INTRO
Its the Help The Kids Play weekend which means a few things. Its usually the unofficial halfway point of the season, but with the later start that's changed a bit. So I may mention some "half way" stuff in here, but I think I'll save the full report card for a week or two. It also means that I owe Steve Ross $20.00 worth of beer and Karen Turner and Paul Piellusch a beverage each for their awesome results in the license plate trivia challenge!
This is an extremely important tournament for all of us. You only need to look at the list of sponsors and volunteers to appreciate the high esteem it is held in. If you're playing, have a blast! If you couldn't play because of other obligations, drop by and say hi to your mates and have a pint when you have a chance.
This will be a fantastic weekend!
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FAN Appreciation Night
You've probably seen the posters at the legion. You've probably received communications from your captains. Fan Appreciation Night started as a bit of Grisslies Comedy act 7 years ago. Legit, but definitely tongue in cheek. But it has grown over the years and this year WILL be the best one yet. Here is what you need to know:
- Tuesday July 8th at Coventry Park from 6:30pm to 10:00pm
- Everyone in the league + Partners and children are warmly invited.
- Wine is supplied by the Grisslies and kind donations from the Chuck Cragg and Steve Black (Stike) on behalf of the Draft Kings and Dave Fleming on behalf of Home Hardware and Rob McCarron on behalf of Neighbours Country Depot (Lic 0529-140016).
- Soft drinks are supplied by Tottenham Foodland.
- A wonderful assortment of food has been supplied by David Polny from Cora's Restaurants.
- Background music is being supplied by Dayne Polny and his company Waking Life Studios.
But wait.....that's not all.
The Grisslies were looking for a way to raise money for charity for this event and needed a clever idea.
Enter Sandy Bell, former batting champion, current championship winning pitcher and long time supporter of our league. Sandy graciously donated two tickets to a Buffalo Bills home game for the 2014 season. All games other than the season opener is available for he winner to pick from.
We decided to do this by raffle. So I went to the Legion every night this week and have been selling $5.00 raffle tickets. I've strategically waited until everyone at the table had a beer in them before I give them my spiel, but I don't think it really mattered. I sit with each team, explain Sandy's donation and further explain that all of the money collected goes to the Justin Keogh Fund.
Its a no pressure pitch. I explain, I tell them to let me know and go to walk to another table to the same.
The response has been awesome. The Hot Tub Woody's, Dusty Cleats, Sons Of Pitchers, Beer Bros., Blues Brothers, Tap Masters and Dodge City Rounders, Sliders, Brew Jays, Dog Catchers and Draft Kings had every man who went to the Legion buying tickets. Its been tremendous and I can't thank you enough for your participation.
I will go back on Monday as well and we'll sell them Tuesday at Fan Appreciation Night before closing it off and making the draw after the 8:15 games. Sandy's donation is going to lead to a nice shot in the arm for the Justin Keogh Fund and we'll announce the amount of donation at the event.
I've been asked if the tickets will be available at the Help The Kids tournament this weekend. They will NOT. While the Justin Keogh Fund is important to us; we are fully committed to Help The Kids and do not to direct any or attention or money away from where it rightfully belongs this weekend.
But I will find you Monday!
The Week In Review
QUICK NOTES:
- No rain outs!!! But due to the holiday we only got 8 games in.
- We lost only 6 players in the hitting in every game category and we're now down to 46. It will get harder and harder to stay in now that school is out and holiday season is here. Missing games is inevitable for many.
- And our final 11 of players who have scored in every game!
Steve DeLand - 3/8 this week, with 2 runs scored, continues to be on the most improved list and made 2 of the final 3 outs against the Sliders on Thursday. Not bad.
Doug DeLand - 2/3 with a run and on the most improved list. I guess that's okay.
Can you say on fire????? These two better go shirtless in the home run contest, wouldn't want those pipes ripping any shirts.
Due to spending 5 hours a night at the legion this week under the guise of selling tickets, the game reviews and recaps are going to be a little much for me to muster. Instead....I'll be one statistical surprise per team. At least from my point of view.
