We gave Andre Piper-Jordan no end of crap this time last year. He’d been called up late in the season to play in the NWL play-off series, along with Frank Martinez, and between them they must have managed one single base hit, and a few errors, for the entire (woeful) series.

At the time, it was infuriating; "Who are these knuckleheads, and why isn’t Chalon Tietje getting his chance to shine?" came the utterances from yours truly, as Piper-Jordan struck out swinging and Martinez swung out striking. Such is the passion of the fan with too much invested.

Anyhow, when this season began, I’ll admit I was still a little dark on DJ PJ. "He can run, sure, but then what?"

Yesterday, he showed ‘then what’ in no uncertain terms.

The C’s had sucked all day, with 6′7" Aquasox lefty Adam Butler hitting the plate like Kirstie Alley at a chocolate convention, striking out 9 and allowing only one base hit in 7 innings of work. When Butler left the game, in came Kameron ‘Cornholio’ Mickolio, who at 6′9" is even taller than the guy that came before him, and seems just as tough to hit.

Especially when he was throwing at Andre Piper-Jordan’s head.

Let’s flash back a few games to Everett Washington, the Drive-Thru capital of the west coast, where Piper-Jordan, upon hitting a second home run in a game against the Aquasox, turned to his wife and child in attendance and gave them a wave. The Flipper-Kids, showing all the passion that saw them storm to 4th in a division of 4, yelled at PJ the whole way around the bases, accusing him of ’showboating’.

Fast forward to yesterday, with Piper-Jordan, at the plate and leading off the 8th, looking for anything he could find to spark a rally. The pitcher rocked back and let fly with a fastball inside that brushed back Piper-Jordan - hard - with his first pitch, and the C’s hitter wasn’t happy about it.

For his part in things, Cornholio Mickolio, the Everett pitcher, wasn’t in a mood to apologize. Instead, he took three steps towards the Canadians centerfielder and said, "What the F is your problem, bitch?", causing Piper-Jordan to take three steps of his own, with bat in hand, as the benches emptied.

Now, a guy with a short fuse would have charged. A guy with no common sense would have charged. But Piper-Jordan didn’t charge the pitcher - he simply let him know exactly what his problem was, "bitch."

When things calmed down and the umpire called for play to resume, Piper-Jordan did what the smart players do in such a situation - he pounded out a base hit through the hole at short and rounded first, teasing the infield that he might try to stretch it to a double. This, in turn, did not please the Aquasox fans in attendance, one of which booed, and the other of which ate his jumbo burger and fries while mumbling something like "yoo thuck".

So Piper-Jordan’s on first, and Cornholio is pissed. So naturally, PJ took a nice big lead and teased the pitcher, forcing him to attempt several pick-offs as the runner continued jawing at him. Piper-Jordan clearly saw this as an opportunity to spark his teammates, and get the Sox off their game, and as various Flipper-Kid infielders continued to question his parentage, pinch-hitter Anthony ‘Moon’ Rea (yes, I know he’s a pitcher, we’ll get to that later) grounded a ball to second that looked like an easy double play…

Only, Piper-Jordan was NOT about to go out with a whimper.

As the second baseman, Matt Vogel, stepped on second and prepped to throw to first, Piper-Jordan laid into him with a scything Ty Cobb slide that saw Vogel’s legs shoot out from under him like he was in a Jet Li movie.

I swear to god, it was the hardest slide I’ve ever laid eyes on. Hard, yet fair, and did I mention HARD?

The ump, right there, had no problem with the slide, but the Aquasox were furious, and as the benches cleared on the Everett side and every player in blue converged on him like they were about to pile on, Andre Piper-Jordan showed the biggest set of cajones I’ve seen on any player at this level. He got up, dusted himself off, and clamly, casually, provocatively walked off the field, right through the yelled insults and raised fists and converging crowd of haters, with a big, huge grin.

He’d won. He’d beaten them. They’d come after him, and he’d got his base hit, and then busted up a DP, and being as it was the 8th inning of the last game of the year, they wouldn’t have a chance to do a damned thing about it.

Leury Bonilla wanted a piece - he followed Piper-Jordan all the way to the oncoming wave of Canadians players, who promptly let Not-Related-to-Bobby know that if he wanted to take things further, there’d be consequences.

It was perfect. It was glorious. It was Jason Kendall-esque. It was the stuff of The Gamer, the sort of move Chad Boyd would have pulled off had we still been blessed with his presence. On any other night, it would have been the spark needed to pull off the big comeback and come from behind win.

Alas, this C’s team is a small C’s team, and I’m not just referring to height differential. The C’s management had the entire remaining squad come out and give the crowd a wave before the 8th inning, and for a moment, it looked like the closing seconds of Family Feud - ten very tired, slightly stunned-looking people waving at who knows who.

The C’s have been decimated with promotions, demotions and injuries this season, with some 19 of the original squad no longer being in attendance. Jermaine Mitchell had been moved to AA ball the day before (not low-A as I’d erroneously reported), and with only three outfielders left in the entire squad, when Lorenzo "Rollin’ in the Benzo" Macias winded himself attempting a highlight reel, full stretch, face-first catch in left field, there was simply nobody left to put in his place.

Faced with the option of playing backup catcher Gustavo Rosendo in left field, or sticking a pitcher out there, coach Rick Magnante went with the pitcher, and thus Anthony Rea got some outfield (and plate) time.

Yes, that’s how bad it had become.

In the end, there were no grounds for a comeback. Anyone who has played beer league softball knows that the final inning of the final game when you’re out of playoff contention is one ornery-looking affair, and this was no different. The season was over, and even if we lost the last game (and will have to look at that damn scoreboard for the entire off-season), at least DJ PJ got his licks in, and left the Aquasox hurting.

And then came the real fun: The Canadians end-of-season Staff Party.

What went on? Well, I can’t give you detailed descriptions or Google will remove my site from its listings and accuse me of running a porn site. But I can tell you that the beerhawkers took part in their annual burning of the beer shoes, and that what started as a small bonfire by first base became a scene out of the Fantastic Four as an unnamed C’s exec found himself fleeing a trail of flaming gasoline, gas cannister in hand, all the way back to the parking lot.

Oh, and Craig ‘Lefty’ Lefferts threw batting practice.

On that front, let me say that Lefty is the king of all coaches, if not men. Not only was it cool as hell for him to give the entire C’s front office and concessions staff BP, but the dude laughed his ass off the whole time, played it up for everyone, laid us out swinging with curveballs and sliders, and even took a few cuts of his own (most of which I sucked up like a vacuum cleaner at second, just so you know).

And I got to hang with Benny ‘The Jet’ Winslow again, something that I haven’t managed nearly enough this season. He says he’ll be staying local, and would love to coach in Vancouver again next season… Keith Lieppman take note.

A great time was had by all, and then it was over… for me, anyway. As the party moved to Doolans, I opted to go home instead, because seriously, who wants their big night out to be all over a baseball blog, right?

Thanks for the season, kids. Hope I helped more than I hindered.

GAME NOTES: I hereby decree that Kevin Bunch’s nickname goes from Bunch Drunk Love to the new, improved, and after three scoreless innings, much deserved, Honey Bunch’s of Outs. That’s the way to do it, HBO. And a note to Papa Bunch - I got your message, and thanks.

	September 6, 2006
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Everett 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 5 8 0 Vancouver 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 4 box | log W: A. Butler (1-2, 2.76); L: I. Deaza (5-5, 4.18) HR: None.