AND THEN THERE WERE SEVEN...

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE DRAFT KINGS  II



I get no respect... 

Game # 22- August 20th, 2013

Hurtin' Units lose 19-18

Team Record- 9-12-1

Coventry Park- Before this game was played, I would have thought the Draft Kings were head and shoulders above the rest of the league. I would have been wrong thinking this...I was perusing the standings just before game time and realized that our game might actually play a part in whether or not the Draft Kings win the league title. 

To my surprise, the Kings were only 2 points ahead of the Dislocated Joints and the Brew Jays, I really thought the Kings were ahead by more. A win by the Kings against us, would not clinch the title, but a loss could certainly benefit the Joints and Jays. 

The weather for this game vs. the Kings was fantastic; the temperature was hovering around 23 degrees, the sky was a sun/cloud mix at the start, there was almost no wind and the humidity was low. 

At game time, we had 9 Unit players on the field, missing on this night were Jamie, Richard and Brian. We called for a sub and Beechy was assigned to our roster for the evening. 

Over the past weekend, there were 7 Hurtin' Unit players playing, on various teams, in the T.O.T August tournament. Playing this weekend were: Coxy, Phil (Pop-eyes), Jimmer, Woody, Darrell (Squirtin' Units), Jamie (the Quiet Ones), Ricky L. (Gruesome Twosome). The Pop-eyes was the tournament winner. 

I bring up the tournament again because I realized how many guys were battling injuries and aches and pains in this game. Most of the guys I mentioned earlier were dealing with some nagging pain, including myself. Add these injuries to the others that were obtained throughout the season, and we have a pretty beaten up team. Thankfully we only have one game this week and hopefully the rest will help heal up what's ailing us. 


And then there were seven...I am referring to the number of one run losses this season. We have lost almost one third of our total games played this season by a single run. This game is our 22nd on the season and we have 7 losses by one single run. I like to look at this as, we are a competitive team and we are in the mix in all these games. Others, not me, would look at this as, we are a team of chokers and can't finish off our opponents. We have only won 1 game by a single run this season, the rest of our wins were by multiple runs. 

The Draft Kings are a tough team to play, and we have played them tough in both of our games. On Wednesday May 8th, the first game of the season for the Units, the Hurtin' Units beat the Draft Kings by a score of 16-11. Since that cool night in May the Draft Kings have a record of 16-5-1 while sitting in first place and the Units have a record of 9-12-1 and we now sit in 13th place. The standings were updated before I started this posting and I was surprised to see how far we have dropped in a few short weeks. I guess a 5 game losing streak can do that. 






We have two more regular season games remaining, Monday August 26th against the Tap Masters and Tuesday August 27th against the Gruesome Devils. It would nice to pick up a win or two going in to the playoffs.  

REBELS CAUSE HAVOC IN UNITS CAMP...

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE RUSTY REBELS.

Game #  21- August 13, 2013

Hurtin' Units lose 17-11

Team Record  9-11-1

Coventry Park- I mentioned in the last posting that I usually take a picture of the game sheet and work from there to assist in the blog. I forgot to get the game sheet from this game also. In actual fact, I used to take pictures of the game sheet, but lately Doug (the stats guy) has picked up the sheet before I even had a chance to snap a shot. Doug has been very good about it and will usually send me a electronic copy if I request one. Last week I did request copies of the Red Dogs and this game, but I think Doug was really busy organizing the fun division of the T.O.T. August Tournament and he left me hangin'. 

So without the game sheets things are a little bit tougher to piece together. I guess what is most important, in this bloggie thing, is the game score and the pictures of hot baseball babes. 

I too was busy with the August tournament. During the week of this game, I had a handful of players committed at the start of the week, but still had to get the roster filled in. I did it, but it took away from the blog, hence the late postings. 

Since the game last Tuesday night, I have played 4 additional games (all in the tourney) and last week is really a blur. I can tell you that I remember the Units had taken a 1 run lead in the top of the sixth inning (11-10), only to have the Rebels score 7 in the bottom. And in the seventh the Units went down quickly putting another game result in the loss column. We certainly played better in this game than we did the night before against the Red Dogs. In the game against the Red Dogs we stunk...not going to candy coat that game. 

Good til the Last Drop:

The T.O.T tournament has concluded and the Squirtin' Units were unable to three-peat. The Units could not even muster up a single win in the tournament. We played 4 games in the round robin portion of the tourney and lost 3 games by 2 runs and the other by 6 runs. The competition in this year's fun division was the best I have every seen. 

The Units had a great squad on the field and I don't know how many times people came up to me asking how we could lose 4 games with the talent we had. We lost to 4 solid baseball teams, with really good players, that's how.

  I mentioned last year, that I was going to retire the Squirtin' Units name and I should have. I went to the well too many times with this name and the record books with show the team going down in a ball of flames in it's last crusade. The Hammell bunch will return in the future under a new name. It's time to tear it down and start the rebuilding phase. My thanks go out to everyone who played with the Squirtin' Units team.

The Hurtin' Units next game is Tuesday August 20th vs. the first place Draft Kings.

