Kevin's Ramblings…

Last evening, in Babe Ruth Fall Play, the 5th place Clippers lost a close one to the 1st place Cyclones, setting up a 1 vs 2 semi-final tomorrow afternoon. My Bandits will be the visitors against the Cylones. The winner moves onto th final on Sunday, the loser plays a second game with that winner moving onto Sunday.

We’ve beaten the Cyclones and they’ve beaten us. I’ll have one of my best pitches available with a number of fresh arms in backup. Should be an interesting game, I’m hoping the boys are ready, and I’m pretty sure they will be.

In MLB, the Mets knocked off the Dodgers, that can only be good. I’m not sure why, I have a dislike for teams from California, with the exception being the Giants. I also like the underdog taking a series in baseball. I was hoping that the Houston Astros would get by the KC Royals, and they should’ve, but they had a couple inning choke… It happens.

Anyway, round two is set. Going to be some good ball.

Monday is Election Day in Canada as well. It has been a long, dragged on electing to be sure. Too long, I’d say. I’m tired of the tv ads, the Facebook posts, the bull shit. I haven’t done a lot to help,with the campaign, I haven’t felt it. I’ve also been busy with baseball.

Monday night I won’t be going to any after election parties, I’ll be in Banff for the night. I have to suppor the start of the conference we are having for work. It is at the Banff Centre, great location and even better food. It’ll b a. Nice short get away. The dogs are boarding overnight.

So, wish the Bandits some luck. Hopefully a Fall Ball Championship is right around the corner.

My Fall Ball team, the Bandits, finished up the season with 2 wins on Sunday, 5 wins in the last 6 games. We picked up a total of 5 points this weekend (2 wins and a tie) so not too shabby.

In the Sunday morning game, we jumped out to a 10-0 lead after a nearly 40 minute top of the first inning. The opposing pitcher couldn’t throw a strike and when he did, we were all over it. The game was called, on time limit with us in the lead 19-10. One win in the books.

We then had a game break with a split game scheduled. Back on the diamond at 3, we sailed through the next game with a 13-3 mercy win in 4.5 innings. 

All of the pitchers shook some early rust off from having a two week break – the previous weekend was not nice, weather wise. With playoffs starting Tuesday, we look solid moving forward.

We locked up second place in the five team league, right behind the top team, who we’ve beaten once already.

It is great to see this group of guys come together and gel as a team, fairly quickly at that. They are doing something they love, how couldn’t they love it?  It’s baseball. Good luck in the playoffs Bandits.

My Fall Ball team, the Bandits, played last night. It was a 5pm start, nice and warm for middle of October. We hadn’t played in two weeks since last weekend was a bit cold.

Last Saturday, the diamonds were closed because there was an inch of snow on the ground. It was gone by late in the afternoon and Sunday, the diamonds were open but the forecast high of 10C never materialized, never got warmer than about 4C and games were cancelled due to cold temps.

It showed that we hadn’t played in a couple of weeks. It is amazing how much rust builds up in a relatively short time frame. Our starter threw the ball well, gave up ground balls that should have turned into easy outs. Hope, error after error after error. We ended up giving up four runs in the first. Being down four after a half inning of play is tough. We were able to storm back though, scoring three in the bottom.

The lead changed hands a few times in the game, almost each inning. Our defence started to solidify, pitching remained solid. Going into the bottom of the 7th (we only play 7 inning ball games), we were down 3, 12-9.

We quickly tied up the game, had runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Think we could manufacture a run? Nope… Both runners stranded, both batters, struck out.  So, for the first Tim that I can remember in my coaching career, we ended in a tie.

We play two more today, 10 and 3, and odd split game. A couple of wins would help,us move up a bit in the standings for playoffs that start Tuesday. Hopefully the rust is gone and we will sharpen up. Hopefully.

Yesterday, there was a quadruple header of playoff baseball. It was a good day to be off of work, although I became sort of slug like, sitting in from of the tv for the majority of 4 games.

The Jays are in the brink of elimination at the hands of the Texas Rangers, and, if you read social media, it was the umpires fault. Typical for Torontonians, if you lose, blame the officials. Same goes for the whining Blue Jays players. Suck it up princesses. You lost to a better team and now, are pretty much done. You had a fantastic second half, no doubt. It was some excellent ball and you pumped up Toronto and the rest of Canada for baseball. People’s hopes are likely too high though, and they are about to crash, pending some sort of miracle. The game was only broadcast, here anyway, on SportsNet. In general, I don’t mind SportsNet, except for one of their “personalities”, Gregg Zaun. He’s an asshat. I’ve written about him before, my opinion hasn’t changed. He was, at best, a mediocre player and now, as an analyst, he tells players what they are doing wrong and what everyone is going wrong. His co-host, Jamie Campbell seems like a good guy and has some good insight, how he can stand working with this douche is beyond me.  Anyhow, the fat lady is getting ready, it would appear, to start singing and if she does, the Jays are done until next year.

Some have said that I shouldn’t hurt myself while jumping off of the Jays bandwagon. I am not necessarily a fan of the Jays, I am a fan of baseball. I hate, without reservation, the New York Yankees, but beyond that, I like baseball. Sure, it would be great if the Jays could win and go onto the World Series, they are, after all, the only Canadian based team. So, never really been on the bandwagon. Speaking of bandwagons, why is it that now that the GM has done something useful, everyone is treating him as the second coming? For years, he was useless, did nothing as the GM. Now, finally th Jays have made th playoffs and his previously uselessness is forgotten? Who knows, I can’t explain it. Other than Toronto sports fans are a breed of their own. Look at the Leafs, they’ve sucked most if not all of my life and as soon as they win a game in April, a Stanley Cup parade is planned.  Anyway, got a little off topic there.

