It’s with humility earned through years of losing and almost winning that I write this rambling recap. It’s tempting just to posture for a whole blog post, but that wouldn’t do this justice.

We won the title and that speaks for itself. I have to much respect for Kenny and a hand full of his teammates (not all of them, obviously) to base this post on anything but our accomplishments rather than talk shit to the rest of the league.

That doesn’t mean it can’t happen in the comments section.

South Oakland entered the series with a 1-4 all-time post season record against the Black Sox, having lost the regular season series 2 games to 1. South Oakland was down three starters, and Brookline played without their left fielder and first baseman who are two of their best hitters.  Injured Ducks catcher Brenden Scioscia kept score, Ducks great Rob Swanger sat on hand to anxiously dip and add chatter. Both did a fantastic job.

The Ducks’ depth prevailed on Saturday.

Once again the season flew by like  a zeppelin, only this season it wasn’t the Hindenburg tragically bursting into flames at the hands of Kenny Powers and the Black Sox.

The proverbial Black Sox monkey has been fed the poisonous bandanna and made into a nice championship hat for Mark Guthrie to wear while he victoriously nurses his wounds accrued as a direct result of the viscous battle for the championship belt when he sacrificed his orbital bone to preserve the sanctity of the Ducks franchise and the Bat/Book family in the just ending to the story of the 2010 season and the legend of the bat.book family movie which is currently in production…

Joe, if we are no longer continuing the with the trophy, we should go with a belt.

Both teams made errors, but the Ducks prevailed behind timely hitting and fewer mistakes.

Three misplayed balls in the Brookline outfield led to runs in game two.

The Ducks outfield not only kept everything in front of them, but Cool’s catch saved the game.

Cool went 0 for 2 at the plate in game two but he didn’t let it effect his play in the field, he battled he helped the team win.

Jim Fago caught two games and recorded the final out on the mound for the Ducks.

And for all the fuss about a couple kids from Owlz , and the addition of  the college players [which was viewed by a vocal minority on the team as sacrilegious or some other holier than tho sanctimonius self-rightious bullshit, (and now that we won a title I will use that word on the blog again)] joining the Ducks, it was Mark Captain America Guthrie who made his first Ducks appearance in 2007, shutting down the Black Sox in the biggest game of his NABA career.

It was Jesse Smith getting on base and via-pinch runner Flip, scoring on Chris Wojton’s fielder’s choice and Wojton scoring what proved to be the winning run on Kenny Cool’s triple.  It was Casale making all the plays in the field and turning the lineup over in the nine spot.

I caught the ball in left and didn’t coach us out of the championship. I’m glad i could contribute.

Not even the umpirescould stop us.

My only regret is so many Ducks were on vacation or moved to the west coast at couldn’t be here for the win and the celebration.

Now for the recap:

Game 1 opened as a pitchers duel. Rob Cool was thrown out at second in the top of the first attempting to stretch a single into a double.

Tony Casale robbed an angry sock of a hit with a diving play to his right early on.

Another Sock lined out to Gwin in left with runners on first and third in the second inning. He voiced his displeasure.

South Oakland opened the scoring with four runs in the third.

Casale led off with a single and stole second. Lipp and Cool followed with back to back walks.

DeFilippo singled in two and Fago drove in a run with a sac fly.

Jesse Smith drove in a run with an RBI ground out.

That’s all the Ducks would need.

James Tessyier allowed one run in the bottom of the fourth. he finished with 5H, 1BB, 4Ks and 1 run over seven innings.

Taking game one was imperative. We carried over the momentum.

South Oakland led the series 1-0 and the smiths brought us food between games which gave us the energy we needed to sweep the series.  Mr. Smith justifiably said the blog was sub-par this season, but congratulated me on a solid blogging year in ’09.

Thank you to the Smiths and all our fans for supporting us all year.

GAME 2

Guthrie and his nemesis Peter Pan Chalfin squared off in the series pivotal game.

Guthrie recorded a 1-2-3 first with the help of a blown call by the first base ump which evened out the blown call by the plate ump.

Rob Baumgartel gave the Ducks and early 2-0 lead with a bases loaded double in the bottom of the first.

The Black Sox did not expect to be down early with Chalfin on the mound. It felt like they started to press.

The Sox scored an unearned run in the top of the third to close the gap to 2-1.

