Q+A with Rod Wingrove

Clubhouse Chatter: What is your favorite baseball movie?

Rod Wingrove: Major League, the funniest movie I've ever seen

CC: There's a movie about your life. What's the title and who plays you?

RW: The boy who couldnt hit a beach ball starring Dave Chapelle

CC: What's the first music album you ever bought?

RW: Bobby Brown, Ain't Nobody Humpin Around

CC: What's the most recent music album you bought?

RW: Rita Mcneail, The Remix Album. Rita has some phat beats

CC: What is your most embarrassing baseball moment?

RW: Go to the team stats and look at my batting average

CC: We want to read a good book, what should we read and why?

RW: Right now I'm reading a book called the Canadian Game its about Canadian players in tha Major Leagues its got some great stories about the road to the Majors

CC: Do you have any baseball superstitions?

RW: I dont wash for a week before a game(just kidding). After each out I spit two times in my glove and before a game I always stack my catchers pads the same way

CC: What was the best vacation you've ever been on?

RW: My buddies and I went on a road trip to Seattle to see a couple Mariners games against Boston last year. I got so drunk I cant remember anything it was the best time of my life.

CC: Who is your favorite baseball player of all-time, and why?

RW: Kevin Cash. Was the catcher for the best team ever GO JAYS GO!! At bat hes average but defensively nobody can steal off him. Last year he had something like a 46% throw out rate, just awesome

CC: You have $20. It's the last $20 you can ever spend. How do you spend it?

RW: A Blue Jays ticket and two ice cold pints of the Rogers Centers finest brew. I would die a happy man!!

CC: What is your proudest baseball moment?

RW: Signing that big league contract with the mighty Surrey Indians. It only cost me $120. Wow, I still get teary eyed

CC: Tell us a good joke. Keep it clean.

RW: What kind of Bees produce milk (Boobies)

June 26 2005

Indians win! Indians win! Indians win!

Oh man, so this is what it feels like? We like it. It was scarily close to another blown lead. Up 6-3 into the bottom of the sixth, a guy of theirs smacked one deep to left for a three run dinger. Having no homerun fence meant the Shane-meister had to go for a bit of a long sprint.. It could've been Rickey Henderson in left, and the result would've been the same (3-run dinger if you've forgotten). At this point it looked like we were being sucked into weekly patterns...

BUT, in the final inning, with a 6-6 tie game on our hands, we the Indians pulled together a clutch inning with three runs scored. With runners at second and third, Lee went down in the count 0-2. After fouling off a pitch, he proceeded to smack a liner ("off the end of my bat"), through the left side of the infield to plate the go ahead and the first insurance run. He then scored another insurance run when Jeff smacked a hit of his own, his third of the day. We have used the word "smack" way too much already. Someone please get us a thesaurus.

We haven't had the delight of writing a post-win post in a while, please give us a sec as we savor this moment ........................... Okay. That's good. Thanks for indulging us.

Lee was without a doubt the player of the game. Not only did he have the clutch game-winning hit, he pitched without peer. 11 K's in 5 innings? Are you kidding us? There are only 15 outs total, which means that Lee produced 73.33333333333333333% of the outs without the ball being put into play. And if you subtract the 3-run dinger, Enrique also pitched a heckuva game. Letting the questionable ball/strike calls roll right off his back, Enrique picked up his first win of the season.

As mentioned above, Jeff had a solid day at the plate with three hits: a double and two singles. Also with a double and two singles, Raubert was feeling a little bit too chuffed for a guy who failed to hold to the maxim of never being the first-or-third out of the inning at third base. C'mon kiddo, being on second with no outs is plenty good. Do you even read this, you greedy jerk?

Before the game there were the requisite comments you'd expect for a 9am game in Richmond. "It's too early. It's too cold. I'm too hungover. It's too Richmondy." However, based on the outcome, we'll take all the 9am Richmond games we can take. Or not..

Way to cowboy up boys. Let's keep this wagon wheel going..

