August 18th, 2009

The Scene

I did have a topic as a "scene setter" that was dealing with another group of unsung heroes in our league. Its a topic that is worth acknowledging and one that requires a little more thoughtful time and consideration on my part to give it service. So I'm going to wait on that one.

Instead, I'm going to use this issue of the BLOG to clean up a few loose ends and comment on some things that I personally find quite funny.

1. First, this BLOG seems to be gaining some readership. I think that's a good thing. However the pressure to be clever (as I only really know 3 big words) is getting a little overwhelming. So I've been hitting the thesaurus pretty hard this week in an effort to expand my vocabulary and sound a little more learned.

2. Some of yous readers 'ave told me that my Grammar ain't so good. Those readers would be correct. However, they didn't phrase it in the form of question so it won't win them Jack on Jeopardy!

3. I'd say that about half the people who read and comment on this diatribe {that was a thesaurus word} have said that I gave Tito way too much credit for last week's strikeout. I'll tell those people exactly what I told Tito. Leave me the hell alone! No, just kidding, what I told Tito was quite simple, "you win, I lose". I don't understand how that's too much credit. Babe Ruth called a shot hitting a home run in Wrigley Field in the 1932 World Series. Joe Namath guaranteed a Superbowl win 1969, Mark Messier called a game 7 win in the Stanley Cup finals in 1994. Tito called his shot, he gets his just deserts. Are you saying that comparing Tito to Ruth, Namath and Messier is 'over the top'? Then all I can say is that you don't know Tito.

4. The other half of the people who comment on this dissertation {clearly a thesaurus word} said that I didn't give Tito enough credit for last weeks strike out! And it wasn't ONLY Tito that thought that. For the love of the sweet baby Jesus! I guess Rickey Nelson had it right in the song Garden Party, "But its alright now, I learned my lesson well, Ya see you can't please everyone, So you gotta please yourself". How could I possibly be accused of being on BOTH sides of this issue! I will say this for people who thought he deserved more credit. Yes he called his shot. Yes he struck me out. BUT, he used a trick pitch doing it!!! Now I want to be careful here in saying that it was "trick" pitch and NOT an "illegal" pitch. Unknown to many, and truthfully, I was going to keep this to myself, one of the gathered assemblage {yep, thesaurus} at the game had a video camera and provided me with footage of the pitch that struck me out. The untrained eye won't see the trick right away, but the slow motion replay gives it away.

Click Here ====> ACTUAL FOOTAGE

The shame. Anyway, we've all had fun, sleepless nights, laughs, anxiety attacks, merrymaking {thesaurus} and suicide watches over this little story, so I think its time for it to quietly disappear into the hot august night. For the love of God let it die! I think I heard Tito retelling it in Curtis' backyard while I was sobbing at my house Saturday. The horror!

5. I've been approached by a number of people saying that they think the lyrics that I make up are pretty funny for Rob's speeches. If you were on the Grisslies, you'd know that these really ARE Rob's speeches. On game days Rob tries really hard to sneak out of work a few minutes early so that he can get home in time to do yoga and get into the perfect blended state of contemplation {thesaurus} married with concentration {I actually knew that one}. When Rob hits that plane of consciousness, writing song lyrics is as second nature to him as his gift of interpretive dance. We don't ask why he has these pregame vision quests, we just count ourselves among the fortunate who get to witness the result.

6. One of the really cool things about this BLOG is that people can leave anonymous comments on it. Some People seem to think that I can tell who left the comment, I guess because I own the BLOG. I can't. Unless you tell me, I have no idea. Other people seem to think that I know a guy named anonymous. I don't. If I had to guess, I'd say he sounds Greek.

7. I love the comments. Please keep them coming, it makes it worth the effort. Last week there was one that said, "if you are going to mention Rob Farah's 4 for 4 at bat be more accurate by telling all how he got the 4 for 4." a) I'm not here to defend my captain. b) I'd love to go 4/4 and have them all be cheap just to be 4/4. It was a week ago, so you'll have to go with my fading memory on this. I remember that everything Rob swung at was shoulder high or higher. I remember that at least two balls didn't leave the infield. I remember that one of those two that stayed on the infield went about as far as his grand daughter can throw. Well, maybe not quite that far. Its the Tottenham Oldtimers League. If you're on it counts. Is there anyone in this league who doesn't have a cheap hit? Besides me I mean?

8. The batting race!!! Wow, I'm loving watching these stats come out! Mark Doyle is Leading at .794, Hugh Armstrong with a HUGE (that was not a pun Hugh/Huge) week is now second at .787, Jamie McClean is on his heals at .785 and not too far back is Rob McCarron at .779. After that there is a 25 point drop off, so at least for now, we have a four horse race. Armstrong is clearly in the middle of a wicked hot streak and with only a handful of games left, that's got to give him a BIT of an edge. Or does it? McClean like Doyle and McCarron have been right there and consistent all year. McCarron has the advantage of having the most hits in the league and the most at bats. So on a percentage basis McCarron is least hurt by not getting a hit. I might be talking out of school here, so if you want to call me out that's fine, but I think that McClean and Armstrong are at a slight disadvantage because a little birdy told me that they witnessed Doyle and McCarron receiving some private tutoring last week from from a well known hitting Guru. We'll see how this weeks stats look and I'll think about revealing my source and a picture of the Guru.

