4 Pics from the Season

I've heard that there may be too many stats going on lately and not enough fun.

Truth is that for the first time in my life, I'm actually relevant in the stats which probably speaks to my interest.  However, I suspect that's about to change, so lets talk about a few happenings in the league of late.  Hey, you know what's cool about a private blog?  I don't have to blank out names.

I accidentally got on a Hot Tub Woody's email distribution list regarding registering for the August tournament.  After many excited Woody's (yep, did that on purpose) registered; current Hot Tub Woody's and former Grisslie great Tim (Timmy Two Beers) Osmond sent out this gem of an email

After many cat-calls, that was followed by TTB's follow up email:

I was going to attach a picture, but it just seems too wrong.  Even for me.  You got off light Timmy, watch those thumbs.  :)

Next topic.

This is the image of downtown Toronto that many of you picture.

Its clean.  Its pretty as far as a city goes.  Its safe.

As many of you know, I work downtown.  By downtown I mean RIGHT DOWNTOWN.  Jarvis and Dundas downtown.  I'm not saying that the area is dangerous but the drug dealers need police protection.  I've worked downtown for years.  Front and Simcoe?  Nice area, lots of sales types with the convention center there and tons of sports fans being by the dome.  King and Bay?  Awesome.  High end brokers and bankers.  Bloor and Jarvis?  Hip, young and happening.

Jarvis and Dundas.  The hookers can't stand the homeless asking for change.  Its just brutal.  This is the downtown Toronto that I'm accustomed to:

No shit.  This is real.

So I can park beside my building for 11 bucks.  Not bad for downtown.  But I'm cheap.  So I park around the corner and step over the hookers and get accosted by the homeless on the one block it takes for me to get to work at 7am.  Why?  To save 2 bucks.  I pay 9 dollars for the extra smell and dirt.  Whats the matter with me?

Oh.  Where I park?  Its the parking lot of the Filmore hotel. Do you know the Filmore?  Probably best not to admit it if you do.  So I was walking to my car on Monday and I saw this sign on the Filmore Marquee.

I swear to god, its the only clever thing I've seen down there.

First here is a picture of Me with Colin Mann, Al Duchesne and Rob Farah.  It was a pretty cool moment for me, meeting two legends that started this league some 30 years ago.  What you can't see from the picture is the conversation that preceded this.

Rob:  Doug this is Al and Colin
[shaking hands]
Doug:  Pleasure to meet you both, you're legends around here.
Al:  Are you on the alumni team?
Doug:  Me?
Colin:  Ya.  I'm glad to see there's still room for older guys. Its kind of inspiring me to come back.
Doug:  Seriously?  Are you looking at Rob or me?
Al:  What's Rob?  Mid 40's?  He's probably under the league average for age.  But a guy like you playing?  That gives everyone hope!
Doug:  Why don't we just get a picture.
Colin:  Do you want to borrow my smart phone?  I see you're still using a camera with film.
Doug:  That's because its better quality, not because I'm old.
Colin:  Right, you probably still use VHS.
Doug:  Beta.
Al:  I'd come back but I couldn't stand the drop in technology.  

So this pic come from Canada day on Fraser Ave.  Current residents Mark Banks, Rob McCarron, Paul Hargreaves and Rob Farah are joined by former resident Chuck Cragg.

Hargreaves:  Rob, you can take your hand off my shoulder, its not my first picture. 

Farah:  Well you didn't get the memo to wear a red shirt

McCarron:  And Mark didn't get the memo to wear sleeves.  

Banks:  When you've got pipes like mine, you don't wear sleeves. 

Farah:  Hold still Paul, Sue's gonna snap the picture.  

Hargreaves:  This is the longest picture I've ever had. 

Farah:  No "I'M" the longest pitcher you've ever seen. 

McCarron:  Has anyone seen my wallet?

Farah:  You guys are just excited to be standing near the best player in the league, settle down. 

Hargreaves:  Me?

Banks:  Me?

McCarron:  Me?

Cragg:  So glad I moved. Where's Dwyer?

Banks:  Filmore.

Of course the center piece of the Help The Kids Play weekend is the All Star Game.  Rob Farah was selected to the all star game as a catcher.

Rob:  Like my shirt?

Roman:  Not much

Rob:  Why not?

Roman:  Because you look like the Green Lantern.  Its stupid.  

Rob:  Green Lantern?  Like the super hero.  

Roman:  Ya.  Have you ever read a comic?

Rob:  Ummm.  I like Cathy and Beetle Bailey in the Sunday Sun.  

