A weekend of baseball

Posted on June 7, 2015 by kdarcy21

I woke up insanely early yesterday, a little earlier than today.  I was up shortly after 3am both yesterday and today. By 8am, I had already accomplished more than I normally do in a typical day.

Blondie and I had visited the dog park and she had retrieved a number of thrown balls. We stopped by Cobs Bakery.  Their butter tarts are out of this world. The raisin / current bread was pretty damn good as well.

By 9am or so, I was ready for a nap and it didn’t take much convincing to have Blondie join me. We slept until just after noon, a good thing, otherwise I would have been dead for my afternoon.

I umpired my first game in the Deerfoot Men’s League.  It is pretty good baseball but the players tend to whine a lot.  There were also a number of drunk fans in the stands making the day interesting.  I took a pitch off the collar bone, hurt like hell, still does.

I got to the ball park for my game, coaching the AA Rockies a few minutes late.  Players were already in the batting cage and the couple of volunteer dads were already getting them ready for our game.  Out of 7 coaches between two teams, I was the only coach available.  Three coaches on holidays, 3 coaches working.  Oh well.

We did not play particularly well. Pitching was OK, not great, just OK.  We had almost no offence, only collected a few hits. Defence wasn’t bad. I tell ya, if we ever fire on ALL cylinders, we will be a solid team. We aren’t getting hammered like we did for a few games, the final was 9-3.

We play again today, 4pm start.  We are having a full practice prior to the game. Going to do some live BP and some situational plays. Hopefully we can put it together and collect the third win of the season.

Tomorrow is the first Monday that I will be starting extra early at work. I am in at 5:30am and done at 2pm.  Should not be an issue, considering how early I am waking.  In the winter, it would be tough to be up that early.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Posted in Baseball, Work, Zeus, Blondie, Hera and Twix | Leave a comment

A perfect day in IT?

Posted on June 6, 2015 by kdarcy21

I had to go to Red Deer yesterday for work.  I left Calgary a bit late but no worries.

The Xerox guy was already at the office when I arrived – OK, that’s good.  They don’t tend to always be on time.  He didn’t ask me any questions.  That’s good as well, they can sometimes be pains.  This guy seemed to know what he was doing.

Everything in Red Deer went exactly as was planned.  This rarely, if ever, happens when one is referring to IT issues.  I was almost shocked.

We are doing a printer project across the firm and it is Red Deer’s time.  I had a number of things on the plate and was able to cross off EACH one.  Wow.

Anyway, I left on time – that also never happens and had an uneventful return to Calgary.

Last night, I drove across town to look at a patio table and 4 chairs.  I negotiated $40 and will pick up when my buddy returns to Calgary (with his truck).  I then met another friend at Peter’s Drive In, a Calgary landmark.  The line-ups are as legendary as the food and ice cream products.  I don’t like lines, but, I didn’t wait in line.  I sat with Blondie.  Blondie doesn’t like lines either.  I gave my friend $20 with the intention that I would pay for whatever she wanted in return for her standing in line.  I didn’t come out and say this, it was implied, to my anyway.

When she returned, 30 minutes later, she handed me $15.05 in change.  She paid for hers, I paid for mine.  What a deal.  I got my strawberry milkshake and was able to sit in the shade with my dog, chatting leisurely with a buddy from Ontario.

I hit bed early.  It was still light out early.  Like 9pm.  Not bad, I needed some sleep.  I woke at 3am which is early but I have already gotten a lot done today including an hour of work – had to catch up a bit.

Today sees me at two baseball diamonds.  3pm for umpiring and then 5:30pm for coaching.  Temperatures are supposed to be in the mid to upper 20’s.  Not a bad start to the weekend, if I do say.

Posted in Baseball, Technology Amazes Us, Zeus, Blondie, Hera and Twix | Leave a comment

Let’s go bowling…

Posted on June 4, 2015 by kdarcy21

I think I have previously mentioned tonight’s baseball outing.

We are going bowling and for food.  Well, that’s combined into one outing since the alley has food.  All healthy choices, I am sure.  The reviews are pretty good actually.

The team doesn’t seem to be gelling the way that I would expect and hope that they would. Individually, they are great players and we do not regret any of the draft picks.  When you put them into a group, or as some people call it, a team, they fall apart.  Not immediately though, we normally play at least 2 good innings.  Unfortunately, we play 7 inning games, or at least we do when we aren’t getting hammered by our opponent.

So, we decided that a team outing was in order to try to get the guys to get to know each other on a different level and outside of the baseball environment.

We gave the guys some chances to suggest outing ideas.  They suggested a trampoline place of some sort.  Rejected – we didn’t want broken arms, legs and/or necks.  Paintball was suggested.  Not a bad idea, but, I’ve played paint ball with teen-aged boys and it gets violent.  I think the soldier in all of us comes out and a no mercy attitude develops.  Now, that might be good on the diamond, but in an enclosed area with team mates, I don’t want anyone to get hurt.

