"Always remember, if you ain't first, you're last." - Ricky Bobby
Game # 24 – August 31th, 2023
Hurtin' Units vs. The Gamblers
Hurtin' Units lose 14-8
Team Record – 5-18-1
On Wednesday night, we had a captain's meeting at the Legion, after the meeting I stopped by Coventry Park to watch a little baseball, I stopped by all 3 diamonds and watched a little bit of every game. The one thing I noticed about all of the games was there seemed to be a lot of anger in the air. It was a strange feeling, the tension on diamonds 1 and 3 was almost uncomfortable to watch, this was supposed to be a fun league, playing a fun game played with fun people. That's pretty much the mandate of the league.
The first line of our constitution is :
The mandate of The Tottenham Old-Timers Slo-Pitch League is to provide recreational baseball in a manner that promotes the ideals of sportsmanship and friendship while minimizing the potential for injury.
This mandate line should be printed on every scoresheet, every lineup and at the top of every e-mail sent to every player.
Topic Change:
So I thought to myself, on Wednesday night, what the heck was going on here and I came up with a couple of thoughts. My first thought was maybe it was the Blue Supermoon, it was happening that night and we had a pretty good view of it in the sky. It was cool. I found this on the interweb, computer thingie. Who knew? Other than the guys at NASA.
What is the blue moon in August 2023?
The whole Earth will witness the Super Blue Moon 2023 on the night of the 30th and 31st of August 2023. You should know that a Super Blue Moon occurs when the Red Wavelengths do not the earth and air particles cause refraction due to which it looks Blue.
Maybe this was the reason for the tensions I felt around the diamonds. My second thought was maybe we all know that the season is coming to its conclusion and we are sad about this and expressing it through anger.
The season ending does mean that winter is not too far away and it will be a long stretch before we get back on the field.
This game was the final regular season game for the Hurtin'Units. We only had one rainout all season and it was quickly made up a week later when both the teams only had one game and there was an open time slot. Next week, I counted 8 makeup games (that's a lot of mascara, blush and lipstick), it's almost a normal week of games, in the league.
Topic Change:
Last season, I decided to change my shirt number. Up until last season, I had always worn the number 93. I was a Doug Gilmour fan in the nineties and that was my number ( I think Woody used to wear 93 also, then he switched to 81 for Phil Kessel or some guy on the Eagles, I think it was Kessel ).
Last season I changed to the number 13 ( not for Sundin, really disliked that guy, and screwed my Leafs over), but because in many places the number 13 is very lucky. Last season was very LUCKY for the Units. Last season was technically our 13th season in the league, but Covid wiped out a season. This season is our 13th season playing in the league. The number 13 is all around us and it could be another LUCKY playoff for the Units.
The LUCKY number 13 is coming up all around the Units. I mentioned this is our 13th season playing in the league, the Units finished 13th in the standings, we have had 13 players on our roster this season and I wear the number 13. The moon and the stars are aligning and from last night the Units were 13 days away from the start of the playoffs.
Topic Change:
If you have never watched the movie 13 Days with Kevin
Costner, I highly recommend it. All about the Cuban Missile Crisis, good movie.
Topic Change:
The weather for this Hurtin Units game was comfortable, temperature was around 13 degrees ( just kidding, it was about 23 degrees), with a light breeze and for most of the day it was beautiful with plenty of sunshine. We had an 8:15 pm start time, on Keogh for only the 7th time this season. . The Units were the visitors. The official start time was 8:25 p.m.
At game time, the Units had 10 guys ready to take on the Gamblers, and 8 of their players. Missing from this game were Roman, Corey, Nick and Ingo. We picked up Russell M and Craig P. Thanks, guys.
Tonight, Pete had pitching duties, so I took the night off from pitching and played second base. I have been dealing with a few injuries and pitching might make them a little worse.
This was only our 7th game at Keogh all season. I like playing there, it's a very intimate setting to play in and I look forward to going to the Legion after the games. In this game, I was expecting to go to Keogh, feel the calm of the setting, listen to the leaves rustling in the trees, birds chirping, the sound of fans cheering, the crack of the bat on the ball, the whole baseball park experience. What we got was an evening of loud noise coming from Bandshell. Holy Crap!!! It was so loud that it destroyed our final game and the fun times of playing against the Gamblers. Nobody could hear anything going on, the outfielders were almost deafened and had no clue as to counts, outs or batters. Who books a band on a Thursday night?
The most enjoyable part was when the trains went by and drowned out the band. My Keogh experience was not enjoyable.
I don't have any information about the game, I know we lost and finished in 13th in the standings. I'm good with that, we now know our schedule and can get everyone set up for the playoffs. I can tell you the Gamblers look good (baseball playing), they have a strong team and they could be the last team standing at the end of the playoff run. I can also tell you, don't rule out LUCKY # 13. We probably bought 13 jugs of beer this year... can you say “Keg Party Winners”.
Let the games begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment