Pittsburgh NABA Previews: Bulldogs, Gray Bats, Raker, etc…

Based on last season’s results the league basically breaks up into three classes.
While the middle class is still USA 1950’s strong, the distance between good and great is growing.

“G”

There are over 60 players in the free agent pool this season, I imagine there will be a few new teams, and possibly the merge of the Phantoms and Hurricanes. The Confederacy will try to hand pick two more guys to fill out their basketball team sized roster.
With all the new talent, any team, even the Confederacy, has a chance to be greatly improved.

New additions I don’t know about not withstanding, the classes of the Pittsburgh NABA seen through my, biased eyes.

Eating out of a trash can:

Rebels
Hurricanes
Phantoms

Eating at Arby’s:
Eagles
Matadors
Rakers
(very little separation here)
Eating at TJI Friday’s
Gray Bats
Bulldogs
Oilers

Eating at your mom’s

Ducks

Eating at Mortons

Black Sox
Warriors
OwlzZzzzzz

***

Not much separates the middle seven teams.
Sometimes the match-ups just work well and you catch the Black Sox on an early Saturday morning game.
The Rakers swept the Black Sox last season,
The Ducks went 2-1 against the Rakers
The Black Sox went 2-1 against the Ducks, with two blowout wins.
Here is your grain of salt, take it.

Now we are getting to the TJI Friday’s section of the league previews.

The Bulldogs:
Haven’t won a playoff game ever.

The Bulldogs made the playoffs by a half game last season despite the Matadors attempts to sabotage their season.

Mike Martin and Wino have been training hard.

Bulldogs’ catcher Joe Graff and pitcher BJ Rankin enjoying desert in Manassas.
Rankin’s slider is filthy.

The Bulldogs are the epitome of team work

This man is a finely tuned athlete

Viny Gala is the best all around firstbaseman in the league.
Defensivly he had a beast of a tournament for the Blues in VA.
He can hit the ball a long way.
I remeber our time on the Ghostbusters fondly, he hit a triple.

Brian Strom will unveil his Bulldogs blog in the enar future. Sure to be a must read.

Strom Managed the O.C. fall ball team.
they will probably add a few players from that squad.

The Bulldogs have another Ghostbuster on their roster

Dr. Dan Venkman is competitor and a top tier pitcher.
Not afraid of Ghosts.

The Bulldogs will continue to be competitive.

The Gray Bats will not beat the Ducks this season.
Take that to the bank, Sorosky.
woooooooooooooooooo.

Manager Larry Zalewski sent up a signal for pitching help and Jeremy Barchie answered the call.

By my estimation,
If Larry hadn’t formed this team Pitchers, Jeremy Barchie and Ben Sorosky would be Ducks.
They are a formidable 1-2 punch, one of the best in the league.
Too bad in the 4th inning of every game, Larry will insert the elder statesmen of the team, and when their arthritic knees give out while in pursuit of a fly ball, Barchie and Sorosky will wind up being the victims of many unearned runs.

Apparently, “I want to be a Duck” really means, “I don’t want to play for the Rakers”

This is what happens, Larry.
(profanity)

Here are links to two other Gray Bats Blogs.Check them out and quack away in the comments section.
This blog contains player profiles, which I recommend opposing catchers browse before playing this team in order to better know what to say to distract these guys while up at bat.
The over 28 league is calling, Larry.

This is the Gray Bats coach

This is a link to Ben “sit on the change-up” Sorosky’s blog, which contains a Gray Bats season preview.
(In this preview Sorosky claims Galvanek has a gun. If that’s the case we’d better take cover.
Sorosky predicts a championship for the Gray Hairs.)

Solid blog work, by one of the Pittsburgh NABA’s elite pitching talents.
One of the best gifts the NABA has given me is the chance to compete against pitchers of Sorosky’s caliber, and take them yard, as I did on 7/26/06 when Sorosky was a Knight.
full disclosure, I was 1-5 against Sorksoy last season. 3-8 lifetime, with 1HR and 3 rbi.

