So far the game is still on tonight. Since it’s the Ducks’ umpire money, and it’s West View’s call as to whether or not the field is playable, I don’t expect to hear anything.
We need to win tonight if we want a shot at a first round bye, and to stay in the hunt for the one seed.
I found this awesome Rambo/Captain America picture in my files, and I think it’s time to re-tread this one. Whoever photoshopped this is my hero.
I’ve always wondered why someone would coach an adult league team and not play. It doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me.
It takes a lot of stress out of things when Limbach or Sorosky’s dad just keeps score for us. Having someone take care of coaching a base effectively or, better yet, doing all the bullshit admin stuff would make things so easy. Too easy! I might not have to get to games 2 hours early, and then worry Fetter will tell our 3-hitter to bunt in the first inning, or Shawn will send someone home when the ball is in the infield, or have to think about what to do with the bullpen while I’m trying to also play a game, position the outfield and look for the opposing pitchers tendencies. Be ready for some delegating in the playoffs.
Since the 2014 Ducks two biggest rivals have non-player coaches, I thought I’d take a look back at others who have bravely blazed the non-player coaching trail.
One common thread to teams that employ non-player coaches, is that they are typically good. Except for Cranberry. The worst of these types are found in the 28+ league.
Ok. Here is a list of coach onlys. It’s possible I’m leaving out someone. Feel free to mention omissions in the comments.
1. Randy. Black Sox third base coach (2004-2009)
1A. That other random Black Sox base coach. (2005-10)
The first non-player coach to leave a mark on Pittsburgh’s semi-semi-professional baseball league. He is a legend.
While the Black Sox have been run since there Stampeder days by owner operator, Kenny Powers, they have at times employed both Randy, and some weird guy who had either rad, white-guy dreads or a sick mullet and coached first. I think there were sunglasses worn at all times by the second guy. I don’t think he ever took the field for an official plate appearance.
The Black Sox were the Ducks oldest, fiercest rivals until this season when we dropped down, and gave the Sox the rights to half our players. Randy added to this rivalry by occasionally pulling signature moves such as, yelling “I got it” when our third basement would attempt to catch pop-ups, and umpiring terribly when the regular umps wouldn’t show up. To his credit, he never tried to pretend he was unbiased in the umpiring situations. I don’t think the Sox ever had signs, but Randy gave them. Perhaps decoys to throw off the opposition.
Randy was initially an irritant, but he’s mellowed in his old age. He’s grown on me. Especially since he stopped coaching third for them a while ago.
The other guy, with dreads/mullet I think is mentally ill and/or homeless, and Kenny gave him a jersey just to be nice. Or, perhaps, the anonymous occasional first base coach was the Sox dealer for a while in the mid 2000s when things were a little crazy for all of us.
2. Cranberry Coach 2009-2014
Cranberry is always pretty mediocre. I’m never sure if I’m talking to this guy, or his son on the phone or via text or whatever. They are both at the team meetings. Morgan is not a fan of the Cranberry coach. Coach has his team bunt a lot. I think that’s what coaches do, they feel compelled to put on plays, so they have their team bunt. Bunt bunt bunt. Keep giving up outs, and finishing in seventh place. Really this guy isn’t too bad, though. He seems like a decent human being.
3. Elliot Coach. 2011
He was pretty nice to me. I have nothing bad to say about this guy. Some teams really hated him. (Seriously, Trojan, update your blog.)
4. The Day Toyota/Jefferson Hills Coach. 2013-present
No idea what this guy’s name is, but he basically forces everyone in 18-AA to make a couple trips a year to West Virginia to play 6pm games in those sweat box, metal-roofed dugouts, and get dominated by a team of Ju-Co guys and high school all stars. The field is well maintained, to his credit.
