MISFIRE
Rifles Outgun Cannons; Connecticut Shows Character In Latest Losses

Newington, CT (AP)—Little Bill Daggett: Well, sir, you are a cowardly son of a b****! You just shot an unarmed man!
William Munny: Well, he should have armed himself if he’s gonna decorate his saloon with my friend.
Daggett: You’d be William Munny out of Missouri, killer of women and children.
Munny: That’s right. I’ve killed women and children. I’ve killed about everything that walked or crawled at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned. You boys better move away.
(The men standing around Daggett scatter.)
Daggett: All right gentlemen, he’s got one barrel left. When he’s fires that, take out your pistols, and shoot him like the mangy scoundrel he is.
(Thunder peals. Munny pulls the trigger of the shotgun but no shot issues from the barrel.)
Daggett: Misfire! Kill the son of a b****!
(Munny tosses his shotgun at Little Bill, draws his pistol and calmly fires at Daggett, injuring and eventually killing him and four other members of the posse in a shootout before speaking ominously to the other survivors.)
Munny: Any man that doesn’t want to get killed better clear on out the back.
(Countless cowboys skedaddle out of the saloon.)

These are excerpts from the explosive final scene in the 1992 film Unforgiven, which explored the blurred line between heroism and villainy, man and myth. Fifteen years later, the Connecticut Cannons have started a second straight season 1-7 and many citizens of Cannon Nation find this unforgivable: a Championship-caliber team buried in the basement of the CNMSBL A Division standings. True, the Cannons have misfired on a multitude of levels over the course of the 2007 campaign. Like Munny in the early parts of the movie, the Cannons have repeatedly insisted that they are changed men following their impressive playoff run in 2006 — but there is an underlying sense of men trying to convince themselves of the fact, men not entirely sure that what they say is true. Right now this team is more layperson than legend. However, that fickle fine line between being just another ball club and being the best has been flirted with at times and Sunday’s double header showed something that was noticeably missing over the previous three games: a competitive spark. And sometimes all a Cannon needs is the faintest of flickers to fire the fuse of a full-blown winning streak. “Moral victories are not the type of wins we want or need right now,” Manager Matt Celio candidly told reporters after the contests. “But I’m proud of the way we fought back out there and I think we laid the first building block in the foundation of a solid season. The bats were better and our pitchers battled, though they were hurt by some bad defense. If we can put all three facets together in the same game we are going to be the dangerous team everyone thought we would be. Commitment is a big key for us right now (for most of the day, Connecticut competed with just nine of seventeen 2007 roster invitees).” The time has come for this team to transform from man to myth and treat the rest of the A Division like the “mangy scoundrels” they are. Sunday against the Eastern Connecticut Cubs is where they hope to start.

Game One saw a surprise start on the mound from Cannons catcher Steve Markie (0-1) who had logged just one-third of an inning of pitching work this season. Command was a concern as the right-hander allowed two runs to cross in the top of the first on two hit batters, two singles and a sacrifice fly. The Cannons, averaging just 1.67 runs per game coming into Sunday, were able to score a single run in the home half as Jason Maule walked and later scored on a passed ball but the Rifles would add two more runs against Markie (3 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 K, 5 BB, 2 HBP) before Mike Calabrese relieved him in the fourth. Cal, the scheduled Game One starter, appeared uncomfortable on the mound having missed his warm-up session and was touched for two runs in the fifth on a walk, two singles and a double and another run in the sixth on a walk and a pair of infield errors. The Cannons would cut the deficit to five with a RBI single from Mark Lynch that scored Tom Luby who had reached earlier on a base hit (one of four knocks on the day for the sweet-swinging shortstop) but Calabrese (4 IP, 5 R, 4 ER, 5 H, 3 BB) gave up two more runs in the seventh, just when the Cannons bats started to warm up. Celio led off the final frame with a walk and Cal, entering as a runner, moved to second on a passed ball. Mike McGann followed with a run-scoring double down the right field line and Maule singled him home. Drew McDowell just missed a fat fast ball and hit a deep sacrifice fly to left that scored Maule but the Cannons would come no closer, leaving runners on first and second to lose their fourth straight, 9-5 versus the 2006 B Division regular season champs. “We got some top-to-bottom production from the line-up in the opener and that is encouraging,” Celio stated. “We hit some balls hard but right at people while they found some holes and dropped some hits in. Baseball is a game of inches and, as is the case with most of the players on the team in other more private facets of life, we could have used a few extra inches out there today.”