Go-carts were suggested.  That would be fine, but we are trying to make it as low budget as we can.  Go-carting would have blown the budget up.

I found a great low/high ropes course but it was out of town.  Not good for a Thursday evening.

Mini-putt was suggested and rejected.

So, bowling it is.  I was told that Chinook Bowling was good so I booked.  It is $38 per hour per lane (for 6 people per lane) and they threw in a free shoe rental.  We will likely play for about 2 hours.  We will have some, hopefully, good food and we will get to know each other on a different level.

At the very least, we will have a good time.  No one should get hurt.  No one will go broke.  It isn’t going to hurt team moral, I don’t think it can.  It can only help.

Wish us luck.  And fun.

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A little pin prick, then go pee in this cup…

Posted on June 4, 2015 by kdarcy21

I found myself a new doctor a few weeks back.  More accurately, some Alberta Health Services service found me a new doctor, quite close to my “new” place.  I did get a doctor, right after I moved a year and a half ago.  Unfortunately, he was way over in the east end of Calgary, very close to where I used to live.  I could have kept going there except I didn’t really care for the 30 minute drive across town.

So, I went to my new doctor and he wanted to be get blood work down, an EKG and a urine test.  It was scheduled for 7am this morning.

As I pulled into the parking lot at 6:45am, I discovered that I forgot to bring the paper with all of the required tests on it with me.  D’Oh.  All the way home (not that far, 5km maybe) and all the way back.  It was 7:02am when I returned and I feared that they would make me wait forever or reschedule my appointment.

Nope – I signed in and waited about 3 minutes before they called my name.  Took my paper, entered my ID and told me to sit.  The waiting room was quite full so I figured I would be waiting for a bit.  Again, nope.  Less than 5 minutes later I was lead into the back.  A quick prick with the needle, two vials of blood were out of me.

The EKG was quick.  I think he enjoyed ripping the leads off of me – wish I didn’t have hair on my chest.  I then peed in a cup, sealed it and off I went.  Home in time to start work only 1:45 late.

Next, in a couple of weeks comes a stress test.  With my family history and me getting old, he wants to see how I am doing.  Fine with me.  It is scheduled for 4 hours.  Wow.  I certainly hope that they don’t want me running on a treadmill for those 4 hours, otherwise I will end up in the basement of the nearest hospital.

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Rain, rain, go away…

Posted on June 3, 2015 by kdarcy21

It is raining today.  It is supposed to rain all day.  Today is also the first practice that my AA club has had for a week or 10 days or so.

In looking at the forecast, it is supposed to keep raining until tomorrow morning.  Baseball and rain really don’t mix too well.

The ground gets mucky, the baseballs hard to handle, bats slip out of hands and fly and kill people (I am sure it has happened, somewhere).

So, I am hoping that the weather man is wrong, he typically is.

Tomorrow, we have our team outing.  We are all going bowling and having food at a local alley.  I was able to secure a pretty good deal, it will cost less than $15 per player, shoes were thrown in and food is reasonable.  Should be a good night.  I have not bowled in years.

It is also one of my coaches birthday’s, but he prefers that I not mention that.  So, I likely won’t.  Happy birthday anyway, SS.

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A bit of a step back, again

Posted on June 2, 2015 by kdarcy21

After a few games where my AA’s played very well and stayed in the game for most of it, last night was a step back.

My starter did well, pitched two innings but was around 55 pitches.  He came out after 2 and my first reliever came in.  He had major issues finding the strike zone.  Out of the 7 or so batters he faced, he walked all but one of them.  It took a bit to get another reliever ready and when he was, he came in and got us out of the inning.

By this time, we were already in a large hole, one that proved too big to climb out of and we lost 15-4 in 5 innings.

We are off today, practice tomorrow and then our team outing on Thursday night.  The AAA team plays tonight but I am going to take the evening off.

The umpire who tossed me on Sunday was umpiring last night. Before the game, he came over to the dugout and shook my hand saying that we perhaps both had bad days the day before and let’s move on – sounds good to me, we all have bad days.

Hopefully today is one of those good days. 🙂

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A busy week

Posted on June 1, 2015 by kdarcy21

This is going to be a busy week, both at work and in baseball.

The only night I have off for ball is Friday evening which works well since I will be in Red Deer for work on Friday.

We are implementing a new printer project and I am laying the ground work for it on Friday.  I will leave Calgary early, around 6:15 or so on Friday to head to Red Deer.  It is about an hour and a half drive, smack in the middle of Calgary and Edmonton.

For baseball, there are games tonight, tomorrow & Wednesday for AA and AAA and the AA’s have a practice on Wednesday.  Thursday will see the AA’s at a team event, we are going bowling.  We want the boys to be able to interact in a “non-baseball environment” to try to get to know each other a bit better, hopefully build up some bonds.  I got a good deal for bowling, it will cost each player around $15 for 1.5 hours of bowling and the shoes are being thrown in for free.  They have food at the alley so we will just eat there, the menu looks decent.

