Hmm, this page layout looks suspiciously similar to the last two years....Anyways, this has to be the year for the G-Men.   Three of last season's teams are playing again this season and we played them close in all of the games we played against them.  Could this be the year we make the leap?   Somehow, I highly doubt it but a man can dream, can't he?  On the plus side, Mickey decided to keep stats this year, which makes for a new addition to the web page.

Mickey decides to set up our first practice of the season....days after our first scheduled game. Note: only 4 people show up.

Our first picture is in!  This one is of John Greenland pitching in the first inning....

Game 1: G-Men 21   Make it a Double 27- Our fielding is as bad as ever.  Peter Carty and Ryan Wenger both hit home runs and the rest of us made the other team make plays.  The other team looked out of practice as well.  Once we learn how to not give up 1 or 2 big innings we could turn out to be a pretty decent team.

Injury Report: Mickey Neal: Will he ever heal?

Game 2: G-Men 15   Cottage Colts 17- What is wrong with us?  We beat this team last year by a lot.  This time we couldn't hit the ball even though our defense played our best game yet.  At some point both aspects of the game have to come together.  0-2 is not a good way to start out but our hope is to make the playoffs.  All we have to do is come in 4th out of 5 teams and we make it.  Highlights included Dan Mender's return from his career threating knee injury, Peter Carty's 2nd home run, Dave Bauerlein almost hitting the cycle, and Jeff Hall completing the "Cycle of Suck".   If you don't know what that is, ask him.  He'll be happy to fill you in.

Injury Report: Alan Penner (out): All of a sudden he's a bowler now

Game 3: G-Men 12   Un-Insurables 25- We got rocked.  This team improved a lot since last season or at least they brought a few ringers with them this time.  Our defense played well again but they could hit and we couldn't.  We hit way too many fly balls.  We did have our biggest turnout in terms of fans which was nice but unfortunately we couldn't come through for them.

Injury Report: Mike Lindahl (out): tennis elbow. Actually he probably wanted to leave his batting average just the way it is now.

Game 4: April 23 Bye (ESC)- Good news!  During our bye week we found a team just as bad as we are!  And we get to play them next.  Playoffs, baby, Playoffs!  All we have to do is beat them this next game and then we can control our own destiny.

Game 5: G-Men 23   Tripha Crew 4- We are officially NOT the worst team in Santa Barbara Rec League anymore.   It was sweet.  Of course this turnaround all began April 27th, 2003 at 4:43 p.m.  Few people were there to witness it but Jeff Hall and I were the lucky few.  Right before doing his first bench press rep Mickey pauses and says, "You know what? I think I'll play next week"  That was it.   Our turnaround began.  Fast forward a few days later and Mickey pitches a great game, helps himself out with some nice hits and RBI's and the G-Men come up with the biggest slaughter (on the winning side finally) in Green Hills History.  Hyperbole? Perhaps. But we won, so shut up.  Highlights included Peter going 5 for 5, John Carbone going 4 for 4 and each player at least got one hit and one score.   Dave got off the schnide and back on the hitting trend and even hit a sacrifice fly by popping out to second (editors note: Rico saved your batting average, you can thank him later).   Defense was superb, only 1 or 2 errors.  All around we had a great game and now we actually have a legitimate shot at the playoffs.

Game 6: G-Men 16   Make It A Double 17- We hadn't lost in two weeks.  True, one of those weeks was a bye week, but still, it feels good when you don't lose and we were on a slight roll.  That roll came to an end last night as we lost after a valiant comeback attempt.  At first it seemed like Make it A Double would win by the mercy rule as they were up 17-10 in the bottom of the 5th inning but we managed to get their bottom of the lineup out and live to see the next inning.  Then we finally strung some runs together.  6 in fact.  With the tying run on third base, Dave got robbed of a basehit when the shortstop made a good play on Dave's line drive to end the game.  Not many highlights except for, well, we actually had no highlights.  If we stay at 4th place we'll have to play the #1 seed in the playoffs so it's really important that we beat the Cottage Colts next week in order to jump to the #3 spot.  Thanks to our new fans for coming out to the game and braving the cold weather!

