Notes: Hellos and Good-byes

Bringing on a new player means good-bye to the old
By Beth Sass / hereforthesass.blogspot.com

When leaving Sass stadium on Sunday, Mockball Madness owner Nick noted that he really needed a hitting coach. With Beth's Boyfriend, Michael Cuddyer being on the Free Agent wire, Beth and Dawn made the sacrifice. Reed Johnson was cut from the Sass team to make room for Michael and to allow Reed the chance to take some time coaching.

"It's a perfect fit," Nick said, "Dawn and Beth only needed to make sure I'd allow Reed time off for his charity work on the schools, and he was ours. It was great."

There was no comment from Beth, but her happiness was obvious with the huge grin she had, which seemed to impossibly grow larger whenever she caught a glance of Cuddyer in the clubhouse.

"It's really my honor to be here," Cuddyer said, "Obviously, I didn't like being a Free Agent, and joining the Sass team has been something I've always wanted to have the opportunity to do."

Looper's Leaving? Not Quite: The entire Sass bullpen was depressed on Sunday, as they knew it was their last day with Braden Looper.

"I loved him like a brother," Justin Duchschererer said, "So watching him leave when he was picked up by another team was just about the saddest thing that could have happened to me."

Braden spent much of Sunday morning in the managers' office with team spokesman Kyle Lohse, Beth, Dawn, and Nick. The final result of the meeting was that Looper could stay with the team, but any stats accrued would immediately be given to Mockball Madness.

"This agreement works out best for everyone. I missed Looper's presence around the clubhouse, and I think the whole team suffered for it. This was a good agreement for both sides, I think," Kyle said.

Fielding work: Sass Bench coach Al Newman, who for years was the third base coach for the Minnesota Twins, has started to work with Sass third base coach Lewww Ford. While Lewww has been working out fine calling the right plays, it seems his third base coach fielding ability was not quite up to the standards Beth and Dawn were looking for.

"Whatever else may come, we want the moral high ground when it comes to fielding, and that goes all the way from top to bottom, including the coaches. We've been quite concerned about Lewww's lack of
ability to properly get the foul ground balls at third really just
looks bad for our whole team," Dawn said.

Newmie and Lewww have been coming in early to practice the fielding, and Beth and Dawn have noticed marked improvement in the last two days.

Fielding work, Part II: Beth and Dawn noticed something about fielding by the Sass.

"We're a pretty decent fielding team. Sure, we've had our share of errors, but we can't all be the Twins," Beth said. "It was just odd to me to notice that foul balls hit down the lines were often retrieved quite handily by the Sass ballboys out there. They're making plays I'm not sure any of our guys could make."

After close watch of tapes of the games, the entire team and staff will show up early for Monday's game, when the Ballboys will give some fielding demonstrations to the fielders. Beth and Dawn both hope their team can draw on the excellent performances and techniques by the Ballboys and Batboys, to put together an even stronger team.

New pitchers, shining. Old pitchers? Not so much: Beth and Dawn were baffled by their team on Sunday.

"Kristin--he's usually our dependable guy. Throwing him out there to pitch is usually a day to just hang back and relax and let him work. We were completely shocked when we had to pull him after 4 1/3 innings, because of 8 hits, 4 walks, and 9 runs, with only 2 strike- outs. That's so unusual for him. We'll be looking at tapes to see if we can find his problem," Beth said.

Beth then went on to point to new-to-the-Sass pitcher Aaron Cook, who managed 8 innings of one-run ball, but ran into a little bit of trouble in the ninth, giving up a hit and a walk, before getting pulled form the game. He ended the game with 8 solid innings, 2 runs, 6 hits, 2 walks, and 2 strike-outs.

Brad Halsey, who was originally a relief pitcher but has been thrown into a starting role recently, went 5 2/3 innings, giving up 8 hits and 3 walks, but accrued only 1 earned run, and struck out 6.

"We were pretty impressed with these guys. I know Brad's first outing wasn't that pretty, but we knew he could do it. We're quite pleased with what he's shown us," Dawn said.

Cookies for Carlos: Carlos Guillen did not play for the Detroit Tigers on Sunday, but was called in to pinch-hit. After being banned from eating cookies sent by his wife for his performances against the Minnesota Twins--Beth and Dawn's first love-- Carlos G. was called in to pinch hit in the top o the ninth, and promptly struck out against Minnesota Twin closer Joe Nathan. This caused great rejoicing by the Sass owners, and has allowed Carlos access to the cookies again.

"I would yell at them for being unsupportive managers," Carlos said, "But they made it clear from the start that their first love was the Twins. I'm proud of them for never backing down for their first love."

Small troubles become big: Sass pitcher Kristin Benson pitched a career game on Sunday--if "worst game of his career" counts under the heading "career game." Beth and Dawn apologized to their fans for the horrific outing.

"Kristin is a professional, and usually one of our better pitchers," Beth said. "He came to us before the game and asked if he could possibly sit out. We looked at our staff, and told him we really needed him, and he nodded and said he would give it all he had. We didn't realize how upset he was."

On the way to the game, Kristin had seen a raccoon get hit by a car.

Yes, of course, another loss: There was nothing new wrong with the Sass this week. Their batting average wasn’t as high as normal, but they still weren’t too far behind Mockball Madness. The final score was 9-2-1, with the points coming in home runs and saves, with a tie in stolen bases.