popped up the Defensive Specialist realised that his testicles had not been ruptured and the blow had been to the leg. Graham walked, which lead to Lee’s night being over. Lefty Chris Morgan relieved and despite not cracking 82mph managed to punch out the Bossman and Lysaught to end the inning.

Those 3 runs were enough for Oxsping who decided that he wasn’t going to give up anything else on the day and locked down the Multiculturalists through to the 8^th inning. Korean catcher Sung-Woo Jang who wears so much body armour when hitting that it would make more sense for him to walk into a pitch than try and hit it punched out. Purdhomme grounded out to second, which brought Didi Gregorious to the dish. Gregoriuos has had difficulty making solid contact in his 7 at bats to commence the season but this appeared to have changed when he lined a ball to left. Unfortunately it was close to 10pm and Techno Tim had to start making preparations for his 4am club arrival. Techno charged hard to his left on the fading liner, launched himself so that he was horizontal to the ground and snagged the ball out of the air. The crowd exploded to their feet and simultaneously broke out into the running man in celebration. For that display, Techno Tim receives the Defensive Specialist ‘Play of the Game’ for the second game running (man).

Dae Sung Koo was summoned from the pen in the 9^th and closed out the contest comfortably for his second save in as many opportunities to secure the victory for the Blue Sox.

Oxspring was dominant once again, travelling 8 innings, giving up 2 runs and striking out 7. Offensively Techno Tim paced the attack with 2 knocks along with the Bossman and Dening who led the way with 2 RBI’s. Manager Williams would still be concerned that his lower order is offering nothing in the way of offense and that Stone Hands and Graham aren’t providing much in the middle order. Having said that, if his starting pitchers keep doing what Oxspring is doing, they’ll only need to score a couple per game to be competitive. As much as The Defensive Specialist wants to give fan favourite Techno Tim the Deep in the Hole ‘Player of the Game’ award, that honour has to be bestowed on Oxpsing who is proving to be a force to be reckoned with.

The Multiculturalists will be thankful to see the back end of Oxspring as they head into game 2 as Wayne Lungren takes the ball for the Blue Sox against lefty Steve Kent .

A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study ~ Chinese Proverb

You all know the Defensive Specialist is a wise man, so consider this post a conversation and free up your calendar for the next ten years! That’s right folks, today is all about your education. The Defensive Specialist doesn’t risk hard-core seat rash just to catch a ball game – it’s all about capturing data and information and then relaying it to the loyal readers so as to enhance the baseball experience. After each series, the Defensive Specialist will endeavour to bring you a “What has the Defensive Specialist Learnt” post that will highlight key findings and insights from the most recent activity.

Being on hand for the ABL season opener presented the Defensive Specialist an opportunity to lay eyes on the Blue Sox who have been widely regarded as the best team in the competition and the Canberra Multiculturalists who many believed would simply make up the numbers. Needless to say, the Defensive Specialist had thoughts on both teams.

Enough small talk, lets get learned:

1. The Multiculturalists aren’t simply making up the numbers. The Defensive Specialist figured that once Kent succumbed to his innings limit (2) the game would turn into batting practice for the Blue Sox. Michael Lennox showed a loose arm and Jung-Min Lee tossed up the kitchen sink to hold Sydney to 1 run. There seems to be enough in the bullpen to keep opposing teams in control. It will be intriguing to see how the rest of the starting rotation pans out across the remaining 3 games against Sydney. Offensively the lineup seems well balanced although there were a few tardy swings against Oxspring which you’d expect early in the season.  Contender for name of the year, Didi Gregorious leads off and appears to have plus speed, Kyu-Hyun Moon was flying open but should be able to handle the bat. Nick Kimpton and Donald Lutz make a solid 3 / 4 combo with Kimpton providing the contact and Lutz bringing the grunt. The lower half of the order was a little thin but if they can scrap their way on base, it will give the top half something to work with.
2. Having an ace is important. Anytime you can wheel your pitching coach out to the bump and have him toss up 6 scoreless with 8 punch outs, it forms the basis of a strong teaching platform: “Guys, just watch me and do as I do”. The Defensive Specialist was intrigued to see what Oxspring had to offer after a year off and he didn’t disappoint, working primarily off his fastball (87-88 with one appearance at 91). The really exciting thing for Sydney is that he maintained his velocity throughout the outing, which means that the bullpen was not required early. If Oxspring can maintain that level of competitiveness, the Sydney pitching staff could be very very miserly.
3. Don’t run on David Kandilas. As a base runner on first, anytime a left handed hitter pops a 97 hopper through the infield you have to go first to third (unless of course you have a piano strapped to your back). So when Kyu-Hyun Moon saw Kimpton’s ball scoot through to rightfield, his natural instinct was to keep wheeling to third. Unfortunately, the ball ended up in David Kandilas’ glove and he proceeded to unleash one of the more impressive throws the Defensive Specialist has seen in person. The ball travelled from medium rightfield on a line to the shoe tops of the awaiting third baseman to nail Moon comfortably. Opposing third base coaches may want to jot the above to the underside of their cap as a reminder when playing the Blue Sox.
4. The quality of infield outfield catcher pop ups was low. Whether it was the fact that both coaches were ABL rookies appearing on the big stage for the first time or the knowledge that the Defensive Specialist was in attendance and grading, the standard of pop ups was simply not up to standard. Everything in this league has a shiny new professional look and feel about it, which means that the dime pieces have to be significantly better. Let this serve as a warning to both coaches – the Defensive Specialist wants more (height, location and style)!
5. The Blue Sox bullpen could eat up lefties. On Saturday we saw David Welch and Dae-Sung Koo work and both were murder on the Multiculturalists left handed hitters. Welch was 85-86 with the fastball and used his breaking ball effectively. Koo has an odd set up with his back almost facing the hitter and the delivery almost brings the ball out of right centre making life misery for the one lefty he faced (professional hitter Nick Kimpton).
6. Sales were up. The Defensive Specialist was amazed and pleased to see a large proportion of the crowd sporting some form of Blue Sox apparel. Considering the somewhat lofty prices associated with the gear, fans have come out in force to snap up the merchandise. It will be interesting to see how sales go around the rest of the franchises.
7. The Blue Sox offense was a little sluggish. The top half (D’Antonio, Auty and Dening) seemed locked in, but the remainder will need to turn it up a notch if the Sydney team hopes to live up to the mantle of being “the best team ever assembled in the history of baseball in the universe” as proclaimed by ABL Chairman Mark Peters. Pat ‘Stone Hands’ Maat was struggling to catch up to the fastball and Graham and Moanaroa were tardy on the heat throughout. The lower third of Lysaught, Holland and Kandilas also looked a little toothless and can be pitched to.
8. The ABL is working to give the fans a good experience. Despite a couple of speed bumps, the in game presentation and entertainment was 100% better than anything we saw last year. It wasn’t gimmicky or over engineered and despite a heavy reliance on the Black Eyed Peas, Rhianna and Justin Bieber the music was tolerable – although a shout out to last year with some Bon Jovi would have been nice. 

So there you have it. The Defensive Specialist has eased you in to things for the first time this season, from here on out you’ll need to bring your Masters Degree as things will get mighty technical. If you have any thoughts or comments from the opening game, be sure to hit the mailbag. Since the Defensive Specialist is only one man and can only get to the Multiculturalists Vs. Blue Sox this weekend, any feedback and insights from other series is always welcome.

The plan for Thursday (pending GM’s responding to the Defensive Specialist’s requests for starting rotations and line ups) is a set of series previews as the Aces take on the Bite and the Heat go head to head with the Bandits.