| On a beautiful, cool summer evening, our dedicated LRB players gathered at the Kneitel Complex to begin (for the second, but official, time) the 2007 LRB World Series Playoffs. After a couple of exhibition games featuring an 8-7 victory by Matt Kneitel over Ed Kneitel courtesy of a walk off homerun to cap a four run third inning, a 5-1 victory by Bill Sattin over Micah Sattin, and a scintillating 1-0 victory by Matt Kneitel over Ben Sattin in a left hand only pitching/hitting duel the real matchups began. Following the exhibition games, the first playoff game was determined by the order in which the three Jacobs brothers entered the building. As luck would have it, Jon was the first into the building amid a spattering of cheers, closely followed by Daniel and then Peter. Before the games began, Commissioner Kneitel gave his customary pre-series predictions. "Sattin sweeps Jacobs, 2-0. Reis over Daniel 2-1. Mann sweeps Peter. Simple as that," Kneitel assuredly remarked. After the bold predictions, the first game was underway in front of a record setting crowd of five. Ben Sattin, fresh of a stint on the five day disable list, was the home team while Jon Jacobs was the away team. The first game was a rollercoaster ride for both players. Sattin jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on a two run moon shot in the first inning. Sattin's no-hitter was ruined by Jacobs the following inning with a solo shot. Sattin went into the top of the third nursing a 2-1 lead. However, as the astute announcing team of Andrew Mann and Lee Reis pointed out (utilizing some shrewd research data), Sattin has a history of blowing saves. Sattin did not let down the statistics as he promptly blew the lead and the save, giving up a solo homerun. After the heart breaking homerun, Sattin courageously announced that "blown saves only make the comeback that much more dramatic." Living up to his statement, Sattin stormed into the bottom of the third. After a lead off walk followed by a sacrifice grounder, Sattin stroked a walk off, game winning triple over the Jewish Heritage Homerun Porch. This thrilling duel was the perfect game to set the tone for the evening. Commisioner's Notes: The follow up game was a close match up between Daniel Jacobs and Lee Reis. Being a last minute add-in, no one knew what to expect from Reis. Additionally, the league waived the playoff eligibility rule (shortened from 10 to one games this season) for Reis. "He came to my my house and basically begged to be included," Kneitel recounted. "I did things I'd rather not remember," Reis meekly said. Despite not stepping onto the field for a single out this season, Reis was allowed to participate in the playoffs, resulting in a complete restructuring of the playoff bracket. As a penalty for his late entry, Reis was forced to be the 11 seed and participate in this play-in series. After a few early homeruns and taking advantage of Jacobs' over aggressive stance at the plate, Reis rode a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the third inning. In a save situation, Reis encountered an early hiccup, giving up a solo homerun to Jacobs. However Reis settled down to earn his first victory, and save, of the season with a 4-2 win. Commissioner's Notes: The third game of the evening featured a head to head match up of two of this years' three rookies. Andrew Mann hosted Peter Jacobs in game one of this eagerly anticipated match up of unknowns. After a perfect top of the first, Mann pounced on Jacobs' pitching putting up nine runs before the third out. After going quietly in the top of the second, Jacobs toed the mound for the bottom of the inning. "No mercy rule. Please no mercy rule," Jacobs pleadingly cried. After a couple of surprising outs, Jacobs looked to be on the brink of heading to the third inning. With the crowd's overwhelming support of the underdog, Jacobs' attempted to retire Mann for the third out. However, despite cheers of encouragement and advice, Jacobs botched a couple of grounders and ultimately seceded a homerun as Mann managed to pull of the Mercy Rule in two innings with a 12-0 final score. Commissioner's Notes: Sattin, now the visitor, stepped in against Jacobs to begin the second game of this even match up. On the first pitch of the game, Sattin crushed a homerun to right field. This homerun set Sattin on a spat of playful banter as he felt a sweep inevitable, yet even though Jacobs gave up another homerun, the teasing did not seem to affect his play. Jacobs came back in the bottom of the inning by barely scraping a homerun to right field. The scored remained 2-1 heading into the second inning as Sattin settled down. Jacobs escaped the top of the inning unscathed, helped by a lightning fast left handed snare of a sharply hit one hopper, and stepped into the box for what proved to be the turning point of the series. The first out of the inning was recorded by Sattin on a spectacular bare handed diving catch of a foul ball. With luck seemingly on his side, Sattin began to rush through his motions and consequently began to miss the strike zone. Jacobs took advantage of this lapse and smacked back to back triples to tie the score. This is where Sattin's troubles began as he slowly went on tilt. After walking Jacobs on a 3-2 count to put runners on first and third, Sattin was beginning to lose confidence in his pitching ability. After falling behind 1-2, Jacobs battled back to a 3-2 count. At this point, Sattin was beyond himself. As he released the payoff pitch, Sattin remarked "I hate my life" and subsequently watched the three run homerun rocket past his head. This was the end for Sattin, who gave up two more runs before finally getting out of the inning. Sattin went quickly in the top of the third, forsaking his patient approach in favor of overaggrassion, trying to conduct a comeback with every pitch. After the final out, Jacobs tied the series at a game apiece with his 7-2 