Life, The Universe and Everything

I couldn't stand the thought of Will Goodin getting up Saturday morning, putting on his robe, pouring his coffee and then finding out there were no stats to check out.  So instead, to aid in Will's detox and purify my soul, here's the wrap up edition.

Now, when I say 'wrap up' it applies to the season only.  There will be a post AGM and post Banquet edition in all likelihood.  So stay tuned but they'll be few and far between. 

Now before we get to the actual BLOG, events and stories therein, allow me to do my own personal thank-you's. 

First and foremost to Rob Farah who has put with my moods, compulsions and borderline certifiable behaviour for yet another year.  What people don't know about me and Rob is that he's the sane one.  Why he's permitting me coming back for a 6th year as co-captain and 7th year as a Grisslies defies logic.

Here's the rest of the Thank-you's, get your coffee. 

   
QUICK NOTE:  You'll see that I'll add things to this as the week goes on.  Its already changed twice since 6am Saturday morning when it was posted, and its only 8:10!!

To Steve Ross who allows me to do what I love doing without getting hung up on process and protocol.  While I try my best to 'ask first' there may be the occasional gap.  Steve's leadership has been fantastic, allowing my room to opine while (hopefully) not pushing things too far.  There are times when I can only say "poor Steve".  I know no short emails.  I don't have quick conversations.  I don't open small cans of worms.  Steve has been infinitely patient.  Thank you sir! 

To Al Bales and Dave Fleming.  People's initial reaction would be that this is about subbing, but it isn't.  The three of us teamed up to work as a make-shift grounds crew on Tuesday nights that would have made any minor league team proud.  Clearing the fields and getting games in is one thing.  Avoiding three game weeks and double headers by saving 16 games over the course of the season was great!  Now, while the pump (donated by Dave) was running, there was downtime that usually involved coffee or a coke and a chat.  Those 1/2 periods with the water flowing and shooting the breeze where some of my favourite memories of this season.  Thanks guys, you made this effort fun and completely worthwhile. 

Ryan Feehely came into the league as rookie with a bit of rep for playing ball.  That turned out to be true.  What we didn't know was that Ryan, as rookie, had all the spirit and respect for this league that the true veterans do.  Additionally he sponsored a team and hosted the Grisslie / Draft Kings team party in spectacular fashion.  We were treated like gold that night and literally every time one of us has wandered into the Rusty.  Thank you Ryan, the 2015 Grisslies are sure to be back and we'll encourage other teams to do likewise. 

Bo & Rod.  I'm sorry to see you two leave as captains.  I'm the first to admit that this is totally selfish on my part and if you're ready to just play, I sort of get it.  But I will miss having two captains who play the game the right way, don't get hung up on calls within the game and always find a way to leave the night with a smile on their faces and more importantly, smiles on their players faces.  Outside of the game, some of the best work that we've done as a league has involved these two.  They've been on committees from time to time but they always provide a voice of reason in the captain's meetings when a person (usually wearing grey with red lettering) goes off half-cocked.  There are other good captains in the league and other good ones will come, but you two set a high bar.  Thank you Rod & Bo. 

Carol-Ann.  You brought a freshness, spirit and joy to the Sliders games.  Your enthusiasm didn't stop with your team, you also rooted for friends on other squads.  And the Sliders, with you handling much of the communications, were one of the easiest teams to book reschedule dates with.  It was great having you in your semi-official role, thank you!

Peter Hayward.  You have become a 'go-to' guy when it comes to a number o things around signs and engraving.  It didn't happen by accident.  You have volunteered consistently and surprised people by jumping in where it was never expected.  Good things come to good people.  Thanks Peter. 

Stats geeks.  There's the obvious ones:  Peters, Boston, Keogh, Doyle.  Then there's all the others that I find out through conversation read this stuff regularly.  I think that's kind of cool.  Bales, Barlow, Piellusch, DeLand, DeLand, Beechey, Barry, Brown, Lahey, Argue, Kolsen, Ross, Presenza, Goodin, McCarron, Koolhaas and Hager....you are officially called out as geeks (except Kolsen, because he's big and could probably hurt me if he wanted to).  Thanks for the interest in the stats lads.

Roman Dasek.  Your humour, ability to talk ball and talk life and assess the 15 squads strengyhs, weaknesses and (the biggest one) their potential is huge value add to the league.  Its probably a much bigger deal to me.  Thanks for all you do on the field, conversationally and with all the juggling of umps for rescheduling games and making sure we're covered. 

