In the series dubbed “The Battle of the Air Horn vs. The Loud Lady Owlz Fan,” The Black Sox took game 1, 3-1, over the Owlz.
Since 2004 the team that has won game one of the 3 game series has gone on to win 78.3% of the time, according to Pete Chalfin.
The ’04 Ducks lost in the Conference finals to the Sox after taking game 1.
Game 2 will pit pitcher of the year candidate Scott Dunn against potentially J.T. Slavicek or whomever else the Sox have. The Sox have got to be thin on pitching, mayeb we’ll get an appearance from the greatest pitcher in the history of organized baseball.
The Sox’s lefty pitched well.
neither of these team names can be made into possessive plurals.
the conclusion to this game was not forgone, apparently.
Words were exchanged after the game between two of the best players in the series.
Feel the hatred.
Winner of tomorrow’s game and of the series can email me a recap for posting if they want. Updates from the western conference are welcome also.
***
I’m still sick to my stomach about Sunday’s loss. Just fucking gut-wrenching.
Ill have a season recap after the finals.
Jones will have some team awards.
My picks for Ducks Awards: MVP: Castle Offensive player of the year: Captain America Co-Pitchers of the year: Fletch/Invisible Hand Defensive Player of the Year: Jesse Smith
Coby is probably hard at work right now on his recap.
The Ducks are in the process of getting our roster set for our trip to Erie for 3 free baseball games at the former home of the Erie Sailors, who when I saw them as a kid were the minor league affiliate of the Marlins, and seeking sponsors for our labor day tournament team.
Ducks (0-0) vs, Gray Bats (0-0) Projected Starters: Depo vs. Sorosky “When we got to the ballpark, we knew we were going to win. That’s all there was to it. we weren’t cocky. I wouldn’t call it confidence either. We just knew. Like when you go to sleep you know the sun is going to come up in the morning.”
The name of the game is Thunder Dome
two men enter one man leaves
Rumors that LaRoche College has been traded for field prospects for the 2012 season are unsubstantiated.
The regular season may have been “meaningless” but the playoffs aren’t.
The regular season came and went quicker than that time Kenny Powers slept with a Miller Lite Girl.
unrelated clip of Kenny and Ashley Shaffer – that’s what we do here.
It has become apparent that recruiting and building a strong team in the off season has become more important than ever.
The Owlz are a good example of this they did an ok job of recruiting a fairly competitive team, the Sox got better two solid pitchers as well,
The Hurricanes went from laughingstock to the Fightin’ Rafalski’s and a title contender in one winter, and the Ducks added key components as well. Even if a few have been infrequent guests, Dowling, Casale, Watson, and Depo have all helped our team tremendously. One could make a case for Fletcher as our team MVP, and he was a mid-season acquisition.
The best teams have the best line on players.
But the playoff games still have to be played. They aren’t won during the off season, they aren’t won on paper, they aren’t won over the course of a 24 game regular season, and they certainly aren’t won in online pissing contests – as entertaining and ridiculous as they can be.
Tomorrow, the South Oakland Ducks of the North Side take on the Gray Bats It’s a new season. The winner gets to play at least one extra game. That’s all the motivation either team, (and any team, in my opinion) needs heading into the post-season.
I’m amazed at the response you have all had to our blog, it makes it much more fun to write when there is a string of comments afterward (whether you think the blog is gay or not), and i think its added another layer of sub-lot to the season.
thank you for taking the time to read my 3rd grade-reading-level typing. I’ve tried to include stuff about teams whose players leave comments, and tie it into the Ducks in some manner to keep the core fan base happy. probably haven’t done that all the time. Anyone who wants to email me a preview of anything playoff related I’ll post it if you want. The Confederacy take on Don Henley and the Eagles tomorrow morning, then the Oilers and Bombers battle it out to earn a spot against the Bright Orange Bullies. Then at 3pm the Ducks will play a team that has nothing to lose with our season on the line.
The Ducks have not won a playoff game since 2004, when we won game 1 of the conference semi’s against the Black Sox. We’ve posted the best regular season in Ducks history finishing 8 games over .500. Since Dr. Jones has taken the reigns, the Ducks are 27 – 17 – 2.
ten games overas head coach
There is some nice symmetry here – in 2007 we had 8 wins, and finished 8-16 Jones has puppeted the Ducks from being 8 games under .500 to 8 games over in 2 seasons. .333 to .667 winning percentage So there’s hope for the Bats in 2011 – woooooooooo!
