Section 30

APEX — The Big Dogs (1-15) face elimination tonight against Rebel Alliance (9-7) at 9pm on Laura Duncan Field #2 in the Class-C Apex Men’s Spring Softball League tournament.  The game is not televised.

They have fallen to the Rebels (as their fans affectionately refer to them) three times this season by a total margin of seven runs.  The Rebels were the suprise team of the C-League this year, breaking out for a winning season and a 4th-place regular season finish.

While losing has been a lesson in humility for the Big Dogs this season, losing to Rebel Alliance is rather shameful explains first baseman Lucas Miller.

Up until a conversation with a teammate yesterday, Miller had assumed Rebel Alliance was the sponsoring company’s name; it even provided for the smooth “Rebels” nickname.

But the embarrassing truth is that “Rebel Alliance” is a Star Wars reference. 

In fact, the Rebels are all software engineers or computer programmers for SAS.  On closer inspection, they even have an X-Wing Fighter logo on their jersey. 

“They probably run an undeground RTP fight club in the off-season,” Miller quipped wryly, the embarrassment evidenced by his sullen expression.

Their leader isn’t Han Solo or Luke Skywalker, but rather Jack Ramsey.  He’s 5’3″, plays left center, and leads off with his patented left-handed hack-swing, just like the girls.  He wears jeans shorts and scrunches his white tube socks halfway to his knees.

“In another life he probably flies the Millenium Falcon,” suggested Big Dogs right centerfielder Brent Horne.  He went on to add that he was wearing a storm trooper helmet at the plate tonight.

The short stop may have a long pony tail and wear tight-fitting shorts, but he’s a veritable vaccuum in the middle infield and a solid line drive hitter at the plate.

The first baseman stands about 6’4″ and weighs in at around 125 — insert C3P2 joke here — but what stands out are not his too-short old-school Umbros but rather his (inter) stellar ability to reign in the high and wide throws. 

Their cleanup hitter is a Techie stuck in an athlete’s body.  He crushes the high pitches to the deep center woods and then rounds the bases with a gloating trot, as if he has just slayed Darth Vader to save the universe. 

“It’s just really tough to fathom that we’re losing to a group of wannabe-Jedi Knights,” Miller confessed.  “I mean, these guys are thirty- and forty-somethings that will probably sit around analyzing Episode II after the game.”

Regardless, tonight the Big Dogs will need their Light Sabres to be cracking and their defense to be like a force field around some planet in a galaxy far, far away if they plan to keep their season going. 

May The Force be with them. 

As a follow-up, one of the Big Dogs player’s wives was told the following story as to why they chose ‘Rebel Alliance,’ which she passed along to be preserved for posterity.  It has to be true because you can’t make this stuff up.

A couple years back (apparently in a galaxy far, far away), a group of programmers and engineers from the SAS Institute played for the company softball team in the Raleigh Recreational League, the Majors to Apex’s Minors, if you will.  Along the way, for some reason, this team folded.  But a contingent of players was still eager to compete and formed a team in the Apex City League.  They fostered hopes of wearing the SAS jerseys from years past, but to their chagrin, SAS would not support this team as a sponsor, and denied this request; SAS would not actively support the formation of a team under its name (perhaps it was due to money issues for Jim Goodnight, who was likely fighting to maintain his grip over Wendell Murphy on the title of “Richest Man in North Carolina”).  Rejected, but never dejected, this contingent found their own sponsor and became known around the SAS campus as “rebels” for their obstinance towards their corporate opressors.  They took it one step further and compared this act ‘rebellion’ to that of the young Skywalker of Star Wars lore, and officially became The Rebel Alliance.  Unofficially, they call themselves the Rebels, while everyone else just calls them dorks.   

 

Last night the Carolina Hurricanes advanced to their second Stanley Cup Finals since their move to Raleigh 10 years ago by becoming the Eastern Conference Champions. Behind Rod Brind’Amour’s game winning goal, adding another late in regulation, the Hurricanes finished off the Sabres in game 7 with a score of 4-2.

It’s the start of Hurricane season and it seems that it’s taken over the city of Raleigh. You can’t drive anywhere in the city without seeing cars with flags flying. Maybe if they continue to play well and win the cup they will develop more of a core following that can help them really sustain their presence here in Raleigh.

It’s definitely been exciting watching the run to the finals. Now bring home the cup!

Welcome to the new home of the Section30 blog.  Decided that it was time that Section30 had it’s own home on the web.  Things will continue as they have done in the past but will now be at this new location.

