BLACK DRAFT 2013.

"THE MAN IN BLACK FLED ACROSS THE DESERT, AND THE GUNSLINGER FOLLOWED"- Stephen King.

When it comes to posting on this blog, there are times when I feel like shelving the whole thing and just playing ball. I have probably said something like this at the beginning of every season, but I somehow muster up the energy to get it going. In the past, I've said I'm going to make it short and sweet and not babble on and on and on about the most trivial of things. That might happen this season, but I doubt it because just when I think there is nothing to talk about, something seems to pop up and catch my interest. 

When I take the opportunity to look back at the 3 seasons since the Units came in to the league, it gives me a lot of pride to have kept this blog going for this long. It's really fun to go back to any game this team has played and recall most of what happened. I also will go back to points in previous seasons to recall information that I may be including in a current posting. Having Hurtin' Unit archives is a great source of information and data to assist me in blogging.

We are going into our 4th season and it's been a great ride so far, but Mike and I are hoping this is our year. "We're in to win" is my mantra for the season. The first three seasons we gained a lot of experience as captains and last season was my first season as a P1 which gave me excellent insight to what I need to do this season. Mike is back playing this season, with limited capabilities, he will be playing either 1st, 3rd or catcher this season...as for running the bases, we'll play it by ear (or leg). We have a new outlook and a new look...

BLACK: This season the Hurtin' Units players are the men in black. We chose black shirts with gold lettering and for those fans of the Boston Bruins or the Pittsburgh Penguins you're probably as excited about our shirt colours as I am. This is not to say I am a Pittsburgh or Boston fan (I'm a passionate Leaf fan), but I am a fan of the intimidating colour of black with gold lettering. I don't recall any team going with these colours, at least not in recent memory. Perhaps we will start a trend and now every team will be hoping for a first pick, of the team shirts, just to get black with gold lettering. The Hurtin' Units logo should look fantastic on black. I know that Mike has wanted a black shirt since we became captains. This should be a fun season.

The colour black has always been associated with the bad boy image. The cowboy dressed in black was the bad guy, the motorcycle rider with the black leather jacket was a bad ass and black clothing in general (Gothic) has been a symbol of toughest, strangest and scariest of all colours. Some would even suggest that black isn't even a colour at all, but it definitely carries our team to the dark side.

When Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings, on Aug. 9, 1988, at the press conference to introduce Gretzky, King's owner Bruce McNall said,"at the moment, I would like to now go to the reason you all came here, to introduce our new team colors," he said to a crowded room of laughing reporters. "Let’s see, I think we have a model here for the new team colors, I am not sure." Out walked Wayne and Janet Gretzky and the "Silver and Black" era began. The Kings went to a black jersey and became a more intimidating team. I would love to see the Toronto Maple Leafs with a black jersey in addition to the traditional blue and white. There is definitely something mysterious about the colour black.

DRAFT: There seems to be a real buzz around the league this upcoming season, I'm not sure what is creating this, but there is definitely something going on. Maybe it's been here every season and I just haven't felt it the same way. What ever it is, it all starts on Draft Day. Most of us really enjoy the draft; the legion is usually packed to capacity and the energy is so thick you have to cut it with a knife. Friends and past teammates all gathering to catch up after a long winter layoff and all eager to see what team they'll end up on.

I remember the Hurtin' Units first pick in our first season. It was an exciting time for us, we were hyped up almost to the point of confusion. Our first pick was a pitcher (P1), as they usually are, and the pick was Jerry Wallace. I don't think we could have picked a better pitcher to build a team around and a little bit further down we picked up Chris Ross as our # 4 pick. Chris was the President of the league, at the time, and a good mentor for us. These two players were solid support as we worked our way through our first season. It didn't hurt that we got off to a great start and finished the season with a 19-5-2 record.  