WHAT'S BLACK AND YELLOW AND RED ALL OVER THEM?

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE RED DOGS.

That sure was an ugly game. 

Game # 20- August 12, 2013

Hurtin' Units lose 25-6

Team Record- 9-10-1

Keogh Park- At approximately 5:00pm the skies over Tottenham were dark with black thunder clouds and the threat of rain was in the air. Fortunately the thunderstorms did not develop and by 6:45 the skies looked almost clear with bright sunshine streaming through my front bay window. It was looking like our 8:15 was going to be rain free.

In the last game with the Red Dogs it was raining at game time, but cleared enough to let us get the game in. The ball was still slippery when pitching and making plays, but it still better than a downpour or some of the conditions we have experienced this season.

The Units played the Red Dogs in game # 17 on July 29th. And that game was a good ole fashion slug fest with the Units prevailing by a score of 23-16. In fact the game was the last time the Units won. Our record was 9-7-1 after the last Red Dogs game. Our record going in to this game was 9-9-1. We have lost our last two games, 15-12 to the Blues Brothers and 13-12 to the Dusty Cleats. 

This game saw the return of most of the Units lineup, after spending the last several weeks using subs and piecing this roster together. Missing from this game was only Jamie. 

In most of the games this season, I have gotten the game sheets and was able to do a boxscore. This game I was unable to get the sheet (probably not a bad idea anyway) and it's difficult to tell a game story without it, so with that said, I'll just post the score and that will be the story. 

Last season, in game # 21, back on August 15, 2012, the Hurtin' Units lost to the Beer Bros. by a score of 13-1. This BB game was the lowest point in our mediocre season. In the blog for this game, I titled it "The Hurtin' Units bats are Jinxed". Our hitting had gone south, we had stopped scoring, our losses were piling up and the team was getting frustrated. 

I mention all this because we seem to be falling in to the same kind of funk. Last season, following the loss to the Beer Bros., I talked to a friend who is a psychic and she suggested smudging the bats...I did this and we started playing better. We carried that better play through the rest of the season and in to the playoffs. The Units would go to the semi finals only to lose to the Brew Jays. 

I think it is time to smudge the bats again, it's a simple thing for me to do and it can't hurt with the way we've been batting. 

In this game against the Red Dogs, Darrell got the start as pitcher. This was the rookie's forth start of the season. Darrell got off to a bit of a rough start, but settled down as the game went on. The Red Dogs bats were on fire and when I was catching it seemed that everyone on their roster was hammering the ball. 

After the game, if someone were to walk in to the Legion and saw the red team and the black and yellow, sitting at separate tables, that person would have a difficult time figuring out which of the two teams was spanked 25-6. Even when we sitting at the table, one of the Units players said " we are a pretty happy group considering we just had our asses kicked." This has been a fun season despite our up and down play, I really can't complain about most of this season.

I was thinking about why a team (the Red Dogs) that had had 100 runs scored against them over their last 4 games, could come out and stop the Units at 6 runs, while scoring 25. What up with that? 

I have a couple of ideas:

- Perhaps the new bat in the bag has bad energy and it needs to be smudged.
- Ricky Bobby's heavy bat was missing on the night, maybe that was bad luck. 
- Tito pitched a great game ( yea, he really did).
- Peter Hollman (Red Dogs) hit for the cycle against us. He also hit a grand slam homerun in the first inning, helping the Dogs get off to a 7 run lead. 
- Maybe the Units bats were jinxed because Mike,  Jimmer, Cam and Glen all wore red, matching golf shirts in  the T.O.T golf tournament. Red...the colour of the Red Dogs.

 Maybe, just maybe, we got off to a bad start and could not recover in this game. We only scored 6 runs and on most nights this is not going to win you the game, not in this league. 

What ever the cause of this loss, the Units have 3 more games to get it turned around and hopefully we will be better in the playoffs.   

AND I GUESS THATS WHY THEY CALL THEM THE BLUES...

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE BLUES BROTHERS.

Game # 19 - August 6, 2013

Hurtin' Units lose 15-12

Team Record 9-9-1

Coventry Park- Back on June 7th, at Keogh Park the Blues Brothers and the Hurtin' Units battled for the first time this season. It was the game for the 100th blog, Ricky Bobby had got his forgotten cleats back, it was a cool night (13 degrees), at times the rain sprinkled us with drops and it was a night that the Units won by a score of 11-7. It was also the night Phil was MIA. 

Back on that night, it was game # 6 and this game is game # 19...Where did the season go? We only have 5 games remaining on the season. Looking at the standings, before this game, the Hurtin' Units were sitting in 7th place. There is no way to catch the Draft Kings and let's face it we all know that the first place team rarely wins the championship. In fact the Beer Bros. (last year's champions) finished in 7th place, so we got that going for us.

This game against the Blues Brothers saw some changes in the Hurtin' Units lineup. Mike's replacement (Harold) played in his first game and played well, Darrell was absent for, I believe, the first time all season, Rick L played his second consecutive game and looked great. Missing from this game were Darrell, Richard and Coxy. We picked up Doug Dwyer (ole double D cup) as a sub. Next week will be interesting...we could have a full team, wouldn't that be different. 

