I'll be looking forward to reading your reports on your first season! Sounds like you've found a good team with good teammates, and you'll find yourself getting better and better.

Hope so, I ended up fielding in right today but due to the light couldn't get any BP in, still opening game Sunday (weather permitting!)

I think it's great that you've found a league to play in! Sport is never as easy as it looks, huh? (I find that true with power soccer at every practice...) Keep us updated on your trials and tribulations with baseball. :) Good luck!!

Picking up a sport as an adult (even at 21) can be quite difficult, especially if you've never done anything like it before. Do you have much cricketing experience? The skillsets are obviously different, but there's enough similarity to be useful. The most important factor is probably hand-eye coordination, which is something Association Football (hehe) types don't have to worry about nearly so much, except of course for keepers.

Many years ago - more years than I care to think about - I was a little lad living in Sri Lanka. Somehow my father got involved in MLB's effort to bring baseball to the island, which of course meant I got involved. We spent quite a few weekends on the road, bringing bags of donated equipment to interested schools, and running through demonstrations of batting and fielding and so forth. Most of the kids had played cricket, and it definitely helped them - their style was unorthodox, but it generally worked.

Good luck - and remember to practice the tactical skills, like backing up fielders on throws and so forth, as well as the mechanical skills. It can be tough to pick up on the tube, as the camera tends to focus on the ball, but a well-drilled team reacting to a ball in play is a beautiful thing. And it's a thing that can only be created through lots of practice, both individual and collective...

Look forward to hearing more about your adventures on the field of dreams down the line. I wouldn't mind having a shot at it here, but I doubt many teams here would be interested in a forty-something with no experience! [As an aside, maybe I should join the Arizona Cricket Association instead?]

If you do have any cricket experience, imagine that would help, since the basic hand-eye co-ordination is the same, as Rex noted. However, the hitting style is very different as my attempts in a batting cage proved: in cricket, you are taught to get on top of the ball and hit it down, which is not the case in baseball. Nice article on Wikipedia about the differences between baseball and cricket here.

I've added a link to the Bisons site in the sidebar, just for amusement. Have you got any merchandise? I think it might be kinda cool to wear a Bisons shirt to Chase Field one of these days!

hitting is massively different between cricket and baseball. That's the most difficult skill to pick up, regardless of prior experience - you'd be amazed how many people step with the back foot rather than the front when first learning. It's that twist in the hips and torso that really powers the bat (not unlike tennis, really) and that requires keeping the back foot well planted to pivot on.

I haven't played cricket in forever... sigh. My father is posted in Barbados at the moment, and the lucky dog had a chance to go to a couple of matches during the last ODI world cup. (I think he saw Ireland, in fact.)

You should try a softball team if you haven't already, Jim. Lots of fun, and being a forty-something with no experience is no handicap in slow-pitch, if you can walk and talk at the same time. You can do that, right? :)

No merchandise as of yet ;) we've only got 12 uniforms or so between us but if we win the league I'll send you mine!

It really is a difference to cricket, in so much as you have to move your feet alot more in cricket (as peachy mentioned) also the balls often at your body in cricket whereas baseball its away from you (I think I prefer the 80mph balls away from my body to be honest ;) ) Thanks for all the support so far guys! but anyway as for my debut....

In our opening spring training game we were due to take on the Guildford Mavericks in a game switched to their home ground as ours was not ready for game action due to weather hampering the preparation of the diamond. So we all turned up at Reading's Madjeski Stadium (the home of a horror show the day before) in order to convoy our way the 25 miles or so to Guildford and arrived about 12pm, some 2 hours before first pitch. Upon arriving to the game I couldn't help but be underwhelmed by the venue. In what looked like an uncut field with a few backboards and some wire fence it was hardly a debut at Chase on top of this it was pouring with rain and there were some doubts whether the game would go ahead. Regardless of this I was told I'd be playing right field and batting 6th with my chum Steve batting 9th and in left field.

After BP and some fielding drills the game began and we led of the game with back to back strikeouts before our captain drilled one into centre for a basehit. A walk followed and it looked as if I might be called into action when another basehit drove in a run, however our number 5 hitter struck out to leave us 1-0 up at the top of the first. The bottom half of the inning saw our starting pitcher get through with just 1 hit without my coming anywhere close to fielding the ball and so with myself due up we were 1-0 to the good leading off the second.

As i walked to the plate I had butterflies in my stomach and really wondered whether the pitcher (a slightly fatter version of Dan Haren..) could tell how nervous I really way. After a couple of quick practise strokes I dug in and Mr Haren promptly delivered a ball just inside. Whilst not slow the pitch was hardly Randyesque and that gave me a lot of confidence and helped me relax and so the very next pitch came just over my belt right over the plate and I slashed at it, somehow making contact. Truth be told I have no idea where the ball went, I just heard the cries from the sidelines of GO GO GO and with that darted towards first base. For some unknown reason I really did expect a cannon arm from some infielder to first base and so slid into first base feet first...only to quickly realise there wasn't even a throw to the base. Despite my slight embarrassment of my over the top slide I couldn't have been more happy getting a base hit in my first AB, at that moment I really didn't care what happened the rest of my baseball 'career' I had that hit to my name. I then advanced thanks to a walk and a single before a double scored me home (and Steve who had the single) to record my first run and help us to a 3-0 advantage.

More quality stuff from our pitchers followed as the Mavericks hitters swung at just about anything, with a double play bringing a second to the close with us still 3-0 to the good.

