Ducks

Ducks Split 2 Games Last Week

2015 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

On Tuesday night, South Oakland of the North Side lost to the Shaler Rebels, 11-9, in a game they lead 8-4 after three and a half innings.

A combination of walks, hitbatsmen and errors led to a seven-run fourth inning for Sahler. The Ducks could not recover. South Oakland left the bases loaded twice and had the tying run at the plate in the top of the seventh.

Pat Dipaola hit a 3-run homerun in the loss and pitched 3 scoreless innings. Culp had a great game in center field, making an over the shoulder catch at the wall, and throwing a guy out at home. Donnie hit a ground rule double.

That team could hit a little bit, but we should win games in which we score nine runs. The defense has not helped out our pitching thus far.

abraham-lincoln-antietam-battlefield

On Wednsday, The Ducks beat the Maulers 6-1 in Spring Hill. Andy Nichols and Ben Phillips (2-0) combned to allow 1 run over seven innings. Nichols pitched the last four, and I think he allowed 2 baserunners. Culp hit a three-run home run over the house beyond the left field fence. I’ve never seen a ball hit that far at Spring Hill. We played better defense in this one.

Ducks firstbaseman and DH, Eric Tuomisto went 6-for-6 with a walk over the two game stretch. I don’t think he’s gotten out yet this year. Mike Brandt and Ben Sorosky both have 2-game hitting streaks. TJ Morgan was hit by a pitch.

To summarize: We can hit, but we need to play better defense. Our fifth guy off the bench is probably batting .400 right now. And, I swear, the big roster will payoff when people start going on vacation.

RIVER MONSTER

South Oakland (2-2) next plays on Wed. 5/13 at home vs. the resurgent BIG OIL who beat the first place Dirty Birds last week. The Hebrew Oilers (2-3) are led by a couple former Ducks. It should be a fun game.

Note: Jeremy Barchie may have re-retired after blowing his arm out again. We are willing to offer him a one-day contract so he can finish his career as a Duck.

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Ducks Even Record With Win in Greenfield

2015 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, who names their team the Rebels?

South Oakland of the North Side defeated the Single A Bombers (2-3) 15-1 in five innings last Wednsday at Magee Field.

Culp went yard. Mike hit two doubles. TJ Morgan hit a triple, Galvanek and Dover both doubled off the wall. We turned two double plays, and Ben Phillips (W, 1-0) and Brian Strom combined to allow 2 hits over five innings.

Ducks Pitcher, Brian Strom hit a batter extending his consecutive outings with a HBP to 65, a national record that spans his eight years in the NABA and includes post season games.

This was basically the opposite of our first game. I’m glad the Bombers at least didn’t have to drive an hour down 51 to lose like that.

After two games, the Ducks (1-1) have played 7 2/3 innings of baseball, scored 17 runs and allowed 18. Tuesday’s game figures to be a pitcher’s duel.

This week, South Oakland opens league play against the Rebels, in the dreaded Tuesday, 6pm time slot at Stoneridge Field in Shaler.

Notes on Springview Field:

Apparently, the Duck Pond was vandalized. The mound and home plate area had to be ruined before the city took any action to make it playable. According to sources close to the team, the field is now in great shape and will be ready for out home opener this Wednsday.

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Ducks Open at Jefferson Hills, Sunday at 6pm

2015 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland will start its season Sunday, April 26th, 6pm at Beedle Park against one of the top teams in AAA.

This will be a strong test right out of the gate for a retooled Ducks team that looks to challenge for a title this season.

Notes: In an odd turn of events, South Oakland lost a great one when team lawyer and super-utility player, Anthony Ciccone, defected to play with his cousins on BIG OIL. In the end, their pockets were just too deep. The Oilers are currently 0-2.

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Three Divisions

2015 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, NABA, pittsburgh NABA

The league moved to three divisions. We will be in the middle division. Teams in Double A will play regular season games against every team in the league. All games will be weighted equally. Playoffs will be seperated by division.

I’m excited for the chance to play against the best teams in the league.

The games against the AAA teams will help prepare us for playoffs, and the games agasint the A teams will allow us to get everyone playing time. The Double A Division will be tough.

Big picture wise, this will allow more teams to have more competitive games and allow everyone to compete for a championship in their respective division.

I wonder how teams will set their rotations against the upper and lower level teams. Do you punt games against Jefferson Hills to save arms for when you face the WOLFPACK, or the Express? There’s another element of stategy added now with the unbalanced schedule. It should be interesting.

Discussions got heated today in the league meeting. It was pretty hilarious. The New Lions team guaranteed a win against Clinton. I love the confidence.

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Long Read: Season Scheduled to Start Week of April 18th and Other News

2015 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, NABA, pittsburgh NABA

Ducks: Uniforms have been ordered. Register on the league site ASAP. Send me money. Make checks payable to Pittsburgh NABA.

I trust you have all been training since August and are ready to dominate.

After a busy offseason, our roster is pretty much set. We will not draft any players this season. We hope to compete for a title, but it will depend on pitching.

The Ducks have acquired several mercenaries who’ve defected from the Militia, added some infield depth via a couple guys we met shooting pool at Uncle Jmmy’s, and won a bidding war with the Oilers for the rights to Ducks 2014 home run leader, Anthony Ciccone, who will return as our Super-Utility player.

saul

one day I will properly photoshop this

For the first time in almost ten years, we will roster an actual South Oakland resident, Grahm Harkins, who may start on opening day and, at worst, will provide bullpen depth.