In all seriousness, this team will be better than some expect.
The big Question:
Will Larry’s desire to play everyone, and have a team with players of all skill levels ultimatly undermine the talent and the W-L record of the Gray Bats?
I smell 4th place in the Monongahela in 2009.

***

The Rakers might not exist anymore, I don’t even know what’s going on with this team.
I do know there is a set of sweet uniforms with “Cyrilla Landscaping” written across them.
I would imagine those uniforms will return, and the rest of the players form this team will reappear somewhere.

There will probably be two more new teams, one of them will probably be solid, and the other team will be a joke.

I wonder which team the commissioner will put in his conference?

Quack.

Next the Oilers and Warriors.

Later: Black Sox and Owlz.

Finale:

Ducks

Pittsburgh NABA Previews: Bulldogs, Gray Bats, Raker, etc…

Based on last season’s results the league basically breaks up into three classes.
While the middle class is still USA 1950’s strong, the distance between good and great is growing.

“G”

There are over 60 players in the free agent pool this season, I imagine there will be a few new teams, and possibly the merge of the Phantoms and Hurricanes. The Confederacy will try to hand pick two more guys to fill out their basketball team sized roster.
With all the new talent, any team, even the Confederacy, has a chance to be greatly improved.

New additions I don’t know about not withstanding, the classes of the Pittsburgh NABA seen through my, biased eyes.

Eating out of a trash can:

Rebels
Hurricanes
Phantoms

Eating at Arby’s:
Eagles
Matadors
Rakers
(very little separation here)
Eating at TJI Friday’s
Gray Bats
Bulldogs
Oilers

Eating at your mom’s

Ducks

Eating at Mortons

Black Sox
Warriors
OwlzZzzzzz

***

Not much separates the middle seven teams.
Sometimes the match-ups just work well and you catch the Black Sox on an early Saturday morning game.
The Rakers swept the Black Sox last season,
The Ducks went 2-1 against the Rakers
The Black Sox went 2-1 against the Ducks, with two blowout wins.
Here is your grain of salt, take it.

Now we are getting to the TJI Friday’s section of the league previews.

The Bulldogs:
Haven’t won a playoff game ever.

The Bulldogs made the playoffs by a half game last season despite the Matadors attempts to sabotage their season.

Mike Martin and Wino have been training hard.

Bulldogs’ catcher Joe Graff and pitcher BJ Rankin enjoying desert in Manassas.
Rankin’s slider is filthy.

The Bulldogs are the epitome of team work

This man is a finely tuned athlete

Viny Gala is the best all around firstbaseman in the league.
Defensivly he had a beast of a tournament for the Blues in VA.
He can hit the ball a long way.
I remeber our time on the Ghostbusters fondly, he hit a triple.

Brian Strom will unveil his Bulldogs blog in the enar future. Sure to be a must read.

Strom Managed the O.C. fall ball team.
they will probably add a few players from that squad.

The Bulldogs have another Ghostbuster on their roster

Dr. Dan Venkman is competitor and a top tier pitcher.
Not afraid of Ghosts.

The Bulldogs will continue to be competitive.

The Gray Bats will not beat the Ducks this season.
Take that to the bank, Sorosky.
woooooooooooooooooo.

Manager Larry Zalewski sent up a signal for pitching help and Jeremy Barchie answered the call.

By my estimation,
If Larry hadn’t formed this team Pitchers, Jeremy Barchie and Ben Sorosky would be Ducks.
They are a formidable 1-2 punch, one of the best in the league.
Too bad in the 4th inning of every game, Larry will insert the elder statesmen of the team, and when their arthritic knees give out while in pursuit of a fly ball, Barchie and Sorosky will wind up being the victims of many unearned runs.

Apparently, “I want to be a Duck” really means, “I don’t want to play for the Rakers”

This is what happens, Larry.
(profanity)

Here are links to two other Gray Bats Blogs.Check them out and quack away in the comments section.
This blog contains player profiles, which I recommend opposing catchers browse before playing this team in order to better know what to say to distract these guys while up at bat.
The over 28 league is calling, Larry.