Roman:  Wow.  Why are you grabbing your crotch.  

Rob:  I think my jock shrunk.  Feels tight.  So question for you. 

Roman:  Shoot. 

Rob:  Who do you think the Grisslies will beat in the finals?

Roman:  I think you need therapy.  

Rob:  Because of my pulled shoulder muscle?

Roman:  No....the muscle above your shoulder is definitely pulled though.  

I'm assuming that this pic is from the Michael Worrod charity golf tournament.  

Chris Ross:  [screaming] HELP ME!!!!
Rick Cudnik: Look, one hand driving on the golf cart at 80kms!!!!
Chris Ross:  [screaming] AAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Rick Cudnik:  He's just joking.....
Chris Ross: [screaming] SAVE ME!!!!!
Rick Cudnik:  One hand and not even looking at the road, I'm friggin awesome!
Chris Ross: [screaming] Our Father, who art in heaven.......

Entering Week 13

Well then.  Last week's BLOG was kind of embarrassing.  Probably the worst formatting and most missing words EVER!

I will endeavor to improve.

Let's recap, shall we?  Last week's game....

Monday turned out to be bloody night on the diamond.  The poor Gruesome Devils lived up to the first part of their nickname.  T'was Gruesome indeed.

First, early in the game, Brad Moye got in great position at Short to field a hard one-hopper.  The one hop turned out to be a bad one and the ball glanced off the tip of his glove and hit the bridge of his nose.  Its was the most blood on the field since the Dave Argue incident a couple of years ago.  Then in the 5th, There was a line drive on the infield, the runner on 1st took too big a jump and the fielder threw back to Bob Candy to get the double play.  The throw would have been great had their been no runner in the way.  The ball glanced off the runners shoulder and into Bob's mouth.

Tough day at the office.  When they went down to nine with the loss of Brad, the Dog Catchers provided a catcher.  When Bob went out, they needed to recruit a fan to finish the game!

The Devils got thumped but were inspired by the return of their injured team mates, who were back the next night and came up with a stirring 10-8 win.

Overall, a great week of ball.  3 blow outs and 9 games where the last at bat was meaningful.

There's never a week that goes by that I don't learn something at the Legion.  This week?  Check it out.

So just one more thing before I take a more robust look at stats than I did with last week's crap blog, lets handicap next week's games.

Predictions and willing to make small wagers.

Beer Bros Vs. Master Batters  12 - 17.  Master Batters prevail on defense.
Sons Of Pitches Vs. Dusty Cleats 15 - 21, Two teams that play better than their record.
Hurtin' Units Vs. Draft Kings 8 - 16, Units have good sticks.  But Draft Kings defense is elite.
Hot Tub Woody's Vs. Sliders 11 - 26, two teams moving in opposite directions it would seem.
Dog Catchers Vs. Hurtin' Units 12 - 14, these teams look even to me, but someone has to win.
Draft Kings Vs. Master Batters 8 - 7, coin flip goes to Draft Kings on this one, for no good reason
Grisslies Vs. Gruesome Devils 18 - 8, Grisslies have been playing great defense for 5 games now.
Rusty Rebels Vs. Dodge City Rounders 17 - 15, Sandy tames the Dodge bats.
Dodge City Rounders Vs. Dog Catchers 11 - 17, Dog Catchers are too good with the leather.
Tap Masters Vs. Rusty Rebels 18 - 16, Only one win back of tying the Rebs, they get it here.
Sliders Vs. Sons Of Pitches  11 - 14, it was a nice long run Sliders, but the SoP get off the snide.
Dusty Cleats Vs. Hot Tub Woody's 12 - 6, two terrible offenses, but the Cleats have a very  good "D".

STATS

So we'll start with people who had perfect runs at the plate in week 12.  Nice to see lots of power hitters in the list too.

Standings - pretty normal stuff, eh?  Except the Draft Kings aren't just in 1st, they're in 1st with games in hand.  Only 3 losses through 17 games?  Their offense is only "okay".  But their defense is light-years ahead of anyone else.

This is how the standings looked after everyone's 13th game.  The Master Batters were the winners of the 1st half of the season

The second 1/2 has the usual suspects + the Sliders trying to stake claims on quality play.







We are making progress on whittling down the number of people who have hit successfully in every game. Still 31 people left.  When we get to 20, I'll publish names.

And our players who have scored a run in every game are:

Anicete Goncalves
Derrell Hager
Keith "The" Beechey

Once again, anything that you see that says "1st half" means that it came from your team's 1st 13 games.  And of course, the 1st half ones aren't going to change now that everyone has past that point of the season.