Garrett Moore is not retiring.

TJ Morgan is returning to South Oakland after a brief stint with the Black Sox.

TJ and TC Jones are both former Ducks managers and will provide veteran leadership. We just need to get Fago back and we will have the whole flock of coaches.

ducks invade

League News and Rumorz

I’m guessing we will go to three divisions this year. If so, we would likely be in the middle division. This means we would get to avenge our season ending loss at the hands of the WOLFPACK!, and we’d also get to renew our rivalry with the Black Sox in the regular season. Another exciting subplot – former Ducks pitchers, Jeremy Barchie and Randy Patton have signed with BIG OIL, in Single A, and we may face one or both of them in the regular season.

The Oilers managed to get a time slot at Mellon Park, but of course it is at 6pm, during the week, and is therefore inconvenient for 80% of the players in the league.

jeremy_scott

The Lions split into two teams. That pitcher who yelled a lot started his own team, I think, and moved up to Double A. Walko is starting another Single A team. Should be an intense game when they play each other. Lots of yelling and fancy stat-keeping devices.

All the teams that moved up to AA last year, got crushed repeatedly, and had a miserable season of baseball, are moving back down to either single A, or to the middle division along with the top teams from single A and maybe the Express. This is why we need a middle division, so we don’t have to keep repeating this process with the top A and bottom AA teams every year.

Speaking of the Express, there were rumors of a Bulldogs-Express merger that never quite materialized.

large_bulldog

The elephant in the room at the league meetings has been the tenuous state of the Bulldogs. I assume they will return with some roster turnover, but their questionable status as late as last month, goes to show how tough it is to keep a team together for over ten years, even when you’re winning games. You do what you have to try to put together a competitive roster and manage all the personalities. It’s challenging.

champz Owlz Clinton Cherokee

Both Jefferson Hills and Clinton are trying to make it seem like all the other teams in the league have just as good of a chance to win a title as anyone. It’s great how those guys are all about competitive balance and fair play. Some pitcher from Pitt jumped ship from the Indians to the Cherokee. Clinton’s coach may or may not have a shrine of old newspaper clippings and yearbook photos of that kid in the secret room in the sub-basement under his garage. Smallpox infested blankets for all.

Rebels Week: Day III

If the Commish would only listen to my idea: Those two teams would play a 23 game series against each other at an all dirt field with no dugouts, in Burgettstown, and then the winner would take on, and probably lose to, the fifth place fed league team in a play-in game for the right to join the Daily News league in 2016. (Hopefully the field for the play-in game isn’t double booked.) I think we need to make this happen.

I swear, I’m proposing radical shift to a two-team division with a playoff format spanning three non-affiliated leagues because I think it’s good for the league and is super fair, not because it is better for just my team and slightly improves our chances of winning.

Back to the Ducks.

I think we are going to rake this year, play more consistent defense thanks to added depth, and if we get pitchers who throw strikes we will win a lot of games. I don’t really know how good a lot of the teams are in our division, but I think we improved. I guess we’ll see. I’ve been told my ability to judge talent has been my downfall as a manager.

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WOLFPACK!!! 2014 Single A Champs. Cherokee take AA title

2014 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA

Congrats to ths year’s Pittsburgh NABA Champions.

I’ll post updates after the league meetings in January.

Roster spots for next years Ducks team will be offered to returning players first, and we will fill in as needed. We will also add a couple pitchers because our staff has an average age of 32.

Look for Ducks utility player, Anthony Ciccone’s NABA hotstove blog. Coming soon!

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Ducks Lose

2014 South Oakland Ducks, pittsburgh NABA

West View 6, South Oakland of the North Side 2.

Ducks starting ptcher Brian Stom faced 10 batters through 3, and South Oakland lead 1-0 going into the top of the bottom of the 4th.

There were a couple plays that weren’t made by the Ducks, a walk or two, and the WOLFPACK scored five in the bottom of the fourth, and we couldn’t get back in it.

We ran out of a couple innings, We had 10 hits, but we weren’t able to string anything together. it was really frustrating.

At one point one of our guys ran into their catcher who was well up the line, and their catcher wanted to fight or something. It was ridiculous. Benches partially cleared. Everyone should have been tossed. No one was.

The West View pitcher threw a good game, working out of trouble a few times. Two of their guys hit the ball pretty hard, their four hitter, and that guy who no one seems to have seen play during the regular season.

After the game, the West View coach was nice enough to offer to play game 3 at their home field. Ducks management declined the offer.

*EDIT game Saturday will be at Stoneridge, time tbd

Contemporary country music sucks.

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In other Pittsburgh NABA news, Jefferson Hills lost in the opening round of AA playoffs in a big upset to Cranberry. Then Cranberry took one look the Cherokee’s awesome alternate jerseys in their next winners bracket game, and forfeited. The Rebels were crushed by the Bulldogs, the Black Sox beat West End, in what has become an intense seres between the two teams. The Carrick Express can eliminate Jefferson Hills on Saturday. I hope it comes down to Brookline and the Cherokee and that their is a fight in the stands and lots of guys getting beaned. It would be like old times.

The other side of the Single A bracket hasn’t started yet.

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