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Forgetful Dan...

Ringers open the season with 2 wins in murderous style

The Ringers worked hard this offseason (including these shots from a grueling preseason practice). Many nights were spent in the gym or in the cage getting ready for Opening Day. 

The Ringers opened up against a new team, The Ultimate Warriors, who looked like they should have been at spring practice at Ohio State rather then playing in Bova's League.  The Ol Righty got the nod for the Ringers after a steller 2011 campaign and the fact that he looked rather rickety at preseason practice.  Looking to shake the rust off, the Ringers took the field first looking to play some sellar D. (insert circus music).  Smith, always a steady glove, got the surprise start at 3B for a banged up TC.  His first inning started with a booted ball, and 2 over throws (not to mention the ugliest slide of the decade).  In typical Josh fashion he shook it off and settled down to have a nice game and hopefully will have a nice life too.  Sweet and Sully with some great defensive plays, Crowley with a great scoop at first, Steady Dan out in RF and a guest appearance by Jeff Smith rounded out a nice defensive day.  Surprise C Chris Feige made 2 put outs and almost lost his head on a foul ball (heard before the game "don't worry, you won't get anything back there".  The pounding of the Warriors continued with an offensive barrage by everyone.  Skunked them in the 6th.

Game 2 featured a rematch of the Finals with the 2 oldest teams in the league.  The Raso's floated out a real old fart on the mound as Steven Paz was still resting from the 3 game series last September.  How we lost to these idiots I will never know.  What I do know is the Righty was dealin and the Grillers looked like they were 80 years old.  Seriously, did they make a play in the infield????  The "Shortstop" booted like 6 balls and was hard yelling "I suck dick!".  Sounds like something to keep to yourself, but to each their own.  The Ringers put the hurt on with great hits by Sully and Josh to get us going, huge nights for Sweet and Bags who were on the ball all night.  DSull with a bomb of a HR, PR with a 3/5 day...all the while the Righty kept dealing and keeping the Grillers offbalance.  Another skunk win.

Loss in the Final Game to Raso's Grille

The Ringers bats go silent once again in the Finals....

This guy has no doubts....

Finals: Game 1 Loss 13-5, Game 2 Win 22-4

Disclaimer: most info taken from the Medford Men's Softball App v2.0.1 for Android found in the Android marketplace

The Ringers took the field against the Sons of Stevie Paz on a wet and windy night on Tony Bova field. The Ringers came in as the favorite in the finals, holding the #2 seed and having a solid record against the Raso's over the years. Raso's, however, have been hot since the 4th of July and knocked off the top seed, the Wet Bandits, rather convincingly. This was sure to be a battle of the bulge, similar to the bowling ball Paz is hiding under his under armour shirt.

The first game kicked off with driving rains pelting the Ringers the minute we took the field. The Boys of the Grill came out hitting and taking pitches and managed to plate 5 in the first inning. The Ringers had been there before, but went 1-2-3 in our home half. Amazingly it looked like Aruba when the Raso's were out on the field, but without fail, the wind and rain came back in the top of the 2nd and they plated 1 more to run it to 6-0 early. Between errors and not being able to put 3 solid hits together, the Ringers plated a few runs here and there but could only muster up 5 runs all game. We really couldn't have played worse. Raso's couldnt muster up too much the rest of the game, getting a run an inning but we couldn't match it and fell 13-5. There were some bright spots though, Danny and McGrath had some great throw outs from the OF, MBags great plays at 3B, Shaun a great tag/body blow at the plate.

We had 5 minuted in between games and we took that time to argue with each other (Shocker, guess who was involved? His name rhymes with poopy). In Arod vs Varitek style MBags and Crupi argued about who was the slowest on the team, and where the best pizza was in North Medford. This may have proved to be the spark that we needed to fire the team up and start plating these runs. Crupi led the game off with a single (which I think was the biggest play of the night) and gave us a wake up call that this is what we do.

