"Baseball is the only field of endeavour where a man can succeed 3 times out of 10 and be considered a good performer".- Ted Williams
Hurtin' Units win 26-18
Team Record-19-4-2
Tottenham- I have to tell you guys I was extremely disappointed to show up at the diamond on Wednesday evening and see the lights were not working again. I was really looking forward to the game. I got back into town early on Wednesday afternoon, I went to Coventry Park for batting practise, went home and prepared for our game and for my Thursday and then took a 3 hour nap. When I take a 3 hour nap, you know I'm serious about playing our game. Anyway, the game was canceled and fortunately it has been rescheduled for Monday September 13 at Coventry Park at 9:30pm...
I think I was more disappointed about the game being canceled because we had a full team, probably the first or second time since early in the season. There are 3 players on the Hurtin' Units that have a perfect attendance record- Jens L., Jimmy Mac., and myself.
3.In 2004 I joined the T.O.T. League, I was drafted by Captain Frank McMann, our team name was “ FEAR FACTOR” ( I still have the shirt). I was working different shifts (my shifts would change every 4 to 8 weeks) and unfortunately I was missing a considerable number of games. It got to the point where I decided to quit the league. I didn't really want to (I really enjoy playing this game), but it was getting tougher and tougher to call Frank week after week saying that I couldn't make this week's game...I did quit mid-season and didn't sign up again in 2005. In 2006 my shifts were better and I rejoined the T.O.T league, my attendance has been stellar since...
In 2006 I was drafted by the Hot Tub Woodies and I had a fun season playing for captains Jeff Dancey and Ed Hopkins. It was also the first opportunity I ever had to play with my 2010 co-captain Mike Olliffe. I still have very fond moments playing for a lousy Woodies team, but a excellent, fun group of guys. Some nights at the Legion there would be tears rolling down our faces from laughing so hard, good memories of playing in this league...
I'm glad Chris N. has hung in for his first season (unlike myself in 2004), the first season is the most difficult and now that he has a better understanding of the ins and outs of the league, he will be better prepared for upcoming seasons. I'm sure before this season is all said and done, Chris will have made solid contributions to the Hurtin' Units...The picture to the right is of Ted Williams, the last batter to hit over .400 in the majors...sure looks a lot like Nyzee...
On Thursday afternoon (Sept. 8) Chris Ross sent out an e-mail regarding the Keogh Park lights. Apparently, a crapped out timer was the cause of the non-functional lights on Wednesday evening and when fixing the timer, the town workers also discovered another problem, a squirrel had entered an access panel on the lights, nested inside and chewed on wire which is believed to be the cause of the light problems over the season.
The Kortright Centre is on approximately 800 acres of land on the Humber river watershed. On the property there are 13 plus buildings plus a private residence. The main building is a 40,000 square foot, multi-level, post and beam structure with open teaching areas, administrative offices, gift shop, cafe, and theatre. School groups assemble in the main building before venturing out on the property for the nature programs...
The other buildings on the property are used for maintenance, educational programs, storage, demonstrations, etc. On the property there was also a barn, bee apiary, battery house, demonstration cottage, etc. My job was to oversee and maintain the grounds and structures on the property. Some of the buildings were seasonally serviced with water and hydro...
I mention the Kortright years only because I am very familiar with the problems that wildlife can cause. The squirrel chewing on the wire at Keogh Park are the kinds of problems I saw over and over in my 10 years. I can recall having issues with all kinds of wildlife, raccoons, squirrels, mice, birds, bees, beavers, snakes, bats, etc...I think the most annoying wildlife were the raccoons and mice... Raccoons would get into the garbage and we were always trying to find ways to stop them, they would also steal lunches of the school kids and do their business all over the outdoor shelters... Mice would find their way into the main building, they would chew holes in gift shop bags of bird seed and over run the building in the winter months...I saw mice that used conduit to travel through the building and then saw what happens when they try to nest in a breaker panel, can you say electrocution. Squirrels would nest in the exterior of the building and they would constantly be trying to get food from bird feeders, they were the most persistent animal I ever saw...
Game Day.
