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