Another loss*

First of all, note the asterik on the headline. On the scoreboard (wait, since the scoreboard wasn't working we'll go with on the scorecard), the mighty H-W Demons were 26-7 losers Thursday night to the Merry Beavers at Wavering Park.

These weren't the same Merry Beavers the Demons were able to roll over in their season opener when 2005 Demons Rookie of the Year DOB missed because of a contract dispute. This wasn't the same Merry Beavers because the Beavers picked up a few cherries from the stands because all of their guys didn't show up. As a result, the Demons are in the process of filing an appeal to the league offices.

Would it be cheap to claim a win after getting trounced like we did tonight? Sure. But as the great thinker Jesse "The Body" Ventura said, "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat." We weren't the cheaters, but we're darn sure going to try to keep the integrity of Quincy Park District Division V softball in tact by calling out those who do. Should our appeal be turned down, it will be a sure sign that the QPD heirarchy flat out doesn't want the Demons to rise to the top of the Division V ranks. They can try to keep their thumbs on our neck if they like, but we're not gonna take it. We're not going to take it, any more!

As for the game, the Demons should have done another rain dance to keep this one from being played. The Demons had no fire. After getting the first two outs of the game, The Weamster walked a few batters which opened the floodgates. The Beavers scored 13 runs with two outs in the first inning to take control of the game.

At bat, the Demons again were too impatient, hacking away at junk thrown by the Beavers' left-handed hurler. DOB continued his hot hitting, going 1 for 2 to pump his season average up to .563 (9 for 16 with 8 RBI).

The lone offensive highlight for the Demons came courtesy of Shawny. After a TERRIBLE first at-bat, Shawny made up for it with a three-run dinger deep into the pine trees in left field.

Still, the Demons would have had to make like the '27 Yankees to make up for some shoddy fielding. With Big John Studd, our regular first baseman out with a Pujols-like back injury, the team had to turn to Ed at first base.

"They could put liability or Offerman on the back of my shirt," Ed said after a cruddy performance on the field.

He wasn't being harsh enough on himself. Plainly put, Ed couldn't have caught a cold while walking naked in Alaska tonight. (I had another riff ready for this one, but decided against it in the interests of good taste.)

Ed botched several tosses to him at first base. One one of his drops, he let the ball lay on the ground for a few seconds, forgetting there was a guy who moved from second to third on the play. The guy wound up scoring on a grounder to second thanks to Ed's inability to keep his head in the game.

But this wasn't all Ed's fault. We all shared in this one. (I was pretty good myself, but I'll be a team player and take part of the blame, too.)

We'll surely bounce back next week against some team that doesn't deserve to share the same field as us. If I hear something on our appeal, I'll post something. Until then ...

Mowed down!

The Herald-Whig Demons' dream of making like the 1972 Miami Dolphins and going through the Quincy Park District Division V season undefeated came to a screeching halt Thursday night with a 10-8 setback to Best Kept Lawns.

The game was a matchup of undefeated teams at Moorman Main. Simply put, the Demons didn't bring their bats on Thursday and were saddled with a season-low run total.

Best Kept, on the other hand, hit the ball were the Demons weren't and managed to pick up the cheap victory.

(These guys shouldn't even be in our league. They tanked it in Division IV last year and came back down to play with us has-beens. That's cheap.)

The Demons had a chance to go ahead in the top of the seventh inning when our ringer, Shawny, reached on an error and made it to second. Big Dan followed with a fly ball to center, which Shawny tried to score from second on after tagging up. He blew threw DOB's stop sign at third base and headed for home. Had he not morphed into Sprague and fallen down, he probably would have scored. It was truly a Cub-like play for a man who loves those sick little, loser cubby bears.

Your heroes managed one run with two outs, but couldn't get any more and fell to 4-1 on the season.

The Weamster actually threw a pretty good game, but was let down by his defense a few times. The sun played a big part early on, causing a few misplays in the outfield. Kris Kross looked like the kid rappers in the outfield. He must have had his clothes on backwards - a la Kris Kross - because he was falling all over himself out there.

DOB led the offensive charge by going 3 for 3 with an RBI. That bumps his season totals up to 8 for 14 with 8 RBI. One problem for the Demons was that the Weamster moved DOB up to the eight hole after he'd been dominant at the 10 spot. So we can put part of the blame on the Weamster's shoulders for ruining our lineup.

The Demons certainly will rebound in two weeks against the (not-so) Merry Beavers. The team has next week off, which should give that softy Ed enough time for his strawberry from two weeks ago to heel.

By the way, Ed. Nice sweats. You looked like you had just stumbled out of a homeless shelter with the beard, ratty T-shirt and sweats. What a fashion plate!

Oh, and mark your calendars for July 27. That's when we get Best Kept Lawns again. And they will go down, and they will go down hard!