MAY 2, 2024

Rusty Royals Report – John Koopman

Are the Rusty Royals for real?  Having tanked for the better part of the last five years the organization focused on the future and picked up a plethora of high draft choices. Those choices have finally matured and reached the bigs. In Game One rookie Ron Belluomini had a great debut hitting 3 for 3 with a double, two runs scored and two ribbies. Jeff Palmer also had three hits and Rich Halyk pitched a gem.  Rick Martin fresh off the IL made a terrific over-the-shoulder catch of a Texas leaguer.  Willi Thurner, though not used to playing in front of the huge OMMSPL attendance levels, kept his cool, made a nice grab of a deep fly and also contributed a run.  Newbie Brian Mastervik performed admirably, going 2 for 3 with a double, ribbie and a run.

Expected to meet doormats, the Red Faces came out hunting for bear in game two.  The Rusty Royals would no longer be under-estimated.  Early on the Royals fell behind 5-1 as they made a few errors.  They kept their composure however, played as a team, and by the end of four were only down by 2.  In the top of the fifth their bats exploded and they plated five led by Andy McMacMacKin's lead-off single.   In the bottom of the sixth the Royals plated three led by the bottom of the order to go ahead.  Tight defence held the Red Faces in the top of the seventh and the Rusty Royal went home with a 10-9 victory.  The post game beers were sweet.

Red Faces Report – Tom Hunter

A perfect opening day, if you don’t mind losing.  The Red Faces strategically decided to treat Game One as a pre-season warmup, with a predictable outcome – a 15-3 mercy after 5 short innings.  The Faces’ offence generated an average of two lonely baserunners per inning, and the defence might charitably be described as “inconsistent”.

After a trip to Canadian Tire to load up on WD-40 the Faces returned for Game Two and promptly put up 5 runs in the top of the first to take what they assumed would be an insurmountable lead.  Unfortunately, the Royals had other ideas and started to chip away.  After 4 innings the Faces still held a precarious 7-4 lead, but coughed up 5 runs in the fifth to squander it.  Trailing 10-7 going into the seventh inning the Faces considered mailing it in and getting a head start to Monaghans, but instead mounted a furious rally to score 2 and load the bases, but that’s all she wrote.

Defensive highlights included several strong plays by Jeff Francis at shortstop and a leaping snag of a line drive by Ron VanderMeulin which left both teams standing slack-jawed in awe. 

Offensive highlights – VanderMeulin was 4-5 with a walk, Dan Sanscartier was 4-5 with a sac fly, Jack Pang was 2-3 with 3 walks, Don Mosely-Williams was 3-4 with a walk, Tom Hunter was 3-4 with 2 walks and Dave George and Tony Reda were each 3-5.

Wallace the umpire also had a good day, including making an interesting safe call at first when the ball clearly beat the runner, but Wallace astutely noticed that the base was occupied by two defenders, which is apparently a no-no. Who knew?

The team is expecting great things from the return of manager Mike Boyle and star infielder Bernie Renwick next week.

Blue Pills Report – Darrell Northcott

On opening day the Blue Pills lost a pair, 9-4 and 16-9. Kudos to the Grey Beards who played solid on offence and made their plays on defence without giving us any free passes.

The Pills got an excellent pitching performance from Mike Canham along with a well-timed single that drove in a couple runs. Ed Lincz was kept very busy at second base with a lot of lefthanded hitters to deal with, and made many good plays including stretching to the max to snag a line drive destined for right field. Frank Sturm had a great day at leadoff and covered a lot of ground in centre.

Bottom line is the Pills are looking forward to a new challenge next week and hope to get the bats going and string some hits together. Especially looking forward to seeing Dave Walker keep the ball within the lines as he missed about 5 standup doubles by a couple feet. Top hitting performances - Frank Sturm with 6 hits and Tony Fratia and Greg Aubert with 5 apiece. Over and out.