Despite more rain we continued on as I once again found myself on deck as the top of the 3rd came to a close with us now 6-0 up. The Mavericks did muster a run on an error from our 2nd baseman but with a 6-1 cushion I felt a lot easier stepping up for my 2nd AB.

Once again Mr Haren was on the mound and I again took ball one. This time though I managed to get clean contact with his second pitch, driving it through right centre field to what would be the wall (if they had a wall...) for a stand up double. Fortunately I scored again on a passed ball and a single to put us 7-1 up. By the end of the inning it had become 8-1 and once again despite one run scoring for the Mavericks we looked set for the victory (and I'd still to touch the ball in right field...)

It was the 5th that killed any remaining contest in the game as the Maverick's relief pitcher struggled badly with his control as we batted round, including a long single which drove in two runners and a walk for myself, the later on a 3-2 count. Subsequently by the end of the top of the 5th it was a 16-2 ballgame. After a fruitless bottom of the 5th from the Mavericks we agreed to call it quits after the 6th, yet there was still time for me to have my 5th AB (and to move to centre field) Unfortunately this time i popped up short to the pitcher and again didn't touch the ball, but it didn't matter as we cruised in at 16-2.

All in all I couldn't have had more fun despite the rain and lacklustre nature of the opposition. I learned a heck of alot about baserunning and field positioning but the best part of the day was just being out there actually playing a game I've loved to watch for the past 7 years of my life. In all honesty we'll probably never win a game so easily again and I'll doubt i'll have a 3 hit game again this season but as a start, this one will be hard to top.

Final Score. Thames Valley Bisons 16 - Guildford Mavericks 2

DW: RF/CF 4AB 3H 2R 2RBI 1BB .750

I'll try and get some pics up as I took a few but for now I need a bath....

Hope that wasn't too long winded! and lets go D-Backs :)

For you:
Three hits on their debut

A solid list, including Fukudome of the Cubs this year, but also Milton Bradley, Mike Piazza...and Travis Lee. :-)

Congrats on the win. I expect you to start chants of "It's just like playing the D-backs" every time your team reaches double figures.

We're in the bottom divison of the British Baseball League and last season finished 1 from the bottom so the only way is up :)

Thanks Wimb. Good stories. I never played much growing up either and really started watching after high school. I have been in beer-league city softball leagues for the last 10-12 years and it is a blast. Your account brought home my experiences also. Not sure where to go on a hit (playing infield defense) or who to back up and such. Good times.

Foulpole,

Yeah its wierd for me too but baseball just isn’t played here. An example in point is that we have a 2 hour journey in our next away game, the friendly we played last week was our shortest road trip at just under an hour.

This Sunday we just have a practise as our opposition bailed, but next week its away to Southampton

When you wonder if you’ll ever get something right?

A question I was really asking myself after I dropped my 4th catch of about 7 attempts during outfielders fielding practise on Sunday. With no game this week we held a 2 hour practise on our home field and returned to some basic (supposedly simple) fielding drills to fine tune us for Sundays opening league encounter with Southampton.

Once again I was placed in the outfielders group, but Steve was given a try out at first base due to the fact that he’s the only left hander we have in the lineup. To his credit Steve fielding pretty well dropping very few and looking confident on the bag.

As for me….I had a ‘mare as I literally could not catch a cold based on my performance taking fly balls. I could blame the sun yeah, but when the ball pops out of your glove its pretty hard to blame anyone but yourself (although as a side note everyone always seems to look at their glove as if asking it for answers) On the plus side I batted well and took ground balls pretty effectivley too.

Anyway here’s to hoping that the ball doesn’t find me in right field on Sunday ;)

And this has dropped…waaaay of the fanposts but I’m going to keep on writing :)

I’ve not been able to play much recently due to the great British springtime weather, just today we’ve had our weekly midweek practise cancelled due to the rain.

One week ago today I went along to practise at around 7:30pm which whilst it’s still light, left very little time before the ball got to dark to see. Nevertheless we managed to do a few drills and I think my throwing power is maybe 20% up on when I started? (Heck I don’t really know but its roughly right and baseball is all about the statistics) With the light all but gone making batting and fielding drills impossible to do safely we used what time we had left to practise base running. As a team we had been appalling on the basepaths during our game with Guildford as we hadn’t managed to cover it before that first game. So I went into the excersise with an open mind and eager to learn but quickly saw that it was a lot more difficult then I’d imagine. I always thought that you had to watch the pitchers arm, so it was surprising to be told the intricacies of watching the pitchers legs to see whether he could pick me off or not. I kinda felt like a ballet dancer at times learning the pattern of steps needed to take a lead and to get back, but heck what’s the point in learning something new if you don’t look like a fool half the time ;) Once the light finally went full stop it was time for home…via McDonalds as I needed McFlurry based energy foods…..

Our scheduled game against Southampton found itself cancelled as Southampton had a fixture clash so we found ourselves scratched. In place of this we were due to have a practise, but sadly I came down with a virus which ruled me out. This weekend brings the first league game of the season away at Bracknell but I won’t be there to take part as I’m away at my old uni keeping a long made promise to go back and see some folks.

Anyway here’s hoping for a Bisons win (but not with enough style to make me redundant ;) )

:(

I always took for granted being able to throw on a glove and grab a bat and not embarrass myself. I can’t imagine at 33 trying to learn how to play cricket on a whim. Congratulations on sticking with it…not sure if I would have the patience.

On a side note: Us AZ folks should really consider getting a softball game together one of these days. I think it would be an absolute riot!

