Home field dis-advantage on display over weekend
Posted on 31 May 2009
By Josh Paul
So much for “home field advantage.”
Ridgewood Field was less than accommodating for consensus No. 1 pick Bob Zerull and his teams this weekend, which yielded another great Veto League Baseball player turnout for a three-game weekend. On Saturday, 22 players arrived at the field and another 18 made it out for Sunday’s nine-inning contest.
Saturday, May 30: Shockers 15, Gremlins 9 (7); Gremlins 17, Mafia 15 (7)
Swine flue? What swine flue?! Adam Chard, returning from his brief excursion in Mexico, led his Shockers to a league best 5-1 record. Chard’s offense was propelled by Tom DeBroeck’s 3-for-4 day, which included two runs and three RBIs. Josh Paul added three runs and four RBIs.
The Shockers took advantage early, upping a 14-0 lead heading to the bottom of the fourth. Ryan Barton’s Gremlins (3-3) made the game interesting with a six-run seventh inning, but a home run by Zerull wasn’t enough to overcome the early deficit.
Ironically, Chard returned for game two to help out his arch nemesis Gremlins by going a perfect 5-for-5 with three doubles, three runs, and four RBIs. Chard also added a second career triple to his stat column. Once again, the away team took advantage early and were able to fend off a furious Mafia rally.
Howard Zimmerle’s Mafia (1-5) were led by Anthony Reese, who had a career game going 4-for-5 with two homer, four runs, and four runs driven in. Reese narrowly missed a third home run that one-hopped the Ridgewood fence in left-center. Rookie Jeff Shadden tallied a perfect day at the plate, raising his batting average to .588 on the young season.
Perhaps purely coincidental, MLB officials have begun testing players for H1N1 viri, claiming the disease enhances testosterone while lowering metabolites. One unidentified manager said, “This is like taking Barry Bond’s DNA and combining it with Britney Spears’ sex appeal. You know it’s wrong, but you just can’t help yourself.”
Sunday, May 31: Talons 18, Meteors 7
It’s four weeks away from the Fourth of July, but the explosive hit parade was on display at Ridgewood Sunday.
Scott Ellefritz was able to lead his Talons on the road to another big win, this time at the expense of Matt Veto’s Meteors (2-4). The Talons (5-1) hit a combined 25-for-54, while plating 10 runs in the first three innings to blast the Meteors. Barton muscled up again, going 4-for-6 with a home run and three doubles. Barton tallied a four-spot in each the run and RBI columns.
The Talons were assisted by some flashy glovework, including a diving sno-cone catch by center-fielder Tony Zier and awesome putouts by Ellefritz and Barton on the left side of the infield. Bobby Carter also notched four hits, three runs, and three RBIs.
The Meteors were led by Adam “Gustaf” Gustafson, who again notched four hits on the day, of course, all singles. Through 13 games, the rookie has batted .544 with 31 hits. Unbelievably, 29 of those 31 have been one-baggers. Gustav is in a heated race early on with Jason Nunn, Brian Smith, Ian Smith, Travis Swanson and Adlonis Hopkins for the Rookie of the Year award.
Games will continue June 6-7 at Ridgewood Field.
28 responses to Home field dis-advantage on display over weekend
Ouch, calling me out. That’s it, I will no longer speak to the media. Going forward I’m playing for me, not for the fans, not for my team, but for me.
Welcome to the club. I’m all about the stats. Speaking of which, the stats are FUBAR.
yeahi looked at them, something up with the program? i hope veto still has the sheets from previous games, bob, reese is catching you! great time every weekend and i look forward to it every weekend!
One of the most important things we learned this weekend is that I’m faster than Jesus… at least when he’s running backwards and I’m running forwards.
You’re right about Reese. He’s passed Barton as the #2 home run threat in the league. That bomb he hit at Douglas a couple weeks ago was right up there with some of Bob’s best.
Don’t even think about mentioning Reese’s name with mine…just kidding. Reese is having an awesome power year so far.
Once again no mention of me improving my record on the hill to a perfect 6-0 in 7 starts this season.
And he wonders why people don’t like it when he pitches.
not a pitching league, its a hitting league!
The stats have been updated. This program is neat in its display, sortability and concept, but its input matrix is very unforgiving and can be extremely time-consuming.
I initially began inputting by game — so if Barton was one the Gremlins playing the Mafia, his May 3 game would be against the Mafia. That wasn’t reasonable and was cluttering my display. So, I deleted those two dates and had to entirely reenter them because there is no simple way to edit something that has been submitted.
At any rate, I had a request to use an unused stat column (which cannot be deleted) for games played. Instead, I decided to use the pitching column to display that info. GS is games appeared in, the record is your individual record and the innings is equal to your games played — it only has a number because it would not allow me to enter “0″.
As for the stories, I really, really appreciate Josh Paul writing one this week, and am very, very open to volunteers. I’ll eventually go back to spin a couple stories from the weekends we missed. I apologize for that, and thank you for your understanding. The Bandits were in the middle of a 10-game homestand and the prep seasons are in the playoffs, so we’re pretty busy.
And Jeff, I will never include your pitching stats, but you are more than welcome to submit a letter to the editor, or talk about your pitching prowess in “Jeff’s Corner.” Just don’t make me write it for you!
looks good veto, glad you got it to go, and putting games won is easier to do it with pitching stats, as far as teams. what are the standings as of now? i dont know what you have to do to change that hopefully it is easier to change that as well as where we stand on the schedule, are you going to add more games to the schedule because we are almost two weeks ahead just wondered, thanks
bart
Standings and schedule have been updated. I will not add games yet. Let’s see how the season goes and if the attendance keeps up. In the case that it does, we can discuss adding games.
that sounds good, i just wondered, didnt know how easy is was to move that stuff around
I, for one, would read “Kilgard’s Korner”
I, for one, wouldn’t read “Kilgard’s Korner.” Unless, of course, there was nudity (male or female, whatever).
Would anyone be interested in an Elly’s Opinion section?
i definately would, because elly, you always have an opinion! on everything!
Possible titles:
Tell it Elly!
From the Mind of Elly
The Scott Corner
or…
“Elle’s Blotter Paper”
“The Hot Corner” sponsored by Ellefritz Tax Service
“Ask Elle”
Wow great ideas guys… I really like “The Hot Corner”… sort of a way to continue my rivalry with jeff and his corner. Of course, I’d need the OK from Comm. Veto before I take the first step. I might not be able to make it out at all this weekend, hope you all have a great time!
I like Ask Elle….
I would like to start a campaign for gold glove now. Not for me but for JP no one can sit on the bucket behind home plate like JP.
It’s hard to say… Kiel has mad bucket-sitting skills of his own. If he plays more he’d have to be considered.
I also agree instead of gold glove it should be the red ring award.
How do you quote like that?
You’re allerterative options are “Elle’s Editorial, Elle’s Elucidation, or Elle’s Exposition.”
Gold glove consideration at catcher? We probably could start giving gold gloves out by position. You would really need to be there for close to all of the games to vote, though.
Not to prod my own horse or anything, but I am one hell of a catcher. At least, that’s what she said.
Don’t you mean what “he” said?
that is what I said
I heard him say it.
I agree there should be a gold glove for every position.