The Number 17 on Dave Forster's jersey dates to his days as a schoolboy stud, when he was the captain of the baseball team at Wakefield High, and -- to the best knowledge of anyone in the 95 League offices -- it isn't meant to pay homage to John Havlicek. Heck, Forster wasn't even alive when Hondo was with the Celtics. But he's quickly becoming as clutch as the man who once stole the ball.

After the Bricklayers squandered a scoring chance in the top of the frame, Forster capped a comeback in the bottom of the inning, slugging a solo shot for the third walkoff homer of his career and giving the Violators a 15-14 win when the mammoth blast made its return to Earth.

Chasing four runs when they came to bat in the sixth, the Blue scored five times over their final two at-bats to start the season with a mark on the left side of the ledger. The rally began with a homer from Matt Hodges (5-for-5), then continued when Mike Strout (3-for-3, 2 BB) singled. Steve Gorynski and Geoff Mathison followed by delivering consecutive doubles, with Mathison's bringing the Violators within a run, and when Chris Terfry (4-for-5) followed with a two-bagger one out later, the game was tied.

Still, though, the Bricklayers had their chance for the win. After earlier becoming the first to ever homer in his initial 95 League at-bat, Pat Leighton (4-for-6) singled and took second on an outfielder's error. Josh Asquith then slammed a double off the fence in center, and though Leighton failed to score after fearing the ball could be caught, the Red had two in scoring position and nobody out. But there they'd stay. Three grounders to third followed, the middle of which saw Gorynski nab Leighton at the dish, and the magical escape was complete.

The rest was up to Hammerin' Hondo

As any observant passenger knows, on the path to Richardson's, in Lynnfield en route to Middleton, there's a road called Strout Avenue. But if Mike Strout can keep up the prodigious pace of his first day as a 95 Leaguer, it won't be the only street adorning his surname. They're libel to pop up all along the Interstate.

Strout had a debut like a little boy dreams about when a baseball is first delivered to his crib, clubbing four homers and collecting seven hits in the day's eight official at-bats, the final four of his nine RBI adding to a 20-9 Violator rout that was never really close.

The Blue scored 14 times in the first four innings, including a seven-run spurt that broke things open in the third. Matt Hodges (4-for-7), Dave Forster (4-for-7, 4 runs) and Dan D'Onofrio (4-for-6, 4 runs, 3 doubles) had big games as well, but no one had the impact of Strout, who routinely ripped his home runs to the far side of the bike track beyond right field, several traveling an estimated 390 feet.

For that, the Bricklayers had no answer. The top of their lineup -- Bryan Sweeney, Chris Lutkevich and Sean Timmons -- scored twice apiece over the first two innings, but after that the Red was futile. Sweeney finished 5-for-6, capping an 8-for-12 twinbill, and Timmons went 4-for-6 in the nightcap, but Shawn Theriault was the only other Brick who had more than two hits. He was 3-for-6.

Impressive, yes. But not quite street-naming worthy.

Sunday’s early action was going as expected. A day after summer’s signature party noon came too soon for many of those at Sullivan Field, and so sluggish bats had made slap-hitters of even the most mighty.

But like the beasts of Jurassic Park, these sleeping giants would not slumber forever. Instead, after entering the fourth in a 1-all tie, the Violators busted out over the fifth and sixth, scoring eight runs in each frame to come away with a 21-5 victory that moved their mark to 3-0 on the still-young season.

Dave Forster’s conspicuous absence from Mathislam translated to a big day at the dish, going 4-for-5 with a couple of doubles and two homers that helped him move within one of the league lead. Those long balls helped build the Blue a 5-1 lead as they entered the fifth, though after Sean Timmons slugged a tater to bring the Bricklayers within three, the rest of the Violators stepped up to lead the surge.

With the Bricks keeping wary of Forster, it was everyone else who did the damage – the same look-one-way-strike-from-the-other strategy the raptors used on the aforementioned island. In the midst of the rally, six of eight Violators knocked in runs, each of them scored at least once, and even Chris Mathison – who’d homered twice in 243 career at-bats – blasted a three-run bomb to emphatically seal the deal.

