I know that many of the 'Waverley Nation' were still clinging to hopes of a miracle victory for Newport at Malvern that would have opened the door for us to sneak into the Div One finals, but most of us were resigned to the grim fact that we had given up that right with our home loss to Malvern last weekend. Not to mention the fact that baseball fans should never put the cart before the horse when they have a game of their own to concentrate upon... this is fraught with danger!

It is history now that Malvern grasped their opportunity to secure their position in the finals and we congratulate them, along with the Blackburn, Essendon and Doncaster clubs for achieving that honour. Given time to analyse it, I'm sure we'd find that there is a combination of many reasons why our Waverley Wildcats slid from 2006/07 Champions to fifth place in 2007/08 but, in an overall context, the most basic reason would surely be consistency. 

We have had moments during this season when he have proved capable of beating anyone and other moments where we didn't look much superior to the lower teams in the competition. At the end of it all it will be a very painful thought for the 'Waverley Nation' to digest the fact that we finished just one win short of giving ourselves a chance... I bet we can all remember more than one game that we really should have won this season, but didn't!

Funnily enough, but then again it almost wasn't amusing, our final game of the season at Cheltenham would very nearly comprise the best and the worst of Waverley baseball this year with nine innings of fluctuating fortunes that mirrored the way that our season has see-sawed all year. Just to start the game in surreal fashion our offence, that has been bereft of rallies all year, came alive to post a season-high EIGHT run first inning.

The Waverley contingent on hand at Cheltenham for the 2:00pm Saturday fixture enjoyed the rare moments of hitting continuity but, at the same time, we would all bemoan the fact that we had to wait until that often mentioned large female had sung before we finally found a way to give our pitchers some breathing space early in a game. As it turned out they certainly needed it!

One of the really intellectual guys in the Waverley family watching the game had pulled out his slide-rule, opened up his logarithm tables and fired up his Hewlett-Packard calculator to calculate for us that, based on plate appearances and runners left on base, we had scored NINE runs in the opening inning. He was so convincing and so well respected that we all took this as "gospel" for the next several innings while the Cheltenham Rustlers chipped away at what had seemed to be a match winning advantage. 

That tremendous generosity of the Waverley club was in evidence once again in this game when we surrendered an early inning runner in a futile attempt to score at home plate only, of course, to be followed by a safe hit that would have scored him anyway! What we didn't imagine at the time is that it would signal the drying up of our run scoring opportunities for several frames, while those feisty Rustlers gathered some momentum as they crept ever closer to our total. 

The mood among the Wildcats' supporters began to lose its jovial outlook when the gap narrowed to the traditional four-run (grand slam) distance at 9-5 and, when Cheltenham added another run in the seventh, we thought that 9-6 was becoming somewhat uncomfortable. It was at this time that one of our brethren tempted fate by checking the scores with someone who was really scoring the game and he returned with the more disturbing news that the the accurate position was 8-6. 

Thankfully, a genuine embarrassment was averted when the Wildcats came alive again in the late innings to rattle on another five runs against a thinning Cheltenham bullpen. The 13-7 margin of victory in the end might have had a reasonably contented sound to it, however, it was a little more agitating to those who witnessed an eight run lead nearly evaporate against a team that was starting to sniff the opportunity for an upset. A dramatic comeback victory over our Wildcats would have been a nice season-ending memory for the relegated Cheltenham club to take away from an otherwise challenging season.

Evan 'Embree' Phillips was the man who found the Rustlers difficult to contain as his control was not quite what he would have preferred. 'Evo' did do his best to stay away from walks while pitching with a healthy lead in the game but, in doing so, he left a few too many balls up and over the fat part of the plate... it often happens in these situations. 'Tommy John' Rynberk hasn't had a lot of opportunity (read very little) to oil his arm over recent weeks and it was nice to see him finish the season with a pretty good relief outing. Even better for Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks who looked very sharp in this last game before he heads off back to play pro ball in the USA. 

The Waverley batters took full advantage of an opportunity to end their respective seasons on a promising note with no less than ten players producing a safe hit. Grant 'Carter' Karlsen capped his terrific season with a mighty four-hit game that included three doubles. Not only would he end the year as Waverley's batting average leader, but he is also the man who handles our pitchers every week as a truly outstanding catcher. 

More really promising news for the club was the continued emergence of young tyros Joshua 'Big Papi' Hendricks with three hits and Taylor 'Baby Beresford' McEvoy who added another two to his solid hitting sequence in recent weeks. These kids are among the brightest stars in a galaxy of young talent still coming through from our junior program, even though these two guys have been temporarily "sidetracked" into a rival college program over the last couple of years.

It was also fabulous to see Ian 'Ichiro' Geduld end the season on a very positive note with his two hit game coming on the back of some much better recent form. We really hope that 'Ichy' can return next summer in the same type of form that he had during 2006/07 when he was a genuine key to our Championship triumph. So too Andrew 'Rusty' Russell who hammered two hits in this game but, to state the truth, he is just about at the end of his tether after a seemingly endless program of baseball over the last few years. Yes, and like most others, he also has to work for a living at the same time. 

One of the happiest men to collect a hit right at the end of the season was Chris 'Chipper' Maurer, who is another bloke we would love to see back to his very best next season after spending most of a frustrating season searching for batting consistency in the Reserves. The spectator crew wasn't privy to a secret pact among the players that the last batter to make an out would have to shout beer for the rest of the team. 

The coaches might have been trying to set 'Chipper' up when they demanded that he pinch-hit late in the game, but he avoided making the last out with a ringing double into the left-field corner... it was the most noise we've heard from the mute Wildcats' dugout all season! Popular veteran, designated hitter, committeeman and chairman of selectors Kerry 'Giambi' Gassner took the unenviable honour of making the last out. He had also cracked a deep double earlier in the game but he couldn't find another one with his bank balance on the line... tough luck 'KG'!

So there it ends for another year of Waverley baseball folks. The glow from our 2006/07 Championship success has all too quickly faded into the relative gloom of maybe the least successful season of senior baseball in our memory. Nobody of any longevity at Waverley can remember the last time that none of our top three senior grades had managed to compete in the finals. It's not all doom and gloom with many young players developed during the year, especially in our Seconds and Thirds, but it is still a situation to cause some concern at the club.

When the dust settles over the next week or two I'll attempt to write a "Season Overview" and/or "Report Card" for anyone who might still be interested. For those who aren't then you'll know where not to look! I know it might take a week or two to really sink in, but I can assure you that it will be a longer than usual winter hibernation without finals baseball and already I can't wait for the action to start again next summer... bring it on!

In the meantime we wish our Fourths, Fifths and Masters every success in their finals campaigns, along with our several Junior teams still in contention. Please don't forget to support the club by following as many of these teams as you can and by attending Senior Presentation Night on Saturday 5 April, click here. I hope to see many of you again there...

Once again, our pro players carry all of the best wishes of the 'Waverley Nation'. We will be following the fortunes of Jimmy Beresford, Danny Berg and Donnie Hendricks this winter.

For most of the time yesterday there grew a belief that this fixture against Blackburn just wasn't destined to be played. The home twilight game against our local rivals from Blackburn just down the Burwood Highway had already been re-scheduled due to flash flooding a few days before Christmas and, once again, persistent rain threatened to bring about another postponement. Just in the nick of time, baseball's weather gods chose to smile upon Napier Park when the steady rain falling on Melbourne's east stopped suddenly at about 4:15pm and this provided sufficient time for the ground conditions to be ready for play. The atmosphere remained overcast, but the light had also improved enough for our game of baseball. 

It wasn't only the rainy day that had put a bit of a dampener on this game that would normally be very eagerly awaited as an important pre-finals contest between two of the leagues heavyweight clubs. The other issue that lingered as a pall of gloom at Waverley was the painful memory of our weekend loss to Malvern that, in all probability, ended our hopes of defending our Division One championship. Not only would the 'Waverley Nation' be somewhat deflated by the thought of a premature end to our season, but also the knowledge that we would have to battle on without key players James Beresford, Danny Berg and Donnie Hendricks. 

But folks, one of the things that we have always loved about our great game of baseball is the way that fortunes can so often fluctuate and you don't usually have to wait too long after every disappointment for something much more enjoyable to occur. For those of us who were able to cast aside the disappointment of our predicament, this game would be one of the genuine classics and, in some ways, maybe the best contest we have witnessed this season. It is often in the eye of the beholder, but for this writer a high-quality pitching duel is always a joy to behold.

The light may have been fading rapidly close to the end of the two-hour game, but this did not prevent us from enjoying the extremely remarkable sight of our THIRD complete nine inning game within the two-hour limit! Yes, there is only one way that this can happen and that is when the efficiency of the pitching makes short work of the batters and the innings flash by with a paucity of offensive action. The one common denominator in all three of these amazing events this season is Waverley's newest pitching hero Brett 'Beckett' Flemming who has been an absolute revelation for the Wildcats this season. 

Our 2008 Victorian Claxton Shield rookie started the season very well, but he has just grown stronger and more impressive as the season has progressed. Not only would he appear to have developed some more venomous "strike out pitches", but we can't help feeling that the most significant improvement for 'Flemmo' has come with the increasing self-belief that is a product of his tremendous success this summer. 

In some ways I should be thankful that our season might be drawing to a rapid close, because I've just about run out of superlatives to describe how good Flemming has been, ONCE AGAIN! I won't need any extra superlatives to describe his complete, nine inning, shutout of the Division One leaders... it speaks for itself. If this is to be Brett Flemming's final appearance for Waverley this season, then he has added a quite magnificent punctuation mark to a superb season and he has the appreciation of the 'Waverley Nation' for keeping our ship afloat as long as it has this season. You have been GREAT 'Flemmo'!

Of course the complete game would take two pitchers to tango and, as often, Blackburn's lion-hearted manager 'Lethal Lee' Hogan would insist on taking the ball in order to remind his former club what a tremendous competitor he is. The former Waverley favourite Hogan has inflicted a fair bit of pain on the Wildcats since his regrettable departure from Napier Park and he was, once again, close to his most determined best for this game. The result of the contest would not mean a great deal to the top-ranked Orioles, but any game between these two friendly rivals would always include a hint of spice.

Just as Flemming mowed down the cream of the potent Blackburn batters, his wily Victorian Claxton Shield team mate Hogan did likewise against our Wildcats bats. Waverley may have threatened slightly more often, including stranding a one-out runner on third base in the very first inning, but Hogan always seemed to have the poise and focus to pitch his way out of those difficult moments. One of Hogan's key attributes as a pitcher that is often overlooked is the fact he becomes an extra infielder when he is on the mound. Teams persist in testing the chunky veteran with small ball, but he always proves to be an amazing agile mover with the skill an experience to make those important infield outs. 

If there had to be a loser in this game, we are sure glad that it was Blackburn on this occasion, but we must be gracious enough to appreciate the longevity of Lee Hogan's baseball talent... I don't think we'll see the end of him for a very long time yet! In fact our Wildcats required a slice of good fortune to record the single run that proved enough for victory in this game. On the other hand, our Waverley hitters finally reaped some reward for hitting the ball hard when he baseball gods smiled on us for a very rare moment recently. 

Our 2007 'Triple Crown' slugger Andrew 'Rusty' Russell must have felt like two or three hundred black cats had crossed his path or that he'd inadvertently walked under several ladders since his barnstorming start to this year's Claxton Shield campaign in Adelaide. Rusty batted a gaudy .615 in that series and he was crushing the ball all over the park at the time, but his fortunes have nosedived lately with an inevitable slide in his confidence. There are times in the game of baseball when even the most gifted players don't seem to get a lot of luck and even the balls that Russell has crushed lately have seemed to find a fielder's glove! 

Things may turned around for Russell with his solid hit against Malvern last Sunday and a hint of luck seemed to have returned for him last night. Taking the very first at bat for Waverley, 'Rusty' slammed a deep line drive to right centrefield that forced Blacky's outfielder to race to the warning track but, just when he appeared set to make a splendid catch, the ball deflected off his outstretched glove... these are the sort of catches that Russell has seen taken from several of his hits in recent times. 

Later in the game 'Rusty' drilled a low screamer that sizzled between the legs of Blackburn's third baseman before he barely had time to flinch with his glove. The third baseman must have felt like a host of test cricketers who have been "nutmegged" by a Joel Garner or Jeff Thomson yorker when you don't have enough time to react... that is why it is called "hot corner" folks! In any case his double into left field was soon followed by a similar hit by Glenn 'Ferrett' Mascoll who roped another shot that went directly over the third base bag for the all-important game-winning RBI. 

As I mentioned, the Blackburn Orioles did not have a lot to play for in this game but, typically, they were never going to go away quietly and it took all of Flemming's talent and determination to keep Waverley's very skinny advantage in the game right to the highly competitive end. A 1-0 victory over nine innings and all inside two hours represented a terrific game of baseball, with all the tension and drama that could want from top level sport. It wouldn't totally erase the disappointment of our below-par season, but it was still a welcome highlight for the 'Waverley Nation' that somewhat sums up the inconsistency that has plagued us this year.