In the past week the comments got a bit out of hand, and that will happen. No one likes being accused of cheating or being delusional or lying or whatever, but that’s the nature of the beast. The week sure flew by, though.
Something i think about often, on a personal and a societal level is the importance of sports. The name calling and shit talking is just a symptom of how important we take our league, how seriously we take our adult amateur baseball, even when for the majority of us this is the last stop on the block. About 99% of us are Has-beens and never-will-be’s in the major league scheme of things.
The competition has increased dramatically this year, and it has been great, but still many of us don’t play in college and don’t have a chance to play at a much higher level than this. So if this league really for a bunch of amateurs, why do we get in 40+ comment long diatribes of who’s better and who should keep their mouth shut and who can hit who, and who is a total dick even though they caught an extra inning game during fall ball after apologizing for getting pissed about some bullshit, and tried to make it right by getting behind the plate so their could be a real game in the championship. etc…
In the grand scheme of things this level of baseball is exactly what it is – as much as i hate that phrase – but I’d rather be accused of taking it too seriously than of lacking intensity. It’s a fine line, that will definitely be crossed at times. There’s something about baseball that I need, like a junkie needs heroin, or a Black Sox player needs Miller Lite, and Percocet.
And a lot of wht this blog does is mock that incredible importance we place on our league, while at the same time taking it too seriously, it’s impossible not too. A kind of contradictory self awareness, if you will. like heroin, i know it’s bad for me but i need it.
It’s not as if it is some kind of attempt to relive high school or legion glory, it’s about the chance to compete and to have teammates again, and to play the greatest game there is at a reasonably high level, for as long as possible. For some it’s a chance to stay in shape until they go back to Baseball Factory Waynesburg University.
So fuck off if you think we go overboard with this, or take it too seriously you may be right, but i still call that erring on the side of caution. There will always be people who disagree with that and its fine.
I find it less ridiculous than the string of comments at the end of any pro sports blog on ESPN.com. At least we are the ones playing in these games, and while it’s not even single-A ball or Independent League ball, it’s our baseball it’s our league; we started it, we run it, and that allows us to play in it and blog about it.
The Pittsburgh NABA and its players have created our own baseball universe, and between April and August it is important – as far as prioritizing it after obvious things like work and family and school and stuff. *** Back to the task at hand.
TC has been recruiting since last season ended, We started hitting in January (believe it or not), and it could all be over tomorrow afternoon.
The Ducks are not ready for our season to end.
Ducks (0-0) vs. Gray Bats (0-0) Saturday, 3pm LaRoche College
Ducks (15-8) vs. Bulldogs (12-11) 12pm Ohio River Blvd. Field (right off rt. 65)
The Black Sox (16-6) beat the Matadors [ (11-10-1) by a score of 9-3, and clinched 2nd place on Saturday.
Congrats Kenny Powers.
It is official, we play the Gray Bats in six days.
***
Martin is here
Today’s game against the Bulldogs is “meaningless” for both teams. The Bulldogs (by way of the Matadors forfeiting too many games) have already locked up a conference semi final game against the Warriors, while the Oilers and Bombers will have a play-in game the winner of which gets the Fightin’ Rafalski’s.
16-8 looks a lot better than 15-9. Primarily we want to get everyone in and get our pitchers some work.
The Bulldogs (11-11) are .5 games out of second place. The Fightin’ Rafalski’s (15-8) [interesting that 15-8 is the best record over there, huh?] have clinched the Campell Conference regular season title the warriors (11-9) and Matadors (11-9-1) have 3 and 2 games at hand respectively. The Ducks (15-8) are most likely stuck in 3rd unless the Matadors, Warriors, and Eagles all beat Kenny Powers, and the Ducks beat the Bulldogs.
UPDATE – The Eagles Beat the Fightin’ Rafalskis last night 21 – 5. Don Henley is a beast.
The Sox can clinch Saturday. Gray Bats like men.
Friday Night: Get Your Crayons Out!!!
Ducks Pulled Pork Extravaganza and Drink Fest at Dr. Jones’ house.
Bring booze, food, or a Ducks donation of $5-1,000,000 to join in the festivities. no free loaders!!! 8pm-4am the Ducks know how to throw a Drink Fest.
***
Enter your team in the Steel City Classic. It will be a great way to extend the season, play against some teams from other leagues, and potentially lose to the Ducks again.
Ducks. TC and I need to know ASAP whether or not you plan to play in the Steel City Classic so we can recruit other players as needed.
We will be without Homa and Fletcher, but we’ve already taken steps to solidify our pitching rotation.