Beer Bros. - The only team so far this season to out Dog Catcher the Dog Catchers by destroying them 30 to 13.
Blues Brothers - With apologies to all other pitchers, Bob McCullough is the best fielder at his position for my money. But the 38 hits, .826 average and 21 runs is a heck of a lot of defense and production out of one spot.
Brew Jays - Timmy Sullivan was the shot in the arm that the Brew Jays needed. Plucked from the waiting list he stepped into game #4 and in the 6 games he's played he's collected 21 hits for a .840 avg and scored 8 runs.
Dodge City Rounders - I know Anicete Goncalves has been very good for a long time. However his .744 with 21 runs has ignited a team that already has explosive potential.
Dog Catchers - How about 8 guys hitting over .700? How about 10 of the 12 players are averaging over a run a game. 5 are averaging over 2 runs a game. It ain't all Lahey and Edwards kids, these guys are good!
Draft Kings - Bobby V is hitting .821 having played in 6 of 10 games. With Kapp, Muirhead, Argue, Cragg and Stike you'd think they'd score 15 per game by accident. Not so much. Struggle maybe, but the worst offense in the league? Makes no sense to me. Maybe time to draw names from a hat.
Dusty Cleats - 13th in points, 12th in offense, 11th in defense, 14th in plus minus and still my sleeper pick to make noise on Sunday of the playoffs. The addition of Cal Steeves (3 games ago) adds speed, defensive options and changes the dynamic of the team. Once Richards is healthy and we finally get to see Brian and Winston in the same outfield at the same time, this team will not look like the above stats.
Grisslies - After a 1-3 start the best stat is 4-1 in the last 5 games, which is followed closely by having the second best defense in the league.
Gruesome Devils - The 14th ranked defense is a shocker, but Skippy's .919 average, 34 hits and 21 runs is ridiculous. If he can keep up anything close to this pace, it will continue to keep the pressure of the rest of the offense.
Hot Tub Woody's - Balance. 10 of 12 players have scored over ten runs, 7 players batting over .700. 2nd in points, 4th in offense, 5th in plus / minus. No one guy has to carry the load.
Hurtin' Units - The win column kind of stands out as the key stat. 11 of 12 batters are under .700 and only 2 players have 10 runs scored.
Rusty Rebels - Middle of the pack offense (9) despite having the 13th worst team batting average.
Sliders - Good defenders all over the field for these guys but their sitting at 12th worst in the league. Jeff Behan's rookie start has been great with 25 hits, and 806 average and 11 runs scored.
Sons Of Pitches - The are 7th in the power rankings, that's good. They're over .500, that's good. They're 6th in points, that's good. But they have the second worst team batting average in the league (.601). How is that possible? Having the 4th best defense is a huge help.
Tap Masters - Top 5 offense, #1 defense, #2 in +/-. Darrell Hagar has to stand out for this squad with his 29 hits, .853 average and 17 runs.
The Beer Cup
The Beer Cup is in its 2nd year. Last years champs, the Dodge City Rounders retained the Beer Cup to start the season and defended it twice by beating the Blues Brothers and the Brew Jays. The Sons Of Pitches then defeated Dodge to take it over before losing it to the Rusty Rebels. The Rebels were defeated by the Tap Masters. The Tap Masters, who waited for a year to play for the cup were only able to retain it for a single game as they fell to the Beer Bros. The resilient Beer Bros. beat the 1st place Hot Tub Woody's to become the second team to retain the cup. However, their ownership wouldn't last the week as they fell to the Blues Brothers. The Blues Brothers would then defend against the Tap Masters.
The holders of the Beer Cup at the end of the season receive both the cup and 12 beer tickets at the banquet.
Next week the Blues Brothers will try to defend against the Dog Catchers. Now this will be fun!!!
Teams that have held the Beer Cup (6)
- Dodge City Rounders
- Sons Of Pitches
- Rusty Rebels
- Tap Masters
- Beer Bros.
