RED DOGS HOLD OFF HURTIN' UNITS...

HURTIN' UNITS VS. RED DOGS.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.-Field of Dreams

Game # 9 - June 18, 2012

Hurtin' Units lose 19-17

Team Record- 2-6-1

Coventry Park - Well,  it's back to Coventry for another kick at the can. The Hurtin' Units don't really have a lot of history with the Red Dogs, over the last couple of years, we have played each other, but there really have been no memorable moments that I can recall. I looked at their roster and there were 3 players that I have played with since coming in to the league in 2006. I played on teams with Rick H., Gary C. and Rob Mc. over the years, these guys I have some memories with, but really that's about it. In 2008, Rob McCarron and I played for the Lucky Stiffs and won the T.O.T championship, we did have a little help from our friend Sammy Buca, which we will call upon in the near future...

One memory I do have of the Red Dogs, it was Game # 1, May 4, 2010 and the Hurtin' Units were playing their first ever game against the Red Dogs, we went on to win the game by a score of 14-10. I looked back at what I wrote back then about that game and thought I would share a couple of paragraphs of my babblings with you, from this time....

Our game was not a stand out by any means, but it did have certain hang around the beer cooler topics to discuss post game. What topics you ask? Well, there were the five strike outs by the Units, which leads to five frosty jugs of beer at the Legion and this made the eyes of Chris, Robin and Jerry light up like little kids in a candy store. There was the nature call by an umpire who found relief in the meadows of Coventry Park and of course, there was the game. Yes the game, the first ever game for the Hurtin' Units.

The Hurtin' Units played a solid defensive game with few errors which is good news for the first game of the year. Robin made a fantastic play near second base, picking up a well hit ground ball, crawling toward second, getting to his feet, stumbling again to his knees, crawling to the bag for the out, a solid effort indeed. There were some nice catches in the outfield and the infield didn't look to shabby either. I have a feeling I might be repeating this line several more times over the course of the season (not the Robin crawling back line, although given enough beer... no, I mean the team looked good line).

  

I really do enjoy going back and reading the stuff I wrote about our games from the past, I think it is probably because I was at these games and remember how the plays actually went down... I really hope that sometime in the future, everyone on the current (2012) roster will go back and read what I said about our games... I know that this has not been a memorable season as yet, but I really, honestly believe we have a solid, solid team and we are about to turn things around... And if I am wrong about the turning it around thing, I hope we still walk away with great memories of playing together... I sometimes get bored with writing out or trying to find an angle or just putting this blog together, but I do look back once and awhile at old postings and find it's fun to recall games gone by... Some of you may have noticed that I have use this picture of the kid eating popcorn and watching the game in previous blogs, I really love the innocence of this picture and I like to include it in a blog in every season... 

The Red Dogs look like they are off to a decent start in the 2012 campaign sitting in 7th place with a 4-4-0 record, so basically a .500 team which we could see a lot of this season...If any team (other than the Joints) could get on a winning streak, they could walk away with the league this season... I was perusing the standings this morning and the difference between 2nd and 15th is 5 points... If the Units were to win 3 games in a row and the Dodge City Rounders were to lose 3, the Units would take over sole procession of 2nd place, now there are a ship load of other teams in between us, but I was really just trying to illustrate a point about how close the standings are and how easy it would be to get back in the race... EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEAZY!

And so the drought ends... I have to mention my Nascar favorite Dale Earnhart jr. for ending the 143 cup race drought without a win. The victory came almost exactly four years to the day after his last trip to Victory Lane . Dale's last win was also in Michigan on June 15, 2008. It was great to finally see Junior win. I was actually a Dale Earnhart senior fan unitl Dale Sr. was killed in Daytona, in the last lap of the Daytona 500, in 2001... I know I speak for all the Dale Earnhart jr. fans, congratulations for a long overdue victory...

The weather for this game the Red Dogs was hot, 30 degrees at around 3:00pm and with the humidity it felt like 38 degrees. At game time it had cooled down to 28 degrees...

