Game recaps

NO GAMES - EAGLES & LAKERS RAINED OUT

Coming to you this week from the cockpit of Al Brightwell’s Gulfstream G550 luxury Jet co-piloted by Al and Dave “rough landing” Young. It was a shaky flight as they had to dodge (not Doge) surface to air missiles launched from the bats of the Rabun Relics.

Eagles

The Eagles have hit (or not hit) a rough patch as of late. This week it was the Rabun Relics turn to trim the Eagles wings.

Game 1 - Rabun 23   Eagles 15

Rabun put up some big numbers early as the Eagles struggled to keep up.  The last few innings were better as the Eagles scored 11 runs in the last 3 innings but it wasn’t quite enough to catch the Relics. Woody King continued his hot pepper hitting with 4 hits while Gary Kelly, Rich Hesemann, Mike Young and “Ghost Runner” Doug Rochester each slashed 3 hits. 

Game 2 - Rabun 30   Eagles 6

This game was a rough one for the Baldies as the Relics put up 5 runs every inning. Bigfoot Jim Lamarand led the way with 3 hits while Gary Kelley, Mike Young, Danny Stancil, Claude Smith and Al Brightwell added 2 hits each.

Of note, Doug Rochester had a real heads up play as he was able to force out a “Ghost Runner” at 2nd base, unfortunately ghost runner outs don’t count. But he did keep the runner at 3rd from scoring because he was so confused he just stayed put, good job Doug.  Next up for the Eagles is the 68 +Upstate Joes at Sunset Park in Mauldin as they try to get their feathers straightened out to fly right.

Lakers

Unfortunately the Lakers games were cancelled due to a "chicken out" maneuver by the Upstate Joe’s.  From all reports the field was dry as a “chicken bone” and no rain fell during the hours when the games should have been played.  Next week the Lakers play Lake Lanier in Clayton.

Until next time, hope you all stay positive, except of course for any medical tests. 😂🤣

Coming to you this week from on top of the manure pile behind the horse barn at ol' Mc-Giles horse farm in Tamassee, where Dennis learned to swat and catch flies.

Eagles

The Eagles had a bye this week due to some injuries and wandering vagabonds. Hopefully they will put that all behind them and pull it all together and pound those boys from Rabun Monday in Clayton. The Eagles who showed up for practice today seemed ready to go.

Of note, Hematoma Ken Uhlig is playing in a national Tennis Tournament for seniors this weekend hoping to steal a few games from those top level tennis players. Good luck Ken.  Dirty Doug Rochester was at practice today and his uniform was clean, thanks to Carol for that.

Lakers

Game 1 - Lakers 25   Rabun Relics 10

This game started out as a close affair as the Relics jumped out to an early lead, but tremendous defense and timely hitting by our boys sent them old geezers scrambling for their false teeth.  In fact Marty from the Relics said to me “Man you guys sure play some hellacious defense” while their 3rd baseman stated “fiddle sticks (not really the word he used) it don’t matter where I mash it, those darn little rascals in the outfield are gonna catch it”.  Hitting stars for this game were Dennis Giles, Dave Young, Matt Koeplin, Dave Nykalo and Bob Rothring each slugging 4 hits. Dale Bradley and Cliff “Bruise on the belly” Kaiser added 3 hits each, Bud Blide also homered. 

Game 2 - Lakers 26   Relics 1

This one was a true game for the ages as Tony “Ohtani” Witte really had his spin-o-rama pitch working for him as we saw so many swings and misses that the national weather service issued a high wind alert for Rabun County. Then in true Ohtani fashion Tony bashed 2 Ruthian Ballantine Blasts after their third baseman (the fiddlesticks guy) taunted Tony saying “I’m not afraid of you”. After tossing 6 shutout innings he finally allowed 1 unearned run and was heard to mutter “Damn Bud if you only would have bent over”. There were several hitting stars who contributed to this old fashioned butt whoopin. Bud Blide, Dale Bradley and Dave Young each clobbered 4 hits while 8 others chipped in with 3.

