Sometimes as managers, we do what we can to resist what we WANT to do as opposed to what is best for the team. And sometimes, it’s a little of both.
As I had mentioned in my previous post, I had my Black Friday already planned out. Don S stopped by to play a nine-game series for the Illowa APBA League while I was in town to see family.
“Black Friday” indeed. I started out by losing the first five games. Don’s team, the Molly Putts Marauders, has a bullpen that includes Brad Lidge (A*XYW) and Billy Wagner (A&C*KX) which didn’t help me any. The good news from my perspective was that Wagner was pretty tight on limits (the IAL restricts managers from playing their players by their actual usage).
Don was calling on Wagner pretty often early on, obviously with some success. After two appearances (and two perfect saves) in the first two games, he fished him out of his pile of cards and had a talk with him.
“Billy, you’re going into the team envelope”
… and did just that. Wagner was shuttled in the Molly Putts APBA team card envelope. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’, the saying goes, I guess. Don told me that Wagner’s appearances were quite limited and he wanted to save them for his last series against my crosstown rivals, the Rising Bamm Beanos. Made sense to me. The Bamm Beanos were knocking on the Molly Putt’s door and looking for a playoff spot. Any edge in the last series would help.
Fast forward to Game 3. That was an extra inning affair. Don’t get me started on that one. That game we wasted every opportunity afforded us (we loaded the bases in the 11th with no outs and didn’t score). Molly managed to score in the top of the 14th inning on a two-run homerun by Hanley Ramirez. When the good guys came to bat, Don gave out this grunting sound…
“Billy, you’re coming out of the envelope for this one game”.
Well, Billy Wagner did come out and did a fantastic job. A one-two-three inning with two Ks. Molly Putts won the game 5-3. Once the game was over, Don got up and excused himself.
“Billy’s going out to the car now.”
Don took Billy Wagner’s APBA card and went out to his white Firebird and put it on his seat of his car and and came back. It was all done so that the temptation to use that nifty A&C*KX would be removed. Sure enough, when we were done playing and Don gave me a ride to my mom’s. I got into the passenger seat and there was Billy’s card looking all forlorn and dejected like “what did I do to deserve this? Three appearances and three saves and then he puts me out in the cold car!”.
For those wondering, I won split the last six games of the series without facing Wagner. Watch out Beanos! Maybe those appearances by Billy ARE golden.
