THE WILD AND SOME CRAZY GUYS...

Hurtin' Units vs. The Wild...

Game #26 - September 14, 2010

Hurtin' Units lose 12-11

Team Record 19-5-2

Bottom of the seventh, with one out, runners at first and second. The home team Hurtin' Units down by two runs against the Wild. I was batting, Tito had a 1-2 count on me, I could hear someone chanting beer, beer, beer, beer, perhaps the chant was all in my head, memories of Tito striking me out in last year's playoffs ending the Banshees season. The next pitch was a ball, really too close to take, 2-2 count, next pitch was right down Broadway, I made solid contact and the ball bolted off the bat toward center field. The ball was headed up the alley, between the RCF and the LCF and the runners were off. The runner from second (Robin I think) scores and the runner from first ( Chris R.) rounds third chugging for home, the relay hits the cut-off man ( Chuck Cragg), Chuck pivots and throws a strike toward home plate, right on the money. With Chris running hard and the throw in the air, the play is going to be very close, the ball is caught as the runner is at the line, Roman makes his call, the runner is....This is the best I can do to Tarantino (video link) a baseball story

Coventry Park- We made it!! Yes we made it through the regular season. Our final game was a great way to finish a great season for the Hurtin' Units... The weather was good for baseball, although it's certainly starting to feel like fall, there definitely was a chill in the air this week and the dark fall like clouds have been hanging around for a couple of weeks now. On these cool, humid free evenings the ball really carries well.

At game time on Tuesday, we had 10 guys suited up for the game. Don was resting a minor, lower body injury and Chris N. was tending to one of his children who was under the weather. We were the home team in this game...

The Wild played us hard in this game, hit for hit and run for run, inning after inning. We probably would have won the game if it wasn't for Steve Ross. Time for your urine sample Stevie...LOL. Steve was the difference maker in this game. He showed some awesome hitting power, hammering a ball over the head of our right fielder Mike Olliffe for his first homerun of the evening. And just when we think we have him figured out and Mike is at the warning track and is prepared for him next at bat, Steve decides to hammer another homerun over the head of Chris Ross. Stevie the Wonderboy probably had at least 6 RBIs in this game. I have already made several entries in to my scouting reports this week, Steve R. from the Wild, and couple of the guys from the Lucky Stiffs.

It was great to see Al and Paul finally get a couple of hits after being robbed in the last game. Both these guys are making excellent contact with the ball, but had a tough game against the Lucky Stiffs on Monday with nothing to show for it...

We had our chances to break this game wide open on several occasions, in fact, in the first inning we had the bases loaded. Tito walked home our first run of the game. We left the bases loaded in another inning also and left runners on the bags throughout the game. Tito's pitching wasn't very good, he was throwing low and short , he was even reminded by Roman on several occasions to pitch the ball higher. We should have taken advantage of this weakness. If we had been more patient, we probably could have worked Tito for a few more walks or better pitches to hit. Everyone was hitting the ball well and isn't that what we want going into the playoffs.

I mentioned before in the game that each team traded runs, at the end of six innings the score was 10-9 for the Hurtin' Units, a close game to be sure. In the top of the seventh inning the Wild scored 3 runs to take a 12-10 lead.

Bottom of the seventh, with one out, runners at first and second. The home team Hurtin' Units down by two runs against the Wild. I was batting, Tito had a 1-2 count on me, I could hear someone chanting beer, beer, beer, beer, perhaps the chant was all in my head, memories of Tito striking me out in last year's playoffs ending the Banshees season. The next pitch was a ball, really too close to take, 2-2 count, next pitch was right down Broadway, I made solid contact and the ball bolted off the bat toward center field. The ball was headed up the alley, between the RCF and the LCF and the runners were off. The runner from second (Robin I think) scores and the runner from first ( Chris R.) rounds third chugging for home, the relay hits the cut-off man ( Chuck Cragg), Chuck pivots and throws a strike toward home plate, right on the money. With Chris running hard and the throw in the air, the play is going to be very close, the ball is caught as the runner is at the line, Roman makes his call, the runner is out!!

