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A Walk In The Ball Park

Well, Captains, there it is!  That's the 2012 TFTSA regular season all wrapped up.  104 ballgames over 15 weeks, complete.  It was a great year with lots of close games and fun competition.  Hope everyone enjoyed their regular season.  

Attached please find the final standings update of the year.  There were four standings ties to break, but all the tie-breaking is now done and the standings are final.  

And now the playoffs.  As you know, the top 8 teams in the standings have qualified to participate in our Championship Tournament, and the 8 remaining teams will participate in our Tier-Two Tournament, all on Saturday, September 15.  I'm working on all the details, so please stand by and I'll have it all out to you early next week.

Meanwhile, I still have a few diamonds available for next week if anyone else would like to reserve one for a pre-playoff practice or if you want to arrange an exhibition game.  First come, first served.  Please let me know, thanks.

All the best, everyone,

Thanks,

Howard

UNDEFEATED!

Game in a sentence:

The DangerCats capped off their undefeated regular season in style, with power bats and timely defense en route to a 25-14 (or something?) win over perennial challengers The Big League Chews. 

Shaking the usual tendency to start slow, the 'Cats opened the game with a flurry of hits and runs and never looked back. Aggressive base running, line drives to the gap and the occasional mega-bomb to the outfield (thanks Mike) kept Big League on their heels every top-half of the inning. While their hitters showed prowess throughout the game, steady DangerD all over the field minimized the damage and allowed the 'Cats to maintain a run cushion throughout the game. The ladies in particular hit the ball well, with hard hit shots up the middle and between infielders ensuring a steady diet of lady-baserunners. Hustle down the baseline didn't hurt, either.

Here are some gifs of y'all up to bat. Apologies to Edwards who is not shown here due to me hitting record at the wrong time while videoing.

Notable highLIGHT: We played the game under the lights!

It's Not That Sirius

It was another gorgeous late summer evening as the 'Cats took the field against the Wild Cards of SXM Radio. Not to be intimidated by the undefeated record of their opponents, the Wild Cards brought a spirited cheering section (read: two 8 year-olds) who conveniently started their chants as DangerCat batters were in the middle of their swing. Good thing this isn't golf.

After some small ball generated a couple of runs (triple, sac fly, triple, single) in the top half of the first, SXM came up and hit the ball hard, quickly racking up 4 runs to take the lead going into the second inning. True to our slow starting form, however, the good guys promptly mercied two of the next three innings while playing soul-crushing shut down defense to break the spirit of the Wild Cards and their eight year-olds. This game was effectively over after 4 innings, and literally over after 6, as the Wild Cards called uncle. Full credit where it's due, though: they were a fun bunch who laughed and joked the whole game, despite the lopsided score. Kudos, SXM.

Some honourable mentions: Amazing defensive work by Jenn and Wexler at second base, snagging a hot grounder and a looping pop up, respectively. They both hit the ball hard and got on base several times. Pugsley was on fire at the plate, hammering the ball several times including a bullet line drive that was destined to crack my sternum on the mound. Luckily, I pulled a full Neo (complete with keanu Reeves-esque flailing arms) to avoid the rocket up the middle. Other good defensive plays included a double play by Brendan, snaring a line drive then one-hopping it to first which was scooped by Terp to end the inning. Terp, playing SS for an inning, also leaped to snare a hot liner that was destined for the gap.

I think pretty much every dude but me hit a home run, with the possible exception of Prime (though I seem to remember him crushing one in the fifth or sixth and, as we were up by a few, taking his time around the bases for a triple... or something). Binstock recovered from an early fly-out to smash one over the head of their center fielder, followed quickly by Mike who followed suit to right to mercy in the second. We then had a three HR inning in the fourth, started off by Edwards who sliced a line drive that carried way out for a solo shot. Brendan then crushed one to the gap in left, turning on the afterburners to fly around the bases. Dave then showed a little of the Terpstra of yesteryear, blasting a bomb to straightaway centre over the heads of their outfielders who, finally, had moved back. Not far enough, obviously. 

Great game, 'Cats. A few of us will be getting together in Christie Pits to hit/field some balls and drink some beers on holiday Monday afternoon. Come by and take a few swings. Our next game is on Wednesday at Riverdale West (the wet one) against the formidable Big League Chews. Let's get the win and cap off an unreal season at a pub afterward.

