Greetings and welcome once again to another week of news and stories about Wangaratta Rangers Baseball Club. The grand finals have been run and won in the North Eastern Baseball Association. All Finals were played in Wodonga at Gayview Park. Benalla and Wodonga Warriors started the day off with Benalla winning 12-0. In the morning final the men from Wangaratta Rangers Orange jumped NASC Bears Gold early and ran out winners 11-3. In the last game of the day after five tight innings bears opened the throttle and ran away with the final 17-3. It was a great day of Baseball in the North easy and special thanks needs to to go to the Wodonga Warriors Baseball Club for getting the grounds looking great and to all supporters who came down to watch throughout the day. So what else is news?

     The Wangaratta Rangers Orange men have shown great improvement throughout the season. After a rough start early on, the boys knuckled down and were able to string together some wins for the end of the year. This was evident in the elimination final against Porepunkah Panthers. In the decider the following week, The orange bats came alive from the first inning and behind some great pitching by Brendon “#59” French the boys got the job done. Man of beard and memeber of the Nambrok crew Daniel “The Transporter” Griffin had a day out with the bat racking up hits at will. Griff has been in a purple patch of form with the bat and glove the past few weeks. Not to be out done Ranger cult hero Kyle “The Thrill” Gilmore lived up to his name and was instrumental in getting the out to end the game. The crowed roared for Gilly and was a fitting end to a great game.

     The last few weeks has seen Orange manager go through some tough times with his chargers. It all started with the savaging as mentioned in the previous edition of this column when the doyen of the Rangers, the man with the poison pen Kevin Pool savaged Burder for his pitching ability against Porepunkah. This has not stopped since with his men calling him “The Mini Bus”. A few members of the club could not work it out why he was being called a mini bus. The boys enlightened those who did not understand that he is only half a coach! So hence the name mini bus. This had stemmed from him forgetting gear amongst other things on gamedays. However when it came to grand final day Mini Bus  Burder was able to be upgraded to a fully fledged 57 seater coach. He called a great game from behind the plate and chased down every foul fly ball. He hit the ball hard and was constantly heard throughout the game. He was the leader of his pack. His pack responded by playing hard and fair. Congratulations Coach on a great job in 2016 with Wangaratta Rangers Orange.

     When standing in the batting box many base-ballers have habits that they do to get ready. Multi sport athlete and all round great guy Daniel “Chopper” McCullough has the bum wiggle while getting settled up at the plate. With the high hoop socks and always immaculate appearance it has become a ritual at each Ranger game. The wiggle worked as Chopper hit and had a day out at centre field. Now he is chuffed to have played in a winning final with his great mates The Nambrok Boys. It has been great having you down at the Ranger Ranch this year Chopper.

Sean “The Doc” Warfe mentioned that this is his first grand final win in a very long time and he was proud to be a Ranger for it. He should be as Sean has been in white hot form as an on base machine. In the past couple of weeks he racked up walk after walk and hit after hit. This gave the rest of the lineup a perfect launching pad to score the runs they did. Great stuff Sean!

     With The Orange men winning in the curtain raiser, rangers Black were looking to defend their title against a very determined Bears Green. It was a game that had it all, great hitting, good defense but someone always has to win. In this case it was Bears Green. No matter what the Ranger men tried it just was not meant to be this year. After five tight innings the floodgates opened and Bears Green were never in trouble after that. The score does not give a true indication on how long the game was tight for. At the end of the day Bears Green was just too good. The Ranger boys stuck around and had a drink with their fellow baseball brothers after the game as it always should be done. Win lose or draw always stick around have a chat and a drink with the other clubs who worked hard to put on a great grand final day. That’s one thing Rangers should always be proud of. There is always next year gentlemen.

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     With Wangaratta’s ground being underwater again, the Grand Final was moved up the Hume to Wodonga’s Gayview Park. The ground was in much better shape than Wangaratta’s and was the perfect choice for the final. The boys had it looking tidy and sensational and the canteen was stocked. One more point of difference was their fire drum. It was portable. This does not sound any different to many fire drums around the state but the main point of difference as it was a washing machine drum in a shopping trolley. This made it very easy for the Warrior boys to wheel it around and keep warm wherever they were. Each year our Warrior brothers entertain and support the grand final in the best way possible. With good humor and fun. On behalf of Wangaratta Rangers, thank you for your hospitality all season with our ground being unplayable. All for the good of baseball in the North East.

     Sunday night the Ranger family gathered back at Targoora Park for Pizzas supplied by Cafe Martini and a catchup and debrief about the days play. All celebrated in style round the fire with some “interesting” conversations on the telephone. Thinking back over past grand final nights this is nothing unusual. In the past few years phones have been broken random strangers called, so in all was just another night at Ranger land really.

     Same place as last year upstairs at Cafe Martini Wangaratta, 6pm onwards Saturday 24th September. All are welcome and Annual general meeting will take place before the presentation. Come along celebrate a great year in true Ranger style.

     Voted the best club trip by any club in the north east for another year is only a month and days away. A theme has been decided upon. It will be $25 best op shop with tags to be still on the garments. This is for authenticating the stipulations and conditions. A prize is awarded to the Ranger with the best choice of threads. Those who are going get saving and be ready for a cracker of a weekend. Steve “Fernando” Peruzzo and Cam “the Soak” Scott are so excited they booked an earlier flight and arrive on the Thursday! More details to follow.

     In the coming months T-ball will begin again for another summer. Look for more details on the Wangaratta Rangers website in the coming weeks for more details. One thing is for sure Bryan “Moose” Wilson is raring to go with his budding ground of future Rangers.

     It was great to see on the Facebook page an assortment of photos from both Wangratta Rangers Black and Wangartta Rangers Orange games. The photos that were shared were sensational. It gives a real picture of what Rangers are all about. A family. A friend  of Line Drive wished the club good luck on Sunday morning from London. Claire Smith may be on the other side of the planet but she had time to thinkk about the family that is Wangaratta Rangers Baseball Club. On behalf of myself Line Drive and all other members of the club we thank our supporters, scorers, sponsors for season 2016. We hope to see you all out there cheering us on in 2017.

Well that’s it for this edition. Been another big season. I seem to say that each year. To all who I have thanked mentioned throughout the year or maybe not thank you. Till our next time thanks for reading and….

Go Rangers