Chris R. had been thrown out at home by Chucky, a close play, but with Roman making the call, it was probably the right one. I had come around to third on my hit. Now with two outs, runner at third base, Hurtin' Units now down by only one run. Our next batter was Mikey Boy. Mikey tagged the first pitch toward right center field, the fielder hesitated and then had to run to his left and back and with an outstretched glove he managed to get his glove on the ball for a great catch... That's the ball game! Wild win 12-11. This was a nice game to end the season on; last year's league winners taking on this year's league winners in a good, well played, low scoring, tight defensive game...

Boxscore:
                         1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th    6th   7th     Total 


Hurtin' Units       4      0      0      1      4      1      1         11      


The Wild             2      1      4      0       1       1     3         12        


The Playoffs:


This guy looks like Cam Clark...
with a beard ...

By now everyone has probably started growing their playoff beards, I started mine on Wednesday morning and it got a little itchy, so I shaved it off, and then I started another on Thursday morning, it got itchy so I shaved it off again...I started another on Friday...

The final seedings have been posted on the T.O.T website and our opponents are the 3rd , 12th, 9th and 6th seeds in this order... The nice thing about finishing first is that we will be the home team through out  the round robin...

Chris Ross has suggested that we have our own score keeper (who ever is sitting at the time) in addition to the game keeper. I concur with Chris on this idea, mistakes are sometimes made and keeping another record won't hurt us. As you have probably noticed,  I like to be prepared... My definition of LUCK is "Preparedness meeting opportunity".

There is a line in the movie Hoosiers (video link) that goes like this- " there is a tradition in tournament play, you not talk about the next step until you've climbed the one in front of you". One game at a time guys...


I would also suggest before the playoffs begin, you  try to get out for some batting practice or if you have a bat at least, pick it up and take 10 to 15 swings a couple of times over the weekend just to work the muscles used for batting. By the time we start the playoffs we will have been off for a week...
Here's to a great playoffs... UNITS UNDERSTAND!!




STIFFS NOT SO LUCKY AGAINST UNITS...

HURTIN' UNITS vs. LUCKY STIFFS...

"Baseball is the only field of endeavour where a man can succeed 3 times out of 10 and be considered a good performer".- Ted Williams

Game# 25-September 13, 2010

Hurtin' Units win 26-18

Team Record-19-4-2

Tottenham- I have to tell you guys I was extremely disappointed to show up at the diamond on Wednesday evening and see the lights were not working again. I was really looking forward to the game. I got back into town early on Wednesday afternoon, I went to Coventry Park for batting practise, went home and prepared for our game and for my Thursday and then took a 3 hour nap. When I take a 3 hour nap, you know I'm serious about playing our game. Anyway, the game was canceled and fortunately it has been rescheduled for Monday September 13 at Coventry Park at 9:30pm...

I think I was more disappointed about the game being canceled because we had a full team, probably the first or second time since early in the season. There are 3 players on the Hurtin' Units that have a perfect attendance record- Jens L., Jimmy Mac., and myself.

Ted Williams or Chris Nyers?

I really felt bad for Chris Nyers on Wednesday night, the guy makes it out for the game and the lights are out and the game is canceled, plus other guys are giving him the gears about missing games... I'm inclined to cut Chris all kinds of slack when he misses games, for several reasons:

1.Chris has been, for the most part, good about letting us know when he can't make the games. Shift work, kids and other extracurricular activities can be tough to schedule around in your first year in the league.

2. I've done shift work, to some extent I still do, and there are numerous others in the league that face the same challenge, some even rated quite high in the league. There are some teams that miss their best players for half the season, could you imagine if Robin missed half our games, where would we be in the standings?

3.In 2004 I joined the T.O.T. League, I was drafted by Captain Frank McMann, our team name was “ FEAR FACTOR” ( I still have the shirt). I was working different shifts (my shifts would change every 4 to 8 weeks) and unfortunately I was missing a considerable number of games. It got to the point where I decided to quit the league. I didn't really want to (I really enjoy playing this game), but it was getting tougher and tougher to call Frank week after week saying that I couldn't make this week's game...I did quit mid-season and didn't sign up again in 2005. In 2006 my shifts were better and I rejoined the T.O.T league, my attendance has been stellar since...