Week 13 Standings

Week 12 Standings

Standings Week 11

Hey Cats,

Stay tuned for info about our rain out make up date. In the meantime, here are this week's standings:

Our next game is Tuesday August 14th at Fairmount. Have a great weekend!

Week 10 Standings

PLEASE DON'T FORGET THAT PLAYOFFS ARE SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15th. TIME TBD.

Pirates without a paddle

It was a sad state of affairs walking up to little old diamond 2 in the middle of Riverdale West. Mr. Prime, Adam and Nener were using the Danger-Bats to dig trenches trying to drain the giant mud puddle that dominated the entire infield (with no success). Even with a shovel (biked in by Dave and gifted to the park community after the game) we were no match for the muck. As the Eggplant Pirates started arriving we tried with no luck to convince Howard to reschedule. With few options left the Dangercats got creative and decided to shift the entire field to avoid the mud. With first base now serving as home and the infield playing in short right field we got the game going without too much delay.

You could tell early on that the competition was not going to be too intense. The few base runners they did manage to get on in the early innings were completely lost, with one actually cutting across the diamond from first to third on a single. After we escorted him back to second we promptly got him out with a force at third on the next pitch.  From there it was a walk in the park as the 'Cats rolled to a dominating victory 22-4.  It's all a blur now as the celebrations got started before the game even ended but a special shout out to Debbie and Greg who filled in for our much depleted roster and both hammered the ball all day.

Another great game 'Cats. Next week, Thursday at Mcleary for another round of red dust up to your ankles, pitch to your own team, beer league softball!

The infield was in the outfield!

Nener up to bat!

Week 8 & 9 Standings

The Mightier 'Cats

Great game last night 'Cats! Here's another recap by Evan:

The Mighty Green put up a valiant effort in this one, folks, but the 'Cats trademark tight D and timely hitting came through when it mattered in a hard fought 21-14 win.

The softball gods attempted sabotage by popping Edward's tire and jamming my chain in my bike frame (I think undefeated records offend them), but we were undeterred. Edwards set the tone with a blast to left field, which fired up the team in black and resulted in the Mighty Green's (once-burned) left-fielder playing SUPER deep all game, providing lots of opportunities to drop them in. The Green responded will some small ball in the bottom half to tie the game at 1-1 after one. 

The bats then came alive for the Cats, with four more runs in the second and a mercy in the third - solid hitting and base running from all involved. The Mighty Green got some runs back after a few defensive miscues, including my first (but not last) Brett Lawrie-esque "trying too hard" play of the game (sorry Mike, that fly was yours), and we managed to just get ahead with a score of 13-12 after four innings.

In the fifth, the 'Cats scored a couple but found themselves at two outs. Then Ian hit a sneaky, just fair flare to right and turned on the jets for a triple. Court beat out a throw to first, getting to second on the errant throw, and the rally was on. With runners and second and third, Binstock looped a shot just beyond the outstretched shortstop (honourable mention to the Mighty Green SS here, he was on point) and two more runs came in. A two out mercy inning - that had to be pretty demoralizing for those other guys.

Other offensive highlights/notables: Andrea hit the ball hard and, if she didn't get on base, at least moved runners over. Wexler frustrated their infielders with her grounders in the dust. Brendan flew out in the first inning for his first out of the season (ok, maybe his second). That guy doesn't get out. Me sending Pugsley to her doom when she had no business going first to third on a single (my "trying too hard" play two). Dave T not getting into a single base running snafu (not once!). Edwards spraying the ball all over the field at will. Me beating out a Brett Lawrie end-of-the-bat baby grounder. Mike hitting his second home run of the game (or was it three?) hustling around the bases - because I was telling him to - despite the fact that Binstock had already scored the seventh run of the inning. Oops.

With the 'Cats comfortably ahead, all we needed was some shut down innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh. The outfield made some adjustments and Ian and Mike were perfectly positioned when the opponents tried for looping singles to center and right. Brendan hard charged some grounders and Dave plucked some throws out of the aforementioned dust. In the seventh, Binstock decided to take the game over, with a solo double play featuring a highlight reel grab and hold at first by Dave. That was followed up by a pop into shallow right, which Binstock chased down all the way from short. Collecting the ball on the one-hop, he fired a throw across the diamond to Edwards who tagged out the runner trying to stretch it into a triple. That decision was almost as questionable as when I tried to score from second on a ground out. "Trying to hard" play three.