The rains continued to come down but the Ringers started hitting the ball, up and down the lineup we were able to really piece things together, taking advantage of a few Raso errors. Big hits by Sully, McGrath, Danny, and TC started things off for us and that kept up all game. The 'ol Ball Fielder took the mound and got out of an early jam to really cruise through the middle innings, self admittedly they have a real hard time hitting a flat pitch, amazing but we will take it! Armed with an early lead of 16-3 through 3 innings, Raso's couldnt put much together and really looked defeated after about 2 innings, they knew the tides were turning.

Great job in the OF and Sully running down some texas league pop ups that were all over the place with that win. That wind was NOT easy. A nice textbook rundown with PR and MBags, Bagger fielding his position, and TC playing a solid 1B. Really a nice win all around, and Boonton the "Big Power" with a nice dinger!

The rubber match comes Tuesday at 7:30, this is for all the marbles...

(thanks to Boonton for working with Bova on this app)

A Ringers Poem...

Imagine you're The Ringers right now.

Imagine you're The Ringers today, this minute, with the ball in your hand and the curtain about to go up.

You've been here before. The lights, the 100 million eyeballs, the pressure that comes with being the men and rising to meet the moment, it's all old hat to you.

You don't sweat the Raso mystique. You remember August 27, 2011, and a certain 8-hit, 1-K night. The House that Bova built doesn't rattle you. You've left notches in that rubber like it was a belt around your waist.

And you can't believe your good luck. A week ago you were done, your boys were done, you were rubber-necking a hideous postseason crash. But no, you get another shot. And like Freddie you're wondering, "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

You won 15 games this year. You never give up. You're for the team -- you stand on the top step of the dugout when you're not standing on the hill.

You bear down. You bear up. It's what you do. It's who you are.

You're the Monty Burns Ringers and tonight's the night.

Back in April, Bagshaw wore his Raso hater hat at a Bruins game.

And everybody outside of Medford loves you because you drew the underdog in this fight. (But, of course, that don't mean snot if you don't deliver now.)

This is what you came for. Not to achieve your own legacy (that's already done by Sully's fielding percentage), but to be a part of a place and a people, to help write and re-write their history. You've been here before, with the strange Raso/Bruins logos in your sights and a quiver full of arrows on your back, but you've never exactly been here before, with the hopes and dreams of the Ringer faithful, and their parents, and their parents' parents, riding on you, with air kissed by curse and laden with anguish flowing in and out of your lungs with every breath. You wanted this, you sought this out, you reached for these people and they reached back. And now you're in. All the way in. You've been a part of this team all season, but tonight you become a made guy, one of the family, with all the rights and responsibilities, with all the risks and rewards, therein. You've been here before but you've never been here before.

You hang with The Sons of Sully now.

And TC promised to shut some folks up.

We take the diamond after two of the greatest games in team history. We take the ball after Jay McGrath slapped it around the yard. We take the ball after a season considered nothing but a prelude to precisely this kind of moment.

This is the game that makes you an icon, if you're up for it. Forget Raso Killer or Big Game Ringer. Try Redeemer on for size. Slip into Deliverer.

Imagine you're The Ringers right now.

Imagine knowing you've got to go long tonight, because there's two games and no one wants to play past Thursday.

But that's all right, because it's in you. No doubt. You have that thing. You can summon it. It will drive you.

You can't seem to think of anything else. There are doubts.

Josh is wearing a Johnny U boot and more tape than Swish had around her chest in "Fastbreak," his ankle's throbbing, bobbing and weaving like a marionette and bearing weight the way Jessica Simpson bears hardship, with a lot of whine and wiggle.

You stunk up the joint in the finals of 2009. You can't let things stand like that. This is a get-back game. You need to write a storybook. You know that.

You also know Steven Paz and the guy with the 44 Long jersey were turning your stuff around last time like a bouncer turns away math majors in coke-bottle specs at the door to a nightclub.

You know it's only Game 1, and even a lights-out performance here doesn't close the deal.
That really chaps you.

So you're The Ringers, and you've got all this swirling around inside your head tonight as you toe the rubber, work through the lineup, and stare up into the thousands of screaming Raso faces.

You're part indomitable spirit and part nerves that jingle, jangle, jingle; part seasoned champion, part new kid on the block.

And the beauty of it is, you wouldn't want to be anywhere else, and the Ringer Nation wouldn't rather have anyone else out there.

Imagine that.

Game on.