PLAYOFFS - The Finals

SETTING THE SCENE

Little boy, in a baseball hat,

Stands in a field, with his ball and bat,

says "I am the greatest, player of them all"

puts his bat on his shoulder, and tosses up his ball.

And the ball goes up, and the ball comes down,

he swings his bat all the way around,

and the worlds so still you can hear the sound

as the baseball falls, to the ground.

Now the little boy, doesn't say a word,

picks up his ball, he is undeterred,

Says "I am the greatest, there has ever been,"

and he grits his teeth, and tries it again.

And the ball goes up, and the ball comes down,

he swings his bat all the way around,

and the worlds so still you can hear the sound

as the baseball falls, to the ground.

He makes no excuses, He shows no fear,

He just closes his eyes, and listens to the cheers.

Little boy, he adjusts his hat

picks up his ball, stares at his bat,

says "I am the greatest, the game is on the line,"

and he gives his all, one last time.

And the ball goes up, like the moon so bright,

Swings his bat, with all his might,

and the worlds as still, as still as can be,

and the baseball falls, and that's strike three.

Now its supper time, and his Mama calls,

little boy starts home, with his bat and ball,

says "I am the greatest, that is a fact,

but even I didn't know, I could pitch like that."

THE POLL
This is interesting.  The most resent poll asked, "WHICH TWO TEAMS ARE MOST LIKELY TO APPEAR IN THE FINAL GAME?"  Here are the results. 

Banshees                                    5%       (The offense died)
Brew Jays                                 38%       (Rounders rule!)
Dislocated Joints                         0%       (bad time to slump)
Dodge City Rounders                  9%       (overcoming the odds!)
Dog Catchers                              0%       (We got this one right!)
Dusty Cleats                               6%        (Nice playoff run!)
Grisslies                                     16%       (How does the second team out get votes?)
Hot Tub Woody's                        3%      (Made it further than most thought they wood!)
Hurtin' Units                               19%      (A shocking end!)
Lucky Stiffs                                  6%      (Another surprise exit!)
Red Dogs                                     3%      (made it further  than predicted)
Rusty Rebels                               64%     (overwhelming #! favourite!)
The wild                                       0|%     (no faith in the defending champs)
Torn Ligaments                            6%      (Just missed!)                    

HOW THEY GOT THERE
#12 Versus #6.  A match up that no one foresaw.  Even their own players didn't see this match up coming.

The Wild opened the playoffs by tying the Hot Tub Woody's and then they barely eked out a win against the Dusty Cleats.  It wasn't a fabulous start, but it was enough.  They finished the round robin with losses to the Hurtin' Units and Lucky Stiffs.  They were matched up in the Saturday elimination against the Units again.  The Units had beaten them once in the round robin and they split in the regular season.  The Wild pulled off the upset of the league's number one team and moved onto Sunday! 

Sunday morning the Wild faced the Lucky Stiffs, a team they hadn't beaten this year in 3 chances.  The 4th chance was lucky for the Wild and they rolled easily over the stiffs.  In the semis, the Wild avenged their round robin tie to the Woody's by knocking them out and advancing to the final. 

The twelve seed Dodge City Rounders' route to the final was uphill all the way.  Dodge City had the first significant upset of the round robin by beating the Hurtin' Units.  They followed that up with a losses to the Dog Catchers, Torn Ligaments and Dusty Cleats in succession.  However, that one improbable win against the Units was enough to get them to the Saturday elimination game.

Saturday saw a match of Dodge City and the Red Dogs.  Dodge City managed to get by the Red Dogs in spirited game by scoring 20 runs.  On Sunday morning Dodge City was matched up against the Brew Jays and the run of upsets continued.  Dodge played another complete team game and advanced to the semis against the Torn Ligaments.  The Ligaments, who were on a nice run of their own became the latest team to experience the 'never say die' resolve of the Rounders.

THE GAME

Co MVPs Rob Stock & Tito Presenza

It was a clinic.

At 3:40 Tito Presenza threw a first pitch strike to Steve Black.  At 3:44 Rob Stock drove in the Wild's first run.  At 4:36 the game was in the books and the Wild declared champions with a very clean and clinical 13-3 victory.

Tito pitched as good a game as I have seen pitched.  He faced only 4 batters in each of the first 3 innings and didn't face more than five batters in an inning until the 7th when the 'Rounders scored two runs.  The pitching and defense was absolutely dominant. 

Offensively, Garry Hilliard was 4 for 4 with 3 runs scored.  Tito was 4 for 4 with 4 runs scored.  And Rob Stock was 3 for 4 with 6 RBIs.  Chuck Cragg had 3 hits, two of them doubles ripped over third base that cashed runs. 

The game was never really in much doubt as the Wild got out to a quick 5-0 lead after the 1st inning and stretched it out to 8-0 after two. 

Instead of a mood of disappointment, the atmosphere around the game turned into one of celebration.  Celebrating the end of the season.  Celebrating the Dodge City Rounders spectacular run.  Celebrating the fact that EVERY SINGLE TEAM was represented with multiple players watching the final.  And finally, celebrating The Wild doing something that no team has done in 25 year of Tottenham Oldtimers ball, and that is win consecutive championships!

Well done Dodge City Rounders!
Well done Wild!
Well done Oldtimers!

PLAYOFFS - Day 5 & 6, Elimination Day

INTRO
Well.

It appears that the "BLOG MASTER" has an apology to make for actually missing a day of posting.  It is not, however, without reason.

WARNING:  I don't know for sure what they are serving as beverages up at Coventry, but PLEASE be cautious.  I discovered yesterday that 'whatever' that it, it cause your tongue to thicken, making speach difficult.  It also tends to slow motor skills making difficult (like walking) a bit of a challenge.  I'm just saying, WATCH OUT!

Now, yesterday (Saturday) was kind of Crazy.  But if you think that was nuts....wait until you hear about Sunday. 

For the record.  There will be another BLOG posted before tomorrow at 9:00 and it will cover the semi-finals and the finals. 



SATURDAY - Here in the Park, I think it was the 4th of July (America)
Below are the results of all games.  Not too much commentary.

Hurtin' Units 16 - Dislocated Joints 9:
This put the Units at 1-2 and seemed at the time to mark their return!

Brew Jays 13 - Grisslies 5:
A close game for 5 innings before the Brew Jays did what the Brew Jays did all season.  Run aggressively and single and double you to death. 

Rusty Rebels 15 - Dog Catchers 7:
The Rebels reasserted their dominance and showed themselves to be favourites again. 

Lucky Stiffs 15 - The Wild 10:
Stiffs maintain control of the bye, The Wild are a safe at 1-1-1.

Banshees 10 - Red Dogs 9:
The Red Dogs continue to give everyone difficult.  The Banshees continue to be impossible to read.

Torn Ligaments 9 - Dodge City Rounders 1:
Torn Ligaments improbable run continues.  Down three players, they play a complete game against a team that had been scoring at will.

Hot Tub Woody's 16 - Brew Jays 15:
Anyone who predicted this outcome had been at the beer garden WAY too long.  Consensus thinking was that the Brew Jays weren't quite as focused as usual having already secured the bye.

Dusty Cleats 15 - Dodge City Rounders 13:
A week ago, most people thought this game would only serve to eliminate one of these teams after the round robin.  SURPRISE!!!  Both are through. 