Great game 'Cats. Next game is Wednesday at Riverdale West against the Eggplant Pirates. Good luck!

Balls BUSTEDDDDDDD

Arriving at Withrow last evening to see the 'Cats warming up alongside opponents The Ball Busters, casual passersby would have been forgiven for mixing up which team possessed the undefeated record and which were struggling further down the standings. With so many guys that they fielded two full defensive squads and many of them tall, athletic looking types, the Busters sure looked the part. Unfortunately for them, they did not play like it.

Yes it was classic DangerBall last night, as the 'Cats got off to a sluggish start and were quickly behind 3-0 (much to the delight of the Busters). From there the defense went into shut down mode and bats woke up. While there was only one home run (thank you Binstock) on the evening, strings of singles and doubles and one totally bizarre triple (thank you Ian) meant runs piled up and the Busters' spirit was broken. Highlights include all four Lady Cats hitting and running hard, Dave baby-stepping down to first even as it was abundantly clear his flare to right was going to drop in, and Edwards bent over huffing for air after yet another sprint around the bases from his awesome night at the plate/on the base paths. 

Defensively, it was probably our best showing of the season. Binstock had three solo double plays, taking full advantage of the Busters' tendency to hit slow bouncers up the middle with a runner on first. In the outfield, adjustments were made after the three run first inning (read: we moved in...) and the Busters put up goose eggs in four consecutive innings. We were solid all around, with a shout out to Edwards for a lunging snare of a line drive in the seventh.

Great game, 'Cats! Our next is on Tuesday next week at McCleary against Howard's (the league Commissioner) team The Mighty Green. They are always a solid squad, so let's bring our A-Game and keep our undefeated record alive!

DCats Relaxin'

Week 7 Standings

Here are the standings for week 7. See you all next Wednesday at Withrow!

Never Mess With A Lady Cat

Rogers' Big Red Machine learned that lesson the hard way last night in a 20-17 defeat, spurred by the great play of Andrea "Nener" Nene. Rocking our bitchin' new unis, we came ready to roll over Rogers to keep the undefeated season going. After a fast first inning where the defences dominated, the Dangercats had something going in the second when Nener stepped to the plate. With the competition showing no respect, Nener kept the rally going and gave the offence the kick-start it needed.  Nener was on base the whole game, with 2 RBI and 3 runs scored (great hustle!) in what turned out to be a hard fought, back and forth affair.

The Little Red Machine had the home field advantage and took the lead a few times but the 'Cats always had an answer. With triples (!) from Brendan, Ian and Terp, multiple dingers from Mike, Prime and Binstock, and the ladies crushing it with J-Lo all night, the Rogers' fielders were scrambling. To add injury to insult,  Jenn nailed their second baseman in the head and Evan beaned a base runner in the kidney. The Cats were clearly taking a little revenge for last year's tough loss in the finals. In the end it came down to some smart base running, bend-but-don't-break defence and another solid effort with the bats for an all around satisfying victory over the league's douchiest team. Good work 'Cats! Next game is a week today - the 18th at Withrow.  

New Shirts!!

Week 5 Standings

Here are you standings for week 5. Enjoy the week off and remember, next week's game is Tuesday, July 10th against "The Big Red Machine" at McLeary Park. 

DangerCats take out Inglorious Batters for fifth straight win and top spot in the league

From last week's game against the lowest of the low to the team tied (with the 'Cats) for top spot in the league, this week's DangerCats game was a hard fought victory that gave us sole possession of first place as the only undefeated team in the league!

The Cats started strong with Dave "Terpy" Terpstra leading the way with some stellar defence in the top half of the first snagging everything hit and thrown his way and following it up with a big dinger in the bottom to help the team jump out to an early lead. But the Inglorious Batters persevered and starting putting together some solid innings. They hit the ball well and even mercy-ed us to take the lead. But the 'Cats weren't fazed. In the bottom half of the inning we put together a mercy inning of our own, highlighted by a clutch, two-out two RBI single by Carolyn (welcome any time Carolyn!) straight up the middle.

