Author: mightyeskimo

Gameday Sixteen: Ducks vs. Black Socks.

Gameday, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks(10-5, 3-1)

vs.

Brookline Black Sox (9-4, 4-1)

9pm

SpringView Field

I updated our about page,(there’s a nice synopsis of our team history there now) and while i thought about the significance of the Ducks, the Black Sox appeared at every run-on sentence. They’ve beaten us every way imaginable.

Last year’s playoff loss to the Sox was probably the best pure baseball game in Ducks history – ten innings, blah blah, Slavonic’s game winning hit etc.

They beat us when I coached, they beat us when Jones coached,  we’ve never won the division (even when we won our lone title when Ken Cool was only ten years old) and we’ve never taken a playoff series from Brookline.

This is the year that changes.

Brookline beat us by 8 or something in May, a game we played without Duffy, Casale, Scioscia,  Berdine, Ken Cool, Defilippo, Tessyier, Fago,  Lipp, Alex Harsh and…

Rob Cool Jr.

(pictured above with 2008 PGH NABA Championship Belt )

Subplots rip through seasons like scars, there’s a story behind each one. Adam Smith left for the Eagles, but no one really cares because the Eagles are still stuck in the cellar, despite the myriad of chart-topping hits they put out in the 70’s, Joe Walsh’s solid but inconsistent solo work, and the odd obsession with Don Henley among  several generations of adults with otherwise normal taste in music.

Smith and TC are best friends compared to Kenny and Rob.

I’ve taken anonymous comment heat for bringing in 4 players from the team that went 22-1 last season, and also  filling spots vacated by Spagnola and Adam Smith with Tessyier and Fago.

Our roster is big, but ask the Eagles how they like playing with eight guys and forfeiting every third game.

They only had four show up vs. the Militia, a division game and they can’t put a lineup out there. They should add Depo and Bob Faust.

What a joke. There are guys who want to get in the league and still, teams forfeit.

[Congrats to the Bulldogs for beating the Canes.

Vinnt Gala is the best first baseman in the league by a mile.]

Winning turns question marks into exclamation points, hyphens and other fun punctuation marks which can be made into faces and things, and the .079 hitting, ex-Ducks fourth string first baseman who was the most vocal in his closed-mindedness and unwillingness to take a back seat and welcome new teammates in order to win more games, is no longer a Duck.

The cancer is gone.  It’s ironic given that the way we’ve been blowing out teams, that the nameless douche bag would have played a decent amount of ball had he stuck around, but boy did he show me what a dick I am by not playing ball this summer, despite my attempts to get him on another team.

Transition.

***

V-neck City next year.

It is if some smart ass blog spent two years fucking with the best team in the league creating odd conspiracy theories about bird worship in an attempt to rally an undermanned squad against a superior opponent, and some retard took it seriously.

I shouldn’t say retarded.

Anyway, last year  Sox upset the most talented team in the league in the Wales Finals, swept them 2-0. No one expected it.

Imperial disbanded, and those players who didn’t flee to the fed league and parts unknown, joined either the Ducks or the Black Sox.

Warren, Sloan, and that other pitcher went to Brookline.  Ken and Rob Cool, Scioscia and Defilippo are Ducks.

The rivalry will reach new heights at 9pm tonight

This game is the culmination of eight years of South Oakland Ducks Baseball and seven years of futility against the Sox. This is the best shot we’ve ever had at a title and it hinges on winning tonight at the Duck Pond, and beating the Sox again whenever we reschedule that rain-out.

Ducks ace James Tessyier brings his perfect record and 0.37 era to the hill against Sox ace Peter “Pan” Chalfin who we beat once last year, and twice lost to by one run.

The Ducks have won six straight. The Sox won 20-1 or something today and beat the Eagles 6-1 over the weekend they have won four in a row.

Bring the Hate.

It’s time for a new order in the Wales Conference.

