Saturday, June 16, 2007

Great Win, tight score, we'll take it!

What a night, it put a smile on my face . . . well as much of one as I can muster. It was pleasant to see the bats come alive and run production improve. I expected and got no less than a superb pitching performance from Cory White . . , or was it Cory Brown? No, Cory White, . .Heck, I’m colorblind anyway. And what a treat from Tyler Rehmel, who was batting only .193 going into tonight’s game. His grand slam in the first inning made me want my nacho right then and there. Those Hounds wouldn’t quit though. They played hard and scared me several times. Even our own players were affecting my nerves. We miss one opportunity in the 6th with Tanner Hall on first when a pass ball should have gotten him to second. Hey Guys, you snooze, you lose! Make no mistake, we dodged one tonight. All and all the team play pretty good tonight, but we should have and could have poured it on thicker if we’d been a little more attentive. The Greyhounds will be back, and we’d better be ready for them!

squeaker

well we squeaked one out tonight against the greyhounds, 7-6. Corey White pitched the whole game. The RR fans were getting a little nervous toward the end but we prevailed.Although we almost threw the game away several times. Someone tell me what the heck was Gillespie thinking when he threw that ball in the dawgs dugout anyway? Also there was this greyhound fan(jerk) that I wish I could have muzzled right there on the spot. Zak daddy did it for me in the bottom of the 8th when he smacked the first pitch over the right field wall.I hope the fan drove back to U.C. safely. By the way I didnt see Hoghead there.

rattler strikes

well, last nights game wasn't something to write home about. Getting beat 11-3 and the night before 10-1. For all you math whizzes out there we have been outscored 21-4 in 2 games. SAD. May the railroaders have no mercy on the Greyhounds tonight.


Rattler

It must be Love

Did you know “Fan” comes from “Fanatic”? Well I must be one, cause I still love my Fulton Railroaders even though we allowed ourselves to get bitten again last night. I don’t know what they put in the dog biscuits in Union City, but whatever it is, they’ve got some pretty tough pooches over there. Those Greyhounds chewed the Railroaders up with a 11-3 mauling, the second time in as many nights. I’m still trying to understand what happened after we got an early 3-2 lead after three innings. Oh wait . ., pitching! All I can say is, it looks as though the train is pulling in for water instead of rolling down the track with a full head of steam; we’re certainly in need of something or someone. Well . . , we’re sending one of our best pitchers to the mound tonight for a 3rd try to tame the dogs, at home. Cory White is 2-0 thus far this season, and throws a strong game with an ERA of 1.93. Nice fast ball too! I won’t say much about our offense. We did score 3 runs, which is good enough to win a game, but hard to overcome when so many hits and runs are allowed from the mound. I’m ready though, got me some cool Goodyear sunglasses. I’ll be able to hide easy in the crowd which I’m sure will have several dog fans seated around. I think all the Railroader fans should come out and help stare down the Hounds. It’s our chance to get even in the standings with Union City before we hit the road next week for 4 away games.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Ready for the Friday’s Game in Union City

All fixed up, ready to go. Just put some antibiotic cream on the dog bites, bandages to keep the dirt out and I’m geared up for baseball with same group of canines that mauled us last night. You know, they had one real mean one who wasn’t even on the field. He was tied up in the bleacher seats. Just sat there barking and growling for better than half the game. He settled down after awhile, maybe cause he realized it was wasted energy for a cause already won, OR he left. I’m sure he’ll be parked in the stands at home tonight. So win or lose, there’s sure to be a lot of excitement in the ol’ ballpark tonight, AND tomorrow when the Railroaders return home for 3rd game against Greyhounds.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

What a pack of wild dogs!

Just when I got myself back into shape, I find myself bleeding again after getting beat badly by a pack of dogs. The Greyhounds were ready and just too much for the Railroaders to handle on Thursday night in Lohaus Field. They scored a total of 10 runs in all but 3 innings, pouring it on like doggy dodo (I know, cause I stepped in several as I left the game). We did get a solo homerun by Kyle Bondy to prevent a shutout. Wish we'd had our 8 men left on base out there. But now that the Railroaders have dusted off the daze from their day off, they should be ready to get back on track. Now that our records are tied, the Railroaders face the Greyhounds again on Friday night and will have to do it in Union City's dog pound. I guess it's only fair to give them a chance by evening the records. I hope I heal up again soon!

Tonight's game and KIT Website

I finally got the bleeding to stop and good thing too. Tonight's game at home against Union City will require all the blood I have left. I'm still a little nervous about it, our players have had a day off and the last 2 losses came after days off. But I'm sure coach Brian has them in tow though, and I'm looking forward to watching the Greyhounds attempt to race around the track and not get hit by a freight train. The hounds loss their last outing against the Oilers, I'm sure they're looking for a win in Fulton. There may be more in Lohaus Field than they think. If the Railroaders are rolling, the game may just turn out to be a dog training session. Let's see if they can fetch a ball okay!

BTW: Is there something wrong with my browser? I keep going to the KIT League website and there's nothing in the information section but a white screen. The "standings" section has some info, but grossly out of date. Someone must be asleep at the wheel or my computer is broken. Not sure what going on with the other teams' websites either, although I do enjoy the Tradewater Pirates' site. If anyone knows what's going on, let's hear it!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The Fulton Railroaders' 2007 Baseball Season

Well we're finally heading down the tracks on this 2007 season of Railroaders baseball. After the first 10 games with a record of 6-4, the team seems to be coming together and finding their ability to win. Excluding Game 2’s disastrous loss, the only real issue we appear to have is run production. Too many guys left on base…enough to have directly contributed to 3 of the 4 losses.

Pitching is been pretty good with a total team ERA of 3.96. As I looked over my score cards of the first 10 games, I was glad to see all the practice I had with the Pitchers has paid off some. They have only hit 17 batters thus far.., I just wish I'd thought about using a helmet like the real batters do! Looking further at my scores cards, I see they have thrown 1,196 pitches by my count and 736 of them have been strikes, better than 60%. I also find they are striking out 18% of their batters. All in all, I feel good about our pitching and believe they are settling in.

There are some nice batting averages in the line-up for first 10 games. Reinke and Owen over .300, with Gilliespie and Bolden over .400! Everyone seems to be on the "up-swing", so to speak. 4 homeruns by 4 players, 82 hits total, 34 RBI's and those 90 marooned "left on base" guys. It's like a flood gate about to burst! If we break that open, the Railroaders are going to be hard to beat.

Tied now with Tradewater Pirates in the league lead, but we’ve yet to face Union City. We had a hard time with them last year, the only team we didn't have a better one on one record with. And that includes the 2006 Kit League champion Oilers. After facing the other 4 teams this year, none have a series record better than us. Just as it was at the end of last year. Thursday night we'll begin to see if the Railroaders will turn that around and include the Greyhounds in with the rest of them.….

Care to post your thoughts? Use the "comments" link below.

Hoghead