The wiser Waverley heads in attendance would look beyond the immediate issues to the very bright lights that we saw shining at the end of the Wildcats tunnel. Looking more and more at home at short stop is teenage star Taylor 'T-MAC' McEvoy who overcame a wrist injury to produce another terrific game in Victoria's "big league"... he has been an outstanding feature for the club this year. Also getting some more playing time in this game were future stars Wade 'Boggs' McConnon and Joshua 'Big Papi' Hendricks. We might be deflated by some events this season, but the club remains in very good shape for the future.

Please make sure that you give our Wildcats players a fitting end to the season by attending our final game of the season at Cheltenham's Farm Road this SATURDAY afternoon at 2:00pm. The boys have not stopped trying hard to perform for us this season and they deserve all of the support that we can muster!

Mr and Mrs 'Waverley Nation' I'm afraid that we have some very bad news, your No.1 team is badly wounded and barely alive, it is still breathing but the pulse is very weak. If we don't get some type of miracle during this coming week we will probably have to discuss turning off the life support system! 

Well, of course we should never take our beloved game of baseball, or any other sport, quite this seriously but it was the overwhelming feeling in the clubrooms after we had just been soundly defeated 1-5 by the visiting rival Malvern Braves in a game that would pretty much decide who would contest the 2007/08 finals. 

What those "baseball gods" giveth on one day, they will often taketh away the next. It was just less than a month ago that Waverley won our vital mid-week twilight fixture at Malvern by the score of, you guessed it, 5-1. What an eerie but disappointing reversal for we Wildcats! 

It was very warm and humid as it often seems to be on the occasion of Waverley's annual 'LADIES DAY' but, while those gorgeous girls really looked the part, I can't quite say the same for our teams on this occasion. Both our Reserves and Firsts played from behind and never really provided much hope of delivering the victories required for them to compete in the finals. To be very frank about it, it was a most disappointing day on the diamond for Waverley Wildcats. 

To set the scene with some team news, our lineup from last Wednesday night would suffer a little disruption with the return from injury of James 'Jeter' Beresford who would be available for this game as his last with the club this season. Next week 'Jimmy' and his Waverley team mate Danny 'Bambino' Berg will be off to try their luck in earning selection with the AROOS team to compete in the Beijing Olympics qualification tournament. It would be asking a lot of Jimmy Beresford to produce his brilliant best after missing so many weeks with two separate injuries in 2008, but he must be given the opportunity to play.

While it would always be good news to have a player like Beresford returning to the team, on this occasion it would come at the very unfortunate expense of left fielder Ian 'Ichiro' Geduld who had just struck some of his best form in Wednesday's uplifting win over Newport. Neither James nor the club would contemplate shifting young protégé Taylor 'Baby Beresford' McEvoy who has been holding down the short stop position so well in James' absence. Our managers did the right thing by not disrupting him for just one game. 

It would also be virtually impossible to surpass the pitching excellence of Brett 'Beckett' Flemming who was close to untouchable on Wednesday night and, with due respect to our other pitchers, it is a pity that Brett doesn't have a twin brother who we could turn to when we face two such important back-to-back games. In any case Wildcats' supporters would have plenty of faith in lefties Evan 'Embree' Phillips and Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks who would take the mound for our home team at Napier Park. 

First up would be 'Evo' Phillips who started with confidence via two quick outs to commence the game, but a 'Texas Leaguer' and a walk saw him suddenly under pressure and his control began to waver. A neat infield play finally enabled him to escape the first inning with only the damage of one run crossing the plate when Malvern threatened to post a few more. The immediate 0-1 deficit would be a source of annoyance to the Waverley supporters, but this annoyance would shortly turn to grave concern when Evan again struggled to throw strikes and two base runners were plated with a three-run 'jack' over left field by Malvern's former Waverley Wildcats and Waverley Reds stalwart Justin Whitford. 

Even being 0-4 down so early in the game should not have presented an impossible task for Waverley's offence that, we should not forget, contains no less than four Victorian Aces Claxton Shield players. Unfortunately, we have to admit, our team has rarely produced the consistency or "put it all together" often enough to fill supporters with confidence. There were signs that some batting form may have been returning on Wednesday night, but it vanished again too quickly between Wednesday and Sunday.

Only a Danny Berg solo home run that sailed over left centrefield gave cause for optimism by breaking the ice on the home half of the scoreboard. However, this optimism would not be backed up with much more activity from our Wildcats offence who were horribly ineffective on such a big occasion. No doubt that much of the credit for this should go to Malvern's pitching, but a paltry five hits for the game from our talented hitters is not the sort of performance required to assert any authority on such a big home occasion. 

We should spare a thought for young pitching ace Donnie Hendricks who was pressed into action early after Evan departed and he did just about all you could ask of him to put a succession of "goose eggs" onto the top half of the scoreboard. What a pity that our offence could not bolster his efforts with some run support. Donnie showed a lot of character in this game to keep the Wildcats in with a chance to grab the vital victory and he would have been an automatic choice for MVP if Waverley had won the game. Sadly, we never really looked like getting close to doing that! 

In the aftermath of this demoralising result we must not forget to farewell Daniel Berg and James Beresford, as mentioned, along with Donnie Hendricks who leaves to resume his professional career in the USA this week. It would go without saying that we wish all of these loyal Waverley guys our very best for a healthy and successful Australian winter, wherever it should lead them. As ever, we all look forward to seeing them back better than even in a Wildcats uniform next summer. Good luck fellas!

As I said, unless other results go our way AND we can win our final two games of the season, our beloved Waverley Wildcats will not have earned the opportunity to defend the Victorian Championship that we cherished so much following our Grand Final triumph at the end of last season. It is difficult to rationalise how our fortunes have declined so far that we could slide from Champions to mid-table. It proves a few things that we have always known about sports. It can be tough to repeat the passion and to recapture those "intangibles" required for Championship success, while rival teams just get hungrier and more determined to knock off the tall poppies.

If we are going to be anywhere near good enough to contest these finals then we will have to beat top team Blackburn in our last home fixture at 6:00pm this coming Wednesday evening, as well as defeating the Cheltenham Rustlers in the last regular season game this coming SATURDAY afternoon. In the end we will have nobody else to blame but ourselves if we don't make it!

We will need all of the support possible if we are to revive our "patient"...

It was all pretty good news for the Waverley Baseball Club last night from our final mid-week fixture at Melbourne Ballpark. After some rather warm and pleasant visits to Altona recently, and perhaps even for most of this season, there was a more familiar feel to the windy and chilly environment of the stadium stands for this occasion.

The bulk of the 'Waverly Nation' clustered in its customary position just toward the western side, while a few of our more "highbrow" members headed straight for the expensive seats in the centre of the grandstand. I really wasn't aware that such snobbery existed among the "Waverley family". Once again we enjoyed the company of Geelong's "microphone man" Al Ricketts who, as always, did such an outstanding job during the recent Claxton Shield home series, as did Waverley's own Keith Sheldon-Collins during the first series.

It was pretty clear that Waverley's management was not about to take any chances with our Newport opponents who have enjoyed the better of us in both previous meetings this season by the narrow margins of 6-7 at Newport and, who could forget, 1-2 after extra innings at Napier Park just a few weeks ago. No.1 starter Brett 'Beckett' Flemming was entrusted with the ball in what would be a very important, no... crucial, game.

Both teams threatened with two-out base runners in the early innings of the game but, as the pitchers settled in to the contest and the conditions, it pretty quickly appeared that scoring was going to be at a premium once again in the two-hour mid-week game at Altona... especially when the Wildcats and the Rams lock horns.

To the massive relief of the Waverley supporters, our offence finally grasped an opportunity to rally when leadoff batter Andrew 'Rusty' Russell was hit by a pitch and then moved into scoring position. Once again in the midst of the rally was young gun Taylor 'T-Mac' McEvoy who delivered the all important ice-breaking RBI single in the inning. He has been a real spark-plug recently.

Next man up was Ian 'Ichiro' Geduld who earned his recall to the Firsts this week after recapturing the batting form that had escaped him for much of this season with a fine game in the Reserves last weekend. Geduld's speed was to be most significant in this inning when, first of all, he was able to "beat out" and infield hit to reach base. Then again when he was able to fly home to score from first base just behind McEvoy when Jarrod 'Hammer' Hodges lashed a big two RBI double down the left field line.

While it is never a secure position, a three run lead in any game against Newport always seems like a luxury and Waverley spurned other chances to extend the advantage soon after. Super-catcher Grant 'Carter' Karlsen crushed the biggest hit of the game with his ripping line drive that hit the left field fence half-way up on the full. Considering the wind and the dimensions of the yard at Altona it really should have been a home run ball... and by a long way at some venues! Grant's leadoff double would become a first and third situation with none out, yet the Newport team was able to strand our runners in that inning to limit the advantage.

Some further relief would arrive a little later when Ian Geduld's deep fly ball into the left field corner would add two more runs onto the Waverley half of the scoreboard. The five run lead was about as comfortable as it ever seems to get for the 'Waverley Nation'... this season in particular!

Making the lead seem even more secure was the dominant presence of Flemming on the mound for Waverley. As he often seems to do, 'Flemmo' got stronger and more efficient as he worked his way into this game. To emphasise his brilliance, Brett dismissed the last 13 batters he faced, and several of those with impressive strike outs. He was AWESOME once again for the Wildcats.

Flemming handed the ball to Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks for the last inning but, after nailing down the first couple of outs, 'Donnie' almost made hard work of closing the game. A couple of walks were compounded by an unfortunate infield "squibber". After an unearned run had crossed for the Rams they did bring the tying run to the plate with loaded bases. However, let's be honest, there wasn't much fear of anyone supplying a Grand Slam home run in these conditions and Donavon was able to secure the final out with no more damage done.

The final analysis would be a very positive result for Waverley against a quality opponent in a game that could prove absolutely vital if we are to make a late run into the finals. From the reverse angle, another loss to Newport here might well have dealt us a knockdown blow near the end of a frustrating season where our next knockdown might be our last for this year.

As it is, we live to fight another MASSIVE battle with the talented Malvern Braves at our Napier Park home this coming Sunday. We will have the opportunity to effectively take over Malvern's long-held grip on a finals position with a win in this game, so you won't need me to elaborate on how high the stakes will be for both teams. These games are nearly always tough, but this one shapes to be a WAR!

We can only hope that our annual 'LADIES DAY' at Waverley is more of a distraction to our Malvern visitors than it is to us! And, please don't forget the re-scheduled fixture against Blackburn next Wednesday night at Napier Park starting at 6:00pm. These will be our last two home fixtures for 2007/08 so please don't skip the opportunity to give our Wildcats all the support you can!

A 1:00pm start for the RESERVES and a 3:30pm start for the FIRSTS, what a brilliant strategy for afternoon baseball... do you think that maybe I've mentioned this enough?... I do, but this occasion did remind me why these things have become such a long-standing tradition and why it might be unwise to jump toward any "funky" alternatives without reasonable thought, planning or consultation... OK, enough!

Our visit to Melbourne's quite pleasant Surrey Park venue was greeted, as usual, by huddles of the 'Waverley Nation' taking advantage of the shade provided by the old gum trees on the southern embankment. The temperature was not too hot, but Melbourne's sunshine still had a fair sting to deliver upon anyone who didn't find the shade a necessary commodity.

Our Waverley Wildcats would be facing the same opposition that battled us long and hard for an unconvincing 2-0 win at Napier Park this past Thursday evening. The only enforced change to the composition of the teams would be the unavailability of the starting pitchers who performed so brilliantly mid-week, Brett Flemming for Waverley and Darren Cassidy for Melbourne. Instead, our Wildcats would call upon left-hander Evan 'Embree' Phillips, while Melbourne would find its pitching cupboard almost bare, except for manager Andrew Fennell who had to pencil his own name into the starting pitcher's box.

Of course, most Waverley people would be quite familiar with 'Funnel' who was a former Senior Club Champion at Napier Park and a pitcher who delivered very many innings of sterling work in a Wildcats' uniform. The only issue for him would be a few years of battling injuries that have not allowed him to pitch with much confidence or regularity. We did hear about one remarkable recent performance by the not-too-old warhorse, and the low-confidence Waverley offence could not afford to underestimate him.

The only team news for Waverley would be the continued absence of James 'Jeter' Beresford who is near to full fitness following his recent groin injury, while Wade 'Boggs' McConnon gets a start in the "ONES" in place of another youngster Jake 'Son of Jeff' Dunn who made his debut last weekend. Once again the coaches at Waverley have made some very clever investments in the future of the club by finding valuable game time for most of our promising players of the future. These investments usually guarantee dividends!

Evan Phillips has shown the tendency to start a little shakily lately and he did so again today to enable our hosts to grab an immediate 1-0 lead in the first innings. Thankfully, parity would be restored not too much later when Kerry 'Giambi' Gassner thumped a sweetly timed bomb over right-centre for a game-tying solo home run. At that point the Waverley contingent might have thought that the crafty Fennell would become vulnerable and that the flood-gates might finally open for our hitters... um, NO!

While 'Evo' settled to pitch extremely well for Waverley, 'Funnel' would proceed to do likewise for his own team, chewing through the innings down to the very end of the game, while the 1-1 deadlock would cause increasing nervousness among the very twitchy 'Waverley Nation'. Let's be quite honest here folks, Andrew Fennell showed much of the class that has made him a bona fide Division One pitcher of not-so bygone days and a heap of the heart that is required to carry a ballclub through such an energy-sapping game. 

