Always something to say!: Game 4 - The Sliders

NOTE: If you're looking for the results of the free beer contest they will be posted (with explanations) on Thursday May 29th at 6am.

Dave Walks The Line

(Surprisingly, a picture of Dave taking a walk)

Dave is thorn in the side of the Grisslies. He always has been.

We game plan teams and players. We figure trends, who hits where and when and we set our defense accordingly. Sometimes this works. Sometimes, not so much. It seems to go in streaks. But with Dave, there's never been a streak.

Simply stated, he OWNS us. Rob will go 6 or 8 games without giving up a walk and then we'll run into McKendrick and its at least a two walk night. It's like Rob has a mental block when it comes to Dave.

Then I subbed against Dave and say that Randy Hipkin walked him twice. Then I was watching a game and Andy Gee put him on three times! I started to pay attention and realized that Dave walked WAY more than anyone in the league.

Being the "STATs guy" I decided to do some research.

Dave entered the league in 2006 playing for the Hot Tub Woody's. His first career game was against the Lucky Stiffs and in his first at bat, Sandy Bell walked him on four pitches. The legend was born.

So I went back and tracked all the games that Dave played in and he finished the 2013 season with 499 career walks. It didn't take long (the second inning of game one of 2014 against the Tap Masters) for Dave to get his 500th career walk. I haven't been able to research all the players yet, but I've been through most of them and no one is even at 100 career walks.

McKendrick is the Babe Ruth of walks.

So we needed to honour an event so monumental. Dave's family contributed and were able to give us the shoes he wore at his first t-ball at bat (he walked). He was also awarded a special and official commemorative "certificate of amazement" from the league that will forever show his achievement.

Its not just a ho-hum achievement getting 500 walks. Its not something easy like getting 90+ hits in a season or a 3 home run game or walking on water. Nope, something this amazing has an almost eerie quality about it. Like there's more to it than humans could do alone. Like there was some kind of divine intervention.

So we had a special guest present Dave's awards.

Pre game, both teams gathered and we presented Dave his wealth of rewards. Here's some pics of Dave's evening. (thanks Meg)

THE SPEECH

I like when Rob sings songs as though he was the person the song. Here is Rob singing I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash in the voice of Dave McKendrick. Click on the song title for the music.

I Walk The Line

I keep a close watch on the ball on its climb

I keep my eyes wide open all the time

I keep my hand on the bat at all times