Dodge City Rounders, Tap Masters, Brew Jays.  I swear to god, if you guys were the only teams in the league I would NEVER have to buy a beer.  I'm thinking I wasn't alone in the invitations to your tables with great regularity.  You guys run great squads that are inclusive of your players, subs and whoever happens to be wandering by.  Of course, you're also the reason for my strict weigh loss program over the winter.

The Rookies:  The Rookies on the Grisslies (Ford and Williams) were simply awesome.  They played along with all of our shenanigans and had a spectacular season.  But they weren't alone.  The league won the lottery this year on rookies.  Some of them had big baseball seasons.  Some of them made new friends.  All of them found a league that warmly welcomed them and can't wait for them to be sophomores.  Mike Iacoucci, Jeff Behan, Victor Dermott, Art Lord-Stafford, Joel Hodge, Tom Hollmann, Steve Lamb, Darren Ford, David Potocki, Ryan Feehely, Stephen Booth, Micah Williams, Greg Aucoin, Kevin Cavalier, Jeremy Westover, Kevin Bryan, Mike Cook, Chris Synder and Chuck Vanya.  Thanks lads, see you in the spring.        

Pully.  For no good reason other than I had a great year talking ball at the water cooler with Pully.  There were many 'a night that Pully and I would be at the legion on nights where neither of us played.  It was just to see what was going on...making sure we didn't miss an event or story.  Truth be told, Pully wasn't a big fan of the BLOG in its infancy, for reasons I now appreciate.  He probably still doesn't read it which is cool, its not everyone's cup of tea.  But someone needs to tap into this guy's brain.  As much as there's a repository of data from the past several years here online, Pully has some awesome stories from the 'ago'.  Also Pully had the best line of the playoffs.  I had subbed for the Cleats a number of times this season and he came up to me on the sunday and said, "Dougie, I've got a problem.  They guys voted you most improved on the team."  Thanks for the chats, I'm looking forward to next year!

August Tournament volunteer coaches:  Every year we have our submitted teams that vary between 2 and 4 teams.  This year it was 4 teams with Steve DeLand, James Taylor, John Harrett and Larry Turner submitting teams. From the rest of the league we try to piece together as many teams as we can and assign captains to run the squads.  The captains aren't 'chosen' by accident.  And this year's contingent of Dave Fleming, Laurier Plante, Peter Hayward and Will Goodin did a tremendous job!  Thanks to all the captains, you made managing this division of the tournament really smooth. 

The Grisslies.  I won with the Grisslies in 2011.  Rob won then and in 2005.  I honestly thought that the comrodery that was felt in 2011 only came from the experience of winning.  Not true.  I would take this team back in a heart beat, but I would probably make a couple of strategic changes to get us through to another game on Sunday.  Like maybe sit myself to prevent an 0/3 in the quarter final....ugh...its going to be a long winter.  Thank you Rob, Cal, Cam, Craig, Dan, Danny, Darren, Geoff, Lenny, Micah and Tom. 

The DeLands.  The "Good DeLand" Vs. The "Other DeLand" was good fodder this season.  Any time I saw Doug or Steve one of them would mention it.  I would hear teammates yelling, "who's the good DeLand now"....I love that stuff!  Thanks for playing along guys, great season for you both.  Maybe we'll settle this next year.  :)

The Grisslieland regulars.  Those that graced us at Grisslieland on most Friday nights for a conversation about baseball.  It turns out we were all wrong, but the convos were still a blast.  To Farah, McCarron, Banks, Casullo, Fleming, Piellusch, Presenza, Escott, Keogh, Bales, Cudnick, Routledge, Schrank and Conforti.  Thanks for the debates, ideas and suggestions for healing Doris's various injuries. 

So here's the plan.  I kind of go through edition by edition of the BLOG, give a brief synopsis and provide a link if its something you want to read more about. 

Here we go..... 

Rookie Night

Before the season started, we had rookie night.  We've done this every year I've been in the league and I know it predated me.  Its kind of a big deal.  The league's elected executive, many captains and a few choice existing players host all of the 1st year players at the legion.  We go over the league rules that are unique from other leagues.  But we spend a good amount of time speaking about the league's character.  All of those involved in running it (Paul Piellusch headed it up this season) do a tremendous service in getting our rookies on board. 

I wrote a BLOG on all the different team's rookie initiations.  This is one of them below.   

