THE DOG DAYS ARE HERE
As July gave way to the season’s final stretch, the Field of Dreamers populated SkyDome with a nostalgic wistfulness for the pennant race to come. So far this season, the Rouge River Raccoons have scavenged through trash bins and have run off with wins at an unprecedented pace. The Credit River Care Bears and Humber River Haze have ridden a vapour wave of mellowness and weathered some ups and downs. While the Garrison Creek Glimmer and the Don River Don of the Dead are showing some twinkling and life despite starting the season in a bit of a deficit.
So it was no surprise that the early match would see the Humber River Haze trying to smoke out the cubbies and even their records, while the Care Bears looked to care so dang much that a win would magically befall upon them. While in the evening match, the Trash Pandas needed to be wary of the night of the Living Dead and the Don River Don of the Dead needed to be cautious of the nocturnal Raccoons and their equally insatiable appetite.
If you wanna know the results…
READ MORE TO FIND OUT!
Photo Credit: Victoria Barnett 🙂
CREDIT RIVER CARE BEARS @ HUMBER RIVER HAZE
By Robyn Letson, Credit River Care Bears
It was apparent from the get-go that the Humber River Haze were at home last Sunday night in optimal, particle-filled atmospheric conditions. The visiting Credit River Care Bears, naturally collective beasts, showed signs of residual delirium at the sudden sidelining of their OG Tenderheart Bear, Craig Fortier, who was tripped by a nefarious tree root near–you guessed it–the Humber River. The Bears’ grief was mitigated, however, by the triumphant return of Fashion-Forward Bear Alie Hermanutz and the addition of Litigious Bear Sarah Weinberger!
With lots of lovely fans (and some annoying hecklers) in the stands, both teams took to the field. Over two innings, Dizzying Adam Dirks, Supercell Sarah Peak and Climate Czar Robin Smillie led the Haze’s defence in creating a forcefield that kept the Bears off the scoreboard entirely. Then they came out swinging for the fences (which don’t actually exist at the Skydome, but it’s always good to have an aim), and the Care Bears just couldn’t wrangle the ball.
Solid thunderbolts from Nimble-Numbuses Niloo Golkar and Nav Sidhu eluded several blue shirts and had the Haze entering the third inning with a 10-0 lead. Led by Braveheart Bear Merle Davis Matthews, the Care Bears tried their darnedest to turn things around, with (self-identified) Grumpy Bear Terrance Luscombe and Cuddly Bear Karl Gardner driving in runs.
The Bears’ ambitions were indeed running high as Sunshine Bear Victoria Barnett dashed for third base and collided spectacularly with Avalanche Alex Brant (after the dust settled, everything was okay!). With such impermeable defense the Haze continued to ride a stratus cloud steadily toward victory and came away with their fifth win of the season.
Final score Credit River 8 – Humber River 11.
DON RIVER DON OF THE DEAD @ ROUGE RIVER RACCOONS
By Craig Fortier, Credit River Care Bears
In an old and abandoned cemetery near the old dump, the Raccoons went looking for a bite to eat. Rattling the old steel trash cans piled up row upon row, it was soon-to-be papa Raccoon Stuart Schussler who made the first strike, lobbing a long fly ball over the catacombs and scoring in the shadow of darkness. Captain Trash Panda, LJ Robinson followed with a ringing triple that is reserved only for the stealthness of the fine Procyon lotor, and it looked like this was going to be a feast.
But a loud wringing fly ball off the bat of raccoon daddy-o David Ravensbergen awoke the Zombies and it was Rachel Small who first leapt out of her tomb to snag the catch and bring the Dead to life.
Nightcrawler Rachele Gottardi and loveable ursus Victoria Barnett zombie-walked up to the plate and pounded two key hits that scored T Vega (the league leader in batting average) and Jo Jefferson (the league leader in brains eaten) and the Don trailed the Rouge only by a score of 6-5 after two innings of play.
Then, as a battle of two night creatures is wont to do, things got spooky and wacky and weird. The third inning saw Rouge extend their lead by 1 as they went up 8-6 thanks to the starstruck baby raccoon Ryan Hayes who was subbing from the Glimmer and the blasted triple off the bat of Big Papi Phill Morgan who continues to crush baseball like they were crunched up cans in a recycle bin covering the discarded take out container filled with delicious leftovers!
The Dead looked a little over matched until they began to swarm in the 4th. Led by key singles off the bats of Ryan “Dead Eyes” Roantree and Joey “Vampire” Bats…Peter “Eat them All” Demakos stepped up to the plate and launched a majestic Grand Slam that would cap a 7 run 4th for the Don of the Dead. The score now 13-8 saw the Raccoons scampering to safety.
