Game # 7 – June 9th, 2026
Hurtin' Units vs. The Brew Birds
Hurtin' Units win 18-16
Team Record – 4-3-0
Last Thursday/Friday, I had an opportunity to finally get to the Hurtin' Units' Facebook group, to post the happenings of the 2026 Units. I did all 6 posts and got myself caught up with the games. Now, some might say why bother catching up? Just start from the game you just played and be done with it. Nope, I can't do that. I have been posting since day one that the Units came into the league. I have written (sometimes good, sometimes really shitty) posts on every single game the Units have ever played. The posts are not all on Facebook, I have a blog that I started back in 2010 and it is still up and running. If you are so inclined, check it out at https://hurtinunits.blogspot.com/.
In 2007, I played for the Rusty Rebels, yes those Rusty Rebels and I spent my entire season at 3rd base beside Hughie at Short-stop (yes you read that right, me at 3rd , Hughie at shot-stop). Anybody who has played on the Rebels can imagine what my season was like. That year I decided to try a blog, I started a Rusty Rebels blog and wrote about the Rebels season. The Rebels blog is https://rustyrebels.blogspot.com/, if you want to see what I thought back then take a look, some of it is pretty funny.
and I about becoming captains in the league, he totally endorsed us and thought we would make good captains, we liked the idea and agreed to put in a team. After the registration in 2009, there were not enough players to add another team and our dreams of captaining were put on hold. In the spring of 2010, a team dropped out and registration was up, the league was going to expand by 2 teams. That season the Hurtin' Units and the Brew Jays were officially welcomed into the league.
In the 2010 season, the Hurtin' Units and the Brew Jays would battle all season long for the league title,, and the Hurtin' Units would prevail, winning the league in their first season. Back then, the league played a 26-game regular season, and the Unit's record was 19-5-2 for 40 points. The Hurtin' Units would get a pullover for the league win. I still have it and wear it with “UNITS” pride.
2010 Final Standings.
Position Team Games Wins Losses Ties Points
1 Hurtin' Units 26 19 5 2 40
2 Brew Jays 26 19 7 0 38
From 2010 to the end of 2015, Mike and I ran the Units, 6 seasons in total. I remember Mike telling me he only wanted to captain for 5 years, and he did it for 6. At the end of 2015, Mike hung up his Units shirt and moved on as a Captain of the Units. In 2016, I was not ready to call it quits as a captain, and Peter Hollmann, with whom I worked, who had been in the league for a couple of seasons, we hooked up for the next chapter of the Hurtin' Units. Pete and I are now in our 10th season as Captains of the Units.
Over the many years Pete and I have been captains, I have hoped that one year we would actually draft Mike O., for another kick at the T.O.T championship. It hasn't happened yet; he keeps vetoing us. LOL.
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Last season (2025), I thought we had the best team ever assembled by the Hurtin' Units. I honestly thought we had the team to go all the way to the finals. As luck would have it, the Units lost to the Beer Bros. by a score of 6-5 in the quarter finals. The Beer Bros. would go on to win the championship. So there's a little history about the Hurtin' Units. If you have come this far in this post, you might as well see what happened in the Brew Birds game.
The weather for this game was a little bit iffy, there was rain forecast for the afternoon and then thunderstorms around game time. The temperature was in the mid 20s (nice!!) The storms and rain held off until later in the evening, great light show around 11:00pm.
At game time, we were missing Andrew and Johnny, Andrew still nursing a wrist boo-boo, and Johnny was away for work. The Hurtin' Units were the visitors for this game, which was played on Coventry # 2 at 8:00pm.
Someone on the Units ( might have been Kevin or Mike) has said on multiple occasions that the Units are a 20-degree team, meaning that we play and hit much better in 20-degree temperatures or higher (we haven't played in 30 degrees, things might drop off at this point). In our first two games of the season, it was miserable, raining in the first game and cold and windy in the second, and the results were 2 crushing defeats. In our 3rd game, it was warm and comfortable and we won, defeating the Draft Kings.