Shawn Theriault had a similar achievement, homering for the first time in his 160th at-bat, but it wasn’t enough for the Bricklayers. Totaling just 10 hits – to the Violators’ 23 – they never really woke up.

His team still winless after a week and a half, Bricklayers’ General Manager Jeff Peterson found it a fitting time to step in. The team’s prized offseason acquisition hadn’t got off to the start he was expected to, so Peterson made a visit from the front office to the field, and talked to Josh “Quiefy Mo” Asquith in hopes of firing the big fella up.

It worked. And the result was a win. Asquith sparked a late rally, then made a spirited sprint to first to produce the triumphant tally in the Bricklayers’ 10-9 win in Sunday’s nightcap, giving the Red their first victory while the Violators saw their lead sliced to two games.

Asquith’s breakout began in the fifth, when he doubled and scored on J.P. Mancuso’s two-run single that brought the Bricks within one, 6-5. The deficit would balloon to three by the time he next came up, though he quickly saw that the gap be gone. Slamming a double he unloaded the bases, tying the game before Mancuso – out of semi-retirement with a 3-for-5 effort – delivered another hit to give the team a 9-8 lead.

Their unbeaten record at stake, the Violators evened the score when Dave Forster (5-for-5) doubled and scored on Shawn Wallace’s seventh-inning sacrifice fly, but that just set the stage for some drama. After two were out, Sean Timmons lifted trouble to the right-field line, and after a daring dash to third, stood there with a triple.

That brought Asquith to the plate again, and though he didn’t hammer the ball, he made up for it with heart and hustle. After grounding to short he tore down the line, and when Forster made a mini-bobble, the play became much closer. Forster still made a good throw, and first baseman Dan D’Onofrio made a Gumby-like stretch, but Asquith reached the bag with a foot-first slide an instant before the ball arrived. He was safe. The Bricklayers had a win. And, more importantly, signs of the savior they were looking for.

The call was followed immediately by the obvious question. When Violator Mike Strout – the league leader in homers – dialed manager Matt Hodges to tell him he wouldn’t be attending Sunday’s game, it was hard not to wonder who’d replace him in the lineup. The Blue boast the game’s best 2-3-4 combination, but missing their true clean-up man they were in need of someone to help anchor the lineup.

And Dan D’Onofrio was the answer. Coming in as a career .361 hitter, the shortstop delivered five hits in his six at-bats, and drove in three as the Violators didn’t miss a beat without Strout, bashing the Bricklayers, 11-6, to open a three-game lead for first place.

Matt Hodges struck out in the victory.

The Bricks actually led until the fourth, when a 4-1 lead quickly turned to a 5-4 deficit, and then again in the fifth, when their 6-5 lead was erased with a three-run Violator rally. D’Onofrio was key in that frame, doubling home Matt Hodges with the first run, then scoring on Nick Knockemin’s single. Dave Forster followed by plating Knockemin with the second of his three hits, and that put the Bricks in a hole they couldn’t climb out of – especially after Brian Fetky, Knockemin and Shawn Wallace each added a run-scoring single in the seventh to provide additional padding.

Pat Leighton was one of the Bricks’ few bright spots, going 4-for-5 and scoring three times from the leadoff spot, but none of his teammates had more than two hits, and two others went hitless. So as much as the game started with the Violators wondering who’d bring the big stick – in the end, it was a bigger question for the Bricklayers.

Earlier in the afternoon, as Dave D’Onofrio stood on third base while Dave Forster fielded the position, the two discussed the possibility of an inside-the-park home run happening at Sullivan Field. Ultimately the two came to the consensus that it could only happen if an outfielder fell in pursuit of the ball. So it made a lot of sense, two innings later, when Forster ripped a falling liner to right that – as D’Onofrio went into a full dive – he had designs on circling the bases.

But unfortunately for the Violator slugger, they don’t even let you go to first when the ball is caught.

D’Onofrio, with the speed of a sloth and the gracefulness of an 18-wheeler, gloved Forster’s blast just before it reached the turf, preserving a 9-7 Bricklayer lead that turned into a win one out later and brought the Red within a weekend sweep of the league’s top spot.