In 2006 I was drafted by the Hot Tub Woodies and I had a fun season playing for captains Jeff Dancey and Ed Hopkins. It was also the first opportunity I ever had to play with my 2010 co-captain Mike Olliffe. I still have very fond moments playing for a lousy Woodies team, but a excellent, fun group of guys. Some nights at the Legion there would be tears rolling down our faces from laughing so hard, good memories of playing in this league...

I'm glad Chris N. has hung in for his first season (unlike myself in 2004), the first season is the most difficult and now that he has a better understanding of the ins and outs of the league, he will be better prepared for upcoming seasons. I'm sure before this season is all said and done, Chris will have made solid contributions to the Hurtin' Units...The picture to the right is of Ted Williams, the last batter to hit over .400 in the majors...sure looks a lot like Nyzee...

On Thursday afternoon (Sept. 8) Chris Ross sent out an e-mail regarding the Keogh Park lights. Apparently, a crapped out timer was the cause of the non-functional lights on Wednesday evening and when fixing the timer, the town workers also discovered another problem, a squirrel had entered an access panel on the lights, nested inside and chewed on wire which is believed to be the cause of the light problems over the season.

For ten years (1987-1997), I worked for the T.R.C.A. ( Toronto and Region Conservation Authority). I worked for the Kortright Centre for Conservation, located in Vaughan and the position I held was superintendent. For those of you not familiar with Kortright, it is an outdoor education center that is open to the public and also provides programming for 70,000 school children annually...

The Kortright Centre is on approximately 800 acres of land on the Humber river watershed. On the property there are 13 plus buildings plus a private residence. The main building is a 40,000 square foot, multi-level, post and beam structure with open teaching areas, administrative offices, gift shop, cafe, and theatre. School groups assemble in the main building before venturing out on the property for the nature programs...


The other buildings on the property are used for maintenance, educational programs, storage, demonstrations, etc. On the property there was also a barn, bee apiary, battery house, demonstration cottage, etc. My job was to oversee and maintain the grounds and structures on the property. Some of the buildings were seasonally serviced with water and hydro...

I mention the Kortright years only because I am very familiar with the problems that wildlife can cause. The squirrel chewing on the wire at Keogh Park are the kinds of problems I saw over and over in my 10 years. I can recall having issues with all kinds of wildlife, raccoons, squirrels, mice, birds, bees, beavers, snakes, bats, etc...I think the most annoying wildlife were the raccoons and mice... Raccoons would get into the garbage and we were always trying to find ways to stop them, they would also steal lunches of the school kids and do their business all over the outdoor shelters... Mice would find their way into the main building, they would chew holes in gift shop bags of bird seed and over run the building in the winter months...I saw mice that used conduit to travel through the building and then saw what happens when they try to nest in a breaker panel, can you say electrocution. Squirrels would nest in the exterior of the building and they would constantly be trying to get food from bird feeders, they were the most persistent animal I ever saw...

There were other things that were a little bit creepy. The buildings that were seasonally serviced with water, would have to have the water shut off for the winter...Throughout the property there were dry wells, approximately 6 to 7 feet deep, 3 to 4 feet in diameter, with shut off valves at the bottom, to shut off water to certain buildings... Every fall we had to shut these valves off...We would remove the concrete lid and the well would be filled with snakes... It was like Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Arc, the snakes would be crawling over the water line and shut off valve, some would hide in some nooks and crannies, some would coil up with their little tongue flapping. We would slide a ladder down into the well, climb down and turn the valve off... We eventually made a device to turn the valve off without going in to the well. Bats were also a little creepy, especially when you find them by accident, which I had the misfortune of doing... I also added an addition to the bee apiary, I was stung multiple times per day... Do I know about wildlife causing problems, I've seen a few things...

Game Day.

Our 25th game of the regular season is against the Lucky Stiffs. Every time I play against the Stiffs I have a flush of memories of when I played with them back in 2008. Sure the team is almost completely changed with the exception of captains John and Clayton, but the shirt colour remains the same and that's what brings back the memories for me. Our teammate Jerry Wallace also played for the 2008 edition of the Stiffs. In 2008, the Lucky Stiffs finished the regular season in the middle of the pack ( 7th place I think), but managed to get on a roll in the playoffs and rode that wave all the way to the T.O.T. championship. The team had some really good chemistry with players like Jake Anderson, Neil Pendlebury, Murray Saunders, Clayton Campbell, etc... But for me the guy who was the straw that stirred the drink was Rob McCarron. Rob is solid as a player, most of us would agree, but it was what Rob brought off the field that created the chemistry.  

