Spring Schedule & Other News

Underdog published the full spring schedule for the Irving Park league earlier this week, & the Underhanded Compliments have five upcoming regular season games plus the playoffs.

After splitting the opening day doubleheader with a loss to Basic Pitches & a win against Huevos Grandes, the Compliments will take on the French Kicks this Sunday, March 29th, at 1:30. The weather is supposed to be clear & reasonably warm, so it should be a great day. There isn’t much information about the French Kicks. The only “related team” mentioned on the Underdog site is a flag football team of the same name—no softball teams.

Underdog takes Easter Sunday off, so there will be no game on 4/5, but if the weather co-operates we may try to practice that weekend. Our next game is April 12th against Indy Team #1, a team we’ve encountered before under its incarnation of Where My Pitches At. We defeated Where My Pitches At 33 to 9 & 14 to 6 in the Summer League, & then bested them 25 to 7 in the Fall League. That game is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

The following week, 4/19 at 4:30 p.m., we will have our hands full with the Syndicate, last Spring’s champion & a really formidable team. The Syndicate kind of crushed us last spring—28 to 5. However, we are a much better team now than we were at that time, & I’m looking forward to a good game.

Unthank Park - photo taken in 2012, so the puddles are not currently in existence

There's an interesting wrinkle for the game on 4/26 against Pitches Be Crazy—because of an event that’s scheduled at Irving on that date, the game will be played at Unthank Park on N. Shaver between Haight & Commercial. Pitches Be Crazy is a well-established team in the Underdog leagues, & in the Lillis-Albina 2013 Fall League, (in which The Chain played) they were one of the strongest teams in the league. The Underhanded Compliments played them last fall in the Irving Park league, & defeated them 20 to 9. But they aren’t a team to be taken lightly! The 4/26 game also begins at 6:00 p.m.

Our final regular season game is scheduled for noon on 5/3 against All My Subs. All My Subs  played in last fall’s Irving League, & we won by the uncomfortable margin of 12 to 11.

In other news: Colin reports that his leg injury appears to be worse than originally thought, & may even put him out of action for the entire spring season. That’s a tough situation both for Colin & for the team—losing our starting shortstop & a power hitter in the heart of the order. The good news is that Matt is also a very skilled shortstop—not many teams have the luxury of two players who can play short at a high level. In addition, Mitchell T., brother of Harrison & Hayden, has signed on as a sub, & Mitchell brings a formidable middle of the order bat! Finally, it’s looking like Emily K is close to coming off the injured list—possibly as soon as tomorrow—& she will also bring a lot of skill both at the plate & in the field.

We may be going through some adversity, but I still believe this team will be one of the top squads in the league when the dust finally settles after the playoffs!

Several members of the team took batting practice at Batting a Thousand this week - that should wake some bats up!

Next week: Game recap!