Storm second for second year in a row

It was another great season for Storm. It’s amazing how consistently good this team has been over the years. The .813 winning percentage is the fifth highest winning percentage they have posted. Unfortunately, it was still only good enough for second place in the league. Storm watchers were left saying, “Bueller…. Bueller… Bueller, anyone?” on the final day of the season as the Buellers defaulted and gave the A’s first place. 

Still, second is nothing to sneeze at and it leaves Storm a good draw in the playoffs.

It was an interesting year for Storm with some new players (one of whom actually showed up to games), and some old players who had a lot of other commitments that led to Storm frequently playing with 10 and sometimes even nine players. It will be interesting to see what attendance is like for the playoffs. Al also came out of retirement to post the second highest batting average of his career. So I guess he wasn’t quite done yet.

Team Leaders

OPS: Rene - 2.191, Duran - 2.170, Joey - 2.108

OBP: Joey - .752, Rene - .750, Duran - .747

AVG: Rene - .779, Joey - .756, Duran - .752

HR: Joey - 14, Duran - 12, Lance - 11 

RBI: Joey - 84, Lance - 73, Duran - 63

Runs: Duran - 92, Joey - 74, Mills - 56

Triples: Duran - 12, Mills - 10, Joey 5

Doubles: Duran - 32, Joey - 29, Bob - 24

Individual Season Records

Rene: AVG. - .779,  runs - 49, SLG- 1.441, OPS - 2.191

Joey - Doubles - 29

Jeff - Doubles - 22

Storm hopes to carry their late season momentum (winning their last eight games) into the playoffs. Can they win five more in a row? Find out this weekend

 

Ferris takes another night off!!!

 Thanks to Ferris taking another night off, the A's are gifted the league championship on Monday night and the $300 that goes with it. Oh what could have been if the A's actually had to play all 32 games and not handed 5 victories due to forfeits. But it is, what it is and we'll take second place and move on to the playoff's which start on Friday, but for Storm they start on Saturday Sept 17th at 10:30am vs the Expos followed by a 1:30pm game against Coulas. After those games the elimination games start and depending on the outcomes we could play at 3pm or 4:30pm if we lose one or both games. But hopefully our next game will be Sunday Sept 18th at 10am. and if we win then 1pm and finally if we win that the championship game will be at 2:30pm.

We do have a few sign-outs for Saturday's games and Ken will most likely miss all the playoff's as he has commitments with his kids teams. Surprisingly Adam says that he can make the Saturday morning game and all of Sunday's games, I wonder if he remembers how to play... I guess we'll find out. lol!

Playoff Schedule

Storm victorious over the Brew to finish off the Season

Good day everyone Scoops Jockovitch here after a lengthy high anus, sorry, hiatus of broken jars, a dalliance with A Net and recovering from what I’ve been told is a global pandemic. I’m pretty sure Chip had the Covid and used my jar as a Kleenex receptacle.

Nonetheless we battle thru, as does your Storm thru what has been another exciting season within the WMSPL. This last game saw the Orangemen facing the Playlisters themselves the lads that Crew together Brew together for the season finale for both teams. According to those eggheads that are interested in such things as statistics and standings, this game could mean a lot to both squads. With a victory the Storm would move into 1st place ahead of the…………A’s ( had to take my time there) and if the Barley Boys pulled out a win they would leap into 4th place ( better seeding in the playoffs) However, to quote the only man whose starred in a Soap Opera and was a pop sensation, Rick Springfield “ The point was probably moot” As the …………A’s take on the Buellers later this week and can nail down first with a win.

But a game must be played…and it was. The Stormies started strong, some may say too strong, scoring 4 in the first based around 2 over the fencers by the BK and THE BOB ( was this not a show in the 80’s? If not it should be). Those two Mr. Simpsons would stand for quite awhile as that motley Crew wouldn’t hit one until the 6th. And speaking of 6 ( wonderful segue there!) the motley Crew kick started their hearts with a max 6 in the first with some solid "hit it where they ain’t” hitting. End of the first Crew 6 Storm 4

Top O’ the second saw the Tank Engine help his own pitching cause by nailing a triple to the wall only to be driven in by the “ Space” man with a solid single to his favourite field. Big Daddy D matched the Tanks 3 bagger and the Pylons cashed in 3 to retake the lead. Some solid D and some pinpoint lobbing of the ball by the Tank held the Malted ones to a solid 0 calories. 7-6 Storm

In the 3rd, the game started, like my 4ths wife cold dry heart,  to open up a bit. With 7 straight hits the Hommes d’orange cashed in the Max and despite THE BOB becoming the sacrificial lamb having to play 3rd base due to roster shortages your lads in tight pants kept the Brown Bottles to just 3 runs - Storm remain ahead 13-9

The 4th would see each team swap ( insert your own joke hear) a pair of runs with THE BOB still being picked on at 3 and Rick O’Shea forgetting what a routine double play looks like. Storm 14 - Crew 11

To the 5th we Kgo and an Kunfortunate series of Kevents was starting to take Kplace. Hindered by their 2 early Mr. Simpsons, Big Daddy D was suffering from what can only be medical called Overt Whifftitis. In layman’s Kterms swinging and really missing the ball. Previous innings saw huge individual Kexamples  of Overt Whiffitis but in the 5th Big Daddy D became Big Daddy K. A sight even rarer than hearing the mating squeals of the North American Fisher ( Pekania pennanti,Fisher Sound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_(animal). This mighty Kasey seemed to throw off the following batters leaving the Storm plating only a single, whilst the Shotgunners plated another deuce to make the game a tight one. Storm barely holding on 16-13

The 6th saw some interesting defence maneuvers by the Orange infield. A soft roller up the first base line saw the Tank engine chug his way over to the line, snag the ball and run around the Space Man to beat the runner to first. The rare 1-1 put out. This was not the first creative play involving the Space Man as earlier he juggled a ball on his glove almost all the way over to second base before flipping a lame duck to BK covering second , only to have that duck pop out of the glove and lie quite dead on dirt. Our lads squoze out a threesome to pad their lead while holding the Crew to a single run. 19-14 heading to the 7th.

