John Miller, head coach of the Brussels Kangaroos and a reporter for a major American newspaper, is chronicling his team’s 2008 season in a column that will appear every Monday on mister-baseball.com. It is the first of several Mister-Baseball Blogs this year.
It is a game of preparation and process, I told my team, my voice strained from a 17-2 thrashing at the hands of the Merksem Greys. One play, one at-bat, one game; that offers only a glimpse of the measure of a player or a the team.
Once upon a time, an individual pursuit of baseball excellence carried my altogether average 5ft11 frame onto the tryout field of Mount Saint Mary’s College. The small division one school in rural Western Maryland wasn’t a top program, but it attracted all-state Maryland players and a few studs who chose the school because it was Catholic.
A friend of the coach, for some reason, talked me into walking on at the school. This was in the pre-internet days. I didn’t have any other connections. So off it was, from Brussels to the boondocks.
Before the first tryout game, the coach asks me where I play.
“Uh, pitcher, shortstop,” I mutter.
“OK pitch,” he says.
I mount the mound, armed with a 75mph fastball and a humble looping curveball. I throw the first pitch down the middle. BOOM! The ball rocks off the center field fence. Double. Next batter. Curveball. Long flyout to left.
I then lose the strike zone and throw eight straight balls, loading the bases. I hang another one, which gets ripped, low to the ground. I look up and a division one double play is happening. I walk off, my ERA clean. But I never saw the mound again. It was clear that the inning was a fluke, and that I had no business planting my feet on a college rubber.
And so back to this weekend.
On Saturday, our teenage pitchers put on a clinic of location and speed changing. Harold, Cedric and Sacha combined to give up only two earned runs to the perennial national champion Greys. We lost 5-0. We managed only one hit off Dennis Van Hoof, arguably the pest pitcher in Belgium and one of the best in Europe. A couple years ago, he shut out Germany, 8-0. I asked an American scout who he liked. “Van Hoof’s the only one,” he said. Our young pitchers, though, did nothing wrong. But they went up against the wrong guy and the wrong team to win on Saturday. If Harold pitches like that every game, he’ll go 8-3.
Like so many baseball debacles, Sunday’s defeat started with two violations of basic fundamentals. With nobody out in the 3rd, the Greys’s eight hitter singled. Their nine hitter was trying to bunt. Instead, he walked. The leadoff guy then bunted the ball to our first baseman. He turned around. Nobody was covering first. The baseball gods were not happy. The next guy walked on a close 3-2 pitch.
It was the 3rd inning but the game was over. We made six errors.
We’re now 0-4, although we have played two of the top 4 teams in the league.
The trick now is to prepare perfectly — and to prove that today’s lopsided loss, and our 0-4 start, are as flukey as my shutout inning in division 1 college baseball.
Any legendary defeats you’d like to share? I’m all ears, and compassion, at oldworldpastime@gmail.com
Previous Columns:
Playing and Coaching in Europe
My Country, Delayed by Rain
Wanted: Pitcher-Shortstop-Catcher With Homerun Power
Wanna play catch?
Can I see your license?