PLAYOFFS: Sunday Bloody Sunday

                                                                                                                                                      

To read about all the action from Saturday click HERE

The BLOG above and this one will catch you up to the finals...the finals BLOG will be posted at midnight tonight.
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I've been known to place a wager or two...and if I was to bet on the team least likely to win it before the Sunday's games started I would have bet on the Grisslies.  This has nothing to do with the quality of the team, how hard they played and most importantly; how well they got along together.  It had everything to do with who was left. 

The Grisslies needed to start with the Brew Jays who we were 0 - 1 against, losing a tough 18 - 17 game.  Then, if favourites won, would need to go through the Lucky Stiffs who we were 0 - 2 against losing 7 - 2 and 16 - 13; then deal with the Cleats who beat us 15 - 13.  If the defending champions, The Wild could pull an upset then you could add our 0 - 2 record with losses of 24 - 3 (our only double digit loss of the year) and 7 - 5. 

Added together, the Brew Jays, Dusty Cleats, Lucky Stiffs and The Wild owned a combined 6 - 0 record against the Grisslies and were +34 in those games.  The Grisslies only had two losses on the year that didn't come from that group.  We did exceptionally well on the year, but didn't have any positive results against the top clubs. 

Quarter Finals Results:

Dusty Cleats 20 Vs. Dog Catchers 3
Lucky Stiffs 23 Vs. Red Dogs 7
The Wild 17 Vs. Dislocated Joints 4
Grisslies 24 Vs. Brew Jays 17

Not having witnessed any of the games other the one I played in, I can't speak to 'how' the games were played.  If you went by the scores, it showed the favourites all winning fairly handily.  But sometimes the scores don't reflect the quality of competitiveness of a game.  This was certainly the case in the Brew Jays / Grisslies game.  Like the Torn Ligaments in the Round Robin, the Jays came out fast and swinging hard!

The Grisslies found themselves down 9 - 1 after two innings and things weren't looking good.  The team, as was the case all year, played the same regardless of the score....we started to chip away and the defense settled down. 

In the 5th inning Rob Hayward came up with the bases loaded and hit a bomb to left centre field that appeared to hit the warning track and skip under the fence.  A couple of people thought it went out, but when a ground rule double was called, there was no surprise or arguing.  The runner from first moved to third, Robbie was a second and two runs scored pulling the Grisslies into a tie. 

Rob Hayward and Rod Duggan (playing short stop) were chatting, neither knowing if the ball cleared the fence or not.  Rod called out to Ken Doan (playing center field) asking him if he saw the play.  He indicated that it was home run.  Rod called time before the next pitch was thrown and spoke with the umpire telling him it was a home run, the ump then signaled the home run and Rob Hayward completed the longest home run trot in TOT history. 

I don't know that I've seen a more magnanimous gesture in an elimination game.  This exemplifies our league and will be pointed to in the future as to how we operate.  Well done Brew Jays, our hats our tipped to you. 

Semi Finals Results:

The top four teams in the regular season were still alive.  The order was slightly changed, but not much.  The Dusty Cleats were the number one seed and would face The Wild, the number four seed in the semi final.  These teams finished 1st and 4th in the regular season.  The Lucky Stiffs and Grisslies flip-flopped their regular season order with the Stiffs now occupying the second spot and the Grisslies dropping from 2nd to 3rd. 

The Wild  5  Vs.  Dusty Cleats  12
Grisslies 16  Vs.  Lucky Stiffs  6

Neither game was in a lot of doubt.  There is always an element of worry in this league, every team is capable of a come back, but Stiffs had lost their punch.  They got down early the Grisslies defended well.

There was a little controversy in the middle innings when Jim "Mickey" Mannell reached with a single and asked for a runner.  While we were sorting our the last out, Don Swabuk (umpire), called for the pitcher to throw.  Our batter swung and hit to second while we were still trying to sort out the runner situation.  End of inning.  Some of the Stiff players knew what was happening and stayed on the field thinking that there might be some kind of 'do over' while others trotted off.  Our guys were milling about unsure of what was happening.  I went  out and talked to Don.  I asked him if he had called time and he said "no". 

I said, "no problem, end of inning" and turned to the bench and told the guys to head out to the field.  No squawking from our bench, no complaining.  We went out and had a 3 up 3 down inning and got in right into our groove.  These guys don't rattle.

As a follow up, Donnie came up to me between innings and said that he didn't refuse the call for time; he simply didn't see or hear it.  No harm from our side.  Our next argument with an umpire will be our first.  And for anyone that saw this; this wasn't a failure of the umpire.  The captains (me or Rob) should have been front and centre in calling time and making sure the runner was cleared to go on.  We 'assumed'.  That won't happen again. 

Ultimately, we exercised our second demon of the day in beating the Lucky Stiffs. 

Going Home

Dog CatchersCudnik for a large portion of the season due to injury.  Gary Cox, Randy Hipkin and Steve Hunt all achieved 100 at bats on the season and Paul Doyle and Steve Hunt both hit over .700.

Red Dogs. The Red Dogs finished 11th overall in the league, eked through the Round Robin and pulled an upset over the Hot Tub Woody's in their elimination game on Saturday.  The big issue for the Red Dogs were getting everyone on the same field at the same time...when they did they were damned tough.  Doris Casullo was the only Red Dog to get to 100 ABs.  Will Goodin had as spectacular rookie campaign hitting .797.  Doris and Mike Candy also topped .700.   

Dislocated Joints.  The Joints were the biggest surprise in the quarter finals.  After finishing the season in 14th spot, they pulled off huge round robin upsets against the #5 team the Dog Catchers and the #8 team, the Torn Ligaments to win second in their pool and advance to Sunday.  The Wild made short work of them in the quarters, but it was good run in the end.  Late arrival Bill Krawiec seemed to spur on the team as he .757 in his 37 at bats.  Gary Basso had a fantastic season going .775 and was joined by Neil Pendlebury in the 700 club.

Brew Jays.  The Jays were 6th overall in the league and were a difficult team to play.  They seemed to score at will and were the authors of multiple 7th inning comebacks this year.  The most amazing one was overcoming an 11 run deficit in the 7th.  The Jays had three guys with over a 100 ABs, Jim MacDonald, Bo Niederhuber and Bob Pearce.  Matt Foerster was their leading hitter and their only player over .700.

The Wild.  It took until the semi finals before we knew for sure that The Wild weren't going to three peat as league champs.  What an unbelievable run by Tony Mrasek and Ed Vonda.  Two championships and a semi final appearance in the last three years.  They were hampered, by injuries all years but still finished season in 4th place.  The boasted 4 hitters that hit better than .700; Wilf Roblin, Derryl (not Roger) Gaudet, Dave McGovern and Chuck Cragg. 

Lucky Stiffs.  The Stiffs looked to be the only legit challenge to the Cleats for the first half of the year.  They were .500 in the second half of the season and would finish the season in third place.  Roger Burton and Dan Chiasson both reached 100 ABs for the Stiffs and Roger (.842) was joined by Jens Lepa (.742) as the only batters over 700. 

Finals Matchup:

GRISSLIES Vs. DUSTY CLEATS