The 7th for your Occluded Ones saw Rick O’Shea leg out a double and Big Daddy K redeem himself with a very angry HR ( the ball could be heard screaming in fear as it disappeared into the inky night! Scoring 4 and being up 9 going into the bottom of the 7th the Storm felt they had a strong leg to stand on for victory. However, the Crew felt differently about that leg as they did their best to take The Tank Engine's leg out. A hard line shot up the middle saw the ball careen off the Tanks right leg. His teammates concern for his well being as he lied on the ground like a premier soccer player, was so overwhelming the didn’t play the ball until after the batter had reached 1st. With a lot of intestinal fortitude and even more Tylenol once he got home the Tank carried on and the Storm shut down the Crew to only 3 runs cementing a victory and a very solid season.

Final score 23-17

Will the…………..A’s pull out a victory over the Buellers to take first, only time will tell ( and with the A’s time is ALWAYS a factor)

This has been Scoops Jockovitch intrepid sports reporter!

Check out the Podcast of the game as reported by;

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	4	3	6	2	1	3	4	23
The Crew	6	0	3	2	2	1	3	17

 

Storm steady through four before breaking out against Isotopes

Storm seemed to think the maximum runs in the first four innings had been reduced from six to two as they scored two runs in each of the first four innings. Storm really was playing small ball in the first with a walk and a sacrifice helping them cash in their two runs. Storm held the Isotopes to a single run and took a 2-1 lead into the 2nd.

The bottom of the order got things going with four consecutive singles and two runs driven in by Ciggy Stardust before the top of the order quickly quelled the rally with back to back outs. Thankfully Storm’s defence was playing solid baseball and the Storm gave up 0 to hold onto a 4-1 lead.

Storm only managed to send five batters to the plate in the third. Lancer Beam launched a two run home run through the swirling wind over the fence. The invisible wall that was two runs took effect again and the next two batters got out ending the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Storm’s defence didn’t hold up quite as well, and Storm gave up four runs making the score a VERY CLOSE 6-5. 

Storm scored their magical two runs again in the 4th, this time compliments of rock n’ Greg roll. But again once the two runs were in, so Storm stopped hitting. The Isotopes went down in order to end the fourth 8-5.

Now that the open innings were done, Storm was apparently free to score more than two runs. And they finally broke through scoring six in the 5th. The inning started with PP going solo causing Storm to fear that they may have used up half their runs in the inning on one at bat. Two of the next three batters got out, making it seem like Storm wouldn’t even manage two runs. But then Storm strung together four consecutive hits. Bride of Frankenstein scared his way around the bases on some overthrows and managed to get all the way home (though it was not scored as a home run!). Storm kept their momentum on the defensive side of the ball and didn’t allow any runs. After being an extremely close game for four innings, Storm now had some breathing room with a 14-5 lead. However, as anyone who has seen Storm play this year knows, Storm is quite capable of giving up 12-13 runs in a couple of innings, and the Isotopes were averaging more than 16 runs a game, so it was not time to put on the brakes yet.

Storm added three more in the sixth and three more in the seventh to open up a 20-5 lead. The Isotopes strung together a cluster of hits in the seventh, but it was too little too late. Storm held on to win 20-9. 

Storm ends their regular season against The Crew, who are in a tight race for fourth place with the Falcons. 

Check out the Podcast of the game as reported by;

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	2	2	2	2	6	3	3	20
Hanet	1	0	4	0	0	0	4	9

 

Storm handles short handed Hanet

After playing a number of games with nine players instead of 10, Storm found themselves on the other end of the equation as Hanet was was short Hanet-ed, with only eight to start the game (a ninth would show up mid inning). 

Storm thought the league was following t-ball rules the first two innings as they batted exactly through the batting order in each of the innings. Storm scored the max in both innings with only one home run smacked by the Palindrome. Storm took advantage of some inconsistent pitching as they walked a number of times as well as hitting a number of singles. 

Storm slowed down slightly in the third, only scoring four, before going back to mercying Hanet in the fourth. They also scored six in the fifth, but Hanet also recorded three outs as it was an open inning. Hanet’s defence had something to prove in the sixth and they blanked Storm for the first time during the game. 

Hanet was unable to generate much offence. They scored five in the third and three in the sixth, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep pace with Storm.\

Hanet will surely put in a much stronger showing in the playoffs when they have their young core back from their various coaching engagements. They seem content to sit near the bottom of the standings and then cause chaos in the playoff rankings as they unseat much higher ranked teams and generally throw the playoff structure out of whack.

With two games left, Storm has clinched the second seed and still has hope of finishing first depending on the results of the final games of the season.

Check out the Podcast of the game as reported by;

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	6	6	4	6	6	0	x	28
Hanet	0	1	5	1	0	3	x	10