This is the Gray Bats coach

This is a link to Ben “sit on the change-up” Sorosky’s blog, which contains a Gray Bats season preview.
(In this preview Sorosky claims Galvanek has a gun. If that’s the case we’d better take cover.
Sorosky predicts a championship for the Gray Hairs.)

Solid blog work, by one of the Pittsburgh NABA’s elite pitching talents.
One of the best gifts the NABA has given me is the chance to compete against pitchers of Sorosky’s caliber, and take them yard, as I did on 7/26/06 when Sorosky was a Knight.
full disclosure, I was 1-5 against Sorksoy last season. 3-8 lifetime, with 1HR and 3 rbi.

In all seriousness, this team will be better than some expect.
The big Question:
Will Larry’s desire to play everyone, and have a team with players of all skill levels ultimatly undermine the talent and the W-L record of the Gray Bats?
I smell 4th place in the Monongahela in 2009.

***

The Rakers might not exist anymore, I don’t even know what’s going on with this team.
I do know there is a set of sweet uniforms with “Cyrilla Landscaping” written across them.
I would imagine those uniforms will return, and the rest of the players form this team will reappear somewhere.

There will probably be two more new teams, one of them will probably be solid, and the other team will be a joke.

I wonder which team the commissioner will put in his conference?

Quack.

Next the Oilers and Warriors.

Later: Black Sox and Owlz.

Finale:

Ducks

Pitching Rotation

Marian Hossa

***

A couple links from last season. Good times.

Guthrie vs. Barchie

Homa vs. Sorosky

Good luck to Sorosky and Barchie and the Gray Bats this season.

More later…

Quack.

Pitching Rotation

Marian Hossa

***

A couple links from last season. Good times.

Guthrie vs. Barchie

Homa vs. Sorosky

Good luck to Sorosky and Barchie and the Gray Bats this season.

More later…

Quack.

Lethargic Groundhogs Drop Opener,

Sharks 6, Groundhogs 0

The sharks starting pitcher was a poor man’s Dan “Venkman” Morgan.

Venkman is nursing a shoulder sprain. Godspeed, Dr. Morgan.

He had a beard, but his breaking ball was terrible.
He was good pals with the umpire. No lie. The strategy was to throw the ball shin high and a foot off the plate, forcing the opposition to swing at bad pitches.
The strategy was effective.

Joe Graff pitched four innings allowing 3 unearned runs.
Vinny Gala allowed three more unearned runs in 3 innings of relief.

The Sharks played error free ball, the Groundhogs did not.
a couple walks and a coupel errors and the game ended 6-0.

The Groundhogs couldn’t get anything going.
Vinny Gala got on base a couple times, but Mike Martin left his Bullldogs teammate stranded.
This angered Gregg “wino” so much that he challenged Martin to a wrestling match between innings

***

The Groundhogs infielder Randy Soles played a manic depressive game at three different infield positions, making some spectacular plays, but throwing away a routine ball that allowed the first of the Sharks runs.

Gala threw two shutout innings before a couple walks in the seventh led to more errors and more unearned runs.

Graff and Wino singled.
Gala walked twice for a .500 obp.
Gwin was 1-4 with a triple.
Graff singled and was picked off first before Gwin tripled in the sixth.
He was safe, the umpire was mud.

The Groundhogs look to bring more energy to their next game against the Prowlers.

We still need a pitcher.

Larry Zalewski was a late drop from the Groundhogs roster. A family emergency was taken by Zalewski as a sign to forgo the Winter session.

As much as Larry deserves to be given grief for not naming his team the Grays, he’s a good man who loves the game.

Keep Larry’s family in your thoughts and prayers.
Some things are more important than playing modified rules, indoor baseball.

Lethargic Groundhogs Drop Opener,

Sharks 6, Groundhogs 0

The sharks starting pitcher was a poor man’s Dan “Venkman” Morgan.

Venkman is nursing a shoulder sprain. Godspeed, Dr. Morgan.