J-Hills coach’s credentials include getting kicked out of the Daily News League after going 8-13 and not being allowed in the Fed League, and not bothering to pay his dues on time in two seasons in the Pittsburgh NABA. His team is also 18-2, and are the defending champs so good job there. Seriously, that field is fucking two hours from anything, i feel like I’m one wrong turn from Deliverance.
4. North American Lions, 2014
I’d put money on this team trying to weasel out of making up the West View game, and trying to avoid having to play all 24 games this season. This is the weirdest one because dude is like in his mid-20s and can’t play or won’t or whatever. I don’t get it. Get number #22 under control. There’s a few shit talking assholes on this team, and it’s the lack of leadership that lets that happen, in part, anyway. At least pretend to give a shit how your players conduct themselves.
Which brings us to…
WOLFPACK!!! (dates unknown)
Both of them. Unreal.
Third base coach has been around a while. He was not involved in the bribery thing a while back. Some of the WOLFPACK!!! 3B coach’s signature moves include:
Telling our attorney and third baseman to go fuck himself, and spewing profanities at him throughout last game. And he didn’t even know Ciccone was a lawyer.
The best was when the kids in the stands were in ear-shot of this tirade. Where are the umps on this? How is the third base coach allowed to say anything to the third baseman aside from “nice play?”
There was the berating and brow beating of the umpires by both coaches during our last game, the repeated illegal runner substitutions which I won’t overlook in the playoffs, and the general dick-headedness that characterizes many of the players on his team.
In summation, I still don’t understand the appeal of coaching adult league baseball not playing, and it seems the biggest assholes never have to step in the box.
In other news, I passed Mike Brandt for the team lead in hit-by-pitch last game.
Our fearless leader, aka Papa Duck, has been at the pond being fed popcorn by infants and the elderly so another fearless Duck was required to take the initiative of informing the fan base of recent transgressions between the South Oakland Ducks and their opponents. As Papa Duck gorges on popcorn and bits of bread, fan favorite ILikeKevinYoung/ILikeKevinYoungEsq will update you on the 7/2 game vs. the Senators and the 7/6 game vs. the Titans.
Benny Photography…
The 7/2 game vs. the Senators presented a shorthanded, 8-man Senators squad versus a veteran-laden, hungry Ducks team. The Senators, however, filibustered the Ducks effort of rolling them over, bringing their bats to the duck pond, a.k.a. the capital of NABA baseball, and thoroughly brow-beating anything the Ducks’ pitchers threw. The game was a back in forth affair between two worthy adversaries. The game ended up going to extra innings, where, Ben Sorosky, aka The Big Sorosky, aka the Dude walked it off with a shot to right-center. In a rage of anger, Bob the Duck bashed ILikeKevinYoungEsq. in the head with his helmet while ILikeKevinYoungEsq. was attemping to revel in the glory of The Big Sorosky’s walk off shot. I don’t remember the score, but there were a lot of runs and the Ducks won by 1 in 8 or 9 innings.
The 7/6 matchup vs. the Titans was another nail-biter between these two teams. On a side note, I generally have a lot of respect for the Titans. They play good ball in spite of being perpetually short handed and don’t engage in any nonsense. The Ducks, however, were pulling all kinds of shenanigans with a QUACK cheer before the game reminiscent of the great Quack Attack of 2008, a fine year for this South Oakland team. Versus the Titans, Gator Fetter, aka Cheddar aka Cheese aka Cheeseball aka Swiss Cheese aka the Big Cheese aka Jason showed the same grit he has all season, starting the game off with some fastballs that caught too much of the zone but preceding to shut the Titans down when it mattered. A timely hit from Brian Strom-Arm Strom broke the game open for the Ducks and broke the Titans’ spirit.
The next South Oakland game is versus The Soviet Union. Or is it the West View Wolfpack? Its on Sunday at 830 PM at John Herb Field. To keep with the consistency of the blog, here is a recent photo of the Wolfpack’s esteemed manager.
The Bombers forfeited our regularly scheduled game for tonight, The Senators rain out has been rescheduled in its place.
