The Beat Sets More Team Records in 2003
Two division titles included Open C runners up trophy in spring;
Despite opening round summer playoff elimination, overall Beat 13-3 record is best ever, including most wins.
by Pete

On October 9, the Olympic Club Greys abruptly ended the most successful year in Beat history with a stunning 21-6 victory in the first round of the Open C playoffs.  A year of record triumphs and a game that started off promisingly for The Beat fizzled in a chaotic blur as the O Club stormed back from a 6-1 second inning deficit to an abbreviated 16-run mercy killing of the boys in gray. 

It had been over 6 months since the balmy late March evening when the team held its final pre-season practice under the lights at Jackson #2 with the surreal scene of helicopters flying over downtown during the street protests the day after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.  Despite the pre-mature summer’s end, the erstwhile Beatniks could spend the winter reflecting on its status as a bonafide C-league powerhouse taking its place among the best Saturday teams of the last ten years.  Since the end of the Cool Dudes dynasty in C-league after the 2001 season (6 division titles) and the demise of Nicoya (3 titles), The Beat took up residence with Joey J’s and now Ronin as the league’s most dominant teams.

Having won its 3rd consecutive C-league division title and 4th in the last five seasons, the boys in gray were considered by many to be the odds-on favorite to win the city championship after losing the title game to Joey Js in the spring.  A natural progression seemed almost assured following trips to the semi-finals and finals in the two previous seasons.

But it was not to be this year.

“I knew it was a bad sign when I took the mound in the bottom of the 5^th and the blue was hovering on the infield,” said Kevin (Special K) Austin. “After I’d thrown my last warm-up, he pointed at me and said ‘Hey Ace, two runs and it’s over.’”

O Club got a couple runners on, scored once and with one out, the winning run stood 60 feet away.  The next batter singled and a fabulous season was over just like that.  The game had ended so quickly that neither of the teams for the 8:30pm game showed up for another 15 minutes.

The 1^st round elimination abruptly closed the door on an incredible run in which The Beat ended 2003 with 22 wins in its last 25 regular season games dating back to May 18, 2002 when it won the final game of a disappointing 3-5 spring season.  The franchise of Beatitude responded to that down period following its 1^st C-League division title in summer 2001 by embarking on a mission not just to get back to the post-season, but to win it all. 

As Michael Lewis quoted A’s GM Billy Beane in Moneyball, “our job is to get to the postseason, the rest is luck.”  While all teams strive mightily to get to the dance and win the big one, it's tough to win a short series and one never knows what team it’s going to draw and which one is hot.  The Olympic Club Greys were an offshoot of the powerful O Club team that was architected for a senior tournament and annihilated The Beat in the Metro Tournament before going on to win the championship jacket.

Regardless, on another night, the Beatniks might have caught them when they were down. 

The boys in gray might somehow have rationalized a defeat by a more experienced opponent like O Club, which seemed to have considerable momentum on its march to a C-league title after the humiliation of being dropped from CC in the spring.  However, the whole league was astonished as C-7 division winner Ronin, which had advanced from DD in 2002 and had gone 7-3 in the summer on the formidable back of slugger extraordinaire Joe Tang, upset the Grays for the C-league championship.  The ubiquitous Tang, perhaps not uncoincidentally, was signed as a free agent by Ronin after playing against The Beat in the 2002 summer semi-finals with the victorious Mishaps, who disbanded after winning the C-league championship that year. 

So it is that 2003 turned out to be the “year of daylight” as 3 Saturday teams—Ronin, Joey Js and The Beat—out of the 4 title game participants took part in the spring and summer title games.  The conventional wisdom that afternoon teams are at a natural disadvantage in the playoffs against weeknight teams used to playing under the lights was turned on its head this year. 

The Beat congratulates Joey J's and Ronin on their City C-league championships in 2003.

Spring Bridesmaids
Ironically, the 2003 spring season started on March 22 with an 11-8 Ronin upset of The Beat following a run of 9 straight regular season wins.  Shades of the previous spring hovered over the team as the Beatniks came out flat and fell behind early against an upstart Ronin team that had taken advantage of Beat defensive miscues and a lack of clutch hitting.  The Beat rallied in the bottom of the 7^th and had the tying run at the plate with the bases loaded and none out, but could not deliver the knockout blow.