For this game, we were up against the reigning cancellation champs (last year, it seemed to rain and cancel the Brew Birds games all season long). In the first inning, the visiting Units sent 5 batters to the plate and came away with nothing. In the bottom, the Birds sent 7 batters up, the first 2 got out, but Kyle, Rick, Fernando, Robby Q., and Cliff all got hits, Fernando a double and 3 Brew Bird runs would come in to score.
In the second inning, the Units' bottom of the order came through. Marco would get out, Keith, Franco, Dave, Jimmer, and Lorne would all single, Keith out on a fielder's choice, Corey would fly out, but the Units scored 2 runs to keep it close. In the bottom, the Brew Birds would not relent; they came out hitting the ball hard around the park. Saro (sub), Anthony (sub), Skippy, Shawn, Rick, and Fernando would all get singles. Shawn and Rick would get out on fielder's choices, Kyle would fly out, but when the ball cooled down, the Birds had scored another run. The score after two complete innings was 6-2 for the Birds.
In
the third inning, the Units were just warming up (20 degree thingie),
Mike and Pete
would single, Kevin would fly out, Marco would crush a
triple, Keith, Franco, Dave would single, Jimmer would get out on a
line drive to Shawn at second base (bastard, that should have been a
hit), Lorne, Corey, and Mike would single, Mike's hit bringing in the
Units 7th
run of the inning. At the bottom, the Brew Birds were not going away;
they would send 7 batters to the plate, and 2 more runs would score. The
score after 3 innings was Units 9, Birds 8.
In the fourth, Pete would lead off with a triple, Kevin would get out, Marco would single, Keith would get out, Franco would also triple, hobbling around to third, Marco would score Pete, Franco would bring in Marco, Dave would get out, and that was the top of the inning. In the bottom, the Birds were relentless. Kyle would lead off with a triple, and we were off to the races again. Rick would single, Fernando would fly out, Robby Q. (Hurtin' Units alumni) was killin' us night long, tapped a single, Cliff got out, Brad S. (another Units' alumni) doubled, Super Sub Saro hit an in the Park Homerun, Anthony would hit out, and after the Birds landed, they had scored 5 more runs to take the lead again.
In the fifth, the Units went down quickly, Jimmer - out, Lorne - out, Corey – out, change em' up, boys. In the bottom, with time running out, the Birds went back to work; Skippy got out, Kyle and Shawn singled again, Rick hit an in-the-park homerun scoring 3 more runs, Robby Q would finally get out to end the inning. The score was Brew Birds 16, Hurtin' Units 11.
The sixth inning was called the open, the last kick at the can for the Units, down by 5, but there was a great stir around the bench that we could do this. “Everybody just has to hit twice” was heard around the bench, mostly in jest, but there also seemed to be some optimism about getting back in this game. Mike would lead off with a single, Pete would also single, Kevin S. (who had been hiding in the bushes all night) showed up and crushed a 3-run homerun over the left field fence at Coventry #2. Marco would follow that performance with a single, and then Keith would hit an in the park homerun to tie the game. With nobody out, Franco and Dave would then single, Jimmer would fly out (1 out), Lorne would single, Corey would hit into a fielder's choice, Lorne out at second (2 out), Mike and Pete would single again (second time in the inning for both), scoring Franco and Dave. Kevin would fly out to end the inning with the Units scoring 7 runs to take a 2-run lead. In the bottom, the Birds were started with the bottom of the order (included 2 subs), Cliff would get out (1 out), Brad would single, Saro (subber) tapped to short for a fielder's choice at second (2 out) and Anthony would do the same hitting to Marco at short for the final out a second base and a come from behind Units' win. Great game, guys, both teams!!
Hightlights:
Kevin Home run over left field fence. 3 RBIs.
Keith in the park homerun. 3 RBIs.
Pete tripled.
Saro hit an in the Park Homerun
Kyle solid triple to left center.
Rick hit an in the Park Homerun.
Lorne 4 for 5
Mike 5 for 5
Franco 4 for 4 on a sore knee.
Pete 4 for 5
Marco 3 for 4, good defence at short-stop.
Dave 3 for 4
Keith 3 for 4.
Shawn made a great catch on a Jimmer at bat.
The Hurtin' Units' next game is Tuesday June 16th vs. The Gruesomes.
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