The final game in Hot Chasers history ends in -- gasp! -- a season-ending 12th straight defeat

CONCORD -- Over. At long last, over.

After a dozen games of heartbreak, injury and deficits -- in no discernible order -- the Hot Chasers are no more, literally, figuratively and any -ly you want to add. Frankly, we're too tired at this point.

The summer season came to a big of a whimpering end, rather than a crashing conclusion, as the last game of the Hot Chasers existence was pretty much the same as the other 11, a 24-8 mashing at the hands of the FCS Happy Hour.

Thus the Hot Chasers lived out their motto to the extremely bitter end -- if you're going to be bad, be very, very bad. Don't leave a whole lotta room for doubt. We're talking 0-12 bad, 12 losses in a row bad, no wins an entire frickin' season bad.

The final game was bankrupt in the win column, but hardly so in effort. The strong efforts accumulated even before the game began, actually. Center fielder Joe Roderick, after fending off questions of his possible patronage of Disneyland all week from world-class needler Dennis Pimentel, made hurried rearranged travel plans to answer the Hot Chasers call. And manager Chris Wagnon continued to nurse him troubling hamstring injury to make it to the post -- and sustained more injuries during the contest in a no good deed goes unpunished kinda way.

Matt Peterson stepped in nobly in the absence of Rick Hurd and Mike Wolcott to toe the slab and did stalwart service on the mound. Jose Carlos Fajardo shook off the yokes of parenthood and his own shoulder miseries to make his Hot Chasers debut, playing right field.

Neil Hayes summoned the spirit of Babe Ruth -- fresh off of authoring a three-part series on the Bambino -- and played solidly at shortstop, a feat even the Yankee immortal never attempted. Peterson and Luke Abbott accounted for three RBI apiece, and Mike Gale singled smartly in his last two at-bats. David Belli singled and scored a run in the first inning, then after the game bypassed the drinking part to head over to spend time with fallen comrade Mike Lefkow. Of such character are Hot Chasers named.

And we must mention that Nicky Hayes is perhaps the finest bat boy D-league softball could ever hope to know. Thanks, Nicky.

But it's over, done, through. The Hot Chasers have had their character questioned, but their heads were held high all season long, and what did not kill them, although it nicked them quite a bit, made them stronger.

And when those battle-tested Hot Chasers take the field again, most likely in Walnut Creek fall league, it won't be as the Hot Chasers. A new name, thanks to Hayes the elder, has taken root. It's the Muckrakers. All hail the Muckrakers, and God save the Hot Chasers! Hellllleeeeeewwwwwww!!!!!!