Let's Squeeze it and Seize it!!

 

September 2nd, 2024

Last week, was officially the last week of the 2024 regular season and this upcoming week is a week for make-up games. This week we still have 3 games remaining and it might effect the standings a little bit, but most teams are locked in to their spots. The Beer Cup will definitely come down to the final game between the Shake and Bake and the Gruesome Devils, who will be the Beer Cup winners? Last season the Inglorious Batsters won the league, the keg party and the Beer Cup... and the Gamblers won the championship against the Beer Bros in the final.

Last season going into the playoffs, I hammed up the fact that the Hurtin' Units finished 13^th place (last) and that we were the underdogs, hoping to get some sympathy from the teams we were playing. In the 4 games we played we didn't get much love from anyone. We started off the playoffs with a 18-11 win vs the Dogcatchers, but that was it. In game # 2 the Grumesome scared us straight with a 22-5 loss. The Twisters then sent us into a tailspin with a 15-8 loss. And in the final game of the round robin the Draft Kings gave us the royal treatment defeating the Units by a score of 17-15. After the round robin we had a 1-3 record and that ended our season.

This season was rough, we had some tough nights and came away with
losses in close games. We finished the season in 16^th position (last) and I get the feeling other teams are more sympathetic toward us this year. I'm not going to say that we are the underdogs this year (even though we might be), I'm not going to say we are the Dark-horse, I am going to say that the Units are better than our record would indicate. Our defense was good this season; it was our offense that hurt us. Our numbers for and against are not great, we are -83 in the run differential and that does sound good, but if we could have scored an average of 3 more runs a game, we would be at -11. The Units scored an average of 10.87 runs per game (second lowest in the league) and allowed an average of 14.3 per game, which is not the worst (3 teams higher). The Draft Kings (highest scoring team in the league) have an average of 16.04 runs per game, 6 more per game than the Units.

The -83 is not the worst run differential the Units have had. In 2014, the Units had -178 run differential. We finished in last place and lost 4 straight in the playoffs. The Rusty Rebels with Pete Hollmann went on to win the championship. The interesting thing about the Rebels winning was they finished the season in 6^th place and had a -31 run differential.

This playoff I think I'll consider the Units to be a dark-horse, we have some great batters, our defense is good and we have a few emerging players who could come up big in the round robin. The Units have 5 rookie players this season and it took awhile for them to acclimatize to the league, but I can honestly say that they are playing better now than earlier in the season. The Rookies could surprise this playoffs. The other 7 guys are all playing well also, Zander is recovering, but will be ready, Hollmann is pumped, Alex White is ball of energy, Justin has something to prove, Porter is always chattin' it up, Cookie got a taste of victory with the Gamblers last year and wants more, and myself, I need a solid playoff to feel good after how our season played out.

No matter how other teams view the Hurtin' Units, it's how we feel about ourselves that is going to determine how we do in the playoffs. We have a solid group of players wearing the white jersey this season, whether we go down 4-0 or play in the final, we have a chance to make something happen. We may be the Dark-horse or the Underdog, but in this league every team is created equal and every team has a chance to win. Get on a roll early and momentum could carry you through. The may not win, but we will go down swinging. Go Units!!!!

A Tiger Can't Change It's Stripes.

 

Game # 24- August 26th, 2024

Hurtin' Units vs. The Tottenham Twisters of New Tecumseth

Hurtin' Units win 17-16

Team Record-6-17-1

“I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park” - Larry the Cable Guy.

Keogh Park– Tonight marks the final game of the regular season for the Hurtin' Units and we will be the first team to finish the 2024 season. This will be the last week for most of the teams, I believe there are still 3 makeup games next week, but this is the final week of the 2024 schedule. I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like the season just flew by, 24 games in a flash.

For the Units it's been another rough season (the highs and lows of a team), we had some highs (not many) and some lows. We were missing guys throughout the season, we lost a player to injury and picked up a positive replacement (similar to getting Roman last season) in Rick H., our rogue bat went missing twice, we lost a lot of close games, we never had 2 back to back wins, we never scored more have 16 runs in any game and we never got down or angry about losing. In fact, we joke about it. It not fun to lose, but there is comfort in knowing that the playoffs are about to begin and we get a new canvas in which we can paint a different picture.