But Susannah Mulvale and Sena Hussain proved to be the energy coils needed to spark the comeback and the Raccoons benefitted from some clutch hits from Darren “papa panda” Puscas and Nav “daddy issues” Sidhu to screach, and claw, and grumble, and flail to a 3 run 4th and a 7 run 5th.
This late surge buried the Don of the Dead and the Raccoons proved victorious.
Final score Don River 13 – Rouge River 18
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
Jenny Chan– becomes 37th player in league history to reach 6 career doubles!
Victoria Barnett– currently leads the league with 57 at-bats on the season!
Terrance Luscombe –becomes 8th player in league history to reach 80 career runs batted in (81)!
Sarah Weinberger– becomes 69th player in league history to reach 45 career at-bats (47)!
Jarl Gardner – becomes 6th player in league history to reach 170 career hits!
Michelle Kidd– becomes 87th player in league history to reach 15 career hits!
Alie Hermanutz– becomes 54th player in league history to reach 4 career doubles!
Merle Davis Matthews– see oddities below!
Lainie Basman– becomes 14th player in league history to reach 95 career singles (96)!
Rees Nam– becomes 86th player in league history to reach 30 career at-bats!
Robyn Letson– see oddities below!
Don River
Joseph Bautista- see oddities below!
Rachele Gottardi- see oddities below!
Ryan Roantree – becomes the 97th player in league history to reach 20 career at bats (22)!
Rachel Small – becomes the 8th player in league history to reach 160 career hits!
T Vega – currently leads the league with a .923 batting average!
Peter Demakos – becomes the 15th player in league history to reach 6 career home runs after the Grand Slam on Sunday night!
Jo Jefferson – becomes 17th player in league history to reach 65 career runs batted in!
Leah Silverman – becomes the 109th player in league history to score 4 career runs!
Humber River
Adam Dirks – currently tied-47th on the all-time list with 19 career runs batted in!
Alex Brant – currently ranks 16th on the all-time list with 93 career singles!
Nav Sidhu- see oddities below!
Robin Smillie – becomes 37th player in league history to reach 110 career at-bats!
Niloofar Golkar – becomes 24th player in league history to reach 70 career singles!
Sarah Peek- becomes 97th player in league history to reach 20 career at-bats!
Oskar Eliashevsky – becomes 74th player in league history to reach 10 career runs batted in!
Rouge River
Darren Puscas- becomes 13th player in league history to reach 80 career runs scored!
Stuart Schussler – currently tied for 12th on the all-time list with 6 career home runs!
LJ Robinson -becomes the 6th player in league history to score at least 100 career runs (101)!
Sena Hussain – see oddities below!
David Ravensbergen- see oddities below!
Susannah Mulvale- becomes 62nd player in league history to reach 55 career at-bats!
Phill Morgan- currently leads the league with 5 triples this season!
Garrison Creek
Devin Clancy – becomes 9th player in league history to reach 160 career hits!
Annelies Cooper – see oddities below!
Ryan Hayes – becomes the 2nd player in league history to reach 170 career runs scored (171)!
SUBS
NO SUBS THIS WEEK
ODDITIES
HUNDRED ONES
Merle Davis Matthews (Credit River) becomes the 12th player in league history to reach 100 career singles! With a characteristic practice swing and a determined eye, Merle has done this by consistently improving their batting average year upon year! Great work 🙂
Meanwhile Nav Sidhu (Humber River) became the 11th player in league history to reach 100 career singles (102)! Nav did it with a famously smooth stroke that assuredly deposits the ball in the pot of gold green grass beyond SS! Great work Navjeet!
BILLBOARD 100
Robyn Letson (Credit River) becomes the 21st player in league history to reach 100 career hits! With a patented left handed slash swing, Robyn has terrorized players playing 3rd base for 5 seasons! Congratulations Robyn!
BRIM FULL OF BASE HITS ON THE 75
Teammates Joseph Bautista (Don) and Rachele Gottardi (Don) become the 29th and 30th players respectively to reach 75 career hits. They did this in the same 7 run power impact inning for the Dead.
20-20 VISION
Teammates Sena Hussain (Rouge) and David Ravensbergen (Rouge) become the 74th and 75th players respectively to reach 20 career singles – in the same 7 run inning that brought Rouge to victory this week!
200 STARS
Garrison Creek Glimmer captain Annelies Cooper becomes the 13th player in league history to reach 200 career at-bats (202) and also the 5th player in league history to reach 140 career singles (141) all while subbing for the Humber River Haze!