NO COOKIE ... LOTS OF DONUTS.

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE GRISSLIES  ii.

Off to Grisslieland. 

Game #16- July 22nd, 2015

Hurtin' Units lose 14-13

Team Record- 9-6-1

Keogh Park - On Wednesday evening I subbed for the Master Batters vs. the Rusty Rebels. I had the pleasure of catching, for the evening, and when you catch you have a different perspective of the entire game. You watch the game unfold from a view of a batter or the umpire. You get to see the positioning of the defense, the ball being hit off the bat and the plays as they develop right in front of you. If you play your cards right you get a sample of some of Roman's baseball acumen.  I really enjoyed this subbing assignment; it was really fun at the backstop and I'm sure I walked away with some good information and some great one liners from Roman. Roman has always been good in providing me with constructive feedback and I really appreciate it. He has seen a lot of baseball (more than anybody I know) and he can read what's going on pretty well.  Thanks Roman.

Dodge City Gunslingers.

Following the game with the Master Batters, I watched some of the Dodge City vs. Tap Masters game. One thing I took away from watching this game was that the Hurtin' Units did extremely well on Monday night, when we tied the Dodge City Rounders 17-17.

In the game against the Tap Masters, Dodge City was just crushing the ball, lead by Beechy and Lahey. I watched Beechy hammer a ball over the tennis courts in to the trees behind. I have never seen the ball hit this hard at Keogh. And Lahey, holy $@&%, 2 homeruns and one was a grand slam. I left after about 4 innings, but the score was already 24 to 4 for the Rounders. These guys are definitely the Gunslingers in this league.

Welcome to Grisslieland.

Grisslieland - The Hurtin' Units now hit the road for a mini one game road trip going to Grisslieland. This trip will see the Hurtin' Units play the Grisslies for a second time this season. In the first game against the Grisslies the Units come away the victors with a 14-8 win. 

The weather in Grisslieland was quite nice, with a temperature around 26 degrees, no humidity, clear skies and almost zero wind. 

At game time there were 10 Hurtin' Unit players tossin' the ball in anticipation of the 7:00pm start. Missing from this game were Dave Mil. and Mike (Cookie) C. This game was being played in Grisslieland, the Units were the visitors. 

The first inning should have been an indicator of the game the Units were going to have. The Units sent 4 batters to the plate in the first inning, first two got out, Darrell got a single, Scotty hit into a fielder's choice, forcing Darrell out at 2nd and Bob's your uncle.

In the bottom of the inning, the Grisslies sent 9 batters to the plate and cashed in 4 runs with the first 4 batters coming in to score. 

The second inning was slightly better offensively for the Units with a single run scoring, while sending 5 batters up. The home half of the inning saw the Grisslies send 6 batters up and score 2 more runs.

The Units bats were still ice cold in the top of the third inning, going down in order 1,2,3...We'll see ya on the flip side.

The Grisslies would send 5 batters up in the home half of the inning, but did not score any runs. The score at the end of 3 complete innings was Grisslies 6, Hurtin' Units 1.

In the fourth inning, the Units would play scratch back fever (not to be confused with Cat Scratch Fever- Ted Nugget) and score 3 runs on a Todd H. homerun (10th) over the left field fence. Alright we're back in it right? No sirree Bob! 

In the bottom of the inning, the Grisslies would send 9 frickin' batters to the plate and 5 of them would come around to score...so much for the " back in it". GRRRRRRisslies!!

In the top of the fifth inning, the Units lead off batter (Bill) got on with a single, I followed with another single, Dave followed with another single, Bill came home, Darrell hit in a single, Scotty popped out (1), Bo hit in to a fielders choice forcing Darrell out at second (2), bringing me home, Mike O. hit a ground ball for an out at first (3) and there is the top of the fifth inning. Units score 2 runs on 7 batters.

In the home half, the Units defense stepped up and the Grisslies went down 1,2,3.

In the sixth inning, the Units bats came to life (kinda like Frankenstein on the table) and the Units would score 6 runs before an out was even recorded. The Grisslies got two out, with Darrell (7th run) waiting at second, Mike hit a single and Darrell would score the Units 7th run of the inning...Holy $@%* the Units have taken the lead.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Grisslies would send only 4 batters to the plate, Joel would be the only Grisslie to get on base, the Units defense was stellar. 

In the top of the inning (open inning), the Units were looking for some insurance runs, the pressure must have been too much. The Units folded like a cheap lawn chair and went down in order 1,2,3. 

In the home half of the open inning, the Grisslies lead off batter (Les) would get on with a single, Mark (sub) would also hit a single,  Jerry (sub) would hit in to a fielder's choice to Dave Mc., Dave would drill a throw to second for a force out on Mark, Les would advance to third, Tom (top of the order) would hit a double bringing Les home, Doug D. would also hit a double bringing Jerry to third. 

With Jerry at third base (tying run), Doug D. at second base (winning run) and Rod (who had gone 4 for 4 on the night) coming up, I chose to intentionally walk Rod and load the bases creating a force at every base. The only problem was that the next Grisslie batter was Fordy (probably the Grisslie's most deadly batter), Fordy would hit an off field hit toward Dave Mc., the ball stayed down on the ground and got by Dave, both Jerry and Doug would come in to score and the Grisslie's were the victors on this night. 

No Cookie... Half a dozen donuts. 

There is always some discussion about intentionally walking batters in a regular season game. In the this game, I believe with the game on the line, you must make the right baseball move, whether it is playoffs or not. If the intentional walk was issued in the earlier innings, I would understand any complaints about this move, but when a game is this close and this one move could be the difference between and win, a tie or a loss, it's only fair to your teammates, to make the right decision.

AND SO IT ENDS.

When a major pitcher is throwing a no hitter, it is a common practise, in the later innings, for his teammates not to talk to the pitcher and let him be in his own little world. I think as soon as the commentators start talking about the no hitter, the universe ends the bid and a opposing player gets a hit. The talking about the no hit game or some kind of streak jinxes the bid and seems to end the it almost immediately. 

Over the last 7 games the Units have had a seven game unbeaten streak (6-0-1). I have not mentioned the streak in the blog until now (only because we lost this game) and I found it extremely interesting how little anybody talked about how we were doing over this time. We all new what was going on, and there was mention of it, but for the most part, barely a word. Unfortunately, you can't win them all and it had to come to an end sooner of later. It was a good run Units, let's do it again. UNITS  UNSCATHED!!  

There are no rides at Grisslieland...