As many of you know I blame Resmondo (the red bat) for our batting deficiencies, I still believe it has an evil spirit attached to it and the spirit has been controlling Resmondo and the other bats in our bag. Over the last weekend I regripped Resmondo and then I smudged the bats with a white sage and Dragon Blood Palo Santo Sticks, “evil spirits be gone”, here's hoping for a big night of batting. It would be great to have a game where we put some runs on the scoreboard. A tiger can't change it's stripes, but a bat can change it's grip. As luck would have it, the changing of the grip and smudging of the bats, would yield the Units it's highest run production of the season. 17 runs is the most the Units have scored, in a single game, all season.

After the game last night, Dave C asked me how excited I was. I replied “it was just another win”, but in actual fact it was not. I told David I didn't care where we finished in the standings, and this is true, but winning our final game of the season, scoring the most runs we have scored all season, going back to the Legion for pizza, beer and to see JulieT. is the high note we needed going into the playoffs.

I have to say I'm enjoying this team, I love the characters that makeup the squad this season. We have a great mix of older and younger players, and there are 5 rookies on our team (how many people knew that piece of trivia) and it took some time for them to acclimate to the way our league runs. The rookies have really taken to the T.O.T league and I would guess that most will come back next season. Over the last several weeks, some of the players, that we missed earlier in the season, have started playing more and I have noticed the stability in our defence and our offence. I'm looking forward to what we can do with complete lineup. The regular season is over, it's in our rear-view mirror, we can only look forward now to the 2024 playoffs. I think the Hurtin' Units could be a Dark-horse in this years playoffs.

Let's Twist Again Like We Did Last Summer... Let's not.

The weather for this 7:00pm game was hot , 28 degrees at game time and the sun was in the eyes of the right fielders at the start. At game time the Units had 10 players dressed in dirty white shirts, Cookie and Jamie were the only missing bodies for this game. The scorekeeper was Robert J., and Roman was the umpire.

I was going to go into details about the game, but I really think I have babbled on long enough in this post. I'll included the score-sheet and put this post to bed. You know what they say “ I picture is worth a thousand words”. This post is actually 792 words, but all the pictures will make it quite long.

The schedule is out for the playoffs, but not all the team positions have been decided, there is still a chance the Units could move up a spot. It really doesn't matter where we finish, I just hope for a good playoff.

Units Were All In, Except for Ace.

 

Game # 23- August 21 th, 2024

Hurtin' Units vs. Gamblers.

Hurtin' Units lose 13-6

Team Record-5-17-1

Coventry Park– In the last game post, I mentioned that it was the first time the Units had a full team all season and this game we were all in except for Brandon, whose nickname is Ace.

This is the first and only time we play the Gamblers in the regular season and it came down to the second to last game. It was a fun game close throughout and in the end the time rule screwed us over again. We did not get to play an open inning. In my opinion, an open inning should always be played, it's the only inning that teams have to make a dramatic comeback.

This is the strangest season I have ever seen for a team that can't score runs. Over our 23 games, we have averaged 10.60 runs per game, and given up 14.26 runs per game. An average of 10.6 runs a game in slo-pitch is unheard of, we're scoring, per game, what other teams are scoring per inning. I looked at the results for a couple of games from last night, Inglourious vs. Meatballs 25-24 or the Rusty Rebels vs. Gruesome Devils 22-13 and we scored 6 on the night! I look up and down our lineup and see good hitters, why are we not scoring more? I have tweaked the lineup and still no results. You all know what I'm blaming our inept batting on, it's Resmondo and his bad influence on our other bats.

When Resmondo went missing back on June 11th, the Hurtin' Units record was 3-3-0 and since that time this little bitch of a bat has made us the lowest-hitting team in the league. I've tried to trade him, I have smudged him, I put him on waivers, but no team wants anything to this tumultuous little batstard. I joked last night about taking Resmondo to a psychic or having an exorcism to remove the demon from him. That might be a little extreme, maybe I'll try smudging it again.

Game Time:

The weather for this game was cool, probably in the high teens, there was a soft breeze, and at game time the sun was setting on Coventry 2, it created a little bit of a problem, but it didn't last long. I mentioned that the Units had 11 guys, we were the visitors, the scorekeeper was Lisa and I'm not sure of the Umpire's name, 8:06 start time. There was a beautiful full moon lighting up the sky after dark.

