• Ishai, our Cy Young winner who was a key to so many wins and had to go back to Nova Scotia and miss the championship.


• Paul, our team MVP who when not busy hitting homers was a lights out closer for our league despite pitching in another league.


• Andrew,  our  funky delivery pitcher and  all around utility player who was always first at the park and last to leave


• Sanjay, Lowell, and Jason: We didn't see much of you, but  you'll always be a Red, thanks for coming


• Gazo, for finding out halfway through the season that you have one hell of a fastball, can't wait to see you pitch a full season


• Pete, though you retired from pitching halfway through the season, few were more valueable than you with your bat, defense, and team spirit


• Richie, our gold glove first basemen who pitched and hit big, kept the bench loose, helped put away the gear and had great entrance music. What didn't he do?


• Orin, our man behind the plate and great teammate who always had helpful words when people needed to pick up their game


• Steve Hall, who put up with me calling him Steve Hyland for 4 weeks and always had a smile on his face


• Chris Bennet, who carried a big bat and shorts to show us his tattoo


• Fredo, for giving us his all everygame and who hit his first career homerun to show us what the TBBL's all about


• Greg, our crafty lefty, we could always count on your solid D and hope to see more of your arm next year


• John, our team dubbed Tom Selleck. In the field, at the plate and on the bench you were a team leader and you had a fantastic exit line last night. See you next year Mr. Baseball


• John N, you joined our team mid-season and quickly became part of the team and our on base machine


• Steve Hyland, our cleanup hitter and captain, your spirt kept us going and your water cooler showers were....great


• Rick, I guess you were "OK", but thanks for lending all your gear and rides, coaching when I couldn't make it, helping me get the whole thing started and being part of a team you didn't really have time for

Although the Red's lost, they sure look like a much happier bunch then the winning team! What's up with that guys? Sell your soul for the victory.. ?

Aaron: Some truly awesome photos in this collection. Thanks for the posting. I particularly liked the lineup card photo, the photo of the outfield fence framed by the two light's,  the photo of the catcher dude with his mask off, and the photo of the two ppl (you see 1/2 their face) in the book. Great work!

These are grand photos, Aaron. I never even knew that my delivery was so funky!

Could you post a color image of that outfield fog, though? I'd really like to see that next to the black-and-white.

The Reds seem to have quite a lot of kudos in this thread, so I feel I have to be diplomatic and begrudgingly congratulate the White Sox on their win. Really though, well done. I think all of us Reds agreed that you guys played your very best game Saturday night.

And thanks to Jobu, of course, for organizing this supercalifragilisticexpialodocious league. I'm already thinking about next year.

Andrew is Brandon League II.

That's what the off season's for!

So you've made your goal, I fully expect to see you report to TBBL Camp in the 90's.

So you've made your goal, I fully expect to see you report to TBBL Camp in the 90's.

Jobu, you've perfected time travel now, too?

2090's naturally....

When you're a Red, you're a Red for life.

Yes John,

Not to turn this thread into an ad for next year, but one of the first things on my agenda is to get a more universally convinient timeslot. Hope to see you next year.

Hey guys!

I agree with you all, it was a great season.  Major "props" go to Joe who started a baseball league where some of us older guys could relive our pasts. Thanks to Joe for also giving me a VP title, since it will be the closest I will ever be to becoming a VP of anything since I will have a career in academia.

A shout out goes to the Reds, who had a a great season. Congrats to all.

As for us White Sox being somewhat subdued with our win – We are a classy team who went out in the field with one goal in mind – to win. And we did. Everyone on the team was focused. I think that kept us from rubbing the win in anyone’s face. I was proud of how the team handled the win, especially in light of how some players from the Reds made the win feel tainted, when they ran around the field muttering “That should have been mine [the trophy]”.

I want to thank all the White Sox players who made my first year as coach enjoyable:

Paul Hoffman, Jon Purdy, Phil Orr, and Albert Park, who although missed some games, were still a huge part of the team.

Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, who was one of our better pitchers but got injured early in the season, and became the quiet leader of the team, who kept everyone, especially me, composed. 

Liam McIlroy, who worked his butt off to improve his play and was one of the first people willing to attend practices and develop his game.

