It was a very good year

Trinh captures two legs of triple crown in 2007 finale

SANTA CLARA: A memorable 2007 season drew to its' climax on Sun Sep 2, with a fittingly memorable exhibition game.

Exhibition

THE CHASE IS ON

At stake on this warm afternoon: personal achievements.  Kuzmiak, Matsui, DaRosa and Trinh entered the game with 29, 28, 28 and 27 home runs respectively, leaving them wondering if it was truly possible to end the year in a 4-way tie for the league lead! Considering even a two-way tie has never happened, odds were unlikely.

But somebody had to claim the crown. So the chase was on.

HIGHLIGHTS

Dragonfly jumped to a 7-0 first-inning lead with a string of base hits coupled with Matsui's missed securement of a DaRosa foul; base runner Davis helped extend the inning by blocking SS Cocoles as he tried to field what would have been the 3rd out.

In the bottom half, Trinh got 3 back with one swing, sending one far over the fence. Miscommunication between CF Minor and BS Gonzalez accounted for two more Spark runs; after one inning Dragonfly led 7-5 (Cocoles narrowly missed a homer foul that would have given the Sparks the lead).

In the 3rd, Trinh blasted yet another 3-run homer off a Matsui curveball, the key blow in a six-run inning that DID give the Sparks the advantage--and also gave Alvin 29 homers for 2007 tying Kuzmiak for tops in BAB!

"Stay there, Alvin." -- unnamed BAD ASS, to Matsui, who'd just chugged into 2nd.

THE PLAY

Both teams went fairly cold during the 4th-6th innings. But that didn't mean there were no highlights during that span...

Bottom 6; Sparks lead 11-8. Yow led off with a weak bloop to shallow center that SS Manning pursued, but failed to catch up to.

As first baseman Stauffer raced to cover the vacated 2B, the heads-up Yow took off for the bag, making it easily as the relay throw from Manning skipped past 3B Kuzmiak, who'd also raced from his position to cover 2nd.

Yow began to head for 3rd. As Stauffer chugged ahead to cover 3rd, C Davis cut off the errant throw near the mound and flipped it to Stauffer, leaving Yow in a pickle...

...for all of 5 seconds, as Stauffer's throw eluded Kuzmiak!!! By this time, Manning was near the infield and secured the ball. Yow took off for 3rd as Cav's throw came in...and as you might have guessed, got away!!

As the ball came to rest near the home dugout, Yow made tracks for home but his mind and body were no longer in cohesion and he fell down 8 steps off the bag. Stauffer retrieved the ball and tossed it to Davis at home, trapping Yow once more.

Not up for another pickle, Yow unsuccessfully tried to steamroll Davis at the plate and was finally tagged out, as members from both teams split their sides.

THE END IS NEAR...

Finally, in the 7th, Dragonfly came to life with the bats. Flores, Manning and DaRosa singled to fill the bags; Kuzmiak, Gonzalez and Stauffer brought 'em home. In all, 5 crossed in the frame and Dragonfly again led 13-11. An inning later, Kuzmiak smoked a 2-run triple--next, over-aggressiveness by Sparks LF Matsui helped turn what should have been a Minor single into a 3-run inside-the-park homer!! The Sparks responded in their half of the 8th with...a 1-2-3 inning.

In the final inning all the suspense remaining was who could claim or share the 2007 homer lead. Matsui had already made the 2nd out of the 8th to remain at 28. DaRosa and Kuzmiak both took shots at the fence but neither could clear it, remaining at 28 and 29 respectively.

That left Trinh, who crushed another Matsui pitch towards Cupertino in the bottom of the 9th giving him 3 HR on the day, 30 for the year and sole possession of the lead! Now down 19-14, the Sparks put two more men on base but Pyle flew out to CF, ending the threat as well as the 2007 BAD ASS Baseball season.

MAN, THAT'S TIGHT!

