#WeTheTrash Is the 2019 Slogan You Came For
The 2019 Grand Finale of the Field of Dreamer’s season was gifted a beautiful warm early autumn evening that provided a spectacular canopy for the final evening of the season. The stands were filled with friends, family, fans, and an assortment of Don River Don of the Dead Players who came out to boost the morale of the underdog teams and to perhaps stay late for some left over brain eating.
The Bronze medal matchup featured the shooting stars of the Garrison Creek Glimmer coming off a heartbreaking walk-off loss to the Rouge River Raccoons in the semi-finals and the Credit River Care Bears who surmounted the zombie apocalypse to secure their spot in the game. The Gold medal matchup featured the Humber River Haze who set fire to the Care Bears en route to securing their spot in the match and the Rouge River Raccoons who squeaked into the finals in walk-off fashion after a dominating regular season.
Would the Glimmer ride Halley’s Comet to the Bronze or would the Care Bears build a rainbow shield so illustrious that it completely changed the superstructure of the cosmos? Would the Haze use smoke and mirrors to confound the favoured Raccons or would Rouge River have a late night feast?
If you wanna know the results…
READ MORE TO FIND OUT!
Photo Credit: Meghan Wright 🙂
BRONZE MEDAL MATCH
(4) GARRISON CREEK GLIMMER @ (2) CREDIT RIVER CARE BEARS
By Craig Fortier, Credit River Care Bears
A wistful breeze blew upon the field as the Glimmer and Care Bears lined up on the field for the Opening Ceremonies. The play-by-play booth of Robin Smillie and LJ Robinson introduced the lineups and guided the players through the process of thanking the field of play and the peoples who have tended to the relationships on the land.
Would the stars align for Garrison or would the Care Bears finally use the Care Bear Stare to go to Peoria? Which must be heaven right? Anyhow, the game was definitely going to be magical!
In the first inning, the Care Bears created some interstellar debris that locked down the defense and blanked the Glimmer. But in the 2nd inning, the cosmically inclined Glimmer came to shine! They began with the cluster of Kaleigh McGregor-Bales, Luke Fox, and Krysta Williams who sprinkled glitter around the diamond and set the tone for what would be an infinite explosion of positive energy! It was about that time that we had to set a plate down on home so that Devin Clancy could mix his tossed salad and fry up his scrambled eggs, and indeed he did, with a beautiful left-handed stroke that launched the ball into deep space.
Colin Hastings, Ryan Hayes, and Johann Juarez all launched rockets that are still orbitting space and Annelies “Speed of Light” Cooper, Paulina Rousseau, and Joseph “No Zombies in Space” Bautista sped around the bases in an effort to disprove Newtonian physics!
But the Care Bears were a force to be reckoned with. Across the diamond, the Glimmer could hear their gleeful cheer as the ursus called out one final “Tender Hearts, Soft Balls, Care Bear Stare!!!”. Birthday Bear (aka Terrance Luscombe) started them all off by playing some bashful bear defence and happy bear offence to uplift the hearts and spirits of Care-A-Lot. Glitterati Bears (aka Sarah Weinberger and Lainie Basman) had their teammates decked out in the finest sparkles as though they were to attend the Met Gala. Bright Eyes Bear (aka Victoria Barnett) made sure to bring the vibes and Magical Unicorn Bear (aka Michelle Kidd) brought the heart.
The Care Bears were in motion scoring 5 in the first inning to take an early 5-0 lead. Inspired by teams pups Appa the Sky Bison and Humber the little Fox, Pup Bear (aka Jenny Chan) was chasing down balls on the field like they were squirrels. Snagging a comet off the bat of Devin “420” Clancy, Chan nearly made an outstanding put-out at first!
By the end of the 3 inning, the Care Bears lead had vanished and they were experiencing a case of mercury retrograde as the Glimmer were travelling through the diamond like dark matter. It was 10-5. And yet, the Care Bears would not give up. Led by Power Pop Bear (aka Rees Nam), Post Punk Bear (aka Alie Hermanutz), and Soundcloud Trap Bear (aka Jarl Gardner) these cubbies were performing some new wave flows and the Good news Bears pulled to within 2 runs of Garrison and the score was 10-8! It was then that Garrison went interstellar, supersonic, supernova, bossanova and just exploding the entire game! Johann Juarez clubbed his 2nd home run of the game and Observes-The-Cosmos Bear (aka Laura Pin) and Calculates-the-Distance-to-the-Assymptote Bear (aka Craig Fortier) saw the future in the stars. A come-back for your favourite ferociously cute mammals was not in the cards.