It feels like we haven’t had a home game in a month.
We have five games remaining, tonight vs. the Senators, a home game played in Bellevue this Sunday against a resurgent Titans team, a home game in West View against the WOLFPACK!!! on the 13th that will likely determine who gets a first round bye and possibly the one-seed, and then a double header at Springview vs. the Monsters and Bombers at 6pm on July 16th. Though, I think we are the visiting team against the Bombers.
We’re a game out of first place. We need to win out and have North America go 3-2 down the stretch to get the top seed. The WOLFPACK!!! and North America have a game against each other that hasn’t been counted in the standings, which will either be rescheduled or it just hasn’t been entered for some reason. At least one of them will lose.
North America has the Warriors twice (pending a forfeit ruling), the Bombers twice, and the mystery game against West View.
The WOLFPACK!!! have to play five games in ten days, plus a potential makeup game against the Senators and the aforementioned mystery game vs the Lions. Unless there are forfeits involved here, they will have to play seven games before the first round games start on the 21st.
The WOLFPACK!!! have allowed 20 fewer runs than us, and I think that’s the first tie breaker after head to head. So It’s likely we will have to finish a full game ahead of them to pass them in the standings, even if we win our game on the 13th.
If we are going to win out, we can overlook anyone. We have to finish on a high note. Peak at the right time, and all that.
South Oakland holds the tie breaker over the 11-loss Monsters and Senators, who are tied for sixth place. The worst we can finish is 13-11. Here are the standings as of July 1st.
There are good battles going on for both the top spot in the division and the sixth and final playoff spot.
Losing two to the Lions hurt. I’ll take the heat for not at least splitting the series. We were out-coached. Our teams are pretty evenly matched, and they made fewer mistakes.
Anyway, the Ducks play tomorrow at 8pm vs. the Bombers, who have been struggling as of late. We need a win to stay within a game of North America, and to put pressure on the WOLFPACK!!! If both teams win out, it would force a YODA-style showdown when we play them on the 13th.
I’m assuming the WOLFPACK!!! has a bunch of rain outs to make up, so who knows how that will effect their rotation, etc.
The Titans are creeping back towards .500 after sweeping a triple header against the Warriors over the weekend.
The Monsters have gone 2-11 after beating us in April to improve to 3-0.
The Lions are trying to get out of rescheduling a game against the Warriors, that had been rescheduled and then pushed back indefinitely after the Warriors weren’t going to be able to get enough guys.
I’m not sure what the letter of the law is on this, but I’m of the mind that it’s always better to play than take a forfeit, especially when Boley is willing to play triple headers to get games in. But whatever, it’s within North America’s right to try to get a forfeit win against the 2-12 Warriors if that’s what their manager feels is best for their team.
Over the years I’ve absolutely tried to get cheap wins by calling out other teams’ illegal p/unregistered players or pushing for forfeits and the like– especially back in the Red Scare years when we were desperate for wins and not very good, and always a few games out of a playoff spot, and I hate losing. I’ve played with illegal players, I’ve played illegally for other teams, I’ve colluded to with managers to change our score books, so guys would have enough games to be playoff eligible. But as I’ve been around longer, I’ve tried to stay within the letter of the rules and to be conscious of the intent of the league. A big reason I wanted to drop to Single A is to avoid feeling pressured to do that kind of shit, and to have Ducks baseball be about getting everyone playing time (in the regular season, anyway. In the playoffs it’s our best 9 on offense and our best 9 on defense).
I like this year’s Ducks team a lot. I haven’t had this much fun since 2009. We’re facing some adversity for the first time this season, and I’m curious how we will respond down the stretch.
Assume we’re playing unless you hear otherwise. Hopefully this rain clears and it dries out by 8 tonight.
