Sums It Up
I couldn't get to the blog much tonight trying to nail down some things before getting ready for a vacation home to Southern California tomorrow, so just now I was going to try and recap the vibe from tonight's victory for the Outlaws, who obviously came in having already clinched a spot in the GBL championship in July, against the Flyers, who had a few players on the roster admit to me in batting practice today this might be the most frustrating week of the season considering they are playing for nothing more than second place in the second-half standings and a chance at a winning overall record.
But esteemed Enterprise-Record photographer Jason Halley captured the game's, um, tenacity all in ways words can't — and here is pretty much how the Outlaw coaching staff is handling the challenge of staying loose in the GBL dog days, and let's just say those are a little bit more dogged than the rest (and for those feeling better caption ideas coming on, post away):
Mark Parent doing his impersonation of my reaction to Outlaw fans ripping me for "negative" coverage? Not likely, but still spot-on. That's pitching coach Alex Carbajal on the left playing along.
This is probably the only way to keep Parent off the field following a disputable call made by one of the many GBL umpires on his Christmas card list. Hitting coach Jon Macalutas is doing the restraining, which, no joke, might actually be a rehearsal of any no-ejection policy the team is planning to implement for next week's championship series (unofficially, because I don't have the numbers in front of me at the moment, Parent is up to four this year.)