HURTIN' UNITS POLISH OFF THE CLEATS...

Hurtin' Units vs. The Dusty Cleats...

Game # 22- August 30, 2010


Hurtin' Units win 22-4


Team Record 16-4-2

Keogh Park- The weather on game day was absolutely perfect, bright sunshine, clear skies and warm temperatures filled the day. At game time the temperature was still high and the humidity was brutal, we were sweating before we had our dusty cleats on.. There were mosquitoes and flying ants all over the park, irritating everyone, but mostly feeding on the flesh of Chris R. and Mikey O.

Today is game day, we have the game against the Dusty Cleats tonight at 8:15, but I decided to get a jump on the blog, while I had a few moments to scribble down my thoughts...The month of August has not been friendly to us. In August, the Hurtin' Units have played four games, not including this game and we have one more ( a makeup game) against the Dogcatchers on Tuesday August 31.  We have a record of 1 win, 2 losses, and 1 tie. In these four games we have allowed 51 runs against and only scored 41 runs for...

I mentioned in a previous blog that the schedule maker was kind to the Units, we only had 5 games scheduled in the month of August plus a makeup... In this is our first year as captains, Mike and I have learned that August is definitely the toughest month to field a team. I had to call Rob F. for a sub, at least one per game, every game in August... 

Last week was the worst; We only had six of our original team on the field in Thursday's  24-14 loss against the Dogcatchers. My thanks again go out to the substitutes that devoted their time to helping us out. Doug Dwyer, Piero Delgreco and Tim Sullivan... Without guys like you we would be playing makeup games into October.

When I look back at the statistics over the month of August, they don't look all that bad, but still compared to the first 3 months of the season, we did fall off a little...In the standings, I think we were fortunate that the Brewjays suffered a few losses in the month also, it has kept us close... As the standings go today the Brewjays are in first place with 34 points and the Hurtin' Units are 2 points behind with one game in hand... The runs for and the runs against we stand at 269 for and 191 against with a run differential of 78, the highest in the league, not too bad considering the 24 runs we gave up last Thursday. Our team On Base Average is at .642 still the highest in the league...I have been hitting the ball really well for the month, but everything I've hit seems to find a piece of leather, if you know what I mean... And despite hitting hard and solidly, my personal OBA has dropped by .71 points over the last 3 games and it will drop more after this game...D'oh!! We also, as of today, have 4 Hurtin' Unit players in the top 25 OBA standings...

I'm looking forward to what we can do over the next 5 remaining games, we should have most of our vacationing players back by the first week in September and that would be a great time to get back on a winning trek towards the playoffs...

At game time we had 9 regulars back in our lineup...Chris N., Al H., and Paul Gyori were all away on vacation. I haven't heard anything from Paul recently in England, I certainly hope hasn't met up with Jack the Ripper or Werewolves of London...LOL Perhaps Pauly is a secret agent on assignment with James Bond... Secret Agent 005'2". I could see Paul as a secret agent... Secret Agent

   
                        
                          1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th    Total  
   Hurtin' Units    3       3      4      7       1      4      0        22    
                                                                                         
   Dusty Cleats    0      2       0       0      1      0      1         4             

I think the boxscore tells an obvious picture of what happened in this game. I could do an inning by inning recap, at least the things I remember, but we won and I think I would rather focus on the game tonight... Maybe a few things about the game against the Cleats...

This game was exactly what Hurtin' Units needed going into the playoffs. A nice little confidence booster... After a rough month of August so far, where we went 1-2-1, we looked like the Hurtin' Units of June and July. Some may say that it was only the Dusty Cleats, the team at the bottom of the standings, but I would say that any team in this league can beat another on any given night. When I look at the Dusty Cleats roster, I can't understand why the reside at the bottom. I really think with players like Rob McCarron (a solid team player) and Scott Peters ( a solid baseball player) leading the way, the Cleats would be higher in the standings...Last night, Scott made two outstanding grabs at third base, but just couldn't finish the plays, I would love to have this guy on my team anytime....

This game was really lopsided and at times I felt for the guys playing for the Cleats, they have had a tough season...but everyone makes the playoffs and a good run can go a long way...

The Units defense was stellar in this game only allowing 4 runs over the 7 innings. The outfield made several spectacular catches and Jimmy Mac threw out a runner, on a force play, at second base. The infield was solid. Robin ( shopvac) Dickson was vacuuming up every ball hit near him and had numerous outs at every base. Most of the team hit really well, but some are of us are still finding the gloves of our opponents. Oh yea, someone on our team struck out in this game, can't seem to remember who it was... Oh yea, now I remember, it was Paul, I mean me...

Tonight we finally get to play the makeup game with the Dogcatchers, it's only been two months, but it's time to get the game off the books... I sent Paul a next game reminder, as I do before every game, telling him about the makeup game, he actually thought we were going to wear makeup...He even suggested I wear a ruby red lipstick...LOL.

Last Thursday night, August 26, with only 9 players, 3 of which were subs, we were beaten and kicked and then beaten some more by the Dogcatchers. Final score 24-14, our worst loss of the season. I really wouldn't mind if we went out and beat them up like we did the Cleats. We have something to prove tonight and hopefully we are up for the challenge... UNITS UNRELENTING!!