pittsburgh bulldogs

Gameday 1: Ducks vs. Wolfpack

2018 South Oakland Ducks

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

vs

West View Wolfpack

9pm

West Field

Getting out of spring view field was long over due. I think it’s incredible we are playing in the old Homestead Grays park.

No metal spikes.

Here’s a link to pretty cool site that shows how destroyed the field was before the renovations. Dead Baseball.

In stead of discussing this game, in honor of our 15th anniversary, I’m going to look through old score books and write about my findings. I am bored with half assed inflammatory previews.

This would probably be better as video, but i assume people only read these at work and that might be prohibitive. Still, maybe Germani and I can get together and create some amazing Pittsburgh NABA content.

Some of these old books are insanely rough. I think during the league’s first two seasons, I gave Boley our scorebook and he entered the stats, so there are many missing pages. Check this out from 2005.

These are consecutive pages, first a Maulers lineup, with Joe Graff leading off, then a Knights lineup, a Warriors lineup and a Ducks lines with the header: Ducks vs. Phantoms. There is no phantoms lineup anywhere though.

Naba legend Vinny Gala batting cleanup and playing 3rd. This was before Graff took over the league. We held them to one run. I don’t know how we managed that. Swetz must have pitched.

I think Brandt and Sorosky became Knights the next season. The Warriors won the title in 2005, I think. Maybe it was the Black Sox. Craig Boley: 2-3 and reached on an error, 2 SB, 2R. Solid production from the 8 spot.

We had a decent lineup. Hartranft, Swetz, Swanger, Adam Oliver. Eric Lee was the fastest guy I’ve ever seen. I think he’s on the lamb somewhere. We didn’t have a natural shortstop or enough pitching. We had like 3 second basemen who couldn’t throw. It was rough on defense.

Here’s an old picture from the blog’s glory days.

Bad News for West View

 

 

 

 

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Ducks & Friends: South Oakland wins two in Capital City Tournament

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

Here’s the Bandidos blog preview. Solid work there as always.

Tournament Recap

Game 1:

The Ducks defeated the Detroit Giants 7-3 behind a 103-pitch, 10 strikeout complete game from pitcher Colin Dougherty (Bulldogs). The Ducks trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the fifth when Culp drove in Tuomisto with an RBI single. In the sixth Detroit added an unearned run to make the score 3-1.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Ducks sent 8 men to the plate. Casale lead off with a double, Eric Friend was hit by a pitch and after ground balls to the right side by Dover and A. Ciccone (Oilers) the Ducks were within one. Tuomisto was hit by a pitch and Levire (Wolfpack) gave South Oakland the lead with a 2-run double to left.

After Dougherty struck out the side in the top of the seventh, the Ducks scored three more runs when Eric Friend (Bandidos) tripled home Gallagher (Bandidos), Dover doubled in Friend, and A. Ciccone singled home Dover.

Dougherty retired the last ten batters he faced, including one guy he picked off.

Game 2:

After driving across town, the Ducks faced Tri-Cities (Cleveland) in the second game of pool play, and won 8-6 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.

South Oakland received another great performance on the mound, this time from the Bandidos ace, Ryan Gallagher. The Ducks scored six runs in the first two innings, chasing the opposing starter. G. Friend had an RBI hit-by-pitch in the second.

There was a sweet strike em out throw em out double play in the game by Gallagher, Leviere and Casale.

The Ducks scored two mote in the fifth on a Toumisto double and singles by Z. Ciccone (Oilers), Culp and Gwin.

Casey Thompson (Oilers) doubled later in the game.

Tri-Cities scored four in the bottom of the ninth, but South Oakland held on for the win.

Due to a last-minute cancellation by Chicago, the tournament only had 9 teams, so after all teams played two games on day 1, they were seeded 1-8 for a one-game elimination round before the semis.

The Ducks kept the game close through five, but a six run sixth, lead to an 11-1 loss to the host team Columbus Pirates.

We got screwed out of at least one game by the Chicago team dropping out, but if I pulled Gallagher after 8 in game 2, instead of trying to save pitching, maybe we don’t allow those 4 runs, and we would have been seeded 2nd going into Day 2, and faced Tri-Cities again instead of a stacked Pirates team with home field advantage.

Also of note, the only team that knew all the scores of all the teams was the Columbus coach who also ran the tournament. Someone has to put up a website for this thing.

The fields were fantastic. If Pittsburgh were to host a tournament, I don’t know where we’d even have games.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I plan on putting a team in again next year.

Thanks to everyone from other teams who filled out the roster. Especially the Ciccones and Friends for their recruiting efforts.

We represented our league well for all but one inning. Kind of like a Ducks game. Next year, we add a couple pieces, avoid that one inning and this tournament is winnable.

Tournament MVPs

Zach Ciccone: 7 for 10, 3 RBI, SB, R

Colin Dougherty: W, CG, 9 IP, 10 K, HBP

 

 

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 vs. Cranberry

2015 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

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

vs.

Cranberry (4-7)

8pm

Magee Field

Cranberry has been in the leage for like five years without picking a team name.

