amateur baseball

Game Day 11, Ducks at Black Sox

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks

at

Brookline Black Sox

9pm

Moore Park

How the mighty have fallen.

kennypowers_B_SOX

These two storied franchises enter tonight’s game at Moore Park with a combined 3 wins between them, in a battle to gain ground on the 8th and final playoff spot.

The Black Sox sit at 2-6 in ninth place, while the 1-9 South Oakland Ducks look to climb out of the cellar with a win.

These games used to be for first place in the division, now we’re fighting for our post-season lives and the season isn’t even halfway gone.

Randy-south-park-302178_388_300

Sox 3rd base coach, Randy, is already getting mentally prepared for the game tonight

We’ve lost in every way imaginable, blown leads, close losses and ten-run drubbings, we’ve hit and not played defense, we’ve played defense and not hit. We’ve forfeited.

We can still make a run at it, but there’s not much margin for error. Luckily there’s a logjam at the bottom of the standings and we still have to play the teams in front of us.

One of the most fun seasons i can remember was 2008. We  had a huge turnover in our roster from 2007, and it took a while for us to come together. TC just took over as manager. We started 3-9, got on a roll and went on to finish 12-10-2 and sneak into the playoffs on the last day of the season.

Tonight is the start of a four game road trip that will determine whether we’ve been underachieving, or if we’re just bad. Maybe we’re just bad. That’s a definite possibility, but i still think there’s enough talent on our team to compete.

Tonight we face an old nemesis in the unfriendly confines of Moore Park and there’s no better place to turn our season around.

 We’ve dug ourselves a hole as deep as the mosquito filled woods behind the visitors bench.

Tonight we start climbing out.

Fago’s on the hill.

fago2

Bad news for the Black Sox

Look at all those Ducks!

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland looks to turn its season around with a stretch of four games in four days starting this Thursday night in Brookline.

Upcoming Schedule:

Thurs 9pm vs. Black Sox at Brookline
Sat 1pm Doubleheader at Cranberry
Sun 12:30pm vs. Militia at Woodland Hills HS

quack

Ducks Lose

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland (1-7) lost an 9-7 heartbreaker to defending champion Elliot (3-1-1) Wednesday night in Spring Hill.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first the Ducks broke out of their season long slump and put four runs across to take an early lead. Fago doubled in Gwin and Owens, Ciccone drove in Fago, and scored on a single by Ferko, I think.

Elliot answered with a six-run second, and added a run in the fourth.

South Oakland chipped away scoring one run in the third, fourth and fifth, and trailed 8-7 going into the bottom of the sixth when the Ducks had runners on second and third with no outs and couldn’t get a run across. Elliot’s relief pitcher struck out the side after a walk and a hit and a wild pitch started the inning.

Elliot added a run in the top of the seventh.

South Oakland had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh.

The Ducks next game is saturday at 5pm against the Militia at Beedle Park.

This was a tough one. We played a real good team close, but came up short.

We’re playing better, but we’re running out of time to get wins.

We have to go at least 10-6 in our last sixteen games at this point.

It’s possible.

One game at a time.

quack.

Game Day 7 Ducks at Cranberry

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks

at

Cranberry

5pm

North Boundary Park

South Oakland needs a win today. There’s not much more to it. Hopefully everyone shows up and we can put our best lineup on the field.

I think it’s going to start coming together for us, and if this team we’re playing can’t even come up with a team name they don’t deserve to win. Seriously just pick something.

Randy is probably starting, but who knows.

Bad News for Cranberry.

Ducks Probably Lost Monday

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

I left before it went final, but we were down 7-0 in the top of the seventh, and were being one-hit.

The Bulldogs scored five in the top of the fifth to blow it open.

So many walks.

There is some fantastic facial hair on the Bulldogs this year.

We’ve got to start hitting.

I’ve been using this generic icy hot, because i’m old, and my joints don’t work and this goop turns the inside of my uniform a brilliant bright blue and it doesn’t really help my shoulder and elbow that much but that blue color makes me wonder how toxic it is and if i’m perhaps going to have some kind of blood disease now. Man, would that be something.

The Ducks need some kind of spark real bad right now.

We need to play the Black Sox soon, because you can’t help but get fired up for those games when you walk across the broken cement bleachers, through the cigarette smoke hanging everywhere and drop your gear by the mud pit full of mosquitoes that smells like a dead dog that’s been rotting there since the last frost of winter. And maybe a Sox fan hitting one of our players with a half-empty empty gin bottle could provide that spark.

It seems like none of the teams in our league have any character anymore.  There’s no more shit talking and hatred and I miss it. Teams are too classy, at least outwardly. Even the Cherokee are only shady in the front office, and really i liked it when their catcher was giving us shit and we threw at him. Of course he scored and we lost but at least it was something exciting other than the blue stain on my shirt.  The Ducks certainly don’t have an identity right now, other than a team that doesn’t hit and usually gets good enough starting pitching to keep us in games, and that is a poor identity for a baseball team.

