LEGENDS OF THE FALL...

HURTIN' UNITS START THE PLAYOFF SEASON...

Regular season is now riding off in to the sunset...

This is where it really counts...

TOTTENHAM- Tuesday September 9th, 2014.

It will more than 2 weeks since the Hurtin' Units played their last game and their first playoff game. The Units last game was way back on Monday August 25, 2014 vs. the Rusty Rebels. The last game of the 2014 regular season was a memorable one, and I mentioned before, probably my most enjoyable game on the season. The regular season was the Pitts (only because of our losses) and now it's time for real baseball. I'm itchin' to get pitchin' as I like to say. I really like to play and I don't like down time. 

I know the playoffs are technically still in the summer, but once September rolls around, I consider it to be Fall. Besides, I wanted to go with a Legends of the Fall theme in this blog... Or at least a Brad Pitt theme.  

Who will be the next Legend of the Fall?

At the start of the season we had some gaps in the schedule with the lighting problems at Keogh, the Coventry # 2 field issues and then the Tuesday night rain storms, we also went stretches where we didn't get a game in for several weeks. I'm hoping the start of the second season (playoffs) is a better one than the start of the first season.

The regular season was not our friend. In fact, we might say it was the Pitts (the plus/minus was awful). We had a struggle from the opening game (which the Hurtin' Units had never lost until this season) and our woes continued until the mid-point. We went 11 games without a win. Finally, on July 16, 2014, game #12, we got that elusive victory by a score of 20-16 over the Dusty Cleats. The Units would go on to win a total of 3 games in the month of July. In August, the Units would only play 5 games, and would have a record  0-4-1. The games against the Grisslies and Rusty Rebels were close (1 run difference against Rebels and 3 run difference against Grisslies) and we were in both games. 

Taking aim at our playoff opponents. 

The game against the Dogcatchers (August) was awful; the weather was crap, the game didn't start until 9:45 and in the final inning, the Units had 2 outs and couldn't get the final one, until the Catchers scored 10 runs (the worst game in Hurtin' Units history with a 32-11 score). The game against the Hottub Woodys (August) was a lopsided affair, but the Units played decent defense in the 15-6 loss.

August saw a more solid game played by the Units. The last game of the regular season saw the return of Kevin C. from a 5 week injury.

A painting or the Hurtin' Units player? 

Every team goes through some rough patches. Whether it's a losing streak or injuries; most teams get beaten up throughout the regular season. In the case of the Hurtin' Units we had the misfortune of having both of these components, a long, long losing streak and a handful of injuries, we also had the growing pains of our new players to the league. 

Losing Coxy from day one... changed our plans. 

Losing Coxy from day one, on the season, probably hurt the Units a little. Gary was rated a 4 and even though we got a replacement (Joel), Coxy brings a certain something to a team. His team shirt is still sitting on my dining room table, maybe we should bring it to the games for luck.

Kevin C. missed a portion of the season, with working nights and a calf injury.

We've got a shot in the playoffs. 

Dwayne got a nasty diamond burn when sliding in to second base. The limestone surface tore up his leg pretty bad; it got so bad, his wife made him go to the doctor. 

I had an injury, and had to miss 2 games, the first time I've missed a game since 2007. My knee was in bad shape, I was actually worried that I would miss the rest of the season. Thankfully, I was able to come back. 

Bill has had sore legs this season. 

Things are looking good for the Units. 

Joel and Art took a while to get their sea legs, as far as getting to know the players on other teams. Art has a cannon for an arm and if we could ever get him to harness that power, he will be a great asset going in to the playoffs.

This is the first season in the last 3 seasons that Mike has been able to play in the playoffs. Mike missed the last two games on the regular season, he may have made a difference in those games. 

I know that every team goes through injuries, some season ending (I'm familiar with this, Mike missed the last 2 seasons), and this is not an excuse for the season we had. I actually recap all this stuff as a reminder of the season we had...I won't soon forget this one...unless we win it all in the finals.

UNITS UNITE!! 