June 23 2005

Here's the thing. Left Vancouver at about quarter to six to head on over to the 6:30 practice at Tamanawis. Hit rush hour traffic, which we had anticipated and planned for, and then got further delayed because of an accident on what we think is Kittison Way. Arrived at Tamanawis at 6:45, put on the cleats, and got out of the car. Looked up to see Kel coming over to say that practice is canceled because no one showed up. Kel and Lee and Jeff and Rob A were now there, but that is hardly enough players for a quality practice. Heck, that is hardly enough players for a subpar practice. That's right, we would need at least two more to show for even a subpar practice.

Of the four players listed above, one lives in Langley and one lives in Vancouver. What a huge waste of time, gas, and money for both of them. Why the no-shows fellas? Not just any reason/excuse will do, it must be sufficient. And I'll tell you now, Spurs/Pistons Game Seven is nowhere near sufficient. The VCR was set to record in Vancouver, and I'm sure most, probably all, of you have the technology to do likewise.

We'll be looking to see who wants to chip in money for the out-of-towners for this joke of an evening, as we contemplate not having anymore practices if players can't be bothered to show up after their fifth consecutive non-win of the season. Now we wait until we're quite sure the aforementioned Game Seven is over. Then we'll rewind, get a beverage and a snack, press play, and enjoy.

June 19 2005

Another lead. Another loss.

As the Ladies say, "It's all been done before".
As Yogi said, "It's deja vu all over again".
As Gord says, "You might as well try and get milk from your elbow".

This time we were up 6-0 going into the fourth. Bah. It's like we expect that one inning to happen. That one inning where everything goes wrong for us in the field. That one inning where we just hope not to give up the lead. When you play not-to-lose, you're probably going to lose, and it feels like that's how we've been playing lately. We've gotta start playing to-win. Let's go boys.. It's time to cowboy up.

Photos from this game, taken by Enrique, can be found here. And what a game Enrique had. Four for five with two doubles, two singles, and a run scored. Attakid.

Hmm, there seems to be shouting coming from the clubhouse shower. Hold on a sec would ya.. Well well well, it seems Redge has something to say.. Here ya go Redge, the keyboard is all yours:

I'm hoping for a shout-out for my awesome superman-like diving catch down the third base line, and then subsequent dive over to third for the double play. Not to mention the .533 batting average. Oops I just did. And yes, I do figure out my new batting average even before it gets posted. I am just that pathetic.

Thanks Redge. Now would it kill you to put a towel on.

Stick a fork in us, we are done.

Q+A with Kelly Grace

Clubhouse Chatter: Who is your favorite baseball player of all-time, and why?

Kelly Grace: Delino Lamont DeShields: Allstar 2nd baseman, #4 (back in the day with the Expos), and just an all-round great guy - reminds me of someone…hmmmm



CC: There's a movie about your life. What's the title?

KG: Empty Pockets (drama/comedy) – A true story of a man who has so much student loan debt he’ll never have money again.

CC: You can do one karaoke song. What song do you choose, and why?

KG: Rush Rush by Paula Abdul – C’mon picture it guys. Chris, you know what I’m talking about

CC: What is your most embarrassing baseball moment?

KG: It’s the all star game 1988. The stands are jamb packed. We’re in the middle of the 5th inning and the game is tight. I’m a 12 year old 2nd baseman with the worse stomach ache of his life. "TIMES!" I yell and run off the field to the locker room under the stands. Not only did I almost have a hershey squirt in the middle of the allstar game but to top it all off I have my mom and coaches at the foot of the locker room entrance yelling if I’m okay. What do you say? "I’m fine, just had to take a sh*t."

CC: What is your favorite baseball movie?

KG: Bull Durham

CC: We want to read a good book, what should we read and why?

KG: There’s no time for reading guys. Get to practice or the batting cage.

CC: You have $20. It's the last $20 you can ever spend. How do you spend it?

KG: Bills, bills and more bills….story of my life (see above).