Of note Matt had his streak of consecutive hits stopped at 11, kudos to him. Tim “Big Tree” Tompkins made his Lakers debut by doing what thousands before him have done .... tweaked his hamstring, rookie mistake. Cliff caught a liner with his belly and is now sporting the coveted "softball stitch marks" on his belly.

Next up for the Lakers are the Upstate Joes Wednesday at Nettles Park in Clemson. Should be a barn burner.

Coming to you from the round table at the Rusty Bike in Clayton where the Randy Burgers are the players favorite and Mr. Danny Stancil is the waitresses favorite.

Eagles

It was a tough day for the visiting Eagles as they traveled to Franklin to play the Old Bones. The IIV (injury, Illness and Vacation) list played a big part this week as the MVP (most valuable pharmaceutical) was a bottle of 200 mg Ibuprofen.

Game 1 - Old Bones 19  Eagles 7

What started out as a close game with good defense by 2nd baseman Ken “Egg on the Leg” Uhlig slowly faded as a lack of hitting in the middle innings sealed the Eagles fate. Woody King smashed 3 hits while Gary “The Hammer” Kelley, Danny Stancil, Claude Smith and Dirty Doug Rochester clobbered 2 hits each.

Game 2 - Old Bones 20  Eagles 14

Again what started out as a close game through the first 2 innings began to slip away as the Old Bones scored 5 runs 3 innings in a row.  The Eagles tried valiantly to come back but unfortunately had too big of a mountain to climb. The defense was anchored by Woody “the Hoover” King. One inning in particular he had a part in all 3 outs. Woody also led the way with another 3 hit game while Danny Stancil, Dirty Doug Rochester, C’mon Steve Musielak and Claude Smith also added 3. Ken Uhlig and Gary Kelly added 2 hits each.  Eagles management can expect a bill from the Franklin rec department for a new load of infield dirt as Dirty Doug Rochester was covered in it after attempting to dive into home from halfway down the baseline only to come up about 15 feet short. His ride home (Danny ) was overheard saying “you are so dirty you need to ride in the back”.

Lakers

The Lakers traveled to Clayton for 2 games with the Dahlonega Gold. By the time the games were over the Lakers had mined all the gold out of Dahlonega.

Game 1 - Lakers 18  Gold 2

Great offense and great defense by the Lakers was the name of this game.  Several Lakers had 3 hits. Cliff Kaiser and Super Dave Nykalo each belted homers included in their 3 hits, while Dewey Post and Tony Witte slashed 3 hits, newcomers Dan Klett and Matt Koeplin also chipped in with 3 hits each.  Tracy Hamilton pitched a gem while limiting the Gold to 2 runs. During that game each Lakers position player caught a pop fly.

Game 2 - Lakers 26  Gold 6

This game must have seemed like déjà vu for the Gold as more great offense and defense was shown by the Lakers. Bud Blide, Pete Tibaldi and Super Dave Nykalo each tallied 4 hits. Tracy Hamilton, Bob Rothring, Dennis Giles, Matt Koeplin and Sleeveless Dewey each added 3 hits. 

Of note Super Dave clubbed another homer (2nd of the day). The Gold seemed to taunt him by walking the previous 2 hitters to face Dave, he was angry and grunted loudly as he took it out on the poor little yellow ball, giving it quite a ride.  Also of note was rookie Matt Koeplin who had 6 straight hits without recording an out. Another rookie Dan Klett was warned about being careful while running so as to not pull a hamstring, he then went out and tweaked his hamstring....rookie mistake.  Cliff Kaiser actually played without getting dirty or getting scraped up, a first for him. He attributed it to Dewey running for himself, that’s right I said Dewey ran for himself.

The Eagles are off next week while the Lakers play Rabun at Clayton next Wednesday.

Happy trails to y'all, until we meet again.

Eagles

On a blustery day in Clayton the Eagles were grounded by the big bats of the North Georgia Patriots by scores of 22-19 and 24-10. In the first game the Eagles hit well but came up just short.  Mike Young-dog, Rockin Doug Rochester and C’mon Steve Musielak all had 4 hits. Gary Kelley, Danny Stancil and Rich Hesemann each had 3 hits and 1 of Rich’s was a Dinger (home run). Hesemann also had 5 rib-eye steaks (rbi’s).

