HURTIN' UNITS OVER THROWN BY THE REBELS...

HURTIN' UNITS vs. RUSTY REBELS.

Game #20 - August 9, 2011

Hurtin' Units lose 13-12

Team Record 7-12-1


 August 6-7, 2011- T.O.T August Tournament.

Coventry Park- Many people would say that the C.N.E is a harbinger of the summer winding down.  To me the T.O.T August tournament is my harbinger of the baseball season coming to it's conclusion. I know that it is early August, but there are only 5 (I think it's 5) regular season games remaining and then the playoffs. The August tournament is one of my favorite tournaments of the year (not that I play a lot of tournaments) and for the last four or five years I played in it with mostly friends and neighbors. 

Over the last several years, I co-captained with Rob Farah, putting together some decent squads and I believe we actually won on one or two occasions. The teams we assembled were usually friends and neighbors with the odd guy  peppered in to round out the roster or meet the ratings numbers. In the past we have played under the name of "Team Extreme".

This year Rob decided to part ways with Team Extreme and he was signed as a free agent by Cora Thunder. This left a co-captain position available and I quickly promoted Mikey Boy (co-captain of the Hurtin' Units) to the position of co-captain/first baseman of the Squirtin' squad. 

Rob F. had originally named the team "Team Extreme" and with Rob no longer in the picture (scroll down to see the picture with no Rob) it was time for a name change... But what name with so little time before the tournament? And then it occurred to us, our friend Ed Hopkins (of Hottub Woodys fame) had sent us an e-mail last season referring to the Hurtin' Units as the Squirtin' Units ( most likely a typo, several times) and we were hilariously entertained by Ed's spelling mistake. When we were thinking about a new name I remembered e-mail and quickly renamed the team... There were other names for consideration, but this was quick, this was a no brainer... 

Other Team Names on the Table:

Multiple Scorgasms
Victorious Secret
Big Test Icicles
The Abusement Park
Wii Not Fit
Scared Hitless
Here for Beer
Wacky Waving Inflatable Flailing Arm Tube Men
Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies
Cuban Raft Riders
Designated Drinkers
The Mighty Morphin Flower Arrangers
Cunning Stunts
The Master Batters
Norfolk-in-Chance
The Muffin Stuffers
Cow Tipping Dwarfs
Viscious and Delicious
e-LEMON-ators
The Tottenhammers

None of these names really seemed to fit our team and because the team we assembled really liked to drink beer, the Squirtin' Units was the chosen one...

The reason I include all this information in the Hurtin' Units blog is because there were nine (9) Hurtin' Unit players playing (on various teams) in the tournament this past weekend. The Squirtin' Units lead the way with 5 players (Jimmer, Mikey, Chris L., Mooner, and Richard G.), the Lollipop Guild had 2 (Paul G. and Cal S.), the Grusome Twosome had 1 (Bob M.) and Cal R. played for a co-ed or girl's team (just kiddin' Cal, don't get your panties all in a bunch).  

In the fun division, of the tournament, there were 6 teams competing. The Squirtin' Units, The Lollipop Guild, The Grusome Twosome, Fathers and sons, Cora Thunder and Dannyz Boyz (formerly known as prince, oops, I mean Joe and the Volcanoes). Each team would play 3 round robin games and the top 4 teams would go on to the semi-finals. The Squirtin' Units had some breaks in the tourney.

We won our first game against the Lollipop Guild , lost our second game to the Grusome Twosome and managed to tie Cora Thunder, in the bottom of the seventh inning, to squeak into the semis. In the semi-final game, we caught another break when some of Dannyz Boyz had a scheduling conflict  and several big time players were absent from the game. Dannyz picked up some good substitutions and the game was close with a 5-5 deadlock until the top of the seventh. In the top of the seventh, the Units scored 7 runs, enough to hold off the Boyz... Units win 12-8 and advance to the finals vs. Cora Thunder again...

In the finals the Squirtin’ Units would be facing Cora Thunder again, the team we tied to get in to the semis. The Units came out hitting, scoring numerous runs early and would play strong defence to win 16-6 and win the fun division of the T.O.T tournament.

I would like to thank all the players on Squirtin’ Units for a great weekend of baseball. Thanks guys.


Top Row: Richard G., Tony M., Gord T., Mike O., Piero D., Roger B.
Bottom Row: Dean C., Chris L., Kevin B., James T., Kevin M., missing Glen T.

 
HURTIN’ UNITS vs. The RUSTY REBELS.
August 9, 2011

Coventry Park- Early in the day, the weather looked as though it may prevent this game from happening. With a dark ominous sky, heavy rainfall and a real threat of thunderstorms, it looked quite grim even around the noon hour. But as the day progressed, the dark clouds and rain moved out of the Tottenham area and by game time the sun was shining brightly. Yea, it was shining brightly alright, right into the faces of anyone facing northwest on diamond #2. What ever happened to the ideal playing conditions? Last week it was the rain, mud and mist. This week it was the sun and captain Hughie’s voice.

The Rusty Rebels are not having a very good season, at least in the standings, (they did win the HTKP tournament) and off the field it could be all shine, lollipops and roses, but I doubt it. The Rebels team record, coming in to this game, was 5-14-0, second last in the standings (14th), but I’d bet they play better in the playoffs. Hugh and Donny have a way of stepping up come playoff time, Hughie probably has a big bag of magic diamond dust he saves for such occasions. Whatever it is, I’m betting the Rebels will be in the thick of things come playoff time.

