PMP SOFTBALL - TEAM NEWS (From 1995 Season)

It's Offical! Precise Metal Products won the 1995 Summer League Championship last night at 10:10pm. We beat the Legal Eagles by the score of 18-8. The first game of the evening's position round doubleheader was not exactly a defensive gem, but our hitting certainly made up for our fielding mistakes. And the Legal Eagle's drunken players were definitely a help. One of their better players struck out twice, missing the ball on four out of four swings. He was ejected from the game for throwing his bat clear across his own dug out, from home plate!

The second game of the evening against the Dream Team was quite a debacle. For some reason, the second place team could only muster 7 players, which they insisted on playing. For denying us valuable bar time, we beat them 24-11. And their 11 runs were charity, as our regular fielding positions were changed around, in order to get a few guys some playing time at positions they hadn't played in a while. Even their home run was a gimme, since Pitcher Bill Hiotaky was tired of waiting for Malloy to get into position (Just kidding, MF). Of course, Malloy would be extremely disappointed if we fail to mention his LONG Home Run launch in the previous inning. So there it is.

Immediately after the games, all 12 regular players were awarded their trophies (plaques, this year). We took team photographs on a nearby diamond, retired to the Upper Deck Lounge, and had a few drinks. We got quite a few photographs during the games also, and several more in the lounge. Look for them to be posted on our Photo Gallery Page in the next few months.

A final news item to relate to you: Team Manager Bill Hiotaky has been invited to attend a dinner with 7 other Softball City Team Managers, to discuss issues of concern to their teams. This is pretty cool, considering that there are hundreds of managers out there each week. If you have any relevent ideas or suggestions, please forward them to whiotaky@ic.net. Then check this page again in a few weeks for a report of the meeting.

Our work is not finished! Softball City has scheduled doubleheaders for our league next week. Why wasn't this extra game indicated on our schedule? Ron Nagy, Manager at Softball City, did not really have much of an answer, other than to point a finger at the owners. However, if you count the games on the schedule, you'll see 17 games. Normally there are 18. It probably was their intention to play 18 all along, but they didn't indicate that on the schedule. Bottom line: win 1 more game out of our next 2 (possibly 3 games if a tie for first exists). The Dream Team will be playing the Demolition squad during our Legal Eagle game, so a Dream Team loss will also clinch it for us.

Last night, we beat The Dream Team in a 14-2 mercy decision. The Dream Team was very obviously dejected during the handshake. No doubt, their complete lack of offense had to be a major disappointment for them. Both teams arrived with crews of very nervous ball players. PMP seemed to suck it up by the 4th inning, but the Dream Team never came out of it, mustering only two 3rd inning runs. But enough about them.

Our defense was again outstanding. Vetran outfield captain Malloy Farley remarked after the games, "I am extremely proud of this outfield." And he ought to be, considering it's near-flawless performance. The infield deserves mention too, executing with similar results. And with tense and anxious opposing batters, and a friendly breeze at his back, Pitcher Bill Hiotaky came through with a nice performance allowing only 9 hits, no walks, and one strike out. Offensively, scoring 7 runs in the 6th inning, including the stunning, mercy-invoking grand slam by Pat Burns was the highlight of the evening, and perhaps entire season.

The Ameritech game was won by PMP by a score of 17-8. Turning two rally-killing double plays was critical is this victory, staving off a more relaxed (and therefore dangerous) opponent. Of course, a bad ground rule double call by the umpire was equally deflating for Ameritech. In the end, it probably did not effect the outcome, but it did seem to take a few of them out of their game. Mark Warren walked 4 times in this one. That must be a PMP record. This win put us to within one game of clinching the league title.

For next week's game, we are asking all players to stick around so that we may take some team photographs, sign some balls, and have a drink at the Upper Deck Lounge. Also, bring a camara and your favorite photographer if you can. Video camaras would be nice too.

Nobody would have predicted it, but PMP scored 48 runs in tonight's double header. Our two wins tonight (Ameritech 27-14, Demolition Squad 21-11), combined with Dream Team's loss to the Lawmen, should give us a magic number of two, with three or four games left. If we win both games next week, we believe we lock up first place! We also suspect that our magic number to lock up second place is one (realistically it's locked up now, since Dream Team's chances of beating the Lawmen twice next week is pretty slim). Nobody wants to have to play for first place in the position round, even IF we get two chances to do it.

We control our own destiny now. "Remember the Star Restaurant game" should be our battle call next week. Either that or "We are the Dream Team's worst nightmare."

Beating the Detroit Lawmen last night will probably go down as one of the highlights of the Summer '95 season. Our game plan worked perfectly. While the Lawmen hit the ball down and very hard, with occational long balls, their fielding skills are average at best. Our outfield took away the long ball by playing deep and hustling in for the grounders and line drives. There was perhaps only one error all night out there. The infield handled everything without error. The pitching staff was well prepared for the task also, getting ahead of most batters and forcing quite a few pop-ups and Sunday hops. This was a big game, and we came up big.

Picking up two wins this week puts us 1/2 game out of first place at the halfway point of the season. Our defense probably was the deciding factor. Our opponents never were permitted to gather any serious momentum, thanks to our defense. Patrick Burns played his first game in a PMP uniform, behind the plate. The youngster went 5 for 7, and scored 4 runs in his debut. Not bad for a guy wearing gym shoes.

We signed two more players last night; Paul Everett and Patrick Burns. Both will be used as reserves, since we're fairly set right now. The Dead Wings (0-4) dropped out of the league, and were replaced by the Detroit Lawmen. The Lawmen will assume the Dead Wings record.

The fielding positions changes we have used the last few games seems to be working. Our defense is finally once again excellent. Everyone's hustling and keeping focussed. And it really shows. Mark Warren's switch to 1st base was pure genius. The gamble of playing Denver in Left field, and Cliff in Right, seemed a good one also. We had probably our best team out there for both games.

We are now poised to make a serious trophy run. It's been a few years. Expect to see a little less "evenness" in the AH and catching duties, and a more "favoritism" in certain, key fielding positions...and in the batting order. We'll be fielding the very best team we can every night. If that means John, Mark, Mark, and/or Bill never AH, then we'll do it. We don't want to lose a SINGLE game because a key player was not playing in his best position.

PMP had it's first mid-season practices on August 24th and 31st. To the seven players who participated, the Michigan State Fair was an opportunity to work on their hitting. To those players who didn't make it to any practice, we hope you enjoy batting at the bottom of the order.

We have added a new player to our roster. His name is Denver. We've never seen him play, but we hear he can hit the ball. He start playing on September 7th.

Expect to see our fielding positions mixed up again this week. It seemed to create a little more hustle than usual, so we'll try that again.

Andy Fisher has actually played some ball since his injury! He pitched for his Birmingham team. He can't bend, and he requires a courtesy runner.

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Created: August 10, 1995
Updated: October 28, 1995