FIELD OF DREAMERS 3.0 HAS ARRIVED!

In the post-season era where the weather can turn from 25 degrees and sunny to -1 degrees with sleet in a matter of hours, there is no season that is now as regular as ball season. And so as the calendar flipped to May, the Dreamers took the field on an (unusually? typical? moderately surprising?) balmy May evening for the start of the third season in league history.

The opening ceremonies welcomed close to 20 new players to the rosters of the Field of Dreamers and nearly 50 returning veterans!

In the first week’s matchups, the Credit River Care Bears tried to bring the ethos of Care-A-Lot to the Skydome while the Humber River Haze tried to bring the ethos of a 420 rally to the field! In the evening game, the Don River Don of the Dead brought their melee weapons to the matchup against the Rouge River Raccoons who were tinkering with green bins in the area but then stopped by to play a game of ball.

If you wanna know the results…

You’ll have to keep reading to find out!

CREDIT RIVER CARE BEARS @ HUMBER RIVER HAZE

The Care Bares had trouble seeing through the Haze and they sensed early on that Professor Cold Heart would be out trying to stop them from cooperating on defensive plays while his assistant Frostbite would be attacking their bats. And these prophecies were surely true as the Haze smoked out to an early 10-0 lead on the strength of all-around excellent hitting and stellar defence!

By the second inning it was already feeling like a Jimi Hendrix concert as the Haze had indeed glistened from a shimmering gold to a torrent purple with some hits from rookies Adam Dirks, Oskar Eliashevsky and Sarah Peek – and some smart baserunning from veterans Jill Aoki-Barrett, Brianna Greaves, and Andy Smith.

The Care Bears felt a little overwhelmed but they knew that it hadn’t hit the part of the show where they were to perform some of their belly magic. And indeed, the Care Bear stare was unleashed in the 3rd and 5th innings where True Heart Merle Davis Matthews led the loveable ursus off with a base hit that was followed by multiple rays of goodness. Michelle Kidd, Alie Hermanutz and Victoria Barnett were the rookie stars for the cubbies and the team benefitted from great base running from Funshine bear, Jenny Chan! The Bears cut the lead down to 12-8.

Alas, this is the closest that the Care Bears would come in this game as the Haze was too thick. The Humber River squad, the defending champions of 2018, took Game #1 by a final score of 13-9.

DON RIVER DON OF THE DEAD @ ROUGE RIVER RACCOONS

The evening matchup featured two teams that clearly preferred to operate under the coat of darkness with the Don of the Dead rising up to find some delicious brains and the Raccoons hungry for whatevs….as long as they didn’t get their hands too dirty!  

The first inning saw the zombies get off to a frenetic start with Rachele Gottardi and Nhu Hophan scoring the first two runs of the season thanks to the clutch hitting of Joey Bats Bautista and Rachel “Let Sleeping Corpses Lie” Small. But the Raccoons came out hungry, led by the enthusiastic dancing of lead off hitter Susannah Mulvale and then the relentless thumping by Nat Saavedra, Phill Morgan, and Stuart Schussler the trash pandas looked to set the tone by using blunt force over cunning in their first meet up with the walking dead.

By the end of the 2nd inning, the baseball field already looked like a scene from Left for Dead 2 with the Raccoons taking an early 10-2 lead. But the pace of play slowed from that point on, perhaps with both parties having satiated their supposedly unending hunger. Nonetheless, the game continued with key contributions from rookies Lauren Marshall and Sena Hussain who scored key runs for the Raccoons and Tyler Chartrand, Leah Silverman, Ryan Roantree, Daina Zweig, and Jordan Pachciarz who all made key contributions to the Night of the Living Dead’s roster.

But in what proved to be the theme of the night, the home team Rouge squad kept up the momentum until the lights literally gave out and came away from a 12-5 victory.

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 – see oddities below!
Alie Hermanutz – see oddities below!
Craig Fortier – has recorded 485 at-bats over 13 seasons
Michelle Kidd – see oddities below!
Jenny Chan – becomes the 5th player in league history to reach 250 at-bats! Lainie Basman – becomes 23rd player in league history to reach 90 hits (91)!
Jarl Gardner – becomes the 5th player in league history to score 100 runs! Leigh Kittson – becomes the 64th player in league history to reach 25 career hits!
Robyn Letson – currently tied for 12th on the all-time list with 88 career singles!
Merle Davis Matthews – becomes the 10th player in league history to record 90 career singles (91)!
Terrance Luscombe– currently tied for 10th on the all-time list with 122 career hits!

Don River
Rachele Gottardi – becomes 28th player in league history to record 120 career at-bats (122)!
T Vega – tied for 39th on the all time list with 42 career singles!
Nhu Hophan – see oddities below!
Joseph Bautista– becomes 42nd player in league history to record 50 career hits (51)!
Rachel Small – becomes 4th player in league history to record 130 career singles (131)!
Tyler Chartrand– see oddities below!
Leah Silverman – see oddities below!
Peter Demakos – currently ranks 24th on the all-time list with 87 career hits!
Ryan Roantree – see oddities below!
Daina Zweig – see oddities below!
Jo Jefferson – becomes the 15th player in league history to reach 105 career hits!
Rocio Velasquez Guzman– becomes the 22nd player in league history to reach 130 career at-bats (132)!
Jordan Pachciarz –see oddities below!

Humber River
Alex Brant – becomes 18th player in league history to reach 70 career singles!
Brianna Greaves – becomes 50th player in league history to reach 40 career hits (42)!
Navjeet Sidhu – currently ranks 15th on the all-time list with 164 career at-bats!
Jill Aoki-Barret – through 25 career at-bats has an .800 batting average!
Niloofar Golkar – becomes 37th player in league history to record 100 career at-bats (101)!
Adam Dirks – see oddities below!
Oskar Eliashevsky – see oddities below!
Sarah Peek – see oddities below!
Andy Smith – currently tied for 20th on the all-time list with 92 career hits!

Rouge River
Susannah Mulvale – becomes 73rd player in league history to score at least 10 runs!
David Ravensbergen– becomes the 101st player in league history to record 10 at-bats!
Nat Saavedra – becomes the 18th player in league history to record 5 career triples!
Sena Hussain– see oddities below!
Phill Morgan – first 2 career triples in the same game!
Stuart Schussler – becomes 25th player in league history to record 80 career hits (81)!
Shelagh Pizey Allen – becomes 42nd player in league history to record 50 career hits (51)!
Darren Puscas – ranks 13th on the all-time list with 113 career hits!
Kate Uffelman– becomes 38th player in league history to reach at 60 career hits!
Lauren Marshall – see oddities below!
LJ Robinson – becomes 6th player in league history to reach 90 runs scored!

SUBS
Vanessa Gray– becomes the first sub player of the 2019 season to take an at-bat!

ODDITIES

COHORT 2019

These 14 players represent the 93rd-106th players to ever take an at-bat in our league! We are so blown away by the fact that in little over 2 years we’ve incorporated more than 100 people into this space! We look forward to building on our principles with you all!

Victoria Barnett, Alie Hermanutz, Michelle Kidd (Credit)

Nhu Hophan, Tyler Chartran, Leah Silverman, Daina Zweig, Jordan Pachciarz, Ryan Roantree (Don)

Adam Dirks, Oskar Eliashevsky, Sarah Peek (Humber)

Sena Hussain, Lauren Marshall (Rouge)