The final score was Garrison Creek 22- Credit River 10.
Garrison Creek Glimmer Green would fly on the Bronze Medal Banner.
GOLD MEDAL MATCH
(3) HUMBER RIVER HAZE @ (1) ROUGE RIVER RACCOONS
By Craig Fortier, Credit River Care Bears
It all came down to this. Rouge River and Humber River, the two most successful teams in league history (each would finish the 2019 season with all-time records of 28-18-1), the only two teams to win championships (Rouge River Ballsheviks 2017, Humber River Humdingers 2018), the teams who ostensibly led the league for most of the season would indeed face off for the finals.
The Raccoons were a team made up of power and elite defence. A team that consistently went above and beyond to work with each other and improve their skills through practice during the season were hoping to prove that #WeTheTrash would no longer be the 2nd most popular hashtag in Toronto sports for 2019.
The Haze meanwhile were a team of commitment and consistency with the most players on their roster with 40+ at-bats and the only team without a home run from their regular players (Note: injured Haze Giibwanisi hit a home run in Game 1 of the season). Instead, Humber played a game filled with cooperation, passing the baton, and heart.
Each team came out hitting! The Haze were lit from time, and Adam Dirks, Samira Banihashemi, and Alex Brant smoked singles to get on the board. Andy Smith wearing glasses poked a seeing-eye single through the gap that would score two more and Sarah Peek and Briana Greaves mounted onto the lead until the tinder lit the log and the Haze had smoked out their 5 run max.
It was the procyon’s turn to bat. And, just like all season, Yogi Acharya was the first to learn the new lock system on the Green Bin and he unleashed a proverbial feast for his teammates with a lead off triple! Nat Saavedra and David Ravensbergen followed with striking blows and Susannah Mulvale overturned the trashbins to really get the party going! By the end of the 1st it was 5-5!
The audience assembled, one of the largest in Dreamers history had signs cheering on Humber (including one lovely sign that explained that at least a couple Haze players were so hot that they were good at … sex!). It was a provocative crowd to be sure! And yes, Niloo Golkar, Oskar Eliashevsky, and Jill Aoki-Barrett were second inning igniters blazing doubles around the bases and scoring 4 more runs. It was 9-5 Humber.
The Raccoons seemed a little miffed. They had heard the Andy Smith rumour that the new Green Bins had resulted in a decline in their population and an increase in skunks! They really thought that this theory stunk and the 2nd inning showed their resolve at resurgence.
Darren Puscas, a master in procuring big hits, which he washes very thoroughly with his nimble fingers, slapped a lead-off double and Sena Hussain who of all Rouge players exemplified the Trash Panda ethos of the . team, followed with a single that brought up LJ Robinson who unearthed some leftover containers and then cleaned them all up – giving the Raccoons a 10-9 lead after 2.
The third inning began to put some distance between the Red and the Yellow as Phill Morgan, playing the role of Bert Raccoon, went up to the plate looking to put away the billionaire aardvark tycoon Cyril Sneer for good. And indeed a 3 inning lead off home run felt like the recipe for just that. Stu Schussler followed this up with a triple that would have earned him the name Bright Heart Raccoon (for his magical prowess) and indeed the Care Bear crew couldn’t help but cheer him on from the stands. The Raccoons led after 3 innings by a score of 13-9.
But the embers weren’t fully extinguished for the Haze. In the 4th inning they ramped up a comback thanks to some fine play by Umar Saeed and Robin Smillie who cooked up a rally and helped the Humber River squad extinguish the gap. It was 13-13!
The Raccons, however, responded with two more runs in the 4th to take the lead 15-13. This was the closest Humber would get to victory. Rouge perhaps through proximity with the Haze had caught fire and they went on to score another 7 runs until the dust settled.
The final score was Humber Rive 16 – Rouge River 22.
The Rouge River Raccoons were 2019 Champions. They become the first team to win two championships in Field of Dreamer history. They become the first team to appear in three gold medal games. They finished the season with the best all-time records in a single season. They finished the year with the 2nd most players to reach 40+ at-bats.
See the game box scores here
See player stats here
See league standings here
See all-time career statistics file (updated for July 8 2019) here
MILESTONES
Credit River
Laura Pin– becomes 42nd player in league history to reach 65 career hits!
Lainie Basman – becomes 23rd player in league history to reach 55 career runs scored!
Terrance Luscombe– currently ranks 6th on the all-time list with 43 career doubles!
