Huntsman Tournament 55+ / 70+  2013

Team 55+ Tournament Reports

Final Day of Playoffs:

Game 3 vs Edmonton

It all started again with a 5am wake up call. No sun to be seen while driving to the park. Very chilly.

Edmonton got off to a great start by hitting balls into sun alley . Very suicidal for the sausage maker from Fox Valley. Oh yeah- Did I say the sun eventually came out. Edmonton scored 14 in the first 3 inning. We had 12 runs mostly from the the mighty Stew Johnston's powering fence clearing home run and an inside the park dinger. Tim Seitz also had a out of park HR. The Cabri realtor had his bat working today going 2 for 3. What a relief. Still no fans in the stands. Finally ran out of time and lost 23-16 in 6 inning. Had a enjoyable tournament and would like to once again thank the 70s for their support and congrats on their silver medals. Congrats also goes to the 60s and 65s for their achievements. Not much beer drank after game because there was nothing to celebrate. After the tears, I mean beers, we left on our way to Vegas and home. Harvey we missed you.

Tournament stats below

Trent 17/24

Jamie 11/17 in park hr

Derry 17/24 hr

Tom Biko 10/20

Mike 11/16- 1 k

Randy 17/22 1 k

Tim 19/23 1 hr

Glen 13/21 1 k

Sam 14/18 hr

Stuart 14/21 hr and iphr ( stew bought a round after the game, he was happy)

Jim Fink 12/15

Jim Larson 14/20

Larry 10/15

I would say these are some pretty impressive numbers

Roving reporters from some slot machine in the Casa Blanca, Mesquite, NV.

Randy and Jamie

Day 1 of Playoff Round Friday Oct 18th

It all started getting out of bed at 5:00AM so we could make the 8:30 game - Alberta time

Alaska was our first opponents. We wanted revenge from last year.Down 5 zip after the first inning, we finally started to wake up. After 3 innings, score knotted at 10, the Fox Valley sheep herder who also makes damn fine sausage, decided to play a little game of homer derby. This started our rally and we came away with a 26- 19 victory. The crowd went nuts. What crowd?? It was about 9AM! And the sun was just coming over the red mountains. We were still rubbing the sleep out of ur eyes from the Casa Blanca casino the night before and 5AM comes pretty early.

Game 2 Toronto.

Still tired from scoring so many runs the previous game and unbelievable fielding, we decide to change our format. No hitting and poor fielding. We sucked. Our play was so bad, one of the players actually struck out swinging. Next time this fellow player from Cabri hit, or should I say tried to hit, the fans got up and left. The fans that paid to get in were actually asking for their money back!! Tom Biko launched another home run. And he wasn't even trying that hard. Hi-lite of the game was we only had to play 6 innings because of being mercied, so we could get back to what we do well, drink beer. As they say in Rider land: "Win or lose, lets hit the booze"!! And it's only 10AM. Thoughts of not winning a medal at the Huntsman Games had a few of us terrified . Now we know what Rick Parker went through last year. We decided to cancel our 3 pm practise so we can drink more beer and be ready for tomorrows games.

Final score Toronto 19 Puffers 7

Trent 5 for 8

Jamie 3 for 6

Derry 4 for 7 CACS they say in Fox Valley. he hit one out of the barn.

Tom Biko 3 for 6 Home run

Mike 4 for 5

Randy 5 for 7

Glen 3 for 6 Strikeout and a third strike foul.

Sam 5 for 5

Stuart 4 for 6

Jim Fink for 1

Jim Larson 4 for 7

Larry 1 for 3

Tim 6 for 7

Day 2 of Playoff round tomorrow

Roving reporters from some slot machine in the Casa Blanca, Mesquite, NV.

Randy and Jamie

Junior Puffers report:: (that would be the +55'ers. We like being called young).

After 80 runs scored through the first 3 games, the Puffers have a 2 and 1 record. You think we were playing football!! We scored more runs than the Riders score touchdowns.

The first opponents were from Sacramento, team name the Coyotes, and they came out howling. 5 runs in the each of the first 3 innings and we couldn't match them. Many of their runs were caused from our outfielders losing balls in the lights. They are a little fuzzy out there!! Both games were night games and it took a few innings to customize to the lights. The highlite of the game was Trents catch in the outfield where he fell over the fence after catching the ball for the out. Buy that man a beer!! In the end, we lost 29 -22. Tom Biko had a monster homerun. Mike Ferre and another fellow helped the teams with strike outs. I think his name was Randy Biko. He was caught looking.. Everyone hit well. Our bats are going to come alive!!!

Game 2

Salt Lake City Copper Miners

Customized to the lights, lookout. Young guns (we're not that young) were firing on all cylinders. And alive the bats came!! It was a beautiful thing. Almost like poetry in motion..

