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| Posted Sep 8/09 - Wildcats Lose To Hanska, 1-0; Season Ends With 4th Place Finish |
| Sorry for the delay, folks. It's taken me a couple of days to clear the "cobwebs." As Will Ferrell said in the movie "Old School," "It got crazy last night!" That pretty much sums up mine and a few other Wildcats evening at the Dodge House on Sunday. On Sunday, September 6th, 2009, the Winsted Wildcats bid for a state championship came to an end. The Wildcats lost 1-0 to the Hanska Lakers at Arlington. The Wildcats Tony Kley got his first start of the State Tourney, throwing 6 no-hit innings before allowing a freak Hanska run in the 7th inning. TK attempted to "kick save" a hard-hit Hanska grounder at the mound, only to have the ball carreen into shallow left field. The Hanska runner alertly took off from 2nd base and scored without a play at the plate. Who would have thought that would be the Wildcats would end their season? Hanska pitcher Josh Hadley spread out the 8 Wildcats hits over the course of 9 solid innings. The Wildcats had a couple of opportunites with runners at 1st & 3rd with 1 out, only to hit into a line-drive double play. It was as frustrating of a game I have witnessed these past two seasons. We simply couldn't get things going. You need a little bit of luck to be success in these games. On Sunday, our luck simply ran out. The loss meant the Winsted Wildcats wrapped up their 2nd, 4th place finish in the Class C State Tourney in the past 3 seasons. This means, for the 2010 season, the Wildcats will be moved up to Class B. Game Awards.... "The Bike Athletic Supporter Award" goes to: Who else? Matt Wroge...Wroge took a hard liner to shortstop right in the "grapes." Wroge has prided himself the past two seasons by not wearing any "protection" while playing in the field. He calls it "pride," I call it "nuts" (no pun intended). It's safe to say, that the entire Wildcats team got the last laugh on this one. The "Baseball Gods Were With Us Award" goes to: I'm not really sure, but think I have a good idea. In the bottom of the 9th, the Wildcats were down to their last out when draftee Josh Anthony was put in to pinch hit. Anthony hit a lazy fly ball to shallow centerfield that should have been an easy catch to end the game. Somehow, at the very last second, the ball drifted towards shallow right field and the center fielder dropped the ball, allowing Anthony to advance to 2nd base. Now I usually don't buy into this stuff, but I'm thinking that Kenny "Fossil" Norman may have had something to do with that ball being dropped. What do you think? The "Best Sunday Night, Season Ending Party Hot Spot" goes to none other than the Dodge House Bar in good old, Lester Prairie. Things got flat-out crazy up there. I'm going to make this declaration: Sunday night was the most I've drank in 5 years. Yes folks, it was an extremely long Labor Day for old #28. For the rest of you "soaks" who were up there with me, it was great partying with ya! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Closing Remarks... I missed a majority of the regular season this year due to family obligations. By the time things finally got settled down for me, the end of the regular season was upon us. Thankfully, I was welcomed back and allowed to take part in this fantastic state tourney run. I was never fortunate enough to take part in any sort of state tourney run at any level, previously. This was everything and much more than I had expected. Thank you, fellas.... Not to get all sappy here (and no, I wasn't at the Dodge House prior to writing this), but this Wildcats team is a fantastic group of guys. Each player knows their role and each contributes game in and game out. The young guys are there to make the old guys feel young, and the old guys are there to make the young guys realize they'll get old someday, so enjoy the heck out of it now. Even the draftees fit in perfectly with this team, which they would tell you, sometimes is hard to do. I think we can all say we had an absolute blast. As for the 2010 season and what it will bring: who knows? One thing I can assure you is, this will be a better Wildcats team in 2010 regardless of where they seat us. The core nucleus of this team will be back being a year older/wiser/stronger. It's also quite possible that a couple of us old guys may be hangin' it up after this season. Myself and player/coach Neil Schlagel talked it over at the Dodge House on Sunday night after we were about 15 beverages in. We both agreed we are definitely getting signs from "Father Time" that it may indeed, be time. One thing is for sure...If either of us spend another off-season of doing absolutely nothing, then it will be an easy decision for the both of us. In the event that both Schlagel and I retire, Wildcats Director of Player Development & Scouting, Gerald Ide has already been instructed to begin scouting to soften the blow in the event we retire. Gerald will be scouring the Dominican Republic for new talent and will also be looking to snatch a few players from other Crow River Valley League teams. All this, of course, will not begin until the Gopher football season has completed. After that, look out Crow River Teams, Gerald's a-coming for your players! And that, folks, concludes my rambling diatribes for the 2009 season. See ya next season....Maybe.... :) |
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