CC: What is your proudest baseball moment?

KG: Getting the winning hit in the bottom of the 9th with 2 out to take us to the Canadian championships. I was literally picked up on everyone’s shoulder like you see in the movies.

CC: Tell us a good joke. Keep it clean.

KG: Coming home from his Little League game, Billy swung open the front door very excited. Unable to attend the game, his father immediately wanted to know what happened.
"So, how did you do son?" he asked.
"You'll never believe it!" Billy said. "I was responsible for the winning run!"
"Really? How'd you do that?"
"I dropped the ball."

June 16 2005

Another practice. It wasn't just the players that came to play. Prescience came into play too. On the way to Tamanawis, we really did get held up in traffic after an accident on Marine Way. Not held up as in carjacked, held up as in slowed down. Understand? Understood.

Everyone got some good hacks in. Shane, feeling swaggerific after last game, smoked many drives that we were so sure were going to go for extra bases. You know, if it wasn't just BP.

There was nearly a fistfight mid-practice. It seems as though one player was upset that his performance in the last game wasn't given any ink whatsoever. He got right up in our face with his neck muscles bulging, his face turning red, and his mouth struggling to contain the growing amount of foam. Who knew blogging could be so dangerous for your health? So this is for the rabid Indian: What a performance by so-and-so!! Remarkable! Two for four with two runs scored and two RBIs!! Boo-Ya! Played a part in half of the teams runs!! Boo-Ya! What? A stolen base? At his age? Boo-Ya! In actuality, he is second on the team with five stolen bases. (Redge has ten? Ummm, someone go through the scorebooks again..) We will now end this so you can go do some detective work and realize that we are talking about Kel. (Please note: some artistic license was taken in the writing of this paragraph.)

Off you go..

Wait.. Come back! We almost forgot to tell you about Bradley's Wedding Website, which can be conveniently found by clicking here. If nothing else, read the endearing engagement tale.

Class dismissed.

June 12 2005

Apologies to all for the delay in posting. We're sure Redge has been checking in daily, probably more than once a day, and been bitterly disappointed each time. Sorry folks. We, uh, got held up in traffic.

Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday Dear Enriqué
Happy Birthday To You...

As another lead was frittered away, up 5-1 into the seventh, a thought came to mind: Next game, let's let the other team take the initial lead, and then we can come back and, gasp, win a game! Sounds reasonable after, what, several games in a row of blown leads. We know we know, "several" is vague.. Surrrrre, we could look up exactly how many games, but that would get depressing. "Several" keeps us happy. And sane. Not as happy and sane as actually holding on to the leads every game, but happy and sane enough to keep us, well, happy and sane. Not that we know how happy and sane it feels to hold on to leads every game, but we get the impression, from watching others, that it feels happier and saner than blowing leads every game.

Speaking of words that start with S and end with -ane, Shane got his first hit of the season! (waiting for applause to die down..) Shane was, understandably, quite excited to get that hit, a screamer up the middle, narrowly missing the pitcher's leg. And he stole two bases and scored two runs. Good game Shane, good game.

In fact, a lot of the guys were hitting the ball well on Sunday. Raubert hit the ball hard in three out of his four at-bats, and wound up one for four with a strikeout. This is just one random example of hitters not getting their just rewards.

Anything else? We're drawing a blank here.. More, possibly, to come..

Okay. Here, now, is more. We were remiss in not making note of another solid pitching performance by Chris. In our defense, Chris's outings have become so consistently and commonly solid that they can be easily overlooked. Not a good defense, but it's all we've got. In addition to pitching well, Chris showed great fleetness on the basepaths, stealing bases, scoring runs, and just generally making things happen. The things that he made happen were all good.

Tonight we have a practice at Tamanawis. Ideally everyone will show, as our Father's Day game has us facing a formidable opponent: the unbeaten Delta Tigers. For those of you keeping track at home or in the office, this game is our first non-Whalley game of the season. Now there's some trivia that can help you win money off your friends.