At game time we had 10 players, all drug free, (Advil, Aspirin, Moltrin Midol and A535 are not performance enhancing) ready to take on the Big Red Machine. Gord R. (3rd) was unavailable (back on afternoons) and Mike was ready  to play if needed. We were the home team in this game...

BOXSCORE:             1      2       3       4       5        6        7           TOTAL 

HURTIN' UNITS         6      2       1       1      0        7         0               17      

RED DOGS                2     4        7       0      2        3         1               19     

      

Hurtin' Unit score sheet

In seasons past I may have thought that we were jinxed or cursed or that someone had cast a spell upon our team. I don't feel this way this time around. I really think that it's a matter of time before we start chalking up some more wins. We are definitely competing in most of our games. Our record could just as easily be 6-2-1. We have lost 3 games where the score was within a single run  and now in 1 game where we lost by 2 runs. If a hit or a catch or a foul tip had gone in a different direction, in these games, we could be sitting in a different position now. If Mike was not injured and his bat was crushing the ball the way he can, we might be in a different position. But would it be a better position?

If the playoffs were to begin today, based on the same format as last season, we (15th seed) would play the 1, 6, 7, 12 seeds and those teams would be Dislocated Joints, Tap Masters, Grusome Devils and the Dogcatchers...We can play with any of these teams.

Red Dogs score sheet

I sometimes think the universe just plays   with us to make us stronger or to make us appreciate what we have. I use Dale Earnhart as an example. It has been four years, 173 Nascar races, numerous cars and engines and piles and piles of worn down tires since Dale jr. has been to victory lane. Over this time I'm sure there was some doubt that he would ever win again, he probably thought he was jinxed and if he wasn't the most popular driver in Nascar I would venture to guess he would have been looking for a new team. There were some tough times, but he kept competing and with the support of his teammates and fans all the tweaking, adjusting and practise finally paid off...

I really enjoyed this game against the Red Dogs, sure we lost, but the bottom line is we competed, we showed we can play with the big boys and I think everyone on the Hurtin' Units knows that we are not as bad as the record shows. There is a lot of baseball left to play and we will get a second chance with some of the teams we have already played, I also look forward to our game against the Dislocated Joints...Let's see how do against these guys.

The Red Dogs really are the big, red machine. They have a solid hitting and defensive team. With bats like Brad Y., Mike C., Rob McC., and Mark K, I can see why they now sit in second place in the standings.

Game Time: In the top of the first inning, the Red Dog batters jumped on us quickly scoring two runs. In the bottom of the first, the Hurtin' Units came out swinging (I know we always come out swinging, but this time we were hitting too) and we went through the lineup and when it was all said and done, the Units had scored 6 runs. In the top of the second inning, the powerful Dogs were back to their old tricks, spraying the baseball all around the diamond. Brad Young was the Hurtin' Units killer and Craig was forced to do some serious running in right field. The Dogs brought 4 more runs around to score. In the bottom of the inning, the Units tacked on 2 more runs and take an 8-6 lead.

In the top of the third inning, Dave (Kidder) made his Hurtin' Units 2012 pitching debut. Kidder came in to pitch an inning and he struggled a little trying to find his range and when the dust had finally settled, the Red Dogs had put 7 runs on the board. I had expected Kidder to have a few issues, after all it was his first pitching appearance this season, I didn't let him know he was pitching until game time and the Dogs were a tough hitting team. I really thought it was time for him to get in to a game even if it was tough Dog sledding... Kidder had ribbed me in the inning earlier about using more than a centimeter of the board and we had a laugh when Karma came back to bite him pitching in the third...LOL.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Units scored only a single run. The score at the end of three innings 13-9 for the Red Dogs.

In the top of the forth inning, the Units muzzled the Dogs allowing no runs. In the bottom of the inning, the Units scored another single run. In the fifth inning, the Red Dogs scored 2 runs and the Units were stopped putting up a zero. In the sixth inning, the Red Dogs cranked out another 3 runs, but in the bottom of the inning, the Hurtin' Units' bats were recharged and 7 runs came in to score... The score at the end of six innings, the Red Dogs led 18-17.