After every game, back at the Legion, Rob would buy a round of Lava Lamp shooters ( tequila rose and  black sambuca) and we would drink in unison and this became the Lucky Stiffs trademark for the season. In the playoffs this ritual continued, we picked up bottles of tequila rose and sambuca at the L.C.B.O. and plastic shot glasses at the dollar store. After every game of the playoffs, we would pour out a shot for the entire team and toast our team. We toasted all the way to the T.O.T Championship... 


Post Game September 14, 2010.

Coventry Park- The night was cool, with next to nothing for clouds, a quarter moon shone in the western sky and there was absolutely no wind at all for this makeup game against the Lucky Stiffs.

At game time we has our full squad, 12 guys and it was great to clinch the league title with the team we will be fielding in the playoffs.

I was reading the T.O.T website yesterday and it was saying that the Hurtin' Units had unofficially won the league title, I believe that we now can call it official. I really wanted to win the season pennant on points and not have it decided by a head to head tie breaker. Congratulations to us, we played well all season, but now comes the real test, the practise games are over...

Boxscore:
                       1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th    Total 
Hurtin' Units    5       6      2       5      3       5      0        26   

Lucky Stiffs      3        1      3      1       2       5      3        18   

The game last night was a high scoring affair, probably the most runs we scored in a single game all season. The defense was not as sharp as most games, but we got the job done. Both teams were hitting the baseball hard and there were even a couple of homeruns...I forgot to write down or take a copy of or take a picture of the game sheet, so I can't really produce much in the way of a game summary or a boxscore. D'oh!! I'll stop by the Legion to see if it's still there, maybe write out the boxscore.... Stopped by, it was still there, I wrote out the score.

I can tell you a couple of things I do remember about the game... I think we should be calling the police (video link)... because both Al and Paul we robbed over and over all evening long... Or perhaps Dr. Evil has changed the positioning of the “tractor beam” toward Al and Paul, all I know is these guys were stinging the baseball hard all night and didn't have a hit to show for it. It's good to see the baseball gods have a sense of humour... One more thing I do remember was the game ending double play by Robin. We were against the ropes in the bottom of the 7th and this play got us out of a tight jamb. I'm sure there are other things I should remember, but for now I'll prepare for our final regular season game against the Wild this evening... UNITS UNTANGLE!!

DODGE CITY OVER RUN BY HURTIN' UNITS...

Hurtin' Units vs. Dodge City Rounders...

The shirt says it all...

Game # 24 -August 7, 2010


Hurtin' Units win 14-6


Team Record-18-4-2

                                          

Captain's Blog Stardate:

Monday Sept 6, 2010.  Labour Day.

Well it is semi-official that the summer is over. I know that summer isn't really over until September 21st , but most people equate the summer ending just after Labour Day. Kids go back to school, summer holidays are over, the CNE comes to a close and The T.O.T baseball playoffs are just around the corner. I'm in Mississauga on this Labour Day, working around the airport, which quite frankly is a zoo. This is the final day of the CNE, which means it is the final day of the air show. Cars and people are parked up and down Airport and Dixie Roads waiting for a glimpse of the planes in the air show to fly in and out of Pearson Airport.

Last week, I was fortunate to see the snowbirds landing, coming in really low over Airport Road and I also saw several fighter jets landing, a really cool site to see. I understand the fasination with watching the planes take off and land, I find myself doing it from time to time. On any given weekend you will find individuals and families parked in the areas around the airport, most with cameras in hand, some with photography equipment that would make professional photographers envious, watching as commercial aircraft fly just over their heads. I have not seen any air show planes today, plenty of others, there are planes landing and taking off probably every two to three minutes...Amazing stuff...