victory. Commissioner's Notes: Game two between Daniel Jacobs and Lee Reis turned out to be the most exciting game of the evening, completely surprising the record number of fans in attendence who expected another low scoring affair between two of the less talented LRB players. What resulted was a reguler slugfest. In a combination of triples and homeruns, Reis jumped to an early 7-0 lead. However, Jacobs is not one to let up. With a pre-game pep talk from his brother Jon fresh in his head, Jacobs began a remarkable come back. After the game, we caught up with Jon to discover what he told his brother. The words of wisdom were that "Living Room Baseball is the easiest game to comeback in." Jacobs added his name to the long list of memorable comebacks as he put up nine runs on Reis in the bottom of the first highlighted by a grand slam in addition to three other homeruns. This power surge was surprising to both competitors and they sought to make the proper adjustments and slow the flow in the subsequent innings. After scoring a run, Reis reclaimed the lead with a three run home run blast. Reis went into the bottom of the inning holding a 12-9 lead, a lead he would not give up again. After a scoreless bottom of the inning and a putting up three more runs in the top of the third, Reis took the mound to close out Jacobs. After the first out, Jacobs smacked a homerun off the foul pole in right field. However, despite notching another run, Reis managed to quell the mini comeback and secure not only the stimulating 15-11 victory, but also a spot in the quarterfinals against the number three seed Ben Rosenbaum. Commissioner's Notes: Lee broke the new bat The third game two of the night saw Peter Jacobs host Andrew Mann. Jacobs shocked even himself by limiting Mann to only four runs in the top of the first inning, inducing Mann in overswinging and producing numerous groundballs. Jacobs didn't manage to score a run in the bottom half of the inning, however still took the mound in the second with an optimistic approach. Jacobs was very excited about the possibility of reaching the third inning for the second time in his short career. However, Mann plays the game like a true professional and crushed Jacobs' hopes and dreams like he crushed four homeruns en route to a seven run second inning. Jacobs, despite threatening runs for the first time in the playoffs with a lead off triple, still failed to score a run (making him scoreless in every game he has played) while being Mercy Ruled for the second time in the playoffs in two innings by a score of 11-0. While the underdog fan favorite saw his season end, Little Mann looks forward to facing the crafty veteran Matt Kneitel in the quarterfinals. Commissioner's Notes: Mention Sattin's outstanding play at catcher, including a ground ball diving put out and the final out of the game on a pop up The only game three of the night lived up to its billing as Sattin won the coin toss and opted to be the home team. Since the trend in this series was that the home team wins, Sattin felt good about his chances. The confidence allowed Sattin to escape the top of the inning unscored upon, forcing Jacobs to strand runners at first and third on a strike out. Sattin rode his momentum into the bottom of the inning, striking for two runs on a solo homerun and an RBI triple. Jacobs struck back in the top of the second for one run on a homerun yet promptly gave up two more runs in the bottom of the second. While batting in the bottom of the inning, Sattin knew he needed as many runs as possible, at one time remarking to the catcher, Matt Kneitel, "I need more runs so I'm not in a save opportunity." However, Jacobs minimized the damage and stood in against Sattin in the top of the third inning facing a 4-1 deficit and elimination from the playoffs. However, Jacobs refused to let these facts defeat him and he took solace in the fact that Sattin is notorious for blowing saves. Unfortunately, this information did not ease Sattin's nerves, and in the blink of an eye, Sattin gave up two runs. Sattin continued to be erratic in his pitching and walked one batter and hit another. Sattin jumped ahead of the next batter 1-2 and threw Jacobs a changeup that hung over the middle of the plate. In the swing of a Saran Wrap tube, Jacobs took the lead and Sattin blew another save. Sattin escaped the rest of the inning without giving up another run, but the damage was done. Sattin, seeking to stage a comeback of his own, quickly found himself facing two outs and a playoff elimination. Sattin then hit a triple and was prepared to tie the game with a single swing. The first pitch he took for a called strike one. Then Sattin held his swing in check on a ball on the outside. The next pitch Sattin fouled off and like that was down to the final strike of his season. He knew that he must swing at anything close to the zone because he knew he wouldn't be able to last the offseason knowing his chances ended on a called third strike. Sattin fought off the next two pitches foul but the third pitch proved to be the final one Sattin would see this season as he smacked a strong grounder back at Jacobs who handled the tough hit to record the final out. While last season's World Series runner up saw an early exit this year, Jacobs more than earned a spot in the semifinals as this playoffs' cinderella story will take on 2005 rookie of the year and number one seed Michael Mann. Commissioner's Notes:Lee Broke New Bat #2 by stepping on it like an idiot Thus completes the game recaps from the first day of the Living Room Baseball World Series Playoffs. The night saw some promising rookies with full careers ahead of them go head to head and old veterans meet for the umpteenth time. It saw jaw dropping home runs and gutsy strikeouts. It saw dazzling defense and emotional comebacks. In all, it was a normal night for LRB. This LRB recap is courtesy of Ben Sattin at the Kneitel Complex. |
