HURTIN' UNITS GHOSTLY GOOD AGANIST BANSHEES...

HURTIN' UNITS vs. THE BANSHEES...

Game # 10  June 29, 2010 


Hurtin' Units win 25-5             


Team Record- 8-1-1    

Coventry Park- Whenever I think about the name Banshees, I conjure up images of the paranormal or the spiritual world floating around the baseball diamond, sometimes playing around with the baseball, sometimes just making strange things happen in the game...And when I think about the strange and unusually things happening, I think about Stephen King novels and short stories. I am a huge Stephen King fan, I have read more books written by King than any other author and if you were to enter my house (you would be captured and tortured, just kidding!!), if you were to enter my house you wouldn't have to look very far to find a King novel or story kicking around...Most people think of Stephen King as a strange, and twisted horror story guy, and in his early years it certainly paid the bills, but his books have never been the mindless slasher crap that is so common in movies these days. The stories he writes are actually very suspenseful and well thought out. In the early years he also wrote some good stories, many made in to some good movies...Stories like the Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me (originally named "The Body").

So what does Stephen King have to do with baseball? Mr. King is also an avid baseball fan (a Redsox fan mostly) and has also written several books with baseball as a theme... Billy Blockade, The Girl who love Tom Gordon (Tom Gordon was a closer for the Boston Redsox) and others with baseball written in as part of the story... I mention the Stephen King stuff because we all have things in common with baseball and we have all seen the strange events that can happen in the game... The missed sure catch, the perfect throw that suddenly drops and curves away, the lazy fly ball that picks up speed and sails your head, the knuckle ball and the other mysterious events that can happen in the game of baseball. The aphorism " It's not over until it's over" was probably written because strange things can happen in the game of baseball. 


Sometimes we don't even notice the spooky events that happen during a game. Maybe, just maybe, there are spirits playing along side us, although I doubt Keogh or Coventry Parks have enough history to produce any such ghosts or spirits, but anything is possible... Just about every clubhouse buzzes with stories of ghosts, legends, curses and eerie unexplained events...Players are very superstitious and fans have also developed folklore about their favorite teams and players. There are numerous movies about baseball with ghosts, spirits or angels. Major league players still talk about ghostly goings-on at Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Dodgers Stadium. There is also the historic Spring Training ballpark in St. Petersburg, where Babe Ruth and his teammates still roam the field as spirits.

The movie Field of Dreams is based on the ghosts of the 1919 Chicago Whitesox and the eight players kicked out of baseball for throwing the World Series. Who doesn't remember the spirit voice saying " If you build it, he will come"?

There is a book called "Haunted Baseball" written by Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon about ghosts, spirits and the other paranormal in the game of baseball.


None of us really knows if there are spirits amongst us, some of us may have had experiences that lead us to believe that there are...Our minds can play tricks on us and make us believe things...The television is peppered with shows about ghosts and the paranormal. Shows like the Ghost Whisperer, Medium, X files, etc. The interesting thing is that these shows all get there ideas from somewhere, are they based on fact or fiction??? 

Tonight we played the Banshees, for the second time this season, a team who's very name conjures up visions of spirits foretelling of future events...Scary stuff and a scary team. Would we see anything strange in this game?

The Banshees and The Hurtin' Units are both near the top of the standings. In our last game vs. the Banshees on June 21, the score was only 6-5, with the Units squeaking by with the win...Last time we met, we were the home team, tonight we come in to the amusement park as the meddling visitors...Scooby Doo where are you??

The weather on game day was very breezy, there were clouds scattered across the sky, but the sun was sneaking a peek periodically and the forecast was calling for clear sunny skies by game time, which meant bring your sunglasses. The skies were clear at game time and on diamond #2, the right side of the field was constantly staring in to blinding rays of the sun. Any balls hit to the right side made it an adventure...


There were no strange or spooky events in this game, unless of course you call the Units scoring 25 runs and the Banshees only putting up 5 against us strange. The Units played another solid game at defense and the offense hit Frank hard and often. Frank was throwing the knuckle ball a lot and with the wind it would dance up to the plate, but our patience kept us back and most of us managed to pound the ball around the field...

This was our second and final meeting against the Banshees this season. I never like see a team beaten by such a lopsided score (most of us don't), the Banshees are a better team than what we saw last night and I wish them well the rest of the season...

Boxscore for the game...

June 29          1st    2nd   3rd   4th    5th    6th   7th  Total


Hurtin'Units    3        3       5       2        1       7      4      25


Banshees        2        0       1       2        0        0      0      5


There were a couple of nice plays in the game last night worth mentioning. Our bats were firing on all cylinders and the run total would indicate as such... Tom Perry made a nice double play at second catching the ball, tagging the runner running from first and then throwing to first to get the batter... Jimmy Mac. made some very tough plays in RCF while fighting the bright sunshine, one which was popped up very high into the sky... Al and Robin (our #4 rated player) made difficult catches and plays and I had couple of good snags at second, one of which I through Doris out... Paul had a couple of chances to turn double plays and just missed them...As I have heard Tom Perry say several times this season " Go for one, the second one is a bonus". Tom you are a man of wisdom and you bring a calming influence to the Units... SCARY, good win guys!  UNITS UNIVERSAL!!