HURTIN' UNITS CROWNED BY KINGS.

HURTIN'  UNITS VS. THE DRAFT KINGS. 

Game # 9 - June 14, 2016

Hurtin' Units lose 19-13

Team Record - 4-5-0

Coventry Park- First off, I don't know why this first part is in red, I tried numerous times to change it, but it just won't change.

The Draft Kings always seem to be in the top 5 in the standings. Coming in to this game the Kings were in 1st place with a record of 7-1-1 with 15 points. Last season the Draft Kings would finish tied in 2nd place with the Dogcatchers, a single point behind the league championship team the Master Batters.

The last time the Hurtin' Units played the Draft Kings was in the 2015 playoffs, the Units would beat the Draft Kings in an elimination game. 

GameTime:

The weather for this game was excellent, the temperature was hovering around 20 degrees and no wind. The only issue was the sun in the eyes of the guys playing on the right side of the diamond, but it was short-lived and after a couple of innings the sun had gone down enough to not be . 

At game time we had 11 guys dressed and ready to rock and roll with the Draft Kings. The only missing player was Al F. Al went fishing this week; Who fishes on a Tuesday??

A Back Story:

I had an uneasy feeling going into this game. In the morning of game day, I was questioning whether or not I would be able to play, my back was so tight I couldn't bend over to tie my own shoes. Even after going to Tottenham Physiotherapy (our 2016 team sponsor, I might add) on Monday afternoon, I was still in some serious discomfort. I know what you're asking "what did you do to your back Jimmer"? 

Okay, so let me Tarantino this story back to the spring of 2016. On March 25th 2016, Tottenham was hit by a severe ice storm. The power was out for several days trees and shrubs were heavily weighed by ice, many branches broken... it was messy. In my backyard, I had a 12 inch diameter tree, which came down on my fence, we removed the tree from the fence, but left the big log (kinda like dog owners on the rail trail) for another day. 

Okay, let's Tarantino you back to last weekend. On Saturday afternoon the temperature was on the rise, the winds were picking up and by Saturday evening it was it was wild and crazy outside. On Sunday the wind seemed to be even stronger (not a great day to wear a hat or fly a kite) and You guessed it, another large tree came crashing down on the same fence that the ice storm tree had come down on. Holy Shit Snacks !!!

This time I had to take some action, I spent most of my Sunday afternoon with my chainsaw, cutting up the limbs and trees that had fallen. And after I had cut the trees up, I stacked all the logs. This is probably why my back was sore on Monday morning. That's the backstory.

Game Time Again:

At game time, I realized we were in trouble when things started to go wrong. I had forgotten the position and lineup sheet at home, on my printer, so I had to fudge it with an old sheet. My back was still really tight. And I felt really disorganized. 

This game started off well for the Units; in the first 3 innings we scored 5 runs and held the Draft Kings to only 2 runs. In the 4th inning, the Draft Kings hammered the ball to almost every part of the diamond, and when the diamond dust had settled the Kings had put 7 runs on the scoresheet. In the bottom of the 4th inning, the Units scored a goose egg.

In the top of the 5th inning, the Draft Kings continued to pound the baseball around the diamond. And again they would score another 7 run inning. In the bottom, the Units would fight back with 3 runs. The score at the end of 5 complete innings- Draft Kings 16, Hurtin' Units 8. 

In the top of the 6th inning, the Units would shut down the Draft Kings and in the bottom of the inning, the Units would score 5 runs. The score at the end of 6 innings- the Draft Kings 16, Hurtin' Units 13. 

In the 7th (open inning) the Draft Kings would tack on another 3 runs. In the bottom of the inning, the Units were only down by 6 runs, but the Draft Kings would shut the door and the Units would be defeated by a score of 19-13.

Inside the Game:

• I want to give some credit to the Draft Kings pitcher Kevin, who really kept the Hurtin' Units batters off balance and reaching most of the night.
• I forgot my position/lineup sheet at home and to fudge an old sheet .
• Peter H. made a great catch in LCF, while slipping on the grass. 
• Jon and Brad both went 4 for 4 batting on the night.
• Mark made a nice catch in left field.
• This game was the most lopsided loss that the Hurtin' Units have experienced this season. The Units lost by 6 runs, until this game the worst loss was only by 3 runs. 
• After a 3 game winning streak the Hurtin' Units looked a bit shaky on defense missing or bobbling balls or just fighting the ball. Our defense was not good in this game.
• I walked a batter for the first time in four games. There were at least 4 balls that went by me, up the middle, that I could have had. 
• Jon showed great range; I thought there was a ground ball that was by everybody and when I turned around it was already going into Jon's glove.  Excellent range.
• Considering how much discomfort I was in, I thought I hit the ball pretty well almost every time I was up.
• I think compared to every other game this season this was our weakest game and I still think we were in it until the end. 
• Even with the Draft Kings having two fortuitous 7 run
  
  innings, the score was only 16-13 for the Kings going in to the open inning. I would like to think that we had a chance to even win this game. 
• After the game, at the Pavilion, having a refreshing beverage, we all had a team vote and the anonymous result was... this loss was Al's fault. Who goes fishing on a Tuesday? Honestly?

In the News:

In the sports world, there being two events that happened between our games. Gordie Howe passed away and secondly the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup. 

I don't have a lot of memories of Gordie, I have one, but it's not really memory of Gordie and more memory of my friend's father who was the spitting image of Gordie. I was a Leaf fan growing up. On the day, the Gordie passed away, I was saddened, but I remember listening to talk shows and hearing the memories that everyone else had of Mr. Hockey. Some great stories. 

On the winning side of things the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup. I was happy to see the Pens win the cup. It was great to see this for Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel. Congratulations Pittsburgh!!