It was the bottom of the seventh and
the bases were loaded...

This game was no. 20 on our schedule and our record is now 7-12-1. There is now no chance of us having a .500 record, even if we win our 4 remaining games. The only thing I would love to see between now and the playoffs would be to defeat the Dusty Cleats (still unbeaten) and have a strong finish to the end of the season.

This game was the first time we used a sub this season. I was hoping that we could go the entire season without a sub, but it was not to be. We picked up all-star player little Timmy Sullivan to help us out. Missing from the Hurtin’ Units lineup were Richard, Brad and Paul E.

For something a little different in this game, I put myself in the leadoff position. I had put myself at the bottom of the order back in early July, but after hitting well over the weekend (in the tournament), I thought I deserved a change higher up in the order. I chose leadoff to keep the order the same. This was the first time I changed the order since the HTKP tournament and if you remember, I started the season rotating the batting order, but we played so well in the HTKP tourney that I just kept using that lineup. If this game had been a playoff game, I would not have been in the leadoff, but with really none to lose and I’ve been at the bottom of a while now, I needed a change…

My first at bat I lined out to Hugh- D’oh!! Bob followed with a fly out, Cal got to first base, Chris L. got out and the game tone was set. It was going to be a struggle to score on this Rebel team.

In the bottom of the inning the Rebels scored a single run. In the second inning things were looking up for the Units, we managed to bring 3 runs around and we held the Rebels in the bottom. The Hurtin’ Units scoring continued in the third inning, bringing 5 more runs across the plate, the down side was that the Rebels matched us run for run. The score after 3 innings of play … 8-6 for the Hurtin’ Units.

In the forth inning the Units were shut down, 4 batters, one hit and change em up boys. The Rebels did a little better in the bottom of the inning, scoring a single run. The fifth inning saw the Units shut out again and the Rebels continued to peck away at the Units lead scoring 2 more runs.

In the top of the sixth inning, the Hurtin’ Units rallied to score 4 runs to regain the lead, but that lead would be short lived as the Rebels would score 5 runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 13-12 lead. Unfortunately, the Hurtin’ Units would go down quickly in the top of the seventh inning and the Rebels half of the inning would not be needed… Rebels win 13-12.

Boxscore:        1   2    3    4    5    6    7     Total  

Hurtin' Units     0   3    5    0    0    4    0       12    

Rusty Rebels    1    0   5    1     2    5   X       13   


Top Ten Interesting Baseball Facts and Trivia

1.Fidel Castro was once a star baseball player for the University of Havana,Cuba.

2. In 1965, the minimum annual salary for a baseball player was $6,000, just a thousand dollars more than it had been in 1947.

3. A regulation baseball has 108 stitches.

4. The very first baseball game was played on 19th June 1845, across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New York, USA.

5. In baseball, a "can of corn" refers to a fly ball that is easy to catch.

6. Robert Redford attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship.

7. In July 1934, Babe Ruth paid a fan $20 dollars for the return of the baseball he hit for his 700th career home run.

8. In an effort to sell more licensed apparel, minor-league baseball teams were changing their names so often that the sport's governing body now limits franchises to team name changes every three years. Please note Premier League Soccer in the UK say Will and Guy.

9. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, houses the largest collection of baseball cards: 200,000.

10.The first perfect nine innings baseball game was achieved by John Lee Richmond on 12th June 1880.
 

Now back to the Rebels vs Units game...

I think the thing that has to bother us the most is that all of the Rebels runs in the sixth inning were with two outs (according to the game sheet). The first Rebel batter got on with a single and then the second batter hit to Bob, Bob touched second for the force and threw to first for the double play… After that we just couldn’t shut the door, 6 batters came to the plate before a fly ball out ended the inning. Maybe our focus was lost for a moment…Maybe deep down we know we are not playing for anything...until the playoffs begin!

I think sometimes we tend to look at the score and not at the actual game. I really thought we hit the ball well in this game. We hit hard into 11 linedrive/flyball outs, Mooner hit 2 towering fly balls, to the warning track, for long, loud outs. I made solid contact on my first 3 at bats for 3 linedrive outs, 7 of our 10 players flied or lined out and there were numerous fielder’s choice plays also…Hugh played really well at short for the Rebels. We really did have our chances, but I guess it just wasn’t to be on this night…

On a more positive note, Bill J. went 4 for 4, Bob M was involved in turning 3 double plays, Kevin has been hammering the ball and our sub little Timmy Sullivan is okay after taking a throw to the ear and shoulder on a double play attempt at second base.

We can’t win the season; nobody can catch the Dusty Cleats. The Dusty Cleats (last time I looked) are 10 points ahead on the second place team, they have won the league, the best we can do is to spoil their perfect season. Next Monday (I hope I can publish this post by then) we get another shot at the Dusty Cleats, a team that beat us 20-19 in the bottom of the 7th inning with a Scott B. walk-off homerun. The Dusty Cleats are unbeaten (as of today) and we have a chance to be the spoilers…

Just one more thing, I’d like to thank the Beer Bros. for providing the beer on Tuesday evening. The bet we won for winning the season series has been paid…Thanks Guys.









Hurtin' Units Game Sheet: