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CBS News Stuns CNN Twice, Unbeatens No Longer Unbeaten
CBS News Stuns CNN Twice and Unbeaten Teams Are DefeatedBlind faith apparently works. After three straight weeks of rainouts and five weeks between games, the MMSL finally got back on the fields with a raucous round of divisional tripleheaders that leaves the league with no unbeaten teams and an unlikely contender for the playoffs.

CBS News jumped into a tie with ABC News for the Capitalview/Homewood Division lead and a wild-card berth with two of the more improbable victories in recent history: a shorthanded sweep of perennial power CNN. If you're not believing your Eyeballs, look again.

"I have been saying for years that one day CBS News will get a great turnout and they will be trouble for anyone they play," said ABC News coach Eric Wray.

It didn't exactly happen that way, but the Eyeballs' 15-3 victory against CNN in five innings and a 9-5 shortened game 2 (due to injury) were the lightning rod of a very bizarre day at Capitalview/Homewood. Very little went as expected throughout the league. That much was expected. On a day that was originally an off-day and coming in the middle of vacation and wedding season, teams struggled for players and upsets were likely. So were tight hamstrings, pulled quads and raggedly sore arms.

We got all of that and much, much more.

The Gazette, WTTG, AOL and Comcast SportsNet-the last of the undefeated teams-suffered their first losses. Three of the divisional races and all the wild-card chases got a little tighter and unpredictable. And old stalwarts such as CNN, USA Today and WJLA/NewsChannel 8 find themselves looking up at playoff hopes as if it were Cemetery Ridge.

The ripple affect begins with CBS News. Having struggled for a semblance of playoff worthiness since coming into the league in 2000, the Eyeballs have never been above .500 this late in the season. Their .188 winning percentage entering the season ranks as third-worst in league history. Of their 17 career victories, five have come this season.

That's a lot of Saturday morning heartache over the years.

"Yes, these are two of our biggest wins ever," said Eyeballs coach Kenny Crump. "In my four years we have never beaten CNN-really only come close once. So right now our whole team is excited. We get a couple of players back from injured reserve this weekand everyone feels with a strong finish we possibly could be right in the thick of things for the first time."

The Eyeballs got an enormous break from ABC News to start the day. CBS was short a player so Wray allowed them to borrow a player. Turns out the Eyeballs would need that player all day to avoid forfeiting all three games. ABC News quickly administered a 13-1 defeat as Chad Murray drove in three runs and old-timer Mel Girardin came out of semi-retirement to pitch.

Then came CNN. "This is not the CBS of old. They have a very respectable team," said CaNiNes coach Jim Barnett, who had only nine players as well. "We were shellacked."

The Eyeballs got a great relief pitching performance by Craig Katz and solid defense, including a big unassisted double play by Carrie Rabin, for the improbable 15-3 slaughter-rule victory. CNN had only nine singles and no extra base hits. At one point seven batters were retired in a row.

"I think the embarrassing loss to ABC got all of us just a little pissed off," Crump surmised.

Sometimes a bad game simply happens. But it turned into a bad day for CNN. Trailing 6-4 in the second game with the top of the order due up in the third inning, CNN's Stephanie Kotuby hit a deep fly to right field that was caught and the Eyeballs threw out the baserunner trying to tag up and score from third.

Then, trailing 9-5 in the fifth, Barnett pulled a hamstring. He could not continue to play. CNN had no one to replace him and the game ended, becoming a metaphor to the CaNiNes' day and a celebration for CBS News.

"Okay, okay, I just might be able to keep my mouth shut and not puff out our chests yet," Crump said.

Good thinking. As the day evidenced, there were lots of upsets and teams in need of extra players. The Journal couldn't field a team because it didn't have enough women; Atlantic Video had to forfeit its first game. AOL, which usually has the league's largest roster, had only a couple of reserves. The Gazette, missing seven players, and Washington Post played with only two females, taking the out and skipping the extra hitter.

The National Press Club, amazingly, had so many extra players that Big Blue loaned a male to Dow Jones and a female to Associated Press. WRC had about 30 people on its bench. Conversely, WTTG was down to 10 players when outfielder Leif Coorlim dove for a ball, suffered severe leg cramps and stayed on the ground for five minutes. Needless to guess, he played on.

The good news of all this sharing is that teams understood the need to play the games and not accept forfeits. But that doesn't mean the games weren't hotly contested--literally and figuratively. At Burning Tree, the games were close and intense, showing a growing pressure among the quartet to get their season's rolling. Burning Tree is the best race, the best overall division and owner of four teams good enough to go deep into the playoffs.

Proof? Previously undefeated AOL and Comcast SportsNet left with two losses each. Now, defending champion USA Today, currently in last place, is within one good weekend of making a run. Post.com, at 6-3, faces a critical tripleheader this week in which the Bucketheads' season might be won or lost.

For the moment, Post.com and USA Today took nice steps by going 2-1 in the division last Saturday. The Gannetoids opened with a 15-13 victory against the Bucketheads, thanks in part to coach Mark Hayes' grand slam and scoring 13 over the fifth and sixth innings. There were lots of misplayed balls, outfielders running into each other, balls thrown away. . . . "General chaos and madness, rust from the past five weeks really showed," said Bucketheads coach Steve Fox.

Post.com came back to sweep Comcast SportsNet following the SportsNuts' 4-3 victory against AOL, handing the AOLiens their first loss. Tim Murphy drove in two runs and John Gardner didn't allow an AOL run over the final four innings. But Post.com shortstop Brian Cordyack had a monster day, collecting two homers against USA Today, including a grand slam, and then hitting three over two games into the trees at Burning Tree No. 2 against the SportsNuts.

WTTG seems to be in control at Veirs Mill despite losing its first game of the season, 7-6, to WRC. The Fox Trotters won twice with pitcher Mark Sargent improving to 7-0 and a stellar leftside defense of 3B Gary Bender and SS Sean McGarvy leading the way.

The Washington Times took a big step toward winning the Wheaton Forest Division by blasting the undermanned, undefeated Gazette and Washington Post. The Rags hold the projected No. 1 seed thanks to the losses by the undefeated teams. Nick Coston allowed the vaunted Green Machine just three hits and Monty Wood had a trio of triples to lead the offense. Then, Wood hit for the cycle against the Post, and a 13-run second helped make it a short, sweet day for the Times.

At Layhill, AP finally awoke from its slumber, won three times and grabbed a one-game lead in the division. It was a well-played day by the Flash, whose 4-1 divisional record will make it difficult for the close pursuers. AP will need a complete collapse this week for Dow Jones, National Press Club, Discovery Channel and America's Most Wanted to catch up. Don't look for it to happen. AP executed two putouts at the plate, had an unassisted double play to kill an AMW rally, and Frank "Home Run" Baker and Mike Young hit back-to-back homers against Atlantic Video.

"For the first time this year, we finally got our best players on the field at the same time," said AP coach Jonathan Salant, whose Flash can just about wrap up the tedious division with two well-placed victories at Layhill this week. v