| This is where you'll find the obscure, the unusual, and the humorous in the world of AWA softball. Weird stats, strange players, freaky plays, mound woes, road trip nightmares, and scary top ten lists. It's all here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In 1977 Neil Christie set what was then the team record for consecutive hits with eleven. But younger brother Brian was closing in on that figure in 1984, finally matching Neil's mark of eleven straight hits. Brian came up with a chance to break the record, and he drilled a sharp grounder deep into the hole at short. The infielder made a nice stop, but the long throw, which might have been late anyway, pulled the first baseman off the bag. Knowing he had a hit all the way, as well as the new record, Brian threw up his hands in joy after crossing the base. But the official scorekeeper for that game was none other than Neil, who promptly penciled "E-6" into the scorebook. No new record would be set this day. Brian was furious at the scoring decision and poured his rage into his next at bat, slamming a long home run. Neil's only comment. "That's one in a row." Brian got the ultimate revenge, however, when he shattered the record in 1995, hitting safely in 19 consecutive at bats. |
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Ken Morse is the subject of AWA's favorite trivia question: "Which AWA pitcher was pulled from a game while pitching a no-hitter?" In a 1981 league game against a team called Smoke, Ken started the game by walking the first four batters on twelve straight pitches. Frustrated by his efforts, Ken promptly removed himself from the mound, despite the pleadings of Coach Applegate, who had no other experienced pitchers to turn to that day. The Coach had no choice but to insert himself as the new pitcher and survived that first inning with only two runs scoring. He then hung in to pick up his first AWA pitching victory by a score of 17-15. As this was his only pitching appearance of the year, Ken ended the 1981 season with an earned run average of infinity. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tony Franklin was the only player to have three infield hits in one game. And he did it twice! | In a 1981 tournament game against QST AWA hit into six double plays, and still won the game 7-6! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| In one 1982 tournament game, Joe Sammut became the only player to hit two triples in the same inning. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We kept stats for everything. There isn't one play that could occur on the field that we couldn't account for in a neat little stat. But what do you do about catcher's interference? The batter is awarded first base with no time at bat, and the catcher is charged with an error. Messy, if you're the statman. In our first season in 1975, Dave Jackson was awarded first base on catcher's interference, and the stat sheet for that year has a little notation at the bottom stating that it happened. Then, in 1996, 21 years later, Joe Sammut was charged with catcher's interference when his glove was tipped by an opponent's swing. And at the bottom of the '96 stat sheet is that same little notation. Well, at least we're even. |
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 The end of each game was followed by the ritual known as the Caterpillar, where each team lined up to exchange "high fives" with the opposition. Of course it was all in the spirit of good sportsmanship, though a player could register his disgust with an outcome, an opponent, or an umpire by sitting in the dugout and boycotting the Caterpillar. But that was considered poor form. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 The scene was all too familiar during games in the mid-1980s. Mike Applegate would get ready to take his place in the on deck circle, only to discover that his bat was missing. Not that there was any mystery about this. The bat was always with young Jamie Sammut somewhere. Jamie had taken a liking to Mike's black beauty, and when no one was looking, usually when the team was on the field, the young Sammut would wander into the dugout, snag his favorite plaything, and head off to the playground. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Neil Christie was the first official batter in AWA history when he lined out to second base on April 30, 1975. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On September 20, 2000, Mike Seabury flied out to left field as the last official batter in AWA history. | In 1976 Earl Yagi pitched to 252 consecutive batters without giving up a walk. Of course he grooved a hell of a lot of 3-ball pitches in that stretch. |
In 1988, AWA threw back a forfeit win, and went on to lose the game. The scenario was this -- in the second inning, with AWA holding a 4-2 lead over the Diamond Dogs, a Dog player was ejected while arguing with the umpire. Because they had no substitutes, by rule the game was declared a forfeit. As AWA entered the game with a 3-0 league record, and as the Diamond Dogs was one of the league's better teams, this game had serious consequences in the standings. However, after a long discussion, the umpire gave AWA the option to forget the forfeit and keep playing, since the game was only in the second inning. The issue then became the importance of playing versus the importance of winning. Coach Applegate, with the support of most of the team, and despite the furious objections of Joe Sammut, elected to play on. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Statistics changed considerably when the team moved from the San Jose City Leagues to the fields at Twin Creeks in Sunnyvale. The game was geared for hitting at Twin Creeks, and with rules and equipment favorable to the offensive game, scores went up and batting statistics soared. AWA was sure proof of that. During the San Jose years AWA never batted higher as a team than .429 in 1985, excluding the 1987 season in which the team split time between San Jose and Twin Creeks. But while at Twin Creeks full time, the team never batted less than .457, eclipsing the .500 mark three times -- all in the late '90s. |
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One Game Wonders
Best -- Bruce Fox (1999)
Worst -- Todd Viele (1990)
Shortest -- Eric Geffen (1999)
Least Manly -- Loretta Shows (1998)
Off The Bench -- Paul Bertucci (1984) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In 1981, playing in a tournament in Morgan Hill, AWA survived the first day with a late Saturday afternoon victory, which put the team into the scheduled 9:00 AM slot for the next morning. Unfortunately, for those hoping to get a good night's sleep, Mike Simonds' bachelor party was happening that Saturday night. Well, as these things often go, very few of the guys got any rest or woke up Sunday morning without a severe hangover. AWA managed to field a team for Sunday morning, with Jeff Applegate on the hill. and AWA took an early lead as Jeff had the game well under control. But then, late in the game, some cows from the farm next door wandered down to the fence next to the diamond, as if to watch the game. Suddenly, Jeff lost his control, walking seven hitters, and AWA suffered a late 14-12 defeat. We don't know what any of this means. We just report the facts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Mike Simonds |
 Jeff Applegate | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Sherman Applegate (with Tom Sukup in the background) shows off his steely smile. In 1978 Sherman and Steve Barrett took in a little pregame batting practice at the local batting cage. This was in the day before automated pitching machines, so Sherman was in the cage serving them up for Steve when a line drive off Steve's bat caught Sherman flush in the face, breaking his jaw in two places. Sherman was still in the hospital getting wired up when AWA took the field for its scheduled league game that night. Prior to throwing the first pitch, brother Jeff Applegate turned to face his mates, raised the ball over his head, and declared, "Win this one for Sherman!" The team scored a 4-3 victory that night , with Jeff pitching a masterpiece. And the blow that gave AWA its final margin of victory was a sixth-inning two-run homer -- by Steve Barrett! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In 1976 an infield popup dropped between three AWA infielders as they all looked at each other. There was an error on the play -- but on who? Nobody called for it. Nobody interfered. So, it was ruled a team error, and AWA never again had reason to charge another. |
 Steve Barrett |
Longest Winning Streak 10 games (1975-76 and 1977-78)
Longest Losing Streak | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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