Thanks for all the comments so far guys! will try and grab some more pics soon

So as I mentioned before I wasn’t actually going to be around for this game as I was away at my old Uni seeing old friends for 1 final time before even those in the years below me drift away to all corners of the UK. However the Bisons had just enough players to play away to the Bracknell Blazers and so our BBF League campaign could commence….

Only it didn’t.

In a bizarre turn of events we had to forfeit the game as the league rules have suddenly changed to ban the use of aluminium bats. With no local resource to get hold of the bats in time we were forced to forfeit the game. However to our total disgust, Bracknell refused to even play the game as a friendly match! So sadly after week 1 our record reads.

W0 L1 RS 0 RA 9 GB 1.5

(Full table here http://www.baseballsoftballuk.com/show_club.php?club_id=4)

Now that to me is utter BS. I understand that we had to forfeit, its the clubs fault for not realising the rule change sooner, but for the opposition to cry off and refuse to even give a young club such as ourselves some competitive practise?!

Apparently e-mails have been going back and forward between management and lets just say they aren’t exactly cordial ;)

Still I do own a wooden bat so should be fine, and the club is ordering in some from Poland as apparently it’s alot cheaper then importing them from the US, so come our next league game we should be fine.

At this time I think its worth noting another surpise to me as a new baseball player…the cost of being part of a baseball team in financial terms. On a basic level I have to pay £70 for club membership to cover equipment and registration costs etc. On top of that its £10 or so a month for pitch hire and another £7 or so per match for umpires fees. If you add in the £80 for uniforms and money for equipment like bat/glove/batting gloves/cup etc you add on another £150 easily. So therefore the cost to me this season is going to be around £450 or about what…$800? For someone who was recently a student and is about to be so again the prices seem a bit much and if I was a bit less enthusiastic I doubt i’d bother, but as a popular advertisement would say, the pleasure you get from getting on base… Priceless :)

Still onto happier things and what’s more fun then playing baseball? why baseball on your birthday of course! Practise today was a heck of alot of fun as we just played an intra squad game, with 5 on each side (just the infield basically) I was put on 3rd base, another position to learn… but didn’t do much fielding. Still with the bat I did alright, reaching safely twice on two hits and was just out at first on my other AB. Sadly my base running is all over the place still, I haven’t really got the hang of taking a lead or watching the pitchers feet movements but I suppose it will come in time

We have a few new commers as well on the team and I always get mixed emotions. I feel great that we have fresh bodies but always nervous for my place. Even so I guess the competition is a good thing as it helps me to work harder!

Sunday sees another practise as we don’t have a game annoyingly. The way the fixtures are means we seem to have all of our off days at the start of the season! I just want to get stuck in

Thanks again for reading guys and Go Bisons!

As in buffalo or tatanka? I just find it an unusual name for a team from the UK as it was my understanding that they were near-extinction overseas. That is pretty much the same case but bills, buffalo, etc. are still popular mascots. How was the mascot chosen? Vote? Tradition?

Good luck on the season!

i hope baseball can spread in europe

Our last major session before our next league game saw me running around under the burning sun for about 2 hours, but actually feeling good about my fielding for once.

I’m finally getting the hang of the two hands to the ball thing. At first getting the non gloved hand to the ball just seemed unnatural and stupid…I mean where the hell do you put it?! but after a while you realise it keeps your glove steady and gets you more prepared and today it just all seemed to click. IT was one of those great summery days when you feel like you have a magnet in your glove and it just stuck :)

Batting wise was pretty fun as well, using the wood instead of the normal aluminum as I made some solid contact. Unfortunatly we then had to learn to bunt and to me bunting seems 100x harder then just hitting the damn thing. The biggest problem I found was getting my body in the right stance i just didnt know where to have my elbows etc and ity just all felt v unnatural to me

Anyways Im going to keep this brief, Reading have just been relegated and I feel pretty deflated. Say what you want about the Diamondbacks 100+ loss season at least we knew we had another season to prove everyone wrong. Sadly for Reading at best its 18 months until we’re back in the Premiership and even that isn’t certain :( urgh

So the big day finally rolled around and we would face a familiar foe in our opening British Baseball League match, the Guildford Mavericks. Two things made me think we had a pretty good chance going into the match. Number 1 we had owned them several weeks ago and 2 we were all a bit better as players then a month ago. We had all assembled two hours before the game and took quick BP and fielding drills and were also taken through basic signs on when to bunt and when to steal. Our coach told us in his broken english that tapping his cap at any point would be our cue to steal, I just hoped I wouldn’t miss any signs when the game was underway

Stll my confidence qdid waver slightly as the team was announced with more then 1 surprise from our player manager. From a personal standpoint I was happy enough, batting in 8th and in left field, but other then that the team riled more then just me. Several players from last year who have put in sporadic appearances at practise this year were included in the starting lineup including, worryingly, at pitcher.
Don’t get me wrong I know quality doesn’t evaporate because you don’t practice for a few weeks but our starting pitcher hadn’t thrown BP in the last 3 weeks yet alone competitive pitching.

This fact was ALL to apparent as the game got underway as we surrendered 4 runs in the top of the first mostly through walks, truth be told he couldn’t have found the strike zone if it was 6 by 6 foot (but I’ll try and keep my rants to a minimum) They did score a run on a hit though which found its way to me in right field and i proceeded to miss the cut of man as the runner went from second but then again even a direct throw to the cut off man wouldn’t have made a difference and they didn’t stretch the hit into a double so no damage done on my part.

