HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE DUSTY CLEATS.
Hurtin' Units win 20-4
Team Record 2-1-0
Keogh Park- Whenever I see the Dusty Cleats name on our schedule I am reminded of the 2011 T.O.T season. A season where the Dusty Cleats were the most dominate team in the league, a true powerhouse that steam rolled over most of the league teams with the ease of a tank. The Cleats 2011 regular season record was a very impressive, A 22-2-0 and they only lost a single game in the playoffs. Unfortunately, the game they lost, in the playoffs, was to the Grisslies in the finals. This Cleats team was the only team I can remember ever coming this close to a perfect season. Unfortunately, on August 15, 2011 the Cleats winning streak came to an end at the bats of ...you guessed it...The Hurtin' Units. The game was actually very close and in the end the Units would defeat the Cleats by a score of 15-14 and end their 19-0-0 season record. This was actually the highlight of the Units mediocre season, a season for the Units that would finish with a 10-12-2 record and only play the round robin portion of the playoffs.
The weather for this game was almost perfect, the sun was shining, the temperature hovered around 21 degrees and there was a breeze swirling around the ball park. Now I say the weather was almost perfect, but really it was perfect for sitting around havin a few pops, not so much for playing a 7:00pm baseball game at Keogh Park. In actual fact the sun was shining in to the eyes of players on the right side of the diamond and the breeze was probably more like a strong wind, which played some havoc with the pitching. The temperature was nice though.
The weather for this game was almost perfect, the sun was shining, the temperature hovered around 21 degrees and there was a breeze swirling around the ball park. Now I say the weather was almost perfect, but really it was perfect for sitting around havin a few pops, not so much for playing a 7:00pm baseball game at Keogh Park. In actual fact the sun was shining in to the eyes of players on the right side of the diamond and the breeze was probably more like a strong wind, which played some havoc with the pitching. The temperature was nice though.
At game time we had only 9 roster players dressed in the new shirts, Ricky Bobby was working, Richard is nursing a leg injury and Hags was busy. I'm wrong about having 9 roster players, we only had 8 players, Jamie had e-mailed me earlier indicating he was going to be a little late. I had Vince play in the field for the first inning and Jamie arrived just in time to run in to the park and up to bat. I called for a sub, for this game, and got little Timmy Sullivan to fill in for the evening. Timmy provided us with some entertainment on the evening...
After the game, which was shortened by time (late game was scheduled for 9:30pm), 8 of the Hurtin' Unit players when back to the legion. We had a few jugs of beer and some laughs about the game and other stuff that came up. We have a great group on this team and I think this is really going to be a special season.
In our Legion discussions, Ricky the Lyon told us a hitchhikin' story that happened to him recently and how his wife was upset with him picking up a stranger. I'm sure she was upset because of the events that had happened earlier in the week with the guy who was trying to sell his truck, went for a test drive and was found dead...Scary stuff.
Ricky's hitchhiking story reminded me of the movie Something about Mary (one of my favorite comedies) and we started talking about the movie parts and laughed again. It is only recently that the blogger site has allowed video clips and I really like putting in a clip every once and a while. Here's a little video from the movie Something about Mary.
Also in our Legion experience Woody actually discovered that we have a logo on our shirts. He didn't realize we always had a picture of Bender from the animated television show Futurama. Woody had heard about the show, but has never seen it. I thought I would include a short video for Woody to get aquainted with Bender.
Okay so there you have it, a couple of videos to keep things rolling along in the blog.
There was point, just before game time, when Vince inquired about the lineup and how I put it together. I like when guys ask why we do things a certain way and I'm more than happy to explain our logic when it comes to batting and the lineup. Mike and I have been doing this captaining thingie for 4 years and it is our experience that leads us in this direction. In the past we used to pepper the weaker batters in between the stronger guys, but we found that we didn't get the same run producing results as putting most of the stronger bats in a bunch. I'm sure on this year's edition of the Units, with all the good hitters we have, peppering the weaker bats amongst the stronger would produce some good results, but we still believe that bunching works most effectively. I like to leave the batting order the same for awhile and eventually guys will get to know who is in front of them. It should help with better communication, although last night we seemed a little out of sorts...It'll come.
Every bat in our lineup seems to be strong and every batter has a role to play. We have a good balance of guys who can get on base and guys who hit for power to bring them home. Over our first three games we have had some great bursts of run scoring, a total of 50 runs over 3 games, an average of over 16 runs per game. I really wish we had this kind of power last season...it certainly would have made our record a bit better.
In the past, we would also start the batter who was next to bat in the last game, but we would forget who it was and it became a pain in the ass trying to remember. This year we decided to take the guy at the bottom of the order and bring him to the lead off position in the upcoming game. We will try this for the first 12 games (everybody will get a chance to bat leadoff) and then we'll assess the batting order and make adjustments in the batting order/lineup for the next 12 games heading toward the playoffs. Easy Peasy lemon squeasy...
I guess at some point I should talk about the game against the Dusty Cleats. I mentioned earlier how the wind played a role in this game. Pitching was effected by the strong gusts in the infield, but it was the same for both sides so no team really had any advantage. Pully was having a difficult time finding his mojo on the evening, and somewhere mid-game he gave way to Bob P. the Cleats P2. Bob struggled for a bit, but managed to get it together. I walked 3 batters on the evening, as Coxy would remind me several times at the Legion. I think Coxy will be a helpful addition to me pitching when I am not making good pitches... There was one strike out I made on Brad, for the third out, when I caught the corner of the board for a big out...love the strikeout.
The Hurtin' Units bats were pounding the ball hard from the start of the game and we only batted for 4 innings. The game was on a tight schedule and open inning was called in the fifth. That's what happens when you score 20 runs in four innings. The Units went through the order in both the first 2 innings and I think we went through again in the forth inning.
I really like the way Vince and Brian are playing. Vinnie has a really good glove and Brian is just stinging the ball. On one occasion Brian smoked a hit down the third base line only to have Dennis S. make a tremendous grab and throw him out at first. Awesome power from Brian.
What can I say about little Timmy Sullivan? This guy is a real trooper and every time he subs for the Units, he has an adventure filled evening. In this game, he had a little trouble in the field, but the funniest moment was when the bases were loaded and Tim was batting and struck out watching the third strike to end the inning. Tim is a great character guy and he has subbed for us many o times, he's always welcome to play for the UNITS. Thanks for coming out Tim.
The Hurtin' Units started this game strong and it carried on through the whole game. I mentioned we only batted 4 innings and scored 20 runs, our bats were working well and our defense was solid, put these two things together and there will, on most nights, be a victory or a very close game. I think the boxscore tells most of the story for this game. One more thing about the play on the field, Phil G. got the final 3 outs, all pop flys on the infield, Coxy allowed a line drive to go over his head to give Phil a chance for the third pop up...A team guy to be sure.
The Hurtin' Units next two games are at Coventry Park and then we head to Keogh Park for 11 of the next 12 games, a great chance for this Hurtin' Units batting lineup to make a good run up the standings.
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