HURTIN' UNITS COME OUT BIG WITH WOODYS.

HURTIN' UNITS VS. HOTTUB WOODYS.



Hurtin' Unit's evil twin Squirtin' Unit.

Game # 22 - August 22, 2012

Hurtin' Units 13-9

Team Record - 8-13-1

Keogh Park- This past weekend was the annual August Tournament; this tournament helps raise revenue to lower the cost of registration of the T.O.T league.

Included in the tournament is a fun division. In the past, players would submit a team with friends, neighbors, league players, etc. Each team was assembled based on a rating, trying to keep the teams as equal as possible. This year the there were 3 partial teams entered and Mr. Dwyer recruited enough players to build three more teams.

Last Monday there was an open draft and 3 more captains were brought on board, we picked 3 other teams for the tournament and filled the rosters of the partial teams. There were a total of 6 teams for the fun division.

In the round robin portion of the tournament, each team would play 3 games and the top 4 teams would go on to the semi-finals. The Hurtin' Units evil twin team, the Squirtin'Units, would be one of those 4 teams in the semi-finals. The Grusome Twosome would take on the Weekend Warriors and the Squirtin' Units would take on The Other Guys. The Grusome Twosome and the Squirtin' Units would both win their games and battle it out in the finals. In the finals, the Squirtin' Units would win the final game and would become the Fun Division Champions for the second year in a row.

It was the second year in a row for the Squirtin' Units to win, but it was the first time for several of the Unit players. Both Tumble (A.K.A. MR. AWESOME) and Clayton told me after the win, that it was the first time they had ever won anything, I'm glad to part of their win. This was only the second year the Squirtin' Units, but I think it is time to retire the name, if there is a tournament next year, there will a new team name. The Squirtin' Units will be locked up, never to be seen again...good- bye evil twin.



Pretty sure this is Tumble.

 On this this year's edition of the Squirtin' Units there were 5 current Hurtin' Unit players on the roster and I would have tried for more if I could have. On the team was: Clayton A., Rob R.(Mr. Awesome), Cam C.(Cam- L- toe), James T.(Jimmer) , and Jamie A.(Jugs).  I really enjoy putting teams together for this tournament, this is probably the 5th year in a row that I been involved in entering a team. If I recall, I probably had about the same number of Hurtin' Units players from the 2011 team playing on the squad in last years tournament.  Yep, looked at the picture, 5 Hurtin' Unit players on the team last year.

One other thing I did in this tournament was a rotation of pitchers. On the team I had 4 pitchers, Myself, Roger, Rob R. and Brad W., so I thought it would be cool to use one guy in each game. Roger started the tournament with a win against the Grusome Twosome by a score of 18-11. I (Jimmer) would follow with a 8-8 tie in game #2, which we got in the bottom of the seventh inning, against the Weekend Warriors. In game #3 Rob R. (Tumble, Mr. Awesome) would pitch for another win against the Fun Bags by a score of 20-7. With our 2 wins and a tie, we made it in to the semi-finals.


Squirtin' Units 2012 - Fun Division Champs.               Photo by Samantha Delgreco

In the semi final game, I asked Brad to pitch, I have never seen Brad pitch, but I had asked Roger (teammate on the Rebels) and got the thumbs up, so Brad went in and we won by a score of  12-5 against the The Other Guys. Now that we were in the finals, I had a decision to make... who would start the final game? I decided to let Mikey Boy decide, sort of... I would write the four names down on paper, fold them up and let Mikey pick the name. And the oscar goes to...James Taylor for a tie in the 2nd game. Fixed? No, I made sure Mike picked the name in front of our teammates. I really wanted to pitch this game anyway, I wanted the experience and pressure of being in a something game. In the final, I would get a lot more run support than in my first game...The Squirtin' Units would go on to win by a score of 18-10. 


 Squirtin' Units 2011- Fun Division Champs.

I was looking at the picture from 2011 and noticed that only 3 players
from the 2011 team were on this year's team. Mike would have been on the team if he hadn't buggered up his wee knee. I find it really quite amazing that I changed almost 75 % of the roster and we still made it back to win...again. I'm glad to be part of the winning teams and stories like Clayton and Rob never winning anything makes me feel pretty good. 

HURTIN' UNITS VS. HOTTUB WOODYS.

We were the visitors in this game.

Boxscore:              1      2     3     4     5     6     7         Total     

Hurtin' Units           1     3     2      3     0     4     0             13      

Hottub Woodys      1     3    1       1     3     0     0              9      

I think the last game against the Beer Bros. was the lowest point in our season. I will say it one more time for effect - It was as low as we could get in terms of scoring runs. A shut out was only one out away...

And I'll say this about the game with the Woodys, this was, in my opinion, one of the best all round games we have played all season.  



The weather conditions were perfect, which meant the ball was dry for the first time in several games. I had good command of my pitching and the plays on the diamond were definitely cleaner than our last couple of games. We played a mucho bettero game in this game against the Woodys. 

On May 17, 2012 , in our 3rd game on  the season, we took on these same Hottub Woodys and they kicked our asses all around the diamond. The final score in that game was 22- 9. It was our worst defeat of the young season, but it still knocked us down a bit, we still had not won a game and our confidence was a little shakey.   I mentioned in the blog back in May, how good the Woodys looked with the likes of Stikes, the muck of Chuck, the fancy of Dancey and the others on this team.

The team, in this game tonight, was a little different from the team back in May. I noticed that Fast Eddie, Brad M., and the Billy (the kid) Jonkman were not in the lineup, as well as the Danceman who is still recovering from a broken collarbone. The Woodys are not the only team to look a little different. The Hurtin' Unit team also looked different for this game. Since the game against the Woodys in May, we have lost and added two players. Mikey Boy and Dave (Kidder) have both retired for the season and we replaced them with Mark B. and Davey S.

In this game tonight we had 7 of our own players dressed to play. Missing from this game were Cam, Jamie, Davey, Gord (3rd) and Anicete. Davey and Anicete are still injured, Gord had to work and the others were away. We picked up Ricky Bobby, Dan R. and Rob McC. for subs.

As the boxscore would indicate this game was a see-saw battle, the score was tied on several occasions, with the Units coming out on top with 4 runs in the sixth inning.

I mentioned in the blog about having the bats smudged and I did. I'm not sure if it was the smudging or just a coincidence that got us scoring again or perhaps it was just the energy of Mr. Awesome. Rob R. (Mr. Awesome) is back baby; Tumble hit a towering homerun in to the tennis courts and after the tremendous weekend tournament Mr. Awesome had, I think we can officially say that Tumble's drought is over. It wasn't just Tumble's hitting, he played third base and again he was awesome. 

We have two games remaining on the season and then it's playoff time. I like to believe that we are a sleeper team, a team that has up and downs most of the season, but could certainly do a bit of damage in the playoffs. For most of us, I think that it's been a rough, inconsistent season and for the most part it has been, but I have really enjoyed playing with the guys on this years edition of the Units.