The London Majors have been eliminated from playoff contention in a first round loss to the Ottawa Fat Cats in five games.
Based on our play in the regular season, I honestly believed this team was poised to make a run at an IBL Championship. Just writing that first sentence of this column felt odd. After having baseball consume my life unlike any summer before it’s weird to sit here and not have to go to the ballpark.
I’m not really sure what to do with myself.
Unfortunately, after equating the regular season to foreplay last week, I’d be remiss if I didn’t make an obligatory premature, uh, “finish” comment to assess our playoff performance. It was like we were fumbling with a bra for the first time, got so excited about the prospects of what lay ahead, and ruined the fun before we had a chance to enjoy the, ahem, fruits of our labour.
Was that both clear and needlessly complicated at the same time? Good.
Truthfully, I’m not really sure what happened in our series against the Fat Cats. Basically, we just got beat by a team that played better than us. It’s really quite that simple. We didn’t play bad – we just didn’t play as well as Ottawa
They got timely hits when they needed them and we didn’t. We had a very difficult time hitting with runners in scoring position and couldn’t capitalize on opportunities to put their pitchers away when we had them on the ropes.
It was a tightly contested series and unfortunately for the Majors, the better team – in those five games – won and will move onto the second round.
There’s not much to report from a personal standpoint since last week’s column as I was unable to see any action on the field. It was disappointing not to be called upon to pitch in the playoffs as I felt I was at a point where I could contribute and help the team win.
That being said, it took me a long time after my start on Opening Day to rebound from my early season struggles and get to a point where I could throw strikes consistently and replicate my mechanics. My success in the last ten days of the season may have been a case of too little, too late.
Nevertheless, I have really enjoyed my time with the London Majors this year and I’ve learned a lot about myself as a pitcher.
Next week’s column will be a reflection and look back on this eight month journey to play professional baseball. I’m truly content with the outcome and I believe I’ve achieved what I set out to do back in November (with some diversions along the way).
Penultimate “Life with the Majors” column
NICE!!
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