Annoyingly our top 3 hitters then went down in order, just what the doctor didn’t order after being stuck in the field for 25 minutes. To make matters worse the Mavericks then scored 2 more, again sadly more through bad fielding decisions then hitting prowess. Our third baseman had an absolute nightmare of a game with poor handling and throwing to the wrong base when put under pressure his chief crimes. So at 6-0 down you could only hope the rally would start in the bottom of the second…but as you can tell by my tone so far, that just didn’t happen and another 1-2-3 had us back out all to soon.

After our pitcher walked the first two batters in the third he was duly replaced and we managed to get out of the inning only 6 behind thanks largely to a great double play.

I knew I’d be up in the third and after our number 7 hitter slammed a double I was up with a RISP. All of a sudden my nerves returned as I dug in against the pitcher I had faced the last time (the slightly fatter Dan Haren) Thankfully my nerves were soon settled after our runner stole 3rd and I managed to take a 4 pitch walk to become only our 2nd base runner. It was then as I took my lead that I saw our coach tap his hat and at that moment thought…bugger he wants me to steal! Still I duly kept my lead, waited for the pitch and sprinted as fast as I could into 2nd without a throw from the plate…phew.
Unfortunately none of my team mates were able to bring me home but our runner on third scored on a passed ball so we had at least cut the deficit to 5.

Our new pitcher once again kept the opposition off the board in the top of the 4th and we threatened to mount a serious rally in the bottom half of the inning as we scored one run and left 2 on base.

The fifth once again saw us keep the opposition off the board and so we headed into the bottom of the fifth with me leading off. With Older Fatter Dan Haren still on the mound I took ball one low and away before suddenly getting hit on my back trying to get out of the way of the second pitch. Whilst it stung at the time it wasn’t that bad and really part of me was happy to get hit, heck least I got on base ;) (though looking at it now maybe I should have charged the mound ;) ) I was then once again given the sign to steal and somehow made it again without a throw on the first pitch to give me my 2nd steal of the day. Frustratingly (yes I’ve used that word a lot but I really can’t think of much else in my tired state) I was then stranded at second as two strikeout and a fly out ended any threat from myself.

Sadly and somewhat curiously I was then told I was done for the day as our player/manager, all 50 years of him decided he wanted a game and brought himself on for me, despite having practiced all of once this season (but ill stop myself before I rant)_ Still I took it on the chin and went to umpire at 1st base.

In hindsight I really wish I hadn’t as after Guildford had extended their lead to 13-2 by the bottom of the 7th I was involved in a very controversial moment at first when with the bases loaded and 2 out I ruled our hitter out when most of our team assumed him safe. I have to say the call was damn close and instant replay might show me in the wrong but I made the call and had to stand by it. That didn’t stop our manager questioning our call which to be frank disgusted me, I mean come on I would hardly have screwed over my own team. The flak given after that call led me to pass over umpiring duties (not entirely my own decision) and I sat on the sidelines as we mounted a rally which meant that with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth we had the tying run in the on deck circle. Sadly a fly out ended our chances though and we fell 13-10. For the record my friend Steve came on also as I was subbed out and went 0-1 with a walk, but did take a good catch in the outfield.

Ultimately the wildness of our opening pitcher combined with poor defense had cost us the game but I still took a lot out of the game, learning a lot about base running in particular. Once again we now have 3 weeks until our next league game but from that point its a game every week so I’m really looking forward to working on fundamentals in the meantime. I took a few photos of our home ground and I’ll try and get them up soon.

Final Score. Guildford Mavericks 13 Thames Valley Bisons 10 -

DW: LF 0 AB 0 H 0 R BB HBP 2SB

Season
DW: 4AB 3H 2R 2RBI 2BB HBP .750 2SB

(Do HBP count as a BB in the box score out of interest?)

Thanks for reading again, keep checking the website for any little bits of news and also the British Baseball website, www.baseballsoftballuk.com as that has a record of all of our results and fixtures etc :)

Thought I’d post the table. We’re the in the A division, with AA and AAA above us and then the National League. Looking at the table Im not looking forward to taking on Croydon if they are averaging 22 runs per game! Also it seems to be their 3rd team so lord knows how good the other 2 are but looking at their teams website ( http://www.croydonpirates.co.uk ) they seem pretty good, they even go on tours to Holland If only we could afford such fun :(

Standings W L F A

Group A

Croydon Pirates III 3 0 66 27
Bracknell Blazers II 2 1 25 27
Southampton Colts 1 1 48 34
Guildford Mavericks 1 3 49 88
Thames Valley Bisons 0 2 10 22 (Note we had to forfiet the game with Bracknell so lost 9-0 by default)

Group B

Old Timers 3 0 94 35
Braintree Rays 1 1 38 37 .
Herts Raptors 1 2 54 64
Essex Arrows 2 1 3 58

Rain rain go away, come again another day

No less then 3 scheduled practises have been lost to the weather since we lost to Guildford 2 weeks ago and sadly In that time i’ve hardly picked up a bat or a ball other then to clean out my car.

Thankfully we had good weather this Sunday and so we could actually practise on our freshly cut field. Sadly turnout was low, we only had 8 guys there due to holidays/work commitments/hangovers but those who did turn up certainly got their work in.

