Ducks Win. 9-4

2014 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland won it’s first game of the season defeating the West View Wolfpack 9-5.

Tony Casale went 4-for-4. Brandon Culp went 3-for-4 with a double and four RBI. Matt Swetz hit a sweet double over some kid’s head. Jason Fetter pitched four innings allowing 1 earned run. Brian Strom allowed 1 run over three strong relief innings. Ducks pitchers combined to strike out nine wolfpacks, nine wolves? nine wolfpack? Whatever. I think West View only had four hits, depending how loose their book is.

We made fewer mistakes than they did, and looked pretty good all things considered. We’re going to score a lot of runs this season.

West View is a basically the old Matadors/Sharks. I don’t know how they scammed their way into that 8:30 John Herb time slot.

 

The game ended on a dropped third strike with the bases loaded. After the strike out,  the Ducks catcher, Anthony Ciccone, picked up the ball and stepped on the plate, to end the game, but  the Wolfpack batter ran to first for some reason and tried to run over our first baseman. Nice.

South Oakland plays next on Wednesday, 8pm at Springview Field.

Mike Brandt is going to live tweet the first few inning of the game before he leaves for work. I’m expecting great things. Also, we’ll have our uniforms.

Quack.

 

 

 

 

Contraction and Field Permit News

2014 South Oakland Ducks

News is the AA Ducks couldn’t get enough guys to commit, and wont have a team this season, which pretty much blows.

I want to thank TJ Morgan and Fago who helped keep the team afloat the last two seasons when it really looked like we were dead. Honestly, it’s a miracle the team didn’t fold in 2005.

There’s only so much you can do as a manager of a team to get players on board. You can’t make guys send you a check, and when you start fronting cash in this league, it’s a slippery slope.

I didn’t want to form a Single A team at the expense of the AA squad, and maybe that’s not exactly how it worked out but it feels like it, and I don’t like it. Basically, me and former Gray Bats legend, Ben Sorosky, put together the Single A team from scratch, working within the parameters of Single A eligibility. The only Ducks from last year that we had rostered throughout this process were myself, Gator and Garret Moore. I figured 3 guys wasn’t the end of the world, but who knows.

So there’s a new chapter in the poorly written annals (that’s annals, Trojan) of Ducks history. We’re joining the Warriors in Single A and prioritizing equal playing time above all else, and I’m excited to get started. 

Still, I’m going to miss playing against the Black Sox a lot. A whole lot.

After a brief hiatus, we have a permit for the Duck Pond again this year, however we won’t have to use the 9pm time slot, our home games will be Wednesdays at 7:45 at Spring Hill.

quack.

Quack Quack. Two Ducks Teams in 2014?

2014 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball, who names their team the Rebels?

Fuck this winter.

It looks like TJ Morgan is running the AA Ducks, and I’m running the single A Ducks. I’m still trying to find a loophole to allow me to play on both teams, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

The split should’ve happened in 2010, but no one on that team was going to step down and play in a lower division. Instead, a bunch of guys quit rather than take reduced roles. And, really, who wants a reduced role in a fucking summer league? No one. I strained some friendships over that mess, and I probably deserve it. Maybe I shouldn’t give as much of a shit four years later, but I’m obsessed with narrative–the story in this mess, and without conflict there’s no story. So I think about it.

This weather is making me sound depressed. Here’s a photoshop to lighten things up. Some of my best work!

2007WorldChamps-Rebels_photo_poop_2 copy

The A Ducks are shaping up pretty well. We have a bunch of guys from the Militia, and a few ghosts of South Oakland past returning. I think it’ll be fun. We will be competitive. If the pitching holds up, we should contend with the other sandbagging teams for a title. I think those are realistic expectations.

Morgan’s Ducks, will be nasty this year, too, if the pitching holds up. The Fightin’ Ducks, is what it looks like since everyone still has Ducks jerseys. Morgan does things the right way, and helped the franchise through a rough patch last season that saw a near folding of the team, and a collapse down the stretch and a ton of games in the middle of nowhere. It sucks to run a team without a pitching staff, and guys who won’t commit.

Teams that left in the offseason: The Militia. Elliot. Maybe one other one. This will be the Ducks 12th season.

If it wasn’t for Elliot, we could conceivably have won two or three titles in the last four years. We’d have won in ’11 maybe ’12. What would have been awesome, is if we played the Cherokee in the finals or semis two years ago. But this is some space time continuum shit. Whatever. Elliot made the league better. Not upset I don’t have to face Barnes again. They beat us 20-3 one game, the year where only divisional games counted towards our record so we punted that one and got slaughtered.

