The Coral Gables A's faced off against a familiar face last Sunday, but we had two horses on the mound.
The Coral Gables A’s, America’s funniest men’s league baseball team, played against the Braves of our new men’s league. On the mound for them was none other than our hero of the Florida Invitational: Honny.
Let’s see how we fared…
As a quick recap, Honny (pronounced like honey. For real.) is a wily veteran of a pitcher who threw for us in a recent national tournament we played in. He threw three innings of relief one day, then threw a shutout the next day, the latter of which was in the semifinals. He works extremely fast, fills up the strike zone, throws from a low three-quarter slot, and mixes in a fastball, slider, and forkball whenever he wants. Honny was an absolute bulldog for us a few weeks ago, and now we got to see what it’s like being on the receiving end of his arsenal.
Starting Fast
Wes, a utility infielder, led off for us and singled on the first pitch of the game. I hit second and lined a ground-rule double into the left-centerfield gap to put runners on second and third. Nick followed and hit a fly ball to left field. The left fielder caught it and uncorked a FedEx SameDay airmail throw as Wes sprinted to the plate. Easily 20 feet over the catcher’s head and into our dugout. A preposterous throw. Since the ball went out of play and I was standing on third when it happened, I scored automatically to make it 2-0. Honny got the next two outs without issue.
On the mound for the A’s was Mike. That’s not the best news if you’re on defense, because you’re probably not getting much action. When you have four swing-and-miss pitches that you can throw in any count, guys aren’t going to make solid contact, or any contact, too often. He breezed through the first inning, picking up a strikeout in the process.
2-0 after the 1st.
Crooked Numbers
Matt, another utility infielder, hit a rocket off Honny in the 2nd inning, but he was left stranded. Mike worked around a leadoff single and induced an inning-ending double play in the bottom half.
The 3rd inning got off to an inauspicious start for us, as Honny retired the first two batters. With the lineup now turned over, Wes busted it down the line for an infield single. I followed him with a bloop single into center off Honny’s forkball; this was probably the first time I’d ever seen a forkball, it spun and shook like a knuckleball, but darted downwards as it neared the plate. It was filthy, but I caught it off the end of the bat and flipped it into the outfield. The following batter was Nick, who brought in his third run of the game with a single through the left side. Amed walked, which loaded the bases for Dy’lan, a utility infielder who has been swinging a hot bat all season long.
Dy’lan took an elevated fastball and drilled it into the right-centerfield gap for a bases-clearing double. It was the biggest swing of the game and the knockout punch for Honny, who was pulled with the score now 6-0.
Call us Winnie the Pooh, ‘cause we were eating that honey up…
The hot streak continued off the new pitcher, with Andy, our first baseman, getting hit by a pitch, and Matt hitting his second blistering line drive of the game. Matt’s single was hit too hard to the centerfielder for Dy’lan to score from second, however. The reliever got the final out to escape the bases-loaded jam and the inning ended with us up 6-zip.
Agua-gate
Mike worked around a walk and induced another inning-ending double play. Their new pitcher went 1-2-3 in the 4th, mostly throwing sliders and change-ups. “Working backwards,” as they call it, meaning you throw mostly off-speed pitches and mix in a fastball only when you need to. You don’t see many of these types of pitchers, but if they can control their stuff it’s very effective. Mike also went 1-2-3 in the 4th inning. He was in cruise control.
The top of the 5th produced some action, but of the funny variety. It wouldn’t be an A’s game without some of this. I hit a one-out double on a slider, which brought Nick to the plate. Nick, unfortunately, fell for the “White Castle Special,” a term used when the pitcher strikes the batter out on purely sliders. Three sliders, three strikes. On the third and final one, which Nick swung through, the pitcher roared “AGUAAAAA.” Agua means “water” in Spanish, but if you’re Cuban it can be used as an exclamation point on something good. In this case it was clear trash talking, which is a bold move when your team is down 6-0.
Nick did not take too kindly to it and yelled some very bad words in Spanish back at the pitcher that I won’t repeat here. An insult-battle ensued, but nothing got too serious. In true Coral Gables A’s fashion, we made fun of Nick the second he cooled down and were rooting for the pitcher to yell “AGUA!” after every strikeout for the rest of the game. We’d be joining him.
The emphatic strikeout and argument that followed could have rallied their troops, but having Mike on the mound eliminates such things. He struck out the side in the bottom half of the 5th.
Tennessee
Andy, Alex, our catcher, and Ulri, our second baseman, reached in the top of the sixth via a single, another single, and a walk, respectively, but we were unable to get them across. Mike could have gone deeper into the game, but an OG returned to the mound for the A’s: Darryll, who is known professionally as Tennessee.
Darryll is a 6’4” righty who played at the University of Miami, like Mike did, then pitched professionally for close to a decade. He is now a professional jai-alai player who participates in the World Jai-Alai League, playing many of his games at Magic City Casino. Jai-alai players often go by their nicknames, and his is “Tennessee.” He’s been pitching for the A’s on and off for many years, but jai-alai is his day job. Everything I’ve just written is 100% true. When I say the A’s are a motley crew of excellent baseball players, I mean it.
Darryll mixes in a fastball, curveball, splitter, slider, and change-up. He pitches to contact and usually knows exactly where it’s going; more than once he’s called out to me in the outfield to be ready, only for the next pitch to result in a flyball headed my way. It’s good to have Darryll on the bump. “Tennessee” escaped a leadoff double to throw a scoreless 6th. He put up a zero in the 7th as well despite an error in the infield and a walk.
Things got a little dicey in the 8th after two singles to start the inning. After a flyout, the fourth batter of the inning singled to bring in their first run of the game. There was now one out and two men on; they were one swing away from making things interesting. The batter hit a ground ball past Darryll up the middle. Wes ranged to his left, scooped it up near second base, stepped on the bag himself, and fired to first to complete the inning-ending double play; our third double play of the game. Huge.
An A’s Victory
Their pitcher had one more “agua” in him, which we loved (much easier to be relaxed about it when you’re up by five). Darryll closed things out in the 9th to end the game. 6-1 final. An all-around Coral Gables A’s victory: big hits, good pitching, and a little shit-talking.
We move to 5-3 in our new men’s league. Next week we are playing a team who is allegedly an offshoot of our archrivals, Suela. So that should be interesting!
Dale Winnie