Gameday

Gameday 14: Ducks at Oilers

2017 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (9-4)

at

Hebrew Oilers™ (6-4)

8:30pm

Moore Park

Game two of the 2nd annual Branden Chartier Memorial Spring Hill Scooter Series will take place at historic Moore Park. This neutral site contest will determine if the Oilers claim the scooter, or if the Ducks retain the trophy and set up a rubber match whenever our rain out from May is rescheduled.

I love playing at Moore Park. Can anyone confirm whether or not it was constructed as park of the New Deal?

Also, Did someone charge the mound in a league game a couple nights ago? My typically inaccurate sources claim there may have been an incident. Feel free to speculate wildly in the comments sections.

A win tonight will go a long way to helping us secure a first round bye. We need to get some separation from the pack. Patten is on the hill for South Oakland in a grudge match against his former team. We are probably going to face some recently DFA’d Pirate.

Bad News for the Oilers

 

 

 

 

Gameday 10: Ducks vs. Bandidos

2017 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (6-3)

vs

Bakery Square Bandidos (5-3)

9PM

Spring View Field

South Oakland looks to regain sole possession of third place with a win tonight vs Bakery Square. The Oilers (6-2) beat the Eagles (8-1) yesterday, setting up a potential log jam at the top of the division.

The Ducks are only two games out of first with two remaining against the Eagles, and two left against BIG OIL, but the rebooted Dirty Birds figure to be in the hunt down the stretch as well.

The Bandidos franchise won the A title in 2014 as the North AAmerican Lions. Then changed names, dropped some players, and won AA title two years ago as the Mon Valley Dirty Birds, then suffered through a dismal regular season in AAA that culminated in a playoff win over Ken Cool’s brother’s team in the playoffs. Then they split with half the team joining Clinton, and the other half starting the Bakery Square team. It would be funny if they won the title this year and had to keep repeating the process.

The Bandidos franchise arc is one that we may see play out again in the current league format that has the AA winners move up into AAA.

In 2014, the Ducks dropped from AA to A. That season the Rebels, Eagles and Devils moved up. They went a combined 19-52 that season, with the Rebels posting the best record at 9-15. South Oakland went 17-6, and that was the most fun I’ve had playing baseball.

The Devils allowed 196 runs that season. The Bulldogs, who finished first in the regular season, allowed 66.

in 2015, we went to three divisions, which allowed the WOLFPACK to skate by without having to play against the AAA teams after winning the A title over the North American Lions after the Beedle Park incident in Jefferson Hills allowed West View to reschedule the semi-final against the Ducks which lead to one of the most frustrating playoff losses in Ducks history. The following season most of AAA dropped down to AA, leaving 5 teams in the top division, and forcing inter-league play, which was pretty shitty.

In 2016 the Dirty Birds moved up and finished 6-18, which brings us back to this season, and the Rebels in AAA, who should stay there so we don’t have to play on that shit field at 6pm on a weekday.

So that’s some stuff that happened in our league over the last few years.

I hope it doesn’t rain tonight.

Bad News for the Dirty Birds

Gameday 7: Ducks at Sorcerers

2017 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, pittsburgh NABA

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (4-2)

at

Wexford Sorcerers (0-0)

12pm

North Allegheny Intermediate High School

South Oakland looks to rebound after a tough loss to the Eagles when they take on Wexford today at noon.

Wexford hasn’t played a game yet, and they’re new to the league this year. Who knows what’s up with this team. I think they’re young. Their coach seems like a decent guy from the league meetings.

If you have the balls to name your team the Sorcerers, you’re either going to go undefeated, or be absolutely terrible. I don’t think there’s much of a middle ground in this regard.

Here’s what comes up when you google sorcerers baseball.

Lots of disney hats and a few girls softball teams. Also a picture of this game:

Who’s still got a Dreamcast? I remember this game for  Sega Genesis. Solid non-EA Sports baseball action. So thank you, Wexford, for allowing me to find this image. Sweet green helmet and batting gloves on that guy, love the two-stripe cleats that don’t violate the Adidas trademark.

Here’s a thirty minute video of this game on youtube:

Bad News for the Sorcerers

Gameday 6: Ducks vs. Eagles

2017 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (4-1)

vs

South Side Eagles (3-0)

9pm

Spring View Field

The Ducks look to win their fifth straight tonight when they play the undefeated South Side Eagles.

These games are always close. We beat them by 2 in the playoffs last year, like 13-11 or something. I assume tonight’s game will be lower scoring, but also close.

I still remember when the Eagles had a left shortstop who also pitched and had this huge looping curve ball that was pretty good. That was in like 2007. The Eagles franchise has been around for a while. Ducks pitcher Adam Smith defected one year to play for the Eagles in 2008, which intensified the rivalry between the clubs and between him and one time Ducks manager and pitcher, TC Jones.

I don’t know. Since the early days, the eagles haven’t really had much of an identity other than the team that can hit. Ducks and Eagles were in different divisions for a while after the A – AA split, and then again, I think, after the second reshuffling when the Ducks dropped down, the Eagles moved up which has made it hard to develop much of a rivalry.