Lazy.

This is a team we can out hustle.

download

This image appeared when I googled, “cranberry mascot”

 If  were them, I would just go with the Astros and get those sweet early 80s jerseys with the horizontal strpies.

Or be the rays and rock these unis, which would fit with their color scheme.

Cranberry has a non-player coach, which I am theoretically and philosophically opposed to in adult league baseball. They dropped down to Double A after a rough season last year, while the Ducks moved up after finishing 3rd in Single A. This is the kind of matchup the league wanted with the new format. It should be pretty even. They will probably throw Andy becuase he always pitches for them, and their other guy will probably be at some cookout in Wexford.

fc,550x550,cranberry

As did this image

So far, Cranberry has played elevn games and lost seven. They lost to the Oilers 5-2, but beat the express 14-1. The Express, of course, beat the Oilers 13-0.

Additionally, Cranberry beat the WOLFPACK! who beat Jefferson Hills who beat the Cherokee.

Last weekend, Cranberry dropped a double header to the Warriors and the Cherokee by scores of 9-0 and 13-1, respectively.

I guess the Warriors are the best team in the league.

Pittsburgh naba

South Oakland enters the game having lost three of its last five. Two of those losses were by 2 runs, and the other came in 8 innings. We’re a couple bad bounces away from being 5-1, but we don’t have any control over that. That shit evens out. That’s baseball.

I think while Cranberry doesnt have a name, this Ducks team still doesn’t have an identity, and that’s on the returning players and mostly on the manager to cultivate that. We’re underachieving right now. We have time to turn it around, but it’s got to start soon. We’re due to start putting it together.

Game Day [10]: Ducks (6-3) vs Bulldogs (3-3)

Bad News for Cranberry.

Playoff Game Postponed

2014 South Oakland Ducks

Ducks vs. WOLFPACK Game 3 has been moved to Sunday night, 8:30pm at Moore Park.

I’m really glad I my team had to drive all the way to Jefferson Hills today to not play a game because the field was double booked. What a way to spend a morning.

Jefferson Hills’ coach was unaware of the youth softball tryouts that were scheduled for noon today, when he told the commissioner the field was available.

It Looks like the Lions swept the Titans. So the winner of tomorrow’s game will play North America for the championship.

In AA news, the Black Sox were eliminated. The Cherokee, I think, are in the finals and will play the winner of the Bulldogs vs. Jefferson Hills/West End.

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.

***

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.

quack

 

 

There are a lot of people I’d like to bean, but none of them play baseball.

2014 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win

iceburgh

Rob “Iceberg” Galvanek pitched a scoreless 7th inning and went 1-for-3 with 2RBI as the Ducks beat the Warriors 14-2 in Etna last Wednesday.
Brian Strom pitched the first two innings on short rest while our attorney was stuck in traffic.

No word how much Warriors management may or may not have paid Ciccone to get stuck in traffic and arrive in the second inning.

Ciccone played an inning at first base, which means he has played all nine positions for South Oakland this year. Then he pitched four innings of one run baseball to earn the win.

This was a solid team win for the Ducks. South Oakland has won 5 straight and is now in first place with a record of 11-3.

The Warriors (2-8) are having a tough season. Newman had a sweet game for them, and Boley played well behind the plate.

***

Notes:

Starting with our game on Sunday, South Oakland plays three games in four days (five in seven), and we still have a make-up game against the Senators to reschedule.

Screen Shot 2014-06-21 at 10.54.54 AM

Who wants to pitch?

It looks like there’s going to be a three team race between the Ducks (11-3), North America (11-4), and the WOLFPACK!!! (9-4) for the top 2 seeds and the ever-important first round bye in the playoffs. It should be an exciting pennant race. We have a big double header against North America next weekend, and one game left against the WOLFPACK!!!

It was the former head coach of the Matadors, who is no longer in the league, that tried to bribe teams to throw games. For more on bribery, see the previous post.

South Oakland’s next game is this Sunday, 3:30pm vs. the Titans.

quack

 

 

 

 

 

Game Day 12: Ducks at Senators

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

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (8-3)

at

Senators (3-7)

12:30pm

Pie Traynor Field

We’re going to have to juggle the lineup a bit due to a whole bunch of weddings this weekend. The Senators have beaten the Titans, Bombers and Monsters, 3 teams that have played us close. But man, 86 runs against in ten games is a lot.

A win ties us for first again and puts the pressure on the WOLFPACK! (9-3) to win Sunday night to keep pace.

If I’m late, Strom is in charge.

stromgraff The commish is MIA, the bulldogs blog is dormant. 

We are finally getting back on a regular weekend then Wednesday schedule for a bit before we have six game in seven days from (I think) the 22nd to the 29th of June.

18A news:

  • The Lions (8-4) have won four straight and are now a game out of first.
  • The WOLFPACK! won two, one-run games last weekend over the Titans and Bombers respectively.
  • The Warriors (1-6) have been rained out at least once a week all season long.