Three other games were played. Good games too. The Royals evened their series with Houston. I’m pulling for the Astos, would love to see them move on.  The Cardinals blanked the Cubs. I’d be surprised if Chicago wins a game. St. Louis is my choice to win the World Series. In the evening game, the New York Mets surprised me with a win in LA. In general, I’m not a fan of most teams in California, not sure why.

So, a good day of ball, if you aren’t a Jays fan, I guess. Today, a much lighter schedule with only the National League tams seeing action. The baseball that I enjoy, Babe Ruth, continues with action today and tomorrow. These three games will determine final standings and where we will fit in for playoffs which start as early as Tuesday, they finish next weekend. 

It has been a good Fall Ball season, I’ve rally enjoyed it. I’m hoping we will do well,in playoffs, but regardless, it has been a blast. 

Good luck to the MLB teams you’re rooting for and good luck to my Bandits.

I have a four day weekend for a Thanksgiving. I figured I had one flex day left at work and the year is nearly over, might as well use it and make an extra long weekend out of it. For middle October, the washer is going to be very nice, no complaints on that front at all.

The Toronto Blue Jays opened their first playoff series yesterday afternoon against the Texas Rangers. It wasn’t a good game, not at all. David Price had quite a bit of rust to shake off. Who knew that resting him for 11 days, or whatever it was, wouldn’t be a good idea. Apparently, everyone except the GM and the Manager of the Jays. 

I don’t mind the Manager, seems like a decent enough guy. The GM though, despite his last two seasons where he’s actually done something, is a useless twit. Why the Jays have kept him is beyond me. However, now that he’s finally out a team together that have made the playoffs, the Toronto fans think he’s the second coming of Christ. I think ive determined that, unfortunately, Jays fans are as dumb as Leaf fans. After watching yesterday’s game, I think the Jays post season run will be 3, perhaps 4 games. And I’m not talking about a series win either. We will see, and I hope I’m wrong. If they lose today, they are done. That isn’t a stretch in thinking that. 

It is interesting that thus far, in four games in the playoffs, the visitors have won all four games. I am happy that the Astros beat the Royals. I hat them, almost as much as the Yankees.

The Bandits, my Fall Ball team have their final weekend of ball starting tomorrow. Playoffs start Tuesday and finish the following weekend. I’m hopeful that we will do well, we have a good group.

We were scheduled to have a practice for this evening, we practice every Thursday. I recede an email asking if we’d like to change and have a game instead, one of the makeup games. Sure, we’ll be able to field a team. So, I sent an email to the team, letting them know of the change and then when I got confirmation, of sorts, I sent a confirmation email. Now, the other team can’t field a team. So, feelers went out to see if anyone else was interested in playing on short notice. Doubt that’ll happen. I guess I’ll be emailing my guys, telling them that there won’t be a game, after all. Then, if I do that, a team will show up to play… Bound to happen.

So, we are doing something tonight. Not sure what. This weekend marks the end of Fall Ball, save playoffs the following weekend, weather permitting of course. This weekend is supposed to be quite nice so I’m sure we will get our three games in. Not sure that we will get any of the makeup games made up. If not, I guess it was a 13 game season. It has been enjoyable, for sure. It is a great group of guys, all love the game of baseball. Hopefully, some of them will enter the Babe Ruth draft.

This weekend is also Thanksgiving. I’m heading to a friends place, he’s hosting dinner for a number of our co-workers. Should be good times for sure. My job is to find some sort of butter topped buns that are apparently sold at Safeway. Ok, I can do that.

On the sports front, professional sports that is, baseball playoffs have started. I’m 2/2 in my wild card predictions. The Jays and Rangers start today, noon or so, my time. It is great working from home for this and even better that I happen to have a 32″ LCD TV in my office for such emergencies.

The Flames opened up last night and despite my trash talking with my Supervisor at work, they lost, 4-1 against the visiting Canucks of Vancouver. Oh well. Long season. I will have to put up with some harassment today though, I’m sure…

Anyway, you’re all updated. Although I’m sure I’ll ramble later in, enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend.

Well, all is well in the baseball world again. The New York Yankees lost in convincing fashion yesterday against the Houston Astros. It was still a relatively close score at 3-0, but really, New York,was never in the game.

I am not exactly sure where I developed by strong dislike for the Yankees, it has festered over a number of years. It could be the uniforms, perhaps. Maybe it was their old owner, George. Maybe it is how they blow the salary cap all out of proportion and then pay a luxury tax. Mind you, they do this,my ear after year and they still don’t win. It might be the fans too, or maybe the people in New York in general. They tend to be arrogant, don’t they?

No, there was only a feeling of happiness last night when the final out was recorded in the 9th. Now I won’t have to see them again until some time next year. Now though, we will have to listen to their fans talk about how many World Series rings they have. Well, know what? That’s in the past. Get over it. Today, you suck.

Anyway, congrats to the Houston Astros. Now, do everyone another favour and eliminate the Royals. Another team that I dislike, almost as much as the Yankees.