The Tournament will cost between 50 and 60 per player, and will take place from sept. 5th-7th. We’re trying to get sponsors to drive down this cost further.
No more Tourney talk on the blog until after the season.
Kenny Powers’ Sox/Ducks recap will be up within the next 24 hours or so.
The playoff loss last year was crushing a 9 run loss to the Black Sox.
The way things are shaping up, we will play this team again in the playoffs [barring an upset by the Gray Bats (3-19)] Tonight’s game will all-but dictate which team gets a game off and which team has to throw one of their top two pitchers the day before the potential 2nd round match-up.
The PGH NABA old-timers remember a team from the early days in Ambridge that drank off hangovers in the first inning, smoked in the dugout, cursed, fought, agitated, and won. That team was the Ducks in when you could still win in this league with a bunch of alcoholic ex-Legion players.
The Ducks filled the “Man I Hate Playing this F-ing Team full of shit talking assholes” niche before the Black Sox existed. Kenny Powers basically modeled his franchise after the Ducks.
Baseball is ripe with history, even a league like ours something about the game lends itself to narrative and historical significance like a Philip Roth novel. Pittsburgh NABA Pastoral.
One idea that was tossed around in a Phoenix hotel room scene reminiscent of a Led Zeppelin escapade, was to merge the teams in ’06.
I guess we would have been the Black Dux.
Obviously that didn’t happen, our catcher at the time said, “We’d win, but f__k that, man…I’m a Duck,”
Ben Hartraft was a beast, he, like many other Ducks greats, blew out his arm.
When a bunch of guys you never heard of, but were pretty sick ball players, left for parts unknown, and the Red Scare Years enveloped South Oakland.
Even in the worst of times the Black Sox game was the one you got up for. We’ve really been chasing the Black Sox since 2004, the first time they eliminated us from the playoffs.
We have the chance to beat one of the best pitchers our league has ever seen. A kid who has a 19K game to his credit, and has thrown a no-hitter this season.
One run separates The Ducks and Black Sox in two games this season, 1/2 game in the standings.
Now we have a chance to take two of three from this team for the first time in a long time – possibly ever, and move ahead of Kenny Powers in the standings.
Tonight the ghosts of Black Sox games past hover with the smell of spilled beer and cigarette smoke above the concrete grand stand at Moore Park.
It’s one thing to dominate a game, and the Ducks did not dominate on Monday, it is another thing completely to go out when you don’t have your best stuff, when you’re stiff and sore, and undermanned – nursing a bayonet wound from the last battle with the Confederacy, and win anyway. There’s something i find more gratifying about it.
Fletcher didn’t have his best stuff, but he still held the Rebels to one run. He battled.
Dr. Jones had to shuffle the lineup with two of our best hitters,
SS, Frank Castle (above, ) and inf. Ryan Novak, mia,
and CF, Mars visiting friends in FLA Kirk Gibson played a phenomenal game at short, and with Watson up the middle made all the plays. We got clutch hits and despite some odd base running occurrences, and some good defense by a much improved Fightin’ Reb’s team, The Ducks prevailed. Our best hitter is mired in a slump, but he found a way to help the team win with his defense, throwing out three Rebels, two at third, one at second, and called a great game behind the plate. Wojton made a great catch in the gap.
I don’t have the book – things will be a bit jumbled, here. For the most part, this is not a friendly rivalry, and it got more heated today.
It’s not likely we will see this team in the playoffs, and its unlikely they will exist next season, but it was fun while it lasted. They have some talent on that team, and their nickname has really been the inspiration for this blog.
Most of those guys hate the shit out of the Ducks, and really wanted that game last night, which makes the win even sweeter.
Thanks to the fans for Quacking for us last night.
***
The early innings went quickly, Chris Feathers, put up a typical, Feathers-esque gutsy performance on the mound, and kept the Ducks scoreless for two innings, while Fletch worked out of trouble in the first two innings. With one out and a runner on first in the top of the second, a diving attempt at what the Ducks left fielder thought was foul territory hit off his ten year old glove and went out of play, putting runners on second and third.
J. Smith threw out Davis at second, Kirk helped him with his helmet because he is a good sport. More yelling and blaming the umps from The South.
In the bottom of the third Wojton walked to lead off the inning and Gwin doubled to left center. Jefferson Davis was on his horse,
A perfect relay throw cut down Wojton at home, Gwin advanced to third.
after Kirk flew out to the fence, the Captain stepped into the box.
double to left. he’s on fire.