Our 25th game of the regular season is against the Lucky Stiffs. Every time I play against the Stiffs I have a flush of memories of when I played with them back in 2008. Sure the team is almost completely changed with the exception of captains John and Clayton, but the shirt colour remains the same and that's what brings back the memories for me. Our teammate Jerry Wallace also played for the 2008 edition of the Stiffs. In 2008, the Lucky Stiffs finished the regular season in the middle of the pack ( 7th place I think), but managed to get on a roll in the playoffs and rode that wave all the way to the T.O.T. championship. The team had some really good chemistry with players like Jake Anderson, Neil Pendlebury, Murray Saunders, Clayton Campbell, etc... But for me the guy who was the straw that stirred the drink was Rob McCarron. Rob is solid as a player, most of us would agree, but it was what Rob brought off the field that created the chemistry.
After every game, back at the Legion, Rob would buy a round of Lava Lamp shooters ( tequila rose and black sambuca) and we would drink in unison and this became the Lucky Stiffs trademark for the season. In the playoffs this ritual continued, we picked up bottles of tequila rose and sambuca at the L.C.B.O. and plastic shot glasses at the dollar store. After every game of the playoffs, we would pour out a shot for the entire team and toast our team. We toasted all the way to the T.O.T Championship...
Post Game September 14, 2010.
Coventry Park- The night was cool, with next to nothing for clouds, a quarter moon shone in the western sky and there was absolutely no wind at all for this makeup game against the Lucky Stiffs.
At game time we has our full squad, 12 guys and it was great to clinch the league title with the team we will be fielding in the playoffs.
I was reading the T.O.T website yesterday and it was saying that the Hurtin' Units had unofficially won the league title, I believe that we now can call it official. I really wanted to win the season pennant on points and not have it decided by a head to head tie breaker. Congratulations to us, we played well all season, but now comes the real test, the practise games are over...
Boxscore:
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th Total
Hurtin' Units 5 6 2 5 3 5 0 26
Lucky Stiffs 3 1 3 1 2 5 3 18
The game last night was a high scoring affair, probably the most runs we scored in a single game all season. The defense was not as sharp as most games, but we got the job done. Both teams were hitting the baseball hard and there were even a couple of homeruns...I forgot to write down or take a copy of or take a picture of the game sheet, so I can't really produce much in the way of a game summary or a boxscore. D'oh!! I'll stop by the Legion to see if it's still there, maybe write out the boxscore.... Stopped by, it was still there, I wrote out the score.
I can tell you a couple of things I do remember about the game... I think we should be calling the police (video link)... because both Al and Paul we robbed over and over all evening long... Or perhaps Dr. Evil has changed the positioning of the “tractor beam” toward Al and Paul, all I know is these guys were stinging the baseball hard all night and didn't have a hit to show for it. It's good to see the baseball gods have a sense of humour... One more thing I do remember was the game ending double play by Robin. We were against the ropes in the bottom of the 7th and this play got us out of a tight jamb. I'm sure there are other things I should remember, but for now I'll prepare for our final regular season game against the Wild this evening... UNITS UNTANGLE!!
I think I was more disappointed about the game being canceled because we had a full team, probably the first or second time since early in the season. There are 3 players on the Hurtin' Units that have a perfect attendance record- Jens L., Jimmy Mac., and myself.
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| Ted Williams or Chris Nyers? |
I really felt bad for Chris Nyers on Wednesday night, the guy makes it out for the game and the lights are out and the game is canceled, plus other guys are giving him the gears about missing games... I'm inclined to cut Chris all kinds of slack when he misses games, for several reasons:
1.Chris has been, for the most part, good about letting us know when he can't make the games. Shift work, kids and other extracurricular activities can be tough to schedule around in your first year in the league.
2. I've done shift work, to some extent I still do, and there are numerous others in the league that face the same challenge, some even rated quite high in the league. There are some teams that miss their best players for half the season, could you imagine if Robin missed half our games, where would we be in the standings?
3.In 2004 I joined the T.O.T. League, I was drafted by Captain Frank McMann, our team name was “ FEAR FACTOR” ( I still have the shirt). I was working different shifts (my shifts would change every 4 to 8 weeks) and unfortunately I was missing a considerable number of games. It got to the point where I decided to quit the league. I didn't really want to (I really enjoy playing this game), but it was getting tougher and tougher to call Frank week after week saying that I couldn't make this week's game...I did quit mid-season and didn't sign up again in 2005. In 2006 my shifts were better and I rejoined the T.O.T league, my attendance has been stellar since...