Finally, thankfully for we Waverley fans, we were able to find a small chink in a tiring Fennell's armour just when extra innings loomed in the game. The most important spark-plug on this occasion was junior prodigy Taylor 'Baby Beresford' McEvoy who is starting to look and feel more comfortable at this level each week. Young Taylor capped another terrific defensive game with his leadoff double over centrefield that ignited an all important rally for the Wildcats. I can't quite recall the ensuing detail, but a couple of batters later Fennell was left with little option but to load the bases with an intentional walk to the hot-hitting Daniel Berg. 

While Fennell called the obvious and correct strategy, his major problem would be that he would be providing a huge run scoring opportunity to the one player who has been hitting most consistently for Waverley lately Anthony 'Rolen' Reinke. It was not a big surprise, but a most exhilarating moment for the Wildcats fans in attendance, when 'Reinks' slashed a bases-clearing three RBI double into left-centrefield. His decisive blow was immediately followed by a Grant Karlsen RBI to put the polish on a huge four run inning for Waverley.

The major difference between the teams in this game would be the pitching depth. While the lion-hearted Andrew Fennell inevitably tired towards the end of this game, Waverley was able to finish off Evan Phillips' sterling work by replacing him with recent Victorian Claxton Shield reliever Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks who has just recovered from a nasty illness. It really does appear that Donavon has made his mind up that he should not dabble with walks by pitching too fine to batters and he looks much more potent when he challenges them. In any case, an up-tempo Donnie didn't waste much time putting the lid on a most vital win for the club.

Our next hurdle is an always challenging mid-week fixture against those "home boys" Newport at their second favourite venue of Melbourne Ballpark at nearby Altona. While we don't look beyond that in terms of our playing focus, I must make a couple of important announcements about our upcoming schedule.

Firstly, this coming Sunday we will host the tough Malvern Braves in a game that might well decide whether we can realistically nudge someone out of the final four. The big occasion will also be spiced by the annual "LADIES DAY" festivities in our Napier Park Clubrooms. We will need as many other supporters as possible to join the ladies in supporting our boys during a most critical game for the club. It is also the final game of the season for our RESERVES (game time 1:00pm) and one that they must win to have any chance of contesting the finals. It also heralds the last Sunday home game of the year for the Waverley club... got all that?

If you are the correct gender and you want to partake in LADIES DAY, click here. 

Secondly, some very important news about the re-scheduling of the washed out game against Blackburn from that soggy 20 December 2007 evening. This game will now be played on Wednesday, 20 February starting 6:00pm at Napier Park. This is also very likely to be a vital game for our finals hopes... pencil it in!

It was just another evening in paradise for the 'Waverley Nation' who gathered in good numbers for our Wildcats home fixture against the Melbourne team who have played pretty well lately under the guidance of former Waverley Club Champion Andrew Fennell. We can only have respect for 'Funnel's' efforts this season with what are slightly limited resources.

In order of relative importance, the "Main Man" for Waverley in this game, as he has been very often this season, was Brett 'Beckett' Flemming who pitched a quite brilliant complete game shutout for Waverley in a game that we might have expected to win, but we could not even contemplate losing. If there is any pressure associated with this, and I'm sure that there is, then our current Claxton Shield left-hander handled it with more confidence and authority than he might have when he started this season?

And, if you're wondering about the nicknames, I originally tagged Brett with 'CC' in reference to the Cleveland Indians' Cy Young Award winner 'CC' Sabathia, but I have now reverted to 'Beckett'. This refers to the Boston Red Sox ace Josh Beckett who, not only SHOULD have won the American League Cy Young Award but, more importantly, he has two World Series rings to place on his most valuable fingers! I don't expect the "low key" Flemming to be impressed with any of this stuff, but I can assure him that EVERYONE in the 'Waverley Nation' was more than impressed with him again tonight. He has been a titan for the Wildcats this season.

In truth, we probably didn't expect our Melbourne visitors to run us "down to the wire" as they did tonight, but then we NEVER underestimate any of our opponents... to do so is, not only disrespectful, but certainly tempting fate in our most unpredictable of games!

As time and innings marched on, this game remained delicately deadlocked at 0-0 as the warm and bright evening began to fade quickly into a murky and almost chilly night time. Now, let's be brutally honest for the 'Waverley Nation' by admitting that our highly rated batting lineup really struggled to make inroads against some tough Melbourne pitching and we had to rely upon a late inning hit batter and a sacrifice fly to score our rather modest two run total for the game.

It is sometimes easy to be critical of our quality batters for failing to pulverise any opposition, but it is usually better in these circumstances if you reverse the thinking and, instead, credit the effectiveness of the pitching for making the hitters struggle. In this case I will again pay tribute to the pitching of BOTH teams for producing a complete nine inning game within the two hours. Quite amazingly, this is the second time that Waverley fans have seen this happen in 2007/08.

Even then our fate would still hang on tenterhooks when Melbourne threatened to snatch the result in the enveloping darkness. A leadoff triple gave Melbourne more than a sniff of at least tying the game when their Victorian Aces star Brad Harman was next to bat. However, Flemming was able to pitch around him for an "intentional-unintentional walk". It all came to fruition for Waverley when our marvellous back-up short stop Taylor 'Baby Beresford' McEvoy turned a game-ending double-play! 

Had it not been for Flemmo's OUTSTANDING pitching that produced a spectacular complete game shutout, young Taylor 'T-MAC' or 'Baby Beresford' McEvoy... take your pick, may have been the star of the show tonight. Much like the junior James Beresford a year or three ago, we know that Taylor will bat more strongly as he matures, but his defence is already Division One standard. We don't expect anyone to fully replace the overall brilliance of Beresford, but it is a really great thing for the Waverley Baseball Club that we can develop players of Taylor McEvoy's quality to step up when it is needed... he can forge his own career at Waverley in coming years.

While we are still missing the injured James 'Jeter' Beresford and Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks was ill tonight, there was some great news for Waverley with the return of Daniel 'Bambino' Berg who has made a swift recovery from that nasty finger dislocation against Blackburn. Our recent Victorian Claxton Shield batting average leader 'Bergie' supplied two of Waverley's four hits.

So, our Waverley Wildcats have achieved the minimum expected of them in this far too nerve wracking home fixture and there is still not too much reason for optimism about our ability to earn a finals berth again this season. We can only hope that our talented team can find the "magic button" that will enable us to defend the Championship that we worked so hard for last season.

Our next date is against the same Melbourne team, but this time we will have to try to get the better of them on their home soil at Surrey Park. At least we can enjoy the traditional timeslot of 3:30pm, after the Reserves game... what an outstanding idea this is!! We also have another mid-week game next Wednesday night at Melbourne Ballpark, but we simply cannot afford to think any further ahead than our game against Melbourne this weekend.

WEARY WILDCATS BOMB OUT 2-3 @ EARLY ESSENDON!
 Sunday, 3 FEB 2008 at Essendon 

I seem to recall that I have already trotted out all of those pathetic jokes about hearing roosters crowing at dawn and the ink still being wet on the morning newspaper. What we had all been hoping, and perhaps even expecting, is that there could not possibly be a repeat of that quite ludicrous and unsuccessful idea to swap the timing of the FIRSTS and SECONDS games as we did for our home fixture against Essendon earlier this year.

Nearly three months had passed since that unforgettably regrettable day on 11 November when we endured the stupidity of having to watch the FIRSTS play at <YAWN!> 12:30pm, followed by the largely unsupported SECONDS after that. However, the passage of time has not been able to bring forth ONE, SINGLE, SOLITARY reason to support the concept, And, in spite of some noble attempts to restore good sense and sanity, we found ourselves doing it all over again in the reverse fixture. I'm sorry if I'm having trouble understanding why you would want to compound one obvious error by doing it all over again... perhaps it is just me?... I know that it isn't!!

Of course some of the luminaries and clear-thinkers in our game have suggested to me during the games yesterday that we should "move on and get over it". That sounds quite reasonable in normal circumstances, but not when you cannot trust decent people to produce common sense decisions under the weight of overwhelming opinion from those involved (eg. THE PLAYERS!). Unfortunately it is necessary for someone to make a lot of noise about these things to make darn sure that they are NEVER, EVER contemplated again... NEVER! 

Anyway, one thing that I am totally sure about is the fact that our Victorian Aces Claxton Shield players were fully entitled to enjoy a quiet celebration following the end of their State duties this summer and a 12:30pm start following a well deserved night out was pretty awful planning. Club loyalty and professionalism would prevent the players from saying it directly, but there surely was an element of them "not wanting to be there" for this game... what a shame!

Of course this affected Essendon's impressive Scott McIntyre too, and I feel equally sorry for him, but it certainly did affect more of our Waverley players. This is not to mention the absence of our injured Claxton Shield Victorian stars James 'Jeter' Beresford and Danny 'Bambino' Berg... this on top of the partial unavailability of star Jarrod 'Hammer' Hodges who had only one at bat.

Those Waverley players who have endured the full journey since our game against Malvern on the night of 23 January have now played nine games in that time, including a HOT trip to Perth, and I would excuse them for "not wanting to be there" at Boeing Reserve at 12:30pm! I have also done this full journey as a supporter and, while this is not nearly the same as playing, I can understand the mental fatigue involved. It should be no surprise that our Waverley Wildcats, although far from disgraced, put on a somewhat lack-lustre display, so I am now going to offer you a similarly flat and lack-lustre game report...

It was fairly hot and too sunny at Boeing Reserve, as it always seems to be.

Waverley's incredible generosity continued in the very first inning of this game when we butchered a two-on and one-out situation via a pickoff at second base (yep again!) and a caught stealing!

Our pitchers Evan Phillips, Brett Flemming and Donnie Hendricks each pitched extremely well for the Wildcats, but we were just "squeaked" 2-3 by Casey Jones and the Bombers.

Anthony 'Rolen' Reinke was back at third base and he was our undoubted batting star with a solid single and a ground-rule double that must have bounced VERY close to the left field fence before bounding over.

Our CONGRATULATIONS to youngster Jake 'Son of Jeff' Dunn for making his Division One debut in this game that should be the first of many more for him in future years.

It was another disappointing loss that our Waverley Wildcats could scarcely afford.

I'm sorry that I cannot recall any more for for you, but you'll have to excuse my memory that has been clouded by having to watch the games in the wrong sequence... the FIRSTS was simply too long ago for me to produce the usual recall of detail... not to mention the reduced enthusiasm!

PS: In the "showpiece" SECONDS game, Essendon rallied late to overturn a Waverley lead and to consign our Reserve Wildcats to a sad 1-4 loss ... just to cap off a long and very frustrating day!

Normal service should be restored for our upcoming HOME TWILIGHT game against Melbourne this coming Thursday night at 6:00PM. Followed by our visit to Melbourne's Surrey Park this Sunday afternoon at the NORMAL TIME of 3:30PM... what a reassuring joy that will be!!
 

This is like a visit to the dentist folks... I won't have to outline to my friends in the 'Waverley Nation' how much a win like this would mean to our club, who are on the brink of missing the finals, so to lose under such AGONISING circumstances is just about as painful as it gets for us!

Just to set the scene, my family were on the same "Red-Eye" flight back from Perth with the Victorian Aces team who were all close to exhaustion from three tough games on three successive SCALDING Perth days. Maybe worse than the physical toll was the mental fatigue of having to front up again after the almost soul-destroying series loss that tipped Victoria out of the race to defend their Claxton Shield Championship. It was no better for the Blackburn boys than it was for the Waverley crew, except for the fact that our Victorian players had also played at Malvern last Wednesday night and they were preparing for their fifth straight game-day at Blackburn.

The weather awaiting us at Blackburn's Billabong Park was just as bright and sunny as our experience in Perth, but Melbourne's far more civilised weather had turned down the blast furnace by a factor of at least 20 percent! The conditions would normally be near perfect for baseball, but it would remain very hard work for those players who were backing-up from Claxton duties. And, we don't forget those Blackburn guys like Cameron Hardy and James Brooks who played for the Australian Provincial team in Narrabundah, ACT over the same weekend.

Both teams could put a pretty good argument about who was worse affected by "State duties" and I would almost suggest that Blackburn fared worse, especially in terms of their pitching depth, yet the Orioles' mighty manager 'Lethal Lee' Hogan, who pitched sparingly in Perth, was still able to contribute superbly in this game, as was Australian Provincial's stalwart Cameron Hardy. 

The much worse news for our Wildcats was the absences of Jimmy 'Jeter' Beresford who also missed the trip to Perth with his latest groin injury and our triple-crown slugger Andrew 'Rusty' Russell who extended his stay in Perth after the Claxton Shield. It would be a bit like Basil Fawlty's wife Sybil stating the "bleeding obvious" to suggest that we could have used these terrific players both offensively and defensively in this game... please don't remind me about this!!