Jenny Chan– see oddities below!
Jarl Gardner– see oddities below!
Robyn Letson– becomes the 14th player in league history to reach 105 career singles!
Victoria Barnett– breaks the all-time record for at-bats in a single season with 87! Previous record was held by Darren Puscas in 2017 with 85.
Alie Hermanutz– becomes 63rd player in league history to reach 35 career hits!
Michelle Kidd– becomes 31st player in league history to reach 2 career triples!
Craig Fortier – ranks 1st on the all-time list with 375 career hits!
Sarah Weinberger– currently tied for 53rd on the all-time list with 68 career at-bats!
Rees Nam – becomes 70th player in league history to reach 30 career hits!
Don River
Joseph Bautista -ranks 4th on the single season list with 78 at-bats in the 2019 season!
Humber River
Adam Dirks- becomes 54th player in league history to reach 25 career runs scored!
Samira Banihashemi- tied for 56th on the all-time list with 33 career singles!
Alex Brant- tied for 17th on the all-time list with 66 career runs scored!
Andy Smith- with a career batting average of .804 ranks 2nd among all qualified hitters in league history.
Sarah Peek- becomes 83rd player in league history to reach 40 career at-bats!
Briana Greaves- tied for 40th on the all-time list with 34 career runs scored!
Umar Saeed – see oddities below!
Robin Smillie – becomes 33rd player in league history to reach 150 career at-bats!
Nav Sidhu – becomes 18th player in league history to reach 120 career hits!
Niloo Golkar – becomes 29th player in league history to reach 90 career hits!
Oskar Eliashevksy – currently tied for 35th on the all-time list with 7 career doubles!
Jill Aoki-Barrett- becomes 46th player in league history to score 30 career runs!
Rouge River
Yogi Acharya- led the league this year with 53 hits, 6th most for a single season in league history behind Darren Puscas’ 67 hits in 2017!
Phill Morgan- led the league in batting average (.833), runs batted in (43) and finished second in home runs (7) this season!
Susannah Mulvale – ranks 40th on the all-time list with 49 career singles!
David Ravensbergen- becomes 27th player in league history to reach 10 career doubles!
Nat Saavedra – becomes 23rd player in league history to reach 15 career doubles!
Stu Schussler – becomes 15th player in league history to reach 70 career runs scored!
Sena Hussain – becomes 68th player in league history to reach 30 career hits (31)!
Darren Puscas – becomes 6th player in league history to reach 120 career runs batted in!
LJ Robinson – becomes 5th player in league history to reach 190 career hits!
Garrison Creek
Devin Clancy – becomes 9th player in league history to reach 100 career runs scored!
Annelies Cooper – see oddities below!
Ryan Hayes – see oddities below!
Paulina Rousseau – currently tied for 69th on the all-time list with 14 career runs batted in!
Krysta Williams – becomes 65th player in league history to reach 60 career at-bats!
Colin Hastings – see oddities below!
Kaleigh MacGregor-Bales – finished the season tied for 1st place with 42 singles (with Victoria Barnett) and in 4th place with a (.808) batting average!
Luke Fox – becomes 70th player in league history to reach 50 career at-bats (52)!
Johann Juarez – see oddities below!
SUBS
No Subs This Week.
ODDITIES
EXCLUSIVE 300 LEVEL
Jenny Chan (Credit River) joins Craig Fortier, Ryan Hayes, Johann Juarez and LJ Robinson as only the 5th player in league history to reach 300 career at-bats!
RYAN BASEBALL
Ryan Hayes (Garrison Creek) becomes only the 2nd player in league history to reach 300 career hits (302)! Ryan trails only Craig Fortier (375) for the all-time league lead!
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Colin Hastings (Garrison Creek) and Jarl Gardner (Credit River) become the 4th and 5th players respectively to reach 50 career doubles!
HUNDRED DOLLA BILL Y’ALL
Umar Saeed (Humber River) becomes the 42nd player in league history to join the illustrious club of players with 100 career at bats (103). 12th among players who have only ever had at-bats during the Field of Dreamers seasons.
SINGLE MINDED
Annelies Cooper (Garrison Creek) has sped up the all-time singles list this season and now ranks 4th all-time with 159 career singles – trailing only Ryan Hayes (182), Jenny Chan (174), and Craig Fortier (168).
JOHANN THE POWERFUL
Johann Juarez becomes only the 2nd player in league history to reach 50 career home runs (51) and trails the all-time leader, Craig Fortier (57) by only 6!