When I look at the final standings... I don't really want to look at them. The numbers, for the Units are staggering, 433 runs against (19.68/game on average) and the -178 run differential has to be a league record. The runs for (255, almost 12 runs per game) I can understand, we could have been better, but because of circumstances we were not as good as we could have been. I don't know what the stats were in the second half, but they were definitely better. I'm hoping that the playoffs will bring better results than the regular season.

Final Standings 2014

This is usually my last blog of the season. And in this blog, I will post all the games of our playoffs, game by game, until the end.

Let the games begin.

GAME # 1-Tuesday September 9th at 7:15pm. 

Hurtin' Units vs. Sons of Pitches.

Hurtin' Units lose 18-17 or 24-17 with plus/minus. 

Keogh Park-There are some teams that show very little class and then there are teams have an abundance of it. The Units showed what a great amount of class in this game. As my neighbor Cam likes to say " class all the way", he is usually talking about the Boston Bruins when he says it, but I think we can say the same about the 2014 Hurtin' Units. 

There are some teams that should be thanking there lucky stars, for some lucky breaks, and then there are teams that are just plain snake bitten. The Hurtin' Units certainly are the snake bitten team. We need the anti-venom. The Units played a solid game and really deserved a better fate in this game.  

The Units have been a snake bitten team all season long and this game is a perfect example of such.

The Units played a solid game and even though we had a lead, going in to the 7th inning, I think the real turning point, in this game, was when Don C. went down with a hamstring injury. Don was rounding third base and when down to the ground, in pain and then was tagged out for the final out of the inning (snake bitten I tell ya!!). Don would have scored if not for the injury. In the next inning, Bill was running to first base and injured his hip, yet another bite. 

The score of the game will read 24-17 for the winning team. Going in to the bottom of the 7th inning, the Hurtin' Units had a 5 run lead. The Units would get the first two batters out on a great double play by Kevin and back ended by Mike at first. 

Two batters out, still a 5 run lead and then a bad break, as a game ending fly ball tipped off the glove of Dave Mc. to keep the inning alive. Six runs would cross the plate and that was the ball game. A deflated Units team started to walk off the diamond, when Roman informed us that we had to play out the 7th inning for the plus/minus. It was difficult to continue playing when you had just lost a heartbreaker like this one. We would give up another 6 runs (+7) without ever getting the final out. Hisssssss, rattle and bite!!

                                                               

GAME # 2-Wednesday September 10th at 8:45.

Hurtin' Units vs. Tap Masters

Hurtin' Units lose 27-6.

Coventry Park- (C2)- This game was supposed to be played on Wednesday evening, but because of all the heavy downpours, it was rescheduled for Friday at 9:30pm. I'm not really sure if it was a good or a bad thing being rescheduled . I do know that a two week layoff and a hard fought game on Tuesday, can lead to injuries and sore muscles. On Friday evening, I was still feeling the effects of our Tuesday night game. 

The downside to the rescheduled 9:30pm Friday game is that we play again on Saturday morning at 9:00am. I sent an e-mail to the Units players telling them to bring their sleeping bags and camping gear to the park...LOL.

In Tuesday's game, we had 2 guys go down with what looked like season ending injuries. I requested subs for both Friday and Saturday's games. We had 2 players with injuries and 2 players who were unavailable for Friday and Saturday's games. 

I don't think we are a team that likes the late start. We don't play well in the cold either. In this game against the Tappers, we faced both of these things and it showed on the scoreboard. Dave was still wearing shorts and short sleeves, while the rest of us were bundled up like it was the middle of the winter. 

We picked up Gord D. and Dave F. as subs on the night.

The game was not what we wanted to see, it was tough sledding from the beginning and it went downhill as the game progressed. The final score was worse than it should have been, but we are the snake bitten team, don't you know. 

The Units next game was close behind. We got home for a couple of hours and then it was back to the diamond for game #3 vs. the Rusty Rebels.

                                           

GAME # 3-Saturday September 13th at 9:00am. 

Hurtin' Units vs. Rusty Rebels.

Hurtin' Units lose 7-2.

