I once coached a team that lost every game—0-12. It’s harder to do than one would think.  Pure luck ought to get you at least one win. What made it especially frustrating for me was that it was the most talented group of players of any team I’d coached.  But they never played like a “team”—always a bunch of individuals.  A few years later, I had a team that won every game but one.  Certainly talented, but not top-to-bottom like that 0-12 team.

The one loss came to Chauncey in the regular season.  It was a game in which my starting catcher, who had a part-time job, had to work that night.  Barry Douglas was my backup catcher.  A hard-nosed kid, strong arm, big bat.  His one flaw was a penchant for passed balls.  The game went into extra innings.  Chauncey had a runner on third base when a pitch got by Barry, allowing the runner to score.  It turned out to be the winning run.  We still finished in first place, but we had that blemish on our record.

In our postseason tournament we faced Chauncey in the championship game.  Kevin Conz was on the mound for us.  And, we had our starting catcher behind the plate.  I think we all had a bad taste in our mouths from that one loss and were determined to show everyone who the better team was.  And that we did.  Kevin pitched a no-hitter and the game was called after 5 innings because of the mercy rule.  We were, indeed, the best team.  (I think of the phrase from Remember the Titans: “Leave no doubt”.)