A DREAM DELAYED IS YET A DREAM

Sundays have been Stormdays for the past few weeks and our season has sputtered in the puddles, but Bellwoods gifted us beautiful weather for Week 4 (i.e. defacto Week 2) following an incredibly energetic skillshare last week! Would the Don of the Dead outsmart the heart of the Care Bears or would the cuddly ursus shine some magic on the diamond? Would the Glimmer sparkle in their season debut or would they get caught in the Haze?

If you wanna know the results…

READ MORE TO FIND OUT!

Photo Credit: Victoria Barnett 🙂

DON RIVER DON OF THE DEAD @ CREDIT RIVER CARE BEARS

In a seasonably warm late May tilt between the Zombies and the Love Cubs, we saw the two television themed teams square off for an extra spectacular affair. While both teams were trampled in their season debut, the Dead weren’t going to be walking around aimlessly in their second game.

The Don River squad came out thumping with extra base swats by key brain-eaters Rachele Clemente, Nhu Hophan, and Rachel Small. Their aggressive attack was only matched by the belligerent park users in the left field corner! By the end of the first inning the loveable Care Bears were facing a 5-0 deficit. The second inning started much the same with the first line of Toronto defence Raccoons being infected and then Zombie walking to the plate with home runs and and triples off the bats of subs Darren Puscas and Yogi Acharya. This extended the lead to 10-0 and it was time for the cubbies to regroup.

After a heartfelt, emotionally empathetic care share, the Bears could smell some sweet honey and they were lifted by the emphatic energy of Cheer Bear and Tenderheart in the guise of Victoria Barnett and Jenny Chan who gave the team a lift. Rookie bears Rees Nam and Siva Sivarajah got into the mix to help produce a strong rainbow that narrowed the lead to 10-5.

From that point on it seemed as though the teams had reached a stalemate with each team trading off runs and strong defence – in particular an excellent outfield assist throw from Grumpy Bear, Terrance Luscombe, to Funshine Bear, Craig Fortier at third base.

Alas, this is the closest that the Care Bears would come in this game as the Dead would live to see another Dawn. The final score was Don River 14 – Credit River 8.

GARRISON CREEK GLIMMER @ HUMBER RIVER HAZE

The evening matchup might be mistaken for a late 1990s rave on Toronto’s waterfront with the Garrison Creek Glimmer facing off against the Humber River Haze. But despite this foggy matchup, clear skies welcomed both teams to the field.

Kaleigh McGregor-Bales made Field of Dreamer history when the flashy lead off hitter stepped into the batter’s box to become the first Garrison Creek player to take an official at-bat in the league! And with the pitch, a single through the infield, Kaleigh also recorded Garrison’s first ever hit! And it seemed as though the glimmer was going to shine in their debut, but the fairytale plot soon took a eerie turn.

You see the Haze defense was particular thick and it soon became clear to the glitterati of Garrison that it was going to be really hard to find a path to victory. Lead by some stellar plays by rookie Adam Dirks at short stop, and solid defence by Humber stalwarts Robin Smillie and Alex Brant, the haze were able to identify the confusion, find clarity, and then bring some equanimity to the inning.

Humber also starred on offence, with Richard Peters, Sarah Peek, and Umar Saeed combining for 6 runs scored and 6 runs batted in at the heart of the Humber order. But the Glimmer were not simply a twinkling star deep in the cosmos where time/space can only simply be said to exist in infinite union…No! They too shined on defence, with Annelies Cooper showing off new skills at first base learned during this season’s first skill share and rookies Danielle Benton, Kari Pederson, and Luke Fox looking more like future stars than stars from the past!

And yet the short-handed Garrison squad could not produce enough magic to upend the well-stocked Haze and Garrison lost its first ever game by a score of 16-4.

See the game box scores here

See player stats here

See league standings here

See all-time career statistics file (updated for August 1 2018) here

MILESTONES

Credit River
Victoria Barnett – becomes 110th player in league history to record 8 career at-bats
Jenny Chan- becomes 8th player in league history to record 75 career runs batted in!
Rees Nam – see oddities below!
Terrance Luscombe – becomes 10th player in league history to record 70 career runs batted in!
Robyn Letson – currently ranks 20th on the all-time list with 93 career hits! Siva Sivarajah – becomes 147th player in league history to record an at-bat (3)!
Jarl Gardner – currently ranks 5th on the all time list with 41 career doubles!
Craig Fortier– becomes 3rd player in league history to reach 140 career singles!
Merle Davis Matthews – becomes 25th player in league history to score at least 45 runs!
Lainie Basman – currently tied for 22nd on the all-time list with 92 career hits!

Don River
Rachele Gottardi – see oddities below!
Nhu Hophan – see oddities below!
Joseph Bautista– becomes 44th player in league history with 40 career singles!
Rachel Small – currently ranks 18th on the all time list with 18 career doubles!
Peter Demakos – currently ranks 25th on the all time list with 128 at-bats!
Ryan Roantree – becomes the 120th player in league history to record at least 5 at-bats!
Jo Jefferson – see oddities below!
Jordan Pachciarz –see oddities below!

Humber River
Robin Smillie – becomes 42nd player in league history to reach 80 career at-bats (81)!
Richard Peters – currently tied for 7th on the all-time list with 32 career doubles!
Sarah Peek– currently ranks 93rd on the all-time list with 4 career runs batted in!
Umar Saeed – becomes 21st player in league history to record 50 career runs batted in!
Brianna Greaves – becomes 44th player in league history to score at least 25 runs!
Adam Dirks – see oddities below!
Nav Sidhu – becomes 16th player in league history to record 100 hits!
Andy Smith – becomes 12th player in league history to reach 25 career doubles!
Niloo Golkar – currently tied for 20th on the all-time list with 64 career singles!
Oskar Eliashevsky – 93rd player in league history with at least 1 career double!
Alex Brant – becomes 27th player in league history to reach 75 career hits!

Rouge River
Darren Puscas – currently tied for 4th on the all-time list with 16 career triples!
Yogi Acharya – becomes the 19th player in league history to record 5 career triples!

Garrison Creek
Kaleigh McGregor-Bales – becomes first Garrison Creek player to record an official at-bat!
Annelies Cooper – becomes 6th player in league history to reach 120 career singles (121)!
Devin Clancy– see oddities below!!
Danielle Benton– see oddities below!!
Kari Pederson – see oddities below!!
Luke Fox – see oddities below!!

SUBS
Nicole Bond– becomes the 157th player in league history to record a career at-bat!
Ciaran Breen– becomes 90th player in league history to reach 16 career at-bats!

ODDITIES

AUTONOMOUS FIELD OF DREAMERS

Rees Nam joins a small list of players who have played in both the Autonomous Baseball League and the Field of Dreamers!

FIRSTS

First At-Bats!: Danielle Benton – Garrison Creek, Kari Pederson – Garrison Creek, Luke Fox – Garrison Creek

Triplets + 1 Haze : Rachele Gottardi – Don (1), Nhu Hophan – Don (1), Jordan Pachiarz (1) – Don, Adam Dirks (1) – Humber

CAREER MILESTONE: 200 AT BATS

Jo Jefferson (202) – DON RIVER and Devin Clancy (200) – GARRISON CREEK became the 9th and 10th players respectively to reach 200 career at-bats!