In Other News

Since last weekends post was pretty much rained out let me bore you on another topic,Fantasy Baseball.
Oh yes,i went there.

This is my first real year year doing this.It's pretty involved and theres a live draft where you pick the players you want.It was all very exciting except i missed out on about eight dudes i wanted on my team.Well a couple of pitchers mostly my first choice outfield players.I won't go into reasons for choice or any shit like that.I am going to give you my team though.How lucky are you?!

Starting lineup for Organized Bros 2013 Baseball Ireland Fantasy season
"Bustin out is what we do best"

C   Jonathan LUCROY(MIL)
1B Dustin Ackley (SEA)
2B Chase UTLEY (PHI)
3B Mike MOUSTAKAS (KC)
SS Alcides ESCOBAR (KC)
LF Yoenis CESPEDES (OAK)
CF Michael SAUNDERS (SEA)
RF Gregor BLANCO (SF)
P  Cliff LEE (PHI)

On the bench i have:
Juan PIERRE (MIA)
Norichika AOKI (MIL)
Jayson WERTH (WAS)
Brandon BELT (SF)
Andrelton SIMMONS
Starlin CASTRO


As for my Pitching staff aside from Lee i got:
Jaime GARCIA (STL)
Bruce RONDON (DET)
Eric O'FLAHERTY (ATL)
Rafael BETANCOURT (COL)
Carlos MARMON (CHC)
Wei-Yin CHEN (BAL)
Ryan DEMPSTER (BOS)
Trevor BAUER (CLE)

Now in the pitching is where i got fucked.I heard about Bauer somewhere.He was the D-Bags top prospect  and after seeing his warm up routine i was all the more intrigued

Dude's throwing from foul pole to foul pole!Thats a distance.I also heard that his warm up on the mound was even better.On his first start his warm up had him start from about 20ft behind the mound,run up the mound and throw a 95+ fastball.After this the catcher pretty much said 'fuck this' and had the back up catcher catch his warm up.Now thats hilarious.
Anyway as said he was the D Bags top prospect and i'm expecting good things from him as a starting pitcher in my team.That would have been until his mechanics were needing massive adjustments and he got shipped down to the minors for 2 to 3 months.FUCK!He was supposed to be my boy!I took a chance but like evryone else in my life (dramatically speaking) they let me down.
His mechanics were off and he started throwing across his body.This in itself isn't a terribly bad thing but it is generally frowned upon and while it is thought to increase chances of injury there are players who do alright when it comes to it. It's just harder to get accuracy and proper extension on the arm when it comes to release.Anyway i digress, long story short is he won't be working for me this season.I have the option to drop him,Yahoo baseball app informed that 1,733 teams dropped him in fantasy leagues,i may keep him on my roster.Again it's a gamble but i'm hoping the fact that he will be playing more down on the farm his mechanics will come on and he'll get his shit straight.

Year	Class	ERA	W-L	APP	GS	CG	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	2B	3B	HR	BF	OAV	WP	HBP	SFA	SHA	BK
2009	Fr.	2.99	9-3	20	10	4	2	105.1	85	39	35	27	92	17	2	7	428	.225	10	9	6	8	4
2010	So.	3.02	12-3	18	18	1	0	131.1	121	64	44	41	165	25	3	10	552	.244	12	4	2	9	3
2011	Jr.	1.25	13-2	16	16	10	0	136.2	73	22	19	36	203	19	1	6	521	.154	2	6	0	5	1
TOTALS		2.36	34-8	54	44	15	2	373.1	279	125	98	104	460	61	6	23	1501	.207	30	19	8	22	8

Well thats my first bout of bad luck in the draft.Tomorrow we'll cover my other fuck up.Dios Mio
On the plus side......

OB bustin out in the 2013

After the false start to the season that was last weekend the B league managed a game on Sunday.It was the reigning B league champions the Greystones Mariners playing the Hurricanes storming out of Dublin City(see what i did there?) at Corcaigh Park.

Details are sketchy(read i wasn't there) but the 'Canes rallied from 6-1 down to beat the defending champions 7-6 in the 7th inning.Baseball is back!

The 2013 season starts TODAY!!!!!!

Sike.

Unreal amounts of rain have made conditions impossible to play.Even for us.
Ground inspection is going on right now so depending on how the weather stays tonight we may be good for the morning.This is not the most ideal start to the season but the season will go on and i can't wait to get that W against the Spartans.Just like the first game i ever played competitively.It is on,sort of.