I'm not going to go into details about this game, I'm sure the Gamblers have posted something on their group, probably a better description of the events than I can provide today. You can always go to the website and see the details. I enjoyed this game with the Gamblers, kinda wish we had played against each other more this season. Maybe we'll meet up in the playoffs.

I will include the game sheets.

The Hurtin' Units' final game of the season is Monday Night at Keogh vs. The Tottenham Twisters of New Tecumseth. 

A Tiger Can't Change It's Stripes.

Game # 24- August 26th, 2024

Hurtin' Units vs. The Tottenham Twisters of New Tecumseth

Hurtin' Units win 17-16

Team Record-6-17-1

“I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park” - Larry the Cable Guy.

Keogh Park– Tonight marks the final game of the regular season for the Hurtin' Units and we will be the first team to finish the 2024 season. This will be the last week for most of the teams, I believe there are still 3 makeup games next week, but this is the final week of the 2024 schedule. I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like the season just flew by, 24 games in a flash.

For the Units it's been another rough season (the highs and lows of a team), we had some highs (not many) and some lows. We were missing guys throughout the season, we lost a player to injury and picked up a positive replacement (similar to getting Roman last season) in Rick H., our rogue bat went missing twice, we lost a lot of close games, we never had 2 back to back wins, we never scored more have 16 runs in any game. We never got down or angry about losing. In fact, we joke about it. It is not fun to lose, but there is comfort in knowing that the playoffs are about to begin and we get a new canvas to paint a different picture.

As many of you know I blame Resmondo (the red bat) for our batting deficiencies, I still believe it has an evil spirit attached to it and the spirit has been controlling Resmondo and the other bats in our bag. Over the last weekend, I regripped Resmondo and then I smudged the bats with a white sage and Dragon Blood Palo Santo Sticks, “evil spirits be gone”, here's hoping for a big night of batting. It would be great to have a game where we put some runs on the scoreboard. A tiger can't change its stripes, but a bat can change its grip. As luck would have it, the changing of the grip and smudging of the bats would yield the Unit's highest run production of the season. 17 runs is the most the Units have scored, in a single game, all season.

After the game last night, Dave C asked me how excited I was. I replied “It was just another win”, but it was not. I told David I didn't care where we finished in the standings, and this is true, but winning our final game of the season, scoring the most runs we have scored all season, going back to the Legion for pizza, beer and to see Julie T is the high note we needed going into the playoffs.

I have to say I'm enjoying this team, I love the characters that make up the squad this season. We have a great mix of older and younger players, and there are 5 rookies on our team (how many people knew that piece of trivia) and it took some time for them to acclimate to the way our league runs. The rookies have taken to the T.O.T league and I would think that most will come back next season. Over the last several weeks, some of the players, that we missed earlier in the season, have started playing more and I have noticed the stability in our defence and our offence. I'm looking forward to what we can do with the complete lineup. The regular season is over, it's in our rear-view mirror, we can only look forward to the 2024 playoffs. I believe the Hurtin' Units could be a Dark Horse in this year's playoffs.

Let's Twist Again Like We Did Last Summer... Let's not.

The weather for this 7:00 pm game was hot, 28 degrees at game time and the sun was in the eyes of the right fielders at the start. At game time the Units had 10 players dressed in dirty white shirts, Cookie and Jamie were the only missing bodies for this game. The scorekeeper was Robert J., and Roman was the umpire.

I was going to go into details about the game, but I think I have babbled on long enough in this post. I'll include the score sheet and put this post to bed. You know what they say “ A picture is worth a thousand words”. This post is actually 792 words, but all the pictures will make it quite long.

The schedule is out for the playoffs, but not all the team positions have been decided, there is still a chance the Units could move up a spot. It doesn't matter where we finish, I just hope for a good playoff.

Fit to Be Tied.

Game # 21- August 14th, 2024

Hurtin' Units vs. Brew Birds

Hurtin' Units tie 16-16

Team Record-5-15-1

Keogh Park– Over the last weekend, the T.O.T had their annual August Tournament. I put a team in again this year, as I have done for the previous 14 years. Since 2015 Myself, Troy and others have captained the Hammell Toes and before the Toes, it was the Squirtin' Units and before that Rob Farah and I had Team Extreme. It's been a fun run. I like building a team and playing with friends and family.