APEX, NC — Not just any team walks onto Laura Duncan Field #2 and walks away with a victory. The fifth-place Rob’s Reel Sets found that out the hard way last night in front of a bleacher-capacity crowd, losing 16-12 to the Timberland Big Dogs in a thriller that was called after six innings due to time.

With their all-around best outing of the season, the Big Dogs improved to 1-13 on the season and played their way into a tie for last place. With just two regular season games remaining, they still have an outside shot at the 5-seed in the tournament.

“That’s big,” says first baseman Lucas Miller. “No one wants to face Parkers Landscape in that first round.” The 5-seed would play Mamma Mia’s.

Rob’s Reel Sets jumped on top early, scoring five in the top of the first. It looked to be business as usual for The Big Dogs, as three infield grounders turned out to be too much to handle.

Miller didn’t have the reach on two errant throws and the second baseman is scared to get in front of the ball, which allowed the Reel Sets to jump on top 5-0 in the top of the first.

But then the defense settled in, and The Big Dogs got down to business. With the bats hot, they answered with four runs in the bottom of the first, started with a lead off homerun by the short stop, his fifth in the last three games.

“I’m not sure why our most powerful hitter is leading off,” Miller said. “It’s puzzling.” All five of his homeruns during that stretch have come with the bases empty. But then again, the second baseman hasn’t made a play all season and is untouchable.

The Dogs added three more in the third, taking an 8-5 lead into the fourth, hardly comfortable for a team that has led in all of their past five games, only to lose in late innings.

The fourth inning tested their will to win. The Reel Sets had scored five runs to take a 10-8 lead before The Big Dogs recorded their first out; Miller chased a fly ball down the right field line and caught it against the fence.

“I think that the entire team fed off that effort. When I flipped my hat off to get a better eye on it…that was dramatic. They knew we had come to play.” Miller was 3-for-4 and had his third straight error-free game.

The Dogs took an 11-10 lead in the fifth, but it wouldn’t hold. They gave up two in the top of the sixth. Trailing 12-11 and knowing it was likely their last at bat, they rallied, putting together seven consecutive hits/errors to drive the lead to 16-12. With just one out in the bottom of the sixth, the game was over. The Big Dogs stormed the field in triumph.

“Maybe we’re peaking at the right time,” Miller added. “Maybe the slipper will fit for us next week.”

Saturday morning, while getting in an early morning workout at the gym, shaking off my week, I had this realization about life: attractive people do not get up early.

It’s not scientific, but I’ll swear by it.

I’m confident there are many ugly people that like to sleep in, so it isn’t a reciprocal relationship. And I have no explanation why us ugly people are the only ones, but I am certain that attractive people do not do anything before 10.

I don’t know why; it’s just one of the many mysteries of life, I guess.

Time for a little platoff update. For those of you who do not care, shut up and deal.

Phoenix / LA Lakers

The Suns are in trouble. Lamar Odom and Kwame are killing them in the post. Who is the player wearing number 8 for the Lakers?? Seems like a totally different player than earlier this year. And the Kwame/Caron trade isn’t looking as bad right now either. Maybe Phil Jackson is the man?

Clips / Nuggets

Nuggets suck. The only reason they are this close is that ‘Melo is a freaking beast, and Andre Miller is killing Sam I Am. Too bad Sam is giving it back on the other end.

Mavs / MEM

Mavs are going to be in the NBA Finals. And Memphis is awful. There isn’t much more to be said.

Spurs / Kings

First, Duncan is obviously not healthy. And that is a big damn deal for the Spurs. Even if they win this series, they will fall to the Mavs in the next round. Who would’ve thought that the Kings won playoff games without Bibby or Artest going off? Course, Bonzi got nasty, but Bibby and Artest haven’t been all that great. Manu’s bow to Artest was not pretty.

Detroit / Milwaukee

It is going to take Redd going off like in Game 3 for the Bucks to win. And I don’t see the Bucks winning another game in this series. This series bores me.

Cavs / Bullets

LeBron is getting way too much press. But he is nasty. And he actually hit a game winner, even if he did walk on the play. Take that WORM. One side note…I haven;t watched the Bullets play much this year, but Arenas’ mid-range game is nasty. If they get anything out of Butler or Jamison, the games will be close. This series does not bore me.

Pacers / Nets

This series bores me as well. I think the whole eastern conference is boring actually.

