I’m trapped, waiting for the UPS guy to arrive with my BWP order between 10:30 and 2pm. I’m sitting in my 3rd floor office neurotically peeking out the window every 45 seconds, terrified I will not hear the buzzer, as I suspect happened yesterday on the first delivery attempt..(gets up and looks out the window) — nope not the UPS guy. Anyway, How ’bout them Red Sox?

The game last night reminded me of this one from last June

I don’t claim to be a Boston supporter, in fact I’d like to see Tampa Bay win the ALCS, but I do have a contingent of Boston fans who are friends, guys who have cheered for Boston since the late 80’s-early 90’2 when they were bad, and I am happy for them when the Red Sox win. I’d enjoy a seven game series.

My sister, who was at game five (I asked her to wear Ducks apparel to the game, as she managed to score seats behind home plate and may have been on camera) lives in Marlboro Massachusetts and has happily taken on the Red Sox as her favorite baseball team, while retaining her loyalty to the Penguins and Steelers) which I think is fine since the Pirates have not tried to win since Wade Boggs was still a Sock. The Pirates front office doesn’t seem concerned with the team’s fans, or filling our city’s beautiful stadium with a team that can either win now, or is filled with young talent that is fast, exciting and could perhaps contend in the future their fans so I see no reason why adopting a relevant baseball team to cheer for should be frowned upon, as long as its not the Yankees. Hopefully some of the guys the Buccos received in the Bay/Nady/Marte trades respectively pan out and there is some legitimate reason for hope among the Pirates dwindling fan base. Plus living in the greater Boston area, life is much more pleasent when the local spots affiliates are winning, so when the Boston teams win, my sister’s quality of life improves, and that is something I am in favor of.

Oh, and the Phillies won, beating the Dodgers in five games.
I’m a Manny supporter. he was something like 8-9 with runners in scoring position in the NLCS.
He used to sleep in the batting cages overnight, wake up and hit outside sliders for hours. The hard work is evident in his production. He’ll be a Yankee.

Go Ghostbusters

Number nine is coming down from the rafters this Saturday, with Garrett Moore’s spot in the outfield vacated due to Moore’s shoulder injury and his current quest for Nirvana, his spot will be temporarily filled by former Ducks outfielder, Rob Swanger, who looks forward to the challenge of facing Bats ringer Ben Sorosky.

Text message from South Oakland Ducks’ head coach TC “Buttermaker” Jones, received by Ducks’ blogger and founder Ben Gwin– “Christian [Necheff] wants to be a Duck!”

If this holds true the rest of the league is Ducked next season.

Potential rotation listed in chronological order of hopefully heartfelt commitment.

Homa
Barchie
Necheff
Sorosky–c’mon, Benny it will be grand.

Bullpen
Guthrie
A.Smith
TC.Jones
{Shwartz??}

This is in addition to the Ducks’ acquisition of infielders Tony Casale and Mike Watson–both are sick.

Domination.

Bring on the Owlz

Rumor has it the Black Sox may have another off-shoot next year, and radical realignment is expected.

The Ghostbusters Ace Dr. Dan “Venkman” Morgan will take on the Crush and new Duck Christian Necheff tomorrow during the second game of the double header.

Game one vs. the Gray bats will be a coin flip (maybe literally) between A. Schwartz and A. Smith to see who gets the start. the other will follow in relief.

Back to my grad school applications.

Quack.

2009 Team of Destiny

I’d better post this before i forget the game entirely…

The Ghostbusters avenged an early season 6-5 defeat at the hands of the Gray Bats in grand fashion. Dr. Dan “Venkman” Morgan pitched a complete game shutout, and was the beneficiary of timely hitting and solid defense behind him, as the Avalon Ghostbusters beat the Gray Bats 10-0 in five innings, though the game unofficially ended in a 13-2 victory after seven innings.

Morgan worked out of trouble in the first inning, stranding Bats on second and third, and would later entice his Bulldogs rotation mate, Bats SS, BJ Rankin to ground into an inning ending double play. Morgan stopped a rally before it could start; picking-off an absent minded Gray Bat who had his head down after reaching on an infield hit in the third.

The Ghostbusters started the game with O.C. players Joe Graff, and Patrick in the corner outfield spots. Patrick and Graff added speed to the bottom of the lineup, and Patrick would score th Ghostbusters first run of the game on a stolen base and an error. The 1-0 lead was all Avalon would need on that day, but they would add 9 insurance runs. The offense finally came alive.

Watson and Casale each had two hits. And anchored strong infield play behind Venkman.

Gwin broke his one-for-the fall slump with a single and an RBI.

Vinny Gala ripped a two RBI single to left after refusing to take first base when plate umpire, awarded him first base on an apparent hit-by-pitch.

Scwartz promptly drove in 2 runs with an RBI single.

Moore would go 1-2 and reach on an error after long night of busting ghosts, casued him to over- sleep.

