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.
Matt Slavonic hit a game winning RBI single in the bottom of the tenth, scoring Jason Goldie from second, and ending the Ducks season.
South Oakland led 3-2 going into the bottom of the 5th, the Sox scored two to take a 4-3 lead. the Sox would add another run in the bottom of the sixth.
South Oakland tied the game at 5-5 with 2 runs in the top of the seventh. Dutch drove in the tying run with an RBI fielder’s choice. We needed to take the lead there and we didn’t. Wojton drilled a ball to the gap, and the Sox left fielder was shaded that way, and was able to make the catch.
The Ducks didn’t really threaten in extra frames.
We almost turned a triple play.
There’s no shame in losing a 10 inning game. Much better than last year’s playoff loss. It is a whole different kind of pain.
Good season, everyone.
This game will go down in the annals of the Ducks Sox rivalry as by far the best baseball game of the storied series.
I can’t believe its over.
Good luck to the Sox and whomever they face in the Conference Finals.
Kenny played so well he was offered a contract with Tampa.
Note: the foul ball call was correct. we looked it up.
here’s the rule:
the highlighted part says, “is touched by a player “on” foul territory, it is a foul ball.”
there was some uproar over that.
the call was correct.
Its a footnote in the story of a great game, and a bitter sweet season.
If someone wants to go into more detail on this recap that would be great, but I don’t have the mental capacity right now.
The Ducks will field a team in the Labor Day Tournament, and will travel to Erie to play a 3 game series against the Erie Adult Baseball League team or team(s) McCray knows the weekend of August 22nd.
I’m looking forward to another solid season recap from Coby.
Nick Homa CG, 5 hits 8 K’s 1ER Kirk Gibson: 2-3, BB, 1B, HR, 3RBI, Castle 2-3, SB, 3runs Depo 1-3, 2B, 2RBI – three ladies after the game.
The Ducks (1-0) advance to the Wales Conference semifinals thanks to a 10-1 win over the Gray Bats (0-1), setting up a rematch with Kenny Powers and the rival Black Sox.
Nick Homa doesn’t lose to Ben Sorosky.
The game was scoreless going into the top of the 3rd when Sorosky singled home some dude who hates his coach.
The Gray Bats led 1-0. They had runners on first and second with nobody out. Ducks’ reliever Adam Smith was warming up in the pen, the Bats had their best hitter at the plate, and he infield-flied out. Homa K’d the next guy, then a ground-out ended the threat.
In the bottom of the 3rd, the Ducks scored five runs with two outs.
Gwin singled and stole second, then Captain doubled to center. 1-1
with the score tied Kirk stepped to the plate… Gibson drove in what would be the game winning run
2-1 Ducks
Gibson advanced on a passed ball. J.Smith walked. Wojton singled in Kirk.
3-1 Ducks
Depo hit a bases clearing double to right-center and the Ducks led 5-1 after 3.
The Gray Bats hit out of order, but weren’t called out. I think it was a typo in the lineup card, but this is the playoffs.
Casale led off the 4th with a walk. Gwin bunted down the thirdbase line, beat the throw to first, which got away from J.Rocker, and Casale scored.
Gwin marked it as an RBI double in the book.
Ducks 6, Gray Bats 1 after 5.
In the bottom of the sixth, Sorosky was relieved trailing 6-1. Casale walked to start the inning, then a perfectly executed hit and run by Gwin and Casale turned into another RBI double to right for Gwin.
McCray is now tied with Gwin and Wojton for the Ducks all-time post season HR record. (1) He hit one off the dirt mound well past the wall in right field.
The Commish and Strom retrieved the ball they can attest – it was a shot.
10-1 Ducks.
Homa retired the side in order in the top of the 7th.
i think i missed an inning in the recap.
After all that talk about sportsmanship, the Gray Bats’ coach didn’t shake hands after the game.
This was the Ducks’ day, Homa was better than Lombaradi this afternoon, and the Ducks hit when we had to. We didn’t stop after one inning of offense. Both teams played hard and with class.
it could have been a different game if that guy makes the diving catch on Captain and if maybe the Bats more guys contributing on offense, but when the dust settled, and South Oakland won by nine [9] runs.
The gin bucket will flow again.
The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side are now 6-4 all time in post season play.
This is the game we’ve been waiting for since we were eliminated last season.
We knew it was coming all year.
Another shot at Kenny Powers and the Sox for the right to advance to the Conference Finals. I bet the Sox would have rather played the Rebels or whatever, but they knew they’d get us again, and deep down i know Kenny, and Goldie, BSOX 40, and Chalfin are pumped its us.
The Rebels play the Owlz in the Forgone Conclusion Game tomorrow. The Bombers crushed the Oilers 10-1, and take on the Fightin’s’ tomorrow. The Bulldogs play the Warriors in the other Campbell Conference semi.
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
“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.”
Great quote by Swoosh there, I hate to interfere with a nice simple post, but things are getting out of hand.
I don’t really believe in bulletin board material in most cases, but this is ridiculous, and i do enjoy keeping Kenny Powers entertained. From LarryZ in this comment thread:
Hey fag Anonymous, instead of kicking your punk ass why not come on a 20 mile run with me and let’s see what you’re made of? Yeah right, I thought so. Same for smokin’ Ben and any other loudmouth, stats-padder. Show some respect asshole.
Ben, at least I don’t pad my stats. I’d say you’re probably closer to .200.
And you never take yourself out of games when your batting average sucks either Gwin. I hear stories about your whining and cry-baby shit, so look in the mirror first before you cst the first stone.
I just look at all the attention of my age as flattery. Thanks. Pretty amazing that a 44 year old guy can play better than most disrespectful punks in this league huh? Most of the Owlz team. Just shut up.
I am who I am. If you want me to see me angry, try me. I’ll shove some hot chicken soup up your ass.
Ii feel sorry for TC. He’s too nice a guy to be a puppet for the Ducks squad.
Our coach is not a puppet. That’s what has me fired up, TC doesn’t need your pity.
the Ducks and Gray Bats stats are available online here for comparison. – ours are missing our last 3 games.
How much you want to bet I can slam dunk this tray into the garbage can?
The Sox’s lefty pitched well.
Quack.
Ben4 