1-1.
In the top of the fourth, the Rebels tried to mount a counter attack.
shame on a Rebel Some guy hit a shot to right center, but Wojton was there
Another guy got thrown out at third, and there was a growing undercurrent of nastiness brewing, it was tangible. The Rebels started to get frustrated.
In the bottom half of the inning, Watson led off with a single, then Homa hit a blistering shot to left that was dropped by the Rebels outfielder, Watson was thrown out at second on a play he appeared to beat the throw, but whatever.
(remember that time you argued with the ump and he changed his mind?- didn’t think so)
Homa was on first with one out, Depo hit a monster shot to right, that got through the Rebels right fielder, guest thirdbase coach Garrett Moore sent Homa, the relay was off-line and Homa slid in safely.
Depo tried to take second, not happening.
Coby was hit by a pitch before Feathers recorded a K to end the inning.
2-1 Ducks through 4
but we had 3 consecutive players reach base and only got one run, how would we respond?
Fletcher struck out the Rebels 3-4-5 hitters in order in the top of the fifth
In the bottom of the 5th, Gwin was hbp, Kirk was thrown at and wound up with a walk, then once again
Captain singles to center. Gwin scores
3-1 Ducks.
The frustration continued to mount in the Rebels dugout, as they continued to not score runs.
robbed on a questionable strike 3 last night.
The Ducks added an insurance run in the bottom of the 6th on an rbi ground out by Gwin. Kirk was thrown at again.
You don’t want to know what phase 3 is.
The Rebels had a soldier on first in the top of the seventh, and had two hard hit outs before Fletcher enticed a ground out to end the game.
Now we have the Black Sox and their ace in a show down for the two-seed.
Great Scott…That’s Heavy We have to travel to the lion’s den that is Moore Park. All we can ask for is the opportunity and we’ve earned it. 1 run separates the Ducks and the Black Sox in our two games this season. one half game separates us in the standings.
Back to the future with Kenny Powers and Co. this Saturday
Ducks (13-7) vs. Rebels (7-10) 9pm Spring View Field
BP 6pm-7:30 at Pitt
***
The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side were helped by fellow bird team, the Imperial Owlz, who swept teh brookline Bullies in their double header yesterday.
Kenny Powers saw his team fall to 14-6 The Ducks are 13-7 after sweeping their season series with the Fightin’ Gray Bats in a 5-2 victory which the Ducks played without their starting middle infielders, their starting centerfielder, and Chris Wojton.
Wojton will be back in the lineup tonight vs. the Rebels.
The Ducks can roll three lines of SS, 2B combinations that are as good as any this team has ever seen.
We are built like a hockey team.
So, tonight’s game is key, a win moves South Oakland of the North Side one half game behind the Black Sox, setting up a showdown for 2nd place at Moore Park on Saturday.
TANGENT{
For the lady Warrior
The Bulldogs beat the Warriors 3-2 yesterday to take second in the Campbell Conference and lay claim to a .500 record. why ?
BACK}
But the task at hand is not one that can be taken lightly.
We’ve ended a four game slide, and now we return home for the rubber match against the Rebels.
The Rebels have improved greatly since our last meeting, they have added armies from Missouri, northern Virginia, and Kansas.
The will attack at sundown and it will take every once of our mettle and every drop of courage to defeat this proud group of southerners.
Some of us may not return from battle tonight, but we must fight gallantly. Death will look us square in the eye he will knock on our doorstep and try to take our women children, and livestock. They wish to burn down our houses and destroy our wagons. We will once again be undermanned, weary from the summer-long war that has lead us once again, to the precipice of a first round bye and a chance to redeem early season defeats at the hands of the enemy.
***
It’s not often a blog can agitate a team enough for them to have their mysite news admin revoked.
Let’s get it done tonight, and get a winning streak started.
Ducks (12-7) at Gray Bats (3-17) 3pm Pie Traynor Field BP: 12-1:30 at PItt
Naturally these guys have added some players at the deadline. They are still a joke – collectively.
if we lose to a 3-17 team down the stretch when we really need to right the ship and get our bats going into the playoffs we should disband.
Why keep score if winning doesn’t matter?
We have to win out and get help to get the 2 seed. We can’t overlook anyone. We’ve lost to some terrible teams this year. We’ve beaten some very good teams this season.
Gotta have it today.
Abe Lincoln is back in a warm-up game for the Confederacy on Monday Bad News for the Gray Bats.
The Sox’s lefty pitched well.
Quack.
Ben4 