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.
Ducks vs Rebels 8 am John Herb Field. Everyone will be well-rested no doubt. No Dr. Jones, Captain America is running the show. Gies is in charge of the helmets. Bring money if you still owe me, or the league.
If you don’t realize the scope of this game, talk to Britton and rick about the history here. We’ll see where we’re at tonight. This team took 2 of 3 from us last year, in embarrassing fashion. They ended our season. 2009 offers a clear slate. The Black Sox don’t think there’s any way they can lose tonight. They probably didn’t think they’d lose to the Hurricanes either.
Working nights sucks. See you around the 4th inning.
Say it ain’t so, Kenny. Black Sox lose 3-0 to revived Hurricane Carter squad. The B-Sox were able to acquire a $200 sponsorship from a local car dealership
(profanity)
The Hurricanes are no joke, the Black Sox are still among the Pgh NABA’s elite.
The Gray Bats lost 7-6 in dramatic fashion to the Warriors.
GrayBats Blog Recap Nice Zeppelin reference. Hopefully that guy singer will remind us of a 6-year old matt capps.
“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser“ –Vince Lombardi
The Warriors are like an old man who is tougher than he appears. He has that old man strength and is bitter and angry at everyone. The Gray Bats were without two of their top players. Ben Sorosky was in the process of getting robbed at the Ducks Golf Classic, and some other kid who pitches at UPG was busy being pissed he has to spend 4 years in Greensburg.
the Ducks Eagles and Owlz have yet to play, and mother nature is plotting against the Ducks tonight.
The South Oakland grounds crew will call in reinforcements to do everything they can to get the field playable by 8:45
the rain has to stop immediately.
Naturally I blame the bad weather on our commissioner.
There has been plenty of pre-season bs about new pitchers, and time spent courting free agents who flaked. It’s hard to find something else to blog about in the middle of October.
This Duck’s season is not about who we didn’t get; It’s not about who decided to play for old man Zalewski, who has to spend the summer driving up to Butler to play ball, or who Team Typo courted away from South Oakland. It’s not about who the Owlz found in the “Who’s Who of Western Pennzylvania College Baseball Players, or the Black Sox improved pitching staff and the return of Matt Slavonic. It doesn’t matter who Larry thinks he’s going to trot out behind Sorosky during our Saturday 8am game in a few weeks. It doesn’t matter what The Don Henleys or the confederacy have up their sleeves after pillaging a very deep draft class.
It’s about our team; who coach Bombay rolls out behind our starting pitcher on opening day.
Would it be gratifying to have added three pitchers who used to pitch in the minors and roll over everyone in the league? Sure. But it will be more gratifying to win with the guys we’ve got. To lament missed opportunities to add players is an insult to the names on our roster.
Our division accounts for five league championships: Two by the Kenny Powers’, and one apiece by the Owlz, Confederacy, and Ducks respectivly.
This season is all about gearing up for the playoffs, the new format allows everyone to make the post-season. To put ourselves in position to make a run at the title. The title that the Owlz will not let go of easily, a title the Black Sox think is rightly theirs, and that the rest of the league thinks they have just as much of a shot at as the team with the snarky blog and the gay photoshops.
I have a feeling that the sentiment around the league is that we aren’t as good as we say we are, that we overrate ourselves, that we’re all talk, that while I’m blogging they’re injecting Winstrol, taking BP, and calling up Jose Canseco. That’s fine. We got one line on the league site’s season preview a blurb about new players or something. OK. Maybe we’re not as good as we think. It’s a possibility.
We can’t start quacking each other off before we take the field.
I do know that to play our team is to play South Oakland; a part of town that’s dirtier and grittier than the Pitt brochures will ever let on or that most kids have the misfortune of discovering.
The last time I’ll talk about myself all season:
All I ever tried to do when I coached the Ducks was to embody the character of the team. To lead by example: to refuse to be out-hustled, to initiate contact, to do something to help the team win even when I’m over-matched–especially when I’m over-matched. To be a tough out.
To play hard all the time.
If you can’t play ball that way, go find a hackie sack and a bag of mushrooms.
I write the retired numbers on the brim of my hat. Those guys wish they could still play on this team. If they had just one more game to play on the Ducks, how would they approach it?
I’ve never gone into an at-bat thinking I can’t hit the ball hard somewhere, and I’ve never gone into a game expecting to lose. I’ve never gone into a season without the goal of winning a championship.
Individually, each game this season is winnable. Some games we may have to be mistake free and get some breaks to win, but we will not be out-hustled or out-worked.
Some games are won on the strength of big plays, but more games are lost becuase of walks and errors on defense, and by giving away outs on offense. Base running mistakes, bad at-bats, poor fundamentals.
This year’s team fundamentally solid, and has big play potential.
Strong up the middle, power at the corners.
The staff has some depth, (Novak) and they’ll have a defense they can trust.
It’s been great to play alongside some of the top talent in this league during the fall and winter, and I look forward to the Blues tourney in AC. But, for now, it’s all business and all Ducks. In between the foul lines, when the ump shouts “play ball”, I have no friends who don’t wear green and gold. (power-blue on occasion.)
*** Your 2009 South Oakland Ducks
The Ducks bid a fond farewell to Garrett Moore, who will play in the over 28 league this season.
New players alphabetically:
Tony Casale inf. Cheese util. Darren Daulton C. DB Award Winner, “Mantis”, P Depo, 1b Jesse Smith’s friend Matt, util Mike Watson, inf.
(If I forgot you, you haven’t been at practice, haven’t paid any dues yet, or I’m a joke.)
Out of Retirement
Britton Dickey, inf.
Returning Players
everyone else.
Our backups have backups. Teams need role players, the playoff format will allow coach Jones to get everyone playing time. Ultimatly though, we need to find out our best lineup, and get those guys in shape down the stretch for the playoffs.
The competition for PT will make everyone better.
Dave Roberts,
A pinch runner sparked the Red Sox miracle comeback in the ALCS a few years back.
Teams need role players, and we have to trust that Dr. Jones has the team’s best interest in mind.
Easy for me to say, I don’t sit much, but I work hard to get better, to keep up with the influx of talent in the league.
There will not be any cake-walk games this season. Every team has a chance.
That’s all we can ask for, and it’s all we’re given a chance to compete this summer. If we want the championship we have to take it.
“Get busy livin’
(Jesse Smith for MVP, the campaign starts now) 4/20/09
*** Pittsburgh Blues starting pitcher Ben Sorosky is pitching for Pitt Greensburg against some poor unsuspecting college, at Pitt-Main’s field today at 1pm. Should be some good baseball.
The blues are rounding out their roster for the Memorial Day Tournament in Atlantic City. Ben Sorosky is now the Pittsburgh NABA Tournament Director, I’ll be assisting him until he finishes with school ball. ***
Ducks, Make arrangements to get your money in to Coach Jones.
We owe the league the rest of our $2,000 by tomorrow, and we need to get our uniforms ordered asap.
Quack.
Ben4 