In the afternoon session the Patriots came up big scoring 24 runs while the Eagles were only able to muster up 10. Big foot Jim Lamarand was the hitting star for the Eagles with four hits. A large group had two hits each including Gary Kelley, Doug Rochester, Ken Uhlig, Professor Bob Fjeld and Wolf Davis. Defensive shoutout goes to Mike Young for being part of 3 double plays.

Special thanks to Mrs Rockin Rochester (Carol) for keeping score.

Lakers

The Lakers rebounded from their first week losses by sweeping 2 from the Tri- State Wolves 26-9 and 28-27. The Lakers had their hitting shoes on for sure, scoring 26 runs in the first game and Tracy “ Preacher man” Hamilton shut down the usually potent Wolves bats. Hitting stars were as follows:  Dale "Bucky's Dad" Bradley led the way with five hits and six rib-eye steaks (Rbi's). Tracy, Bud “the glide” Blide, Super Dave Nykalo, Dave “Cubs Jacket” Young (no relation to Mike Young) each had 4 hits. John “Hollywood” Waugaman and Sleeveless Dewey each had 3 hits, the sleeveless one also added 4 rbi's. “Bag A Donuts” Tony  Whitte aka BAD Tony, clobbered an inside the park homer which surprised the right fielder, we heard that guy shout “uh oh” as the ball flew over his head. 

The second game was quite the thriller as both teams came out on fire with the bats. Tri-state threw many “haymakers” but the Lakers kept getting up off the mat to continue the fight. With the score tied at 19 going into the seventh-inning the Wolves scored what appeared to be an insurmountable eight runs in the top of the seventh but once again the Lakers shook it off and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by scoring 9 runs with just 1 out. Hitting stars were as follows:  Dewey, better to be lucky than good, had 5 hits and 5 Rbi’s including the 28th and winning run. Tracy,  Motor City Pete Tibaldi and Bud each ripped 4 hits. Super Dave, Cliff “Pay your dues please” Kaiser, Dennis “Papa Smurf” Giles and BAD Tony each contributed with 3 hits while the BAD one also collected “ 5 frosted crullers” (rbi’s). Super Dave pounded a towering homer which hasn't landed yet, in fact it was such a blast that later 4 F-16's flew over the field searching for a reported UFO. 

I also should mention that Bud 'the Glide" Blide made several questionable little league style base running maneuvers which caused many of us to shake our heads, fortunately he was not thrown out on any of them. 

Shout out to Bucky "Dales Kid" Bradley for umpiring and showing no favoritism even though we pay him quite handsomely to do so. Also thanks to Don “The Bookie” Foster for keeping score. Rumor has it that hopefully his walking boot will be a thing of the past as of today. 

Eagles

The 2 Lake Keowee Eagles games were canceled because of rain caused by South Carolina's version of mother nature's tears due to the defeat of the Lady Gamecocks at the hands of the Uconn Huskies. 

Lakers

In a rematch of last years final, won by the 2024 champion Lake Keowee Lakers, the Lake Lanier Legends swept the Lakers by scores of 23-18 and 23-17. As disappointing as this was for the Lakers, there were several players who deserved notice for their valiant effort.

Cliff Kaiser 8 hits, Pete Tibaldi, Tracy Hamilton, Bud Blide and Rich Hesemann each had 6 hits. Also of note Dave Nykalo had 3 triples in a row.

I should also mention that Bud had many good defensive plays at shortstop, the coach from Lanier mentioned Bud several times while telling his players to try not hitting to Bud. Cliff and Rich made several attempts to injure themselves by diving for balls that they didn’t catch. 

Also big thanks to the gimpy Don Foster for keeping score on one leg. 🩼

Last but surely not least, a big shoutout has to go to Super Dave for his last minute heroics to get enough players, hopefully this won't be an every game occurrence as it caused him to lose a few hairs while the remaining few turned gray.