Grey Beards Report – Larry Young

Season opening games started with a beautiful spring day. Sunny with very little cloud. The Greybeards managed to sweep their double header with two pretty evenly matched teams. Neither pitcher walked a batter the entire day. The Greybeards were led in hitting with Steve Moses going six for seven and Randy Heinbecker going six for eight. Andy Kozai was our great farmer as he was outstanding in his field with two phenomenal running catches in centre field. The left side of our infield was a strength throughout the day with Mac at third and the Craig twins (Bill and Steve) hoovering anything hit their way. The player of the day however went to our league veteran Barney Henderson who batted six for seven and beat out a close double play on his only out of the day, as well as playing an excellent right field. Majority of the team went back to Monaghans after the game for many stories and laughs. Looking forward to next week.

Fine Wines Report – Chris Barrett

Opening game for 2024 was not the rematch of 2023 finals the Winers had hoped for vs the White Hairs.

The new lineup came out and scored 3 quick runs, but gave away a run at home plate, then waited until the 4th inning to score a 5.  Ending with 10 runs - not a bad start. New to our League, Jonathan Kamin had two hits as did Mike Way, Pat Blais, Ian Schell, Rick Wilkinson, Bob Edmonston, Don Brown and Rob Bentley. Unfortunately, other than Ian at second base we were much too generous in our fielding and the powerful/ speedy White Hairs kept scoring.

The Fine Wines lineup got better in the second game, holding the White Hairs to 9 runs, but we couldn't muster any big rallies and only scored 4. This kept White Hairs Captain Morty happy so we could get to Monaghans in time. Who needed starting 1-1?

Mike was 3-4 and Pat, Ian, Bob, Jonathan, Ben Roczniak and Gary Gilmour each had two hits.

Looking forward to our returning outfielders and little more practice for future better results.

White Hairs Report – Jeff Morton

First to the Field Vince Pileggi got caught in some traffic and was last to the field.  Undeterred, the ‘24 White Hairs took to the field to support pitcher "Bill I don't walk anyone Manson".

The first game was close through 4.  Whiteys erupted for 9 in the 5th and 6th and cruised to a 19-10 win.

Returning White Hair, Bread Basket Warren, volunteered to apply/collect for lead off and strike out fines.  Ironically he promptly had the first K of the year, albeit swinging. 

Later Kim hit an inside the park home run despite questionable base running.  Perhaps the league could get a group discount on hearing aids.

Game two was a closer affair with the Hairs prevailing 9-4.  Mark Brancier and Gerry Coveny made several great plays in the outfield and Secret Weapon Grudzinki was his usual slick fielder at 3rd for the Hairs.

In total the Hairs banged out 49 hits with every player getting at least 3.

P.S.  yes, the Hairs were first to Monahans!

2023 SEASON FINALE!

Congratulations to the White Hairs for achieving first place in the regular season and, for an encore, winning the Playoff Championship.

From left to right:  Barny Henderson,  Tony Fratia,  Frank Strum,  Kim Warren,  Roman Kryzaniwsky,  Mike Canham,  Jeff Morton (Manager),  Al King,  Brock Paterson,  Greg Potter,  Nick Wollaston,  Rick Cummings,  Vince Pileggi 

Congratulations also to the Fine Wines for their terrific regular season (1 point out of first place) and a hard-fought battle in the Championship Game.

From left to right - Ian Schell, Tony Foscarin, Jim McDonald, Steve Isaacs, Rick Wilcox, George Merrick, Vince Moffat, Andy Kozai, Rick Wilkinson, Dave Adams, Mike Way, Chris Barrett, Ted Wierda

And congratulations to Shane Noseworthy, the recipient of the Bill Carson Award for 2023, which is awarded to a player who exemplifies patience, a positive attitude, enthusiasm, support of his teammates and a proclivity to lead by example, and who commands respect from both his teammates and competitors.

BOYS OF SUMMER 2023