Speaking of Labour Day, I took the time to store away all my white clothing until next spring. And still another sign that summer is coming to an end... I guess the Dogcatchers and the Torn Ligaments are going to have to hold off storing their whites until the end of the season ( even though it is frowned upon by society)... Of course I'm joking...LOL


I'm glad our playoffs were not this past weekend with the very, strong winds, dark cloud cover, cold temperatures and the rain showers. Not the most friendly conditions for baseball. The Tottenham Youngtimers ( the Sunday night league) did have their playoffs this weekend at Coventry... Is Hurricane Earl responsible for this bad weather?

Quagmire discovers internet porn...

On Sunday, I saw Rick (Ricky Bobby) Lyon on Queen St., he was returning a movie ( I think it was “Little Miss Sunshine”, but don't quote me on this). I had the pleasure of being a teammate of Ricky last season with the Banshees. When ever I think of Ricky, I'm reminded of the Family Guy's Quagmire. Rick and I had a picture of Quagmire on our team shirts last season, there were many of nights when the team would laugh about Family Guy scenes... A fun season with less than stellar end results... We had a good group of guys, Rod Duggan, Jimmy MacDonald, Calvin Steeves, etc. with great results post game at the Legion. I my conversation Ricky, he was telling me that he doesn't like when the T.O.T playoffs are over, only because it means the end of the baseball season...I can relate to what Rick is saying, once the season ends everyone goes on their own way until the next season begins. Sure you see guys around and get together for other events,( i.e euchre tournament), but there is something missing...There is a bond created when you spend 5 to 6 months, one or two games a week, around the same group of guys... The great thing is the next season, it happens all over again with a new group of players...


I play hockey in the winter with two different groups of guys and it is the same feeling with them... I remember saying back in April to the guys I play hockey with on Fridays, “ I'll see you guys in October, have a good summer”, and October is almost here, wow... 5 months gone be in a blink of an eye...


The latest standings we posted on the weekend and the top two teams still remain very close. The Hurtin' Units hold a 2 point lead on the Brewjays . Each team has 3 games remaining . The Brewjays play the Dusty Cleats, The Lucky Stiffs and The Dislocated Joints... The Hurtin' Units play the Dodge City Rounders, The Lucky Stiffs and The Wild...


The Hurtin' Units and The Brewjays both play Tuesday evening at Coventry..

Game Day:

The weather in the afternoon was excellent, some would say that it was too hot, not me, I found it to be perfect and the strong, warm breeze was a bonus... I went over to Coventry Park this afternoon to take some batting practice, I hadn't been practicing much over the last month or so, so I made the effort to do so. I hit about 35 balls, worked on my swing, and worked on placing the ball a little bit more. As I mentioned in the last blog, I had some good conversations with Roman and I was trying some of the things he had mentioned...My contact with the ball over our last 4 games has been really good, but it would appear that the gloves of our opponents have "tractor beams" drawing my hits into their gloves... Anyway, I guess I've babbled enough in the edition, we haven't played the game yet...To be continued after the game has been played against the Dodge City Rounders...

Wednesday September 8, 2010:

As I mentioned earlier, I had gone to Coventry during the day and the weather was great. The  weather was perfect, I mean perfect, for last night's game. The temperature had dropped to a comfortable level and there was a soft breeze helping or hindering ( not really sure if the wind was helping) Jerry's pitching. 

Our lineup was almost complete. 11 guys were present and accounted for, the only player missing was Nyzee ( Chris N.) who was at a ice hockey referee workshop. There was a rumour floating around after the game that Chris N. might be at the Wednesday evening's game, when I arrived home today, there was an e-mail from Chris that he would indeed be at the game tonight... That would make a full team. Last night Paul and Al were back from holidays, Al back from Alaska  (where I think he was hunting grizzly bears... Just kidding) and Paul back from England (on assignment with James Bond...I think this is true). It will fun to see how we do as a full team against a strong opponent. Our game tonight ( Wednesday) is against the Lucky Stiffs, a team that has been playing well down the stretch and needs to win all of it's remaining games to have a shot at the league title... The rumour on the street this afternoon is the Lucky Stiffs beat the Brewjays by a 20-19 score in last night's late, late game... Good for the Hurtin' Units, not that good for the Brewjays...