Brandon Parlette whose passion and attitude inspired me.

Evan Williams who became one of our better pitchers after taking the time out to learn and perfect his slurve.

Kieran Roy, our CY Young and MVP. By far the classiest player I have ever had the privilege to play with. It was an honor.

Thomas Ayers, who always took my instruction and actually made me feel like a coach – your glove and ability to get on base helped us gain home field advantage for the championship game.

Chris Ayers, whose defense greatly approved midway through the season and always came to play hard.

Jeffrey Cappellano, the man who never pitched before this league, and became one of the most dominant pitchers, and hitters, in the second half of the season. 

Ken Bennett, who kept the dugout loose and hit the first homerun in White Sox history, and inspired me to hit one 3 batters later. 

Grant Ashizama, our utility man. This guy can play any position and may be the most coach friendly player on the Sox. Dubbed Ichiro, he never once slapped any of us for the nickname given to him.

Jason Karp, who was always the first person wanting to come out to practices. I appreciated your love and commitment to the game and this team

Max Blanco, who at times gave me heart palpations, thanks for coming out and playing hard, and listening to me scream and taking it all with a smile. You were by far the most underrated player on our team, both in the field and at the plate.

Filipe Ganhao, thanks for all your hard work and great glove in the later part of the season, and especially in the championship game. He was our mid-season acquisition, and the first ever player involved in a trade in the TBBL. You may be part a trivia question one day!

Robert H, who came out and played extremely well when called upon when our roster was depleted. This kid plays harder than anyone I know.

Lastly, to Daniel Kolaric, who also came out and played extremely well when our roster was depleted, helped me coach, kept stats, and became our official mascot, thanks for all your hard work and dedication.

And, let’s not forget the friends, family, and girlfriends who came out to support us. Though they were quiet, they always made us play that much harder (after all, we are men with egos.)

Hope to see you all next year!

Mike

I'd like to echo Kieran's comments and thank Joe and Mike and everyone else involved from the organisational end for putting together such a fine league, particularly considering that it was the inaugural season. I didn’t think I could be a bigger fan of Jobu after reading his Game Reports, but when I look back at the league he organised, I’m very wrong. It sucked a lot to miss the championship, but at least these photos seem to capture the game well; thanks Aaron.

It was an honour to play with and against such a great group of guys. The Reds were classy opponents and everyone on the White Sox was a great teammate. I had an absolute fantastic time playing and it made me question why I gave up playing league baseball about eight years ago.

 If you’re reading this thread and at all intrigued by the photos and chatter I encourage you to come out next year. Like Andrew and I’m sure many others, I’m already looking forward to next year.

I'll post it here since I imagine there's probaby other bauxites interested in such a clinic.

It's called The Baseball Zone and it's in Mississauga near the Hershey Centre. I haven't been there personally, but I've heard that the place is absolutely huge.

They offer clinics on hitting, fielding, catching, and pitching however I don't know if they have adult programs for players beyond Midget level, but considering how many adult leagues exist in the GTA, I would hope that they would.

I plan on pitching next year (depending on when the season starts). God help you all.

You'll note that I only posted two photographs of people ducking out of the way of pitches -- I have a lot more of those

...And Mike wasn't even pitching ;-)

In all seriousness, it was a helluva time going out every week to play with a group of guys who were just happy to be there -- especially the newer guys who were eager to learn and demonstrated significant improvements in their respective games over the course of the season. Hopefully eight months will allow me to once again throw without wincing.

Joe, I couldn't write a post in this thread without expressing my sincere appreciation for all the work you put in to getting the league off the ground. The success of the league is a credit to your passion for the game and leadership.

Aaron, any chance you got a shot of Pete dancing to Shakira? Easily the most hilarious AB in TBBL history.

-Adam

• Paul Digiandomenico coming up to "Million Dollar Man" and Ted DiBiase's evil laughter


• Liam's (at least i think it was him, I was in RF at the time and I don't wear my glasses to games) coming to Shawn Michael's "Sexy Boy"


• Rick's entrance recieving no reaction at all as he chose a little known Peter Gabriel song that he thought would go over huge


• And of course, Gazo's "Thong Song" entrance