Come on Adrian .... let other kids play!

Seriously?  How about you miss a game or two?  And you know what, for 3 years I couldn't tell Adrian Barry from Gord Tanner.  Now those two and The Whale are preventing me from actually leading something.

Scotty Barton seemed to be well on his way to another batting title at the halfway point.  Fantastic starts to the year among all those .800+ hitters.

In the second half we have a complete new cast of characters who are hot with one exception.  Cam Clark who was a blistering hot .844 in the 1st half has been perfect through 18 AB's in the 2nd half.

A couple of weeks ago it was beginning to look like the title was done.  Not so much anymore.  Scott and Cam are neck and neck....this should be fun to watch in the coming weeks.

Congrats to Scott Barton on leading the league in hits for the 1st half!

Ya I know, pretty impressive eh?  Well as much as I'd like to be all braggy, the Grisslies and Master Batters have played one more game than SoPs or Dog Catchers.  But still....fun is fun.

The total hits race is wide open right now too.

No surprise seeing the two guys who have scored in every game having also led the league in runs for the 1st half.  Ani and Darrell are at the top and Beechey tucked into 3rd.

And there is Anicete still near the top.  But I think The Whale might pull away in this category.

Two extra games this year will see many of our records fall this year.  It won't be long until the 47 runs in 2012 is eclipsed.  It will be interesting to see if anyone gets on a good enough roll to go after Terry's record 61 runs from 2013.

And here is everyone who has improved their average by at least 100 points over last year.  Looks like it will be Brian "Frank The Tank" Richards or "For Those About To Rock" Bill Sallustio who wins this.  

Entering Week 12

So....week 12 eh?

Let's take a quick look at week 11, shall we?

At first blush, it might look like a another ho-hum week.  Not so much.

The Hurtin' Units defense is proving to be sound.  They've given up 23 runs over their last 4 games, that's better than Draft Kings numbers.  I will not yet say I'm converted, but I'm willing to fall on my sword should this continues through our game against them this week.  Their lone game this week was a well executed 9-8 over the Tap Masters.

And those poor Tap Masters.  0-2 on the week with a minus 3 in two wickedly close games.  1st the one run loss to the Units the a two run loss to the Sons Of Pitches.

The Tap Masters, expansion cousins fared better going 2-0 last week with signs of righting the ship.  8-7 over the Cleats in a nail biter and then a routine 18-8 win over the Rebels.

The Rebels got stung twice this week, losing to the Master Batters as well.  The MB's couldnt sustain the success however and fell to the Sliders 15-11.  

The Grisslies for the 2nd game in a row came a hit away from a dramatic comeback again, this time against the Draft Kings.  There is a method to to stopping the Draft Kings.  Unfortunately it took us 3 innings to figure that out.  Ultimately, the Grisslies were finally rewarded for their good play of late in trouncing the Hot Tub Woody's 20-4.

The Rounders never did figure out the Draft Kings as the Kings as they were doubled 18-9.  Dodge would bounce back with a hard fought 10-8 win over the top tier Beer Bros.

All of which brings me to the Dog Catchers.  They beat the Woody's 17-11 and followed it up with a win over the Cleats 20-8.  The win gave them a share of 1st place.  The win also game them 9 wins in a row.  The win ALSO gave them the longest sustained run of owning the Beer Cup.  Since opening the season at 2-4 they've beaten the Beer Bros., Grisslies, Sliders twice, Master Baters, Sons Of Pitches, Rusty Rebels twice and Dusty Cleats.

Best roll of the year so far fellas!  

Now looking at this week.....and this week's feature team, the Hurtin' Units.

The Dog Catchers will be full marks if they retain the Beer Cup, having to face the resurgent Gruesome Devils and the always efficient Draft Kings.  The Dog Catchers were not given any breaks by the schedule maker (asshole) who has them playing 9:30 and 8:15 Tuesday.  I may check out that Monday game.  The Units will make me a believer with a clean week.  They have Dodge, who are a game behind them in the standings and the Grisslies.

The Grisslies may not seem terribly formidable, but they match up well with the Units over the past 3 games.  The avg score of the last 3 Hurtin' Units games has been 9 - 6.3 for the Units.  The avg score of the last 3 Grisslies games has been 13.3 - 9 in favour of the Grisslies.  Might be interesting.  

STATS

The way we standings is kind of funny.  If the season were to end now, the Dog Catchers would finish in first place by virtue of their 22 points being acquired with fewer losses.  The 2nd place team would be the Draft Kings because of their game in hand.  However, at the end of the year there will be no games in hand.  

