This is possibly the best book about baseball I’ve ever read. So engaging I ripped through it in two sittings.
If you haven’t already, you should buy it and read it.
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fielding-Novel-Chad-Harbach/dp/0316126691
Ducks,
send Fago your money. Now.
607 greenfield ave apt 1
Pittsburgh, PA 15207
Quack
Ducks, send money to Fago.
***
As much as I hate proving Honest Abe right, I’ve reconsidered quitting. This is not Favre-rian.
It really looked for a while like we weren’t going to be able to get the team together, and if that had been the case, I wouldn’t have played for another team.
I’ve been dissuaded, and the Ducks will field a team in 2012.
We’ve lost 9 starters.
Aside from myself, the following Ducks are returning this season:
James Fago, Manager, P,C, OF
Ken Cool, inf.
Rick Whalen, util.
Winning pitcher of the 2010 championship clinching game, Mark Guthrie P, OF 3b
2009 captain, Kirk Gibson, inf.
2006 standout Ben Hartranft, C, 1b
2009 10-hitter Garrett Moore, EH
So we’ve got 8 rostered and will probably draft players for the first time in team history.
Quack.
Fittingly, I’m announcing my retirement on this blog, oddly after the last post which was to open this season.
The Ducks have been an important part of my summers an my identity since 2003, but I don’t have time anymore.
Thank you, everyone. Especially Joe Graff for running the league, and foremost all the Ducks over the years. I did my best to be a good teammate.
Quack.
James Fago is our manager this season, and he’s in the best shape of his life.
Get in touch with him (or me, if you must) if you plan on playing this season. As always, roster spots go to returning Ducks before we fill in the gaps with Dominican League players Rob Cool knows through some ex-AAU coach, who used to play DII ball in Eastern Ohio, and sells sneakers out of the back of a truck at Waynesburg away games.
We owe the league our first $500 in the next few weeks, and Nike is sending people to my home trying to shake me down for the money we didn’t raise to cover our unis last year.
We’ll get it figured out soon.
We run a tight ship in South Oakland.
Motivation?
Quack.
South Oakland led 3-0 going into the bottom of the 5th, when Elliot scored 11 runs off a depleted bullpen.
We just ran out of pitching, and kicked it around a bit.
Elliot finished us off with two more runs in the bottom of the 6th.
Words can’t express how thrilled I am to be done managing.
It was an honor to be able to contribute to a team with so much talent, and hope to be able to continue to produce and play for the Ducks.
Team awards:
MVP: Jim Teyssier
Offensive player of the year: Mike Cinefra
Defensive player of the year: Anthony Defilippo
Thanks everyone for a great season, and thanks for reading.
We’ll get ‘em next summer.
Quack.
South Oakland lost game one to Elliot 7-4, and came from behind to win game two, 5-4 on Brendan Scioscia’s solo home run in the bottom of the sixth.
quack.
(Despite the damp weather, as of 11am, we’re still on for today.)
lets get two in a row
We have a chance to prove ourselves against the only team we couldn’t beat during the regular season.
Last year it was finally over coming the black sox, now we can win an unprecedented second straight and third overall title.
All I’ve asked for as a manager is that we maintain the identity of a gritty, blue-collar team, regardless of how much talent we bring on.
As far as I can tell we’ve done that.
Bad News for Elliot
I’m sure right now fago is getting the rest of our stats up.
The Ducks have been part of the league since ’03, and now, the two shitty years in ’06 and ’07 are the odd ones out, as we’ve posted a winning record for four straight seasons.
Our empire is so strong we absorbed the Owlz, the only team to finish a regular season with a better record than Elliot’s 22-2 or whatever they went this year, in their first season in the league.
We’ll have a chance to be the first team to repeat. I’m not sure anyone has appeared in two consecutive finals. Whatever, maybe the Warriors back in the day, or the Black Sox, maybe?
I’m pulling the for the Warriors in the Baseball Sub-division Championship series.
quack.
The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side take on Elliott in a series that once again has the top two teams from the Monongahela division represented. We were 0-3 this season against these guys and could have won all 3. Our bats need to heat up again to keep this going and we have practice tomorrow 7pm at Springview to do it.
quack
Jim Teyssier pitched a complete game shutout, striking out 9, while allowing just 3 hits and walking 2.
South Oakland scored its first run with two out in the bottom of the second, on three straight singels by Baumgartel, Smith and Gwin.
The Bulldogs left two men on base in the top of the third and would not threaten again.
In the bottom of the fourth, Fago walked, and pinch runner Tim Lipp stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error; he scored on Nick Berdine’s rbi single to left.
The Ducks will face Elliot in the finals on Saturday time and place to be determined.
quackquackquackquackquack.