Coventry Park (C1)-I woke up early on Saturday morning hoping for bright sunshine, birds singing and a rainbow in the sky. It was not to be, in fact, it was wet, cold and miserable. There was a light rain coming down and the ground was wet, but not yet saturated. 

At 8:20 am, Mike and I headed to Coventry Park, with a detour through the Tim Hortons drive thru (always got time for Tim Hortons) and by the time we arrived at the park, the light rain had turned to heavier rain...D'oh!!! 

Just before leaving my house on Saturday, I grabbed a tarp from my garage and when we got to C1, we hung it from the diamond fence
over the dugout bench...at least our equipment and Tims coffee would be dry.

At the start of the game, the rain was still coming down steady, and in the first inning, when the Units were on the field, I went down on my ass twice on the infield. I said " it was a soft landing" and it was. With all the rain, the infield had become about 2 inches of soft mud and second base had become an island surrounded by water, if you needed to get to second base, you were going to get wet. 

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on whether you glass was half empty or half full with rain water, the Hurtin' Units only scored 2 runs in the entire game, which meant we didn't get to second base very often. The Rebels swam or kayaked around 2nd base a few more times for a total of 7 runs. 

For this game, we only had 9 players. Don, Art, Dwayne, Bill and Esau were all missing from the roster. Esau was slotted to be in the lineup, but I assume the weather kept him from making the game. We picked up Tim Osmond and Craig Escott as subs. 

Neither team was hitting up a storm, we popped out numerous times, and the Rebels did as well, I did manage to strike out my buddy, Peter Hollman, for bragging rights at work. At the end of the weekend, he would be the one with the real bragging rights, as the Rebels would go on to win the championship.

The Units played a very solid game, as we have many times before, but for some reason we just could not muster up enough run support and would lose our 3rd game of the playoffs.  

GAME # 4-Saturday September 13th at 1:30pm. 

Hurtin' Units vs. Sliders.

Hurtin' Units lose 14-11.

Coventry Park (C2)- By the time this game rolled around, we were all but eliminated from the playoffs. There were just too many teams with 2 wins or more, we were basically playing out the end of the season. 

The Sliders were in the same boat (not a real boat, although we still could have used one, C2 second base was still flooded). The Sliders were also sitting with a playoff record of 0-3, and we were both playing to stay out of last place, in the reseeding, in the playoffs. 

Things were still really wet... really wet! How wet were the fields? They were so wet that Kevin C., Units player, played the entire Sliders game in rubber boots and snow pants (they looked like snow pants to me). 

For this game we also picked up subs. Missing from this game were Don, Bill, Art, Dwayne and Esau. We picked up Gord D., Craig E., and Dave F. as subs. Thanks Guys!!

If I could sum up this season in one word, it would be "inconsistent". It would have been good for this year's edition of the Units to finish off the season with a victory, but it was not to be. Like so many other times this season, we could not play consistently through an entire game. There were innings in this game, where we looked solid, but there were also times when we didn't look very good. I watched 3 or 4 games with the Rusty Rebels, over the playoff weekend and it was then that I really realized that consistently was missing from the Units. 

Perhaps if I had went out and watched a few good teams over the regular season, I could have done something different to our lineup...Or maybe we just had an off year. One thing I can tell you about this year's edition of the Units is, Mike nor I never heard any bitching or complaining at all. Surprising, considering the season we had. We were just a group of guys who came out to play some recreational baseball and in the end, I guess playing was good enough. Good season Hurtin' Units!    

And So It Ends...

2010 Hurtin' Units players display their league winning jackets. 

I would say this year was the best of times and it was the worst of times. This team was so quiet and gentle compared to previous Hurtin' Units teams. We needed a relaxing team this season; last season really took a lot out of me, almost to the point that I really wasn't sure I would play in 2014. Don't get me wrong, last years team was great and it was energy filled and but it was also high maintenance. 

There was also some stuff that happened near the end of the season that caused problems. 

The only down side to the 2014 edition of the Hurtin' Units was we struggled with consistency. We would play a good game, followed by a blow out or tough game. Also, starting off with a 0-11 record did nothing for our confidence, it's tough to recover from this kind of start.  