In the context of this game, and the way it unfolded, Waverley PROBABLY would have scored more than TWENTY runs had these guys been included in the batting lineup. But, hold the phone Wildcats' fans, the painful truth doesn't stop there! The defining moment in this game would come in the top of the sixth inning when Waverley had finally worn down Blacky's heroic Lee Hogan and a booming Grant Karlsen double to the right-centre fence had given us what, for all money, looked to be a solid 12-8 lead in the game with two out!

Alas, a sliding Daniel Berg was amazingly called OUT at the plate in what I can only described as a "questionable" call... my twin brother, who was sacked from writing these reports, would have found several other phrases to describe it, but I just can't go there!! The end result was that our lead was trimmed to 11-8 and an ongoing rally in that inning was extinguished. Worse still, 'Bergie', who had already starred in this game with a spanking home run among his hits, was forced to leave the game with a nasty dislocated finger from the home plate incident. His absence from the rest of the game would become a shattering blow, but we really hope that he is OK! 

If you think that our Waverley Wildcats should have romped in from that point, you may be right, but the effects of that play were to be a HUGE psychological "turning point" that was magnified several times over by the time that Blackburn had overrun us for a 15-12 victory that they very obviously savoured more than most... I guess that it was just that type of game!

At this point I don't have the offensive details, but I seem to recall that our Claxton Shield stars Grant 'Carter' Karlsen and Danny 'Bambino' Berg, until injured, were outstanding with the bat. Kerry 'KG' Gassner also laced a cracking "big fly" to right-centre in a strong hitting performance, while Jarrod 'Hammer' Hodges appears to be re-capturing his sweet timing lately. 

OKAY! This is where the excuses stop and the harsh reality hits home for Waverley. While Blackburn did miss their ace starter Brendan Wilson, who started on Friday night in Perth, and they did have to roll out Hogan (not Laurel) and Hardy after Claxton Shield duty, our Wildcats could have no such excuses for our pitching and the fact that we allowed the Orioles to compile no less than 15 runs in this game... surpassing our, more than enough, accumulation of 12!!

Evan 'Embree' Phillips has been terrific in his comeback this season, but he wouldn't want me to apply any sugar-coating to this performance. He was given a two-run lead to start this game yet, in total contrast to his recent form, he was totally unable to find the strike zone with TWO leadoff walks from a minimum of eight pitches... it was a VERY ugly start to what went on to become a five run inning that immediately reversed our two-run lead in the top half of the first frame! In many ways it was to become a portent of the game as it, so painfully, unfolded for Waverley.

Much as Lee Hogan did for his team, Brett Flemming stabilised the ship for Waverley during those important middle innings with just another solid, quality performance that should have been enough to earn another victory for both he and the Wildcats. When 'Flemmo' finally ran out of petrol tickets, it was time for the ever-reliable 'Tommy John' Rynberk to take his turn on a mound that had become a "gallows" for Wildcats' pitchers on this day.

Tommy must have had a flashback to some of his worst days in winter baseball for Waverley's low-grade Blackcats where he occasionally finds the standard of the game, especially on defence, not conducive to his canny off-speed pitching. Tommy doesn't like excuses either, but I have to say that, even though he has had many better days, I can't honestly say that he pitched anywhere near as poorly as the raw statistics might indicate. 

I have to stick with a similar line for Donnie Hendricks who was visibly upset with himself after taking some lumps at the end of the game. He was asked to stop the bleeding for a team that was clearly becoming rattled and pinned to the ropes by a home team that wasn't going to miss an opportunity to produce a flurry of knockout punches near the end of a contest that they were most assuredly losing on points!

So, here's the rub from a Waverley perspective... YES, absolutely, we should have won a game that definitely turned following Daniel Berg's horrible adventure at home plate. YES, we might have put the game out of sight if Beresford and Russell had been available. The big problem is that we had close to a full-strength bullpen available, and we used all of our best pitching, yet we could not find a way to limit the Blackburn Orioles' potent batting to less than 12 runs. Maybe our defence didn't handle Blackburn's Billabong Park diamond and it's various surfaces as well as the more familiar locals?... now there's another excuse that I haven't explored!

Sorry, I really don't like excuses... I just can't avoid the reality that our Waverley team, who are the defending Champions, still had plenty of opportunity to win, yet Blackburn got the job done. I'm going to upset some Wildcats' fans by suggesting that we cast aside the reasons and accept that we have been beaten by a better team on the day. It is our Waverley Wildcats who now have something to prove and, if we are good enough, we will get further chances to prove it!

PS: If nobody can find an intelligent way to reverse the ABJECT FAILURE of that nonsensical decision to play the FIRSTS game as the "curtain raiser" for the SECONDS this coming weekend at Essendon, I can't promise a report next week... let's just hope that sanity might prevail!????

Your WBCWEB writer was away in Perth covering the Victorian Aces away series of the Claxton Shield against the West Australian team.

However, my "support crew" of knowledgeable associates from the 'Waverley Nation' left me with the distinct impression that our Waverley Wildcats have approached this game just as we would have expected... almost like a preliminary final.

The ultimate evidence of this is the simple fact that we rolled out the "big dogs" among our pitching stocks in recent Victorian Claxton Shield stars Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks and Brett 'CC' Flemming who were unfortunately overlooked for the Aces trip to Perth.

Not that we would have expected anything else, but I will still pay tribute to the mental strength and professionalism of these guys for setting aside any lingering disappointment from their questionable omissions by pitching quite brilliantly for their club. It must have been a very difficult thing for their club and State manager David White to leave 'Donnie' and Brett out of the Aces team after their solid performances so far, but it would not have escaped his attention how impressively they handled the adversity and bounced back HARD!

I have also heard various versions of how "wastful" we were again on offence, yet we must have done a lot of things right to beat a tough Braves' team by the solid margin of 5-1.

I'm sorry that I don't have enough facts on hand to write anything more, so....

See you on Sunday when we return from Perth for the big game at Blackburn on Sunday!

One day a rooster, the next day a feather duster, or so it would feel for our Waverley Wildcats players who worked so hard to win our vitally important mid-week fixture against Doncaster last Wednesday night. On that occasion, which seems so long ago now, our Wildcats eventually broke open a tight game for an invigorating 8-1 victory. On that day we hit the ball hard and, eventually, the better team came out on top!

I'm far too "baseball wise" to suggest that Waverley were robbed in this game, but anyone who might imply that Newport were a vastly superior team would be barking up a tree that couldn't possibly be taller than the rapidly disappearing redwood forests in northern California. 

Yes, the visiting Newport Rams won this very important game 3-1 after ELEVEN heart-breaking innings at Waverley's always hospitable Napier Park on a day when the good humour among the BIG number of spectators somewhat belied the importance of winning and losing this game. Unless, of course, we were lulled into a false sense of security and into readily accepting a sad loss that rolled upon us far more quickly that we might have imagined?

No matter what is said to the contrary, nobody can deny that Newport scored all three of their runs from superbly positioned "Texas Leaguers" with two outs in each inning, while Waverley's (not enough) run came via an Andrew Russell no-doubt home run blast over left field. Now, we are not whingeing here folks, just stating facts. The precision of Newport's two run-scoring "chinkers" would be such that a GPS navigation system would prove them to have landed within one centimeter of each other, agonisingly between the despairing infielders and outfielders.

Not even the founding warlock of "Newport baseball" could have conjured up the all-important run that the Rams "manufactured" in the very first inning against Waverley's very effective starter Evan Phillips. One thing that the Newport lads seem to have perfected is the "unintentional bunt" which seems to me to be the most effective weapon in the game. A lot like walks, there is almost no way of realistically defending against the hard swinging mis-hit that multi-hops the third baseman and that finds the hustling runner safe at first by the proverbial bee's appendage!

Look, it is far too easy to point to the all too obvious negatives that conspired to register one then, much later, two more runs on the top half of the scoreboard. What needs to be emphasised here is that Newport's starting pitcher Bramwell was nothing short of STUPENDOUS in this game, tossing all 11 innings in a brave-hearted performance for his team. And, as far as their offensive output is concerned, it is not a matter of HOW, just HOW MANY!

The fact that Waverley's much vaunted offence could only milk one solitary run from him would be almost sufficient testimony, had it not been for the agonising number of ineffective bunts and steals by the Wildcats that enabled him to work through the innings much more quickly than I might have preferred. A pitcher might be expected to get 27 outs over nine innings, but when you play Waverley lately, you can almost guarantee that we will make life much easier for you with a fistful of "gifted" outs... that's just the kind of friendly, generous people we are... worse luck!! 

As mentioned, Waverley's starter Evan 'Embree' Phillips was terrific again in this game, as he was in his previous start and, had it not been for that dreadfully unfortunate run scored against him in the opening frame, he would have been the game winner and part of a brilliant combined shutout victory. 'Evo' was really impressive again in this game keeping most of the Newport batters off the bases but should'ves, could'ves and might'ves don't count for much in baseball or any other sports for that matter!

With neither team seriously threatening to break the 1-1 deadlock, the innings flashed by with rapid monotony until Evan had to hand over the ball to our ever-reliable 'Tommy John' Rynberk to take the game into extra innings. Tommy did exactly what he so often does for our team by using his crafty speed variation to take most of power away from the hitters and everything was going to plan heading into the top of the eleventh except, of course, for his team mates scoring a winning run when it was our turn to bat!

Unfortunately, for all his skill, Tommy didn't have the raw velocity to blow away Newport's lighter hitters near the bottom of their lineup and, after an agonising mis-play on a fielder's choice that would have ended the inning, he was victimised by one of those aforementioned "bleeders" that allowed the two all-important Newport runs to score. I might have to await the scorebook detail, but I'm guessing that all three of the Rams' runs were probably scored UNEARNED! 

I have already mentioned Andrew 'Rusty' Russell's torpedo-like home run that flew over left-centrefield to level the game, but there is not much else to remember about this game in terms of offensive highlights. We don't usually make too much fuss about missing or injured players, but we really did miss our Victorian short-stop star James 'Jeter' Beresford who has been hitting the ball with real authority lately, as evidenced by his brilliant four-hit game this past Wednesday. We wish Jimbo our very best for an even speedier recovery from his re-injured hip flexor. It hasn't come at a great time for him, Waverley or Victoria!

Just in case anyone might be feeling that this report has the undertone of an "ungracious loser" let me end it with an unconditional note of congratulations to the Newport team who came into our territory and took away the spoils from what was a most significant game for both clubs. We wouldn't expect that their valliant pitcher Bramwell would have to buy himself a beer at the Newport clubroom this week... he was a hero of immense proportions as the winning pitcher who went the entire journey in this game for his ballclub!! We dip our caps to Bramwell and the Rams. 

With a hint of regret, I'm off to cover the weekend Claxton Shield games involving Victoria in Perth, so I will not be around to update the WBCWEB or to write a match report for our next most vital encounter at Malvern this coming Wednesday at 6:00pm. Please help support the boys to get over the line for me and I'll look forward to seeing you all at Blackburn next Sunday.

WILDCATS BARE THEIR CLAWS 8-1 AT DONCASTER!
 Wednesday, 16 JAN 2008 at Doncaster   - Line Score Guessed, to be Confirmed Later

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
WAVERLEY	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	5	0	8
Doncaster	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1

The Waverley Baseball Club has a rich history, steeped with traditional success and littered with stories of great victories and tremendous players at both Junior and Senior levels. And, aside from those players who have been gifted with remarkable talent, we have also treasured those players who have given their all for the club via lion-hearted performances and selfless loyalty.

Following our trip to Doncaster for the mid-week twilight fixture last night, we can now add another spectacular entry into our encyclopaedia of big-hearted efforts when they have counted most for the club. Last time we ventured to Doncaster for the opening game of the season, a nervous Brett Flemming was making his debut as the club's No.1 starter and he was narrowly outduelled by the Dragons' new pitching ace Jason Blewjas in a disappointing losing cause.

This time it was Flemmo's turn to get the better of Blewjas in a tantalising head-to-head battle that raged until our Wildcats finally opened the scoring floodgates near the end of the game. So good were both pitchers for most of the evening that we saw a complete nine inning game within the two-hour time limit. The courageous Flemming went within two outs of going the distance on a warm and energy-sapping night. Making his performance all the more magnificent was the fact that he had thrown a lot of pitches in another terrific 5.2 innings start for Victoria in the Claxton Shield game against WA last Saturday night. 

Some professional players would struggle to back-up on just more than three days rest, but for a part-timer to do so, and to do it so brilliantly in a vitally important game for his team, is the type of stuff that should see Flemming's performance in this game added to the folklore of memorable efforts in a Wildcats' uniform. It was not only the fact that he restricted the dangerous Doncaster team to just one run over eight and one-third innings, but also the unfaltering consistency of his pitching that made this such a special performance... trust me, Brett Flemming was AWESOME! 

I would have to assume that Flemmo has derived quite a deal of confidence from his recent strong pitching for Victoria, but you would never hear anything even suggesting confidence from his lips, or very much else for that matter. Regardless of what he achieves, you can be guaranteed that 'Flemmo' will remain as quiet as a church mouse and one of the most unassuming characters ever to walk this earth. He's a good bloke, but he's not noisy.