• The Ghostbusters are now 2-3 with a chance to get over .500 for the first time this season with the impending sweep of this week’s double header.
• Why is that one guy on the Gray Bats so angry all the time? the second baseman/Right fielder, relax. Someone needs to destroy him if they get the chance to break up a double play, then maybe he will have something to scowl and cry about.
• BJ’s fiance and Joe Graff are both jealous after Rankin made me his woman in the first game, I went 0-5 with 4k’s in a guest appearance for the OC, causing me to question my existence.
• 

• This week the Ghostbusters will probably get 4 innings of Rankin (above right, with “friend and teammate” Joe Graff ) and three innings of Alex Warren for the first game of the doubleheader.
• Why was Warren left in that game for seven innings? He’s a competitor and a good pitcher, but at he must have thrown around 150 pitches, too many for a fall league game, especially the last two innings that didn’t even count.
• Watson pitched a scoreless phantom sixth innin, and Casale allowed two runs in the unofficial seventh inning
• the game ended on a sweet play by Adam Smith, who played a solid, aggressive game at 3rd base after being inexplicably pushed into outfield duty for most of the season.
• Eric P. had solid game behind the plate, and after moving to the outfield, threw out a runner at second base in the seventh.
• We need bats.
• The Ghostbusters won despite playing without Adalino, The Keymaster, who is 5 for 9 on the season.

rumor has it there was a bear in his apartment.

Let’s win two this weekend.

Christian Necheff (sp.) pitched a complete game for the Orange Crush, allowing two unearned runs over seven innings, striking out upwards of 8 Ghostbusters to earn the win for the O.C.

(Orange Crush Team Photo)

Ghostbusters starter Alex Schwartz was the tough luck loser, allowing two runs, none earned, in three innings of work.

Tony Casale hit a two out triple in the first inning, but was stranded on third, when Vinny Gala hit a line drive right at someone– the Ghostbusters M.O. for the first four games of the fall ball season.

In the bottom of the first, the Crush had runners on first and second with one out when a potential inning ending double play ball turned into a two run error.

The Ghostbusters had the bases loaded in the bottom of the second but Necheff got the RingMaster strikeout and worked out of the jam when Ben Gwin Grounded out to O.C. second baseman, Joe Graff to end the inning.

Joe Graff, second baseman for the Blues, Bulldogs, and now the Crush, had an uncharacteristically rough game in the field. His mind was clearly somewhere else. perhaps still thinking about how torturous it was to have to play against life partner BJ Rankin in the first game of the double header.

The Ghostbusters defense kept them in the game, turning four double plays. Adam Smith pitched two scoreless innings for the Ghostbusters. In the bottom of the fifth Joe Graff tried to steal third base, Ghostbusters catcher, Garrett Moore, had other ideas.

Graff was thrown out at third, for the second out of a 1-2-5 double play. Strike ’em out throw ’em out. This was Garret Moore’s best inning as a catcher.
Joe was more distraught then when he heard BJ was getting married, to a woman no less.

No photoshop needed. They are a deadly double play combo.

The Crush would add another unearned run in the sixth, off relief pitcher Mark Kuhns.
Trialling 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh the Ghostbusters rallied. With one out; Vinny Gala and Eric P. singled, then Shwartz walked to load the bases. Ron Kuhns drove in a run with an RBI force out, and Mark Kuhns followed with a single.

The stage was set

The Ringmaster, who entered the game with an .800 average, came to bat with tw outs and runners on second and third, trailing 3-2, but Necheff finished the game with a strike out, and the Ghostbusters fell to 1-3 with the loss.

• Dr. Dan “Venkman” Morgan will get the start this Saturday against the Gray Bats.
• I’ve never been on a team that hit so many triples (3; Gala, Lee/Winston, and Casale) turned so many double plays, and still had a 1-3 record.
• The Ghostbusters (1-4) have lost two games by one run.
• These things have a way of leveling out, the pendulum will swing the Ghostbusters way again.
• I’m 1-for-the fall, this must change. I looked at my spring stats to remind myself I can hit and drive in runs. Here are the Ducks 2008: Stats
• Our middle infield is the best the fall league has seen this year.
• South Oakland Duck Adam Smith is pitching as well as I’ve seen him pitch in a while.
• Vinny is the best all-around first basemen in the Pittsburgh NABA.
  
• The atmosphere has been great so far.
• Watch out for the Ducks this spring…Team of Destiny ’09.
  

First, the game is at 11:30am not 9am, this Saturday at Pie Traynor

Naturally, the South Oakland Ducks Blog has spawned two off-shoots fall ball blogs, here is the second fall ball blog that has appeared in the wake of the Ducksblog: Orange Crush Blog

Since I have linked it here, it may actually get read. The writing is better than this site (actual journalism vs. the ramblings of a young man with a fiction writing degree), but it lacks video clips.