In spite of a team-wide offensive slowdown reflected by a punchless .537 spring slugging percentage and 10% fewer runs than it scored in the undefeated 8-0 summer of 2002, The Beat reeled off 7 consecutive wins and captured the C-7 division flag.  The Beatniks finished the spring at 7-1 and won the division by 2 games over Ronin and Straight out of the Hood, which tied for 2^nd place with identical 5-3 records.   

On its annual family day celebration on March 29, The Beat started a trend of scoring late in the game to overtake the pesky Finnegan’s A&B with a come-from-behind 10-6 victory keyed by the middle of the lineup—Mark (MSG) St. Georges, Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody and Jim (The Thrill) Colletto—who ended up carrying the Beat offense throughout the spring.  The family of veteran Beat alumnus Robert Bingham from the 1^st Beat championship of summer 1991 headlined an event that included the Austin, Buttafuso, Moody and Colletto broods on an unseasonably warm March afternoon.

Overall, The Beat remained in an offensive slump on April 5^th against long-time nemesis Victor (Slick Vic) Loggins and Straight out of the Hood, but managed to pull out a nail biter of an 8-6 win to move to 2-1.  The boys stopped hitting after the 4^th inning, but still managed to hold off a hard-charging Hoodlum lineup that stormed back from an 8-0 hole.  

The Finnegan’s and Hood games reflected the importance of Kevin (Special K) Austin in keeping the Beatniks in games throughout the spring season.  Special K held opponents to a league-leading 4.34 ERA and the best single-season mark ever compiled by a Beat pitcher.  Austin also set the record for the best ERA in a year (2003 - 4.84) and 16 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run (8/16/03 to 9/6/03).  The Beat defense, which was strong up the middle with the formidable double play combination of Brian (The Rifleman) Arcuri and Mike (Butts) Buttafuso, gave Kev a tremendous assist by allowing the fewest total runs in the spring with only 54 (6.75 runs per game).  2002 and 2003 Brass Beat winners Jacque and Jacq Wilson anchored an acrobatic and sure-handed outfield.

While Austin was the most valuable player of the spring, the key off-season acquisition was Armando (Mondo) Lopez, who stepped right in and replaced the important bat of Steve Hinkebein by showing up on the leader board in 6 offensive categories (including a .647 BA, .619 OBP, .850 SLG).  As the offense continued to stall in the early spring, Mondo introduced a friendly team competition designed to encourage late game hitting in which the maker of the 3^rd out of the 5^th inning is expected to bring beer to the next game.  For a team that had exhibited an alarming tendency in previous years to do most of its scoring early and had repeated this trend in the first meeting with Straight out of the Hood, the practice was a welcome change to the collective psyche.  Whether or not it was a direct result of the 5^th inning challenge, the Beat built a solid record of late offensive foot that saw a lot of close games in 2003 turn into routs.

Beat bats come alive
After a bye on April 12^th, the Beat started an exhilarating run at the first place Ronin by pouring it on the Rhinos 18-9 the following week.  This was the first time the Beatniks had scored more than 10-runs all season and built up steam for its April 26^th rematch at Jackson #2 against the frontrunners.  The Beat routed Ronin 18-7 as Jacq Wilson went 4 for 5 and made a gravity-defying, horizontal diving catch in right center field that rates among the finest in Beat history.  The Beat won this one with defense and speed as it cut off Ronin rallies with fine running catches by outfielders Armando and Jacque Wilson and capitalizing on its specialty, took advantage of Ronin errors for extra bases.   With the win, the Beat record improved to 4-1 as the team took over the division lead by a half game. 

But the rest of the season wasn’t exactly a cruise.

Perhaps the key to the season was a 9-6 Beat win over Finnegan’s A&B on a frigid Memorial Day makeup at Jackson #1 when manager Pete Wenner had to scramble to find adequate replacement players to spell 4 of the team’s best players, who were off on pre-planned holidays.  The Finnegan’s game had been rained out on May 3, which was looked on at the time as a potential momentum breaker after the two blowout wins.  But the boys in gray blew open what had been a 5-3 squeaker through 4 innings with 7 runs in the 5^th and 6^th to ice the Hoodlums 12-5.