Bad News for the Black Sox.

game fifteen recap – Bring on the Black Sox: Ducks 7, Knights 2

pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Rob “Baconator” Baumgartel pitched five scoreless innings, Ken Cool had two blistering hits and the South Oakland Ducks made short work of a second straight A opponent, beating the Knights 7-2 on Monday.

The game we’ve all been waiting for is on the horizon. Our team was assembled with the goal of overtaking the Sox and winning the various titles at stake with the league’s current format.

Monday’s game is a playoff game.

Ducks/Knights recap:

After Baconator retired the side in order in the first, The Keymaster had some trouble throwing to second early in the game. The ducks sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning, and scored five runs in the opening frame.

Cinefra started the five inning first with a single, then he stole two bases, during Duffy’s at bat, and Rob Cool singled him home.

DeFilippo loves running for Fago and leads the nation in steals. He also gave us this quote during one  of the last two blowout wins:

“I wish we could just play the Black Sox every game.”

The Ducks stole seven bases in the first inning.

Rob Cool took home on a past ball or something.

Lipp drove in two, Ken Cool had an RBI.

Baumgartel worked out of a jam in the second, striking out three batters in the inning.

5-0 Ducks after two

In the third, Rob Cool doubled, Fago drove him in.

6-0 after three

If there is a sequence I’d like to define my career as a Duck, it would be one in which I am hit by a pitch, then break up a double play with a boarderline slide, allowing a run to score later in the inning.

That happened in the fourth when I was beaned in the head to load the bases with no outs.

Cinefra drove in a run with a sac fly.

7-0 Ducks after four.

Wojton would throw his helmet after he was caught stealing.

Nothin’ to #u&% with

In the top of the fifth there was a shot  towards the gap between first and second; Berdine was there:

Hands.

The Knights scored two unearned in the sixth.

Fago struckout the side in the top of the seventh.

7-2 Ducks. Game.

Our season is on the line Monday. We have to win our last two games vs. the Black Sox to have a chance at the Wales Division and the AA title.

To win the AA title we have to finish first in the Wales, then beat whomever finishes first in the Campbell in a best of three series.

The division winners each receive a bye and the # 1 and 2 seeding respectively in the league wide tourney at the end of the season.

Quack.

Gameday [15] Ducks vs. Knights

Gameday, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Let’s get this going again. It’s time.

South Oakland Ducks (9-5, 3-1)

vs.

Allegheny Knights (1-13)

9pm

SpringView Field

Back in the day, the Knights were stacked, but could never get over the hump: Barchie, Fago, Guthrie, Cool, Sorosky, Tremel, a bunch of kids from the Rakers, they were solid and constantly took the last playoff spot from the Ducks.  They played in a historic two-site playoff game involving rain delays and power outages in what amounted to a three day loss to the eventual league champion, Confederacy. They were the Orioles for a season, causing my dyslexic brain to hemorrhage whenever i had to differentiate between them and the Oilers (Phantoms, Pythons was also a toughie).

The Knights are one of 16 teams that has folded (in this case they’ve re-manifested as an expansion team ) changed names, or merged with another team since 2003.

The original Knights lineage since ’05:

Knights-Orioles-Knights-Rakers and _wlz-Gray Bats-Militia.

It’s not easy to keep a team going for eight seasons.

We should all take some pride in playing on the only team that’s been around since the league’s inception.

(Ducks all-time record now stands at 75-80-2, but are in the process of recording a third straight winning season.)

The 2010 Knights’ lone win is against 18A Division leader, Big Oil.

Since James Fago and James Tessyier have joined South Oakland prior to the Oilers game, the Ducks have won five straight.

Bad News for the Knights.

Game 14 Recap: Kenny Cool Coaches Magnificent Third Base En Route to Ducks Trouncing of Titans. Ducks 10, Titans 0

pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Ducks 10, Titans 0 (5)

This game doesn’t deserve a full recap.

It was hot and muggy. Pittsburgh in July.