The weather was good; temperature was around 22 degrees, but there were a couple rain drops during the game, but nothing to worry about.


This game was a great competitive matchup, but it was overshadowed by an incident in the bottom of the 2nd inning. In the bottom of the second inning, the home team Units batting, Phil hit a line drive up the middle of the diamond that hit Brother's pitcher Dave Argue in the right side of the head.

Dave had little opportunity to protect himself from the hit, barely getting his glove up and turning away. The shot dropped Dave to the ground and caused a large cut. Dave left the game, went to the hospital and was treated receiving 6 staples to close the cut. Last time I heard Dave was in good spirits and doing well.

When the game resumed, the Unit's bats came alive and the game was close throughout. The boxscore tells a pretty good story of this game, so I don't have to bore you with details. 

"Ricky L. was like a machine out there." 

There were some great plays in the game, by both teams, and Rick Lyon was Mr. Awesome in the field with several excellent plays.

We also received a new team bat. 

THE MUDDY CLEATS...

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE DUSTY CLEATS II.

" It's deja vu all over again " - Yogi Berra



Rain soaked HTKP Tourney.

Game #  18 - July 30, 2013 
(makeup game from July 8)

 Hurtin' Units lose 13-12

 Team Record- 9-8-0

Keogh Park - This season really is cruising along, we are at 18 games and counting. On May 16th, game # 3, we played this Dusty Cleat team and came away with a 20-4 win. The win gave the Units a 2-1-0 record at the time and it put us above .500 for only the second time this season. We also played the Dusty Cleats in the HTKP tournament and lost by a score of 8-3 in a rain soaked semi-final game. The Dusty Cleats would go on to the finals, only to lose to the Rusty Rebels.

We were scheduled to play the Dusty Cleats the next night (July 8), but as luck would have it the rain was still hanging around the Tottenham area and at 7:00pm on Monday night there were thunderstorms, heavy rain and windy conditions. These were not conditions we were going to play in and the full slate of games, scheduled for the night, were canceled. This was also the night we had a wing night at the legion.



No Makeup required here.

So that brings us to this point, which is another makeup game. This game is our second makeup game on the season, the first was against the Rusty Rebels, and we have one more in late August  vs. the Gruesome Devils. The Devils makeup is for the missed game last week, when we canceled for lack of players. 
The weather was definitely finer on this night than last. The playing surface was dry, the temperature hovered around 21 degrees and there was no wind at our 9:30pm start time. A perfect night for baseball. After the game, we were in the parking lot having a few sodas and the sky was clear, the stars were amazing in sky, there were even some shooting stars.

We have included a video in the blog for quite some time, I think we're due.

Speaking of stars, at game time we had 7 Hurtin' Unit players suited up and ready to take on the mighty Cleats. Ricky L. was back in the lineup...Hooray! Missing from the Units lineup in this game were: Ricky Bobby, Jamie, Brian, Richard and Vince.

Mikey will still be giving advice and batting tips.

I used the Yogi Berra quote " It's deja vu all over again " at the top of this posting, not because this game is similar to any other game, but because for the second year in a row Mike has gone down with a season ending injury.

As most of the Hurtin' Unit players know, Mike has been injured (knee) since our game against the Rusty Rebels. Since the injury took place the Units have been without Mike's services and recently he tried the injections of goo in to the knees, which seemed to help enough to allow him to play both games this week.

Last week Mike went for a MRI on the injured knee and today was told the results of the MRI. The results were not good; Mike has a torn meniscus in his right knee that will require surgery and will end his baseball season. We have informed the T.O.T executive of the injury and have requested a replacement player. This is almost a carbon copy of last season for Mike.



Dusty Cleats batting coach.

The Units were the visitors in the this game. Darrell was the pitcher in this game. In our first at bat, it was looking like it might be one of those quick games. Speaking of quick games, the game before ours tonight was a final score of 3-1 and played in 49 minutes. A hockey score in a slo-pitch game.

It looked like our game might be the same with our first at bat. In the first inning we were 3 up, 3 out to start. The Cleats got to us early, scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the 1st. In the top of the second inning, the Units bats came to life and put up a 6 run inning, stranding the 7th at second base sending 10 batters to the plate.

Ricky returns to the lineup.

The Units shut the door in the bottom of the inning allowing 0 runs. The Units were shut down quickly in the top of the third inning, 4 batters and 3 outs. The pattern continued in the bottom of the third, the Cleats would score 5 runs. The score after 3 innings of play, Cleats 9, Units 6.

I say the pattern continued because every other inning one of the teams had a 0 run inning. The forth inning was the Units turn to score, we would put up 3 runs to tie the game. The Cleats would be shut out in the bottom of the inning. Over the next 2 innings each team would score once and at the end of six innings the score was tied at 10-10. 

In the top of the 7th inning the Units would score 2 runs to break the pattern and take a lead. But a 2 run lead would not be enough to hold on for the victory; the Cleats would score 3 runs in a very intense bottom of the inning. The Units would go on to lose their 6th one run loss of the season.