In our second season our first overall pick was pitcher (P1) Bill Jonkman. I had never played with Bill, but it didn't take very long to figure out what a great guy to have on your team. Bill had a bit of a rough time with the Hurtin' Units, on a couple of occasions he got injured playing. In one game Bill took a line drive, hit by Kahuna, off this left arm, causing a huge bruise. Another time Bill was running to first base, tripped over the bag, fell hard and got beaten up quite badly. He ended up with cracked ribs and a collapsed lung, he was out for 6 weeks.

Last season (2012) our first overall pick was David Kidd (P2). Dave was a guy I loved having on our team. He was fun, he had a good sense of humour and brought some toughest (took on Tito one game). He also wore 4 different braces on various parts of his body, one on each knee. The down side was, he wasn't able to finish the season, his knees got so bad, he could hardly run to first. He is not on the registered player list for this season. Too bad, I was hoping after off season knee surgeries, he would try to come back.

This season (2013) our first overall pick will also be a P2. I have perused the P2s on the ratings sheet and there is a fine, fine crop of players that we may end up with. My first choice, if I actually had a choice, would be Roger Burton (A.K.A Kahuna). Roger has played with me in the August Tournament for probably the last 5 years and I just enjoy playing ball with the big lug. We could change our name to the Burton Units...LOL.

Does anyone know who Jerry and Esther Hicks are? Has anyone ever heard of the Law of Attraction? Jerry and Esther are the authors of the book Law of Attraction. The idea behind the Law of Attraction is basically you focus, observe, talk about and think about something for a period of time and that thought will manifest itself in to your life... 

The reason I mention the book Law of Attraction is because each of the last 3 seasons, I have written out a list of the players that I would like to see drafted by the Hurtin' Units. I have never publicly posted my lists or talked in detail about who was on the list, in fact I don't even remember who I had on the lists; I know we drafted some of them. I thought his blog I would post my top 4 players, I would like to draft, in each rating and see how we do at the draft.

Number 1
Peter Holmann
Kevin Moon
Robin Dickson
Steve Lahey
Number 2
Roger Burton
Rick Cudnik
Cameron Clark
Gord Robinson
Number 3
Anicete Goncalves
Winston Gayle
Clayton Avery
Brad Moye
Number 4
Kevin Boston
Mark Butler
Rob McCarron
Jamie McClean
Number 5
Chris Ross
Gary Basso
Dennis Short
Tim Osmond
Number 6
Rob Rumbolt
Steve Brooks
Rick Greenfield
Matt Foerster
Number 7
Can't pick a 7, Mike Olliffe would be my first pick.
Number 8
Can't pick an 8, James Taylor would be my first pick.
Number 9
Glen Tinkler
Richard Gabourie
Dave McKendrick
Stephane Simard
Number 10
Paul Gyori
Harley Sherman
Gord Robertson
Gord Dol
Number 11
Ingo Bartens
Bill Clouthier
Dave Doucette
Rick Lyons
Number 12
Piero Delgreco
Troy Hope
Fraser Barratt
Charlie O'leary

So there you have my 4 top picks at each level, in no particular order. There are other players (i.e Chuck Cragg) that the Units couldn't get for a number of reasons, they could be captains, P1s or at the same level as Mike or myself (Jimmer). I asked Mike for his wish list, and it was a little bit different. We have 24 of the same players out of the 40 picked. Mike wants to keep his wish list close to the vest (probably so he can manifest the other 16 players he picked) and for that reason I won't post his players. After the draft we'll compare lists and see who we drafted. 

The players on my list are on there for different reasons, mostly because I would want them on my team. I don't have time to go in to details about my picks, but lets just say I would like to play with most of these players. There are plenty of others I could have chosen, but I stopped at my top 4.

With my list displayed where everyone can view it, I will be interested to see how many of these players end up playing for the Hurtin' Units in 2013. Check back in on draft day to see the 2013 Hurtin' Unit roster.

Draft day is only 3 days away and I'm looking forward to drafting the 2013 Hurtin' Units team. Once we have drafted a team I will continue with this posting... see ya at the draft.