Injury Report: John Greenland (out): Broken hands? Must've been broken hands since he was unable to email Mickey and let him know he wouldn't be at the game. Oh wait, nevermind, he never emails Mickey.  Jeff Hall (out): Bidness

Game 7: G-Men 11  Cottage Colts 11-Somehow this tie seemed worse than a loss.  We couldn't pull out a win in the bottom of the 7th inning with the score tied an no outs.  We still control our playoff destiny but winning tonight would have almost surely put us into the playoffs.  As it stands now, if Tripha Crew loses next week to Cottage Colts or if we beat the Un-Insurables then we're in the playoffs automatically.  Otherwise it will all come down to the last game against the Tripha Crew.  John Greenland had a really nice game at the mound and showed no rust (he even came early!).  We made more errors than usual but still held the Colts to 11 runs.  Dave managed to break Mike Lindalh's glove on a throw to 1st base.   But how we only scored 11 ourselves is a mystery since the Colts only had 9 people on the field.  Mickey's mantra of hitting line drives continues to fall on deaf ears as far too many outs were from fly balls.  Thanks to Drew for helping us out last night and for the great job of hitting.

Injury Report: John Carbone (out): After a few games with us he needed to take a vacation

Game 8: G-Men 10  Un-Insurables 11-We played the undefeated Un-Insurables and almost came out with a win.  I was not able to attend so can only go by accounts from various sources but evidently we had a hard time putting runs together after a great 1st inning.  I won't name my source but someone said that Jeff Hall was a rock at the catcher position and single-handedly put the other team in fear and basically carried the team on his shoulders.   To protect my source's name, we'll just call him "Leffrey Mall".  Anyways, I was wrong last week and we're actually in the playoffs if the Tripha Crew lose in May 28th's game vs. the undefeated Un-Insurables otherwise next week's game is a must win.

Injury Report: Rico (out): It's in my contract that I can take off a game every now and then to rest for the playoffs.

Game 9: May 28 Bye- During our bye week Tripha Crew did in fact lose to the Un-Insurables which means we are in the playoffs for the first time in Green Hills G-Men history!  Who knew a stellar 1-5-1 record could do that?  We'll have to play the #1 seed Un-Insurables who are currently undefeated.  Although the last game we played against them proved that anything can happen and they can be beat.

Game 10: G-Men 16  Tripha Crew 14- We're heading into the playoffs on a winning note.  The Tripha Crew were much improved compared to the first time we played them but we put together an impressive couple of innings to win the game.  No one on the team hit an extra base hit yet our offense was much better this game.  Mickey deserves manager of the year for finally getting us into the playoffs.   True, it took us about 4 seasons, but hey, who's counting?  Over the last 3 games we have played we've been playing .500 ball.   With that much confidence going in, who can stop us?  We need a lot of fan support this next coming game so hopefully we can rally up some troops to give us the extra edge.

Playoffs Game 1: G-Men 14  Un-Insurables 15- We got off to a really slow start.  Our bats didn't really perk up until the 5th inning when we came up with a 7 run inning to tie the game at 9-9.  The Un-Insurables had a lead going into the bottom of the 6th and we had to make the time cut-off by getting 3 quick outs.  We managed to get them out quickly and went into the top of the 7th.  We were able to score one run but came up short in the end.  This was a very close game and there were a lot of things that we wish we could've done a little differently.  Like my first and last at-bat.  But overall it was a good game and we didn't make too many mistakes.   Ryan Wenger deserves the Charlie-Hustle award for his dive into the bushes in an attempt to catch a foul ball and for running the bases aggressively.  We almost had this one and that's what hurts.  Thanks to everyone who attended the game.  We had a great turnout and hopefully we will get the same great turnout for our final game of the season where we will vie for 3rd place.  Special thanks to our former teammate Joey Becerra for driving from out of town to watch us play.  Now that's dedication.

Playoffs Game 2: G-Men 18  Make It A Double 22- Our defense reverted back to our old ways.   We made more errors and nothing seemed to go right.  The other team seemed to find the gap.  One of their players, Tito, found the gap 3 times.  The gap happened to be behind the outfielders so he ended up hitting 3 home runs and went 5 for 5.  Ouch.  Although our season ended with 2 losses at least they were 2 playoff losses.  We can take that playoff experience into next season.

*No Official RBI stats for Game 2

We will continue with John Greenland's Late-O-Meter because like death and taxes you can always count on John.   This will track the amount of times that John comes late. This is the current stat after Game 12.  

Note: 4/7: True to form, we had to have Dave start the game pitching until John rolled in in the middle of the inning.

Note: 4/9: John can't make it to the game. That counts for being late.

Note: 4/16: John had to be benched at the beginning for coming late.  Maybe he thought Mira wouldn't be taping at that point so it wouldn't matter anyways.

Note: 4/30: John didn't make it but at least we heard from him earlier through his agent Mira that he would not be attending.  She's a good agent.

Note: 6/5: John hasn't shown up to a game in weeks.  This makes it very easy for me to keep the Late-O-Meter updated.   Thanks John!