Hurtin' Units 8 - The Wild 4:
THEY'RE BACK!!!  Units improve to 2-2 and look like the Units.  The Wild limp into the elimination round at 1-2-1.

Rusty Rebels 15 - Dusty Cleats 9:
Cleats show that they are playing like a solid club and are 2-2 heading into elimination.  Rebels secure the bye.

Lucky Stiffs 11 - Dislocated Joints 5:
Joints are eliminated.  Stiffs secure the bye.

Torn Ligaments 13 - Grisslies 4:
Grisslies are eliminated going 1-3 and dropping 3 straight.  Ligaments secure the bye despite the number of players they are down.

Hot Tub Woody's 12 - Red Dogs 34:
Thirty-four!!! That will kill your ERA.  Both teams are through to the elimination round. 

SATRUDAY ELIMINATION:

Banshees 15 - Dog Catchers 6:
These teams played back to back games and while the Dog Catchers made the 1st one close, they appeared spent in the second game.  The game shuffled back and forth between diamond 2 and diamond 1 and for good measure back to diamond 2.  They breifly considered Keogh and Skydome but ended up staying at Coventry.  While the Banshees earned the win, the Dog Catchers appeared to be pretty tired. 

Dodge City Rounders 20 - Red Dogs 16:
A battle of high powered offenses!  Which ever team made it through to Sunday would have been a good news story for the league as these two teams finished the season as the 12th and 13th seeds.  Not much was expected.  it was an entertaining game and two fun and sporting teams to watch. 

Hot Tub Woody's 14 - Dusty Cleats 5:
Another feel good story!  The 11th and 14th seeds squaring off with the 11th seed prevailing.  The Cleats redeemed a difficult 3-23 season by going 2-2 through the round robin and making it through to an elimination game.  They created misery for a number of teams.  The Hot Tub Woody's who had the second longest losing skid in the league this season appear to be on a bit of roll a the best possible time. 

The Wild 18 - Hurtin' Units 15:
The Lucky Stiffs, Rusty Rebels and Brew Jays all breathed a BIG sigh of relief at this result!!!  Just when it seemed like the Units were back to their 1st overall status, they came up a little short.  The Wild meandered through the round robin and played their best game when they needed it.  The defending champs are still alive and will see Sunday again. 

SUNDAY ELIMINATION:  SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY (U2)

The Wild 18 - Lucky Stiffs 4:
Maybe not a HUGE shocker but this has to be considered a fairly significant upset.  The Stiffs, who had the bye were eliminated by The Wild who finshed the season in 6th place and hadn't had a particulary  good round robin, knocked off a Stiffs team that looked to be at least destined for the semis.  The Stiffs join the Hurtin' Units as the second surprise team to be eliminated. The Wild are in the semis.

The Hot Tub Woody's 6 - Rusty Rebels 3:
The mighty are falling and the 'feel good stories' keep feeling good.  The 11th seed versus the 3rd seed.  The Rebels had beaten the Woody's twice during the regular season.  This is not the regular season.  The Woody's played stellar defence and took advantage of the very few breaks that the Rebels allowed and were full value for their 6-3 win.  How they shut down that Rebels potent offense is a something between a mystery and a miracle!  The Rebels at #3 join the Stiffs (#4), the Units (#1) and Bashees (#5) on the sidelines. 

The Brew Jays ? - Dodge City Rounders ?:
I don't know the score, just the result.  As the only seed in the top 5 remaining, the Brew Jays had a clear path to the final.  Oh, except the Dodge City Rounders were in the way.  Dodge, having picked up Rob Farah to sub pitching, picked up key contributions offensively from players 1-12.  The game was back and forth heading to the seventh inning where the Rounders rolled up 5 runs.  In the bottom of the inning the Jays could only manage one base runner and the 50+ onlookers cheered the underdogs pulling off the biggest upset of the tournament thus far.  Dodge incredibly are onto the semis!  The Brew Jays are incredibly spectators like the other top 5 seeds. 

Torn Ligaments 9 - Banshees 3:
The Torn Ligaments had the bye, so theoretically they were 'supposed to win'.  These teams were separated in the regular season by only 1 point so it should have been close.  Further, they had split their two regular season games against each other with a total run differential of 2!  All that said, the Ligaments, once again, over came the odds of being down some critical players and were the team more ready to play on this particular day.  They cruised to the 9-3 victory and the semi finals.

SEMI FINAL MATCH UPS

Dodge City Rounders (12) Vs. Torn Ligaments (7)
For the longest time, the Torn Ligaments looked to be in control of this game.  While they didn't ever have a dominating lead, they led consistently through five innings and at one point had a fairly comfortable 10-5 lead.  Then the Dodgers came back.  And they came back hard in a bat around 7 run inning where they took a four run lead and were never again headed.  The Rounders found enough resolve in Mooner's bat and Fry's glove to advance to the final.  The dream was over for the Ligaments.  Making it this far without Piellusch and McKendrick was nothing short of inspirational.  While many people played well in this game, Rob Hayward was amazing with the bat (2 homers) and swallowing everything in the outfield defensively.  Well done!

The Wild (6) Vs. Hot Tub Woody's (11)
The Hot Tub Woody's fantastic run came to a crashing halt against The Wild.   The Wild were only 'okay' in the round robin.  In the their first elimination they were a little bit of a surprise in taking out the Stiffs, but in this game the probably only did what they 'should' do in taking out the Woodys.  The Wild would see their second straight final.  They looked good but not necessarily great.  However, each game was progressively better than the next and they seemed to be really catching a groove.  The Woody's, much like the Rounder, Cleats and Red Dogs gave hope to all sub .500 teams that they can make a strong playoff push!

PLAYOFFS - Day 4, Moving Day

MOVING DAY



Welcome to Moving Day!  This is the first BIG day of the playoffs.  At the end of Friday everyone will have played half of their round robin games and have a pretty good idea of what they need to do Saturday and whether they can do it on their own or need help.

After Friday night each team will have two games remaining and we'll be split into four general groups.  

• We'll have a pool of teams that are 2-0 and feeling confident about securing a bye. (that turned out to be one team (well done Brew Jays!)
• We'll have a group of teams that are 1-1 and measuring their remaining games to see if they can sneak into one of the last bye spots. (Currently The Wild, The Dusty Cleats and the Rusty Rebels have that upper hand)
• We'll have a group of teams that are 1-1 and are measuring their remaining games to make sure they make it to elimination (Everyone else) 
• We'll have a pool of 0-2 teams that are desperate for a win to avoid an early trip home. (The Hurtin' Units are the only one in that category)

So, todays status...today we look at total hits over the last two years.  I gotta say, there weren't many surprises on this list like there were on the previous lists.  In fact there was only one name that showed  up that I hadn't anticipated, see if you can find it (I checked the totals twice by the way).

STANDINGS

THE GAMES

Well, sadly, this is the frst day of the playoffs without having a write up on each game.  Still, we don have the scores.  Thanks to Karen and Steve for their contributions!

The Wild 14 Vs. The Dusty Cleats 11
STEVE ROSS:
Once again the wind played a big factor for The Wild vs. Dusty Cleats game - both pitchers handled the conditions well and threw a lot strikes.  It was a close game the whole way with both teams having lots of opportunities to break it open without success.  The Wild prevailed 14-11 on the strength of Craig Cragg's 3/3 performance with 3 home runs and 8 RBIs. 