Flores (left) played the game in Lt. Dangle (from Reno 911!) shorts that at times left him barely mobile. Late in the game a young girl from the picnic area watched near the backstop and caught sight of Rob, who was catching, and went into a hypnotic trance momentarily stunned by the outfit.

YOU BUGGIN' ME

As Davis prepared to lead off the 3rd a dragonfly began fluttering around and irritating him. Davis responded by audibly whacking the bug to the ground with Kuzmiak's bat! It appeared the dragonfly was killed, as more than one player handled its' motionless "corpse", but when Yow went to snap a photo the next inning the "corpse" was gone.

This is where Minor derived his team's name.

POUR OUT SOME LIQUOR

Yow chose "Sparks" as his team name as a tribute to the alcohol fueled energy drink. Five years ago, before the first ever BAD ASS game a few players including Yow, DaRosa, and Stauffer enjoyed a few cans of Sparks. Yow drank a couple cans Sunday to celebrate how far the league has come since then.

SO LONG?

Barely noticed was the very real possibility that today's game could have been the last of Chowdhury's career. The BAD ASS original may no longer call the U.S. home come December; he and the rest of the league will have to wait until then to know for certain. Soonam (left) was a BAD ASS mainstay during the first 4 seasons and even though he hasn't been around nearly as much recently, his name remained synonymous with all things BAD ASS.

Chowdhury's career highlights include:

• Captaining the first BAD ASS sweep in 2004 (Bengali Bombers)
• Introducing Skillz to BAD ASS Baseball
• The infamous play vs. Sac at home in 2004 when he kicked the bat out of the way but actually kicked it more in the way
• Hitting his first two homers on 9/11/2004, as airplanes flew over Taylor
• Introducing Dave Hatfield to BAB (he is the silhouette in the league logo)
• Managing against Army vet Rob, naming his team the Tsunami Terrorists of all things in 2005
• Taking a relay throw to the back of the head on Opening Day 2006
• The 2007 "Dick Swing" as described by Ed, while ill-advisedly using the Z-Core bat
• Defeating Greg Minor's team---named "Soonam's Intervention"---3-1 in 2007
• Many more...

IF that was Soonie's swan song, he went out on a high note going 4-for-6 with an RBI for the Sparks.

AWARDS

Kuzmiak played a solid 3rd and drove in 4, sharing BAD ASS of the Day with Trinh who of course smacked 3 long homers. CF Minor made a diving robbery of Yow in the 3rd and Gonzalez made a nifty bare hand snag of a Chowdhury grounder to force out Holley at 2nd in the 8th for Gold Gloves.

Yow was given Small Penis, for his ungraceful collapse.

"He hit it slow." -- Gonzalez, explaining in depth his exact reasons for fielding Chowdhury's grounder barehanded.

MORE NOTES

• In the 6th, Gonzalez somehow managed to smoke one of the baseballs lying behind the mound with a line drive, for the first strike of what would eventually be a K.
• Trinh also ended up batting champion, at .661. However he was nowhere near Triple Crown as DaRosa and Matsui drove in 50 more runs.
• Not BAD ASS, but worth mentioning how horny guys can be. In the 5th two attractive, but hardly phenomenally attractive ladies walked up De La Cruz in regular non-revealing church clothes causing not one but two different cars to honk at them.
• When Yow, Matsui and Trinh took their positions at BS, LF and CF respectively, it didn't take long to hear "Asians in the Outfield" announcements. JD

* Players of the Week *

BAD ASS of the Day 

Alvin Trinh, Sparks

3 HR, 6 RBI

Kevin Kuzmiak, Dragonfly

4-for-7, 4 RBI

Gold Glove

Greg Minor, Dragonfly

Clutch diving catch in 3rd

Ruben Gonzalez, Dragonfly

Barehanded forceout from BS in 7th

Small Penis

Leland Yow, Sparks

Cost himself ITPHR by falling down in 6th