RCBA Media Center

The Board of Directors of the Royal Canadian Baseball Association held their annual meeting last evening at the Keating Channel Pub. Hilights of this years meeting was the shortening of the schedule to 14 regular season games so that we could avoid the usual first two chilling weeks of Spring, and the dropping of the "pinch runner at the plate" rule.

Originals managing director Jim Longo today announced the signing of "Coach" van Hees to a new 1 year contract. Said the "coach" at his press conference when it was suggested that another championship would place him in elite company amongst Originals alumni, "back to back, here we come Baby!!!"

The Veterans Committee at its annual meeting has adopted a bumper crop of new inductees into the Ring of Fame. Congratulations, I guess, is in order to all those who received the requisite number of votes from the veterans and writers on the committee. See the homepage for the full list of hall members, and set your sights high, for many are called but few are chosen.

There wasn't much interest in playing ball here this week, but there was a lot of interest from deep in the heart of the Malaysian jungle as to why the weekly writeups have not been more forthcoming. Said Managing Editor Jim Longo, "the applicants for the position of assistant producer on the Originals News Network are still being interviewed". Look for upcoming articles by some guest columnists.

Even though we lost by default, we managed to outscore the Burning Sensation 17 - 11 in our season opener.

Big news item on the Originals agenda … Alice got a computer. Finally! Game on!!!

What happened? Rained out again?

Heck no!! I'll tell ya what happened!

The Sultans showed up with 38 players (LOL) Ok it was only 18 but the Originals showed up with 7 !!!

So there was a bit of rain in the area … wicked lightening … tornado watches and warnings … soooooo? It passed, and 7 of us showed up.

Thank goodness Carter called his girlfriend Lavinia (whom we've hired, negotiations still ongoing $$$$$) and she made up the 8th player. We read the rules the next day to find out that if you don't have 8 players on the field by the 3rd inning you forfeit the game!

Noticing our frustration with lack of attendance, the Sultans graciously offered us players but proud Originals Coach Van Hees declined the offer. There's a 'spirit' there, don't cha think?

We managed to trade runs back and forth through the early innings with only 3 people in the outfield and our all star infield holding the runners tight. Deciding that the trees in left field would permit an automatic ground rule double, Pat managed to take advantage of this ruling, although one hit could have easily been a home run under normal circumstances.

After Coach Van Hees, in the position of centre field caught a lot of long balls, the Sultan players had to quickly change their strategy and try hard not to hit to his position.

Alice (after a bit of coaching) choked up on the bat and narrowed her grip, blasted a blazing liner out to left centre field almost knocking out one of the Sultans defense as he slowed the ball by using his head.

All in all it was a great game. We held the Sultans to a tie game by the end of the 9th inning and before we knew it, we were into the 10th. The game ended up at a 12-12 tie. What a game!!!

Let's just clear this up.. The new ball park is literally right on the corner of Eastern and Coxwell. Right on the corner! Parking is permitted after 6:00pm on Coxwell Ave. beside the ball diamond.

See ya all next week!

GB

A great game! Our first true win of the year … we've been rained out, tied and lost by default. Final score of this one was 29-22.

We were sweatin' a bit about the line up, but then a couple more Originals showed up just in time, so we were legal and happy. We seriously need a commitment and some more women to cover off vacations etc.

Hopefully our team "spirit" will show up one of these days. (for you new folks that's our long time team mate and mentor - Mitch - who always says even if he's not at the games, he's there in spirit) Well "Spirit" get than new glove worked in and meet us at Riverdale West next week!!

As for the plays of this last game, William had back to back dingers … wow … what more can I say but excelente amigo!!!

Play of the year had to be the one involving newly sworn in Keystone Cops Shawn and Ted playing "hot potato" with the ball at third base. Man, talk about hilarious! The play kinda reminded me of that sheep dog on Looney Toons with the long hair over his eyes … "Duh, which way did he go? Which way did he go?" But heck what was with the runner? … he was just standing there … possibly confused or memorized by the quick reflexes of the Keystone twosome!

After constant taunting about his unmovable locks our poor coach had had enough and proclaimed "Ok, guys, if we win the championship this year I'll shave it" Unfortunately he was within earshot of Jim and about 6 other Originals. Jim will ensure Coach follows through with this I'm sure. Of course this escalated into "Ok Shawn if you're gonna do it, you have to do it at the bar after the final game"!!! Oh boy, that'll be a sight!

GB

We played the Hitmen at Riverdale. They look like a real professional team, everyone of them 250 pounds, 6 foot 6 inches tall with rippling muscles and flowing blond hair … well they do look pretty impressive.

Anyway we knocked them back on their heels early and got them bickering amongst themselves, which is always good. The game was tight most of the way throughout the evening and we entered the bottom of the 9th inning down a few runs with the top of the order coming up.