Some great defense by both sides as well, Cleats Captain Chris Pulfer snaring a hard hit ball up the middle and The Wild's Rob Stock with a 3rd-to-home double play to end a bases loaded threat at a key point in the game.  The Wild face a daunting Saturday playing the hard hitting Lucky Stiffs and the not-out-of-it Hurtin' Units.

The Red Dogs 23 Vs. The Grisslies 16

DOUG DWYER:
This is another one of those "don't let the score fool you" games. 

The Red Dogs came to play tonight, of that there is NO doubt!  They had all of their bats in the line up, Mike Candy, Mike Roche, Matt Foerster and they all hit.  We expected that.  What we didn't expect was Bear Wyatt, Billy Cloutier and Down Town Billy Brown cashing in runners all night.

The Grisslies have had a good run of 12 games of solid defense.  If you're gonna break the streak, better to do it on Friday than Sunday. 

On a positive Grisslie note, we came up in the bottom of the seventh trailing 23-9 and showed no quit!  We rallied for seven runs  and came within a hit of taking a +/- of under seven runs.  This team has resolve.  We'll need it tomorrow as we rally around a couple of injuries.  Lots of ball left in the Grisslie tank!

Hot Tub Woody's 13, VS. Dislocated Joints 18
EDITOR:
I don't have a write up on this one nor did I get to see it first hand.  A number of people that I spoke with said the game had a back and forth feel to it and there are rumours that Terry Doucet had his a home run.  But that's all I've got.  The score is right, the rest is just 'what I heard'.


Dodge City Rounders 8, Vs. Dog Catchers 16
KAREN TURNER:
2 trailer park girls go 'round the outside, 'round the outside, 'round the outside....oops, sorry, that was my game....

Ok, it must've been that full red moon tonight, because the Dog Catchers got it, scoring in 5 of 7 innings. Murray "Colonel" Saunders caught the 1st fly hit to him (mostly in fear of being a star of the blog yet again), but unfortunately went down in the 4th hitting 1st base at an angle that no ankle should ever experience...

Highlights included Jim Rouleau snagging an impossible grounder at 2 & getting the 3rd out, as well as a shoelace catch in the 5th for another 3rd out. On the other side Stike had a circus "watch the bouncing ball" moment at 2nd, but still managed to make the 3rd out in the 6th.

The song that came to mind for Dodge City had to be B.o.b./f Hayley Williams "Airplanes"....Can we pretend that fly balls are like line drives over 2nd base, I could really use a hit right now, a hit right now, a hit right now....

PLAYOFFS - Day 3

INTRO

Sorry, but this part was just hastily thrown together and will probably have this out a little later than I had hoped.  However there has been a bit of an injustice and I want to make sure people are aware of it. 

First of all, there results are in on how many jugs of beer each team bought at the Legion this year.  Because I consider this to be statistic, I wrote them down to share with the rest of you....

1.  The Dusty Cleats                  102
2.  The Wild                               91
3.  The Grisslies                          85
4.  The Hot Tub Woody's           75
5.  The Hurtin' Units                    71
6.  The Lucky Stiffs                     57
7.  Dodge City Rounders             51
8.  Rusty Rebels                          40
9.  Brew Jays                              37
10. Dog Catchers                        30
11. Torn Ligaments                     28
12. Dislocated Joints                   25
13.  Red Dogs                            15
14.  Banshees                               7

Now, the injustice.  They did the draw for the keg and guess who won?  Seriously.  The Banshees.  The team that will forever be known as the club that put the "SHE" in Banshees won a KEG by purchasing
SEVEN (7) jugs over an entire season!  Roughly 1 every four games.

Embarrassing.

INTRO II

For anyone who looked at the standings after day two, one thing had to jump out at you.  That would be the fact that every game which had a winner was decided by more than 7 runs.  Of course "I" noticed.  Of course Marky-Mark noticed.  Of course his attention deficit disorder and my obsessive compulsive disorder took over and I had to figure our just how much of a statistical anomaly this really was.  Thank god for Excel, so I don't need to count manually!

Of the 182 game scores from our league website, 72 (39.5%) were decided by 7 runs or more.  Thus far in the playoffs we have had 7 of 8 games (87.5%) decided by 7 runs or more.  Sure its a small sample size, but its still pretty weird.  And what these strange scores have done is create a real log jam at the top and bottom of the standings.

But enough about that.... 

The question has been raised, "how come all these stats are about hitting?"  Good question.  The answer of course is that, the only stats that we keep are about hitting.  So with apologies to the pitchers, I have to go with what I can get and find a few different ways to carve up whats available. 

Today's instalment of stats that you don't normally see is total hits!  This is an OBA "be damned" statistic.  It doesn't matter if you hit .450 or .850, its just straight hits.  Of course, you would have to have a somewhat descent OBA to make the list, but you can make up for a lower average with the consistency and attendance.  So, here is the total hit list for 2010:

Whats not to like about this list?  We have 3 guys who managed to get 70+ hits this year, two of which made it into the top 25 in OBA.  Isn't an interesting variance that Jim MacDonald was second in the league in total hits and didn't see the top 25 in OBA?  Of further interest is that the only members of the 70+ hit club are also members of the Hurtin' Units!  These guys just keep coming!!!

Other than that we have 11 people on the list who are on the top 25 and 16 who aren't.  The top 25 OBA is a great indicator, but total hits marks a contribution worth tracking as well. 

THE GAMES

Banshees 9 Vs. Brew Jays 23

EDITOR:
With no representative from either team to report, I felt obligated to attend this game.  ALSO...it was a bit of a scouting mission as we play the Brew Jays on Saturday. 

Lets cut to the chase on this one.  The final score was 23-9 for the Brew Jays.  You know how sometimes you'll say that the score wasn't a fair indication of how close the game was?  Well, this WAS NOT one of those times. 

The Brew Jays were nothing short of relentless.  By my count there was only one inning that they didn't score in.  Add that to the fact that they didn't bat in the bottom of the 7th AND that the Banshees scored 4 runs in the top of the 7th and you get an idea of how this game went. 

I've gone up and down the Jays roster and everyone contributed.  Of particular note was Chris Larkin who snagged three hard shots at third and made plays of outs.  Two of them were spectacular!  The Brew Jays are 2-0 with a +14 and are in FULL control of whether or not they end up with a bye or not. 

The Banshees now find themselves at 1-1 with the hardest part of their schedule done.  They are in good shape but its still too early to tell if they'll need help to get the bye.  (this may have been justice for the keg fiasco!) 

Torn Ligaments 12 Vs. Rusty Rebels 8

PAUL PIELLUSH
Wow, what a ball game.

The Rebels came out quickly in the first and went up 2-0. The Ligaments fought back and tied the game a couple of innings later.  The Rebels went ahead 5-2 on the strength of a 2 run homer to left from Mark Doyle
in the 3rd, the Ligaments answered with one, and then the Rebels struck again in the fourth to go up 7-3.

The baseball gods then smiled on the Ligaments in the 5th and they pushed across 7 to go ahead 10-7,
highlighted by a nice 2 run line drive homer to left centre by Rob Hayward. The Rebels added one to keep
the game close, but the Ligaments were able to add a couple in the top of the 7th, including a solo blast to
left field by Bob Smith.

After a 3 up, 3 down bottom of the 7th the game was over with the Ligaments prevailing 12-8. The Ligaments defence was back, with a couple of nice catches in the late innings and a huge double play at the plate.

