Hello and welcome to this weeks edition of Rounding Third. It has been a few weeks since the last edition and much has been happening. Many of your favorites put on the ‘Cods’ teal and black, for their second appearance at the Victorian Masters Baseball Carnival, hosted by the great folks in Ballarat over the weekend. There were a few changes from last years ‘Cod Squad’ which added to the variety of personalities already in the team.

How did the boys go you ask? Well, the Cods won one game last year and managed to win two games this year. The Cods were competitive in all four games played across the 3 days of competiton. For more information about the games, check out “The Pres” write up on Cods Masters baseball Facebook website. So, what else happened while we were away? Keep reading,  Line Drive hopes you enjoy it.

     The Cods were fortunate enough to have a couple of seasoned veterans of baseball make their first appearance in the Cods colours. Ash “Punter” Meyers and Mick “The Beast” Brownlie. As soon as both of them got in the car to head to Ballarat, they showed some good form. Mick had a memorable three days on and off the diamond. Catching up with his mates from camping was one of the highlights of the weekend. Ash put in a solid three days on and off the diamond also, doing it all on the mound behind the plate in the field and most importantly in the TAB. Rob “Butts” Seymour was particularly impressed with Brownlie’s input into the weekend. Buttsy also loved getting hugs from the big guy.  Great job boys. Hope you enjoyed your time as a Cod.

     Rob Seymour has always pride himself on being an antagonist off the field. However he may have been given a run for his money by the big guy Mick Brownlie. Round two may be later this year on the end of season trip if Brownlie decides to pull on the orange and black for the Rangers. This scribe will wait and see.

Not ‘that’ lottery, but the ‘golf ball lottery for batting line up and positions.’ A novel approach was taken this year with the line up for the first game being just pot luck. Sadly, for Mick Brownlie, he drew short stop. The boys soon found out that short stop is no good for a left hander. He did have one play at third base, and going his natural way he was still unable to deliver a strike throw. Lucky the scorers were lenient and only gave him three errors for the inning. For the rest of the time Mick happily plied his trade at right field.

     The Cods have a simple theme for when they go to Masters. “Have some fun and win a game or two”. This year The Cods managed two wins from their four games. On Saturday the Cod boys had a day out. This was largely to do with how their pitchers performed. Nathan “Rubberarm” Pool,  Heath “H” Anders threw an assortment of off speed stuff, to have the opposition hitters off balance all day. In the second game Jason “JJ” Jonker and Cam Rogers, threw combination after combination of different pitches to keep the hitters guessing. Skilfully backed up in the field by some good fielding, The Cods did not disgrace themselves. The boys then celebrated in style, as a good Cod does.

     Rob “Beaker the ball magnet” Barbour, had an interesting weekend. Beaker had a good Friday on and off the diamond, but on Saturday it all went a little pear shaped. The Cods had just arrived at the ground and were watching a bit of the first game, while Beaker wandered off to get something to eat. A ball was fouled over the back net high in the air, and people called “heads!”. Beaker ducked his head and kept moving. Beaker then copped it right between the shoulder blades making a nice audible “thud.” This put the Cods into hysterics at Beakers misfortune. Later on in the game against the Big Cat Tomatoes, Beaker ventured to the plate and was greeted with a fast ball to the arm. Twice in one day! There was even a remark that if Beaker were to stay indoors a bird would still be able to poo on him! More was to follow.

     Sunday had arrived and the boys had found a bike helmet on the walk home back to the rooms the previous night. This was presented to Beaker as a gift for him to not get hit again. Steve Maggs asked to him to use it as an arm guard at one point. Beaker did not take to this suggestion. In the final game, poor ‘ball magnet,’ was struck again by a pitch in the same spot on his arm. Then to add insult to injury, the Tassie ‘Tigers’ catcher, tried to hit him while on third base. In true Beaker style, he copped it all on the chin (see that pun?) and got on with it. You can’t  be THAT unlucky again next year Beaker!

     The warrior was at it again over the weekend. Ian “Dino” Dinsdale had a weekend to remember with the bat. On Friday Dino got his usual game hit, but more was to follow on Saturday. In the first game against the Big Cat Tomatoes, Dino slapped baseballs all over the place. In the second game against the top placed team,  Pandas, Dino took it to the next level. In his final plate appearance for the day and facing a Pandas ace, Dino saw the ball and smacked it. Not just half hit it, smashed it over short stop and into the the gap for a base hit. It was remarked that the pitcher did not like that too much. The boys on the Cods bench took great delight in it. Next up, Rob “Beaker” Barbour had a small change of luck also picking up a hit. Just goes to show the older you get the more wily you get with your bats.