Again (and I think this is becoming a bad habit with this team) we managed to come up with just enough to tie the game up. Of course the fact that we tied the game with 1 out and failed to win it with our 2 best hitters coming to the plate could be considered in any number of ways …

1. It'll never happen twice
2. We blew a win
3. We want to psych them out some more
4. We didn't realize the importance of the win
5. We need some spiritual guidance

So that's the third tie of the season. Coupled with 2 defaults and only 1 win we are mired in the bottom half of the league.

Time to make some HAY!!

By the way don't forget to look at the STATS for this season, they are very in-depth. By adjusting the pop-up menu at the top right of the page you can view individual stats, by game, by player, etc.,

JL

Seems that the Shipping Department at Posters International is an awful lonely place … Greg had to come out of early retirement yesterday to help the short-handed Originals (golf again) in this weeks tussle against the once might Thunderdawgs.

However, they seem nowadays to be relegated to the complaining department, "he left the base early" … "he didn't touch the base correctly" … "how come we always have to wait for you guys to be ready in the outfield" … etc., etc., etc.,

And once again this season's edition of the Originals did just enough to win (not too much) and jumped all over the Thunderdawgs early to post a pretty breazy and easy 22-15 victory.

After the game we were discussing our Latin contingent and the thought was expressed that we should learn to talk "baseball" in Spanish. So in the hope that this may flourish we present the Spanish - English baseball dictionary to help you all in your beisbol communications. We'll start with the basics and add to the official dictionary when appropriate.

Next week we have a rematch against the might Hitmen at tiny Ramsden, it should be interesting. See the parks page for directions, it's right on Yonge street just north of Yorkville.

JL

Las Originales Spanish-English Beisbol Dictionary

• baseball (sport) -n.m. beisbol
• baseball (object) -n.f. pelota; bola; pildora; (pill) m. esferide; (sphere); m. cuero de caballo; (horsehide)
• at-bat -n.m. turno al bate; veces al bate;
• base -n.f. almohada; almohadilla; base; estacion; (station) m. cojin; saco;left
• on base (LOB) v. quedado en base;
• base coach -n.m. policia de trafico
• base hit -n.m. imparable; inatrapable; incogible; indiscutible; jit; palo
• the bases are loaded; phr. la casa esta llena/repleta; las bases estan congestionadas/llenas
• bat -n.m bate; palo; madero; tolete; f. majagua;
• bat in (runs) -v. impulsar; remolcar
• batted ball -n.f. bola bateada; m. batazo; machucon
• batter -n.m. bateador;
• fair ball- n.f. bola en territorio bueno; bola fer
• foul ball -n.f. bola en territorio malo; bola faul
• fly ball -n.m. batazo de aire; bombo; flai; flay; globito; globo; f. paloma; plegaria; palomita (short fly); m. palomon (easy fly)
• fly out -v. elevar
• flyout -n.m. bombo; elevado
• single -n.m. sencillo
• double -adj.n.m. biangular; doble; dobletazo; doblete; batazo de dos esquinas; tubey
• triple -n.m. triple; tripletazo; tribey
• home run -n.m. cuadrangular; jonron; tetrabatazo; bambinazo; f.vuelacerca; out of the park -phr.fuera del parque
• safe -adj. cierto; quieto; sei; seif
• out -adv. fuera;
• you're out -phr. guirao
• first base -n.f. la inicial; primera base
• first base coach -n.m. entrenador de primera base
• first base line -n.f. linea de primera base
• second base -n.f. la intermedia; segunda base
• second baseman -n.m. intermedista; camarero; defensor del segundo saco
• shortstop -n.m. campocorto; intermedista; jardinero corto; paracorto; parador corto; siore; torpedero
• third base -n.f. tercera base; antesala; esquina caliente (hot corner); esquina de las angustias (hot corner)
• third base coach -n.m. entrenador de tercera base
• third base line -n.f. linea de tercera base
• third baseman -n.m. antesalista; defensor del tercer saco
• left field -n.m. jardin izquierdo; bosque izquierdo
• center fielder -n.m. jardinero central; guardabosque central; centro-ampista
• right fielder -n.m. jardinero derecho; guardabosque derecho
• batter -n.m. bateador;
• fielder -n.m. defensor; fildeador; jugador defensivo;
• pitcher -n.m. lanzador; monticular; monticulista; picher; serpentinero;
• pinch-runner -n.m. corredor emergente
• coach -n.m. cocher; entrenador; instructor;
• scorekeeper -n.m. anotador; escorer; tanteador
• manager -n.m. dirigente; manager; maniyer; mentor; piloto;
• manager's favorite (player) -n.m. bo bo

July 12th vs. Hitmen L 9-0 Default3-2-3

July 19th vs. Bulldogs W 17-124-2-3

Aug 9th vs. T.A.C. W 9-06-2-3

Aug 16th vs. Gorillas L 9-06-3-3

Playoffs, Aug 23rd vs. Sultans W 17-15

Semi-Finals, Aug 27th vs. Burning Sensation L 9-4