The Rebels played a solid game as well, but made a couple more mistakes than the Ligaments which was just
enough to give them the loss. It was close all the way and really exciting game to watch......wish I wasn't in the stands for this one!

EDITOR:
Steve Ross, Brett Mabee, Rob MaCarron (the heckler) and Paul Piellusch are good guys to a watch a game with.  This game to me was a chess match.  There was a lot of "the Ligaments can pull it off if this, this and this happen".  However, you just sat there waiting for the Rebels to punch through.  There would be a hit or two in a row an you'd think "here they come" and before you knew it, the inning would be over.  It was, so far, the most competetive and balanced game of the playoffs and great to watch (except if you're Paul who would have preferred to play).

STANDINGS



Includes all games from Tuesday, Wednesday

and Thursday



PLAYOFFS - Day 2

POLL
Yes, it was me that wore his hat in the freakin' Legion.  Damit!  After two years, I finally managed that screw up.  Idiot!  Cost me two jugs.



INTRO

Yeah, not really an intro again, just musings.  I started getting ready for the Day 2 BLOG about 5 minutes after posting the Day 1 edition. 

So a couple of things that may or may not be of moderate interest to you.  As I sat down Tuesday night to watch the season premier of Glee (yes, I did and I don't care who knows), I sat comfortably knowing that people were going to fire me off reports of the 4 games going on.  I gotta tell you it was pretty cool.  It felt like being a newspaper editor.  Anyway, not a big deal, but I thought it was neat.  By the way, the Glee club did Empire State of Mind last night which I (sorry, Rob) covered in the Tottenham State of Mind BLOG, personally I think our version was better, but that's me. 

The other thing of interest is that as soon as I published the Day 1 edition I started to get really nervous knowing that we, The Grisslies, would be one of the four teams reported on in the Day 2 chapter.  We need to do what the Brew Jays did and beat a team that we haven't gotten by yet.  Time will tell!

So yesterday I gave you a list a the top 25 hitters (OBA of course) over the last two years.  Today's little statistical story is a twist on the same topic.  Today we look at the top 25 increases in average from last year to this year.  What I like about this list (besides the fact that I'm on it) is that it recognizes some people that aren't the 1, 2 and 3 ranked players in the league (although there are some) but those who contribute just as much effort and are working hard to improve!   Here's the list:

So I think everyone would have to agree that Mike Olliffe's +200 point increase in OBA is teetering on ridiculous!!  What a great year!  Follow that up with the fact that 5 of the top 9 are from the Hurtin' Units and that they all saw an increase of 100 points or more and you're starting to see the "perfect storm".  It kind of puts their year into perspective.  Poor Jen's gained 75 points and he's almost an after thought on that team!  While everyone is worthy of a mention, I personally am quite proud of Piero Del Greco's 79 point increase!  Stats don't always tell the story and I'd be willing to bet that he ranked with our best players in terms of 'meaningful' hits.  Guess that's why he's the clean up hitter! 

THE GAMES

Dusty Cleats 16 Vs. Dislocated Joints 8

BUNDI:  

A watched pot boils (you just have to wait 27 games)!

A frog’s ass is NOT water tight (every one passes gas)!

And the exhibition season is over!

The Dusty Cleats pulled off an upset over the Dislocated Joints with a 16-8 win due to timely hitting and solid defense….a rarity for the Cleats.

The first 2 innings were very close, with the score tied at 2 going into the third. The Cleats ran up seven in the third with big hits from “Shoeless” Rob and Curtis “The Silver Fox” to max out the seven runs.

Both teams chipped away for the next two innings until Scott “Anger Management Peters “ bookend ended the 6th inning with a 3 run shot that went yard in the top half and an inning ending double play (assisted by “big hops” J.T.) in the bottom half.

The Joints were missing Ricky C., but they still hit the ball well but just missed the gaps.

The game difference was that the Cleats did not beat the Cleats and played some pretty good D ball.
Final score 16-8 Dusty Cleats!

EDITOR:  
Who wasn't quietly cheering for the Cleats?  It wouldn't have mattered who the opponent was, but no one likes to see a team take a prolonged beating.  Congrats!!!  The Joints are still okay with another home game left.  The schedule gets really tough after that though.
Grisslies 21 Vs. Dog Catchers 8

KAREN TURNER: 
It's painfully obvious to the Dog Catchers that you can't win a game when you only score in the first 3 innings, while you hold your opponent scoreless in ONLY one....'nuff said. 

Highlights were Jake's hitting & 2 foul-out catches at home, Bones' making 2 great snags at 1st base, Jim's play at third & the Grisslies Doug & Dave making a very impressive double play in the 4th inning, as well as the Grisslies' over-all hitting throughout the whole game....

Lowlight, well, that would have be Brett's hit over Murray's head, which brings to mind "Love to Hear You Lie, by Eminem f Rihanna...."Just gonna stand there, getting burned, that's alright, you should've already learned...Just gonna stand there & hear Randy cry, that's alright, cuz he's still watching that ball fly...."

P.S. Good thing there was a jello-shooter cake for Randy for his birthday (photographic evidence attached) for him & his team to drown their sorrows in.....ah, never mind, bring on Friday!!!

EDITOR: 

Pictures?  Quoting Eminem and relating it to baseball?  Are you kidding me?  The good ones are always spoken for.  THIS IS STELLAR STUFF!!!  From the Grisslie perspective, we had heard the rumours that Bob McCullough wasn't going to play and truthfully it was a gutty performance.  Not that he struggled, but was quite obviously hurting.  Hats off!  As usual, the Catchers were as good as sports in defeat as they were in when they beat us.  Still looking for big things from these guys!

Red Dogs 15 Vs. Lucky Stiffs 23

ANDY GEE:   
The Red Dogs took on the Lucky Stiffs under a full moon and showed the Stiffs what experience can do and kept the game close.

The Red Dogs, short a few of there regulars, hit the ball well into the gaps forcing the Stiffs to play smart baseball. The Red Dogs scored well and often on some timely hitting by Matt Foerster, Bob Pearce and Jim Bear Wyatt but the Stiffs were not to be taken lightly.

Late in the game Al Johnson triples, Cameron Clark gets an assisted HR and Phil Glecoff homers over the fence. The Stiffs scored going away late in the game and it was too much for the Dogs to over come. Final score Lucky Stiffs 23-15 Red Dogs.

EDITOR:  
The Stiffs are back on the beam!  They were one of my picks for a bye and my picks haven't been doing so good!  The Stiffs, like the Brew Jays and Units have their toughest games out of the way.  No time to coast, but their in good shape. 

Dodge City Rounders 22 Vs. Hurtin' Units 11

PAUL GYORI: 
It was a gorgeous night for baseball and another tough game for The Units. We got smoked again by a hard hitting Dodge City Rounders club.

We just haven't been on our game, perhaps just squeezing that bat a little too tight knowing that everyone guns for the top team.  Kevin Moon had a ton of balls hit his way for pretty easy outs to first, he also cranked a couple of balls hard into the outfield. 

Even though the last two game have been routs our spirits are still pretty high.

EDITOR:  
Hmmmm, there always seems to be a full Moon in September!  Didn't we see this last year?Day 2 was clearly upset day in the playoffs with 3 underdogs winning.  Well done Dodge City Rounders!  The Rounders have maintained a positive attitude all year and it paid off tonight in spades.  Is it okay to feel sorry for a team that finished 1st overall in the league?  The Units still have winnable games, but have to find that magic they had for the last 4 months.  Slow and steady wins the race.