Jason Fetter will be South Oakland’s starting pitcher this afternoon, but Matt Swetz may make his return to the mound out of the bullpen, nine years removed from his last NABA appearance. Swetz also gets to bat cleanup today because of pizza.

2014-05-04 20.19.58

Bad News for the Senators

around the league

2014 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA

18AA

The single A teams that moved up are getting massacred. The Pirates are surprisingly bad so far, and the Express off to a solid start. Other than that, it’s about as expected. West End apparently won’t play in April. Good luck with the pitching down the stretch when you have 4 games a week.

Screen Shot 2014-05-23 at 2.30.10 PM

Standings as of May 23rd. Look at some of those run differentials. Jesus.

Ashely Shaffer Kia of Northern West Virginia (6-0) is undefeated, and has only played one close game, a 3-2 win over the Black Sox (5-2).

The Cherokee are once again dominating the regular season. I predict a 22-2 record before their annual playoff letdown. At least a bunch of those guys still have a 2010 title to their credit.

cherokee2

Such an odd mix of fonts between the hat, jersey, and lettering on the picture. 

The Bulldogs Blog was off to a decent start, but has been quiet lately. They’ve had Christmas pictures up for the last 3 weeks. I can’t figure out how to link their site in our blogroll, or even where our blogroll is or how to make it visible. Sorry, guys.

18A

Standings as of May 23rd.

Screen Shot 2014-05-23 at 2.38.32 PM

The Warriors are off to a slow start but I expect them to pick it up.

51f9a305afa96f5b3b0029bc

They were missing some guys when we played them earlier this week. They also have Starting Lineup figures made for their team.

BaseballFuryRedClean-Front

The Senators managed to beat the Bombers 3-2 last week.

The Lions and Monsters, I assume, lack pitching depth given some of the scores of double headers they’ve played in.

The Lions have a sweet website. Lots of photoshop material. Here’s a link to the play by play of the last Ducks vs Lions game.

The Titans score about 5 runs a game and allow just under 7. When we play them, it may look like a football score. They took 3 of 4 from the monsters, but have lost to the senators and warriors. Kerry Collins is my favorite Titan.

Before they were the WOLFPACK!!!

pittsburgh naba

they were the Matadors

 

matadors naba

and the sharks

West Side Story - The Sharks pittsburgh naba

That one side-arm pitcher was on our team for half a season. Effectively wild.

The Matadors were part of a ridiculous scandal involving an attempt to bribe the Owlz into forfeiting a game so the Bulldogs would miss the playoffs. Matador management was certain the Commish was out to get them, but I don’t think that guy runs the team anymore.

There was some bullshit involving the Sharks one year and some other team, but I forget what it was exactly. Maybe the Hurricanes were involved.

We play them Wednesday at our place. We need to get some Ducks fans in the seats that night. Tell people we have the bathroom key now. That may help.

Green-Duck

Your South Oakland Ducks (7-2) are in first place. The team has come together pretty well. Nothing helps chemistry like winning. If our pitchers keep throwing strikes, we should remain competitive. We will see how we handle a stretch in July when we have like 8 games in two weeks.

Iceberg will give us some innings at some point.

Iceburgh_

I’m still waiting for Culp, Swetz and Faust to be added to the league site so I can get their stats in. So far our stats are pretty good.

Strom has hit six batters in 21 innings pitched.

Also:

This site outlines how to build your own bobble head doll.

I think we should get stirrups.

It was great when people used to leave comments after these posts.

quack

 

Game Day 8: Ducks vs. Bombers

2014 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

vs

Allegheny Bombers

9pm

Springview Field

South Oakland returns from the bye week to face the Bombers at home tonight.

The Ducks (5-2) have won two straight, and need a win to keep pace with the WOLFPACK! (6-2)

bomb pic

Unexpectedly, the Bombers (3-3) have lost two straight. Allegheny  dropped a 3-2 heartbreaker to the seventh place Ted Kennedy’s Sunday night in Brookline and lost 5-2 to the Colonials, Matadors, Sharks, WOLFPACK! on Saturday. The Wolfpack are so intense! is so intense? Whatever. WOLFPACK!!!

I still think the Bombers are the team to beat and will be a tough out come playoff time. And that Joe Graff is a beast. It’s also likely Allegheny didn’t throw their best pitcher over the weekend so we will probably face him tonight.

039-Bomberman

Below are the standings as of May 19th. A lot has happened since we last played. So much rain.

Screen Shot 2014-05-19 at 7.53.39 AM

I’m surprised the Monsters are under .500. they’ve gone 2-6 after starting 3-0, and had some trouble with the Titans. Their season is almost half over.

The Warriors are struggling to score runs, but have between 4 and 7 games at hand over several teams.

The Lioins and Bombers run differential.

You can get a weekend where you have three games and some key guys missing and  drop a few. In such a relatively short season, you just hope it doesn’t mean the difference between making the playoffs and not.

At 5-2 we’re in good shape.

A win puts us back in first place.

We’ve got our attorney on the hill tonight.

bob-loblaw

 Bad News for the Bombers.