Ronin kept pace with the idle Beat on May 17 in a thrilling come-from-behind 7^th inning 12-11 comeback win over Finnegan’s.  But the upstarts still trailed the defending division champions by a half game as the Beat/Finnegan’s makeup loomed on Memorial Day, an unfortunate scheduling fluke that hadn’t happened since 1994, another time when the division title was at stake. 

With Jacq, MSG, Armando, Greg (Luki) Lukoski, and veteran reliever Dennis (OB) O’Brien all out on pre-arranged holidays, The Beat turned to friends Steve Chu, Paul Sanders and Ed Corral who were all instrumental to the win.  Steve was a rock behind the plate and hit a game breaking two-run homer and a double.  Ed and Paul filled in capably in the two center field positions making 8 putouts between them on the trickiest wind field in San Francisco.  It was back to the future on The Beat infield with Donnell Moody at 3rd base and Manager and EP Pete Wenner at the other corner. Wenner (2 for 3, double, 2 runs scored by courtesy runners) filled in capably for Mark (MSG) St. Georges in the #3 spot in the order as The Beat held off a late Finnegan’s charge to eke out a 9-6 win.  Austin was masterful as he had been all spring. 

The Beat then put a cherry on top of the season with a 20-5 blowout over the hapless Rhinos which went 1-7 for the spring and were banished to DD-league. After that, the boys in gray watched anxiously along the right field picnic area at Jackson #2 and watched Straight out of the Hood eliminate Ronin 15-11.  With a first round bye, The Beat had its best chance ever for a trip to a championship game.  

Springtime leader board
Cottonmouth King Mark (MSG) St. Georges led the team in hitting and on base percentage with an eye-popping .667 and .867 respectively.  He also led in runs scored with 16 and walks with 5.  Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody and Jim (The Thrill) Colletto paced the team with 11 RBIs apiece.  Big D was first in hits with 18.

The spring playoffs
In the spring of 2003, the Beat drew a bye for the first round sending the team straight to the semi-finals against the Established Hitters under the lights at Jackson #1. The Hitters had matched the Beat’s 7-1 spring record, then dispatched their first round opponent, Hits on Three, with an 18-11 drubbing.  The Beat was looking for a closely matched game, but what they got was only slightly more competitive than you'd expect from the 19-run margin.  Managed by OB in place of Wenner, who had a previous engagement, the Beat attack was keyed by Mark Briscoe’s 4 for 4, 7-RBI performance as it trounced the Established Hitters 30-11 in the C-league semi-finals on June 17^th to advance to the finals against Saturday counterpart Joey Js. 

Because of a problem with the lights at Jackson Playground, the supremely confident Beat’s 1^st championship game had been hastily rescheduled at Moscone #3, which was unfamiliar territory for the boys in gray.  Coincidentally or not, The Beat started out flat.  Capitalizing on several Beat errors, Joey’s sprinted out to a 10-1 lead in the 2^nd inning that looked insurmountable.  However, a sudden loss of control by Joey’s starting pitcher in the 3^rd inning resulted in 7 straight walks with 2 outs as the Beatniks closed to 10-9.  The game remained close through the middle innings, but the boys in gray could never jump in front.  Perhaps the straw that broke the camel’s back was when The Beatniks missed an opportunity to take the lead in the 4^th as the right fielder Joe Dunkle robbed Mondo of a 2-run homer with a spectacular over-the-shoulder running catch to preserve a razor thin 11-10 advantage.  That may have been the turning point in the game.  Joey J’s scored 8 runs in its final 2 at bats before holding off a late 7^th inning Beat charge to win the C-league championship 18-15.

Regardless, the Beat finished the spring 2^nd out of 42 teams that competed in 7 C-league divisions.  The Beat had reached its highest pinnacle in its 16-year history in San Francisco City League softball.   

To be continued…..

Individual Game Articles and Score Sheets from the Spring 2003 Championship Season
	vs. Ronin, March 22, 2003			vs. Ronin, April 26, 2003
	vs. Finnegan's A & B, March 29, 2003			vs. The Hood, May 10, 2003
	vs. The Hood, April 5, 2003			vs. Finnegan's A & B, May 24, 2003
	vs. Rhinos, April 19, 2003			vs. Rhinos, May 31, 2003
Playoffs
	vs. Established Hitters, June 17, 2003			vs. Joey J's, June 23, 2003
				Click the diamond icon for the game score sheet

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