This coming weekend, the AAA travel teams are away at a tournament so no league games. The AA’s play both Saturday and Sunday.  It makes the weekends zip on by, good and bad.

Enjoy your week, I am sure to enjoy mine.

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments

Very quick game…

Posted on May 31, 2015 by kdarcy21

Today, my AAA Rockies played the AAA Giants.  It was an early start, 10am at Optimist so we were there shortly after 8am.

The game started a few minutes late, we were waiting on the umpires for some reason.

My lead-off batter bunted for a base hit. He then stole second.

My second batter stepped out of the box before time was given (time was never given), the pitcher stopped his delivery.  No balk was called.

I asked why was that not a balk.  The umpire didn’t tell me, he simply said something along the lines of “don’t start with me this morning”.  I asked again, why wasn’t that a balk?  Time wasn’t called, the pitcher stopped his delivery.  I was then told to return to the dugout.

I asked again and again, was told to return to the dugout.

I refused as I wanted to know why a balk wasn’t called.  I was ejected.

I then approached the plate and the plate umpire started walking towards first base.  I followed.  When we got about 3/4 of the way to first, I asked him “how far are you walking – are you going to the 315′ sign (in the right field corner).

He circled around my first base coach who had a smirk on his face.  We headed back towards the plate.  At this point, the field umpire appeared and told me to leave the diamond.  I had full intention of leaving, I just wanted an explanation – never got one.

I presume and people that I spoke with concur, I was ejected because the umpire realized he was wrong but didn’t want to admit it.  So, as opposed to admitting a mistake, he tossed me from the game.

Under league rules, I do not serve a suspension, other than the game I missed today.

I am still wondering why a balk wasn’t called, not that it would have mattered in the grand scheme of things, we ended up losing 13-0.  I still want that extra base, we could have scored that run.

Until next time.  BALK !!!

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That’s a good start…

Posted on May 29, 2015 by kdarcy21

They did it last night, finally.  I took a new approach to pitching and threw 7 different pitchers over 7 innings.  This also included two boys making their pitching débuts.  All seven of them threw very well, we only game up a total of 5 runs, 3 of those in the first.

The defence was solid.  We made plays in the outfield that are generally considered routine, BUT, plays that last week we would have missed.  The infield was solid as well.  We didn’t turn any double plays but that’s OK.  We got outs when they were needed and gave some excellent D to the pitching staff.

The offence was on fire.  My clean-up hitter went 4-4 at the plate and drove in a bunch of runs.  My lead off guy hit a stand-up triple off the fence in right.

All in all, it was just about a perfectly played game.  The guys were, for one of the first times this year, playing like a team as opposed to 9 misfits on the field.

The coaching staff and myself are taking a new approach with regards to pitching and it looks like it could pay off – shorter starts, shorter relief appearances.  It will keep the opponent off, so I hope.  If they don’t see the same pitching more than once or twice, they can’t make adjustments.  This isn’t the big leagues, if a pitcher pitches only 2 innings, that’s fine with me, lots of other positions to put them in.

We play the Indians again on Saturday morning.  I am sure they will be out for blood.  I hope that we can hold them off again and prove it wasn’t a one game fluke.

Go ROCS !!!

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The Baseball Saga Continues…

Posted on May 28, 2015 by kdarcy21

I have a AA game tonight.  It is against the Indians, again.  We have three games in a row against them.  At our last meeting, we were destroyed, there really isn’t another word for it.  The final, as I know I have written, was 28-8.

In speaking with the other coaches and reflecting upon the season, we’ve come to realize that part if not most of the issues are with our pitchers.  We seem to be good for about 2 innings and then the pitchers lose control.  This causes “bad” hits and then the team seems to lose confidence, almost immediately.

So, tonight, the Pitching Technical Director for Babe Ruth is coming out to take a look at the pitchers live.  I plan on pitching 7 guys so that he will be able to look at most of the staff, take notes and then will be able to advise on areas where improvement is needed and what work can be done.

Moving forward, I am going to only schedule my starter for 2 innings, regardless of pitch count.  If he is at 20-30 after 2, he may be able to continue into the 3rd inning, BUT, that has not worked up to this point.  For some reason, my pitchers arm strength doesn’t seem to be improving this year like it should.  By this point last year, I had players pitching well into the 5th inning without any issues.

If I need to adjust my pitching rotation, so be it.  Something needs to change so I will start there.

One of my coaches, SS, suggested a non baseball related event for the boys to try to build up some level of familiarity with the players, other than just playing together.  I am going to see what they want to do.  I am having a quick discussion with the parents before the game to go over the season thus far and pretty much tell them what I’ve written here.  I am sure that none of them will object to spending $50 for a team event – players only (and coaches), no parents, no siblings.  I am thinking laser tag or mini-putt or bowling and then food.  Something along those lines.  Something fun and then food – teen boys like food, don’t we all?

Hopefully we can get the team back on track.  Wish us some luck (again).

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