Like they did in the earlier game, the Bricks came out swinging, following up a one-run first with a three-run second – but, again, the Violators answered with a big inning. Sparked by a Shawn Wallace triple, two safeties from Forster, and five straight hits at one point, the Blue scored six times to take a 6-5 lead to the fourth.

Unlike earlier in the game, though, this time the Red responded. The very next inning, D’Onofrio doubled and scored on Shawn Theriault’s single, Pat Leighton plated Paul DiSanto, and then Leighton came across on Sean Timmons’s RBI safety. An inning later Chris Lutkevich crossed on Leighton’s fourth hit of the game (and 8th in an 11 at-bat day), and it was 9-7. It stayed that way to the seventh, thanks in part to a Bricklayer defense that got great work from Leighton at the hot corner, and as a team committed only one error after the first batter of the game. D’Onofrio’s diving gamble was almost an error in judgment. But, in the end, it came up aces.

It was going, well, as expected – and exactly as the script suggested it might. Early in the 95 League season, most games progressed along a similar pattern: the Bricklayers took the game’s first lead for the sixth time in seven starts, only to see it sliced by a big Violator rally, and ultimately erased by a clutch clout from Dave Forster. And, in fact, as Sunday’s opener went to extra innings tied at 9, the only incomplete aspect was a victory for the Blue.

But this tale had a twist before it ended.

Instead of wilting as is typical when the pressure piles on, the Bricks responded to the challenge in the eighth, scoring four times after the first two batters were both retired, and coming through with a 13-11 win that stretched their win streak to a season-high two. Sean Timmons and Dave D’Onofrio landed the big blows in the frame, Timmons singling home Pat Leighton before D’Onofrio snapped an 0-for-5 skid with a three-run homer to left.

At the time, the tater appeared to be insurance, opening a four-run bulge for the Red – but it proved a worthwhile policy in the bottom of the inning. Chris Mathison and Vin Capolupo each doubled and scored, but when Bricklayer pitching was able to orchestrate its way through the top of the order, the tying run never even reached base.

The win validated a monster day for Timmons, who also homered in the process of going 5-for-6 with seven RBI, and spoiled a big day for Forster, whose four hits were all four extra bases (two doubles, two homers).

The last of those was a two-run equalizer in the bottom of the seventh, also scoring Steve Gorynski (4-for-6, 4 runs) – but then, suddenly, the script was flipped.

It had been 371 long days, dating to July 9 of last year, and – as the legendary Fergie once said so sweetly – the Bricklayers were missing first place like a child misses its blanket. But now, at last, they have been reunited. With a 16-11 victory over the Violators, the Bricklayers evened the season series at four games apiece, and by virtue of the first tiebreaker (more runs (6-5) in the second inning of the weekend’s initial game), the Big Red Machine now sit on the inside track to home-field advantage for the World Series.

The onslaught started early, when the Bricks answered a two-run Violator first with a five-run response that saw five of the first six hitters reach safely. Both Dave D’Onofrio’s single and Jason Brooks’s triple scored two runs, and started 3-for-5 efforts, but it was the top of the order that really keyed the rest of the attack.

From the leadoff spot, Pat Leighton went 4-for-5 and scored twice, while Chris Lutkevich rewarded his manager’s faith by matching Leighton’s four hits and also scoring four times. It capped a 7-for-10 afternoon for the non-basketball pride of Lithuania, who has gone 11-for-20 since starting the season 1-for-10.

For the Violators, Dave Forster was usually dominant, going 4-for-6 with three doubles, while Vin Capolupo marked his return after a two-year boycott with four hits, and Mike Strout needed only one pitch to prove his deadliness when wielding metal. His first hack after the wood bat was removed from his hands landed about 35 feet over the fence in right-center. It was his first homer in three weeks.

Ultimately, however, it was the Bricks who landed somewhere they hadn't been in an even longer amount of time.

Sometimes the story is told by a signature play, an impressive effort or a clutch hit with the game on the line. And other times it's told simply by the numbers. The latter was the case in Sunday's first game, as the Bricklayers belted the ball all around Sullivan Field, firing on each of their seven cylinders and blasting their way to a 23-7 victory over the Violators.