Another chap who is also unassuming, but an entirely different personality to Brett, is 'Tommy John' Rynberk who has never been one to blow his own trumpet, but he is a much more extroverted character and one of the likeable "fun guys" in baseball circles. Even though he had a few runs to play with in the ninth, the competitive Rynberk wasn't in a generous mood when he arrived in the ninth inning with one out and two runners inherited. He required only a handful of canny strikes to close the account on a really uplifting Waverley victory. Tommy had done real justice to Flemming by convincingly closing out his tremendous effort. 

Having reported the most important part of the game first, I will back-track to the beginning. It was a near perfect setting for a game of utmost importance for both clubs with similar warm and bright conditions to those that we enjoyed in our first visit to Warrandyte. There was a good sized gathering of fans from both clubs and the nervous expectation was evident in some of the "verbal sparring" that gradually built up as the pressure mounted.

The game would not disappoint anyone as a contest, as outlined, but the occasional intervention of squabbles about umpiring decisions and the obvious self-induced pressure on players added a sharp edge to a contest that never really threatened to spill over into anything untoward. It was high-intensity baseball played in pretty decent spirit between two teams that have no history of animosity... it was mostly good natured stuff that quickly subsided when the game concluded. 

At this time I will have to come clean with the admission that I have no record of the stats from this game on hand, or the benefit of the scorebook, just a hazy memory that I must strain for detail. My sincere apology for any omissions or inaccuracies about our offence. One thing I certainly remember is that our Claxton Shield short stop Jimmy 'Jeter' Beresford built upon his hot hitting form against WA's pitching by starting this game with a scalding line drive double that bounced against the fence at deep right-centrefield. It was to be his first of at least three impressive hits for Jimbo in this game, possibly four? However, Waverley supporters would be dismayed when his lead-off double would not produce a valuable run in the first inning... please don't let it be another one of those games!

Victoria's HOTTEST Claxton Shield hitter of the moment is Danny 'Bambino' Berg and he started this game like he might suffer from "unexplained human combustion" when he crunched safe hits from at least his first two at bats... 'Bergie' wasn't too convinced about a couple of strikeouts called later in the game, but it allowed him to cool down to mortal temperatures... PHEW!

Another of our Claxton Shield stars Andrew 'Rusty' Russell has been so good that his two spanking doubles for Victoria over the weekend and his .385 overall average for the Aces is considered, by some, to be approaching a "slump"... I only wish that I could be good enough to have a slump like that!! Now, we very rarely see too much emotion from the reserved 'Rusty', but he was far from happy after being called out at first when he appeared to beat out a bunt play. Russell reacted in just the way most of us probably expected by taking his frustration out on the baseball with a towering home run from his next plate appearance to give Waverley some relief on the scoreboard. If he did go anywhere, which I don't subscribe to... look out, HE'S BACK!! 

I'm sure I remember Anthony 'Rolen' Reinke hammering at least two solid hits, but following his change of scenery at first base in this game, we might have to call him Anthony 'Thome' Reinke... although we would expect him to return to "hot corner" pretty soon. 

Just a final moment of levity at the expense of our batting star Jarrod 'Hammer' Hodges. 'Hodgo' has not had a lot of luck lately, crunching the ball and finding the fielders on top of his well documented pick-off problems at second base. While it was far from funny, we could see the irony in Jarrod finally nailing a sweet line drive up the middle, only to be picked off at first on a highly controversial call... it was enough to cause our normally cool, calm and collected manager David White to bubble over for a moment! I'd be thinking about purchasing a pile of Tattslotto tickets Jarrod... your luck couldn't possibly get much worse!

Once again, I really apologise to any of our batters who should have been detailed here but they, like the rest of the Waverley Nation, should be very content with a meritorious and absolutely critical victory. We can finally see a bit of light at the end of the finals tunnel, but there is still no room for a slip-up. The players and coaches will not need me to emphasise the danger represented by the arrival of those nagging Newport Rams at Napier Park, aiming to upset our apple-cart this coming Sunday!

WEARY WILDCATS WEAR DOWN EAGLES 6-1
 Sunday, 13 JAN 2008 at Waverley 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Sunshine	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	6	3
WAVERLEY	0	0	0	3	0	0	3	0	X	6	6	1

Well, you would have to be a real baseball addict, like me, to be really "pumped up" about our fourth game in three days after being saturated by three Claxton Shield games over Friday and Saturday as our Victorian Aces did battle with the West Australian team at Melbourne Ballpark. Making matters a little more exhausting for our Waverley Wildcats would be the very respectful fact that no less than SEVEN of our favourite players were in action for the Aces over the weekend.

The resumption of Victoria's Division One baseball would herald a visit from the Sunshine Eagles at Napier Park and, while they would miss pitching ace Greg Wiltshire, catcher Mathew Kent and slugger Peter Stokes would be ready to go into battle for them again today. AROOS star Matty 'Stick' Kent was catching his third game in three days, but Waverley's Grant Karlsen had only a matter of hours to recover from wearing the heavy armour behind the dish for Victoria in the nightcap game yesterday!

The one good thing working in favour of the players today was the fact that Melbourne's stupidly maligned weather was most pleasant, certainly not too hot for player comfort levels, but the mental fatigue of preparing for four games in three days should not be under estimated. One thing that the Waverley team cannot afford is the luxury of having another "bad day", because the Division One table reveals, quite clearly, that we have very little margin for error remaining this year if we are to compete in the finals as a pre-requisite to retaining our Championship. That is a very long way off in the distance at present!

With Wildcat pitchers Donavon Hendricks and Brett Flemming both starting for Victoria over the weekend, we would be most fortunate to have the quality arms of Evan Phillips and Tommy Rynberk ready to tackle the Eagles. In fact, the big story of the game for Waverley was the OUTSTANDING pitching that we produced on the day, especially the quite brilliant seven innings start from Evan 'Embree' Phillips who really headlined the victory.

Wildcats' fans would not have to remember too far back to the 2005/06 season when 'Evo' was Waverley's regular mid-week specialist and he performed so well in that capacity that he went on to win our Most Improved Player Award for the season. After more than a season away from the game a rejuvenated Phillips made a welcome return to the club before Christmas, but he had played mainly as a hitter while he regains the conditioning in his arm. After a few short-innings workouts, it was a huge bonus for the club to call upon him for this most important start. 

As manager David White commented so succinctly after the game... "one thing you've got to like about Evan is that he throws strikes"... Yes, very true 'Whitey', but I also like the fact that he has enough stuff to get good hitters out! Another guy who fits this description equally well is regular starter and today's first reliever 'Tommy John' Rynberk. With the heart of Sunshine's lineup ready to bat in the eighth inning, Tommy was the man entrusted with the nasty task. However, if it did concern the laconic Rynberk, he certainly didn't show it with another polished display and no reduction of our lead in the game. 

Just when the day seemed to be meandering on to a somewhat predictable conclusion, we were surprised to see that Tommy would not be returning to close the ninth inning. He would be replaced with the unfamiliar presence on the mound of our new superstar closer 'Rollie Fingers' Russell. I guess that 'Rusty' must have been looking for some more baseball action after having played all 27 innings for the Aces, plus eight for Waverley in the past three days. Our batting champion may not have been fully satisfied with his good batting efforts, but he would not be content to let the weekend pass without making his considerable presence felt!

With his renowned "cannon" of an arm throwing the ball from 60 feet instead of his usual distance at right field, Andrew would always be a handful, but it is quite rare for a non-specialist pitcher to look comfortable on the mound in serious competition. I would prefer not to inflate Rusty's ego any further, but I'd have to say that he really looked the part and none of the three hitters he faced looked remotely capable of forcing him to struggle. Yes Andrew, you were very good mate, but I just wish that you were not such a bleeding showoff!!

With the Sunshine offence shackled to a tally of just one run for the game, it would remain to be seen whether the battle weary Waverley batters could lift themselves for another big effort in this game. It would be no simple task to get the better of Eagles' pitcher James Ross who had limited us to a 2-2 draw in our previous meeting at Altona. One man who is genuinely seeing the baseball like a basketball at present is our returning professional Danny 'Bambino' Berg who has grooved his swing magnificently in six games with Victoria in Claxton Shield competition so far. It would hardly surprise anyone that 'Bergie' headlined the offence again in this game with his 2-4 that included a spanking double.

Designated hitter Kerry Gassner had a terrific game with a single and a RBI from a sacrifice fly as a most valuable contribution. The heavy bats of Grant Karlsen, Andrew Russell and Anthony Reinke supplied our other safe hits for the game, while most of our other players hit the ball solidly on occasions without finding the holes in the field... it can be a frustrating game!

In the end, I don't think that anyone would challenge Waverley's worthiness of the clear-cut 6-1 result in the game, but the fact that both teams recorded six safe hits and that Sunshine's three errors may have cost them a closer contest should ensure that there is no complacency in the Wildcats' camp. 

Only three days to prepare for what looms as a season defining game at Doncaster on Wednesday evening (6:00pm)... it should be just enough for our Victorian players to freshen up for our most important battle of the season so far. Then, if we survive that one, we have a few more days to get ready for those no-nonsense baseballers from Newport to pay us a visit at Napier Park again next Sunday... it should be an exciting week for the Waverley Nation!

WILDCATS RETURN SERVE 4-3 v GEELONG!
 Sunday, 16 DEC 2007 at Waverley 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Geelong	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	3	6	1
WAVERLEY	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	X	4	5	2

Anyone who did not attend the game but who had read my match report from this past Thursday night could have been excused for thinking that maybe I had secured a crystal ball of rare accuracy or that I had just received a master's degree in ESP! It would be like dragging a chapter from "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" to imagine just how closely our home game on Sunday mirrored our agonising loss to the same Geelong team on Thursday at Melbourne Ballpark. Thankfully, the one and only significant difference was that we reversed the result for an unconvincing 4-3 win.

Also not unlike our Thursday fixture, the weather was once again comfortably warm and sunny for our always eagerly anticipated visit by the Geelong Giants at Napier Park. I'm not sure whether there is any coincidence involved, but we won't complain about the fact that we seem to be blessed with this home fixture versus Geelong as our big pre-Christmas dinner night with all four senior teams playing together at the one venue. If there is any intent on behalf of the clubs via Baseball Victoria, then it is certainly a welcome example of regular scheduling... long may the tradition continue!

Most of the 'Waverley Nation' had at least partially recovered from the pain of our Thursday night defeat, while those who couldn't make it to the game insisted upon another summary of what went wrong for our team. By the time that the FIRSTS game started most of the Wildcats' supporters in the clubhouse had "chapter and verse" on how the tragedy unfolded on Thursday and it wasn't long before the eerie similarities started to appear again in this game. Yes folks, in those immortal words of Yogi Berra... "it was just like deja vu all over again!"

Our starting pitcher Brett Flemming had worked around a shaky opening frame to limit the damage to one unearned run. Waverley's mercurial Jarrod 'Pickoff' Hodges (just kidding Hodgo!) started our offensive ball rolling in a positive fashion with a neat leadoff hit into left field and he soon found himself shifted over to second base when Andrew Russell was grazed by a pitch... two on, none out! Surely this would be ANOTHER golden opportunity for Waverley to grab an important game by the throat? "NO... PLEASE!" was the inconceivable moan in the clubrooms when, in an instant replay of Thursday night, Hodges was picked off again! There was no offer of odds against the probability that this would once again prove costly!!

Those yet undiscovered tribes deep in the Amazon rain forests would have profited from the safest bet in history when our hot-hitting catcher Grant 'Carter' Karlsen stepped up to lace a home run over left-centre field. Yes, it was a most welcome go-ahead two-run bomb from the prodigious 'GK', but his heroics were subdued by the fact that the pickoff had erased one certain run from the ledger and possibly more with the extra rally-killing out in the inning. The frustration of this predicament was to become magnified over the ensuing innings while our Wildcats clung tenuously to a 2-1, then 3-1 lead after six innings of largely unproductive offence. The golden opportunity had seemingly passed us by for the umpteenth time this season!

Of course, on the Geelong side of the equation was the most effective pitching of their starter Dean Barker who owns a Championship medal after pitching for the Victorian Aces in their triumphant Claxton Shield team this year. When he has his low-angle left-arm pitches humming across the plate, Barker can be as difficult as anyone to hit and we won't be too critical of our guys for failing to make inroads against him. I was told that Barker tallied TEN strikeouts for the game, which is a fabulous effort against any offence. The obvious issue remains that we did have an opportunity to really put the squeeze on Barker early in this game but, in exactly the same way as with Cameron Forbes on Thursday, you cannot give quality pitchers an opportunity to re-group and settle into a game. The outcome is very often the same if you do!

Brett 'CC' Flemming was terrific again after taking the ball first for Waverley in this game. He may have been "nibbling" a little more than usual with one or two more walks than we would normally expect from him, but he had the composure and talent to work around most of his sticky moments and his six strikeouts were often delivered at the most vital times. As he has done on each occasion for Waverley this year, 'Flemmo' worked deep into the game with another quality start before a couple of "cheap" hits knocked him out of the game in the top of the seventh. 

Flemming was replaced by the increasingly impressive Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks who couldn't be blamed too much for another "floated" hit over second base that enabled Geelong to tie the game. What was crucial to the Wildcats cause was that 'Donnie' did not allow the Giants to grab the lead and he then proceeded to shut them out of the contest over the next two innings. However, the familiar frustrations were evident among the members of the Waverley Nation who had seen our fairly comfortable 3-0 lead evaporate on Thursday and it did look like history was capable of repeating itself... surely not?

