GAME RESULTS - JULY 25

What a day for Slo-Pitch!

Rusty Royals 17  Grey Beards 10

Rusty Royals 21  Grey Beards 8

Blue Pills 14  White Hairs 12

White Hairs 15  Blue Pills 9

Fine Wines 15  Red Faces 6

Fine Wines 17  Red Faces 5

Click on the Standings tab for updated standings

Game reports will be on the website on Sunday.

JULY 18, 2024

RUSTY ROYALS vs. FINE WINES

Rusty Royals Report – John Koopman

Ty Cobb said he always "hit it where they ain't".  The Rusty Royals did not listen.  In Game One the Rusty Royals hit it where the Fine Wines were.  The Wines did make some nice defensive plays (including many by a substitute the Royals hope they never face again), but as the good book says, history is the story of what I did to myself.   Jeff Biren had three hits for the Royals as did Brian Mastervick, Dan Cooper and Willi Thuner got two hits each, but the rest of the line-up, well we are praying for next week.  The Royals lost 13-7 in Game One.

In Game Two the Royals regained their defensive lustre and Ron Belluomini held the thunderous Fine Wine bats to five runs.  In almost every running the Royals had multiple runners on base, but we were not good at bringing them home.  The fate of Joe Biden was too much on our mind, and we failed to focus on baseball.  We hit worse than in Game One.  There was talk of firing the coach, but he was saved by a lack of volunteers to provide backfill for the role...In the end we held onto a 5-5 draw and remain tied for first place in this wickedly competitive league.

On the good side Rick Halik is back from DL. Young guys heal so fast.

Fine Wines Report – Dave Adams

Before the Fine Wines 2-game stint against the first place Rusty Royals, the team's manager, Chris Barrett, informed his teammates that an upper body injury would prevent him from playing. The Wines' team decided that Barrett should be relegated to the position of umpire. [Ed. Note - said position being available due to the unexplained absence of the qualified umpire.]

Game 1 saw the Wines score 13 runs over the first five frames before putting it in Cruise Control and coasting to a 13-7 win over the Rusted Royals. Geoff Coulson, Bennie Roczniak and Mike Way combined for 8 hits, including Way's CN Towering home run, and racked up 7 runs.

Game 2 would be a low scoring affair (no double entendre intended). In the top of the 7th with one out and the Royals clinging to a 5-3 lead, a hitless and somewhat hesitant Dave Adams shuffled to the plate and miraculously stroked a single to right field. Super Sub Mike Fleming (who drove in from Binbrook) followed suit with a single of his own. Jonathan Kamin then uncorked a two-run double to tie the game at five. In the bottom half, the Wines' defence buckled down and held the Royals scoreless, to make the final 5-5. Ian Carson and Bob Edmonston generously donated 5 hits but, ahem, could only score once.

Following the games, the Fine Wines were asked their opinion of Coach Barrett's umpiring. The players unanimously replied by saying they wished Barrett a speedy recovery.

BLUE PILLS vs. RED FACES

Blue Pills Report – Frank Sturm

“You never wear the same TWO shoes”. 

The Silver Fox sported a matched pair of shoes for the first time this season in a precursor to the day’s outcome.  [Ed. Note – the league's private investigator has determined that the Silver Fox and the author of this game report are one and the same person.]

What a day, what a performance! 14 innings played and the Pills were only behind for 1!. That’s weirder than the shoes. A tidal wave of emotion engulfed the team as they recorded their first two-win day of the season. Two matched shoes, two victories. The team was solid all around on this temperate summer day. The Pills were even jovial, at one point laughing off a blundered base running error that resulted in a double play. We won’t call out any names but he bats 8th, and his mom makes the greatest Italian dishes this side of the GTA. Some highlights include Kirk (king of the bat) with a laundry list of stats including (but not limited to) going 7/8, 5 RBIs, 5 runs scored AND… he turned a double into a home run by using more moves than Keanu Reeves in a Matrix fight scene. Not to be outdone, Dave Walker went 7/8, had 6 RBIs and scored 6 times (maybe got a little silver fox base running help) AND… hit a real home run. Seems Dave W doesn’t care much for the Matrix movies.

It was also hinted in a previous report that the “Predator and the Pills” story would continue.  Predator 2 was released in 1990 and the Pills’ second predator appeared today as Coach Greg. He charged a quickly descending line drive ball and snatched it a split second before the “Reds” had already pencilled in a triple. Well done Greg! And welcome to the Predator franchise.