- Blues Brothers
Teams that have defended the Beer Cup (3)
- Dodge City Rounders (2)
- Beer Bros. (1)
- Blues Brothers (1)
Teams that have Played a Beer Cup Game (8)
- Dodge City Rounders (3)
- Blues Brothers (3)
- Brew Jays
- Sons Of Pitches (2)
- Rusty Rebels (2)
- Tap Masters (3)
- Beer Bros.
- Hot Tub Woody's
Teams that have yet to play for the Cup(7)
- Draft Kings.
- Gruesome Devils
- Dog Catcher
- Sliders
- Dusty Cleats
- Grisslies
- Hurtin' Units
The list of different subs continues to grow! This is great for everyone. Remember to contact Rob at Robert.Farah@sympatico.ca and let him know days you're available to play. That will get you to the top of the list on any given day, provided that your ranking is required.
NOTE: Three teams on Thursday night had captains left short of players without notification. They were forced to get players from previous games and in two cases from the stands. Not only is it difficult on captains to redo lineups at game time and trying to find the right ranked players to miss what they're missing; not calling is robbing someone who has put their name in as a sub of an opportunity to play.
Please let your captains know when you're not going to be there.
STATS
Team
These standings are available on the League website www.tottenhamoldtimers.ca
This just shows the max potential for each team. Might help explain why the baseball style standings are different than ranking teams by points. For example, the Woody's have the 'potential' to finish higher than the Blues Brothers should they both win out. Definitely more meaningful in August.
And your baseball standings which reflect what I said above. You can see that the Woody's are ranked with the Tap Masters and Rounders a 1/2 game in front of the Blues Brothers. Of course, now that we have a tie, the standings are a bit buggered, now down to 1/4 of a game differential. #getridofties
The best view of where everyone is at this particular moment in time. While the Dog Catchers have ownership of 2 of the 4 #1 slots, there are six teams that have a #3 or better in a category and nine teams with a #6 or better, so there's lots of room for movement at the top. Not a runaway yet.
Not a lot of movement here. We now have 4 teams under single digit elimination for 1st place. But with 12 teams with a magic/tragic number within 3 games of their total games remaining, there's going to be lots of teams alive in the last two weeks of the season.
INDIVIDUAL
In a brief conversation with Skip this week, he claims to have "come back to earth". Sure. Because batting .919 is human. All these averages are spectacular and we have 2 rookies, a 2nd year man and two 3rd year players all battling some great vets.
CLOSED
With some teams having played 7 games and others having played 11, this will still be open while we're well into Q3. Sagert will fall out due to ABs as he had a minor injury plus vacation, but John and Mike are off to 1.000 starts with two games under their belts. I continue to wish that sub stats counted.
Steve Lahey is on pace to match last years run total of 55. Laurier Plante is 2 runs away from matching last years total. Emeil Edwards is 2 runs away from matching last years total. Larry Turner has already eclipsed last years total by 7 runs. Oh, to be on the Dog Catchers!
CLOSED
As I was saying...its going to be tough sledding for anyone not on the Dog Catchers to win Q2.
The Blues Brothers have the most games played along with the Cleats and Ball, Pendlebury and Rouleau (not Rolo) haven't missed a game.
There is actually a slight chance of catching last years Doucet number in a shortened season. Crazy hitting by the Dog Catchers.
Again, at the end of the year it will come down to qualifying number of at bats and mike will be hard pressed to get the requisite 66, but for its fun to see. Mike has a fence clearing shot, 2 triples and 2 doubles in his 8/8 Old Timer career thus far. Nice start and you're not even on the Dog Catchers! Skip is well documented, but Chuck and Jeff have been pleasant surprises for the Jays and Sliders!
Plante and Smith are climbing the ranks. Its a long way to the top, but they're play of late has been great!
This category just continues to be spectacular. However, with Emeil and Steve on the same team and pushing each other like this, it will take something really special to catch one of them!
If you're still reading, you are witnessing the 7th sign of the Apocalypse. Yes, both DeLands are in the most improved list!
We'll see you at Fan Appreciation Night on Tuesday July 8th at Coventry.
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