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side  (9-5, 3-1) cruised to victory over the North Shore Titans (0-10) by a score of 10-0.

After an eight-run top of the first for the Ducks,  neither team seemed very interested. The exception being Ducks starter, Pitcher of the Year candidate, James Tessyier, who has allowed one earned run in 18+, and has pitched eleven consecutive shutout innings while playing a significant factor in the Ducks resurgence this season.

Tessyier (3-0, 0.38 ERA) pitched a complete game three-hit shutout striking out nine, walking none.

The Titans were half dead when we got there, and played like a blind man in a sauna: sweatily and with brail or something.

Their catcher almost died, literally, I think, of heat stroke or exhaustion; I suppose we can laugh about it now that he lived and played a decent game at first.

The replacement catcher ate sandwiches between innings and the game didn’t end till midnight.

What a shit-show.

I don’t know a lot about pitching, but the best coaches I’ve had always told our pitchers to work fast: Get the ball and get on the rubber.

It was like watching miniature giraffes fight over a bottle of Boone’s Farm out there.

The Titans can hit a little but defensively, several balls were misplayed- like a blind man in a sauna.

Kenny Cool coached his brother Rob to a 2 for 3, 4 RBI day at the plate that included a bases-clearing triple and a double.

DeFilippo (2), McCray, Baumgartel, and Fago had RBI for South Oakland.

Player of the Game: Kenny Cool.

South Oakland has won five straight, outscoring opponents 48-7 during the streak.

The Ducks take on the Knights at Spring View Field, Monday night at 9pm.

The Black Sox game can’t get here soon enough:

Gwin vs. Powers

Captain America vs. The Hulk

Les Gies vs. Randy

Rob Cool vs. that loud guy in the stands

Abe Lincoln vs. Vampires

Fago vs. Chalfin.

Ducks vs. Black Sox

Thick with sub-plotz.

First place and a shot at the AA title is on the line.

Monday, 6/28 at Spring View Field

That will be a baseball game.

Quack.

Gameday 14: Ducks at Titans

Gameday, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

at

North Shore Titans

5:30 pm

Bellevue Field

Ducks: We will wear our yellow, weekend day game away jerseys.

Titans footage:

I have no idea what to make of that.

Tessyier is on the hill.

Guth and Jones are reportedly in Vegas.

Godspeed.

Happy Father’s Day.

Bad News for the Titans.

Ducks Titans, Sunday 5:30, Bellevue Park

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

I know nothing about this team  except they are in the A division and were recently swept by the Maulers.

We’re catching them on the second half of a double header. They play the Maulers in game 1.

The Militia are facing federal prosecution for importing illegal Canadian immigrants and have lost two of three to the Sox and three straight division games.

The Black Sox are now in first place in the Wales Conference. If things play out as the rankings dictate, Brookline and South Oakland will play next Monday for first place and both teams will have won several games in a row.

Big Oil beat the Bulldogs 2-1 and squeaked out two, one-run victories over the Knights. I don’t even know what to deduce from that except what is already common knowledge league-wide.

They’ve got nothing without that lefty and they cheat.

THE HURRICANES! haven’t played the Bulldogs yet, but they lost by more than one to the Oilers, so it’s fair to say the Bulldogs will beat them, although, the HURRICANES!!!! Beat the Ducks by 7 and 10 runs respectively, and the Bulldogs only beat us by 4 so maybe they will play to a scoreless tie?

Either way, the Oilers should just be in the Campbell Conference and the Militia are basically fucked in the division race unless they sweep the Eagles, take the last two from the Ducks, and get help.

They will be officially eliminated if we beat them once more. They’d be able to finish no better than 5-4 in the division, and will lose tie-breakers to both the ducks and sox.

It’s shaping up to be a two-horse race for the division.

We will need the Eagles to beat the Black Sox if we don’t take the last two games from them.

Bring on Kenny Powers.

That’s gonna be some intense ball.

Not that we’re overlooking any opponents; that’s how losses happen.

Quack.