Well 2009 is over and we look forward to 2010 season! So with this first week of “Hot Stove Wiffle Ball” we are going to take a run down memory
lane. Let’s review and recap the 2009 Season.
( The long time iconic RF wall was taken down in 2009 )
Let’s start from the beginning. The league continued its restoration project as
we took down the symbolic 8 ft high RF wall and replaced it with a 5 ft. high chain link fence. (Special thanks to Dan D.) We also
managed to fix up the LF and CF fences as well. We gave the entire park a fresh
coat of paint. (Fences, Foul Poles, Strike Zones.) We also took Pieces
of the “old” wall and made a billboard for our wall of fame. We implanted
the goblin that came with the “New” fence in the center. Now we had
a place to put back up our retired and HOF member’s numbers back up. With all the work being done it was time to play
ball.
Opening day came and the 20th season in league history was ready to kick off. Pops was on hand to help us celebrate the leagues milestone by throwing out the first
pitch. The longest standing members on hand took a celebratory picture to mark
the occasion. (Pops,
Randy, Dave, Steve)
Let the games begin! The
Opening weekend featured plenty of offense and some great games. There were a total of 77 total runs scored in the first 5
games combined! The big star was Randy who continued his record for consecutive
HR’s hitting one in an unprecedented 20 seasons in a row. That’s
right ALL 20 seasons! He went 10-18, 3 HR’s, two of them grand slams and
10 RBI’s. Most of that was in the 1st game of the year! Elliot
and Seeatch had the first extra inning game of the year with a 2-1 Victory for Elliot in 7 innings. Steve, Dan D, Cody and
Randy all picked up wins as well. It was a great opening weekend. Thus the season had begun!
The Season rolled along with the league seeing faces it hadn’t
seen in 6 years! Will Gelinas, Derek Wagner came back and made some well over due appearances.
We also saw the return of Spleen and Colon later in the year. Otto, Slim
and Matt P. came back after a little layoff to play some ball as well. Like every
year we saw some rookies as well. One rookie made a big splash early on the mound,
that man was Dan Lambert! Dan was someone who didn’t even want to really
play the league, just tourneys. But as he soon found out he liked the league. I
always tell everyone, “If you try it once, you’ll be back.” Dan
surely came back in a big way going 11-1 and finishing near the top in every pitching category He started 11-0. His only lost was to Elliot who pitched his 2nd No-hitter in a row while picking up the win against
Dan. We also saw Colin, New Tom, matt A., Victor, and many others. In total we had over 50 different players play this season, a new record!
We had another successful year of Tourney’s raising over $800 at
the Little League tournament. That brought our 4 year total of money raised including
concessions to almost $3500! This year also brought us hosting the NE Medium
pitch championship. We averaged 17 teams a tourney up 3 teams from 2008. We topped out at 19 teams one tourney! We
also in part with GSWL helped run the Life’s A Pitch: Strike out MS tourney in Sept. They raised nearly $2000 to help
MS. We are hoping that 2010 will be even bigger!
We gave out nearly $4000 in prize money and free entries this past year as well.
Let’s not forget the 11th annual All-Star night and HR Derby. With last year being the first year of Foley vs. Moriarty we kept that same theme. The Moriarty’s consisted of Steve, Dan D., Dan L., Dave and Mink. The Foley squad had Cody, Elliot, Randy, Seeatch and fill in Zack.
The Day started with the HR Derby pitting 3 in the finals with Dan D., Elliot and 2008 Winner Randy. Well Randy didn’t disappoint winning the Annual Derby for the 2nd year in a row and 3rd
time overall. Then it was onto the AS game!
The game featured some great pitching, fun and plenty of action. In the
end of the 9 inning affair it was the Moriarty squad for the 2nd year in a row by a 6-4 score. For his 2 HR 4 RBI’s performance Dave V. was named the games MVP for the second year in a row as
well.
There were some big milestone hit this year as well. Randy Leblanc became the 3rd player in league history to hit 1500+ HR’s. Dave V hit his 400th HR and Steve passed the 700 HR mark as well. Dave now sits on 46 HR’s shy of 5th all time. There
also was the induction of the 3rd member of the HRL HOF Tom “Trinkey” Trainque. Tom played 18 seasons in the league. He hung it up after the 2007 season. He is the league's only 5-time
Golden Josie winner. Tom was known mostly for his defense, clutch hitting and consistancy at the plate. He made
his only semi-finals appearance in 2002. Congrats to him on this great accomplishment.
( HRL online HOF will be available for viewing this year) There was also a total of 4 No-hitter thrown! Dave V threw the 20th in
league history. Then Elliot threw back to back no-hitters and Steve finished
the regular season with one as well. Dan Lambert continued his masterful ways
on the mound with a No-hitter in the first round of the playoffs. Only the 3rd time that had happened. Then there was the last “Good Night Irene” with Randy in his last At-Bat of the season
and maybe a career as he officially retired. Due to injury his season was cut a little short. If that was his last at-bat
in the league, it was a great way to go out. Randy moved away shortly after the
season ended. Good luck to him and we hope to see you again my friend.
Well as always there the season begins to get closer to the end. After
a long summer of crappy weather and as much ball as we could play, it was playoff time!
The playoff format this year was set up with 8 teams. The first round:
a 1 game playoff, Semi’s: Best of 3, Finals: Best of 3. Opening
round saw Steve Vs Seeatch. Steve wining 7-3, It was his 4th semi-finals in 7 years and the 3rd time in 4 years
he faced his brother in the playoff's. Seeatch finished the year with the 2nd best Era and the 3 seed. Dan Lambert threw a 4-0 No-hitter over Zack to move into the semi-finals as well. There was Dave Vs Dan D Dave winning to get the semi-finals and continue to try to defend his title. This was the 5th time in 6 years Dave was in the semis. There was Elliot continue to be dominant throwing his 2nd 1 hitter in row after 2 consecutive
No-No’s. The Semi’s featured Elliot ( Last years runner-up ) vs.
Steve. The other Semi-Final pitted Rookie sensation, Dan L. vs. Dave the reining Champ. Both Semi-Finals were a sweep! Elliot
taking down Steve in 2 come from behind wins in a great series. Dan won both his game handily to become only the 4th
rookie to move onto the finals. ( The first since 2002, Derek Wagner. )
The Finals pitted the #1 seed Vs # 2 Seed. It was a good series as Dan came back to win game 1 in the bottom of the
6th inning 3-2 and then Won game 2 3-0 and gave up only 1 hit. Dan became
only the 2nd rookie to ever win the title. It was truly a great series and a great way to end the 2009 season,
the 20th in league history. I just want to say thanks to everyone
who made this past year a great year. I know there is a lot to do for this coming season and with everyone working together
I am sure that we will be able to accomplish what we want to do. Check back next
week for the 2nd installment of “Hot Stove Wiffle Ball.”