And the individual numbers were nearly as impressive as the margin of victory. Consider:

Every hitter had at least two hits, while five had at least four hits.

Every player scored at least two runs, while six players scored three or more.

Three players had at least four runs batted in.

The team scored at least once in every inning, and assembled rallies of five, six and eight runs.

Combined, the team went 32-for-50, good for a .640 batting average.

Starting from the top, contributions came from everywhere in the lineup. Pat Leighton (6-for-8), scored three runs and knocked in three more. Chris Lutkevich scored thrice as well. Sean Timmons (4-for-7) had a double and a homer on the way to four RBI, while Dave D'Onofrio (5-for-6) homered twice in the second inning among six RBI, and Josh Asquith (3-for-7) scored five runs. Paul DiSanto upped his career average by going 5-for-7, while Bryan Sweeney arrived late but made as many outs as if he never showed up at all -- zero -- going an impressive 7-for-7 with four RBI.
Things began promisingly for the Violators, who scored four times in the top of the first thanks to Mike Strout's two-run homer, but the lead was gone by the bottom of the frame. Geoff Mathison had a good day with three doubles among his four hits, and Dave Forster doubled and tripled to go 4-for-5, but in the end it was all for naught.

Sometimes there's just too much strength in numbers.

Riding high after exploding for 23 runs in the opener, Sunday's second game looked as though it would pick up where the previous tilt had left off. Pat Leighton went Rickey Henderson, and homered to lead off the game, and when Sean Timmons and Bryan Sweeney packaged a double and a single later in the inning, it was quickly a two-run bulge. It would be three by the bottom of the fifth.

But then -- like most freights in Robert Fulton's early days -- the ship simply ran out of steam. Caught when the Violators rallied for three in the fifth, and passed when the Blue posted four in the sixth, the Bricklayers couldn't complete the sweep and thus fell into a first-place tie by virtue of a 10-8 Violator triumph.

Timmons (5-for-6, two doubles), Sweeney (3-for-5) and Josh Asquith (home run, five RBI) were the primary reasons for the Bricklayers' early edge, but the Blue pieced together their fifth-inning rally beginning at the bottom of the order. Nick Cicchetti reached on an error, and after a popout, Dave Forster and Mike Strout each singled, Strout's making it 6-4. That brought Geoff Mathison to the plate, and all he did was continue his torrid afternoon with his fifth double, plating Forster and putting Strout on third so Dan D'Onofrio's floater to center would go as a sacrifice fly. Just like that, it was a new game.

Chris Lutkevich singled and Sweeney drove him in to give the Bricks a brief lead, again, but the Violators ensured its brevity by coming out with blazing bats in the bottom of the frame. Cicchetti, Steve Gorynski and Forster began the inning with three straight two-baggers, then Strout cleared the sacks with a two-run clout that marked his league-leading seventh homer of the season. That made it 10-7, and although the Bricks answered with a run in their last at-bat, the tying run never got out of the batter's box.

With a ground ball back to the mound, their four-game winning streak was closed; and the standings were as as close as ever.

In a word, the 95 League’s proverbial scoreboard could be best described as volatile. Demanding a “subject to change” disclaimer, it usually stays the same for about as long as Lindsay Lohan stays sober after rehab – and, by now, you needn’t be an ardent reader of celeblogger Perez Hilton to understand how brief that could be. So while the Bricklayers took a one-run lead by scoring four times in the top of Sunday’s fourth, the lead didn’t figure to stick. And when the Violators put the first three batters aboard in the bottom of the frame, at least a tie seemed all but certain.

History, however, wouldn’t have it. Interfering in the form of the league’s first bases-loaded, no-out rally that didn’t result in a single run, the new precedent protected a Red cushion that stood the rest of the way and yielded a 10-8 triumph that moved them a game ahead in the season standings.

The Violator fourth started with great promise, but ended with even greater disappointment. After Steve Gorynski hammered a hot shot to first that was too tough to handle, Matt Hodges and Geoff Mathison each followed with singles that packed the sacks. Still there was none out, so when Chris Mathison floated an infield pop to short, there wasn’t yet cause for concern. Even after Dan D’Onofrio’s shallow fly to left – too shallow to score Gorynski – there was no need to panic.