The Hammell Toes have played well since this team of street friends was put together in 2015, but we have not been exclusive with players just from our street, we have picked up outside players to round out the roster. This tournament we got away from the street players, I slipped in a different name (The Hammers) and we picked up new guys to fill the roster. We brought in 5 new players from the T.O.T league. Brandon, Roger, Tyler, Dave and Wayne joined the Hammers in this tournament.

I thought we had a good roster heading into the tournament, strong bats and good defence, I thought we could compete with teams like the Stallions. Nope, we lost 3 games in a row. The first game was close, but the others were painful. The Jak Fund and the Stallions were just strong for the other teams in the division, and unless we go out and get some ringers, we cannot compete. In years past, submitting a team was done by ratings, with every player rated compared to other players in our league, the average used to be between 6.5 and 7.5 to make the teams competitive. I was the scorekeeper for the final game and I can say the teams, in the final, were not between 6.5 and 7.5. It was a good final game, but in the end, the Stallions were just too strong. In my opinion, they should have played in the competitive division.

Despite the Hammers being knocked out early, I enjoyed the tournament, the games were good, I worked the bar with Rob and Sue which was fun, I got to play with friends and we got to play some baseball. The weather was good, except for a rain storm on Sunday afternoon, but the tournament finished and another August Tournament is in the books.

Hurtin' Units vs. The Brew Birds.

When I do these posts, I am keeping a record for the Hurtin' Units team, I do the posts and then I do a post on the blog site https://hurtinunits.blogspot.com/ of basically the same post. I have been doing the blog since the Units started back in 2010. I have not posted on the blog this season, I still update it, but I don't publish until I've had a chance to clean it up and add pictures and other stuff. Since I started the Hurtin' Units group on Facebook the blog has taken a back seat, but the information about the Hurtin' Units is still there.

The weather for this game was great, the temperature was in the mid-20s and the sun was shining. This game was played at Keogh Park and it was a rare 7:00 pm start. At game time the Units had 6 players dressed in Unit's shirts ( I wore a Pennywise shirt hoping to scare the other team), we had called for 2 subs and picked up Jerry M and Shawn C as subs. Cookie was supposed to be at the game, but had car troubles and called last minute. Missing from tonight's game were Peter, Brandon, Roger, Cookie and Justin. Jason B was in the stands and Shawn R. (Brew Birds Captain) allowed him to play for us. Why watch when you can play? The Brew Birds had 2 subs, Darryl Hags and Tommy B. Played. Colleen M was the scorekeeper and Reagan was the Umpire.

Okay, I've dodged around the fact that I don't have the scoresheet and Dave hasn't updated the stats on the website yet. I will tell you that this was a fun game and I thought it was close throughout, I asked the scorekeeper in around the fifth inning and was surprised to hear that the Units were leading by quite a bit. I think I jinxed us by requesting the score, the Brew Birds started coming back and before we knew it, they had taken a one-run lead.

I took a little break and Dave has now updated the website so, I'll include a picture of the box score. I was right, we did have a lead and the Brew Birds did come back. In the fourth inning, the score was 11-6 for the Units. In the top of the fifth, the Units scored a single run and in the bottom, the Brew Birds mounted their comeback with 3 runs. The score after 5 complete innings was 12-9 for the Units.

In the top of the sixth inning, the Units were gripping the bats tightly and put a goose egg on the board. The Birds would score 4 runs, in the bottom, and take the lead. CRAP ON A CRACKER!!! Another blown lead for the Units. In the top of the seventh, the Units bats would still hit, we put up 3 runs (unheard of this season) to retake the lead by 2. The Brew Birds would come back again, and with the tying run on second, and 2 outs, I would intentionally walk Al Frans, Varinder would get a hit and take a runner (Fernando) the next batter would get a hit and the game was tied, and Fernando was running home for the win, Jamie gunned the ball to home, Jason caught the ball, Fernando was out and the game was over. Final score 16-16 tie. This tie was the first for the Units this season and it was the first time this season the Units have scored more than 15 runs in a game. Maybe, we have turned a corner and we are prepping for the playoffs.

The Unit's next game is next Tuesday vs. The Gruesome Devils, who beat the Master Batters on Wednesday night to take the Beer Cup. The next game for the Units is a chance to take the Beer Cup from the Gruesomes.