Everyone still hitting well. Game was close through 4 but Puffers started the rally. Score 24-12 with 2 out in the open inning. 14 runs were scored to to seal the victory. 38-14. Tom Biko had 2 more monster home runs. Everyone still hitting well and too many names to mention. Whoever figured that Salt Lake had copper mines anyway?

Game 3

St Albert, AB. (that's in Canada, EH!)

This was a close match with St Albert leading up until the 6th inning when the Puffers jumped out to 19-16 lead. We decided to pull the fireballer, Jim Fink, and bring in the junk ball artist, Jim Larson. This seemed to screw up the Ukranians from northern Alberta up a bit, and we snuck up on them. However, one particularly large garlic lover had to spoil our party with his second 3 run homer of the day to tie the score. We need one run in the bottom on the 7th to win the game. Should be easy enough with the way we have been hitting. Right ? Well not so fast!! First up - easy pop out to 2nd. Then Sam gets on with a single. Then another easy out. Oh Oh!! This is not good... Then,,, finally,,,, we string together a couple seeing eye singles and texas leaguers that seemed to piss off our buddies (????) from the City of Perogies. Again the team hit the ball well.

After 3 games, hitting stats are below:

Trent 9 / 12 (over the fence catch hi-lite reel)

Jamie 8/12 in the park home run (unbelievable speed)

Derry 11/13 (makes good sausage too)

Tom Biko 6/11 3 very long balls (it was dark)

Mike 5/8 1K - (in sick bay for 3rd game)

Randy 10/12 1 K (you should've seen the look on his face)

Tim 10/12 (he seems to trip and fall a lot, especially at home plate)

Glen 8/12 (still short)

Sam 9/12 (playing hookey from school, don't say anything)

Stuart 7/11 (still hasn't bought a round)

Jim Fink 10/12 (gold medal seems to be a little heavy around his neck)

Jim Larson 8/11 (reliever extraordinaire)

Larry 7/9 (using his gold medal as his can!!)

Too many hits to mention.

Playoff rounds starts tomorrow.

Roving reporters from some slot machine in the Casa Blanca, Mesquite, NV.

Randy and Jamie

Team 70+ Tournament Reports

Day 5 Hi-Lites

We lost the silver medal game to Triple E from California but not without a fight. Fred Bohnet has been pitching superb but he could not find the plate today. He walked the 1 st 2 batter which was followed by several good hits and we were quickly down 5 runs. We had the "hammer " but we could not score in the 1 st inning which put us behind the 8 ball so to speak. In the 2 nd inning Fred was not having much luck but Jim P decided to stick with him as he has come thru in the past. However, their bats were booming and we were quickly down by 10 runs and this was not looking good. We did not score in the 2nd.  In the 3rd  but they got two good hits off Fred so Jimmy P went to the Bull Pen for Al Longworth  and we held them to 2 runs in the 3rd. Then our bats came alive and we scored 5 runs of the bat of Stan "the machine  " with a 3 run homer in the third and things were looking better. They picked up 3 runs in the 4 th but we replied with another 5 runs on some timely hit. Jimmy P had a triple with 2 aboard to start the rally. They picked up 5 more runs in the 5th and we could only scratch out 2 runs. We had a runner on third  with none out but Terry P was called out for a leadoff ( he  did not lead off  but the umpire is right ) on a flyout by Esler so now we had two outs. We did get 2 more runs.  Then time ran out so we are in the open inning. They then went up 22 to 12  but we know how to come from behind; we hope. We did score 4 runs but it wasn't enough so we had to settle for a Bronze Medal.

One highlight in the last inning was what should be call a committee of errors but Howard thinks it should be a IPHR. You Decided; Howard hit a high short fly ball to right field  and the fielder lost it in the sun so it dropped in; then Howard took off for second base and would have been out but the throw from the RF skipped  the 2 nd baseman so Howard went to third. However the Rover picked up the ball and threw to third and Howard should have out but the ball bounce off the third baseman's foot and Howard ran home. I don't think we could call that IPHR.  However, we  made a valiant effort but came up short 22 to 16.

We had a very good tournament and are quite happy with our results. We thank the wives for attending and cheering for us all week. The 55's watched and cheered for 3 of our games and that was also appreciated.  

We also want to give special thank to Clint and Betty for hosting us after each day. Their hospitality puts a special touch to our trip to the Huntsman Games and we all appreciated it.  Betty's pickles are the best. Oh!!! did I mention that Jimmy P struck out and had to buy the beer.

Day 4 Hi-Lites

Game #1 Thursday we played a Team called SouthWest and we have played them in previous years. We won 21 to 9 in 7 Innings and we had 27 hits so our bats were doing the talking again. The highlights was an IPHR by Al Longworth. As Al was coasting to 3 rd he could not   believe he was being wave Home nor was he sure he could make it. Stan " The Hitting Machine"  went 4 for 4 with an IPHR with 2 aboard. Fred Bohnet pitched another great game. I should mention that Fred is also pitching for the Calgary 74 + along with Clint and Howard. Terry P and Howard went 4 for 4 and Jim P turned in a triple.  