STANDINGS

(THIS INCLUDES ALL GAMES FROM DAY ONE AND DAY TWO)



PLAYOFFS - Day 1

FINALLY!!!

I won't waste a lot of time on any intro stuff but may sprinkle in a little something should the mood strike me somewhere along the line....we'll see.

In place of that, I've dug up a few stats that may be of minor interest to some of the more obsessed of the crowd.  For starters, because we like top 25 lists, here are the top 25 hitters over the last two years in the league.  As you can see, the only person to exceed a combined .750 average over two years is "Shoeless" Rob McCarron.  If he's not a number 1, he should be a 1A. 

Then we have a list of 15 great players who have been able to maintain a .700 OBA over two years; and the list is rounded out by a who's who of the leagues great hitters!

I would like to offer my thanks in advance to Paul Piellusch, Steve Ross, Mark Doyle, Andy Gee, Paul Gyori and Karen Turner; without who's help putting together a daily report would be impossible.  Other than correcting the odd typo (some things sent from blackberrys and phones are subject to thumbing errors), the words are theirs. 

THE GAMES

Rusty Rebels 27 Vs. Hurtin' Units 12

Paul Gyori:  The Hurtin' Units first playoff game against The Rusty Rebel was going really well for The
Units right up until the warm-up ended.  Collectively we probably played our worst game of the season, getting smoked by a strong, hard hitting Rebel team 27-12.  Their whole line-up hit well, especially the lower part of the batting order with Pete Shmagola leading the pack going a terrific 5-5 which included a walk and three solid hits.

We did get 12 runs which can usually win you many games, but the combination of solid Rebel hitting, and our defence booting the ball a tad made those 12 runs seem like a drop in the proverbial bucket.
Still, we haven't let the loss get us down. There is an awful lot of ball to play, and we knew the Rebels would be a tough opponent.

We have three more games to play in the round robin, and we have already put the first one behind us. 

EDITOR:    Maybe picking the Rusty Rebels as the team to beat wasn't quite so crazy after all?  Mark Kolson hitting a triple and (out of the park) home run was HUGE. Still, the Hurtin' Units are in a position to run the table from here....they need their MOJO now!

Lucky Stiffs 8 Vs. Brew Jays 15

Andy Gee:   So the Brew Jays win their first game of the second season by playing fundamental
baseball. They hit the ball well, played good defense with few errors, and capitalized on the errors
made by the Stiffers. The result was a 15-8 win for the Jays.

EDITOR:     The Brew Jays got the start they needed after dropping both regular season games to the
Lucky Stiffs.  The Stiffs have played their most difficult now and should sail smoothly from here.

Torn Ligaments 1 Vs. Banshees 11 

Paul Piellusch:   The Banshees hit well and played a solid game with few mistakes.  The Torn
Ligaments could not get any clutch hits and therefore did not score.  Frank Laird pitched a good game that the score gives a fair indication of.

EDITOR: Rumour has it that Paul Piellusch was in attendance for this game and did not play.  Hoping that its just a one game thing as the Ligaments can ill afford to lose him for any length of time.

Hot Tub Woody's 15 Vs. The Wild 15

Steve Ross:  Both teams battled the wind all night with several balls going over fielders heads for extra
bases.  The Woody's struck early and often taking an early lead but The Wild managed a rally in the late
innings to knot it up 16-16.

EDITOR:   Well, this was a little unexpected!  A tie will make everything so much more interesting come Saturday!  That point could push one of these teams into a bye or a better elimination match up.  Both teams accomplished the goal of not losing their opening game!

STANDINGS (UNOFFICIAL)

All Day 1 Game Results

BONUS BLOG - The Playoff Forecaster!!!

Click here for Paul Gyori's Playoff prequel

First Off...

A.  This worked at about 90% last year.
B.  Drawing names out of a hat is probably about as successful.
C.  Who cares?
D.  This is for entertainment value only and while I 'like' it, its neither scientific nor quantifiable.  Personally I wouldn't trust it. 
E.  The games are played on the field not on paper (or in BLOGs).
F.   BTW, this really only applies to the round robin portion because exact match ups beyond that are impossible to predict.

Best wishes to everyone in the Playoffs.  Only one will be standing at the end but hopefully we all have fun getting to that point.  Enjoy and don't get hurt!!!


HOW IT WORKS

This is entirely numbers based. If numbers bore you; you should leave now.

Okay...Go!

I know Doyle, Radar and John Harrett are still reading and if anyone else is there, here are some trends / stats that I found interesting. For the most part, this focuses on positive numbers only. There is no agenda to embarrass any team. 

Strictly by the numbers, the equation works like this (Factor1)+(Factor2 X 0.5)+(Factor3)+(Factor4) = TOTAL.  What the total means?  That's a different story altogether. 

Flaws?  There are plenty in this.  Measurements are weighted and arbitrary and there is nothing to say that the weights are right or even make any sense.  "How" each factor is measured is inconsistent, yet I like it.  The biggest thing that this misses is intangibles.  One intangible that is somewhat accounted for is more recent performance, but other stuff like injuries, historical playoff performance etc, are just not available.

So again, a grain of salt please. 

Here we go.

FACTOR 1

The first category is pretty much indisputable and that is how each team did in the regular season.  I've ranked teams 1-14 and awarded points for order of finish.  First place gets 14 points down to Fourteenth place getting one point.  Its simple and you all know where you ranked so that's not subject for debate.  This is your comparison against the league factor and here is how we all stood.

FACTOR 2

The second measurement is the who's hot factor.  This is marginally more complicated but hardly rocket science.  This looks at what a team has done in the second half of the schedule, their last 13 games.  There is an assumption here which isn't a 100% accurate, and that is that your level of competition was the same in the 1st and 2nd halves of the season.  Its not, so the stat is slightly skewed.  Teams are ranked 1st through 14th counting only their last 13 games and are awarded a 1/2 point for each spot in the rankings.  1st place gets 7 points down to 14th getting .5 points.  A couple of points on this:  1)  This is weighted at 1/2 value because its half a season.  2)  Just to be clear the standings you see below are "what it would look like" if the first 13 games of our season never happened. 

This shows me two things.

• First, the Rusty Rebels, Dog Catchers, Torn Ligaments and Grisslies had quality second halfs that are somewhat lost in the overall standings.
• Second, The Brew Jays and Hurtin' Units didn't take their collective feet off the gas ALL freaking year!  It took teams playing .769 and .692 clips to push them to 2nd and 3rd.  Remarkable consistency from both teams.

FACTOR 3

The third measurement is the how we did against ourselves factor.   Are you trending upward, staying even or falling off?  So, I've looked each teams winning percentage from the first half and second half and compared them.  If a team played .625 ball in the first half and .550 ball in the second half, their trend number was -.075.  Each teams differential is sorted and ranked. 

The way points are awarded in this category is somewhat different too.  The 7 teams that are trending upward received a point based on their rank and the 7 teams trending downward lost a point based on their rank.

Also, the statistic is inclusive of the whole season although strongly weighted to the second half...that's why a full point is awarded as opposed to the the half point in the "who's hot factor".  Whether you believe it or not is a different story.

