WHAT'S BLACK AND YELLOW AND RED ALL OVER THEM?

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE RED DOGS.

That sure was an ugly game. 

Game # 20- August 12, 2013

Hurtin' Units lose 25-6

Team Record- 9-10-1

Keogh Park- At approximately 5:00pm the skies over Tottenham were dark with black thunder clouds and the threat of rain was in the air. Fortunately the thunderstorms did not develop and by 6:45 the skies looked almost clear with bright sunshine streaming through my front bay window. It was looking like our 8:15 was going to be rain free.

In the last game with the Red Dogs it was raining at game time, but cleared enough to let us get the game in. The ball was still slippery when pitching and making plays, but it still better than a downpour or some of the conditions we have experienced this season.

The Units played the Red Dogs in game # 17 on July 29th. And that game was a good ole fashion slug fest with the Units prevailing by a score of 23-16. In fact the game was the last time the Units won. Our record was 9-7-1 after the last Red Dogs game. Our record going in to this game was 9-9-1. We have lost our last two games, 15-12 to the Blues Brothers and 13-12 to the Dusty Cleats. 

This game saw the return of most of the Units lineup, after spending the last several weeks using subs and piecing this roster together. Missing from this game was only Jamie. 

In most of the games this season, I have gotten the game sheets and was able to do a boxscore. This game I was unable to get the sheet (probably not a bad idea anyway) and it's difficult to tell a game story without it, so with that said, I'll just post the score and that will be the story. 

Last season, in game # 21, back on August 15, 2012, the Hurtin' Units lost to the Beer Bros. by a score of 13-1. This BB game was the lowest point in our mediocre season. In the blog for this game, I titled it "The Hurtin' Units bats are Jinxed". Our hitting had gone south, we had stopped scoring, our losses were piling up and the team was getting frustrated. 

I mention all this because we seem to be falling in to the same kind of funk. Last season, following the loss to the Beer Bros., I talked to a friend who is a psychic and she suggested smudging the bats...I did this and we started playing better. We carried that better play through the rest of the season and in to the playoffs. The Units would go to the semi finals only to lose to the Brew Jays. 

I think it is time to smudge the bats again, it's a simple thing for me to do and it can't hurt with the way we've been batting. 

In this game against the Red Dogs, Darrell got the start as pitcher. This was the rookie's forth start of the season. Darrell got off to a bit of a rough start, but settled down as the game went on. The Red Dogs bats were on fire and when I was catching it seemed that everyone on their roster was hammering the ball. 

After the game, if someone were to walk in to the Legion and saw the red team and the black and yellow, sitting at separate tables, that person would have a difficult time figuring out which of the two teams was spanked 25-6. Even when we sitting at the table, one of the Units players said " we are a pretty happy group considering we just had our asses kicked." This has been a fun season despite our up and down play, I really can't complain about most of this season.

I was thinking about why a team (the Red Dogs) that had had 100 runs scored against them over their last 4 games, could come out and stop the Units at 6 runs, while scoring 25. What up with that? 

I have a couple of ideas:

- Perhaps the new bat in the bag has bad energy and it needs to be smudged.
- Ricky Bobby's heavy bat was missing on the night, maybe that was bad luck. 
- Tito pitched a great game ( yea, he really did).
- Peter Hollman (Red Dogs) hit for the cycle against us. He also hit a grand slam homerun in the first inning, helping the Dogs get off to a 7 run lead. 
- Maybe the Units bats were jinxed because Mike,  Jimmer, Cam and Glen all wore red, matching golf shirts in  the T.O.T golf tournament. Red...the colour of the Red Dogs.

 Maybe, just maybe, we got off to a bad start and could not recover in this game. We only scored 6 runs and on most nights this is not going to win you the game, not in this league. 

What ever the cause of this loss, the Units have 3 more games to get it turned around and hopefully we will be better in the playoffs.