Game Two found Luby on the lump for his second start in as many seasons and the clubhouse king pulled the team in before the game, promising to work hard while petitioning the position players to follow suit in the field. Lubes (7 IP, 6 R, 4 ER, 8 H, 3 BB) looked strong early, baffling batters with an array of pitches. The Rifles scored an unearned run in the top of the first on a pair of singles and a bungled ball in left but Luby escaped further damage when Lynch threw a laser behind the runner at first catching him unaware for the third out of the inning. A second unearned run scored in the second on another dropped ball, this time in right, and the Rifles padded the lead with three runs in the third on three hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly. Again, the Cannons line-up showed signs of life as Celio led off with a double to center, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a Maule line drive base hit. McDowell, batting in the clean-up spot, had a RBI single and scored on a Chris Barsa one-bagger but Luby, running for the catcher Lynch with two down, was gunned down at the plate on a perfect throw by Rifles Manager Paul Graves in left. The Cannons completely erased the lead in the sixth as McGann led off with a walk, Maule singled and Luby batted both in with a hit to left. Lynch was robbed as his quickly-sinking liner to left was corralled by a tumbling Graves, but the Cannons had come all the way back and the score was knotted at five going into the final frame. Luby (0-1), having pitched his heart out, asked for the ball in the seventh but allowed a two-out run-scoring single that gave Winsted the lead again. Connecticut hit the ball hard in the seventh, but failed to put the tying run aboard as they dropped a 6-5 decision to the Rifles.

The Connecticut Cannons cannot be fully forgiven for a 1-7 start and a five-game skid. However, there is still quite a bit of baseball to be played and a championship has never been won or lost on the first weekend of June. There is still plenty of time for this team to meet an even exceed the early-season expectations that so many have placed upon them. “We’ve always said the season starts in June,” Assistant Manager Mike Weber responded when asked by reporters about another slow start. “We had some guys step up today and, more importantly, we had fun out there as a team. It won’t be long before we find ourselves in the ‘W’ column.” The moment has arisen for these men to be “Munny.” Once the Cannons begin to fire freely the CNMSBL better be on the lookout. Any team that doesn’t want to get killed better clear on out the back. The “Clash of Connecticut” will be carried as the nationally televised double header on FOX (Channel 61 in the Hartford/New Haven markets). Although the games are sold out, fans can follow along with all of the action by listening to the simulcast on ctcannons.blogspot.com.

Cannons News and Notes: With nineteen hits on Sunday, the Cannons team batting average jumped from .207 to .241; on-base percentage is at a season-high .332; Connecticut averages 4.25 runs per game at New Cannon Yards while averaging just .75 runs per game on the road; Luby and Maule had four hits each—raising their averages to .286 and .400 respectively (Maule’s final hit in Game Two was the twentieth of his regular season career…he also leads the team with three extra base hits in ‘07)—while Barsa, McDowell and Weber added two apiece; Weber’s second hit was the one-hundredth of his career making him just the second Cannon to surpass the century plateau (Celio: 109…Lubes now has ninety-seven); Celio and Luby both doubled keeping them tied atop the team’s all-time list with twenty-three two baggers; Celio cracked a rib on a Game Two swing—x-rays conclusively showed the fissure as predicted post-game by Dr. Thomas Luby, M.D.—and team doctor’s have suggested a minimum ten to fourteen day hiatus to allow the bone to heal…Celio plans to play this Sunday at Eastern (the team also hopes to have Leo Dionicio, John Mancini, Brian Pinney and Ed Poland back in uniform); Maule has scored or knocked in fourteen of the Cannons twenty runs; through eight games the Cannons have sent seven pitchers to the mound (Calabrese, Luby, Markie, McDowell, Patenaude, Pinney and Poland) during 2007 play; the Cannons fielded an all-Hall High infield in Game Two with Hall alum Luby on the mound and four Class of ’89 grads—Celio at first, Weber at second, McDowell at short and McGann at third—behind him; the team’s “Cannon-Ball” campaign got underway with Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy announcing over the public address system: “Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball!;” Weber’s post-game festivities were well-attended with eight players making an appearance (Barsa, Calabrese; Celio, Luby, Lynch, Mancini, Perrier and Weber); Italian-Fest 2007 was exactly two months away from Sunday (Friday, August 3, 6:30 p.m.); John Mancini announced the mid-season front-runners for the ’07 Mancer Mojo Award, naming the six players who participated in the twenty-four hour Step up to the Plate charity baseball marathon (Barsa, Celio, Dionicio, McGann, Patenaude, Weber)…things can change in a hurry…Got Mojo?