I was at this Phish show where they covered, Dylan’s “The Mighty Quinn”

The Ducks (4-7-1) have four days off before traveling to Pie Traynor field to play the Hurricanes (1-3). Naturally, following an entire week off, the Ducks play back to back games this weekend (sat. vs. Hurricanes, sun. vs. the Bulldogs (1-7). )
South Oakland is presented with a great chance to get back in the thick of the playoff race. Yesterday the Ducks learned they would be awarded a forfeit victory for an early season game against the Rebels, which was illegally canceled by the Confederacy. The retroactive win comes on the heels of a brutal three game losing streak.
With the W, South Oakland climbs out of the cellar and past the Rebels into fifth place, just two games behind the Eagles for the third and final playoff spot in the Monongahela Division.
The Ducks remaining schedule now consists of eight division games, and four games vs. the Allegheny Division, which consists of two teams with winning records and four teams with a combined three wins.
We should have seen this coming
Last season, the Monongahela division sent the sub-.500 Knights into the playoffs. This lead to an uproar from the Phantoms, who finished above .500, and in 4th place in the Allegheny Division, but did not qualify for the post-season. The current format has the top three teams in each division advancing, instead of an NHL-type format which would have the division winners seeded one and two, with the next four teams qualifying for the playoffs.
When the topic of playoff seeding was brought to the table in the off-season meetings, the vote was to keep the same format. Now, there are five teams in the Allegheny Division with one or fewer wins. Under the “division winners plus four” format, South Oakland would hold the sixth playoff spot. I doubt the Phantoms are whining about the seeding this season, as they sit 1/2 game out of third place, with a 0-3-2 record. There’s no reason for us to complain, we almost quacked into third place last year, despite being pretty bad.

In Regards to this weekend’s games, conspiracy theories, and bulletin board material.
The league expanded this season, the OwlZ, and their superfluous “z” were added to the Monongahela Division, and the Hurricanes were added to the Allegheny. The Owls, roster is full of NABA veterans, and small college players. The Hurricanes are struggling, I’m sure their roster lacks the “star power” of the Owls, who have Faygo, (a sick pitcher) and a bunch of kids from the RMU team who were league runners up, in 2006. Those guys have obviously played together before, they remind me of the Yankees from the Bad News Bears.

Bulldogs player, and league president Joe Graff, added the Hurricanes to the Bulldogs’ Division, and put the Owls in the Monongahela. Interesting…Of course this could be an attempt to even out the divisions, based on last years parity; add the better team to the softer division, and the team that’s weaker on paper to the division that was better top-to-bottom. What I would have done if I ran the league and had to deal with all the BS Joe does, put the worse team in my division. It also could have been an arbitrary decision.

Also, the League president and schedule maker, has pitted his team against the Ducks twice, when he could have chosen to play any of the other five Monongahela Division teams twice. Big mistake. Clearly he conspired with the Bulldogs front office and hand picked his team’s inter-division schedule, and the decided they wanted two games against South Oakland.
The Ducks were 1-1 against the Bulldogs last season.

The Bulldogs got jobbed in their game on Sunday. There was a terrible call that lead to the Black Sox scoring the go ahead run in the top of the seventh(made by the same guy who called Eric Lee out in our game), and (all other things remaining equal) the Bulldogs scored in the bottom half of the inning, they tied it up instead of winning, and went on to lose in extra innings.
The Ducks did not fare well against the Black Sox on opening day.

What’s really killing the Bulldogs is the pre-season injury to their best starting pitcher who was hit in the hand during batting practice, and lost for the season.
Brian Strom is a good ball player and a friend of mine, but he’d be the first one to tell you he’s no pitcher.

The table is set for the Ducks this weekend, we have to take advantage of a couple struggling teams and build some momentum. It’s great to be competing every game and to be playing exciting baseball, and we have to proud of that and optimistic that we can turn the corner. But if we can’t turn our improved play into victories, it will be nothing more than bittersweet consolation, when we look back on a season of near misses.

Quack, Quack.

In five of the teams losses, South Oakland (4-7-1) has had the tying run at the plate in the last inning, or has lost in the bottom of the seventh. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, time and time again. The improvement from ’07 to ’08 is only marginally represented in team’s wins and losses, the Ducks won nine games last year, but did not compete game in and game out, the way they have in ’08.

This weekend the Ducks play the Hurricanes at 3pm on Saturday, and the Bulldogs on Sunday. The two Allegheny Division teams have won three games between them.

It’s time for a victory montage to take us into late July, or we will be disbanded and moved to Florida.