The Militia broke up, the team that was the Orioles, Knights, Gray Bats, and Rebels who left the Black Sox who were the Stampeders.

militia

With Monroeville disbanded, who will defend the league?

Not Captain America.

Guthrie retired. The last holdover from the TC Jones era, Guth beat the Black Sox to win our most recent championship. Guth went 6 1/3 innings on the mound in a 5-3 win in the clinching game then blacked out and split his chin open that night celebrating. Blood and cheap whiskey everywhere. That’s always how it ends.

Goodnight Captain.

Quack.

Some stuff…

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

I heard the Bulldogs got hosed in the finals, losing 2-1 to Jefferson Davis Toyota. I wanted the Bulldogs to win. Bummer.

The Cherokee off season conditioning program starts in a week. For the second straight year, Clinton lost in the playoffs. What a shame.

The league is going to look a lot different next year, I think.

Thanks to the Commissioner for running the league again.

quack.

 

Duck Eliminated from playoffs

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland is officially out of the playoffs, thanks to a shitty 9-15 record, and Cranberry picking up a forfeit win from West End.

This is our first losing season and first non playoff campaign since 2007.

I’m not sure how things are going to shake down in the offseason.

Ideally, next year, there will be a single A Ducks team, and we will take the top half of our depth chart and fill in the blanks to form a new AA team.

I feel like our 8-6 second half record reflects our talent level relative to the rest of the league, but our bad start killed us and attendance was an issue.

We lacked middle infield depth and pitching depth. You can’t win with two life time outfielders playing 3rd and 2nd in a must win game.

I will be very surprised if one of the top 4 seeds doesn’t win it this year.

What a disappointing season.

 

Ducks lose to Brookline, Beat West End.

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Ducks 2, Black Sox 7. This loss to the Black Sox was one of the worst i’ve been around for given the importance, the lack of players showing up for a do or die game, and then the six unearned runs we allowed. We left the bases loaded twice. At least we weren’t shut out.

We ended on a good note  at least by beating West End 7-6 on a walk off double by Anthony Ciccone. Guthrie scored from first on the play. Baumgartel pitched 4 scoreless innings in relief. We came back from a six run deficit.

South Oakland finishes the regular season with a 9-15 record.

We need Cranberry to lose their last two for us to back into the playoffs.

Ducks Lose.

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland lost 7-2 to Elliot in Elliot on Saturday.

Do or die time Sunday in a double header against Brookline and West End.

Game 1 is at Beedle Park at 2pm, Game 2 is at Herschel Park at 8pm

Two wins and a forfeit victory over West End for our game from earlier in the year will give us a 10-14 record. Not terrible after a 1-9 start.

 

Gamday 21: Ducks at Elliot

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Ducks

at

Elliot

6pm

Herschel Park

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Pittsburgh Standings as of  Sunday afternoon

We play 3 games in two days starting tonight against 2-time defending champion Elliot in Elliot.

We will have a forfeit win for one of our west end games, and play the other tomorrow night in a game that could be huge.

The Pirates have clinched a spot.

Carrick is technically still alive, but barely. (note: Carrick comes up as carsick in spell check)

Cranberry is falling fast.

The Militia went on a nice run as of late, but lost a tough one this morning.

The Black Sox play Carrick tonight, and still have to reschedule a game against the Bulldogs, before they play us tomorrow.

If we win-out we’re in.

Despite our respective records, we played Elliot close early this season, losing 9-7 and leaving a ton of guys on base.

Patten’s on the hill tonight.

Bad News for Elliot

A look at the standings

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

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5-11 seeds as of July 9th

Over the weekend the Black Sox lost to Jefferson Davis Toyota. Monroeville went 2-1, beating West End and Carrick, and losing to the Cherokee.

Carrick is all but eliminated unless they win their last two and two of the teams above them finish 8-16. They finish against Cranberry and Brookline, so hopefully they win those two.

Monroeville finishes with two against Cranberry and two against Pour House. They can end up anywhere from 10th to fifth.

The West End coach hasn’t responded to multiple attempts to reschedule our home date against them, nor has he reached out to reschedule the Ducks at West End game from earlier in the season.

It would be great to know what’s going on regarding the West End games.

The Militia play 3 games before we play Elliot on Saturday. If they win all three, we have to beat Elliot to avoid elimination.

It will be a huge disappointment if our game vs. Brookline on Sunday is meaningless, but a lot would have to go wrong for us for that to be the case.

quack.