Boxscore:Units vs. Dodge City
                       1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th  6th  7th  Total

Hurtin' Units    1      1       2      1      3     6    X      14  

Dodge City      2      0       0      4      0     0     0       6   

Our game last night against the Rounders started of tight, both teams trading runs, but in the end the Units defense and offense took over. The Rounders look like a really good team, they have some excellent players and I can't really understand why that aren't higher in the standings. These guys could cause some trouble in the playoffs...

I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the game, I need to focus on the game this evening... I will say this, last night's game was a must win for us and we got the job done...Tonight we face the Lucky Stiffs, you know that they will be gunning for us... I look forward to the game tonight... UNITS UNDIVIDED!!

HURTIN' UNITS ESCAPE THE DOGCATCHERS...

HURTIN' UNITS vs. DOGCATCHERS...

Game # 23- August 31, 2010 (makeup game from July 1st)

Hurtin' Units win 13-6

Team Record- 17-4-2

Coventry Park- On a great evening for ball, the temperature had dropped from a daytime high of 33 degrees Celsius and with the humidity it felt like 40 degrees. At game time (9:30, yes 9:30pm this was our long awaited makeup game) the humidity and the high temperature had diminished to a comfortable level. There was even a soft, warm, west to east breeze keeping any bugs from bothering us.The humidity and bugs on Monday night at Keogh Park were awful.. For the first time in 3 weeks, I felt really comfortable on the diamond. 

My discomfort on the diamond, over the last 3 to 4 weeks, came from a variety of reasons. I found the Keogh lights not working for a several games, fielding a team in the month of August, Piero's safety at third one game, the sun on diamond # 2 in our eyes another game, I had a sore wrist and even the flying ants and mosquitoes all distracted me over the last month...I hear you guys offering me some cheese with this whine, but these are all valid reasons for my personal distractions on the field...I know we all face most of the same problems, but they were distractions none the less...what else I'm I going to write about... the game??

The two games we played this week were fun, not because we won them both, but because we had most of our regular players back in the lineup. As Mike and I were walking toward diamond #3, I said to him " isn't that a great site", I was referring to the number of blue Hurtin' Units shirts with players in them, hanging around the diamond...A beauty site to see...

At game time we again had 9 of our own players and our super sub Doug Dwyer returned for another tryout with the team. Doug Dwyer played the best I've seen him play all season, in the two games he played for us...I discussed a trade with Mike, to see what the Grisslies might be asking for Mr. Dwyer, but Mike is extremely happy with our existing roster and doesn't want to give up a roster player. But, we are willing to give up a couple of juicy prospects from the farm system and a 2 for 1 pizza voucher... What say ye Mr. Farah, is there a deal or a pizza to be made here? Forget the subs, think of the pizza...mmmmm pizza.

We had the exact same lineup on Tuesday evening as on Monday against the Dusty Cleats. Paul G., Al H., and Chris N. are still away. I also left the batting order exactly the same, not because it was so good on Monday, but more because I forgot to record who our last batter was against the Cleats...D'OH!!

I received another e-mail from Paul in England. Paul is still having a good time and says he's pumped about being back for next week's game. I believe Al H. is also back which means no more sub calls to Rob. He'll probably think there is something wrong with my phone if he doesn't here from me...LOL. I give Rob a lot of credit for what he does for this league, he had requests for 14 subs for a single evening, it's a good thing he works for a phone company. If I had a nickel every time Rob called me to sub, I'd have about 50 cents... I wanted to get the word nickel in a sentence...There's a reason, click on the link... 

Speaking of subbing...On Wednesday evening I was called by Rob to sub for the Dogcatchers, ironically the team we beat the night before. I quickly accepted the invitation to sub not giving as much thought as I should have. I really should have declined for a couple of reasons. First reason: I managed to book and get a massage on Wednesday afternoon. I don't like to get a massage on the day of a game, it really defeats the purpose of the massage, I really prefer to relax after getting massaged. For those of you who get regular massages, you know what I'm talking about. If you have never had a massage, I highly recommend doing so on a regular basis. My second reason for not subbing would be that I was a little tired from our game and the post game activities on Tuesday evening. On Tuesday afternoon I did get in a 2 hour nap before our game, but it just wasn't enough...Well at least the game I subbed for was at 7:00...

