God's Own Electric Circus

I woke up rested yet still a bit hampered from my previous night's partying, Jane and I finished the rest of our Chinese leftovers, then it was straight to the computer and phone to round up my scraggly bunch of underlings... This, however, proved much harder than I had thought it'd be...

Better scheduling, greater information and more hype is a must for future games... this was made abundently apparent.

The game started a little under an hour past schedule, we were short these 5 players: ANDREW THOMPSON, JAMIE JOHNSON, THOMAS GODFREY, ROBERT MACMILLAN and last but not least DANIAL POLLARD.

The evening was hot, very hot... Winsloe had arrived early and snagged the good dugout.. the one with shade.

Our game day roster consisted of: Catcher - Brad Fraser, Pitcher - Charles Beaton, First Base - Geoff MacMillan, Second Base - Zain Essreigher, Short Stop - Nic White, Third Base - Matt Ling, Right Field - Janelle Cahill, Center Field - Dwaine Bulger, Left Field - Jane/ Melissa/NO ONE...

The Batting order (to the best of my recollection) was, Nic, Zain, Brad, Chuck, Dwaine, Geoff, Matt and last but not least Janelle.

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The Game proceeded quite well, with the Winsloe roster being much better bolstered than in previous years. After the first inning the score was still 0-0.

The Second inning was even better played by both sides and runners were stranded from both teams as the game remained scoreless.

It wasn't until the top of the 3rd when with two runners on base I managed to hit a line drive between first and second and past the left fielder, that Stratford pulled ahead 3-0.

The bottom of the 3rd Winsloe took a fast ball deep to right field scoring a runner from second before we managed to end the inning. The fourth inning was well fought with both teams once more stranding runners.

By the end of the fourth the game was called on account of the core of the Winslonian players having prior engagements of "greater" importance :P...

So the unofficial score after 4 complete innings was Stratford 3 - Winsloe 1.

After that game the remaining players played some 7 on 7 down at City Diamond. We played until close to a quarter after 9... so more than 3 hours of baseball was played. Good times were had by all I am sure. :D

Thanks to Brad Fraser and the City of Stratford for the loan of the bases and catchers gear, all adding to the authentic appeal of the game.

Thanks to both teams for putting in the great effort, the pitching and overall play improved greatly from last year!

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Next Sunday is Part II in the Great Baseball Fiasco, scheduled for the same place and time. That is Memorial Field in Victoria Park @ 5:30 PM (perhaps earlier/later) please contact either myself/Dwaine Bulger or your appropriate Winslonian representative for further details. All attendees of the first game are expected, as well anyone can bring a friend the more baseball the better I always say.

I'm sure that all Stratford players will be in attendance... (or else...)

As well please contact Dwaine in regards to our team jerseys... we need all of the money before we can get them... so put a rush on it!!!

Disclaimer: Without proper stats keeping or a Winsloe roster I have done my best to recreate the game from memory. I apologize for any inaccuracies and or discrepancies regarding stats, names of players, positions ect. Please feel free to comment or write me. All legal action can be forwarded to Stratford's seven (7) team lawyers which we keep on retainer. 0 comments

~ Saturday Night ~

In order to get ready for the big game what few brave Stratford Players we could muster were assemble at East Royalty Field. Our force consisted of Dwaine, Nic, Phil white, Brad and myself. We practiced underneath the ferocious mid-day sun until our throats were dry and cracked and our tongues were sunburned, then we practiced some more. After this practice we departed and I went home to shower and head back out with my sexy date Jane. We took in some Chinese at the Golden Wok before rounding up our supplies and heading out to Blooming Point.

Once at Blooming Point we were warmly recepted by murderous hoardes of evil bloodsucking mutant mosquitos. They attacked in huge oily black clouds of death... our only defence was slathering any exposed skin with a high concentration of DEET until I could raise the fire to smoke them off. We started off with a small gang including Janelle, Dwaine, Marie, Moira, Bobby, That Guy, Whoshisface, Whatshisname and Someotherpeople, we were later joined by Tyler, Brad and Melissa and some younger folks unknown to me. (sorry I don't do names well :S)

After many long months of almost Straight-Edge alcohol and drug abstination, (minus Canada Day) my tolerance levels are at almost virgin levels... Meaning that I got very messed up, very quickly. Unfortunately for me, this led to some rather painful and humourous situations...

Later on in the night, when I went to spray on a second layer of defence I mistakenly sprayed an entire shot of the volatile substance directly onto my eye... PAIN! ... I fumbled and grabbed some water and attempted to rinse my eyeout... the water just burned more and it was fizzling and foaming... BEER! ... PAIN! ... I did eventually manage to rinse my eye out with water, lord knows the damage that DEET would have caused :P

The beach after that point was quickly becoming over-run with underage native children and magical gypsies on four-wheelers. At one point a large group of people assembled in a semi circle about our fire. They said not a word, just standing there illuminated by our magnificant fire. Tensions grew as a silent hush fell over our group... I knew that this situation had to be quickly defused, so I summoned up my great Pentacostal preacher genes and with fiery breath I quickly admonished these demons til they turned forked-tail and ran. And after that it was business as usual.

The rest of the night was spent either sitting around staring at the fire or off frolicking amongst the dunes with Jane in an attempt to capture and apprehend fireflies.. which by the way do not look at all like their Disney counterparts.

Kudos to Dwainer for keeping me in contact with malt beverages, and congrats to Janer on drinking her pint (and then some) all in shots with a meager chase accompaniment. Poor Janelle sadly didn't last very long, and spent most of the night on her back... (insert punchline). Thanks to Tyler for the medicinal herbs, smoked waist deep in the ocean while listening to rad tunes on a portable boom box. Thanks to some crazy indian (who thought he was black) for giving me a drink of the same Gin that Tupac, Snoop Dog, Eminem, 50 Cent ect, ect, all drink... If they do drink it... they have good taste 'cause it was good.

Good times, good times.

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