• Is it fair that the Hurtin' Units had 4 times the number of wins as the Dusty Cleats in the second half yet got 2.5 fewer points?  Probably not. 
• Is it fair that Dodge City had an under .500 record in the second half yet got 4 more points than the Lucky Stiffs who were over .500?  Probably not. 
• Is it fair that I haven't needed to use a comb for 20 years?   Probably not.

FACTOR 4

Then there is the fourth and final measurement and this one is usually the deal breaker.  This is the luck of the draw factor and it can be a little controversial.  We all play a balanced POWER RANKING playoff schedule.  I get it.  I support it entirely.  It fair, its balanced and its a great way to do it.  However, where "luck of the draw" comes into play is how each individual team did specifically against the teams that they match up against in the playoffs.  Lets face it, we have actual tangible evidence of these results.

For instance....  Last year, the Grisslies had a rough first half, a good but not spectacular second half and ended up 12-12 for the year in 8th place.  However the Grisslies got a dream match up for a team in the lower half of the draw.  The Grisslies were 2-0 in the regular season against two of their opponents and 1-1 against the other two.  In other words, they got 12 out of a possible 16 points in those games.  As a point of reference, only one team has done better than that this year against their round robin competition.

So here is where luck of the draw really played out last year.  Not only did the Grisslies come up from 8th place to get the bye, but one of the top ranked teams (who predominately wear red) matched up against teams that they had very poor records against during the regular season DESPITE their excellent overall record.  Sadly, this provide to big component to an early exit.  At least last year anyway. This factor is awarded at the value of the points earned.  For example if you were 2-4-2 in the eight games you played against your round robin competition you would be awarded 6 points.  5-2-1 would be 11 points.  Got it?

• 
  
  Interestingly 10 of the 14 teams have records of .500 or better!
• 
  
  Lucky Stiffs were dominate, and the Brew Jays, Dog Catchers and Hurtin' Units in complete control.
• 
  
  There is as large a gap between 1st and 2nd (4points) as there is between 2nd and 11th. 
• 
  
   It looks like there are some disparities at the top and bottom and a lot of parity in the middle

TOTAL

So the moment you've been waiting for.....

• Remember that this is supposed to apply to the round robin as elimination games are whole different kettle of fish!
• If this is correct (I'm laughing too) then you can pretty much throw a blanket over the Rusty Rebels, Lucky Stiffs,  Hurtin' Units, Dog Catchers and Brew Jays as the favourites to get the byes.     
• Consider that the Brew Jays and Lucky Stiffs play each other....
• Consider that Hurtin' Units and Rusty Rebels play each other....
• Consider that the Rusty Rebels and the Dog Catchers play each other.... 

Team by Team:

Hurtin’ Units, Keys to victory: Simply, keep being the Hurtin’ Units. This team has rebounded from ‘in game’ miscues better than any other and if they continue to be positive on the field their results will be too.

Brew Jays, Keys to victory: Stay away from the Lucky Stiffs and keep tearing the cover off of the ball. They were the highest scoring team in the league by a long shot which means that no lead against them is safe.

Rusty Rebels, Keys to victory: The best team in the second half with a 10-2-1 record. They only have one loss in their last 10 games. They need to keep believing that they are this good!  Their hitting is off the charts and they may end up with 5 guys in the top 25.

Lucky Stiffs, Keys to victory: Not only did they finish fourth overall in the league but they have the best playoff schedule based on regular season results. The Stiffs gained 15 out of 16 possible points against their opponents.

Banshees, Keys to victory: Fifth place in the regular season and the fourth best playoff schedule. They have multiple players in the top 25 in hitting and are in the top 3 defensively in the league. They need all those components to click together.

The Wild, Keys to victory: The Wild were 7-4-2 in the first half and were in fourth place. If their clutch season ending win against the Hurtin’ Units is an indication that they’re back to that form, they’ll be back to being that team that no one wants to face.

Torn Ligaments, Keys to victory: The best defensive club in the league. While they finished the season with 2 losses, they were 5-2 over their last seven games and had the fifth best first half to second half improvement, most of which was against tough competition. If they sound defence holds they’ll be hard to bead.

Dog Catchers, Keys to victory: They played over .500 points better in the second half than they did in the first half. They were second only to the Rusty Rebels in points earned in the second half. They have the second best playoff schedule. The Dog Catchers look to be toughest to beat and it isn’t one aspect of play. As long as they stay healthy, they should be fine.

Dislocated Joints, Keys to victory: This is a funny team by their record. They are the only team to have 5 streaks of wins or losses of more than 3 games. This team is totally capable of going on a long winning streak based on their record. A quick start will be their biggest key.  If they start winning, they'll probably keep winning. 

Grisslies, Keys to victory: Simply to maintain their play over the last 10 games (7-2-1). Average runs scored during this period went up by over 4 per game and average runs allowed went down by more than 4. An 8 run per game differential was huge and will have to be maintained for post season success.

Hot Tub Woody’s, Keys to victory:  Only one loss in the last four games is a good start. The Woody’s were 8-6-1 after fifteen games and then hit an elongated skid which they’ve seemingly come out of. They are an even .500 against their playoff competition so this should be a very competitive playoff run.

Dodge City Rounders, Keys to victory: The fourth most improved team in the second half of the season and they‘re are playing with new found confidence that they have to maintain. Wins over the Stiffs and Wild were huge for them. Their best hitters need to not slump and get a few others to chip in here and there and an upset will be very doable.

Red Dogs, Keys to victory: Their record isn’t really an indication of the team. They’ve been missing Mike Candy for half the season, missing Matt Foerster for almost all the season and only getting Jamie McClean in recent weeks. The team you see in the playoffs will have a very different look. This is a legitimate X-factor team.  They could go to the final or not see Sunday and neither would surprise me.

Dusty Cleats, Keys to victory: It would be easy to dismiss this team, I would advise against that. The biggest thing for the Cleats is that some serious leg issues to a couple of key players are resolved. Add that to the dependability of the outfield and their bats and think there is a formula for winning some games there. I personally would love to see it!

There you have it folks....that's all I've got. 

There will be a blog on Tuesday night with game reports submitted by Paul Gyori, Mark Doyle, Andy Gee, Paul Piellusch and Steve Ross.  My thanks to you all!

BONUS BLOG - Week 20 Review

Playoff forecaster will be posted by 10am Saturday!!!

WEEK 20 UPDATE

Well, sorry to take away the suspense, but if you're reading this; you probably already knew anyway. Yes, just like your prom date with the gold front tooth that you used to call 'princess'; it turns out that the Hurtin' Units are who we thought they were. And what that is, is a damned good team!  Congrats on winning the regular season!!!

In the next day or two when the rohypnol wears off and Mike and James wake up face down near a sewer grate, they are going to have 3 thoughts in rapid succession.

1. We won the regular season!
2. What in gods name smells so awful?
3. We start the post-season 0-0 like everyone else.

Meanwhile....the week that was....

THE GAMES

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 13TH

Grisslies Vs. Dusty Cleats - The Grisslies had been clicking for awhile and the Dusty Cleats came to play. It was a well contested game that the final score of 13-4 for the Grisslies didn't put in the proper light. But cheap hits score runs too and this win kept the Grisslies alive to finish as high as 9th in the standings.

The Wild Vs. Red Dogs - I've felt sorry for the Red Dogs all year. Don't take this the wrong way, I don't feel bad for them in a "pity" way; its just that they never seem to get a break. Between shift work, injuries, lighting problems, weather issues, the Red Dogs always seemed up against it! The Dogs played a tough game and lost 19-16 to the defending champs. The Wild can still finish as high as 5th and as low as 9th. Lots to be decided in a busy week!