Right now the top 5 are conversation points, the rest are after-thoughts unless they play themselves into the mix.  

And this bit is self serving.  I admit it.  But I never make any list except for attendance.  I will, at the end of the year do the runs and avg by quarter, but its just too much work for this season.  Pulling out weekly or 2nd half numbers is way easier.    So here you go.

Perfect weeks at the plate in week 11.

 
2nd Half hitting leaders.  (Counting all games from your AFTER game #13 of their regular season) top 25 + ties.

And last but certainly not least....

Consecutive games with at least a single hits.  There are 35 players who have accomplished this.  The Draft Kings, Grisslies and Sliders lead the way having 4 players each.

And Steve Brooks fell out of the "Scoring Every Game" list.  Work has it that the pressure got to him.  That leaves us with Anicete Goncalves of the Beer Bros., The Beechey of the Dodge City Rounders and the Hurtin' Units own, Darrell Hager.

Congrats fellas.  

What team is your team like??? Part II

Here's the second half of what teams remind me of what teams and why.....

Sports, event ones as rickety as ours, are based on comparisons.  The best arm since....the fastest runner since....etc.  It can quite literally go on forever.  So I start thinking to myself, which team in the majors would each of our league teams match up with and why?

Grisslies - Twins.   Ya, you thought I'd do the '92 Jays, right?  Not so Much.  I was down to the Money Ball A's or the Twins.  The Grisslies in their best years are within a game of .500 at the half way point and have a great second half.  In the not so good years, completely tragic in the 1st half and a struggle to get to within a game or two of .500 in the 2nd half.  Then we have the one tragic season being abysmal in both the 1st and 2nd half.  The Twins kind of meander along playing unspectacular ball.  They're fundamentally sound, but not raising any eye brows until its too late.  In '87 they became the 1st team to win the World Series with as few as 85 wins in a season.

 And in 1991 they joined the Braves in going worst to first which has only happened a hand full of times.  And never have those teams met in the World Series.  As mentioned this was the best game 7 ever, as Jack Morris pitched 10 scoreless innings to get the 1-0 win.  Now the Grisslies are only two years removed from their lost - season of anguish.  Grisslies V. Hurtin' Units final?

Tap Masters -  The 1976 Chicago White Sox.  This was an easy one.  And its not just the White Sox. And its not just the 1976 Sox. Its the August 8th 1976 White Sox.

One man does not make a team.  I know that.  But when I see the Tap Masters I only see shorts, and you know why.  Look hard at the pic below.

And the White Sox are the only major league team in history to wear shorts in a game.  Incidentally, the Sox won that game.

Hot Tub Woody's - Pre 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.  The Dodger in the 30's, 40's and much of the 50's were the bum.  Dem Bums!   The Dodgers routinely broke the hearts of their fans.  The Dodgers went to the World Series against the BoSox in 1916 and lost. Boston would win again 2 years later then not for 89 friggin years.  Then they went to the Series again against the Cleveland Indians.  And lost.  Its been 95 years and Cleveland hasn't won another championship.  Then we have them going to the Series and meeting the Yankees 7 times in 15 years between 1941 and 1956 and losing every single god forsaken time.

The Dodgers are legend. When Jay-z raps that he bleeds blue, he's not talking about 'rap royalty' (like some fools think) he's talking about they Dodgers.  Dodger Blue.  "I bleed Dodger Blue" was a well known expression for decades.  Nearly 60 years after moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the team is still woven into the fabric of the City of New York.  The Dodgers were the 1st to develop a minor league system.  They were the first to integrate baseball.  They started spring training.  The Dodgers are more known for their contributions to the greatness of the game than they are of any specific win.  The Woody's are the Dodgers.

Dusty Cleats - Post 1920 Indians.  Those poor Cleats.  I really don't understand it.  They've had one fabulous season, arguably the best season ever.  The Indians last won the World Series in 1948.  If your doing math in your head, I'll let you know that if you're younger than 67, then you weren't alive when they last won. Hard to imagine eh?  The Indians have been near greatness, but never near enough.  If you are any kind of ball fan, you'll have seen "The Catch".  This was the catch before Devon White's "The Catch".

You may remember it was Willie Mays, on the dead run with his back to home plate.  He somehow, magically out ran the ball and caught it on the warning track.  The track was 480 ft from home plate at the Polo Grounds.   You may remember that the ball was hit by Vic Wertz. Wertz played for Cleveland.  They witness greatness, but didn't get to savor it.  The Giants had 97 wins in '54 and .630 winning percentage.  The Indians were one of the all time great teams, gaining 111 wins and a ridiculous .721 winning percentage.  But no championship.

