Welcome to Rob Hayward night in Tottenham. Before we get into this evenings festivities, lets enjoy a little retrospective on Robbie boy, shall we? I used to ask myself, did the legend "make" the hair? Or did the hair make the legend?
Rob was born in 1928 (or there abouts) to poor immigrant parents from Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), the capital of Turkey. Somehow that seems appropriate. They quickly assimilated into Canadian culture and were desperate to have their child Robinestatsous integrate seamlessly.
Mission accomplished!
In High School Rob had many hair raising adventures.
In College it was one hair brained scheme after another.
Our Hero dabbled in sports, first trying football
with minimal success...he's just not a hitter.
He didn't fare much better as a boxer, but
meeting Sly Stallone during the filming of Rocky IV
helped launch his acting career!
helped launch his acting career!
He was great in Titanic,
"I'm King of the world!!!"
And who can forget he curious case of Benjamin Button?
He was fantastic in "Back Draft" which would eventually
serve as a springboard into firefighting.
He briefly did work on NFL pre-game shows.
Obviously Robbie is best known for his role as,
The Terminator. "Sarah Connor?"
Now a'days, you can friend Robbie most weekends laying down on
his dock or off roading without shirt (because its way cooler that way)
The Grisslies are very fond of recognizing the accomplishments of people throughout the league for jobs well done. In this case we had an opportunity to honour one of our own. Rob was selected to the All Star team in fan balloting and that alone would have been cause for celebration! But our Robbie didn't just show up...he "played".
Hayward hit well, fielded great and followed all of the instructions from the all-star winning captain, Rob Farah. The game itself went to extra innings and the Young Lads scored 4 in the 8th to take a fairly commanding lead. The Old Timers had no quit in them and rallied in the bottom of the inning allowing Hayward to come up with the opportunity to drive in the winning run. Hayward, as has become his custom went to have a quick chat with Farah before moving to the plate:
Hayward: Robbie, what do you think?
Farah: I think we're losing
Hayward: Yeah, I know, but what do you think I should do.
Farah: Well, if it were me, I think I would try to get a ht.
Hayward: Right Rob, but where?
Farah: To the field.
Hayward: Which field?
Farah: Ummm. I'm going to say...the outfield.
Hayward: Forget it.
Farah: Right.
Hayward: Did you say "right"? That's a great idea, I'll hit it off field. They'll never expect that. I guess that's why you're the captain...you're brilliant.
Farah: You're welcome.
.
And so on that legendary day in that legendary game Hayward executed the strategy to the letter and the Old Timers prevailed eradicating all memories of previous Mudville years.
Before the Dog Catchers game last night, Rob (Hayward) was honored, not only with a plaque, but he ascended into rarefied air by being Knighted. This is the first time that the Grisslies have invoked the knight hood clause in their charter.
THE SPEECH
Well, it was special night in Grisslie history and Rob NEVER misses these chances. I new the song would be good...I was expecting some hard driving tribute to Mr. Hayward.
Imagine my surprise when Rob Farah came out with an acoustic guitar and a stool and started strumming a Carly Simon song? Utter shock. Here is Rob performing "Nobody Does It Better" reworked to "Nobody Gloves It Better". I guess with one error on the season, we can still agree with the song.
Here is the music if you need it. CLICK ME
NOBODY GLOVES IT BETTER
Nobody gloves it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody gloves it half as good as you
Robby, you're the best
I lost the ball but somehow you found it
You used your glove to hide from the sun's light
And like a magnet up about you
The ball seemed to find you.
Another ball plucked from the sky while in flight
And nobody gloves it better
Though sometimes I wish someone could
Nobody gloves it quite the way you do
Why'd you have to be so good?
The way that you catch it
Whenever you catch it
There's some kind of magic inside you
That keeps me from runnin'
But just keeps me watchin'
How'd you learn to do the things you do?
Oh, and nobody gloves it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody Gloves it half as good as you
Robby, Robby, you're the best
THE GAME
No starting short stop. No Starting left fielder. No utility/jack of all trades outfielder. And who did we get to make up for missing those critical pieces? Jens "light hitting" Lepa and "Diamond" Jim Rouleau.
Oh Dear.
So with a mish-mash line up we took the field against the Dog Catchers. The Dog Catchers (Piege de le Chein (for
On this night the Grisslies were behind the proverbial 8-ball with Sir Robbie Hayward pitching the first inning. However, much to our delight and surprise, young Robert escaped the 1st inning giving only a single run.
From there the game was almost a non event as the Grisslies dominated with the bats and the gloves. The 16 - 6 final score was somewhat flattering as the Dog Catchers scored 3 runs in the 7th to get within 10.
Oldtimers league and further congrats to Rob Farah for his first career 6 inning save.
Notable plays in this one were Jerry Muirhead's home run, Doug Dwyer's 4 for 4 night, Don Curran trying to kill the Grisslie short stops with line drives,
The Grisslies have moved back to 2 games over .500 at 9 - 7 with 8 games remaining in the schedule. Three more wins will guarantee a .500 season for the Grisslies. Meanwhile the Dog Catchers fall to 7-6 and they still have 11 games left to make ground; however they remain in the top half of the league.
See you on Sunday for the Weakly Supplement.
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