Making History

On Tuesday night, one of our Dominican pitchers made history in front of a packed crowd of 256 people at our home field, Yarkon Sports Complex. Esquier Pie, of the aforementioned Dominican Republic, was three outs away from pitching a perfect game, but after three walks in the seventh erased that bid, he was able to keep the Modi'in Miracle hitless and become the first pitcher in the long history of the IBL to throw a no-hitter. I was fortunate enough to be catching him that night. It really was amazing to catch a guy who can spot his 89-93 mph fastball wherever he wants, make hitters look foolish with his changeup, and throw the occasional 12-6 curveball. Now, I don't want any of the pitchers I have caught in the past take offense to this, but this was hands down the best guy I have ever had the pleasure of catching. This coming from a guy who has probably caught more pitchers than most people have relatives....distant relatives. To give you an example of just how dirty he was that night, Aaron Levin, Modi'in's third hitter told me, "There was one pitch last night that I didn't even see. I just heard it whizz by me." Now tell me that's fair. We ended up tying the game 0-0 because their pitcher, also from the Dominican Republic, was previously the New York Yankees 25th ranked prospect as of two years ago. Somehow the guy got his visa taken away and ended up playing for the IBL. His name is Maximo Nelson, he is 6'7", throws 92-95 mph, and looks like a redwood tree standing out on the mound. He only gave up two hits the whole night.
By league rules, a tie after seven innings results in a home run derby. We won the derby 4-3, but the game was protested because one of our players was using a bat banned by the league. They have not told us the result yet.

On Monday night our team didn't play so well. We were shaky defensively, still trying to get a feel for each other and the field while getting back in the flow of things. Tel Aviv beat us 10-4 that night behind a 6'5" lefty that they brought in to pitch in the third who threw 4 1/3 innings of no-hit ball. He was probably sitting at 84-86 mph with a really tight slider and good location.
So far I am 0-2 with a walk on the year. We have faced some good pitching and having not seen anyone pitch harder than 80mph in over 4 years, it will take some time for me to adjust to such fireballers. I'm giving it two weeks. If pitchers don't start to ease up then, I will start praying to face some guys throwing less than 92. This IS the land of miracles, right?
We play Bet Shemesh tonight, who is 3-0 on the year. It will be a good test for us.
On a more important note, the NBA Draft is tonight and if the Lakers could be so kind and get either a point guard who can run the floor or a big man to grab some rebounds for Kobe, I would be eternally greateful.