I don't think the Dogcatchers would have been any worse off without me in their lineup against the Grisslies. I played catcher for them, they could have had the other team catch... I guess Randy was just covering the bases, so to speak... My game summary would go something like this... I played 7 innings at catcher... I made one foul ball catch for an out...I had 4 throws toward home plate, one for an out, one not in time for the out and the other two off line... I batted 4 times, got on base 2 times, once on a hit, once on a fielders choice, I struck out on a third pitch foul ball ( that's twice this week Rob F. has struck me out, that skinny, little, bastard) and I also came around to score a run. How much could I really do, I was the catcher!

This was a fun game, at least for me it was, I like playing with Randy H. and add Gary Cox, Doug Dwyer, Rob Farah in to the mix and there is always going to be some degree of entertainment. Randy had me catching which I really didn't mind. Roman was the umpire for the game and I had several good conversations about rules, batting and other baseball related stuff with him... I think that this was a worthwhile subbing venture based on the knowledge I received from Roman...

The Grisslie/ Dogcatcher game ended in a tie, but it did have the dramatic flair of a Hollywood movie in the final inning. Going into the 7th inning, the score tied, the visiting Grisslies had a chance to take the lead. There were a couple of Grisslies on the bags, but as "Grisslie luck" would have it, they were unable to get the monstrous hit they needed to bring them home... In the bottom of the inning, obviously still tied, with one out and Dogcatcher runners on second and third, the Grisslies intentionally walked Neil Pendlebury to load the bases and create a force situation at every base...Nail biting time at Keogh Park. The next Dogcatcher batter popped out in the infield, two out based loaded. The next Dogcatcher's batter hit a bullet line drive to right field, but the Grisslie's right fielder made a great, running catch to end the game in a tie... Exciting stuff!!

Okay, let's get back to the Hurtin' Units vs. the Dogcatchers on Tuesday night. As I mentioned earlier, this was the makeup game, rescheduled from July 1st. It took a little bit of time to get it in, but the results were worth the wait...This was the game from the Hurtin' Units I really wanted to see, strong defense and even stronger batting. I really like when Don and Robin are in the lineup, not because they are our 1 and 2 rated players, but more because Don gives us great energy every game, not that everyone else doesn't , but when you guy willing to slide at home, now that's energy... I know (now) that there is no sliding at home, interesting way to learn the rule. I guess were always learning...Robin is a calming force on the infield, and his confidence to make the plays makes the rest of us want to play the same, it may not happen all the time, but we all play much better when Robin's on the field. Oh yea, the bats of both these guys are not too shabby either... Both Don and Robin are in the top 25 in batting...

The whole Hurtin' Units team played a great game on Tuesday. I included the game sheet in this edition of the blog just to see how it would fit in. I like to experiment with different ideas in the blog, sometimes for the experience of doing it and sometimes to make some changes for the sake of change. I have viewed the blog on several different computers and it looked a little different on all of them. I hope that anyone who wishes to view the game sheets can see them well enough. The copy probably looked better before I carried it around in my pockets for several days. I usually carry a copy of the boxscore or the game sheet to write up the game blog results... However, today I'm not going to write anymore about the game and let the game sheet do the talking...

Boxscore:

                          1st    2nd    3rd    4th    5th    6th   7th   Total
Hurtin' Units       1        4        2       0       1       5       0      13   

Dogcatchers       2        0        1       0       2       0       1       6      

  
Hurtin' Units vs. Dogcatchers score sheet.

I also enjoy doing the video links, I've peppered several throughout this edition for your viewing enjoyment. If you haven't already found them look through the blog for the words in green. I think I included 4 videos links...

Okay back to the Hurtin' Units...We are down to our final 3 regular season games (where did the season go?) and our remaining opponents are The Dodge City Rounders, The Lucky Stiffs and The Wild. The think it's time to start preparing for the playoffs.

Apparently, in the world according to Doug Dwyer, the Hurtin Units and the Dogcatchers are the top two winning teams over the last 10 (I think he said 10) games. I'm pretty sure the Brewjays are not too far off the pace... Here is one more nugget of information to ponder going in to the playoffs... The Hurtin' Units have beaten every team in the T.O.T league at least once. UNITS UNITIZE!!