He had a beard, but his breaking ball was terrible.
He was good pals with the umpire. No lie. The strategy was to throw the ball shin high and a foot off the plate, forcing the opposition to swing at bad pitches.
The strategy was effective.

Joe Graff pitched four innings allowing 3 unearned runs.
Vinny Gala allowed three more unearned runs in 3 innings of relief.

The Sharks played error free ball, the Groundhogs did not.
a couple walks and a coupel errors and the game ended 6-0.

The Groundhogs couldn’t get anything going.
Vinny Gala got on base a couple times, but Mike Martin left his Bullldogs teammate stranded.
This angered Gregg “wino” so much that he challenged Martin to a wrestling match between innings

***

The Groundhogs infielder Randy Soles played a manic depressive game at three different infield positions, making some spectacular plays, but throwing away a routine ball that allowed the first of the Sharks runs.

Gala threw two shutout innings before a couple walks in the seventh led to more errors and more unearned runs.

Graff and Wino singled.
Gala walked twice for a .500 obp.
Gwin was 1-4 with a triple.
Graff singled and was picked off first before Gwin tripled in the sixth.
He was safe, the umpire was mud.

The Groundhogs look to bring more energy to their next game against the Prowlers.

We still need a pitcher.

Larry Zalewski was a late drop from the Groundhogs roster. A family emergency was taken by Zalewski as a sign to forgo the Winter session.

As much as Larry deserves to be given grief for not naming his team the Grays, he’s a good man who loves the game.

Keep Larry’s family in your thoughts and prayers.
Some things are more important than playing modified rules, indoor baseball.

Why Don’t You Call Yourselves the Grays?

Gray Bats Coach Larry Zalewski, an alleged baseball aficionado, hates this man.

The Gray Bats are getting off to a great start in the trash-talking department. Too bad they don’t have a shortstop.

go to this blog and leave angry comments:

http://bobcatsbaseball.blogspot.com/

or this blog:

http://graybats2009.blogspot.com/

The Gray Bats have more blogs than outfielders.

Zalewski has seriously missed a great opportunity to incorporate a piece of Pittsburgh history into our league, by taking on the moniker of a great Negro League team, instead naming his team after a blind, bug-eating, cave-dwelling winged, beast.

From Wkipedia:

The Gray Bat (Myotis grisescens) is a small bat that lives in caves throughout the southern United States. It usually chooses caves which are located within one mile of a river or reservoir.

Description

The gray bat typically weighs 8-13 g. Its diet consists predominantly of insects. All species of the genus Myotis, including the gray bat, rest by day and forage at night. They often hunt and feed over water. The feeding flight usually alternate with periods of rest, during which the bats hang to digest their catch. Colonies of the gray bat travel up to 14 km from roosts to foraging areas. The gray bat has a wingspan of about 11-12 inches and is uniformly dark gray. The grey bat is aptly named due to its pigmentation.

The Gray Bats is the nickname of an amateur adult baseball team in the Pittsburgh NABA. The Pittsburgh Gray Bats won the PIttsburgh NABA Fall Ball title, and will compete in their first full season in the summer of 2009.

The Gray Bats were founded by head coach, Larry Zalewski, an aging hippie who has a thing for endangered species, and jogging. Coincidentally, Zalewski is also blind and lives in a cave.

Star pitcher Ben Sorosky (of the Pitt-Greensburg Bobcats) joined this team (which refuses to call itself the “Grays” after the Homestead Grays of the Negro League) out of pity, and will rue the day he committed to the Gray Bats, who, despite winning the fall title, will surely finish with a mediocre record in their first season in the Pittsburgh NABA summer league.

Habitat

Gray bats use warm caves in the summer where they establish maternal and bachelor colonies. Few have been found present outside caves. In the winter they hibernate in a few cold caves.