We started with fielding drills as usual and this time I was placed in centre field with one of our even newer players over in left, and no right fielder. This meant that I had to go for or cover every single ball and after about 25-30 balls I was utterly shattered. Honestly I’d never before realised how much running and ground you had to cover as a centre fielder. What I also realised at this point is just how god damn unfit I am for a 22 year old, which is frustrating to say the least (damn you KFC!) As for the fielding itself, well I was ok I caught maybe 3 in 4? but what frustrated me the most was my continuing lack of throwing skills. Even 3 months In my throws still loop into the air and take an age to reach the cut off man (if they reach him at all) The coach has tried to get me to relax a bit more and take my time but its just dissapointing to be seemingly going sideways all the time rather then forward.

In the bigger picture what’s most annoying is that based on batting alone I’d put myself easily in the starting 9 but if you take into account my lack of skills in the field I’m soon going to be struggling, especially as 3 new players all with previous experience and good arms have joined recently. I guess I shouldn’t worry about how others play but it does creep into your mind, which is bad as it makes you try too hard which then gets you frustrated (well it gets me wound up anyway!)

Still, back on the field I batted alright, sadly I was first up for BP and had to face arguably our best pitcher who is a guy who takes a while to get in rythmn aka I didn’t get alot of strikes to hit.

We face Southampton next week at home and I’ll hopefully be involved but the Download Music Festival means I’ll miss our home game with Bracknell 2 weeks from now. In other news whilst this isn’t myspace central or a padres blog ;) I’ve got an album on my facebook with all of the bisons pics so far so anybody who wants to add me is welcome, Daniel Wimbush is the name. I’ll still try and upload some to imageshack but im having some problems in that area :(

Cheers for the support as always guys

I enjoyed this more than you know. Partly because your circumstances and surroundings evoke an earlier time here in the states, and by that I dont mean the Little League of my youth as much as the 19th century origins of the American game itself : the club structure, fussy league rulings, hard to find equipment, players umpiring and so on.

In addition to doing something fun, you’ve opened up a window for some of us. Here, we consume a Disneyfied version of an increasingly distant professional game, driven by the commercialization of gossip, statistics, etc.

Yours is a halcyon place, closer to the heart of this great game. That heart can be summed up in one word:

Play.

Thanks and congratulations.

When I first signed up to play for the Bisons I knew I’d have to completely learn the game of baseball, I knew it would be a long grind and that there would be ups and downs, but never did I imagine myself swinging at shuttlecocks at 9pm at night….

At the same time as the Diamondbacks were struggling to try and hit a baseball, I was at Bishopswood having shuttlecocks thrown at me in an excersise designed to improve my swing. So there I was swinging away and I have to say I didn’t see the point in the excersise, I mean the throws coming from my partner were so random it was impossible not to be kept off balance.

But that wasn’t the end of the night, Oh no we had to take swings into a rug which was placed against the backstop. This was a little more productive (when the ball was thrown at the right height) Then finally we had proper BP which is always the highlight of the night.

The size of the team continues to grow and 2 new people turned up last night, meaning our depth is technically 17 strong. It’s a real mismash of players now, we have English, Polish, Americans and Japanese players. We have 14 guys and 3 girls and our age range spans from 21-60 and we have people who have played for the national team right down to people that have never played the game before, so it’s an itneresting team dynamic ;)

We take on Southampton at Bishopswood on Sunday so more to come then! Thanks as usual for the kind words and support!

I assume you won’t mind.

During the mid to late nineties as I was growing up, the England cricket team was so awful you would pray for rain as it was the only way the team would get any type of positive result. Today I not only wished for rain but for a giant hole to open within the earth to swallow up our entire infield, and me when at the plate.

Our third official league game of the season saw us take on University side, the Southampton Colts. The day started badly and just got progressively worse. It started with our manager, coach and captain arguing over team selection. I had mixed feelings about the final lineup. To my despair the same starting pitcher who had put us into such a hole last week once again started on the mound and as for myself, I completed my tour of the outfield with a start in centre and batting 3rd in the lineup.

The top of the first continued the frustration (notice how much I’ve used this word in this entire fanpost ;) ) as a succession of walks and stolen bases put us 2-0 down, but at 2-0 at least we were within sight. It says a lot when 2 runs was the closest we’d get to our opposition all day…

Conversely our offence actually started pretty well as we got a lead off walk who then scored on a double by our No. 2 hitter to bring me to the plate with the score at 2-1 and with nobody out. I dug in at the plate and took my first ball for a ball before he came back with a ball that nicked the inside of the plate to bring the count even. Another ball, which led to a stolen base, was followed by a swinging strike to even the count at 2-2. I then managed to get some wood on what would have been a strike but the ball rolled just foul after I was on my way to first. Finally I got some contact on a low strike and hit the ball to the right hand side of the infield which scored the runner at third but had me comfortably out at 1st and sadly we could muster no further offence in the bottom of the first frame.

If the first inning was frustrating, agony would be a better way to describe the second. We had it all, passed balls, walks, misthrows, outright bad throws, defensive errors….all in all it made me want to watch the Marlins series again it was that bad. To make it worse the sun was out in all its glory relentlessly beating down on us making each bad play seem that much worse. From a personal point of view I had a chance to make a catch but I was running at full steam and only just had time to slide for the ball. Unfortunately instead of nestling in my glove the ball bounced off my my pec (or Moob) and back towards second (it bounced an impressive distance actually, screw throwing the ball I should just bounce it off my chest) When the dust had settled we finally got back to the sidelines 10-2 down and with the game all but over.

We scuffled a run in the bottom of the second but the wind was very much taken out of our sails.

More agony would be piled on in the top of the third as from what I recall we were now about 13-2 down (you will have to forgive me for not recalling the details, when you’re 11 down after 3 you lose the will to live…) On the positive I made a decent catch though.

