Hi All,
Firstly apologies for the week delay getting this out, been a rough week and a half since the Semi Final - most know why but for those that don't all will be revealed shortly.
It was to be a massive day for me, not only was I heading to Soundwave straight after to watch Blink 182 but this was also my first ever real final.. Never played finals in my footy life at Happy Valley nor have I seen finals whilst playing baseball for East Torrens...
To say I was super nervous was an understatement...
Well, the first Semi shaped up to be an absolute cracker and it didn't dissapoint. Adelaide had our number this year winning both games in the regular season, first game they held us to only 1 run, 2nd game they narrowly beat us when we gifted the game to them.
Hot day started us out with Ralphy kicking the day off with a knock, Ralphy is looking more comfortable in the lead off role and Jonesy our regular is having some rest period a few slots back giving him time to mentally rest.
Memory isn't as good as it was before the end of the first inning, I still can't remember all the piecings of this next play but here goes...
I think from memory we had a runner on 1st when the Adelaide batter hit deep out to Jarrad at right field, I ran back to third base ready for the throw. The ball came in but wasn't on the full and was to bounce short about a metre in front.
Now I have let alot of balls through this year, this wasn't going to be one of them. If I missed it, certain run and error. I came off my base and ready to take it as it hit the deck but the bounce kicked it up quite sharply narrowly missing my glove.
But it didn't miss me hitting me squarly in the head, just above my right eye.. Lucky it didn't hit me in the eye...
Umpire called time and the boys checked to see if I had concussion and attended to a small cut above the eye. All good and I insisted I continue - looked like a unicorn though sporting a horn!
Didn't affect me too much though as I was able to secure my only hit in the next inning, hit nicely through short to advance scoop to second.
Jarrad advanced us around and I managed to get to second when I turned and noticed Scoop recorded a geriatrics's moment when he kept walking off third towards home plate, wasn't running though, just walking... pitcher quickly threw ball to 3rd and was tagged out... Chalk this one down to amnesia or something...
Robbo pitched all day and he really did a pearler of a job, hitting the zone nicely and keeping the batters thinking.
Red Sox managed to get up to a nice lead as we moved on to 4-1 however Adelaide pulled back a few and we were leading towards the 5th inning 6-4.
Memory has me, I'm not sure if this happened now in the bottom of the 4th of 5th but here goes..
My second body blow for the game came with the last out of the inning, the adelaide hitter burned a drive to me sitting at 3rd, hit very hard but it dipped at the last second. I moved my glove behind it and got down to the ball.
It hit my glove on the high right hand side and agony began, the ball spilt out but I was able to recover and throw him out at first. I noticed straight away something was wrong, the ball, when it hit the glove, it hit the top of my thumb and the swelling told me something wasn't right...
Being as stubborn as I am I didn't want to come out and wanted to see how it would go for next inning and batting.
Well if batting was something to go by it was fine. With two runners on and two outs I went to the plate, watched my usual first ball just to see how its coming in, then proceeded to launch a ball into the stratosphere... Sadly it was hit with too much height and the wind held it a metre short from being a Home Run.
Next inning I went back out to 3rd but by that time the thumb was very swollen and it hurt to catch the ball, Robbo too noticed this as he threw a ball to me and I hesitated greatly to catch it...
That was me done, we went 3 up 3 down that inning and Robbo and Matty took me out to bring Curtis in - a wise move, I couldn't een touch the thumb then...
Ralphy lead the pack with a stellar batting display, he wasn't the only one though, young Mr Laws connected well twice getting to the gaps in the outfield and overall our batting lifted dramatically with most getting off the bus as Robbo likes to call it...
By the top of the 6th we held a good lead to which we extended out to 14-4 at the end of our bat, 3 more outs would enforce the mercy rule and we would leave early knowing one of the best games would secure us a Prelim!
3 up 3 down, Robbo capped of a fantastic game and the Red Sox ran out winners 14-4, This was a massive team effort and I was beside myself! Man I was sore but the feeling of winning my first ever final drowned it out completely... We just beat the side who was top for most of the year and we hadn't beaten all year - throw in the fact we were playing at their home ground. Yep this will be remembered for a long time!
Ok so the fallout was a cracker, we changed and sped to Soundwave, by that stage I had a massive horn on my head from the first knock and I couldn't move my thumb which now was extremely swollen and turning purple...
Blink 182 was awesome but the event sucked for me as when we reached the blink stage it was near impossible to move, there was nowhere to get through the crowd and a sea of people pushed each other as we moved towards the back - Phone reception was non existent too resembling the TV show Revolution...
Finally after 25 minutes of stressing and sense of being lost I found my wife and we watched the remaining 30 minutes of Blink... Blink were awesome and should have been the final act.
Linkin Park was ok, I got to hear my favourite song What I've Done but other than that it wasn't Blink.
Metallica was so so... Most will disagree with me but I wasn't really impressed, they played 4 songs I knew and to be honest I kept looking at the clock for it to be over....
If Soundwave promoters are reading, make sure if Blink 182 are there next year, give them a 2 hour finale spot - they would kill it far better than Metallica did...
Anyway, by monday morning I was in a heap of pain and wolfing down panadene forte tablets to help stem the pain..
I went to the doctor who, before I could tell him about my thumb, went straight for the lump on my head... He then informed me that I had cracked the bone in my nose, I knew it was red and sore but it didn't bother me as much as the lump on my head...
Bummer...
He then said the thumb did look nasty and immediately arranged X-rays to be taken.
X-rays done and I was starving so we started heading off to the pub when the phone rang, it was the x-ray place... X-rays were ready to be picked up and taken to doctors, I replied but I'm not going back to the doctors today.. Response wasn't encouraging, Umm yes you are...
Hmm that didn't sound good, I headed down to the doctors who started examining the film.. His face was priceless and I knew it wasn't good.
The verdict... Broken Thumb in three places, possibly need surgery to correct and have screws put in to mend...
Thats me season done... expecting 6 weeks out whilst it recovers...
So - Our Divvy 5 team now shapes up against West Torrens away next week with me to warm the bench for them...
Go Red Sox!!!!!!!
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