We score some runs every inning as you can imagine with 21 runs and turn in a excellent defensive game as the opposition never hit the score sheet until the 4 inning. This was a great game to win as we are on the " Bubble " and must win from here on in. Our next game is for the Bronze medal later today

Game #2  Thursday. This game was against the Porterville Patriots whom we mercied in the seeding round. We assumed they were "Sandbagging" in that game and we were right. In the seeding round they batted 13 players and put their top 4 hitters at the bottom of the order. Today they batted 11 players and their 4 best hitters  batted first and caught us little off guard by scoring 5 run in the top of the 1 st. We replied with 5 in our half of the 1st and now the "Cat and Mouse" game was on. We traded runs until the 7th and when we come to bat in the bottom of the 7th we were down 18 to 15. We needed 3 runs to tie or 4 to win.

Luckily we were at the top of the batting order with Clint , who batted 4 for 4 , leading off with a single. Next was Esler who was 3 for 3 with 2 "sliding " doubles so you would expect at least a single. Esler fouled out. Stan came up with a single moving Clint to 3 rd. Howard came up with a single to right field ; Clint scored and Stan went to 3 rd. Next was Harold who was having a great day at the plate with 3 for 4 with IPHR. Harold came thru again with a single to centre which scored Stan and Howard went to second. Next was Jim P and he hit a sharpe single to load the base. We now had the bases loaded and one out with Terry P at the plate. Terry sent a line drive to centre field  to score Howard and Harold to win the hard fought game 19 to 18. We now have the Bronze medal and will play for the Silver 9:50 on Friday. To win the Gold we must win 3 games all back to back

Day 3 Hi-Lites

We started the day with the hopes of winning 2 games so we did not need to come up the losers side. Our 1st game was against Coeur d' Alene, Idaho . Unfortunately this team was out of their league and should have been in D division, but there was no D division this year and we slaughtered them with a 32 to 2 score. We had 37 hits and everyone had hits. Clint, Howard and Jim had IPHR. Yes I said Jim had an IPHR and he was out of fuel when he got to the bench.

The Umpire ( mercifully ) let the clock run out after the 4 th Inning and then announced that we  would be in the open Inning. We tried not to embarrass the opposition by not trying to take an extra base etc but we kept scoring so Jim ask the Umpire to let them have their last bat even though we had only one out in the open Inning. After quick three outs  the marathon ended.

Our 2 nd games  was against the Ka Uila  Hawaii. They had 11 batters and 7 subs on the bench so there was no shortage of players.  Although  they won 17 to 11 we did have 18 hits. However, they were not bunch together to score enough runs at any particular time. Also, they were very good at placing their hits and a couple of errors on our part cost us a few runs. On the positive side , Howard had a triple and Clint had a double and Stan, the hitting machine had 4 hits. If we continue to win we could possible met Ka Uila in the gold medal game. We feel we could beat them with a good effort on everyone's part.

Day 2 Hi-Lites

We played against the Bradenton Bombers from Florida and did they BOMB us. In fact they Mercied us in 5 Innings. We scored 3 runs in the first Inning so we thought it would be a good day but we were wrong. There first 4 batters hit the warning path and their first 8 batters got hits without us even touching the ball. From then on we could not buy a hit hence the mercy rule save us from anymore embarrassment. The score was 18 to 5. We hope that they are not in our division.

cheers Tom

Day 1 Hi-Lites

Monday 14 Oct. Huff and Puff 70 + Report

First we would like to congrats the 60+ and the 65 + on there Medals. We know the 65+ were excited because they too "OUR Bats" back to Med Hat. We assume there was no hit left in them.

Our first game was against the Porterville Patriots from CA and we had the game under control from the get-go althought we are sure they were "Sandbagging ".  We mercied them in 5 Innings with a 17 t0 5 score. We played a good defencive game an our bats were booming. Stan had 3 hits,  one of which was a IPHR with one aboard; Howard had 3 hits of which 2 were doubles; and Harold had 3 hits. All told we had 21 hits in 5 Innings.

Our second game was against the Mississauga Legends whom we know from other years that they are good hitters. We stayed with them until the end. It was a see-saw battle but they won 19 to 18. Again we knocked out 22 hits with some great highlites. Harold had 3 hits of which 2 were IPHR; Stan had 3 hits of which 2 were IPHR and one was a Grand Slam; Howard had one IPHR. Everyone on the team had at least one hit. We lead most of the way but they pulled it out in the bottom of the 7 th.  It was a great day for us.

cheers tom

55+ Schedule and Results

70+ Schedule and Results