Over the playoff weekend, with all the rain, I saw multiple guys, from the 2010 Hurtin' Units team, wearing their Hurtin' Units league champions jackets. There are 6 in the picture and I saw Paul G. also wearing his. NICE!!! It got me thinking about how the Hurtin' Units have done in the playoffs over the last 5 seasons.

Hurtin' Units Timeline. 

2010- (Royal Blue shirts with white lettering). Hurtin' Units win league. In the playoffs the Units would have to play an elimination game and would lose to the WILD (18-15), the Wild would go on to win the Championship. 

2011- (Royal Blue shirts with gold lettering). The Hurtin' Units would finish the regular season in 9th place with a 10-12-2 record with 22 points. The Units would lose the first 2 games of the playoffs, tie the third and win the 4th to finish 12th in the round robin. The playoff run would end on Saturday. The Grisslies would defeat the Dusty Cleats in the final by a score of 7-5 to win the Championship.

2012-(Kelly Green shirts with gold lettering).  The Hurtin' Units would finish the regular season in 12th place. In the playoffs, the Units would go 2-2 with a plus 2 and would finish in 6 place after reseeding. The Units would get a bye in to the quarter finals on Sunday vs. the Grisslies. The Units would win 18-12 and were off to the semi-finals. The Units would play the Brew Jays in the semi-finals and would be eliminated by a score of 14-8. The Brew Jays would play the Beer Bros. in the final, the Beer Bros. would go on to win the Championship. The Hurtin' Units win the Keg Party in 2012. 


2013-(Black shirts with gold lettering).  The Hurtin' Units would finish in 13th position with a 10-13-1 record. In the round robin playoffs we finished with a 2-2 record and were seeded in 10th place which meant we would play an elimination game vs. the Dislocated Joints. The Hurtin' Units would lose 17-14 to the Joints. The season was over. The Draft Kings would win the Championship.


2014-(Black shirts with gold lettering).  Over the last five seasons, there has been a slow decline in the finishing position for the Hurtin' Units. This season was the worst record for the Units with a 3-18-1 record and a -178 plus/minus. In the playoffs, we went 0-4 and finished in 14th position after reseeding. There would be no elimination or Sunday games for the Units this season. The Rusty Rebels would defeat the Dogcatchers in the final to win the championship. 

We are the Champions...

Congratulations to the Rusty Rebels for their championship run in the 2014. The Rebels won 7 straight playoff games to win the Championship. 

Rusty Rebels, the T.O.T 2014 Champions.

  

WITH A REBEL YELL ...WE CRY MORE, MORE, MORE..

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE RUSTY REBELS.

Game # 22- August 25, 2014

Hurtin' Units lose 17-16

Team Record - 3-18-1

Keogh Park- Game # 22, the last game of the regular season. It seems like just yesterday that we were at the Legion selecting our team. I have to tell you, the Hurtin' Units nation, I have really enjoyed this season, despite having the worst record and worst plus/minus in the league. We have a great group of guys on this edition of the Units. 

Last season, near this time in the schedule (week of the playoffs, actually) I was not enjoying the baseball and when the season ended, it took me a considerable amount of time to decide whether or not I might come back. I obviously came back and I have really had a fun season. 


I know what you're thinking, your team has lost 18 games, you're in last place, you have the a record setting plus/minus (-177)...how can you call this a fun season? My season is not about wins, losses and stats; it's about going to the park, playing a game I love to play without controversy, distractions or conflict. And for me there is also the challenge of putting a lineup together and finding the most suitable positions with the players we chose in the draft...This is fun for me. 

There are times this season (past seasons also) that I thought that our team is jinx or cursed or maybe a former player has a voodoo doll, poking pins in to it. I say things like this from time to time, almost always tongue in cheek, I honestly don't believe there are forces out there working against us. I do believe we got off to a slow start and that played on our confidence, I also believe we have played better of late and we have weathered the storm and our game is on the upswing. Is it too little too late? We will soon find out...playoffs are just around the corner...UNITS UNITE!!