Sons Of Pitches - 1980's Blue Jays.  This is kind of a dicey one.  You can't really trend or fully profile a second year team.  It takes time to figure out "who you are".  So this is kind of a "i have no opinion but here's what could happen view" and a lot of it is driven by the character of the roster.   First off, the 1980's Jays did not have a good start....67-95 in 1980, 37-69 (strike year) in 1981 and 78-84 in 1982.  Then the break through....over .500 in '83.  Having the 5th best record in all of baseball in '84, but being unable to over come the marvelous start by the Tigers who began the season 35-5.

Then 5 division crowns in 8 years, 2 pennants, 2 World Series.  There's your story.  Is it condensed into a season?  Does it play out over several seasons?  Right now I think they're the '82 jays.  In a month they could be the '83 Jays.  Just best hope they don't become the '92 Jays in September.

Gruesome Devils - 1981 Expos - After quite a nice run of success in recent years, the Gruesome Devils are finally having a down year.  Now with being toward the bottom of the totem pole comes the second guessing.  The batting order should be shuffled, player positions need to be adjusted, need more power at the bottom, gotta start throwing to bases instead of cutting it off....etc, etc, etc....everyone has an opinion.  So let me take you back to the ultimate second guessing.  1981, the strike season.  The Expos earned a trip to the post season and had to beat the Phillies to get to the League Championship Series against the Dodgers. The Expos lost game one, but won games 2 and 3 to put themselves on the verge of winning the best of 5 series.  They needed only one of the last two games in Montreal.  Montreal would get throttled 7-1 in game 4 setting up the deciding game.  Tim Raines would score on a double play ball in the bottom of the 1st and then Buris and Valenzuela hung up zeros until the top of 5.  Rick Monday went 1st to 3rd on a Pedro Guerrero single and would score on a ground out.  Zeros again until the top of 9.  Jim Fanning.  Poor, poor, poor Jim Fanning went to the pen and brought out Steve Rogers, their #1 starter to start the 9th.  He would have to face Steve Garvey, Ron Cey and Rick Monday.  In game 3 of the series a complete game 4-1 victory for Rogers, Garvey was 2/4, Cey 1/4 and Monday didn't play in favour of Ken Landreaux who was 0/3.  So, Garvey, Cey and expect a pinch hitter.  Rogers got Garvey.  Rogers go Cey.  No pinch hitter.  Monday would launch a home run giving the Dodgers the lead.  When Fanning left the Expos he would never manage another club again.  But is this fair?  Well, the Expos still had to bat in the bottom of the 9th.  And they didn't face Fernando Valenzuela.  Nope they faced Bob Welch who later would win a Cy Young, but during that season had never pitched out of the pen until post season. Welch would end up with the save in game 1 and game 5.  Bookends.   Bad luck for Fanning.  Good luck for Lasorda.  The second guessing could have ended up either way....its baseball, there's no right answers, just opinions.

Sliders - 2005 Yankees - So this is good news and bad news.  The 2005 Yankees finished in a dead heat with the Boston Red Sox and were awarded the division on a better head to head record.  See?  That shit happens in the Majors too!  But the Yankees were an interesting conundrum for any baseball aficionado.  See, we all know that offence is nice, but you need defense to win championships.  Every once and a while, a magically good offense can overcome a mediocre defense, but NEVER can you win with a poor defense.  Until 2005.  So....I don't know if people know the stat WAR, I'll explain.  You can Defense WAR, Offensive WAR and Total WAR.  WAR means Wins above replacement.  What is a replacement?  You most 'ready' guy in triple A.  Probably someone with some limited major league experience, that's sitting around waiting for an outfielder to break a bone in his hand.

 Or....someone from out waiting list.  So, Bryce Harper right now has a WAR of 6.16.  That means that replacing him with a major league ready but minor league player, would cost your team 6.16 wins over the course of the season.  Seem low?  Will consider that his replacement would score SOME runs and drive in SOME bases and he wouldn't be batting in Harper's clean up spot.  Someone else would get those RBI opportunities and while they wouldn't cash as often they'd still get more than they're used to.  In baseball, one guy doesn't make as much difference as you think.  So the Yankee's starters we a collective -130 in defensive WAR in 2005.  The only one with a positive number was Alex Rodriquez at 1.16. The bad news was they threw the ball all over the place.  The good news was they won the division!  Pick your poison.