South Oakland is 3-7-1, after a bitter defeat at the hands of the defending champion Monroeville Rebels. The Ducks were unable to take advantage of the short-handed Rebels who played the entire game without a right fielder. The Ducks lead 4-0 in the second and then Rebels’ starter, reigning MVP, Jesse Jones, settled down and held the Ducks scoreless for the rest of the game.

leading 4-3 in the top of the seventh, South Oakland had the bases loaded with two outs, and Ben Gwin, popped out to end the threat.
Nick Homa pitched five solid innings, allowing 2 earned runs, before turning it over to the bullpen. Relief pitcher Smith took the loss.
All of the Ducks hits were to the left side of the field, no extra bases were earned due to the huge gap in right field. the Rebels eight-man lineup allowed them to get the heart of their order quicker, but in the end it was their last batter who blooped the game-winning single into center field.
Kabby Everly had 4 RBI for the Rebels.
Jones didn’t seem to have the same speed on his fastball that he has in the past, but he is a tough competitor, and a smart pitcher, he recorded the complete game win for Monroeville.
I tip my hat, to him.
The loss drops the Ducks to last place in the Monongahela division
Still, hope lies within the remaining 13 games of the South Oakland season.

Ducks, We can still make the playoffs, if you don’t think so please hand in your jersey, I’ll come get it. For the second game in a row, someone has commented to me that this is the best the Ducks have looked in years. Despite all the errors, all the mistakes and all the close calls, we have in it unitl the last pitch in all but two games. There’s a lot of pride in this locker room.
Look at what the Rockies did last year, they won 24 straight. We can be the Rockies.
Our backs are really against the wall right now, but I wouldn’t want to be on any other team. We are lucky to be able to play ball all summer. We have a chance to be a part of something special here, and at 3-7 it’s all talk, but I can feel it and we are painfully close, we’ve been buying, Victory drinks all night only to see her go home with that douche bag frat boy at last call. From here on out we seal the deal, she’s ours.

The sun’s gonna shine on our back door some day.

Bullet points

• The Rebels and Matadors played in last year’s championship. We beat the Matadors, and lost to the defending champs on the last play of the game.
• The rest of the division will beat each other up, we can go on a run.
• Another wasted quality start.
• Les had his best game at the plate this season, he went 2-3. It is because his parents read this that the blog is not laced with profanity.
• If it were anyone else who popped out in the seventh, with the bases loaded, I’d tell them it wasn’t their fault we lost the game. I’m sure there are a few of us who feel we left some runs out there, or could have made another play in the field. I’m not the only one who feels like they’ve been punched in the sack.
• At least our team name isn’t the Rebels.
• It is possible I was beaned in the first inning because of what I wrote about the Rebels last week. Perhaps, I overestimated their collective sense of humor. I’ll take that trade-off every time, a hit-by-pitch, and a stolen base is as good as a double. If their pitcher wasn’t a good guy, I would have charged the mound, then I would have been ejected along with the pitcher and they would have had 7 players.
• I’m open for suggestions on how to get hit by the Hurricanes pitcher, if anyone else wants to post anything I will email you the log-in information.
• After starting out 1 for 12, the Ducks’ first baseman is 8 for his last 13.
• Koby has a cannon, and a good arm.
• Our relief pitcher, Smith, is probably somewhere in the murky, dark place between suicide and homicide. If I get that hit in the 7th he gets the win, he’s had terrible luck. I just hope he doesn’t get too down, there is a lot of baseball yet to be played and he will come up big for us down the line.
• This hurts. Remember the pain, harness it, take it out on the Hurricanes.
• Believe.
• I have Monday and Wednesday off if anyone wants batting practice.

The Ducks travel to Avonworth High School Field to play Rebels today, at 3:30 pm

On June 15th, 1988, the movie Bull Durham made its debut.
Happy Father’s Day, Dad. thanks for not being an insane Little League parent, who fought with umps and coaches and such.
A bit about my dad, He coached my Little League teams from ages 7-10, and then again from 13-15. We won a championship in 1991, but my dad says his best moment as a coach was when he put a nine year old with cerebral palsy at second base, late in a close game.

Bad news for the Rebels

One more hit and one less error, that’s been the story in four of the Ducks losses, which have been by three runs or less. The Ducks (3-6-1) season hangs precariously on the brink of irrelevance after a tough loss to their inter-division rival, The Warriors (6-2).

For the second time in two games, the Ducks brought the tying run to the plate in the late innings, only to come up short. Early on, the game was a small-ball contest, both teams sacrificed, stole bases, and played solid station-to-station baseball. Mark Guthrie gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead, in the bottom of the first, when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the first inning.
The Warriors took a 2-1 the lead in the top of the third on one of four Ducks’ errors. South Oakland evened the score in their half of the inning on a double steal, run-and-hit, when Guthrie drove in Ryan Novak.
Then Warriors’ catcher Craig Boley made an appearance, footage below.

The Ducks gave the Warriors two more runs on a botched pick-off attempt at second base, and the Warriors lead 4-2.