 We’ll see what kind of heart we have in the upcoming games as we edge closer to must-win territory. We’ll either come together and turn it around or it’s gonna be a long summer. I’m optimistic because that’s my nature and we have the talent, but sans gin bottle we need something/someone to light a fire under us.

South Oakland plays at Cranberry this Sunday at 5pm.

Quack.

Game Day 6: Ducks vs. Bulldogs

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks (1-4)

vs

Pittsburgh Bulldogs (4-0)

9pm

SpringView Field

South Oakland returns to the Duck Pond looking to end a 2-game losing streak against the first place Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs are coming off an 8-4 win against Cranberry, in which Jeff Trojan’s mustache was named player of the game after intimidating Cranberry’s coach into several questionable in-game decisions including an ill-advised double switch that left them without a left fielder for two innings.

The Ducks are still learning the names of all their teammates.

We have rostered players, still away at school, who haven’t taken the field for us yet. This makes it hard to get a good read on where we stand depth wise, but isn’t an excuse for a pretty poor start.

Plenty of teams are missing guys this time of year.

We need to string a few wins together. No better place to start than against a top-tier opponent.

Let’s turn it around tonight.

Rumor has it, Jesse Ferko will make an appearance for South Oakland.

Baconator’s on the hill.

Bad News for the Bulldogs.

Clinton Sweeps South Oakland, 10-0, 8-5.

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, pittsburgh NABA

Cherokee starting pitcher Jim Tessyier threw complete game, one-hit shutout in game one, allowing only 2 base runners. Clinton scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 5th to ten-run the Ducks.

South Oakland dropped a frustrating game two by a score of 8-5, and the team’s record now stands at 1-4.

During the game, Clinton’s manager’s back windshield was smashed out by a foul ball.

Despite the loss, the Ducks remain optimistic the team can put it together in time for a run at the playoffs.

We’ve got the pieces, we just need to keep grinding it out and the wins will come.

South Oakland plays next vs. the Bulldogs (2-1),  Monday night 9pm at Springview Field.

quack.

Game Day [4&5]: Ducks at Cherokee

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks

vs

Clinton Cherokee

2pm

and

4:30pm

Findaly Sportsplex

***

At least it’s not the middle of July and a million degrees out.

Really, it’s just great that the heritage of a Native American tribe from the Southeastern United States is being represented by an amateur baseball team that plays by the Pittsburgh International Airport.

Clinton lost to the Bulldogs earlier this year. Allegedly, after the victory, a prominent member of the Bulldogs made a bunch of subversively racist jokes and dated porn references directed at the Clinton fans and then took a shit in the Cherokee dugout.

“This may cause us to lose a field permit, but was well worth it,” said an anonymous Bulldog who witnessed the post game shit while raking the third base line. “You should have seen their coach whining about it. What a douche bag. Just play baseball and you won’t get shit in your dugout. The piping on those unis is pretty great, though.”

Clinton players were not permitted to speak to the press following the game, but were seen sunning wind sprints in the outfield while their coach cut himself in the bullpen.

***

South Oakland is coming off a shutout victory over the Militia, and is looking to keep up the momentum after a three hour drive down to Findlay.

Both teams will be missing a few starters.

Clinton is always tough on paper.

Last year the Ducks split the season series with the Cherokee.

 If we have our best nine, we can play with anyone.

Tensions could run high in this one.

depositphotos_6398100-Andrew-Jackson

Bad News for the Cherokee.

Ducks Win

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, Ducks win, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland improved to 1-2 on the season with a 3-0 win over the Monroville Militia, Saturday at Woodland Hills.

Ducks pitcher, Randy Patten, worked out of trouble early and threw a complete game shutout to improve to 1-1 on the season.

James Fago and Tj Morgan drove in runs for South Oakland.

Game 2 of the scheduled double header was cancelled due to rain.

Next up for the Ducks, a doubleheader against former Duck great, Ken Cool, and the Clinton Cherokee in Imperial next Saturday at 2pm.

I hear Clinton has sick new warmup jackets and alternate jerseys.

quack.

 

this team will not die…{EDIT: GAME Time changed to 5pm saturday, Beedle Park]

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

The Duck Pond is retired. The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side will not have a home field this season. I’ll miss it, but not really. bad hops on that field allowed me to hit over .400 for six of the last seven seasons and Spring View was host to some of the most dominating pitching performances in Ducks history. Hopefully i’ll have time to give it a proper send off at some point. I’m sure we’ll get a random rainout game scheduled there. the Ducks can’t thank the league enough for working with us to help keep the team swimming, and allow me to reuse all the sweet Baconator photoshops from a couple years ago. The Black Sox almost became the team to beat this season…

***

The TJ Morgan lead-South Oakland Ducks will open the season this Saturday 4/13

5pm

at Beedle Park

vs Day Toyota.

Buy American.

Quack.