It was definitely more relief than exultation when youngster Taylor 'Baby Beresford' McEvoy ignited a rally with a leadoff hit in the eighth inning and he was ultimately plated for the winning run when a bungled pickoff move enabled him to scamper home from third base. It was not the most decisive or exhilarating way to secure a victory but, the way things have been running for the Wildcats lately, we were in no position to look the gift horse in the mouth.

You wouldn't expect me to mince words folks and I'm not going to disappoint you. While we all accept that "a win is a win" and it sure beats losing, it is hard to be realistically excited about what we have seen from our Wildcats over recent weeks as we sit very uncomfortably outside the top four deep into this season. Those crucial little things that seemed to happen so routinely for our team last season have gone truant this year as we seem to be more capable of finding ways to lose games rather than how to win them. 

With no disrespect whatever to Geelong, who are not quite as strong as they have been in recent seasons, they have very nearly embarrassed Waverley over the past four days. While we will not be overly excited about taking two points from the two games, we really didn't deserve much better in the wash-up and the Giants could be genuinely excused for thinking that they may have snatched both results.

With the Christmas spirit in the air, I cannot end this report on a negative note and there was one rather significant outcome from Sunday's baseball that should not pass without comment. In the absence of any results from our Women's teams, it was a rare pleasure for me to update ALL OF OUR JUNIOR AND SENIOR TEAM pages on the WBCWEB with WINS this weekend. I really can't recall having done this before and it is most unusual for the Geelong club to be swept in all senior grades on the same day. While we may be a little disconcerted by the struggles of our FIRSTS, life is far from all doom and gloom at Waverley! 

There can only be one way to turn around our fortunes in the FIRSTS and that is via the simple formula of hard work and persistence. It should not be hard to recapture the confidence that comes from knowing that our best is definitely good enough, it's just a matter of staying positive and executing the fundamentals of the game as we know we can. There would be no better tonic for the club than if Santa Claus could deliver a victory against Blackburn down our chimney this coming Thursday evening. It goes without saying that the team could benefit from all the support we can muster for this final gathering of the Waverley Nation at the 6:00pm twilight game against the Orioles this Thursday... BE THERE!

PS: Dear Santa, here is my Christmas List for Thursday night: 1. More good pitching;  2. A defensive clinic;  3. A rally or two, or three;  4. At least one big scoring inning;  5. No more misadventures on the base paths;  6. No more bloop hits from the opposition;  7. A WIN and two more competition points!... It's not too much to ask is it?

WILDCATS BURGLED 3-4 BY GEELONG AT MBP!
 Thursday, 13 DEC 2007 at Melbourne Ballpark 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Geelong	0	0	0	0	0	4				4	7	2
WAVERLEY	1	0	2	0	0	0				3	7	1

I awoke this morning having spent a restless night, suffering a horrible nightmare that my beloved Wildcats had found a way to cough up a victory to Geelong at Melbourne Ballpark! I quickly reached for my watch to check the date and found, to my horror, that it was indeed FRIDAY and that the nightmare had been a soul-destroying reality. The very foundations of the 'Waverley Nation' were threatening to crumble after the late game at Altona last night. The hearty gathering of Waverley supporters tried, in vain, to rationalise how our boys had managed to discover another way to let an important game slip away without the points that we so desperately need.

This is not easy folks... I was sorely tempted to repeat the rather pitiful effort of my twin brother who emerged briefly from his banishment to offer the following words after our tragic Grand Final loss to these same Geelong Giants at the end of the 2006 season. On that occasion all he could manage to scribe was "Sorry Waverley fans, if you were fortunate enough not to attend the game, you won't want to know how it painfully unfolded!"  Yes, I agree it was a gutless effort, but I really can understand how he must have been feeling at the time while I now try to come to terms with last night's latest disappointment.

I have to say that, in many ways, our game against Geelong last night was a "microcosm" of the problems that have beset our reigning Premiers in so many games this season. If you had to summarise our season at this point, with not too many words, it would have to go something like this. Solid pitching too often unsupported by wasteful and inconsistent batting, with occasional defensive mishaps and not a whole lot of luck at the most important times... that's about it! Or, more succinctly... It's just not happening for us this year... what the "IT" is becomes a little harder to fathom!

The most obvious of our failings is that we have not produced sufficient rallies or the big innings that are required to win baseball games at the highest level. You can't expect to rattle off runs in every inning against quality pitching, but you must strike to take control when the opportunities present themselves. A classic, but wretched, example of this came in the very first inning for Waverley last night when we had runners occupying first and second base with one out, only to see our star Jarrod 'Hammer' Hodges caught "like a rabbit in the headlights" and picked off at second base. As fate would always decree in these situations, we peeled off a couple more hits in the inning, but the ONE solitary run scored would be a scant reward for what could have been a match winning start. You could compare it with our seven run opening frame against Essendon in the 2007 Grand Final earlier this year... the difference in the outcome requires no further explanation!

Obviously, we are not going to pillory 'Hodgo' for the regrettable loss of concentration as he remains a sterling contributor for the team, but it simply highlights the type of things we have been doing to limit our own scoring opportunities. And, perhaps more significantly, we all know what the emotional let-off can do to boost the sprits of the opposing pitcher and his team. On this occasion the first inning did not tell the tale as Waverley continued to enjoy almost total superiority in the contest. Our 3-0 lead looked as comfortable as a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce as the time clock rolled beyond the half-way point of the two-hour game. The only uneasy feeling was that the THREE runs should have been at least DOUBLED and this would prove to be the key factor that allowed the victory to be plucked from our grasp.

As ever, 'Tommy John' Rynberk was outstanding as Waverley's starter on this warm and sultry evening and it was certainly not his fault that the game slipped away and a brilliant "W" was erased from his record in painful circumstances. The highly competitive Geelong team rode a degree of good fortune and made maximum use of their luck by incorporating some timely hitting. Yes, they did manage to find the "foul lines" with the precision of Roger Federer and some of the hits that fell into the shallow outfield holes reminded us of the sublime touch of Ken Rosewall, but these things happen in baseball! The major difference was that Waverley clearly delivered the more convincing hitting, but we did not produce it at the most critical times and we definitely didn't maximise the opportunities we had nearly as well as the Geelong lads did.

By the time that Tommy was relieved, through little fault of his own, the momentum of the game had already shifted and it was a tough task for Steve 'Carlton' Hood or Evan 'Embree' Phillips to try to turn back the tide. These guys haven't had a lot of pitching recently and the "baseball gods" were not smiling on them any more favourably than they did on Rynberk. It's pretty hard to recount exactly how the Giants managed to scrap together the four runs that overran our three late in the game, but we know that the scoreboard was a very deflating sight for the Wildcats when "time and game" arrived all too soon.

Offensively, there was little surprise in the fact that the cream of Waverley's crop were to the fore once again with Grant 'Carter' Karlsen maintaining his .400-plus average via two more hits and Jarrod Hodges nipping at his heels with two more of his own. We know that we are blessed with a lineup full of quality hitters, but we have to find a way to put it all together... SOON!

It is a somewhat natural reaction to look for blame when you lose a game like this. What about those umpires?... Nope, they were very good and did not influence the result. How about injuries?... well, we did miss James 'Jeter' Beresford with his hip flexor, but his replacement Taylor 'Baby Beresford' McEvoy was fine and we had as good a lineup as we could muster. It must have been those dreadful conditions at Altona?... No, it was warm and windless and near perfect conditions for baseball. Gee whiz, don't tell me we'll have to resort to the ignominy of having to give the credit to our opposition?... looks like it! OK, WELL PLAYED Geelong, you haven't had everything run smoothly yourselves this season and this win will serve as a genuine highlight.

There is only one thing left for the 'Waverley Nation' and our team and that is to get over the disappointment as quickly as possible, to lick our wounds and to get back into winning ways immediately. There really shouldn't be too many mental scars when we host those same Geelong Giants at Napier Park this coming SUNDAY for our last weekend home game of the year. What we will expect to see is a team determined to set the record straight against the "green guys" on home soil. If anything, it has added a little extra spice to the occasion that was always going to be a big one. Don't miss the game, or the after match Christmas dinner.

Thank goodness that baseball is only a game after all... If "getting over it" is a problem, then we should all take a lead from our unshakable head coach David White who had already "moved on" by the time we left the Altona car park. As I have heard him say often with just one sentence in  the past "I'll get over it... guess what?... I just have!" It would be a good idea for the rest of us to adopt the same approach... see you Sunday.

WILDCATS SLAY THE DRAGONS 4-1 AT HOME!
 Sunday, 9 DEC 2007 at Waverley 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Doncaster	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	8	2
WAVERLEY	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	X	4	11	1

What a difference a couple of months can make in Victorian Division One baseball... and many other things I suppose? It was on 7 October when we ventured to Doncaster for the opening game of the 2007/08 season, full of expectation with our defending Premiers tipped to start the new campaign on a positive note against the freshly promoted Dragons. We were to leave on that sunny afternoon with our pride somewhat dented after copping the rude awakening of a 1-5 defeat from a buoyant home team.

It was to be perhaps a portent for a season that has not quite panned out the way most of the 'Waverley Nation' would have anticipated. Our well oiled machine from 2006/07 has been creaking for most of this season and, despite every attempt to tune-up the engine, we are yet to reach anything like full throttle. It has been a bumpy ride so far, full of unexpected potholes and other speed-humps on the road that have been intent on making our lives more difficult. 

What we are now hoping is that the corner may have just been turned and, just maybe, we are about to steer our way onto a super-highway of smooth running into the finals. OK, that lies some way ahead, and we are still quite a distance from becoming certain finalists... an unthinkable predicament for the Wildcats in the afterglow of our tremendous Championship win earlier in '07. At least we can start to sense the opportunity of gathering some momentum leading into the Christmas break following our pretty solid 4-1 victory over Doncaster this past weekend. 

On the first occasion we were first to face Doncaster's big off-season signing Jason Blewjas who has always been a tough proposition for hitters, but more so on that day when he was determined to show his new club what he could do in their big Divvy One home opener. Just about the only thing that has proven harder than finding a way to hit Blewjas this season has been finding a consistent way to pronounce his surname!! Jason Blewjas has been a revelation so far this season and he is chiefly responsible for Doncaster's current lofty position on the D1 table.

A few things have changed since that opening day confrontation, but by far the most significant is the development of Waverley's own starting pitcher Brett 'CC' Flemming who has steadily been finding his feet in the competition with incremental improvement each week. Not that 'Flemmo' hasn't been very good in every one of his appearances, it's just that he seems to be gaining much more self-assurance about his capacity to be a dominant pitcher at this level.

Brett had only just made his mark as a young SECONDS pitcher at Waverley, with a couple of cameo FIRSTS appearances, before he headed off to college in the USA. Sure, he was a much improved and reasonably experienced pitcher by the time he returned for this season, but he has still had to convince himself that he can cook in Victorian baseball's hottest kitchen. Flemming is certainly not the most outspoken or opinionated chap but, in his own quiet and determined way, he is now starting to demonstrate the type of confidence that is needed to be successful at this level. We may be biased, but he is pitching as well as ANYONE in Division One right now!

If he was battling understandable nerves on opening day, it was a very different story this time on another warm and sunny day at Waverley's Napier Park. On this occasion Brett Flemming was to out-duel Blewjas with a brilliant eight-inning exhibition of controlled and purposeful pitching that yielded just one run for the Doncaster boys. Flemming richly deserved another win on his record, while a heating-up Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks was "lights out" again in the ninth inning with another blistering two-K save.

Of course, it would also be a much improved Waverley offence sent out to solve Blewjas on this occasion with the arrivals of James Beresford, Glenn Mascoll and, this week, Danny Berg. It has never been a secret in baseball what a major difference a couple of quality bats can have to the composition and performance of a batting lineup and, with 'Bergie' finally back in the Wildcats fold, ours is suddenly taking on a much more potent appearance. All we need to do now is to turn the talent into consistent run production and this doesn't always automatically follow!

It came as no coincidence that Daniel 'Bambino' Berg was the man to solve Blewjas better than most in this game. We thought that it may take a week or three for Danny to work off a little rust, but after a brief "sighter" last Thursday night, he was belting out a mighty 3-4 with two doubles in his second game back at Waverley... it could be an early warning for opposing teams to prepare for the "laser show" if Danny starts to run hot!

The other man to connect for more than one hit was our utility baseball all-rounder Evan 'Embree' Phillips who is getting decent reward for his smooth batting stroke, to compliment his quality left-arm pitching... nice work 'Evo'! I'll reserve a final brief mention for our formidable team of short stops who also had two hits. James 'Jeter' Beresford contributed a solid shot before leaving the diamond with a tweaked hip flexor, making way for his understudy Taylor 'Baby Beresford' McEvoy who didn't let anyone down defensively, while adding a solid base hit of his own... you'll hear plenty more about this exciting young fellow! 