The weather for this game with Rebels was nice. The temperature was around 21 degrees, but with the humidity it felt like 27. The sun in the western sky played a bit of havoc, in the early innings, burning in to the retinas of the right fielders. The skies had a few fluffy clouds, but there were no threats on this evening. 

At game time we had 10 Hurtin' Units players dressed to play. We would have 11 on the night, but Art was a little late because he was at Wonderland eating beaver...tails and climbing Wonder Mountain. He did manage to make it just as the game started. Mike was the only missing link Unit.

Roman ( the official umpire of the Hurtin' Units) was the umpire for this game. The game was a 7pm start and the Units were the visitors. 

This game was probably the most enjoyable game of the entire season for me. It had everything and it was a see-saw battle all game long. The defense, for both teams, was amazing. And even with both teams having solid pitching and defense, each team still managed to score a basket full of runs. 

The runs that were scored were not those of the error variety; no sir ee bob, the runs scored in this game were all earned.

Over the first 2 innings, the boxscore looked the same for each team, both scored 3 runs in the first and were shut out in the second.  

In the 3rd inning, the Units would score 3 more runs and the Rebels would counter with 2 runs of their own. After 3 complete innings, the Units lead by a score of 6-5.

In the top of the 4th inning, the Units bats were energized and 5 batters came around to score. The bottom of the inning saw the Rusty Rebels rally for 3 more runs.

After taking a lead in the 3rd inning and adding to it in the 4th inning, the Units came out and laid an egg in the 5th and that would have been okay if the Rebels could have been shut down. This was not the case; the Rebels would rally for 7 hurtful runs. The Units had 2 outs quickly in this inning, but as with many other times this season, we could not get that elusive 3rd out. The score after 5 complete innings 15-11 for the Rebels....RAT FARTS!!!!

In the top of the 6th inning, the Units bats again came alive (like Frankenstein on the table) we rallied for 5 monsterous runs. The defense of Units would hold the Rusty Rebels to only a single run in the bottom of the inning. The score after 6 complete innings a 16-16 tie. 

Going in to the 7th inning, the Units and the Rebels found themselves in the tie game. The Units needed to score just to take the pressure off.. Maybe, just maybe, it was the added pressure that caused the Units to go down 1,2,3 in the top of the 7th.  In the bottom of the inning, the Units would get an out, but Rebels would then load the bases and would eventually get a base runner across for the win. Rebels win 17-16.

I mentioned earlier in the posting, that this was my most enjoyable game of the season. It really was fun, I almost wish it hadn't been the finish of the regular season. I would personally like to see a longer schedule, even if it means a few more 9:30 games ...What can I say, I like to play.

In conclusion, I would like to say it was great to have Kevin back in the the lineup, even if he was playing catch, he brings a power and confidence to the team. 

I would also like to say that I thought the Units defense was awesome in this game. The outfield played really well. Don C. made 2 spectacular catches, one going back over his shoulder and the second running in on the shoe top. Art, Joel and Dwayne all made fly out catches. Dwayne's was a bit of an adventure, but he got the job done. I'm not sure if Rick caught anything in the air, I know he got some ground balls. 

This was probably the best I've seen our outfield play this season and if Kevin can't play the outfield in the playoffs, we have these guys to back us up. Our defense, in the outfield was pretty good and the infield had their shiny moments also. Dave threw 2 runners out at home (with Kevin catching). Esau, Clayton, Bill and myself saw some infield action, and we all contributed in the very close game loss. Kevin also hit a homerun in to the tennis courts. Good game Units...UNITS UNITE!!!

IT WAS A DARK AND GRISSLIE NIGHT...

Hurtin' Units vs. The Grisslies.