Things got tense after a few close calls at the plate, some name calling, and an error in judgement when the Batters decided to "kick back" Prime's dribbler to the pitcher giving him a second chance - which he took full advantage of striking the killer blow with a two run shot. With a five run lead going into the final inning the famous Danger Defence was on display as the Cats shut 'em down 1-2-3 to take the victory. 

Great game by all! Enjoy this one the next two weeks and come back ready to show Rogers what DangerCats baseball is all about.

We will have T-shirts for the Rogers game - yay! Please email Jenn $25 for your shirt to jenncourt@gmail.com.

 

Boring Game, Exciting New T-Shirts!

So this week in baseball, we played the lowest ranked team in the league. There were no surprises when we got to the diamond, as they represented just about exactly the same this year as they did last; with not enough players. Was all good though, we lent them a couple of stand ins (Ian’s wife included) and played out the game. DangerCats took the win with a final score of 23-2.

IN OTHER NEWS:
Here are our shirts! We've decided to go a very simple route with the T-shirts this year, and we hope that you like what we've done! Shirts will cost $25 each.

Chest emblem close-up:

 

Here are this week's standings:

Next week's game is Tuesday June 26th at McLeary Park against the Inglorious Batters (currently matched with us for 1st place). See you then!

Snakes and Standings

So for those of you who were unable to make it out to Wednesday's game (which was a lot of you), let me tell you it was areal nail biter. First off, we had JUST enough players to field a team, and we didn't manage to even pull that together until 7 o'clock! whoops! Luckily the other team were waiting on a player too. Once the game began at 7, we were just trying to play hard, and NOT GET INJURED!  Our opponents were "Snakes on a Field" who were tied with us for first place last year and also happened to be the team that we never played once either in the regular season or the playoffs! They were good. And our teams were evenly matched and close in score the entire game. We had a couple of minor injuries; Evan took a hard throw to the temple, and Wexler pulled some leg muscles, but we kept going strong! Going into the final inning, the DangerCats were up by 5 runs, we had home team advantage so just needed to shut them down to take the win. Unfortunately, they scored 5 runs on us. We had to fight for our win. Dave Terp got on base, then so did Wexler, moving Dave to second, and then Evan went up to bat and hit a pretty solid ball into left field. Dave did some risky base running and made it home just ahead of the throw to home, securing the win! We were all really excited, and so was Dave once he learned the score and realized that we won.  In the end the DangerCats took it with a final score of 13-12. Exciting baseball! That was a hard fought and well earned win Cats. Congrats on the standings!!

PLEASE NOTE: Next week's game is TUESDAY, JUNE 19th, at MCLEARY PARK moved from Thursday. See ya then!

Week 2 standings...and more!

Here are the standings for week 2:

 As you can see, we're now in a 4-way tie for 1st place. Go 'Cats!

Since we're playing Wednesday night and so are the Toronto Maple Leafs (the Inter-County baseball team, obviously not those other Leafs) let's head to their game after we're done. It's in Christie Pitts, and they'll be playing under the lights. Bring extra refreshments!

Stay tuned for more info about new shirts!

Through Rain, Thunder, Rainbows and Sunshowers

After fighting through an afternoon of rain panic, the weather actually looked semi-promising as we rode our bikes to the diamond for last night's game. Despite the threatening clouds and dark overcast skies all around us, the sun was actually shining right down through onto the shitfield that is Riverdale West. But alas, that would not last. As soon as we started to play after winning the coin toss (who did that coin toss? you should do that again!) the rain started to pour and the thunder rumbled all around us.

We started to have a much better feeling about the game after the first few mercy innings, when it became apparent we were more than likely going to take the win. The rain continued on throughout the entire game, even throughout the latter half of the game when the sun was shining bright. It wasn't until the game was over and we shook hands with our very friendly, but not so well-gloved opponents that the rain stopped. HUGE batting game for all of our boys who managed to hit home runs at almost all of their at-bats! crazy! The DangerCats took the W with a final score of 30-10.

Side note: Nener's reaction upon arrival at seeing our old friend Gary was priceless! She was so happy! We were a little shy on boy players last night with Brendon, Dave and Dave unable to join us, and Gary graciously stepped in to help out. Thanks Gary! Nener loves you and so do we all!