9. Every team goes through injuries and vacations and we've seem to had all of ours at once. Missing four regulars (I guess everyone is a regular now that I think about it), Steve "buy a vowel" Wynnyk, Clifford "the fury" Stacey, Dave "cabernet sauvignon" McGovern and "Diamond" Jim Rouleau for the passed several weeks has hit us pretty hard. Despite the addition of some excellent subs (Lynn Foerster, David Polny and Don Booth) we just couldn't seem to find our rhythm.

10. My appeal to everyone reading.... If you hear something funny, interesting or compelling {definitely the thesaurus} or if you have a topic that you think could be explored in a humorous way, either post a comment on the BLOG or let me know at douglasdwyer@rogers.com

The Speech

Ah - yes, the moment that you've been waiting for. According to Rob, this weeks speech came to him somewhere between doing the Lotus Pose and doing an interpretive version of the "wax on - wax off" pose from karate kid. Personally, I kind of used to dig the Crane that Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel San, especially when Elizabeth Shue came out to congratulate him after the fight....but I digress. As Rob likes to say, "I can hold the Lotus pose for days at a time, that's why I'm the captain". He also likes to talk about how he invented tin foil, so you have to decipher the philosophy from the hyperbole {that was a thesaurus TRIPLE PLAY - YES!!!}

If you claim to have not practised The Crane, you are probably lying.

As is customary, Rob gathered the team and we genuflexted in a circle around him and so it began:

Music provided by our sponsor Dairy Queen ====> MUSIC
(Yeah, I made up the Dairy
Queen Part)

These Grisslies Will Grab Ya to the tune of:
Sweet Home Alabama

Big McCarron keeps on swinging,
Hitting me home to see my kin,
Singing songs about the Grisslies,
I'm digging the practice games once again,
And I don't think its a sin, yeah.

Well I heard mister Ross sing about us,
Well, I heard ole Chris put us down,
Well, I hope Chris Ross will remember,
Those Grisslies will manage to rebound, somehow.

These Grisslies will grab ya,
Because they never sing the blues,
These Grisslies will grab ya,
They're drivin' in a run for you.

Now Keogh Park is where the heart is,
Its been known to host a game or two,
Lord that diamond gets played so much,
Does the humidity bother you?
Tell the truth.

Now the Grisslies got their Cliff back,
Not to mention Steve and McGovern too,
We're getting close to having Rouleau,
Lots of runs to score, huh, Sue?
We're on a roll, that's what we do.

These Grisslies will grab ya,
Because they never sing the blues,
These Grisslies will grab ya,
They're drivin' in a run for you.

The Game

People often mistake close games for good games. Make no mistake, this was a close game.

When you look at the final score of 19-18, you'll probably get the mental vision of two heavy weight boxers slugging it out. Truthfully, it was more like two feather weight boxers slapping each other.

I had to opportunity to watch the last couple of innings of the Joints win over the Wild before our game last night. Now THAT was two heavy weights.

Well, the Grisslies welcomed back Dave, Cliff and Steve and made a point of showing them how badly they were missed by completely butchering the 1st inning. We have seen some bad innings occassionally this year, but this one was particularly brutal. I was playing 1st base and was beside the Cleats bench. When they scored their 4th run of the first inning, I heard someone from their bench say, "wow, this is like two weeks worth of runs!". (I swear to god that isn't made up). They tacked on another weeks worth and plated in six in total after the top of the first.

Those Grisslies are no strangers to playing 'catch-up' baseball. One only needs to be reminded of the championship game in the Help The Kids tournament. In that game the Grisslies were down 10-0 after two complete innings and despite having Danny Chaisson subbing and taking up a valuable spot in the batting order we came all the way back to win. So with that resolve of getting back in the game the Grisslies hit the batters box in the bottom of the first. Farah flied out. Wynnyk made an out after a wild swing and miss on what looked to be a slider inside (hard to tell at that speed). After back to back singles, the Grisslies finally scored a run on a clean base hit by McCarron.

Down 6-1 after one wasn't where we wanted to be, but we got on a bit of roll from there outscoring the cleats 18-12 over the final 5 1/2 innings. McCarron owned the 7th inning defensively as the Cleats clearly had a game plan of hitting it to the weakest fielder. Rob rose to the occassion though and got us through that critical inning.

Jeff Shultze hit an absolute BOMB out to left field. There are big home runs but this one was simply crushed. I'm pretty sure it was still on the way up when it cleared the fence. I'm not 100% sure whether Jeff will be out of pocket for replacing the windshield on the fire truck or if insurance will cover it. Nice job Jeff!

Also Neil Pendlebury made an excellent defensive play on McCarron's best hit ball of the night taking away a base hit. A good defensive play really stands out when teams combine to score 37 runs. On the Grisslie side of the ledger, Billy Clouthier flashed his normal leather and gunned a couple to 1st for outs on bang - bang plays. After 20 games, I now realize that every play with Billy is bang - bang. He hurries and gets you by a step, he plays normal and gets you by a step or with a particularly slow runner he takes his time and gets them by a step. I think Billy wants everyone to enjoy all aspects of the game so he makes sure that everyone runs hard to 1st base all the time.

Offensively, all the Grisslies returnees had at least 3 hits and Ingo was right back to form with another 4 hit performance. So, twenty games in and a 10-10 record and 8-2 over our last ten games. There is a very tough game coming up on Wednesday agains the 2nd place Red Dogs.

A win Wednesday keeps us in the running for a top 5 finish.

Out