Game # 21- August 20, 2014

Hurtin' Units lose 11-7

Team Record- 3-17-1

Keogh Park- I can't believe we are only 2 games away from the end of the regular season. One after this game. Where did the summer go? Now, I know our season was shortened by 2 games, because of the lighting problems at Keogh Park, the outfield damage on diamond #2 at Coventry and the first couple of rainy weeks in the month of May. All things considered I think things worked out okay. The Units, I believe, only had to play 1 makeup game (don't quote me on this, there may have been more) and we did have 2 or 3 scheduled 9:30pm games. I remember that there was a stretch in the season when it seemed to rain every Tuesday night. Doug was earning his rescheduling money back then.

Last week we had a late game against the Dogcatchers (some of us wish it didn't happen at all), but the game before ran late and we didn't get going until 9:45pm. It was also a cold night (11 degrees), another sign that the summer is coming to an end. The other signs that tell me summer is coming to an end are, the calendar (sure give away with this one), the CNE and the T.O.T August Tournament. 

Last weekend was the T.O.T. tournament. There were several out of town teams playing and in the fun division there were 8 teams competing.

Faster and stronger team.

I assembled a team again this year, but this year it was not called the Squirtin' Units. The Squirtin' Units are history, they had a good run, but now it was time to construct a new band of merry men. A stronger, faster and shinier team, that doesn't cost 6 million dollars to build.  This year's team was named the Hammell Hosers. The team was made of 8 Hammell Blvd. residents, 3 current Hurtin' Units players and Jeff B. Jeff made the cut when we needed a P2 for the tournament, Doug helped me out by assigning Jeff to the squad. 

Fleming Fighters...no loogie is untouchable.

The Hosers had a bit of a struggle in the round robin portion of the tournament. In the round robin the Hosers played the Merchants and won by 2 runs, then took on the Grusome Twosome and lost by a score of 11-8 and finally the Fathers and Sons team and lost by a lopsided score. The Hosers did manage to squeak in to the quarter finals against the Fleming Fighters (sounds like the name of super heros that fight spitting and loogies). 

Fathers and sons knew how to play.

The Hosers pulled out a 10-8 win and were off to the semis vs. the Father and Sons team again. CRAP!! Is basically what I said when I saw who we were facing. This game was much closer than the first game and in the top of the 6th inning, the Hosers actually took a 8-7 lead. The lead was short lived, the Fathers and Sons would score 4 runs in the bottom of the inning and would shut the Hosers down in the top of the seventh. The Fathers and Sons would go on to win the tournament.

Hurtin' Units vs. the Grisslies.

Minus 173...REALLY?

Before this game, I went online to the T.O.T  website to check out where everybody was positioned for the upcoming playoffs. The Dodge City Rounders sit at the top of the heap with 28 points, and the Dog Catchers and Tap Masters are tied for second position with 26 points. The Grisslies are having a really good season, they currently sit in 4th position in the standings with 23 points. The Units currently sit in 15th position and with the Dusty Cleats winning 2 games last week, the Units can only finish in 15th. D'oh!!!

Who saw this coming?

The one stat that jumps off the T.O.T standings page is the Hurtin' Units plus/minus. I have never seen such a lopsided statistic in this game. I keep asking myself how did we get so far in the negatives. The next closest team is -54 and that team is the Dusty Cleats. I decided to look back at the final standings for the last 3 seasons. 

In 2013, the Grisslies had the worst record in the league, they finished with a 3-20-1 record, the exact same record that the Units have right now. The Grisslies record was based on 24 game schedule and right now, the Units have 2 more games of a 22 game schedule remaining. We could finish better than the Grisslies did last season.

2013 Season Final Standings.

We could actually finish with a better record than the 2013 Grisslies. When I look at their record, it doesn't look that good, but the real difference between the Grisslies (2013) and Hurtin' Units (2014) is that the Grisslies had a 3-20-1 record, but had a 0 plus/minus. The Red Dogs won 6 games and had a plus/minus of -85. Somebody pinch me, because I'm sure I'm still living in bizzaro world. 

2012 Final Standings

2011 Final Standings.

The stats I have for the previous 2 seasons (2012, 2011) do not show the plus/minus, but I'm willing to bet that none of the team in these two seasons were even close to the 2014 Hurtin' Units plus/minus. How can this be, unless I am really still living in bizzaro world. Hey Superman (or Fleming's Fighters), get us out of here.