I led off the bottom of the 4th and this is where I have to rant….. I hate umpires that don’t keep a consstant strikezone. In this AB i had a ball that hit the ground just after the back of my shoe and yet somehow It was called a strike on 2-0. At least I wasn’t the only one to suffer with both teams complaining of the inconsistent zone. Still, with it 2-1 I batted took another strike before getting a ball for 3-2. Unfortunately for myself he jammed my inside with what probably would have been a strike and i dribbled it to the shortstop who threw me out with ease. Nobody would score as we quickly went down with only a walk to show for our efforts, not what you want when you’re being punished with long spells in the field

So with nothing to show for my efforts at the plate the next inning once again felt like an eternity as we conceded a few more runs, I cant even recall how many :( off the top of my head, I’d say it was probably 15-3 by the time we went back to bat in the 4th but at least we finally showed some resistance, scoring 3 times to bring us within respectible range.

A pitching change followed in the 5th (thank god), and we only gave up 1 more run as we finally kept control of things. I got to bat leadoff in the bottom half of the inning but once again grounded out meekly having worked a 2-2 count.

The 6th saw us cough up runs thanks to more throwing errors and allowing guys to steal. I’m not sure how many times they stole a base, but by the end of the 3rd they had stolen 11….. We only gave up 3 runs to bring the score to around 19-6 and then batted well to bring it to about 19-9, with me getting another bat, again meekly grounding out to take my day to 0-4.. by this time I was shattered mentally and physically, and swung at a pathetic high ball that may have just crept in the zone on a 2-1 count. We did put up a few more runs though to keep us within 10

At this point I should mention the fact that our league had a rule where by the game is over if one side leads by 10 or more after 7 and when Southampton tacked on a few final runs in the top of the 7th, we needed to score 5 to force an 8th and 9th inning. To our credit we gave it a damn good go scoring 2 runs and to my surprise I got a 5th at bat with 2 out in the bottom of the 7th and 1 on. Finally I made it on base and all that went through my head at 3-1 was please make it a blatant ball…I got my wish and trotted to first, bringing the game extending run to home. I actually made it all the way to third before I was done but we lost by a final approximate score of 23-11 though again I’m not even sure of the final score :( and make no apologies for it.

Right now in the immediate aftermath I don’t want to analyse what happened. To sum up though, we batted badly, fielding badly, pitched badly and umm yeah we were outright bad. I think the one positive from the game was that at least it made the Diamondbacks recent struggles look positive….

Sadly I forgot my camera but that was probably a good thing….

Final Score (approx). Southampton Colts 23 Thames Valley Bisons 11 -

DW: CF 4 AB 0 H BB RBI

Season
DW: 8AB 3H 2R 3RBI 3BB HBP .375 Avg 2SB

So as I’ve shamelessly mentioned throughout most of the last two weeks I went to the ‘spiritual home of rock’ , Donnington Racecourse, to the Download Music Festival last weekend, where I saw bands such as Disturbed, KISS, Motorhead, Jimmy Eat World, Ash, Incubis, Lost Prophets, The Offfspring. All in all it was awesome, great bands, 6 days of drinking and eating whatever I wanted and some good weather too.

But anyways the result of my musical adventures was that I had to miss our home game against the Bracknell Blazers. Bracknell were the same team that refused to even play a friendly after we couldn’t find any wooden bats so there was a bit of pride on the line in this one.

I’m obviously going off second hand reports here but when the score ends up being 22-12 to Bracknell you can get the idea that it was very similar to most of our other efforts this season. Once again our starting pitcher (allbeit a different one) spluttered and combined with woeful defence led to a 10 run hole within 2 innings. Once again the Bisons rallied late on but by then the game was well and truly dead. Once again the game also had its share of contraversial managerial moves and on field decisions but without being there I don’‘t want to comment too much. Needless to say, we lost and sit at the bottom of the league with an 0-4 record.

Meanwhile I turned up to training Wednesday and we actually had a pretty fun time. Aside from the usual fielding and batting practise we did a few small excersises like practising run downs and a relay race around the bases. I also volunteered to be a runner during double play practise, something I quickly realised I shouldnt have done ;)

This Sunday we hit the road to face Croydon Pirtates 3rds who are based just South of London so about an hour or so away from us. I’ve mentioned these guys before and the fact they have 3 teams shows just how much strength and depth they have within the club. This season they boast a 4-1 record with 94 runs scored and just 56 conceded, which might sound alot to concede but it’s the fewest in the league. In comparison if you discount the forefieted match we have scored 33 and given up 57…in just 3 games.

So on paper this one does not look good for the Bisons but it will be good to test ourselves against one of the best teams in the league. Also as I’ve mentioned before the facilities at Croydon look fantastic for the UK and so it will be a nice experience playing in a decent ground. Looking at numbers we have 10 confirmed so far so I should see a fair amount of action and I’d like to get a hit as I haven’t got one in the 2 leage games so far, going 0-4 with 2 walks a HBP and a sac fly, so getting a batting average would be good :)

Thanks for the support as always guys and I’ll post again Sunday. If there is any random questions you have I’ll do my best to answer as I realsie I tend to be quite narrow in my commentary!

Wellll, I really should refrain from making predictions in future, or I should keep predicting defeats ;)

As the header suggests we finally won our first league game of the season and in some style too, defeating the Croydon Pirates 3rds by a score of 19-8.

