Regular season is now riding off in to the sunset...
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| This is where it really counts... |
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.
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| Who will be the next Legend of the Fall? |
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| 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.
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| A painting or the Hurtin' Units player? |
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| Losing Coxy from day one... changed our plans. |
Kevin C. missed a portion of the season, with working nights and a calf injury.
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| We've got a shot in the playoffs. |
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.
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| Things are looking good for the Units. |
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.
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| UNITS UNITE!! |
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| 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.
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| Let the games begin. |
GAME # 1-Tuesday September 9th at 7:15pm.
Hurtin' Units vs. Sons of Pitches.
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
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.
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.
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...
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| 2010 Hurtin' Units players display their league winning jackets. |
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.
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.
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| Rusty Rebels, the T.O.T 2014 Champions. |
