Ducks vs. Warriors tonight at 9pm, Spring View Field

Last year the Ducks went 1-2 against the Warriors. The Ducks won an 8am game by forfeit, and lost a barn-burner at home, 14-8. The Ducks 2007 season opener was a disastrous 15-0 loss to the Warriors. For the entire history of the Ducks vs. Warriors, go to Steveheckmanonline.com.
Heckman is a work horse of a Warriors historian.

The Warriors always manage to find new pitchers who have played at a high level of baseball. Guys who have more than one pitch, and throw strikes. I blame this on Craig "Ultimate Warrior" Boley.

I suppose the five year anniversary of the Ducks, and the'03 Championship, make it worthwhile to reminisce. Baseball is like that, timeless, its history feels infinite; a lazy game that demands hustle, and respect. It is why the Ducks never changed their name. Even in a five year old rec. league, gnawing away at respectability in the Pittsburgh amateur baseball spectrum, there is still baseball tradition, and maybe for a team struggling to find .500 with one player left from the old days in Ambridge shooting the breeze about"tradition" slips down the slope of the has-been, but its there and it's undeniable.

Sometimes I feel like an old man whose backside is permanently imprinted on the corner stool of some dive in South Oakland, a grizzled "townie" slurring stories about bar- fights and that time he fucked two girls at once, stories that crescendo and pulse, growing more and more heroic with each telling.
What baring any of this has on the 2008 Ducks is debatable, but it's good to know your history. So to get to the point, here's a story, and since it is our 5th anniversary, it will be the first of many, or at least several. This one gets better every time I tell it.
The greatest play in Ducks history occurred during the 2003 season against the Piranhas, who would later become the Warriors. Back in the early days of the Pittsburgh NABA, when we played in a rock-covered, 270 foot band-box in the middle of nowhere (Ambridge), the Ducks were kings.
The Ducks lead by one in the seventh, top or bottom, I'm not sure. In fact I'm not even sure it was the seventh, but it was late in the game. I am certain there was one out, the bases were loaded, and the Warriors were up to bat trailing by one run. Craig Pelat was playing short stop, Britan Dickey was at second. Pittsburgh NABA legend, Ian Dickman, was on the mound.

It was 100 degrees outside if it was 70, and Dickman was laboring. I was sitting on the bench next to Matt McCarthy, he was drinking a beer--a common occurrence among Ducks' players at the time, as the batter worked a 3-2 count. Dickman threw the pay-off pitch. Matt and I cursed in unison, at the crack of the bat. A sure single up the middle, but not that day. Pelat dove to his left and gloved the ball, from his stomach he flipped the sure single with his glove to Britan, who bare-handed the toss, spun and fired a one-hopper to first to complete the "oh-my-god" double play. It happened right in front of me and Matt. Matt stormed the field raised his Pabst pounder and shouted, "Put that shit on the internet".

I remember with perfect clarity, Craig telling me, "I've never made a play like that in my life. I didn't have time to get it out so I just threw it with my glove." In all my years of baseball I've never seen a smile as big as Craig's after he made that play.

That's why we play. Not for any kind of homage to the guys who came before us, or to sit on the bench wishing for a middle infield that showed up every day, but to make a play. To save a victory, to win a game to be a teammate again, to see the smiles that coaches and baseball politics and crazy little league parents stripped from us, to bring the fun back.
Every one on the roster has the chance to jog back to the bench, smiling, and say, "I've never made a play like that before"

Enough Melodrama for this week.

Go Ducks.