Your first place South Okland Ducks have won six straight, and look to take the season series from the Monsters tonight in Springview. The last time the teams met was a harrowing 11-10 Ducks win. Hopefully we can find someone to throw strikes tonight. Key to our success this year have been solid defense and strike throwing from our staff. Hopefully this continues and we can go into the weekend a full game ahead of the Lions who are 13-4.
Tonight’s game is huge. A first round buy is key, but if we hold on to the one seed it would allow us to avoid the Lions/WOLFPACK!!! until the finals.
South Oakland won on a walk-off fielder’s choice by Matt Limbach for their second come from behind win in as many days. Matt Swetz and Tony Casale (w, 1-0) Combined to hold the Warriors to 2 runs over the final six innings.
The Warriors trailed 1-0 after one, but exploded for five runs in the second off an four walks, and infield hit, a double and an error. Some guy stole home. South Oakland appeared ready to melt down.
The Ducks scored in the bottom half of the inning when Hartranft hit a hustling double to right, advanced to third on Donnie’s sac bunt, and scored on Moore’s single. Moore finished 1-for-4 with an RBI
Warriors 5, Ducks 2 after two.
Swetz entered the game and worked out of trouble for 2 2/3 innings allowing one run and keeping the Ducks within striking distance.
Limbach and Swetz drove in runs in the fifth for South Oakland
6-4 Warriors after five
The Ducks went down in order in the sixth, and the Warriors added a run in the top of the seventh to take a 7-4 lead on Craig Boley’s laser beam of an RBI single to right center.
To start the Ducks half of the seventh, Casale reached on an error, Gwin walked, and Limbach reached on another error. Matt Swetz then singled to right and drove in three when the right fielder’s throw went over the backstop.
7-7 after seven.
With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Casale doubled, Gwin was intentionally walked, and Limbach hit a hard grounder in the hole between second and third. The Warriors second baseman couldn’t handle the throw to second from the short stop. Casale came around to score and end the game. 8-7 Ducks.
***
The Ducks are 4-2 in one-run games this season.
We’ve won a handful of games where we’ve been down or tied after the fourth, if someone wants to count the number of come from behind wins we’ve had this season, I’d appreciate it.
Apparently you can just put a guy on without throwing the pitches for an intentional walk. Several times, Boley called for intentional walks, and basically went with the same strategy Ducks management tried to implement in the ill-fated, botched intentional walk game earlier this season. It’s the right move. However they didn’t go with five infielders, which would’ve been awesome, theoretically, for someone.
South Oakland returns to the Duck Pond to face the Monsters, 8pm Wednesday night. Who wants to pitch?
This will be our first game at this field. We are the home team. 6pm starts are the worst.
Bad News for the Warriors
Titans Recap:
South Oakland defeated the Titans in a come-from-behind 7-6 victory yesterday in Bellevue. The win keeps South Oakland tied for first with North America, and a full game ahead of the WOLFPACK!!!
After a frantic start by the Titans who took advantage of a few questionable calls by the umps and some missed opportunities by the Ducks, South Oakland settled in and scored a bunch of runs to erase deficits of 2-0, and 4-1. The Ducks lead 6-4 after 5 but the Titans tied it in the 6th before the Ducks scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 7th on Ciccone’s RBI double.
Doubles were hit by Casale, Ciccone and Gwin. Hartranft had a sweet single to start a big inning in the 5th, and Mike Brandt walked twice to bring his OBP up to .453.
***
I’m really glad we won and I’m not here trying not to blame the umpires that we lost. This was the first time I’ve tried to file a complaint with the league office about the umps. They were admittedly out of position, and generally didn’t give a shit. Which is a shame because the Titans played us tough, again, and I don’t want to take anything away from their effort in what was a good game.
This is what I found when I tried to log in to the umpire association’s page today to file a complaint:
Looks about right.
The Ducks have won five straight games.
South Oakland plays tonight and Wednsday before traveling to Munhall for a double header against North America with first place on the line this Sunday.
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.
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.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 