It seems like a long time ago, March 20th. On that day we lost to the Angels and it looked like the vaunted Dodgers squad might be in some trouble. As my gentle reader might remember, the boys were down in the dumps, practically conceding victory to the Angels after one inning, and looked hopeless against the great Angels pitcher, Ian. Subsequently we had the dramatic Mondesi HR off of Ian to win a game, and followed that with a Mondesi leadoff HR and 10 hits to trample the Angels 8-0.
On the ides of May, the fates were with us again. In the first inning, the Dodgers scored 4 runs with hits, grit, and hustle, stealing bases left and right, laying down bunts, and running the bases like the champions that they are. Mondesi did not even need to get a hit today, as his teammates pounded out another ten hits off of Ian, including a spectacular pulled double by Brick, who came into the game batting about .200. Additionally, Jose hit a bloop double to right field, that he never stopped running on from the second he hit it; his was the best hustle play I've seen all year, since your first instinct a lot of times is to take a look at the hit after you hit it; Jose was barely safe at second, and he ended up scoring later on.
Meanwhile, Mondesi took the hill yet again against the Angels, and was under the weather, as I understand he had missed his last two days of school with multiple instances of vomiting and other nastiness. He clearly didn't have his grade A "stuff" today, but his control was very good and his defense made nearly every play behind him.
It was a funny scene after the game, as this game pretty much clinched the league title, that the boys couldn't've seemed more blase about it. I suppose it has been a long season filled with multiple blowouts (we have outscored the opposition 237-35) and even the Angels became easy pickings the last two games. Perhaps these are the most professional 11 and 12 year olds (and a 10 year old, Mr. Rook) ever and they are ready for the next challenge. It's coming. We will (barring catastrophe) be play
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