For more info on the teams involved in the league check out BaseballIreland.com

Everybody in Ireland looooooves baseball

Or so the media would have you think.
Seems like baseball was been covered in a few veins of the Irish media this last while.
I don't know whether its The Gathering or what but it's definitely a positive thing

First up here is Sean Mitchell on WDHA-FM following up on tweets made by David Ortiz and Bobby Valentine(easy Red Sox fans) about the Field O Dreams initiative to build a new facility in Ashbourne

James Kelly from the Munster Warriors was on 100.5 Cork Community radio talking about the greatest gane to ever be played too and you can listen HERE
The Warriors are one hell of a tough team and really play hard.Seeing their A team play last year was a real treat.Im expecting to see more of the same in 2013 but obviously the Sox are going to take it ;)

And HERE is John Want of the Belfast Northstars talking about whats going on with them and a bit of their history.This bullshit blogger deal wont let you imbed vimeo videos for some stupid reason so you're going to have to make do with that.
Clock the Northstars website

However with the good invariably comes the bad and the bad is the passing of Edward J Cooney.
A tremendous supporter of Baseball Ireland.
When Ed had learned of the building of a baseball diamond in Dublin, he proposed the development of a 'Friendship Baseball Series' between his own Slocum Baseball Club and Baseball Ireland. Ed was the driving force behind this incredibly successful project which led to the Slocum team visiting Ireland in 1999 where they played a number of exhibition games, sampled a good deal of Irish culture and brought much needed coaching and equipment support to Baseball Ireland.

During the trip of 2001, Ed organised once in a lifetime events, which included Ireland playing Slocum at Boston's Fenway Park, the Irish team being hosted as special guests at the Pawtucket Red Sox game and also being hosted as special guests by the Governor of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in the State House. It can be safely said that many of these experiences are lifetime highlights, which will be recanted for many years to come - all thanks to Ed.

Thanks for everything Ed.We wouldn't be where we are without your efforts.Rest in peace

Take 2:Game (Back) On

So i'm going to be giving this another go since i have the fucking internet here.

The offseason was wet and cold but training had to happen.I was running  more and every night i was trying to take about 150 ground balls.It was doable but tough especially when the road and wall i used to take ground balls was icy as shit and if i had to stretch out for the ball i was going to stretch my hamstring out and not be able to do shit for  weeks.
I stayed with it anyway and kept doing whatever i could.The way our season ended i wanted to start back in a big way.From the first game we were sending a message that this season the league champions are going to be wearing black socks.

The winter training organised by Baseball Ireland started upFebruary.It was on in Ashbourne GAA club.Indoor astro turf deal  which was way better than the indoor gym up in Stillorgan last year.Plus when we were running drills that involve any sort of high balls they weren't getting jammed in in the roof beams.
The trainings were the same.Stretches,stretches and throwing.Always emphasis on stretches as being out of the game for however many months and getting back in can kill your arm.I was feeling confident as my arm was feeling good.I knew i was throwing the ball better and had command this was a whole new deal.
We lined up and was throwing the ball roughly the distance of 3rd to 1st base(127' 3/8") after you throw you follow your throw and do it over and over again till it enters sudden death and if you make a bad throw or don't make the catch you are out.Really good first drill to get things going.

After that we break up into fielding groups and two groups for batting.one on the pitching machine and one on mechanics off the tee.Batting is my weak point and i'll be the first to adnit that.I don't know what it is but stepping into that batters box that just gets me.Baseball is 70% mental and i need to get out of the shit.If not for the sake of my game then for the sake of my bats.Every time i strike out i have to beat the shit out of something with a bat.That is the real reason I carry a metal bat as well as my wood Louisville slugger.real talk.

The training sessions were going great and on some weeks we had team training out in Blacksox park.I t was good to get back out there and see the guys again.It's nice to have people you cantalk ball with and also trash talk.Always with the trash talking.I was working playing 2nd base for a bit.It was good.I had to adjust my movements to get the ball from the shortstop,tag the bag,step out of the runners path and throw to first.
To make the double play takes so many concious moves that you somehow have to turn into one movement without thinking about it.Get out of my head baseball!

The last team training we had took place in the pissing rain.Funnily enough that was the one that had the better turn out including new players.Everyone got stuck in with wiffle balls and throwing water soaked balls that seemed to be twice as heavy.It was fun as hell and i think says what baseball here is all about,we don't have much but what we can get we make go a long way.I am stoked on the season to start.STOKED!!

Also i go these bad boys to bust out on the diamond

 Play ball!

Baseball Ireland awards cermony

October 20th saw  O'Donoghues pub play host to the the annual Baseball Ireland awards night.The place was packed out....well it was a small room but we moved out into the bar area.There was enough people to warrant more space.

As the drink flowed as did the shit talking and annecdotes of a pretty awesome season.There was a reasonable turn out and all teams were represented.And so that

Irish National baseball team stateside

The National team headed to New York to take part in a few exhibition matches.
the results were:


v NYC Thunderdogs 6-11
v Rockland Astros  4-13
v New City Outlaws  7-10
v FDNY  1-5

this was a tough slog as they were playing every second day and had training in between.Our boys play hard.
Well done lads.

There was a write up on their game against the FDNY team in the Irish Examiner that you can clock here
 and heres the TV spot for the Irish Heritage night that the FDNY game was part of.

i want to do a TV spot for everything i am involved with in the future.Everything.