Heat / Bulls

Much as I hate to say this, I actually want to see the Bulls win. Riley screwed the Heat up with the additions last summer. Wade can only carry a broke down Shaq (320 lbs) on his back for so long.

I should think not. And yes, that is drool (and Gary minus about 40 pounds). This is what happens when you have 20 shots. Too bad this pussy couldn’t get one more down.

This is to celebrate becoming a little more of the man and a little less of a slave.

Congrats drool king.

Coach Cal,

Let me start by thanking you for getting the Wolfpack nation excited about basketball unlike we have been for 20 years. Your flirtation with becoming the next NC State head coach awakened a spirit in us that only a coach of your caliber could. You could have come here and been king. The press conference to announce your hiring would probably have been standing room only, every home game would have been packed, and we’d have hung on your every word. You could have come and competed against the best coaches in the country night after night in the ACC. You could have proved yourself to be one of the best coaches in the country on a national stage.

Unfortunately for you, you chose to stay at Memphis. You chose to stay in the comfortable confines of Conference USA where you battle against the likes of UAB. You chose to have people question if you could ever hack it in a major conference, well, I guess we’ll never know. I hope that you’re comfortable there because after this past weekend you’ll never be able to leave.

Most of all I’d like to thank you for not becoming our next coach. We don’t need someone to come here with any kind of second thoughts. We need someone who wants to compete against the best and isn’t scared to do so on a nightly basis. Basically we need someone who isn’t you.

I’m sure our new coach, whoever he may be, will thank you for awakening the spirit and passion that we’ll follow him with. Just think: if you weren’t scared it could have been you.

Wagon.

Rick,

Does this mean we are no longer friends? Why, if I thought you weren’t my friend, I just don’t think I could bear it.

Doc.

Rick,

We’re now in need of a coach – well, officially anyway; we’ve been in need of a coach the better part of a decade. But I digress. Anyway, Rick, I’d like to extend a personal invitation to you to come help us out up here in the heart of Tobacco Road. How about it, partner?

Look, you know Raleigh is just a short two-hour Friday evening stroll up I-40 from your hometown of Hickory. I even feel like we have a connection, because I myself lived in Hickory for a while as well and grew up not too far from there. C’mon, Rick, this is big-time college basketball, what else can you ask for? You know what I’m talking about.

I mean, sure, Texas has become a national powerhouse, but c’mon Cowboy, saddle up and come on home to where college basketball is King. In Texas, basketball is all hat and no cattle; think what you could be at State! I mean, look how State fans are: we’re intensely loyal, almost to a fault. You could own Raleigh, absolutely own it. Just beat Roy.

I like you, buddy, and regardless of what you might have heard, that carries quite a bit of merit around North Carolina. I mean, I want your attitude. Remember how you told you boys at Clemson to go out and be mother f-bombers against Duke? I want that; we need that. I want guys that drive and fight and scrap and push and shove and box out and push the ball in transition; I want six-ten guys that play like six-ten guys. I want someone to make Ced a beast. You never backed down to Dean or K and you won at Clemson. Good enough for me.

I want that swagger you brought to Clemson – a lowly football school. You built them into a force to be reckoned with. Imagine how big you could be at a basketball school. Plus, you’d have an immediate opportunity to defend your honor. Didn’t you hear what Roy said about you after the 2003 National Championship game? “I don’t give a shit about [Rick Barnes].” You’re not gonna take that from him are you, Cowboy?

Then there’s the Hickory Factor; the beautiful western North Carolina foothills. You were raised there; you went to Lenoir-Rhyne; coached at Davidson. You’re mom worked in a textile factory there – I myself worked in the furniture industry for a while, so we understand each other. Think about it: I bet you can’t find a Sundrop anywhere in Austin. I dare you to find a convenience store anywhere in NC that doesn’t carry an entire cooler-full. Think Eastern NC BBQ. Think Bojangle’s on every corner (just wait until you eat at the one on Western Boulevard; four-piece supreme dinner, trust me). Think sweet tea. Think grits that come anytime you say “eggs.”

ACC basketball is in you. Come on and help us out. We want a winner – we need it. Don’t make me beg, Rick (because I will if I have to). Forget making The Dance; screw the “body of work.” I want banners – beautiful ACC and Final Four banners.

Do it for this great state. Do it for me. I’ve endured enough; I think we all have. C’mon home and toss away the axe and get us out of this dreaded day-tight compartment we’ve been stuck in for almost a decade. Make our decade-long wet dream a reality.

I look forward to hearing from you, Cowboy.

Dr. R.L. Bentley, III