South Oakland added a run in the bottom half of the inning on James Fago’s RBI double to left which scored Anthony DeFilippo from third.

the score remained 3-1 Ducks until the bottom of the sixth when Jesse Smith singled with one out, and stole second via DeFilippo. Chalfin wisely walked Baumgartel to get to Gwin, but Gwin pinch hit Wojton for himself.

On a hit and run, Wojton ripped a ball ticketed for centerfield that was knocked down by a diving Matt Slavonic who stepped on second, but was unable to turn the double play. and pinch runner DeFilippo scored from second.

Big RBI for Wojton.

4-1 Ducks

Then Kenny Cool tripled to right field to give South Oakland a four-run cushion going into the final frame.

Guthrie allowed three hits and one earned run through six innings of work, holding Pittsburgh NABA legend Kenny Powers without a hit.

I wanted Guth to be on the mound when we won, but it was not to be. He still celebrated like a champion afterwords and he earned the win with a typical gutsy effort.

In the top of the seventh, an infield hit, an error and another single followed by a run scoring groundout cut the Ducks’ lead to 5-2.

One out and men on second and third top seven:

Florian hit a ball that would have gone out of any other ball park, but Rob Cool made a game saving catch at the wall and nearly doubled up the runner at third, but the relay hit the runner and bounced into the dugout. the runner was awarded home and the Ducks led by a score of 5-4 with two out an nobody on.

Fago entered the game to pitch. He walked Sloan who advanced to third when Golddust singled to right.

Two outs, runner on third Black Sox down by one.

Who would you want at the plate if you are a Brookline supporter?

Kenny f-ing Powers is who. Duck killer, and one of the best hitters our league has ever seen.

the 2-2 pitch was grounded to Lipp his throw was true and the Ducks won their second title, ending the seven year championship drought.

5-4 Ducks.

Game, Series, Championship.

NOTES

Tim Lipp and Tony Casale set the standard for unselfishness this season. Casale welcomed the move to second base when we brought on DeFilippo, and Tim Lipp, who starts at shortstop for DII Gannon University, played third base without issue. On this note, Rob “Baconator” Bamgartel also stepped up late in the season when i know he wanted to pitch more, and played a solid first base and hit the ball as well as anyone when it mattered most.

The team first mentality won us the title as much as Fago’s sexy biceps or any other individual performance.

Now we have all summer to talk about V-neck uniforms and continued celebrations instead of trying to figure out what went wrong against the Black Sox.

The relief and elation still haven’t quite set in.

It’s been hard work this year, and for seven years trying to get back to this point.

An anecdote comes to mind with this title:

Playing legion ball for the now defunct post 339 back in 1999, I singled up the middle late in a game in which we were being dominated, earlier i reached on a ball that I hit between second and third which the shortstop had to range deep in the gap, and when he came up he bobbled it and didn’t make the throw.

the late game single was a clean hit, the first clean hit of the game, and since the guy wouldn’t have had a no-hitter, i got credit for the first boarderline hit.

Had we lost, the Ducks first title would still count despite the sandlot state of the league in ’03, but by getting a clean hit in 2010, beating the best teams in the playoffs , (the Militia and the Sox, both of whom beat the Hurricanes in the oddly constructed playoff format) in what has become a far more competitive league than i could have ever imagined, we added more credibility to the ’03 title.

We are two time champs, it’s legit.

The South Oakland franchise  book-ended the trophy on Saturday. We have as many titles as any other team in the league, spanning the greatest number of years between titles.

No team has gone back to back and no team has won three  championships, but let’s enjoy this one for a while.

Talking with Scioscia and Flip after the game, what the Owlz lacked last year was unity and I’d like to think I helped bring this team togther when it could have become clique-y.  I thank TC Jones and Rob Cool for helping me with this.

Last year’s Owlz needed the Ducks as much as the Ducks needed the first year players, in order to win a championship.

The chemistry experiment was a success – far better than that time you tried to make your own LSD in that shady basement on Semple Street and wound up in Western Maryland four days later, shivering  naked in the back of an 18-wheeler rambling about the woods behind Moore Park.

Everyone is welcome back,players on this year’s roster have first rights to a spot on next year’s club as we start our title defense and we’ll fill in as needed. It is a consensus among everyone who celebrated at the Cool’s on Saturday night that maintaining chemistry is more important than overhauling the roster with bunch of former minor league players.

I’d like to thank my teammates/players for giving me the chance to play on a winner again.

quack.