Despite the fact that we had exactly 9 men, were playing away from home and our starting pitcher had landed in the UK some 6 hours beforehand we somehow put in our best display of the season and were well worth our victory.

I playedthe game 2nd in the lineup and playing in left field and managed to go 1-4 with a run, 2 walks and an RBI to my name which was particularly welcome given my previous display at the plate. Defensivly I had little to do today accept for getting some routine base hit doubles back into the infield and also dived for one catch that I had about a 5% chance of making, sadly there was no heroic catch but no damage was done.

We won this game by finally putting together good hitting, pitching and solid defence. The fact that Croydon had such a nice ground made a big difference as our infield was able to make many more plays that they haven’t seemed to be making much this year at our slightly overgrown home patch (worth a note that the ground wasn’t the one I was expecting as the third team play on a different diamond) The ground had a perimeter fence and a bullpen as well as short grass and built in bases which really helped with the atmosphere for the match. As previously mentioned our pitcher pitched 7 strong innings giving up just 7 runs despite having spent the last 2 weeks in LA and his pitching (and bat as he went 4-4) made a big difference to the confidence and energy in the side. Also the fact that our coaching team were on the same wavelength helped and the whole mood of the team was alot better. Whilst the game was close and remained at 1-1 through 4, we broke out in the 5th and gained a 3-1 lead and stretched it to 8-1 in the 6th effectivly ending the game. Eventually the game was cut short after 8 as we lead by 11 and the Pirates conceded.

From a personal standpoint I was happy with my batting, I maybe should have swung at a couple more pitches as I was stuck out looking once on a sure strike 3, grounded out once but my final out was a called strike that was nowehere near and I mean nowhere near the strikezone. Still that call was made with the score at 19-7 in the top of the 8th so I guess the ump just wanted it over with or at least thats my story and im sticking too it ;)

Final Score: Croydon Pirates 8 Thames Valley Bisons 19

DW: LF 4 AB 1 H 2BB R RBI

Season
DW: 12AB 4H 3R 4RBI 5BB HBP .333 Avg .555 OBP 2SB

Don’t have much else to say really, right now i’m just savouring the victory :)

Go Bisons!

So I should have known, having not seen a single home run all year that we’d be beaten by one today, sadly it wasn’t just one it was 2 coupled with 2 ground ball doubles. The end result was a 13-9 home defeat for the Bisons against Croydon Pirates, the very same team we had beaten last week so comfortably.

We did have a couple of other things going against us, for a start we were missing 2 of our best players who were on holiday, weakening us both in defence and at the plate. Added to that our opposition included a few players who were missing last week which vastly improved their offence. With that In mind losing by just 4 runs wasn’t a bad effort from the guys (and girl) and we walked off the field in good spirits

Once again I was in left field and batting 2nd, and we came to the plate 1-0 down after the top of the first. In that top half of the inning I made a good sliding catch similar to the one that hit my moob a couple of weeks back but this time it went in my glove. I came to the plate after our leadoff batter reached on a HBP and battled my way to 3-2 before swatting at a ball far too high in the zone which dribbled down the first base line. Only after I got back did I realise that Id broken my bat :( It served me well though RIP, at least it died sacrificing a guy over…

Sadly we couldn’t muster any more runs and still had a 1-0 deficet going into the bottom half of the 2nd after some good pitching and defence. We then exploded into life, loading the bases for myself with one out. The first pitch was at my head and I swiftly hit the dirt to save my life, the same guy had done it to me last week and so I knew he could be a little wild. After taking a called strike I then had to try and get out of the way of another ball this time coming straight at my body but sadly I didnt have time to get out of the way and hit the ground shouting “f*k” as it drilled my right wrist. Sore but otherwise ok I trotted to first, heck a HBP RBI is still an RBI! a walk of my friend Steve made it 3-1 and another HBP into our shortstops back made it 4-1. At this point the pitcher was warned by the ump and could consider himself lucky to still be in the game at that point. A couple of strikeouts left me stranded at 3rd though to send us back out at 4-1.

This is where things suddenly went wrong for the Bisons as with two on we gave up a towering long ball well over my head in left field to level the scores. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so stunned whilst stood in the field as it’s just stunning to see a lead you work so hard for disappear with one swing of the bat. We escaped without further damage but by this point we were a bit shellshocked.

Even so we went back to work and I would bat yet again in the bottom of the 3rd sadly all I could muster was a ground out which once again advanced the runner but we did score 3 more runs to take the lead 7-4. Again though we would be undone by longish balls, two towering shots to right field, both ground rule doubles helped contribute to us falling behind 8-7.

The rest of the game was a frustrating affair as we seemed incapable of driving anyone in despite having plenty of runners on base. In fact the next time we would get someone home would be in the 9th. In between we managed to give up a 2 run shot and a few scattered runs to go into the bottom of the 9th 13-7 down. I had managed to walk and steal a base during this stage of the game and had also been robbed by a diving catch from probably the least athletic looking player on their team :(

Still we once again rallied in the 9th and I managed to come to the plate with 2 outs the score at 13-8 and 2 runners on base. I cracked one to 2nd base but the ball looked to be heading straight for second base. Still I got my head down and I went through the motions of running the ball out and fortunately for me the 2nd baseman threw it over the first baseman and before you know it I was on base. We don’t have a proper error scoring system but I think he should have made it. Despite this in the book it has gone down as an RBI single…. I’m not going to disagree *whistles Sadly my friend Steve grounded out to end the game at 13-9 but we had certainly shown a lot of heart.