We have said plenty about the defensive wizardry of Jimmy Beresford and the amazing arm of catcher Grant Karlsen, but both had to take a back seat this week to another Wildcats’ star who snatched the Dazzling Defence Award for this game. Our versatile Claxton Shield right fielder Andrew Russell hasn’t quite managed to replicate his full batting potential yet after lifting the triple-crown last season, but he remains a player of unique quality.

‘Rusty’ has filled just about every defensive position during his relatively young career and he has already played at short stop and pitched for the Wildcats this season when needed. However, back in his more settled position of right field for this game, Russell provided us with a reminder that he also possesses one of the most impressive throwing arms in Australian baseball. With a runner on first, ‘Rusty’ fielded a sharp ground ball in right field and proceeded to hurl a rocket “strike” to second base to force out the disbelieving runner. You don’t see a 9-4 put-out every day at this level and it takes some freakish throwing velocity to achieve one… it was a beauty Andrew!

It has not been easy for any team to get the better of the Doncaster Dragons so far this season, so Waverley's fairly conclusive victory in this game should provide a platform for the confidence to forge ahead in our title defence with many bigger battles looming. The first of those will come this week as we head toward Christmas with a double-dose of those ever competitive Geelong Giants. It all starts with a "half-way house" meeting at Melbourne Ballpark for the late fixture this coming Thursday night. Then, in traditional style, we will roll out the Waverley welcome mat for our mates from Geelong to visit and party on with Christmas festivities after the game on Sunday.

We know that the Geelong team will have its usual healthy travelling support from 'Ricko' and the team, so it would add to the atmosphere of the occasion if the 'Waverley Nation' was to turn up in our biggest possible numbers to support the home-standing Wildcats. We can just about guarantee a terrific baseball game and a friendly "family environment" for everyone who can make it to our final home game of 2007... don't dare to miss it folks!!

To read about our "Christmas Dinner" after the Geelong game this coming Sunday... YES, our Geelong friends too, click here.

WILDCATS DOUBLE-UP 6-4 v CHELTENHAM!
 Thursday, 6 DEC 2007 at Waverley 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cheltenham	2	0	0	0	0	2	0			4	8	1
WAVERLEY	1	3	0	1	0	1	X			6	9	0

There was a sense of déjà vu about the mid-week game at Napier Park yesterday evening with virtually identical warm and balmy conditions to our previous mid-week home game versus Malvern last season. Who could forget our dramatic comeback from a deep hole in that fixture when Jimmy Beresford iced the game with a clutch three-run homer? As I mentioned quite regularly last season, these mid-week fixtures at local venues are the biggest improvement to the competition since I’ve followed Victorian Division One baseball… they are a real treat for any baseball addict!

It was another spectacular night for baseball at Waverley and a very healthy gathering of local baseball fanatics certainly enjoyed the opportunity for another meeting of the ‘Waverley Nation’ at our most hallowed baseball cathedral. Visiting again for the second time in a week were the Rustlers from Cheltenham who had given us a tight contest last Sunday and there was little reason to expect anything different this time.

The weather was identical, the attendance was similar and, unfortunately for our Wildcats, the opening of the game was also eerily reminiscent of that aforementioned game against the Braves last November 30th. On that occasion our starting pitcher Stevie ‘Carlton’ Hood was the unfortunate victim of a warm breeze that helped float balls over our fence with the frequency of a Twenty20 cricket match. Not that quite the same conditions existed this time, but it sure felt that way when a barely settled clubhouse saw the very first pitch of the game disappear over centre field for an instantaneous Cheltenham lead!

Firstly some team news. Steve Hood has not been available during our recent “log jam” of games after having wisdom teeth removed… we all hope you are on track for a speedy return Steve. Also missing would be Jarrod ‘Hammer’ Hodges who has trouble getting away from his business commitments for early mid-week games these days. Balancing his absence was the welcome return of Daniel ‘Bambino’ Berg who has just arrived back from his latest professional season with the Minnesota Twins. ‘Bergie’ will take a little time to shake the rust after a decent layoff, but we all know what a valuable asset he will be when he gets back in the groove.

Making his first start for the Wildcats this season was Donavon ‘Drysdale’ Hendricks who has shouldered a heavy workload lately, pitching relief on both Saturday and Sunday last weekend. ‘Donnie’ took a few pitches to warm up last night after his very first pitch was laced for a ‘big fly’ and his second yielded another sharp hit. However, a maturing Hendricks was quick to re-gather his composure and, after limiting the damage to two runs in a shaky first frame, he went on to pitch four more impressive scoreless innings to secure himself a solid win. Once he cranked it up, Hendricks was all business with SEVEN ruthless strike outs during his stint.

Next to the mound was our usual mid-week starter ‘Tommy John’ Rynberk who also found himself rudely greeted by the Rustlers who just refuse to go away. Our Wildcats had built a 5-2 lead by the time that Tommy replaced Donnie on the hill, but just a few pitches later two solo home runs had narrowed the gap to a tenuous 5-4 with nobody yet out in the inning. Much like Donavon earlier, Tom was not about to wilt under the pressure and it is a measure of both these young guys that they don’t “implode” when the going gets tough. Even the very greatest pitchers will get knocked around at times, but it is how they respond to the adversity that gives a more accurate guide to their quality and character.

It was a most critical moment in the game when Rynberk was able to secure the three outs in the sixth inning without surrendering our hard-earned lead so late in the contest. It enabled our offence to tack on an insurance run in the bottom half of the sixth before lefty Evan ‘Embree’ Phillips was handed the ball for the final frame as the two-hour limit ticked past. ‘Evo’ was quite impressive as he is gradually getting his arm in shape for pitching again.

I did mention previously what a bonus it could be for Waverley that Evan decided to make a comeback this season after more than a year out of the game. Not only is he getting back into pitching form, but he is also batting strongly. His two hits in this game, plus his inning of relief pitching that collected a save was a terrific all-round contribution for the team.

It comes entirely without surprise that two of Waverley’s hitting machines were at it again with multi-hit games last night. Catcher Grant ‘Carter’ Karlsen nailed two for two and it was only a couple of disciplined walks that denied him the opportunity for more hits! Andrew ‘Rusty’ Russell celebrated his return to full health with a hard-hitting 2-4 game that included a cracking home run over the drainage channel beyond left field… watch out when this guy gets hot again!

A couple of vital wins over the Cheltenham club have been some tonic for our struggling Premiers this week, but there is still the feeling that there are a few cylinders that are not yet firing. While we struggle to recapture our Championship form from 2006/07, the positive news is that we KNOW our best is good enough… all we need to do is to find it! Let’s hope that we can start gathering some momentum with a reversal of our loss to the Doncaster Dragons at Napier Park this coming Sunday… come along and give the Wildcats plenty of home support! 

WILDCATS WIN 3-0 SHUTOUT v CHELTENHAM!
 Sunday, 2 DEC 2007 at Waverley 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cheltenham	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1
WAVERLEY	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	X	3	5	3

For those baseball addicts in the 'Waverly Nation' like me, we might just as well have slept on a camp stretcher at Napier Park as we spent nearly all of this past weekend at our "second home" taking in an overdose of Division One baseball. It all started with our epic 10-inning loss to Blackburn in the make-up game on Saturday, then it culminated in our more satisfying 3-0 victory over the visitors from Cheltenham yesterday.

It had been a frustrating 14 days and three disappointing games since we last tasted victory at home against the cellar-dwellers from Melbourne and this is as good (or as bad?) as a lifetime for the Waverley faithful. Our defending Premiers have simply not been able to find the key to unlock the mystery of recent hard-luck defeats and, no matter how hard the boys have tried, nothing seems to be coming easily for us this season. 

On most occasions we would have been reasonably confident of a good showing against the newly promoted team from Cheltenham but, in our current form, there could be no room for complacency. We knew very well that the Rustlers are very strong in pitching especially and this would always tend to ensure a dangerous opponent. We really didn't need another nail-biting afternoon, but this is exactly what we were to endure on this hot and steamy Sunday.

It all started in quite promising fashion for Waverley when we scored an all important opening run in the bottom of the first stanza, but the warning sirens should have been blaring when we, yet again, squandered a terrific opportunity to add some padding to the scoreboard. This has been a most disturbing trend for our Wildcats this season, and lately in particular, as we have explored many different ways to kill off our own threats of a rally. We have suddenly mislaid the art of producing the timely hits with runners in scoring position and we are leaving more runners on base that any team would like. The big multi-run inning has all but disappeared from Meg Clarkson's scorebook recently.

True to recent form, the attending 'Waverley Nation' would be forced to squirm throughout the next seven innings as we clung, unconvincingly, to that one run "buffer" with more LOB's than a French Open tennis tournament. The only thing that was giving us some degree of comfort was the quite SUPERB pitching performance of our own starter Brett 'CC' Flemming who, once again, pitched like a titan for the Wildcats.

Regular readers would have often heard that 'Flemmo' hasn't let anyone down this season, but this is becoming a bit of an understatement and possibly even a slight insult to the quality of his performances. Far from the modesty of "not letting anyone down", Brett was quite brilliant in this game with what is no doubt one of the finest pitching performances we have seen from ANYONE on any team this season. The simple fact that he battled sweltering heat to allow only four base runners with seven strike outs over eight magnificent innings just about speaks for itself. He scattered three hits and allowed just one free pass when he was surely tiring later in the game. The rest of his work was brisk, crisp and highly effective... it was a superlative effort! Flemming richly deserved the shutout that was preserved later by Donnie Hendricks.

In this game Waverley's defence was better, but not yet near the errorless efficiency that we were certainly spoiled with during 2006/07. While not yet approaching that near-perfect standard, there did appear to be signs of the gradual improvement we would expect from the quality of our players who have not gone away. The old saying that "success may be fleeting but class is permanent" should prove itself again before this season is over! As much as he hates to hog the limelight, there is just no chance that I could overlook or fail to mention another special highlight from our short stop wizard James 'Jeter' Beresford.

'Jimbo' made two or three other marvellous plays in this game, but these have become somewhat routine for him and we could not pour out enough print to highlight every one of those he makes. However, the clubroom burst into sustained applause after one charging, bare-handed, off-balance, pick-up and throw nailed a hustling runner for an important third out. There is absolutely no exaggeration in the statement that Derek Jeter would have been proud of that one! Indeed, the skill and balance needed to make this play was quite reminiscent of the smooth moving Yankee superstar. For James the difficult is made to look easy and the impossible sometimes becomes an opportunity... he is incredible!

Before I leave the subject of pitching and defence, I'm quite confident to say that our closer for the game Donovan 'Drysdale' Hendricks didn't need the two "insurance runs" banked by Waverley in the bottom of the eighth inning. After the "needle" of our tough loss to Blackburn the previous day, 'Donnie' backed-up to make sure that the horses had bolted into a rapidly vanishing distance for the Rustlers. Hendrick's looked like a man with an important dinner date, striking out two batters in the ninth inning with a sequence of sizzling strikes in a red-hot display of relief pitching. 

The man who, as always, catches ALL the pitches for Waverley and who guides our pitchers through a long hot day is Grant 'Carter' Karlsen. 'GK' has been getting so much credit for his blazing bat over the last few seasons that we sometimes tend to overlook the consistent excellence of his work behind the plate. In a moment of madness, one of Cheltenham's four base runners decided that it was time to test whether Karlsen's arm had faded... perhaps because so few try these days that we might tend to forget? When Grant's bullet-like throw beat him to second base by six metres, I think you could safely say that he was reassured... stealing bases off Karlsen is a suicide mission!! Oh yeh, I nearly forgot, Grant also batted 2-3 again in this game... what's new?

Last but not least on today's honour roll is our faithful all-purpose infielder Glenn 'Ferret' Mascoll who is gradually finding his best form returning lately both defensively and offensively. I did mention that his solid hitting game against the quality Blackburn pitching on Saturday was a positive sign. The news must have travelled south because Glenn found himself "plonked" twice by pitched balls in yesterday's game. However, 'Mantle' Mascoll had the last and the loudest laugh when his eighth inning two-RBI home run bomb put the game on ice for Waverley. 

By a quirk of scheduling, we will be welcoming those same Rustlers from Cheltenham this coming Thursday night for our first mid-week TWILIGHT fixture of the season at NAPIER PARK, first pitch 6:00pm. If you're still not fully satisfied with the glut of Division One baseball at Waverley lately, you can pay us another visit next Sunday afternoon for the re-match of our opening game defeat versus the Dragons from Doncaster... this is no reference whatsoever to their wives or girlfriends! OK, that was just a very poor attempt at humour but, more seriously, let us hope that it is the Wildcats who are breathing fire this time!

WILDCATS LOSE A 10-INN EPIC 2-6 v BLACKBURN!
 Saturday, 1 December 2007 at Waverley 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Blackburn											6
WAVERLEY											2

Welcome to another day in paradise... well, at least it might have been if our Waverley Wildcats had won a GREAT game instead of losing it in slightly agonising fashion. A warm, tending towards hot and steamy, day greeted us at Napier Park for the make-up fixture for the game that had earlier been flooded out against our most local of rival clubs from Blackburn.