Red Dogs Vs. Hot Tub Woody's - The Red Dogs had the back end of a double dip to deal with after a tough loss (see, no breaks!). They played well again holding of the Hot Tub Woody's 15-11. The win keeps the Dogs in the hunt for 12th. The loss for the Woody's didn't change too much. They can still anywhere from 9th - 11th.

Hurtin' Units Vs. Lucky Stiffs - So. The Units clinched the regular season. They'll probably mail in the last couple of games and just coast, right? Not so much. With nothing on the line for them and 2nd place on the line for the Stiffs, the Units continued to do what they've done all year. Win, baby, just win. Make the final 26-18. The Stiffs will either be nicely positioned in 3rd or 4th for the end of year festivities!



TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 14TH

Dislocated Joints Vs. Hot Tub Woody's - The Woody's beat the Joints 9-1 and while it made things interesting, it didn't really change the standings in a big way.  The HTW's are still the masters of their own destiny and can finish from 9th to 11th.  Dislocated can still get up to 6th and 9th.  The joints still have 2 games left and much of the control.   

Lucky Stiffs Vs. Dog Catchers - The Dog Catchers continued with an excellent second half and knocked off the stiffs who had won 3 of four including the Brew Jays twice.  The story behind the story on this one is that Murray Saunders earned his first ever pitching decision!  I hope he's in the playoff rotation.  Only one lose for the Dog Catchers in their last 7 games!

Dodge City Rounders Vs. Dusty Cleats - Dodge City and the Dusty Cleats became the first teams to finish their regular season schedule.   And the Dodge City Rounders did it with style by winning their final game and earning 12th place.  Their win also made it impossible for the Red Dogs to move out of 13th place.  The Game was the final tuneup for the Cleats who are now poised and reasonably healthy for a long playoff run!

The Wild Vs. Hurtin' Units -  Double headers abound this week!  The Wild are worthy defending champs and there's no better way to show it than by beating the regular season victors from this year.  The Wild knocked off the class of 2010 by a score of 12-11.  The Units as always were game and still found a way to play hard in a game that made no difference to their position.

Lucky Stiffs Vs. Dislocated Joints - This game was a victim of the double headers and the Dislocated Joints were unable to field a team for their second game.  The final score was 7-0 for the Stiffs.  The Stiffs can still finish 3rd or 4th and the Joints are now locked into ninth.

Dog Catchers Vs. The Wild - Did I mention that the Dog Catchers have had a great second half?  As good as The Wild had been playing, they ran into the Dog Catcher buzz saw that many of us had faced.  The final score was 20-16.  Both teams remain in the hunt for multiple spots.   

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 15TH

Grisslies Vs Torn Ligaments - The Grisslies had been playing well in the second half but hadn't beaten too many 'quality' opponents.  The Ligaments had cooled off a little, but were still playing very sound defensive ball.  The Grisslies enjoyed a nice come back 16-15 win to end the season.  The Ligaments and Grisslies are still waiting on other results to find out where they'll finish!
Dislocated Joints Vs. Brew Jays -  The Dislocated Joints recovered nicely from their forfeit on the night before and put on a game effort against the dominant Brew Jays.  The final in this game was 16-13 for the Brew Jays.  The game was meaningless for the standings but showed that both teams can play against each other!

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 16TH

Rusty Rebels Vs. Red Dogs -  This game was called due to weather.   The final score was 0-0 and registered as a tie game.  This game had no bearing on the standings.
Hot Tub Woody's Vs. Banshees - This game was called due to weather.  The final score was 0-0 and registered as a tie game.  This game impacted the standings with respect to only the Hot Tub Woody's and the Grisslies.  The Hot Tub Woody's graciously accepted the tie. 

FINAL and Unofficial standings

The real standings on our league website.  (Click Here For Standings)  I believe they're the same, but double check. 

The Playoff forecaster will be out by 10am Saturday morning and will be sure to illicit some discussion.  The number one ranked team to 'win it all' might be a little bit of a surprise as will the predictions to make get "the bye".  However, the math part isn't quite done yet so there needs to be a little more work.

Cheers until the weekend.

GAME 26 - Torn Ligaments Tie Another

THE INTRO
I started writing this one on Friday night September 10th.  You should all be very relieved that there is a delete key!  I wrote ACT II of the Starsky saga and introduced Jimmy "the" Hunter as Hutch, but with a Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday BLOG, I didn't want to waste a quality one that would end up buried in a couple of days. 

Here is the end of the regular season rewrite:

The BLOG will now transition from the fun Grisslie focused site to more of a daily league perspective and decidedly more neutral.  Following Friday's "week in review BLOG", I will have a playoff preview.  And starting next week, with the help of some kind volunteers, I will have as much info as possible on each playoff game and, of course, there will be a full individual BLOG dedicated to the final game.  The humour part will thin out dramatically now (some say that happened around week 4), but the odd picture or funny event may pop up.

Remaining BLOG Schedule:

Thursday September 16 - Final 'unoffical' standings in the "News and Notes" tab (Not a BLOG, just and update).
Friday September 17 - Week 20 in Review BLOG
Saturday September 18 - The 2010 Playoff forecaster BLOG!!! (No charge for this)
Tuesday September 21 - 2010 Playoffs, Day 1 (scores, games summaries, standings)
Wednesday September 22 - 2010 Playoffs, Day 2 (scores, games summaries, standings)
Thursday September 23 - 2010 Playoffs, Day 3 (scores, games summaries, standings)
Friday September 24 - 2010 Playoffs, Day 4 (scores, games summaries, standings)
Saturday September 25 - 2010 Playoffs, Day 5 (scores, games summaries, eliminations, match ups)
Sunday September 26 - 2010 Playoffs, Day 6 (scores, games summaries, eliminations, match ups)

THANKS!!!

To Rob Farah:  Thanks for inviting me to captain with you this year.  I learned tons, had a blast and I think we worked together really well.  Although the Dog Catchers may be right that I have a 'finer points' to work out yet.  Ps, you're a hell of song writer and thanks for inventing tin foil.

To Sue Farah:  Thanks for the Bud-Lime(s), the chats, the meals, the pre-game timmy's and including me in your family.

To the Grisslies:  Thanks for being willing victims to my questionable humour.  Thanks for playing along with BLOG comments, participating in the polls and making suggestions.

To Mark Doyle:  Thanks for hours of senseless conversations about stats and when to play the infield in and the outfield back.  It Oldtimers ball was a spectator sport, we'd be RICH!

To Ed Hopkins:  Thanks so much for allowing me to be a participant in the HTKP and playing a small role in writing my first serious (and printed) piece!

To The Fraser Family (the Farahs, Joy and Rob McCarron, Patti and Doris Casullo, Cindy and Paul Hargreaves and Sean and Chuck Cragg):  Thanks for making a difficult year a little more manageable.

To The Hammel Crew (James Taylor, Cameron and Janice Clark, Mike and Michelle Olliffe and Piero and Mrs D):  Thanks for the inclusion in so many events and for all the extra hits to The Blog.  (I'm pretty sure that The Man From Glad and Cat Woman are in this mix!) 