But once Nick Cicchetti skied the fly that came down in the glove of left fielder Dave D’Onofrio, opportunity was officially lost. The club would accumulate just two hits the rest of the way, getting only one runner into scoring position, and never truly threatening to overtake a balanced Bricklayer team.

Bryan Sweeney (four RBI), D’Onofrio and J.P. Mancuso each had four hits for the winners, which played without three quarters of their starting infield and yet were still – like the tabloids when Lohan’s out in Hollywood – winners.

Check Home Depot, probably in either the wallpaper or flooring aisles. Or maybe Bed, Bath and Beyond. Wherever he is, Frank the Tank needs to be found – because the Bricklayers have gone streaking. With their sixth win in seven games, the Big Red Machine not only swept the weekend set for the second time in three weeks, but also took a franchise-best two-game lead in the standings by beating the Violators, 13-7, at Sullivan Field.

Picking up right where they left off in Game 1, the Red came out with bats ablaze, scoring five times in the first and twice more in the second. The latter rally was keyed by J.P. Mancuso, who came out of semi-retirement with a hot stick and slugged a two-run homer that was part of his 7-for-11, six RBI day.

Bryan Sweeney also had an enormous day, jacking a three-run bomb in the opening inning – his first homer since 2005 – and finishing the afternoon with seven hits and eight RBI. Dave D’Onofrio also had seven hits, and he was joined in slugging two doubles by Chris Lutkevich, who hadn’t had an extra-base hit all year. Lutkevich finished the day 5-for-14, but did score five times to give him 17 runs and 15 hits in six games since moving to the second spot in the lineup.

Rookie Erik Guerrette also added his first hit to the attack, and scored in a five-run sixth that lent the Bricks some extra insurance. The Violators had sliced the deficit to one when Matt Hodges singled and scored on Nick Cicchetti’s sacrifice fly, and Chris Mathison (3-for-4) scored on Steve Gorynski’s single after reaching via error, though it all proved too little, too late.

By then, the old school ways of the league were out. And the Bricklayers had taken over the teaching.

Storm clouds are nature’s way of warning that change is imminent, so the threatening skies above Sunday afternoon were a good sign for the Bricklayers. Often the bridesmaid over the 95 League’s first two season, they’d arrived at the World Series in a different position than they’d been in the past, favorites for the first time thanks to the home-field advantage that was a product of the proverbial pennant that whipped in the wind. Indeed, change was in the air – and, in Game 1 at least, the Red made sure it became reality.

Taking command with a five-run fourth that erased a two-run deficit, the Bricks gained a one game lead in the best-of-three series by scoring a 15-10 triumph that saw them score 11 times over their final three trips to the plate.

Things actually started solidly for the Violators, leading off the game with the first of three doubles from Steve Gorynski (4-for-6, 3 runs) and another two-bagger from Mike Strout (3-for-5, 2 doubles), then by grabbing a two-run edge when Nick Cicchetti scored ahead of Gorynski on Matt Hodges’s double in the fourth, but in the bottom of that frame the Bricks began to assert themselves.

Josh Asquith, Paul DiSanto, Pat Leighton and Bryan Sweeney strung together four straight hits – three of which were doubles – and suddenly it was 9-6 in favor of the Red. Dan D’Onofrio (4-for-6, 2 doubles) would get a little bit back with his second career home run a half inning later, but by the time they came up again, the Bricks’ bats still hadn’t cooled. Four more hits generated four more scores in the fifth, before a couple of dropped flyballs conspired for two runs of added cushion in the sixth.

His team chasing six as he batted in the seventh, Chris Terfry (4-for-6, 2 doubles, 3 RBI) joined D’Onofrio as an unlikely home run hitter with the first of his career, but it was too little to offset a Bricklayer offense that good big efforts from throughout the lineup. Sweeney had a team-high four hits, while Asquith and J.P. Mancuso had three apiece, DiSanto scored three times and Leighton knocked home a trio.