For this edition click HERE

The Draft

The draft is our second "kind of a big deal" event of the season.  This is where teams are picked from a blind draw.  This was run primarily by Steve Ross, Chris Ross and Jamie McLean (if memory serves) and how successfully it is run continues to astound me.  The draft is complicated.  Teams can't draft in certain rounds because its their rating number, we have father son combos, we have pitchers to contend with and yet we get through 180 drafted players in under an hour.  3 per minute by my count.  Fantastic job. 

Below you'll see the "All-Bald" team.  Sadly they got split up. 

For this edition, click HERE

The predictions

Yes, every season I run a predictions BLOG.  Its started out as me and Mark Doyle and over the years we've added Kevin Boston, Geoff Keogh and Scott Peters.   We try and break down who is likely to finish in the 'top 6'.  The top 6 sort of matters a little bit because of the home games in the playoffs.  In the round robin places 1-3 get four home games and 4-6 get three home games.  The other 9 teams get either 2, 1 or 0.  Many people think the home games don't matter, but this year 5 of the top 6 saw Sunday while only 3 of the bottom 9 did.  Regardless....that's what we attempt to do.   

Other than Rader who got 4 of the 6, the rest of us sucked.  Particularly me.  Although I'll give myself one minor out.  I pick the Rebels every god forsaken year and they never get into the top 6.  I didn't take them on purpose this season to give them luck and look what happens?  Top 6 and win the whole friggin thing.  I promise I won't take the Woody's next year. 

So we look at historical batting averages of the players and we look at positioning.  Mark is the savant of the group and can recall what Bob Pearce hit at 8:15 games at Keogh Park with runners on base in the 5th inning and later.  He definitely has an advantage.  The rest of us are more driven by gut feel and a little bit of logic.

And you can see how much logic there is, eh?  2/5 picks for the Tap Masters and 0/6 for the Dog Catchers.  Swell. 

For this edition click HERE

The Woodys Arm Wrestle

 

I forget what this was about.  But I do remember that someone talked Ed and I into having an arm wrestle as a joke and they were taking a picture (strikes me that Chiasson may have been behind this).  I also remember that I said to Ed, "We'll do a before and after, one setting up; then you pretend to wipe me out and we'll get another shot".  Ed's reply was, "I won't have to pretend". 

 

Nope, he didn't.

 

For this edition click HERE

Gina and Bill Switch Leagues

I didn't do many of the 'classic' made up stories this year.  It was a strange season for that.  I kind of lost my mojo.  A combination of somethings going sideways and Will shaving his beard.  I had a good one partially written and then I see Will and NO FRIGGIN BEARD!!!  Ugh. 

 

So this one was born out of Bill's legitimate attempt to play in the ladies league.  The ladies however have a clause stipulating that you must actually be a woman which is probably there for expressly this purpose.  The men have no such clause so I fully expect Gina to sign up in the spring (if we don't add something this year at the AGM). 

For this edition click HERE

Rebooting The Season.

I'm sure many of you have forgotten by now, but the first 3 weeks of the season damn near killed me.  There were so many games lost that it was determined that the only way to get back on track was to reboot.  So we started the season over much like a Pam Ewing dream.  We still had to contend with our town doing nothing about he lights.  This is an election year, right?  You might want to remember that. 

 

This edition had different reboot examples. 

 

For this edition click HERE

License Contest

So....I've tried to run a contest the past few years to drum up interest for our tournaments.  The only thing I've learned is that it gets Karen Turner to a tournament!  In a shocking development, Karen would finish 3rd in this contest (which still got her a beer) behind Paul Piellusch and Steve Ross.  The gist was to figure out who in the league owned each personalize plate.  The one below belonged to Roman.  Get it?  Roman, centurion? 

For this edition click HERE

Dave McKendrick Night

The Grisslies are known to have a couple of theme nights over the course of a season.  The goal in this is to find people who are good natured and unsuspecting; then make up a random, yet suspiciously appropriate theme night for them.  Dave McKendrick fit that bill perfectly.  We had a celebration for Dave's 500th career walk.  We even had a special guest give him the awards.  FANTASTIC!!!

For this edition click HERE

Grisslieland vs. Graceland Vs. Disneyland

For any of you who don't know....Grisslieland (the sponsor of the Grisslies) is where the Farah's live.  We've built it up over the last 5 or 6 years with its own mystique.  We refer to it has a theme park complete with rides, concessions and games of chance.  Its not really all that (there's no games) but its a place where we all have a couple of pints or coffee or donini and talk baseball on a Friday night. 