[edit] Range

The range of the endangered gray bat is concentrated in the cave regions of Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, with occasional colonies and individuals found in adjacent states. The species’ present total population is estimated to number over 1,500,000; however, a study in 1982 estimated that about 95 percent of the bats hibernate in only nine caves in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri,Illinois,and Tennessee. Another study published in 1991 indicated the number of important caves to be eight: two in Tennessee; three in Missouri; and one each in Kentucky, Alabama, and Arkansas. The gray bat’s range overlaps with that of the Indiana bat, also endangered.

[edit] Endangered status

Although gray bat numbers are still relatively high, their total population has decreased significantly during recent years. The gray bat is thought to have declined mainly due to destruction by vandals and disturbance by spelunkers and tourists. The reliance of the species on relatively few hibernacula is also a major reason behind its endangered status.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the gray bat as an endangered species on April 28, 1976.

Zalewski and I are teammates on the Groundhogs this winter. My goal will be to get him to change the name of his team to the Grays.

Quack.

Why Don’t You Call Yourselves the Grays?

Gray Bats Coach Larry Zalewski, an alleged baseball aficionado, hates this man.

The Gray Bats are getting off to a great start in the trash-talking department. Too bad they don’t have a shortstop.

go to this blog and leave angry comments:

http://bobcatsbaseball.blogspot.com/

or this blog:

http://graybats2009.blogspot.com/

The Gray Bats have more blogs than outfielders.

Zalewski has seriously missed a great opportunity to incorporate a piece of Pittsburgh history into our league, by taking on the moniker of a great Negro League team, instead naming his team after a blind, bug-eating, cave-dwelling winged, beast.

From Wkipedia:

The Gray Bat (Myotis grisescens) is a small bat that lives in caves throughout the southern United States. It usually chooses caves which are located within one mile of a river or reservoir.

Description

The gray bat typically weighs 8-13 g. Its diet consists predominantly of insects. All species of the genus Myotis, including the gray bat, rest by day and forage at night. They often hunt and feed over water. The feeding flight usually alternate with periods of rest, during which the bats hang to digest their catch. Colonies of the gray bat travel up to 14 km from roosts to foraging areas. The gray bat has a wingspan of about 11-12 inches and is uniformly dark gray. The grey bat is aptly named due to its pigmentation.

The Gray Bats is the nickname of an amateur adult baseball team in the Pittsburgh NABA. The Pittsburgh Gray Bats won the PIttsburgh NABA Fall Ball title, and will compete in their first full season in the summer of 2009.

The Gray Bats were founded by head coach, Larry Zalewski, an aging hippie who has a thing for endangered species, and jogging. Coincidentally, Zalewski is also blind and lives in a cave.

Star pitcher Ben Sorosky (of the Pitt-Greensburg Bobcats) joined this team (which refuses to call itself the “Grays” after the Homestead Grays of the Negro League) out of pity, and will rue the day he committed to the Gray Bats, who, despite winning the fall title, will surely finish with a mediocre record in their first season in the Pittsburgh NABA summer league.

Habitat

Gray bats use warm caves in the summer where they establish maternal and bachelor colonies. Few have been found present outside caves. In the winter they hibernate in a few cold caves.

[edit] Range

The range of the endangered gray bat is concentrated in the cave regions of Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, with occasional colonies and individuals found in adjacent states. The species’ present total population is estimated to number over 1,500,000; however, a study in 1982 estimated that about 95 percent of the bats hibernate in only nine caves in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri,Illinois,and Tennessee. Another study published in 1991 indicated the number of important caves to be eight: two in Tennessee; three in Missouri; and one each in Kentucky, Alabama, and Arkansas. The gray bat’s range overlaps with that of the Indiana bat, also endangered.

[edit] Endangered status

Although gray bat numbers are still relatively high, their total population has decreased significantly during recent years. The gray bat is thought to have declined mainly due to destruction by vandals and disturbance by spelunkers and tourists. The reliance of the species on relatively few hibernacula is also a major reason behind its endangered status.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the gray bat as an endangered species on April 28, 1976.

Zalewski and I are teammates on the Groundhogs this winter. My goal will be to get him to change the name of his team to the Grays.

Quack.