The game would bring an interesting contest between two teams that have evolved (and usually do) in differing directions. On our hand, our defending Premier Wildcats are not a whole lot different to the team that took us to glory in March 2007, while we have been developing several star juniors so far this season. Blackburn, on the other hand, rarely build from within, but they are remarkably successful in luring strong and established players from other clubs. Most notable of today's additions would be their sterling starting pitcher Brendan Wilson who was probably the game MVP after throwing many decisive pitches for the Orioles.

There can be little doubt that the visiting Blackburn team looked the more likely winners for the first half of the game. They were riding an impressive streak of big victories against a Waverley team that has been below par and battling hard for limited success lately. On the mound for Waverley would be the redoubtable 'Tommy John' Rynberk who simply doesn't know how to let the Wildcats down! It was a massive challenge for 'TR' to take on the might of the Blackburn offence and to emerge as he did as certainly close to the hero of the day for Waverley.

As much as we mentioned it so regularly, Tommy Rynberk has had BRILLIANT and lion-hearted performances for the Waverley Baseball Club in our 2006/07 Premiership season, yet I cannot remember any that were more impressive or braver than his OUTSTANDING efforts for the club today. Against dangerous opposition, Tommy simply refused to buckle when the game was on the line and, if not for him, there would be nothing left to excite Wildcats fans near the end of the contest... we may have been well and truly out of the picture by that stage!

Apart from his never-changing attitude and his natural cunning, there are no "smoke and mirrors" about Tommy Rynberk. He knows his weaknesses and he pitches to his strengths. He highlighted again in this game that his best attribute by far is that he is a born competitor, but he doesn't let this exaggerate itself into "internal pressure". Tommy just gets on with the game and sets about doing his very best with the next opportunity he has. In short, he seems to live by the most sensible philosophy that you can only manage those things that are in your own control.

To summarise a really exceptional performance, Tommy was taken deep for two solo home runs... that is where the bad news ends for him. The rest of his performance was exemplified by the fact the he subdued a host of tough Blackburn batters and his day was made FAR more difficult by the fact that the Wildcats defence somewhat deserted him with three or four unexpected misadventures that were to further test his resolve. As it turned out, Tommy Rynberk was to graduate with an A-PLUS once again after he turned seven-plus innings of walking the tightrope into a genuine chance of a Waverley victory!

On most occasions Tommy would have walked unassisted to collect the MVP award at Waverley, but on this day he would have to share the honour with another young superstar James 'Ripken' Beresford. The fact of this matter is that 'Jimbo' has already been terrific since resuming with the Wildcats after his debut pro season, but he hasn't quite got the "print" he may have deserved already. Well folks, much like Rynberk, Jimmy would certainly have been a hero for Waverley today if the team had snatched the victory that looked so possible in the latter part of the game.

If you ask me, James epitomises the type of player that you would wish for in the #2 batting hole with his ability to, not only get on base, or move runners, but also his ever-increasing extra-base power. James was by far the offensive star for our Wildcats today with his 2-4 that included two doubles and he was twice ensconced in scoring position with one out in situations that would have changed the game for Waverley. This young fellow has delivered everything we may have envisioned after his rookie professional season, and more, he is already a LEADER and a stellar performer for the Waverley Baseball Club.

And, among the mayhem of a relatively poor defensive display by our team, young Beresford demonstrated a glove that continues to be more like a major league standard than anything below that. Not for the first time this season, 'Jimbo' extended his range to collect "gap balls" that others wouldn't touch and one of his catch-tag-up double-plays should be right near the top of Baseball Victoria's highlight reel plays for 2007/08. Not only was it a play of spectacular athleticism, but it also came at the most pressurised time of what was, help me out, a nerve-jangling contest!

I have already said that Blackburn had the better of the first half of this enthralling contest, but there could be few arguments that our Waverley Wildcats hit back strongly and, if there was to be a clear winner, we had BY FAR the better chances to grab the victory with scores locked at 2-2 in the late innings of the game. At least twice, just from memory, we had Beresford's speed in scoring position simply salivating for a chance to score the winning run for Waverley... with the heart of our batting order ready to deliver the decisive blow!

In keeping with our fortunes lately, it wasn't going the way of our Wildcats again today. While Brendan Wilson deserves his due credit for pitching around a couple of these situations, I'm still not certain that the "baseball gods" applied the good fortunes of the game fairly on this "Super Saturday"... Blackburn WON, Waverley LOST... just check the scoreboard.

Before I finish crying into my overused hanky, I must pay belated credit to Glenn 'Ferrett' Mascoll who showed very encouraging signs of coming back into his Premiership form today with two most valuable hits against the strongest of pitching opposition... we need you back to your best Glenn! Of our relief pitchers Evan Phillips was HUGE, Donny Hendricks could have easily won the game and Andrew 'Angry' Russell vented some of his frustrations. Russell set aside "minor" surgery on Friday to play today and, typically, he wasn't satisfied that he couldn't have more impact for his team.

It's not a good time for me to comment on Waverley's situation in the wake of another disappointing loss, but I'm still riding high with the view that we are the REIGNING PREMIERS! I haven't seen anything from ANY opposition team that should make us feel in any way negative about our chances to defend our title!

Tomorrow we have another "log-jammed" home fixture again Division One new guys Cheltenham. There is not a chance in the world that we would take these guys lightly (or anyone else), but we will need to take aim at them again this THU 6 DEC in our first BIG MID-WEEK GAME at NAPIER PARK... we need to support the battling Wildcats at both games!

WILDCATS MEDIOCRE IN 3-6 LOSS AT MALVERN!
 Sunday, 25 November 2007 at Malvern 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
WAVERLEY	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	6	4
Malvern	2	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	X	6	12	2

I must apologise to the 'Waverley Nation' if you realise that I am lacking some enthusiasm for this report. For one thing my valiant attempt to "drown" a lingering cold/flu bug over the weekend has failed dismally... far from drowning the offending bug, I now find it swimming like Grant Hackett! Also, I am finding it somewhat difficult to report objectively on Waverley's disappointing Division One games lately. It's not that we can't cope with a good old fashioned dose of losing, even if it is one of my least favourite pastimes, it's just that it is not exactly easy to explain exactly where our current lack of success is arising from?

Maybe it was best summed up by manager David White after the game when he suggested that "we always seemed to find a way to win the close games last season, but this season it's just not happening for us so far". 'Whitey' has always had the unique ability to summarise what appears a complex issue into something far simpler and I'm starting to think that he might be right on the money again this time. There are not always clear and decisive "reasons" why baseball teams go through rough patches, it is a game that sometimes seems to defy logic!

Anyway, one thing that I can report with a degree of certainty is that we have run into a few very efficient pitching performances from our opposition and this is one pointer that very often leads to the reason why teams are successful. In complete contrast to our relentless offence last season, we have been unable to mount rallies or to apply pressure when we've needed to in recent games. How much this is due to the effectiveness of the pitching we are facing I'm not too sure, but it would be ungracious and unreasonable to suggest that it was not a major factor.

What makes this even more frustrating for Waverley supporters and the team is that our own pitching has been very good and our bullpen has given us every opportunity to win just about every game this season. It would be grossly unfair and inaccurate to think that our pitching is letting us down this year. We will always be tempted to bemoan the loss of 'Nolan Ryan' Fisher who was BRILLIANT for us last season, but the reality is that Brett 'CC' Flemming has done pretty much everything you could ask as his replacement in the role of No.1 starter for the team. 

'Tommy John' Rynberk has returned with the same type of effectiveness that he demonstrated so often last season, while Steve 'Carlton' Hood is improving with experience all the time although pitching mainly in the RESERVES lately. Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks is also getting older and wiser with his professional experience behind him and he looks a more confident and potent pitcher to me already this season. I don't think that pitching has been, or will be, our problem. 

It may be that our defence will take a little time to return to the "Everest like" bar that we set as a standard last season with our middle infielders returning late from overseas commitments this year. James 'Ripken' Beresford was entitled to take a few weeks off after an extended debut professional season with the Minnesota Twins, while Glenn 'Ferret' Mascoll doesn't appear to have quite settled back into his best form since returning from playing in the Dutch league. 

We can also point to the loss of Daniel 'Rambo' Reeman and the instability of our first base position that is currently shared by Kerry Gassner and Chipper Maurer, along with the injury issues that have forced batting star Jarrod 'Hammer' Hodges to platoon between centrefield and DH. I guess what we are saying here is that, while we haven't had any huge defensive problems, it is not the same SETTLED unit that we became used to seeing performing like a machine last year. 

I'm also a firm believer that offence and defence sometimes goes hand in hand. There are myriad examples of players who struggle to find their best batting form if they are struggling or unsettled defensively. I surely don't think that it has helped a few of our players to get back into their offensive groove that we have been forced to shuffle defensive positions so often in the first half of this season... the quicker we can get some continuity here the better it is sure to become!

Getting back to the game at hand, there is not a whole lot to say. We were quite happy when our team was able to scratch out a run in the top of the first, but a familiar theme reoccurred when we allowed the opposition to hit back immediately. 'Flemmo' had retired two batters when he was a trifle unfortunate to allow a two-out runner on first... he then made his first genuine "mistake pitch" with a ball that Claxton Shield batter Andrew McKenzie turned on and smacked over the deep right field fence. Our early 1-0 lead had too rapidly been overrun with a 1-2 deficit.

Neither team really threatened to change the course of the game over the next few innings until 'Flemmo', not for the first time this season, found his manful toil starting to unravel through little fault of his own. He was again clearly unfortunate when a couple of unconvincing hits saw him contending with base runners at first and third. Brett did look capable of pitching out of the jam when a defensive misadventure saw the game-breaking run score at just the most decisive time in the contest.

Our superstar catcher Grant Karlsen had an opportunity to pickoff the runner at first base, but his near-perfect throw was foiled when the retreating base runner became entangled with our first baseman Kerry Gassner and the ball rolled away agonisingly far enough for the runner to score from third base. Anyone who has followed our fabulous game of baseball for as long as I have would understand that it was almost predictable that the flood gates would open for more bonus runs in that inning as the Malvern Braves grabbed control of the game. 

I certainly agree with those who argued that it was an unnecessary and "low-percentage" play that caused the Wildcats' wheels to fall off, but it is also the type of play that we thrived upon last season, while this season they are just not coming off! I guess it sort of gets back to what 'Whitey' said about the mystery of winning or losing close games of baseball. There can be no question about the fact that our Wildcats pressed as hard as they could to mount some late offence in the game but, unfortunately for us, the destiny of the game had already been decided.

So, here's the trick folks, how do we re-group and restore sufficient confidence for us to take on the strength of the pace-setting Blackburn Orioles in the make-up for the washed out game at HOME this Saturday at 3:00pm? We then need to back-up to host the Cheltenham Rustlers at Napier Park in the scheduled game this Sunday.

Sure, there is a lot of baseball still to be played this season, but the longer it takes us to establish a winning roll, the tighter we'll find that window closing and our margin of error gets skinnier all the time. We have already discussed how unpredictable the game of baseball can be and, for this reason alone, it does not pay to think that it will all come together some time in the future. The time to start building some momentum is NOW! And, I reckon our Champion team can do it!!

WILDCATS ESCAPE WITH 2-2 DRAW v SUNSHINE!
 Thursday, 22 November 2007 at Melbourne Ballpark 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Sunshine	0	0	1	0	1	0	0			2	7	2
WAVERLEY	0	0	0	2	0	0	0			2	3	2

One thing we love, but not always enjoy, about our great game of baseball is that it will always find a way to take you out of your "comfort zone"! Just when you might be starting to think that you know enough to assume outcomes or to predict results, baseball will nearly always provide you with a stark reminder that it is not a predictable game. The hard-core of the 'Waverley Nation' that attended our mid-week fixture against Sunshine at Melbourne Ballpark last night will attest to the fact that nothing can be taken for granted.

Don't think for one moment that we lack any respect for the Sunshine Eagles, because we know very well that all Division One teams are in the league for a reason and that you don't survive for very long at this level without having plenty going for you. Some of us retain vivid memories of them beating us in a tense mid-week game at this very venue just a couple of years ago. It's just that, with established superstars Greg Wiltshire and Mathew Kent overseas with the AROOS National Team, we really did expect to secure the points against the winged-Eagles! In the end, it would be our defending Premier Waverley Wildcats who would be wiping our collective brows with the relief of having "salvaged" a draw against a team who probably shaded us on the night.

It was a little cool, OK chilly, by the time we arrived at Melbourne Ballpark to catch the end of Essendon's win over Melbourne, but the weather was to turn a little worse by the time our late game was getting underway. As if on queue, a steady band of misty drizzle descended upon the venue and it stayed unabated for about five innings of our game. It was to make life just that bit more difficult for both teams, but I can't help feeling that the unpleasant conditions somewhat favoured the Sunshine team who would surely be looking for creative ways to "rattle" the more fancied Waverley team... and so it was to unfold!

I'm writing this report without the benefit of the scorebook and with my confidence shattered by advice that I somehow managed to recall the sequence of our home run hitters incorrectly last Sunday! Apparently 'GK' hammered the first home run and 'Reinks' hit the second... it really didn't matter to me as long as they were Waverley batters! Look, let's face it, the bombs were flying around at Napier Park like tomahawk missiles in the Iraq War... how was I expected to read the serial number on each of them as they rocketed out of view? