Hello and welcome to the presentation edition of Rounding Third. The ranger family got together over the weekend to celebrate season 2016 at their valued sponsor Cafe Martini in Wangaratta. Plenty of laughs were had with all in attendance having a good chance to mingle, chat and joke with one another. Most awards were given out and received graciously, some awards were in good jest and won by deserving recipients. More about that later.

This year The Rangers decided to use teamapp for all voting purposes, to award the ‘Most Valuable Player’ award. Ranger IT guru and good friend of Line Drive, Cam “The Soak” Scott was busy each week lining up four players, scorers or supporters  to vote on who they thought played well in the Orange and Black. The votes were then tallied and presented on Saturday night. Two very deserving winners were announced. In the Rangers Orange the award went to Jason “JJ” Jonker by a clear margin from Kelsey Burder and Brendon French respectively. For Rangers Black, ol Rubberarm Nathan Pool was crowned MVP for season 2016 in front of Aaron Parker and Scott Jenkins, who had a breakout year with the bat. Congratulations to all winners

    One of the more prestigious trophies awarded each year is to the person who had a a bit of a breakdown. Cam “The Soak” Scott, surprisingly, was awarded the dummy spit for his meltdown up at Porepunkah. By all accounts from the man with the poison pen, Kevin Pool,  it was a beauty. When asked about the award Cam did respond with “oh yeah it was well deserved. Gee it was a good dummy spit. One of my best”. It looks like he spared Scott “The Beard” Jenkins from being given the trophy.

     Merchandise guru and wannabe DJ Rob “Buttsy” Seymour was rapt with going back to back in the annual fly ball award. Butts won this award by a short margin last year, but this year he opened up a gap on his opposition that could not be bridged. He is already talking about a three-peat for next year. In the off season look to see Buttsy wanting to spin some decks on the local pub scene.

     The annual whiff bat was taken out by both, Kyle “The Thrill” Gilmore and Tony “Spinner” Smith, for season 2016. Their strike outs came in batches of multiples which placed them at the top for the award. Both were not surprised by being declared joint winners. Never mind boys it will be time for someone else to step forward next year.

     Kelsey “mini bus” Burder can be a man of many words, or actually no words at all. When quizzed on any aspects of games and the season, Burder trotted out the line “uhhh I don’t remember this game” followed by the next line when asked about another game of “uhhh I don’t remember this game either”. One has to question if he remembers winning the B grade premiership this year? The one thing he does remember is how poor he threw on the mound against Porepunkah and still managed to get votes for the game!

     This weekend the boys are off to Adelaide to watch some footy, baseball and celebrate the end of another great season. All the usual suspects will be in attendance. Ably led by Daniel “The Griff” Griffin, the boys will enjoy the sites and sounds which Adelaide is known for. The day is always one to look for, being the main theme day. The theme this year is $25 Op Shop. Anything spent over the amount is into the tin for all to enjoy. Looking at the weather forecast, it is going to be cold. I wonder how that will affect the fashion icons such as Brad “Undies” Murdoch and Daniel “Chopper” McCullough? Not to mention Nathan “Rubberarm” Pool who goes all out year after year. All will be revealed at 7am Friday at the airport.

     Victorian Masters will be held once again in Ballarat March 17-19 2017. There has already been strong interest shown by past players and reigning Cod master Mick “Big Cod” Brownlie. The one condition if he goes is that Rob Seymour must go too. Masters is open to all  who are north of the age of 35. Check out Cods Masters Baseball on Facebook for more details over the next few months. Once again as the Cods get older they still think they are as good as they once were!

Committee meeting in October .

Stubby holders available for purchase from the club. See Butts for one

Cods Masters information. More to follow

Ranger Ramble in Radelaide is on 30th-2nd of October. Good luck boys!

Check out the photos on our Facebook page.  Thanks to Brendon French for the pics.

Make sure you are available for the game in Benalla Mick Wyatt!!

Well that’s about it this time round. Once again thanks to all our valued sponsors out there and most importantly, you the readers and supporters of the Wangaratta Rangers Baseball Club. Till next time,

Go Rangers!