While many people were out shopping on Black Friday, I thought it would be a good time to take in some APBA. My family was in Chicago for Thanksgiving and since I had an upcoming series with new Illowa APBA League manager Scott Fennessy, I thought it would be fun to stop by and play him. Scott has been in the league for only three months and it would be our first official series. Scott was up for it so I headed to Des Plaines via the Metra and took on the Three Rivers Gamblers (soon to be renamed Des Plaines Dragons after the season’s end) for a nine game series.
Well, Scott wasn’t a very good host. Well to be more specific, his pitchers weren’t good hosts. After we lost the first game 7-5, the Gamblers’ hurlers were unhittable. In the next five games, my Thunderchickens scored only three runs. Colin McHugh and Carlos Rodon (both Bs) pitched shutouts but Jeff Locke (a D) only gave up just one run. We just couldn’t score no matter who was pitching.
The Thunderchickens finally won their first game in game 7 of the series. Jeremy Hellickson pulled out a 5-inning win, 7-4 against Tom Koehler a CW. In game 6, McHugh was on again and kept the T-Chicks to one run winning 7-1.
But game 9… I won’t forget game 9 for a long time. It was like my Twin City batters had enough and wanted to send a message. The Thunderchickens defeated the Gamblers 24-4 on 25 hits and seven walks. We scored 7 runs in the first inning, 6 in the seventh and 7 more in the 8th.
It was everyone’s turn to get their stats in that game. Bryant had 5 rbis, Hosmer had 4 hits and 4 rbis, Austin Jackson had 3 hits, 3 rbis and scored 3 runs, Markakis rapped 4 hits and scored 4 times… all in the same game.
Overall, we scored a somewhat respectable 40 runs in the nine games. However, the 24 runs we scored in game 9 was significantly more than we scored in games 1-8 combined (18). Guys, it was a fun game but you need to learn to spread them out a little.
Seriously, I had a lot of fun despite the 2-7 series score. It was the first time I had visited Scott at his apartment. I just remember laughing a lot (I guess mostly at my lack of hitting). I got a chance to see some of Scott’s Cubs memorabilia which was pretty impressive.
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I have since calculated my stats from this series. It has come to my attention that Jason Kipnis has 52 doubles with nine games left in the season. With some luck, he might crack the top ten of the Illowa APBA League’s single season record for doubles.
Three players, 1980 Fred Lynn, 2003 Magglio Ordonez, and 2006 David Wright are tied for ninth all-time with 59 doubles in one season.
With seven (or more) doubles, Kipnis could get on this list. Kipnis is currently batting .288 with 5 homeruns and 56 rbis.
thanks for the great time, Scott!
Des Plaines Dragons — I like it, Scott!