In the seventh inning, the Red Dogs would tack on a single insurance run and would take a 19-17 score in to the bottom half of the inning...
In the bottom of the seventh the Units would send Rob R, Cam C, and Dave to the plate, the Units would go down 1,2,3 and the Red Dogs held on for the victory... I could almost cry because of this loss...I'm kidding, just watch the video.

Jimbits: 

There are not a lot of things to recall here, you would think with a 19-17 score there would be...Go Figure.

• I do remember the diamond being very dusty and after every infield play there would be this cloud of dust drifting across the diamond...
• Craig was hitting the ball really well, I had lent him a bucket of balls, a bat and a batting tee the week before, I thought this was why he was crushing the ball, it turns out the stuff never left the trunk of his car... Craig had some troubles in the field, Brad Young sent him running toward the fence on numerous occasions.
• We had 3 strike outs in this game, all foul outs. Jamie, Jimmer and Clayton ( Clayton? have I got that right?) all had some troubles with Eric Hipkin's pitching. Damn! I had just paid up my tab...
• Rob R. made a nice running catch behind second base. When you hear Rob tell the story... he had to run 150 feet, through knee high grass, in a dust storm, in bare feet and then made a dive through the air making a snow cone catch. I believe a 10 year old girl, with no glove, could have made the catch. 
• Dave (Kidder) made his 2012 pitching debut.
• Al H., playing first base, got hit in the shin on a hard shot that took a strange bounce.
• Clayton, playing at third, made a great grab on a ground ball, touched third for the force play and then threw home for a double play... Wait, the umpire called the runner at third safe because he didn't leave the bag, when Clayton touched third, the base was open again...It was definitely a strange play, confusing to most of us... live and learn. I believe if Clayton had gone home first and then the ball was thrown back to third it would have been a double play... There was no harm done, we got the next batter out to end the inning.

There was one more thing that happened on the night: Post game the Hurtin' Units gathered in the parking lot for a refreshing beverage or two. Eight players had come back and we drank merrily on this warm evening, almost summer don't ya know... After a few sodas and some game discussion, some of the players headed home...Rob, Cam, Mike and I were the remaining bodies, still yukking it up and telling stories of the victory that twas almost ours. 

As we were enjoying the evening, a police car turned in to the parking lot, someone yelled "it's the cops". As quickly as the words were out, the beverage cans were hurling though the air like hand grenades with the pins pulled. The police cruiser, with two female cops came to a skidding stop, Cam panicked and started running for the long grass. The officer in the passenger side jumped out and started after Cam. The other officer kept the us in her sites, while watching her partner catch up to Cam.

The officer caught up to Cam, grabbed him by the back of his green Hurtin' Units shirt, the shirt torn from top to bottom as he tripped over his own feet and did a face plant in to the grassy dirt. Cam tried to get back to his feet, the officer pushed Cam face first back down, yelling " stay down, stay down", she straddled over top of Cam and forced her knee in to his back, while reaching for her hand cuffs. When Cam was cuffed, she got him to his feet, there was grass still sticking out from his hair, his torn shirt hung askew and there was trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth, she walked him back to the police cruiser, opened the rear door and pushed him inside... At this point in the evening, there was a loud beeping sound and I realized that my alarm had gone off and it was time to get up for work...

Yes, I was having a dream, but it was based on some true facts, there was a point in the parking lot on Tuesday night when the police did drive in to the Coventry Park, we did toss the beverages, but the officer was cool and told us to be discreet with our activities... When we were leaving there were 3 cruisers sitting out by the water tower, we gave a friendly wave and headed for home...  
   ,
Next week we play two games: On Monday we take on the Tap Masters and on Thursday we are in a rematch with the Grusome Devils. ...

LAB- Kidder.