The Pills are now .750 in their last 4 games. Just to break that down a little further…..

On second thought, let’s not - .750 is good!

Red Faces Report – Mike Boyle

Red Faces finally got their bats going after several weeks of low run producing. However, despite scoring 21 runs, it wasn’t enough as they dropped both games to the Blue Pills on an otherwise perfect day to play baseball.

As is their recent trend, Red Faces fell behind early in game one. The guys chipped away at a 9-1 deficit to close the gap but couldn’t quite overturn the large hole into which they were placed and lost 14-11.

In the second game, Red Faces actually led 4-0 after the first inning. Alas, their hopes were dashed as the team was outscored 16-6 the rest of the way for a 16-10 loss.

Leading the way for the Red Faces was Jeff Francis who hit another over-the-fence home run. He finished with 5 hits, 9 RBIs and some towering outs. Dan Sanscartier added 6 hits and 6 runs. Tom Hunter went 4-for-4 in the opener in the leadoff spot and finished with 5 hits. Bernie Renwick’s textbook hitting produced 6 hits and a loud out. Ron Vandermeulin seems to have regained his hitting stroke with 4 hits.

GREY BEARDS vs. WHITE HAIRS

Grey Beards Report – Larry Young

Weather was great once again. Fields were playable even after Tuesday’s deluge.

We took on the White Hairs who have beaten us three times and tied once. Team came out of the gate with bats on fire. As the game went along the Hair rallied back. Greybeards hung on to squeak out a 13-12 win to finally manage a win. Second game both teams came out with red hot bats. We couldn’t keep up and lost 17-12.

Individual highlights go to Dario Pretto who was 6-6. Jim Fenner was 5/6, George Merrick was 5/6 with 4 rbis, and Barney Henderson was 4/6 with 4 rbis and was only a home run away from the cycle.

White Hairs Report – Jeff Morton

It seems like the season of unforeseen injuries for the White Hairs.  The full 14 Hair squad showed up to do battle with the Chapless Beardy Boys.

Unfortunately, the first battle was Hairs’ Secret Weapon Grudzinski hitting Pitcher and Poet Manson in his right arm during BP. The resulting bruising rivaled Stitches thumb colouring.

The Hairs went into a 3-inning funk as we tried to figure out how to adjust defensively.   Coming out of the ether in the 4th, the Hairs put up 12 over the next 4 innings to come up one run short.

Coach Morton, was faced with a dilemma trying to figure out a 14-man lineup and what to change.  As every Hair has a nickname it became evident we had to change one of the older monikers.  We wanted to be last on the field, so naturally First on the Field Pileggi is now simply Vinny!

Game 2 started with hitting through the order, 15 runs in the first 3 and some outstanding defence.

Buy a Vowel pitched great and the Hairs banged out 50 hits on the day.

The Glove Moffat and Morton each went 6 for 6, with Vinny, Stitches Foscarin and Prancer Byj contributing 5 each and 4 from G Coveny and Roadrunner Ron Linklater.

You would think with 54 runs scored in total our first to Monaghans streak would be pooched.  Nope! 

Pitcher and Poet Manson put a couple of cold ones on his arm and declared he'd be good to go next week against the Pills.

BOYS OF SUMMER 2024

2023 SEASON FINALE!

Congratulations to the White Hairs for achieving first place in the regular season and, for an encore, winning the Playoff Championship.

From left to right:  Barny Henderson,  Tony Fratia,  Frank Strum,  Kim Warren,  Roman Kryzaniwsky,  Mike Canham,  Jeff Morton (Manager),  Al King,  Brock Paterson,  Greg Potter,  Nick Wollaston,  Rick Cummings,  Vince Pileggi 

Congratulations also to the Fine Wines for their terrific regular season (1 point out of first place) and a hard-fought battle in the Championship Game.

From left to right - Ian Schell, Tony Foscarin, Jim McDonald, Steve Isaacs, Rick Wilcox, George Merrick, Vince Moffat, Andy Kozai, Rick Wilkinson, Dave Adams, Mike Way, Chris Barrett, Ted Wierda

And congratulations to Shane Noseworthy, the recipient of the Bill Carson Award for 2023, which is awarded to a player who exemplifies patience, a positive attitude, enthusiasm, support of his teammates and a proclivity to lead by example, and who commands respect from both his teammates and competitors.