To Chris Ross: The only President of the league that probably 1/4 of us have ever known.  Well done, the praise you've received is richly deserved.  Thanks for the encouragement and support, and the moment that you're not on the executive you'll be 'fair game' to be BLOGGED!

To the League Executive (Chris Ross, Jeff Dancey, Steve Ross, Randy Hipken, Kevin Boston): Thanks for playing along with this, helping me out and not 'shutting me down' despite the fact that there had to be moments when you wondered what the hell I was doing. (Except for Randy who doesn't have a computer)

To Tito Presenza, Cameron Clark, Paul Piellusch, Mark Doyle, Doris Casullo and Chuck Cragg): Non-Grisslies who had fictitious stories, backgrounds and conversations made up about them.  Your willingness to be victimized is very much appreciated.

To Gary Cox, Jim Rouleau, Marina Saunders, Murray Saunders, Karen Turner, Larry Turner, Brad Bergin, Cindy Hargreaves, Paul Hargreaves, Joy McCarron, Rob McCarron, Scott Peters, Jeff Dancey, Steve DeLand, Paul Gyori, Mike Olliffe, James Taylor, Cameron Clark, Andy Gee, Karen Junkin, Mark Doyle, David Polny, Peter Shmagola, Sean Cragg, Chuck Cragg, Steve Ross, Jim 'the' Hunter, Paul Piellusch, Robin Dickson, The 2010 Grisslies, Sue Farah, Michelle Farah, Cheryl Boston, Laura Cooper, Samantha Del Greco, Jeff Shulze and Bev Steeves:  Thanks for all of your feedback.  It wasn't always positive to be perfectly candid, but was, without fail, honest and extremely helpful.  The format looks a lot different from last year and that's largely based on your input.  Plus your participation in the comment section made for story lines that just needed to be developed rather than created.  Big Thanks!!

To The League:  For anyone I offended, my heartfelt apologies.  For anyone I failed to offend, its not THAT far to draft day!  Remember, its all in fun!!!  Thanks so much for reading.

To The Batman:  This is where Mark Doyle expects me to finally admit I'm The Batman!  Sorry...it ain't me.  But thanks to The Batman who conveniently showed up right when I was starting to dry up on stories.  He (or she) created a cult following and a story line that I couldn't have possibly seen coming.  I'm hoping we haven't seen the last of him!!! 

Special thanks to:  Karen Junkin and Samantha Del Greco....chatting is important.

THE BLOG BY THE NUMBERS

Yesterday at some point, The BLOG surpassed 20,000 page loads for the year. While this is obviously up ridiculously from last year's 3,995 (500% increase) its hard to quantify what that means. Here is a local example that might help give a little perspective.

The news and info website called http://www.madhunt.com/ has had 24,185 page loads to far this year. Considering that they had 12,657 before we got our first hit in 2010, there is a chance that we could actually pass them by the end of the playoffs. Maybe.  Anyway I thought it was interesting because we've used MadHunt to circulate info and it turns out that we have about as much traffic.

And another quick example....

Then there is www.bluebirdbanter.com/ I think they are best Jays related website / BLOG, mostly because its done independently of BlueJays management and fairly represents Jays fans. Anyway, they had 22,241 page loads just for LAST WEEK!!! Holy cow. So, we have a ways to go....but then again, we aren't the Jays are we?

THE SPEECH

Well, Monday night's BLOG was the tribute to the tie, and had I been thinking, I should have reserved it for this game.  The Torn Ligaments, you see, lead the league in tie games.  15% of their games ended tied this year!  By contrast the Grisslies have had 2% of their games end in ties over the previous 2 years.  So, sit back, click on the title and enjoy the last Rob speech of the year.  He finished kind of folksie with Mary MacGregor's 1977 classic "Torn Between Two Lovers" which Robbie retitled, "Torn Ligaments Tie Another"....

Torn Ligaments Tie Another

There are times when a captain has to say what's on his mind

Even thought he knows how much it's gonna hurt

Before I say another word, let me tell you, I don't sniff glue

Let me make a toast and tell you just as nicely as I can

There's been a lot of ties this season and you have more than most

They might of been wins but ended up less

And you know they are just practice games but you've been practicing how to tie

That's just like kissing your sister and that's pretty gross for every guy

Torn Ligaments tie another, feelin' like a fool

Not winning the game is like breaking baseballs rules

Torn Ligaments tie another, feelin' like a fool

Not losing the game is like breaking baseballs rules

Don't go thinking you've failed us

Just because there's not usually a winner

Your defense has been your strength all year
The bats are nicely tucked in bed

I swear they will come through

Now in September those swings will start to ring true

Torn Ligaments tie another, feelin' like a fool

Not winning the game is like breaking baseballs rules

Torn Ligaments tie another, feelin' like a fool

Not losing the game is like breaking baseballs rules

I couldn't really blame you if you turned and walked away

Its been a long season and this last speech / song was written during a Bell workday

Torn Ligaments tie another, feelin' like a fool

Not winning the game is like breaking baseballs rules

Torn Ligaments tie another, feelin' like a fool

Not losing the game is like breaking baseballs rules

PIEMAN
Before I get to the actual game, there is a story within the story.  Piero Del Greco did what I am sure no person in our league has ever done before. 

In the 1st inning Piero pitched to the first batter, Lynn Foerster, who walked on four pitches (not even a courtesy swing???).  He then moved to catcher for the remainder of the inning.  Two positions played.

In the 2nd inning he played left field for the first batter, moved to third for the second batter and finished the inning catching.  Four positions played.

In the 3rd inning Piero played left center field for the first batter, moved to short stop for the second batter and finished the inning catching.  Six positions played.

In the 4th inning he played right center field for the first batter, moved to second base for the second batter, worked as umpire for an out and finished the inning catching.  Nine positions played. 

In the 5th inning Piero played right field for the first batter, moved to 1st base for the second batter and finished the inning catching where he was involved in an inning ending double play.  Eleven positions played!!!
THE GAME

September is a funny month. 

We played the Torn Ligaments earlier in the year and lost a 10-6 game that was well contested.  But this felt different.  The Grisslies scored a couple early and held a brief 2-0 lead, but the Ligaments kept coming.  They shut us down offensively after the first and seemed to score at ease.  At one point they had a 9-2 and seemed in total control. 

Then something funny happened.  Danny Chiasson was called safe on a play at the plate when he ran through a stop sign (or maybe it was an aggressive base coach?) and the flood gates openned.  Before you knew it the Grisslies were back in the game trailing 9-8.

The game was very back and forth over the last 3 innings with the Grisslies always within three and usually finishing the top of the inning tied.  Coming to bat in the top of the seventh, the Grisslies trailed the Torn Ligaments by a 15-12 count.  The inning started well, but we ran into a little bad luck along the way and found ourselves still trailing (15-14) with two out and two runners on and none other than Piero Del Greco at the plate.

FLASHBACK:  In Piero's first at bat this year agains the Hot Tub Woody's he hit a bases clearing triple between right and right centre. 

Piero finished the season like he started it.  Not a triple, but a ball absolutely smoked between right and right center that wend for a double and scored both runners on base.  The Grisslies had their first lead since the 1st inning now leading 16-15 after 6 and 1/2 innings. 

In the bottom of the 7th the Grisslies took care of business defensively.  An infield flare, a ground ball to third and a ground out to second. 

The Grisslies completed a very successful 7-5-1 second half (7-2-1 in the last 10 games) and are ready for the post season to begin!!!!

Well done Griss!!!