So we got that going for us. 

I also looked back to the 2010 season, again no plus/minus in my records. I guess we have only been keeping the plus/minus stat for 3 or so years. In the 2010 season, the Dusty Cleats had the worst record in the league with a 3-23-0 record. There is some light at the end of the Hurtin' Units tunnel, we will still have a better record (as far as wins and losses go) than the 2010 Cleats. That's a giant relief off my shoulders! And... and back then it was a 26 game schedule. So we got that goin' for us.   

            
GAME TIME: In the first game (June 23,2014), the Grisslies hammered us by a score of 27-11 to give the Hurtin' Units a 0-8-0 record on the season. A game with this kind of lopsided score can really get in the heads of a team, and it was a tough battle for us to recover from.

Big clouds...dark clouds.

Early in the day there were dark, almost black, clouds hovering over the town, threatening rain and thunderstorms. Neither of these materialized and by game time the weather was looking quite good. The daytime temperature reached 26 degrees, but with the humidity it felt like 31 degrees. By game time the temperature had dropped to a comfortable level, but he humidity was still lingering around. I think that most of the Hurtin' Units players would take these conditions over the weather last Thursday night with 10 degrees and a 9:45pm game time. 

Cousin Eddie....Grisslies fan.

For this 8:15pm start, we had only 9 players at the park. Missing from the lineup were Kevin, Billy and Mike. I pickup Jerry M. from the previous game as a sub. Roman was our umpire for this Grisslie night. The Units were the visitors in this game. 

Before this game had even begun on Thursday, I had said the Hurtin' Units players, that we could finish no higher than 15th position and treat this game as a practice game. What I meant by this was, since this game really had no bearing on our season finishing position, just go out and work or practice what you think you need to work on. I think some guys took advantage of what I was saying and worked on their batting and fielding. 

I know that I was working some stuff with my pitching. I pitched almost the entire game using pitches that I rarely use. At times, throughout the game, I found myself in unfavorable counts, but I stuck to what I was working on. I walked several batters in the game.  I didn't like it; my hand got sore from the way I was gripping the ball, but I stuck with it, and in the end I'm glad I did. We have one more regular season game remaining and I will probably do the same in the that game, hopefully with a better outcome. 

In the top of the first inning, the Units would go down quickly only sending 6 batters to the plate, stranding a runner on third. In the bottom of the inning, the Grisslies would only score a single run. Nice going boys!!

In the top of the 2nd inning, the Units would score a single run and in the bottom of the inning, the Units would hold the Gris off the score board. 

Units had the runs... 

In the top of the 3rd inning, the Units would produce 2 big, juicy runs (sounds gross doesn't it), but these runs were shortlived (probably with the assistance of Imodium...just kidding) and the Grisslies would score 2 more runs in the bottom of the inning. The score at the end of 3 innings of play...3-3 tie. 

It was arm a gettin.

In the top of the 4th, the Units would be shut out. The Grisslies would have themselves the biggest run inning on the night; the Units defense had a few hiccups, in the bottom, which ended up in about a 6 out inning.

Yep, a 6 out inning...The Units would have had an out at first, but Esau came off the bag a little too early for a safe call in favor of the batter. Don C. with a easy (it looked easy, can of corn) fly ball would have it go off his glove and drop to the ground, Clayton, who is always steady at second, had a ball go through his legs in to the outfield. A bizzaro world inning to be sure. 

Units needed a rally.

Over the next 2 innings, the Units were shut out and the Grisslies would score 3 more runs. The score after 6 complete innings...11-3 for the Griswolds. 

In the top of the seventh inning, the Hurtin' Units would rally for 4 more runs, but 4 runs would fall short of the 8 needed to tie this game. 

UNITS UNITE!!

I thought the Hurtin' Units played a really good game and with a few lucky breaks, we might have been good enough to pull out a victory, it was not to be on this night...UNITS UNITE!!

The Units next game is Monday August 25, 2014 at Keogh Park at 7:30pm vs. The Rusty Rebels..