I'm glad Chris N. has hung in for his first season (unlike myself in 2004), the first season is the most difficult and now that he has a better understanding of the ins and outs of the league, he will be better prepared for upcoming seasons. I'm sure before this season is all said and done, Chris will have made solid contributions to the Hurtin' Units...The picture to the right is of Ted Williams, the last batter to hit over .400 in the majors...sure looks a lot like Nyzee...
For ten years (1987-1997), I worked for the T.R.C.A. ( Toronto and Region Conservation Authority). I worked for the Kortright Centre for Conservation, located in Vaughan and the position I held was superintendent. For those of you not familiar with Kortright, it is an outdoor education center that is open to the public and also provides programming for 70,000 school children annually...
The Kortright Centre is on approximately 800 acres of land on the Humber river watershed. On the property there are 13 plus buildings plus a private residence. The main building is a 40,000 square foot, multi-level, post and beam structure with open teaching areas, administrative offices, gift shop, cafe, and theatre. School groups assemble in the main building before venturing out on the property for the nature programs...
The other buildings on the property are used for maintenance, educational programs, storage, demonstrations, etc. On the property there was also a barn, bee apiary, battery house, demonstration cottage, etc. My job was to oversee and maintain the grounds and structures on the property. Some of the buildings were seasonally serviced with water and hydro...
There were other things that were a little bit creepy. The buildings that were seasonally serviced with water, would have to have the water shut off for the winter...Throughout the property there were dry wells, approximately 6 to 7 feet deep, 3 to 4 feet in diameter, with shut off valves at the bottom, to shut off water to certain buildings... Every fall we had to shut these valves off...We would remove the concrete lid and the well would be filled with snakes... It was like Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Arc, the snakes would be crawling over the water line and shut off valve, some would hide in some nooks and crannies, some would coil up with their little tongue flapping. We would slide a ladder down into the well, climb down and turn the valve off... We eventually made a device to turn the valve off without going in to the well. Bats were also a little creepy, especially when you find them by accident, which I had the misfortune of doing... I also added an addition to the bee apiary, I was stung multiple times per day... Do I know about wildlife causing problems, I've seen a few things...
Game Day.
Our 25th game of the regular season is against the Lucky Stiffs. Every time I play against the Stiffs I have a flush of memories of when I played with them back in 2008. Sure the team is almost completely changed with the exception of captains John and Clayton, but the shirt colour remains the same and that's what brings back the memories for me. Our teammate Jerry Wallace also played for the 2008 edition of the Stiffs. In 2008, the Lucky Stiffs finished the regular season in the middle of the pack ( 7th place I think), but managed to get on a roll in the playoffs and rode that wave all the way to the T.O.T. championship. The team had some really good chemistry with players like Jake Anderson, Neil Pendlebury, Murray Saunders, Clayton Campbell, etc... But for me the guy who was the straw that stirred the drink was Rob McCarron. Rob is solid as a player, most of us would agree, but it was what Rob brought off the field that created the chemistry.
Post Game September 14, 2010.
At game time we has our full squad, 12 guys and it was great to clinch the league title with the team we will be fielding in the playoffs.
I was reading the T.O.T website yesterday and it was saying that the Hurtin' Units had unofficially won the league title, I believe that we now can call it official. I really wanted to win the season pennant on points and not have it decided by a head to head tie breaker. Congratulations to us, we played well all season, but now comes the real test, the practise games are over...
Boxscore:
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th Total
Hurtin' Units 5 6 2 5 3 5 0 26
Lucky Stiffs 3 1 3 1 2 5 3 18
The game last night was a high scoring affair, probably the most runs we scored in a single game all season. The defense was not as sharp as most games, but we got the job done. Both teams were hitting the baseball hard and there were even a couple of homeruns...I forgot to write down or take a copy of or take a picture of the game sheet, so I can't really produce much in the way of a game summary or a boxscore. D'oh!! I'll stop by the Legion to see if it's still there, maybe write out the boxscore.... Stopped by, it was still there, I wrote out the score.
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