In the bottom of the fifth it looked as though the Ducks had figured out Warriors’ stater, Overbaugh. Gwin lead off the inning with a ground rule double, when his shot to the wall lodged in the fence, it was almost the first triple in the history of Spring View Field. Then Ducks’ catcher Jesse Smith hit a 2-0 fastball over the fence into some lucky family’s backyard, but that would be all for the Ducks that inning. Going into the top of the sixth the game was tied 4-4.

Homa had pitched a solid game to that point, allowing only two earned runs, he must have thrown about 90 pitches, if the Ducks had made a few plays behind him 90 pitches might have been enough to finish off the game. On this night, it was not enough. The Warriors opened the inning with four straight ground ball hits, and Boley’s line-drive single off the fence. That was enough for Homa, who was pulled with the Ducks trailing 5-4. Mark Guthrie relieved Homa, and after allowing a single, before he induced a 9-2 double play fly-out to Chris Wojoton. 6-4 Warriors with two outs. Then a dying line drive to center, off the bat of Steve Heckman, barely escaped Eric Lee’s diving grasp, and plated two more Warriors.
The stage was set for another Ducks’ comeback, but it slipped through their feathers in a series of base running miscues. Eric Lee lead off the inning with a single, then Garret Moore moved Lee to third when he reached on an error. TC “Buttermaker” Jones added a pinch hit RBI, on a fielder’s choice. Moore advanced to second, TC was out. Then KT Murphy, added his second hit of the game, and infield hit to deep short. Instead of having the top of the order up with one out and runners on first and third, Moore tried to score from second on the play and was out by a step. Then Chris Wojoton walked, and with two outs, Gwin worked the count full, the lead runner did not take off with the pitch, and did not score when Gwin singled to left.
The Ducks trailed 8-5 with the bases loaded, and the inning ended with a blistering ground-out to short. two feet to the left and it’s a one run game. So it goes. The Ducks would not threaten in the seventh.

Along with Brent Heintzelman’s solid 2-3 performance at the plate, Boley was the only Warrior to really hit Homa hard, going 3-3 with a double and a single off the wall . Steve Heckman went 3-4 and only hit one ball out of the infield, a single to center, he has the keen ability to use his mind to put a certain spin on the ball which results in the perfect swinging bunt, he also bunted for a base hit. He hustled, he beat a couple throws by half a step.
see the Warriors-biased recap of this game at Steveheckmanonline.com

Bullet Points

• We can beat any team in the league.
• Our next three games are against the Rebels, Hurricanes, and Bulldogs, they have a combined three wins as of today.
• The Rebels game this Sunday is a must win.
• As a catcher there is no greater feeling than being run-over, and holding on to the ball, Jesse made such a play for the second half of a key double play, after hitting a 2-run bomb earlier in the game.
• With Lee and Wojoton out there, we have two of the best arms in the same OF in the league.
• The Ducks have already tied last year’s team HR mark, with 3: One apiece from J.Smith, Wojoton, and Novak. Last year it was Oliver with 2, and I think Rick had one.
• I love chewing tobacco….318 and rising.
• The Ducks’ second base rotunda continues to whirl.
• KT has reached base safely in five straight AB’s.
• There are some teams in this league which I despise, the Warriors are not one of them. This game was up for grabs the whole way, and they made one less error, and had a slew of infield hits. They didn’t pull any cheap stuff either. It was smart baseball all around, aside from a couple key errors.
• If I were Homa I’d be pretty frustrated after this one. Again, he did his job and put us in position to win.
• Jim From CMU hit a solid line drive right at the second baseman fro a double play, if that one gets through maybe the wheels fly off the Warriors in the third, that’s bad luck. That’s baseball. Jim is a solid clubhouse guy, who takes a very logical approach at the plate.
• At least Garrett was on base to make the ill-advised attempt at home plate, 80% of the teams in this league throw that ball away, Baker, and Boley made the play.
• Garrett’s base running error was bad, but it was an aggressive mistake, not a bad one to make early in the game, but we, as a team, have to do a better job of knowing situations.
• I make base running mistakes too. I was playing in the NABA World Series in 2005, bases loaded, no outs, I was on second. hard grounder to third, the guy throws to second for one, and the double play is turned, I kept running and was thrown out at home for the third out of a 5-4-3-2 triple play. I killed that rally.
• Congrats on Craig Boley, who is getting married
• Congrats to Heckman and Lesher, on their pending Civil Union…Balls deep indeed.
• MMMMMAAH.

We have five days off until we play the Rebels. I will post probably every day this week. We can not lose this game on Sunday, the state of the Union depends on it.

Jefferson Davis; Rebel leader, racist.

This video worked last time.

Also, how does everyone feel about calling TC, “Buttermaker” ala the coach from The Bad News Bears?

Note: I had the 3,000th hit on the Ducks NABA home page.

Tonight it’s gonna be bad news for the Warriors.