     Last seen at 9:08am Sunday morning oon diamond one in Ballarat. On the Saturday Cam managed to pitch a couple of innings in the game against Pandas, recreating his memorable windup of knocking his cap off his head and pitching a strike from last year. Cam paid for it today. He still managed a few plays amongst the best once again. Hope you get your arm back for next year, Cam.

     There was one thing many of the Cods could agree on and it was having a go on the punt. As per usual, good friend of this scribe, Cam “The Soak” Scott was in amongst it all. The boys had a crack at the quaddie between games on Saturday, with very little interest from the rest of the table. However, for the other tipping comp there was plenty of interest and a nice dividend was paid. On the Saturday night it was decided to have a crack at anything that ran. From South Africa to the Finnish Harness racing. The boys were going alright, thanks to Steve “Fernando” Peruzzo jagging a 20 plus dollar winner. However when things turned bad one Cod branched out on his own and bet against his brothers.   End result?  A nice payout for him. Does anyone know who that was?

     Sunday’s game was unique for many reasons. From base running to bribery for a walk from the opposition. One thing was a constant. The Cods inability to know how to run the bases. Case 1-  Jason “JJ” Jonker, running into Tassie’s first ever triple play. It played out as follows…. Dino smashed the ball to third base and was caught out. Heath “H” Anders was left stranded in no mans land at second. That’s two out. Jonker at first just kept running and ran in being the third man out. Triple play. Later on, Spinner at third, Scott at second, Maggs at first. More base running antics. Ball wasn’t caught. Spinner  stayed put at third and Maggs given out at first. Scott wandered off second as he thought he was out. Scott then given out for abandoning his base. Maybe just maybe this time Spin should have run? Lucky for us, Spin got home on the next hit. Next year we might need to learn how to run bases properly.

     Special mention needs to go to The President of Rangers Tony “Spinner” Smith, who kept all those Cod supporters out there informed of how the boys played. His write ups were a good insight into what happened with each game. If you have not seen his write ups as yet, search for Cods Masters Baseball on Facebook. Like and join the page and then you can read about how all went on their second trip to the Victorian Masters Carnival.

     It was great once again to have Porepunkah Panthers as part of the Cods. Heath Anders, Damon Barker and Shane Tatterson were outstanding on and off the field.

Heath “H” Anders, once again won the dance off stakes, grooving on Saturday night. On the field, Barks and Tatt’s were rock solid. “H” was very impressive on the mound. Great job boys, we hope to see you all soon.

On behalf of the Cods Master Baseball, it was great to have the support of our sponsors again this year.

Thank you to Cafe Martini, Plumbforce Plumbing and Bright/Beechworth Ice Creamery.

Our ability to promote and gain sponsors for the weekend was remarked by many opposition players over the weekend.  Not to mention North Eastern Baseball Association who have been supportive in this venture.  Great job, Pooly, Dino, Maggsy, Ash, Jason, Spinner, Buttsy, Barks, Heath, Shane, Mick, Soak, Beaker, Fernando and Cam Rogers for pulling on the teal and black. We may not be getting any better, but we are certainly having a good time being competitive on and off the diamond.

Most importantly, getting the chance to play baseball against old  and new mates was great.

A call has been put out by leading rails bookmaker Cam “The Soak” Scott for a punters club. The deal is simple, $10 a week. The club will have two punters per week, with a portion bet and a portion saved. At the end of the season the money is either paid as a dividend, or used towards the end of season trip. Completely up to you. For more information message The Soak or come find him. Open to all comers.

A preliminary draw has been devised. The season is to begin Sunday 10th of April. Clubs are now discussing and have until the 25th March to make revisions and suggestions. Nice work to those who have put their hands up to take on this task. By no way is it an easy one.

Has the contract been renewed? Can Daniel, “The Griff” Griffin retain his crown? Will Kyle, “Thrillmore” Gilmore step up and cook a roast to rival the best around? Or will it be someone else who will take the mantel?  Stay tuned for future updates.

Wow, Rounding Third has been a long one this week. Make sure you like and share and let others know about The Wangaratta Rangers. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter @WangRangers and Team app for all your Ranger news.

For Cods news, look for Cods Masters Baseball on Facebook. Thanks for reading!

Until next time

‘Go Cods’

Oh, and ‘Go Rangers’