Month: March 2014

Contraction and Field Permit News

2014 South Oakland Ducks

News is the AA Ducks couldn’t get enough guys to commit, and wont have a team this season, which pretty much blows.

I want to thank TJ Morgan and Fago who helped keep the team afloat the last two seasons when it really looked like we were dead. Honestly, it’s a miracle the team didn’t fold in 2005.

There’s only so much you can do as a manager of a team to get players on board. You can’t make guys send you a check, and when you start fronting cash in this league, it’s a slippery slope.

I didn’t want to form a Single A team at the expense of the AA squad, and maybe that’s not exactly how it worked out but it feels like it, and I don’t like it. Basically, me and former Gray Bats legend, Ben Sorosky, put together the Single A team from scratch, working within the parameters of Single A eligibility. The only Ducks from last year that we had rostered throughout this process were myself, Gator and Garret Moore. I figured 3 guys wasn’t the end of the world, but who knows.

So there’s a new chapter in the poorly written annals (that’s annals, Trojan) of Ducks history. We’re joining the Warriors in Single A and prioritizing equal playing time above all else, and I’m excited to get started. 

Still, I’m going to miss playing against the Black Sox a lot. A whole lot.

After a brief hiatus, we have a permit for the Duck Pond again this year, however we won’t have to use the 9pm time slot, our home games will be Wednesdays at 7:45 at Spring Hill.

quack.

Quack Quack. Two Ducks Teams in 2014?

2014 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball, who names their team the Rebels?

Fuck this winter.

It looks like TJ Morgan is running the AA Ducks, and I’m running the single A Ducks. I’m still trying to find a loophole to allow me to play on both teams, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

The split should’ve happened in 2010, but no one on that team was going to step down and play in a lower division. Instead, a bunch of guys quit rather than take reduced roles. And, really, who wants a reduced role in a fucking summer league? No one. I strained some friendships over that mess, and I probably deserve it. Maybe I shouldn’t give as much of a shit four years later, but I’m obsessed with narrative–the story in this mess, and without conflict there’s no story. So I think about it.

This weather is making me sound depressed. Here’s a photoshop to lighten things up. Some of my best work!

2007WorldChamps-Rebels_photo_poop_2 copy

The A Ducks are shaping up pretty well. We have a bunch of guys from the Militia, and a few ghosts of South Oakland past returning. I think it’ll be fun. We will be competitive. If the pitching holds up, we should contend with the other sandbagging teams for a title. I think those are realistic expectations.

Morgan’s Ducks, will be nasty this year, too, if the pitching holds up. The Fightin’ Ducks, is what it looks like since everyone still has Ducks jerseys. Morgan does things the right way, and helped the franchise through a rough patch last season that saw a near folding of the team, and a collapse down the stretch and a ton of games in the middle of nowhere. It sucks to run a team without a pitching staff, and guys who won’t commit.

Teams that left in the offseason: The Militia. Elliot. Maybe one other one. This will be the Ducks 12th season.

If it wasn’t for Elliot, we could conceivably have won two or three titles in the last four years. We’d have won in ’11 maybe ’12. What would have been awesome, is if we played the Cherokee in the finals or semis two years ago. But this is some space time continuum shit. Whatever. Elliot made the league better. Not upset I don’t have to face Barnes again. They beat us 20-3 one game, the year where only divisional games counted towards our record so we punted that one and got slaughtered.

The Militia broke up, the team that was the Orioles, Knights, Gray Bats, and Rebels who left the Black Sox who were the Stampeders.

militia

With Monroeville disbanded, who will defend the league?

Not Captain America.

Guthrie retired. The last holdover from the TC Jones era, Guth beat the Black Sox to win our most recent championship. Guth went 6 1/3 innings on the mound in a 5-3 win in the clinching game then blacked out and split his chin open that night celebrating. Blood and cheap whiskey everywhere. That’s always how it ends.

Goodnight Captain.

Quack.