IT'S TIME TO RISE AND SHINE...

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby. 

Get back, get back, get back to where we once blogged. It's time to stir in the man cave, and come out of hibernation. I don't usually start blogging the Hurtin' Units activity until the snow is gone and the player draft is in site. Sure, it's a good idea to get the blog out of the cave and take it out for a test spin, but what do I have to babble about? The weather? The Leafs? The Blue Jays? This is a Hurtin' Units blog and we haven't played since September.

Mike was asking me why I haven't posted anything in a while, " Nutin' to write about my card playing, stick it to the Jimmer (playing cards), co-captain". So since he wanted to see something on the Hurtin' Units blog, I thought I would write a little post to appease the wing man. After all, it's probably good to take the blog out for a pre-season spin to figure out how to navigate my way around it again. There are always new things being added to the blog world and I should keep myself a breast of what's going on. What the heck is this button for? D'oh!!...now I remember.

Test Boxscore

The draft is almost upon us and I really feel like I have been in hibernation for the winter. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled the winter is almost over and baseball is going to start in a soon. In fact, Mike, Piero and I went on a road trip today (March 16) to National Sports to check out the baseball goodies. A few small purchases went down, but I think we are all waiting for the sales to come up. The draft date is set for Saturday April 6, 2013, that's like 3 weeks away. This upcoming season is the forth for the Units and maybe it will be the forth time's a charm for us. Since we joined the league in 2010 it's been a pretty decent ride.

In the first season (2010) we had an impressive record of 19-5-2 and won the league with an impressive point total of 40 points. The Units struggled in the playoffs getting off to a slow start, but managed to get into a position on the Saturday to play an elimination game against the Wild. The Hurtin' Units would lose the elimination game by a score of 18-15. The Wild would go on to play on Sunday and win the Championship for the second season in a row.

In the second season (2011) the Units had a record of 10-12-2 for a total of 22 points. A losing season in the win/loss column, but a winning group of guys on the field. We a had 2 rookie players, a good mix of veterans and some real solid bats in the lineup, but we just couldn't put it all together. The Hurtin' Units highlight of this season was when they defeated the Dusty Cleats (a team that only lost 2 games all season) in August by a score of 15-14 handing the awesome Cleats their first loss. In the playoffs the Units struggled and on the Saturday we were knocked out with only 3 points in the round robin, not enough to even make an elimination game. . The Dusty Cleats and the Grisslies would would meet in the finals. The Grisslies would prevail by a score of 7-5 to win the T.O.T. Championship.

In the third season (2012) the Units had another losing record. Despite having a solid lineup, we only had a record of 9-13-2. We had 2 ties in each of our 3 seasons, we really like to get those 2 ties per year in, don't we? We struggled out of the gate and when you do that, it's tough to make up ground. The first game of the season seemed promising with a 5-5 tie against the Dog Catchers, but then our wheels started to spin. By game # 5 , the Units record was 0-4-1, four straight losses and the only team without a win. The thing that the standings didn't really show was that 3 of the last 4 losses were by a single run. In game # 2 we lost to the Grisslies by a score of 17-16, in game # 4 we lost to the Rusty Rebels by a score of 12-11 and in game # 5 we lost to the Brew Jays by a score of 22-21. The only game in the first 5 played, that we were not in, was against the H.T Woodies when the Units lost 22-9.

I've mentioned the number of games we lost by 1 run before, but the final standings could have been quite different if we could even turned one of those losses around. The Hurtin' Units had 5 one run and two 2 run losses in the 2012 season. If the Units could have even turned 1 of those losses into a win, we would have been tied for 8 place and 2 wins would have seen a 7 place tie. Despite having a losing record in the overall standings, the Hurtin' Units competed in most of our games. And maybe for this reason, it really shouldn't come as a real surprise that the Units went to the semi finals in the playoff weekend. 

I mentioned throughout the entire 2012 season that the Hurtin' Units were this Jekell and Hyde team...one night the team offense couldn't be stopped, but the defense was distracted. Other nights the defense was stellar and the offense was AWOL on the evening. It was that type of season!

It was also a season of  injuries and boo-boos...Mike went down early in the season, Kidder was playing in pain, Clayton got eaten by a dog, Davey got his nose pierced and also hurt his knee, Mark pulled his quad in his first game, Anicete torn up his knee and Craig also pulled something (not sure what). These are a lot of distractions to overcome. In the 2011 season, the Hurtin' Units called for only one sub all season, in 2012 I couldn't keep up with the weekly requests.  And on top of all the injuries, this was my first season pitching as a P1, need I say more...With all this going on, I think we held it together for a overall good season. 

It's been more than 6  months since the Hurtin' Units played their last game of the season. On September 16, 2012 the Units played the Brew Jays in the semi-final and lost by a score of 14-8, thus ending the Hurtin' Units season. The Brew Jays and the Beer Bros. would go on to the finals, the Beer Bros. would become the 2012 T.O.T Champions.     

When I look back over the 2012 season, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times:

In the HTKP tournament we went 3-0 in the round robin and earned a berth in the semi-finals vs. The Brew Jays, only to lose 12-5 when the Brew Jays scored 5 runs late in the game for the win. The Brew Jays would go on to win the tournament.

There were 5 Hurtin' Unit players that played for the Squirtin' Units in the August tournament. The Squirtin' Units would go on to win the tournament for the second year in a row. Thanks Rob, Clayton, Jamie, Cam and myself (Jimmer).

The Hurtin' Units would win the Keg party. What can I say, we had 10 games at Coventry Park this season, 6 weeks in a row, very little time spent at the Legion and we come away with the Party. I guess this is payback for the rough schedule.
Clayton Avery would win the "Most Improved Player" award; He was eaten by big dog and still wins Most Improved, a trooper indeed...

The Units beat the Brew Jays up real bad in the first game of the playoffs, shortly after they had just clinched the league championship. Final score 29-9.

We would end up in the top 2 in pool “A” in the playoffs, probably the toughest pool, and would get a bye in to Sunday. We beat the Grisslies in the quarter finals. In the semi- finals we would come up a bit short and lose to the Brew Jays again. I'm still a little bitter about a umpire call at second base that turned turned this game around.  

We lost to the Brew Jays twice in a semi-final games; The first time was in the HTKP tournament, the second in the semi finals of the playoffs. 

Mike and Anicete both going down with injuries. I'm disappointed that this year's edition of the Units didn't really get to play with Mike you saw a bit of what Mike brings to the team, unfortunately he was injured. I often wonder where we might have finished with Mike and Anicete both healthy. Mike's replacement (Mark B.) turned out to be very good addition to the Units.

  

I didn't like that Dave Kidd had to call it quits, I really liked having Dave on the team, what can I say, he made me laugh and he took on Tito...worth the price of admission for that one. Dave was a real character guy in our dugout, but with all his aches and pains, especially knees, he was forced to bow out half way through the season.

This year was my first season as a P1 and I would like to thank everyone for your patience while I was going through some growing pains. I know it was painful in the early part of the season and we probably could have had a few more wins. I like to think my pitching improved over the season (still need to learn to throw) and I know I look forward to facing some of you guys next year. I know you guys a little better and I will try to stop you...LOL

2013 Hurtin' Units:  The 2013 Draft is fast approaching; Mike and I are looking forward to captaining  again this season. Over the first 3 seasons we drafted or picked up a total of 30 different players, not including Mike and myself. Amazing...30 different players over 3 years in the league. The 2013 draft is only 3 weeks away and there will be some new faces on our 2013 roster. 

Our first 3 seasons were a great ride, we have played with some great guys and we're hoping for more of the same in the forth. See ya at the draft.