I was a lot more aggressive at the plate today and at least I didn’t strike out, getting a productive out on 2 of my 3 outs. I feel a lot more confident in the outfield having been there for 3 straight games now and just need a bit more luck at the plate and hopefully I can turn a corner. We have no game next week though so we will probably just have practise.

Final Score: Thames Valley Bisons 9 Croydon Pirates 13

DW: LF 4 AB 1 H BB HBP 2RBI SB

Season
DW: 16AB 5H 3R 6RBI 6BB 2HBP .313 Avg .541 OBP 3SB

Go Bisons!

Baseball isn’t quite dead in the Thames Valley and the Bisons are still very much alive and kicking!

For not the first time this season the fixture (as in scheduling) gods ensured that we didn’t have a game for 3 straight weekends which gave us some great time to refine our skills and get ready for a game against Bracknell on July 24th. Sadly the Great British weather struck and washed out 2 consecutive practise sessions. I did make one Sunday practise though which went quite well, after the death of my bat in our last league game I used a slightly heavier bat which seems to suit me better.

By the time the next Wednesday rolled around I couldn’t attend practise because of other engaugements. Then a trip up North to Manchester kept me off the field this past Sunday before a combination of general tiredness and tooth ache conspired to keep me away yesterday (Wednesday). So out of a possible 6 practise sessions, I’ve actually only been able to attend 1…. :/

It’s at this point where Im beggining to lose that initial enthusiasm I had for playing the game. When I’ve been on the field so little and you’ve had a cruddy day at work the last thing that I want to do is drive the 45 minutes to our practise field, train for 2+ hours then drive 45 minutes home. Earlier in the season when I was excited about playing the game, and in a regular routine it didn’t seem quite so time consuming but now when you are out of the bubble it seems like such an effort :( Still this doesn’t mean I’m quitting, oh no not by a long shot as I’m in the team for Sundays clash, a game which I hope gives me the spark back :)

Team wise we’ve settled down personel wise and haven’t had any new players for a while. I seem to be considered the regular left fielder now although my recent lack of training means that in the short term I will probably be benched on Sunday which I’m more then happy with as the people that show in week in week out deserve it.

Looking objectivly I think I’m ok with the bat, my plate dicipline is decent and I’m getting on base (sometimes painfully) a fair bit, but the fact I haven’t had an extra base hit since the opening friendly is starting to play on my mind a bit, I’m going to try and be more positive on Sunday in any at bats I get and just try and hit the ball rather then worrying about getting on base.

Overal my defence has improved a heck of alot since March, both my catching ability and throwing distance/speed is getting better and better. I don’t think I’m ever going to be anything more then an average player but when I’m out there I just love the game…it’s just the getting to the games!

Anyways cheers for reading guys :) will update after the game Sunday

Go Bisons!

Yes our second win of the season and our first at home this year came this Sunday with a crushing 13-1 win over the Herts Raptors at Bishopswood.

The win came courtesy of a brilliant display by our starting pitcher who went the distance (in this case 7 innings as the mercy rule was invoked) giving up just 1 unearned run and getting into double digits in strikeouts. Had we had him on the mound since game 1, this season might be looking alot different.

Still that’ll be my only negative point of this entry as we were worthy winners, getting hits, walks and only commiting 1 or 2 errors in the field all day. The game was effectivly over as a contest after 3 when we batted round to turn a 3-0 lead into 7-0. More runs were tacked on later as the mercy rule brought the game to a close after 7 as we lead by more then 10 runs.

Its amazing how much the team has improved in such a short period of time as even without two of our most established players we were able to stay in control from first to last and never really looked in danger of losing. Such a fact was even more important given the sweltering heat (alt least by UK standards) as with temperatures of around 26c few of us wanted to be out there longer then we needed to be.

On a personal note, I was benched as expected and was assigned the role of scoring the game which was actually pretty damn enjoyable. I used to score Cricket as a youngster and stats have always interested me so it was good to get to grips with chronicalling a game on a statistical level. One of the most difficult parts of scoring the game was where to assign an error, given our level of play and the gulfs in quality between individuals it really was challenging to know what to score but I tried to lean more towards giving credit to the bats where possible.

I did enter the game late on, coming in at left field in the bottom of the 5th and then batted in the bottom of the 6th drawing a walk and eventually scoring on a sacrifice to become our 13th and final run.

So we have another home game next week which we need to win to keep alive our faint hopes of a playoff berth. We are currently last in our divison some 3.5 games back with only 5 to play so those hopes are more mathmatical then realistic. On the other hand 3 wins from the last 5 should get us into the top 3 which would be respectible.

Next week we take on the ‘Old Timers’ at home who are currently 8-1 with a run differential of +85… compared to ourselves who are 2-5 with a -14 RD… still we beat Croydon who were just as imposing so there’s always hope!

Final Score: Thames Valley Bisons 13 Herts Raptors 1

DW: LF BB R

Season
DW: 16AB 5H 4R 6RBI 7BB 2HBP .313 Avg .560 OBP 3SB

I’d really recommend playing to anyone who watches the game :) I know there are lots of teams around London and the Bisons don’t play too far away from Oxford so come on down if you fancy it :) The top tier of British Baseball is getting better all the time and they have quite a few nice grounds so go check it out, I’m going to try and make the finals weekend if I can which I believe are mid September

Sadly our game this week was abandoned due to poor weather. I’m working next weekend so I will miss our scheduled trip to Southampton meaning no more games for at least 2 weeks for me :(

Thanks for updating that top post for me, much appreciated :)