That guy with the mouth piece sure fucking talks a lot though. However their coach makes sweet bats. Cancels out I guess.

We have a chance to put some distance between us and the middle of the pack and put some pressure on the Oilers and the WOLFPACK! and the Bandidos who are surprisingly 1-3, but I think are going to be good.

55 is on the hill tonight.

Bad news for the Eagles

 

 

Gameday 3: Ducks at Hebrew Oilers LLC

2017 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (1-1)

at

Hebrew Oilers (2-1)

6:45pm

Mellon Park

Spring Hill Scooter Series, Game 2.

Last season, a scooter that was thrown on top of our dugout from the area near the basket ball court by a Spring Hill kid. We kept the scooter. Since then, the winner of the Ducks/Oilers regular season series is awarded the scooter and keeps it for the following season. South Oakland took 2 of 3 from BIG OIL in 2016, but we lost to them twice in the playoffs so, maybe it’s not a great indication of post-season success.

The Oilers beat us 7-1 in a rain-shortened game on opening night. If they win tonight, the scooter is theirs.

We are going to be short our entire starting infield tonight. Our depth will be tested.

Bad News for the Oilers

 

Gameday 2: Ducks vs Oilers

2017 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

vs

Hebrew Oilers

9pm

Spring View Field

It only took a week for the first player scandal of the season.

Apparently the Oilers brought in a former minor league player to pitch for them this summer. Seems surprising given their managers concern for the competitive balance of the league as expressed in the winter meetings when he complained about the prospect of the WOLFPACK! and the 2 Dirty 2 Birds: Return of the Bandidos rostering Division III college players.

Save the fucking sanctimony about how West View hurt your team’s feelings if you’re gonna bring in some dude who is obviously a ringer.

This is the most BIG OIL move I’ve ever seen. The fucking yuppie, white collar team brings in essentially a Dominican refugee, in an attempt to make up for the fact that their team is soft. Soft as cotton.

This explains why they wouldn’t play us on back to back nights. This dude can only pitch one of those days. I didn’t press the issue as the Pens were on last night.

The Oilers are scared.

Maybe three guys have any heart on that team, as much as I love them as human beings. Seriously though, just embrace being villains as far as the league is concerned because there’s no way around it. Get your fucking neoliberal councilman to throw out the first pitch across from Google in God awful Bakery Square and flout your Asian players and your nice unis, then he can go back to helping our mayor force Pittsburgh’s working poor into Penn Hills so ya’ll can bike to work without having to look at them.

So, where does that leave us?

I am excited for the opportunity. If you’re not pumped about the prospect of playing against a pitcher this good, you should go join PSL, or see if the Oilers will take you.

We have the opportunity to beat a team that thinks it’s going to cruise tonight because they networked their way into a stud pitcher. We are throwing an ex-Black Sox, ex-Oiler, and one time Duck junk baller who is already telling me he doesn’t want to come out of the game.

We haven’t seen live pitching yet, so should be a good test off the bat to see where we are hitting wise.

Here is  GIF in honor of the Undertaker.

Bad news for the Oilers

 

 

 

Gameday 21: Ducks vs. Cranberry

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (11-9)

vs

Cranberry (7-12-2)

9PM

Springview Field

Tonight is throwback night in Spring Hill. The Ducks will wear uniforms representing teams across 14 seasons of the Pittsburgh NABA. I think Cranberry might breakout their inaugural 2010 unis for the event as well.

The Ducks look to bounce back from a bad loss in Shaler Monday night. Cranberry has an impressive two ties on the season.

There’s a log-jam in the 2-6 spots in the standings. We’ve got to get a couple wins down the stretch here and we tend to play better at home.

I haven’t seen our best hitter in like a month, but we have a lot of guys who can step in and contribute.

bad news bears

Bad News for Cranberry

 

 

Gameday 18: Ducks vs. Express

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

vs.

Carrick Express

6PM

Springview Field

The Ducks look to bounce back after a tough loss at the hands of the Devils and get back into the thick of the division race today.

This is only the second non-night game we’ve played at Springview. It will be a whole different experience, I’m’ sure.

We have won two, one-run games against Carick this season so it figures to be another close one tonight. A win will give us the season series win and the first playoff tie-breaker over the Express. With the standings as close as they are, tie-breakers are likely going to figure in to playoff seeding and avoiding the play-in game is huge.

Injury update: Pittsburgh NABA all-time leader in hit batsmen and current Ducks RBI leader, Brian Strom, is out indefinitely with what appears to be a dislocated thumb. He made a diving catch last game in the second inning, popped his thumb back in and finished the game.

Strom will be with us in spirit.

KellyLeak_cig

 Bad News for the Express

 

 

Gameday 18: Ducks vs. Devils

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (10-7)

vs.

South Hills Devils (5-11)

9PM

Springview Field

We are responsible for 40% of the Devils’ wins this season with a 1-2 overall record vs. South Hills. Pitching is thin for us tonight, but they’re coming off two games this weekend too, so it should even out. Who knows. We need someone to step up.

bad_news_bears1

Bad News for the Devils