Sean Timmons, meanwhile, was particularly enormous across the board. Setting the tone with a two-run homer in the second, he finished 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBI. It marked a significant improvement for the center fielder, who entered the game with a postseason average of 117 points lower than his success rate during the regular season, but really such a development wasn’t all that startling.

After all, Sunday was a day designated for change.

Had it not been for Beckham to the Galaxy, the early June deal that sent Josh Asquith to the Bricklayers would’ve been the biggest blockbuster in all of sports this summer. And Sunday afternoon – with the game, the series and the season on the line – the Quieffy Mo made abundantly clear the reasons why. Plainly. Simply. Purely. He’s a winner.

Capping a comeback for the ages with a clutch, two-run, two-out triple that tied the game in the top of the seventh, and scoring himself when J.P. Mancuso singled a batter later, Asquith steered the Bricklayers to an utterly astounding 15-14 victory that enabled them to sweep the Violators and become outright 95 League champions for the first time. It also marked the club's eighth win its final nine games, and its fourth consecutive playoff win.

For most of Game 2 it seemed as though a winner-take-all rubber match was all but certain – until the Red kept rambling through the batter’s box and came up with the winning rally. It started innocently enough, with consecutive singles from Bryan Sweeney and Sean Timmons before Dave D’Onofrio’s flyball went as the first out, but from that point the bats got hot. Asquith singled for the fourth straight at-bat, scoring Sweeney. Mancuso singled to plate Timmons. Paul DiSanto reached on a shortstop’s error, loading the bases for Pat Leighton, who plated Asquith and Mancuso with a liner laced to left-center.

Suddenly it was 14-10 – after starting the frame at 14-6 – and after stranding 13 runners over the first six innings, the Bricks were just finding their stroke. With Sweeney delivering his second hit of the frame, and bringing DiSanto around from third, Timmons came to the dish as the tying run. Already he’d homered twice in the game, and three times on a day that saw him finish 8-for-11, but in this case his single to left was almost as good. It loaded the bases, and when D’Onofrio skied a sacrifice fly to left, it was a 14-12 game – though there were two outs as Asquith came to the plate again.

He represented the go-ahead run, but with just one home run on the year, he instead instructed D’Onofrio to put the pitch on the outer half so he could lift it to right. Nick Cicchetti was playing well off the line, so Asquith surmised the speedy Timmons would be able to score from first on anything to the corner, so he made that his target.

Bull’s eye.

With a looping liner, Asquith landed the ball a couple feet inside the foul line and the ball skipped toward the fence that separates the field from a bike track. Sweeney scored easily, and with Timmons pedaling from the crack he followed him without a throw, and just like that the game was evened up at 14 apiece. Mancuso would ensure that deadlock didn’t last long, though, singling through the left side to finish a nine-run frame that gave the Bricks a one-run lead and marked the biggest comeback in World Series history. The previous record was a seven-run, seventh-inning splurge registered by the Blue during Game 1 of the 2006 set.

Still, with the way the Violators were swinging the bat yesterday, the lead resulting from the rally didn’t seem to safe in the bottom of the last. Especially after Dan D’Onofrio and Chris Mathison started the inning with two straight singles. On the day, the Blue had already hit eight home runs, already slugged 11 doubles, and already amassed 38 hits in 83 at-bats, so a one-run cushion didn’t seem comfortable.

But the Bricklayers could sit on it nevertheless. Asquith got the first out by cutting down the lead runner on a nice play in the hole at shortstop, and Timmons the second with a grab in medium center. That brought Gorynski to the plate, and when his rocket reached Dave D’Onofrio’s glove on the fly the Red were able to avoid facing Mike Strout or Matt Hodges (two homers apiece in Game 2), and rightfully able to celebrate a championship.

Accordingly, the infielders huddled near second base and began to bounce. Soon the outfielders joined, as did General Manager Jeff Peterson. Seven of the eight were celebrating the first solo title of his career – while one was enjoying having etched his name in history. With the win, Asquith became the only player in league history to win a title in each of its three seasons. He’s plainly, simply, a winner.

And, in 2007, so are the Bricklayers.