The graph below shows the merits of Grisslieland over Graceland or Disneyland. 

For this edition click HERE

Beer Cup goes West. 

The Sons Of Pitches took the Beer Cup to a new level.  As I'm sure you know by now, the Beer Cup changes hands all years and you get to keep it as long as your winning.  When it was in the SOP's possession they rocked the boat and won a $50.00 charity bet for Help The Kids by sending it across the country.  This pic is from Vancouver.  Nice work!

For this edition click HERE

Hot Tub Woody's Hot Start. 

In addition to not picking the Woody's next year, I'll also not write about them.  Damit.  I really thought that this was going to be their year.  They were 5 games over .500 at 6-1 when I wrote the mock expose on how the Woody's season was off to an amazingly good start.  Since this edition they went 5 games under .500 at 5-10 and another 0-4 in the playoffs.  I feel partially responsible. 

For this edition click HERE

Grisslie Rookie Night

The Grisslie Rookie Night has been in play for the past several years.  We pick a game in the first half of the season, after the rookies have gotten a little comfortable and we pick that night for a little mild 'initiation'.  We typically partner with another team to share the laughs.  This year it was with the Sons Of Pitches who, unfortunately didn't have a rookie!  So, we saluted our two rookies and the most veteran player on either squad, Bones.  It was a fun night for all!

For this edition click HERE

Mason Turns To The Dark Side.

Well that was only a matter of time wasn't it?  Kidding.  This was a good tale about Scott Mason as the young apprentice behind short-stop-Jedi-Master, Geoff Keogh.  Could have been written better, but I liked the premise. 

For this edition click HERE

The All Star Game.

Not really an all star game report, but an all star team selection report.  Chuck and Stike employed a slightly different selection criteria than in past years.  Hind sight is 20/20, but I know virtually everyone loved the team going in.  No sweat, we'll get 'em next year.  We always do.  And next season Hugh and Don get to lead the charge. 

For this edition click HERE

Fan Appreciation Night

Despite losing by a run to the Rusty Rebels on this night, this was probably my favourite night of the year.  Through the efforts of the Grisslies, Sons Of Pitches, Rusty Nail, The Draft Kings, Dave Fleming, The Hot Tub Woody's and Beer Bros., we were able to raise $1000.00 for the Justin Keogh fund and have a truely awesome community and league spirit night.  I admire you all for your contributions and I apologize profusely to those not mentioned.  (although some not mentioned are by design because they don't want any credit - thank you all the same! but you can probably find their names if you click the link below because I haven't changed the original edition)

For this edition click HERE

The Grisslies Finally Beat The Brew Jays. 

This was the "things that can't happen edition of the BLOG.  To understand it you need to understand the Grisslies history with the Brew Jays.  It isn't good.  In fact, it was tragic.  The Brew Jays had beaten us in every regular season meeting in their first four years in existence and their 3-8-1 record coming into this game gave me no hope for a change in the pattern.  I had a BLOG written about how we never beat them and then had to change it when we defied all logic and got a win. 

For this edition click HERE

Explaining The Draft Kings Winning Streak. 

After my Hot Tub Woody's article caused their demise, I thought I'd try my luck on the Draft Kings.  It didn't work.  They had a great season, making it to Sunday which is the first goal of every team.  This had interviews with all of the Draft Kings players.  Well....okay....not really, but it made for some good fun. 

For this edition click HERE

What The Grisslies Did With The Beer Cup....Sort Of.  

The Grisslies took a page out of the Sons Of Pitches play book and tried to come up with some fancy travel shots of our brief time as owners of the Beer Cup.  The key difference, of course, being that the Sons Of Pitches pictures were real and ours were fake.  Or were they????

For this edition click HERE

Good Sportsmanship

This one came at a particularly down stretch for me during the season, which was weird because the team was playing awesome.  It was inspired by a very kind note that I received from Lou Conforti and reminded me of one the most amazing baseball stories that I ever heard about.  You can read the details by clicking the link below.

For this edition click HERE

Blog Disney Vacation

Well, it wasn't really a vacation BLOG.  It was a much needed break and the 1st time in at least 3 years that we didn't have Saturday stats!  And you know what?  The world didn't end.  Don't get me wrong.  It slowed down considerably and it did damned near did stop...but it continued.  Praise the sweet baby Jesus.  Thanks to Scott Peters, The Beechey and Scott Mason for keeping me in the loop via txt. 

 

 Until the banquet my friends!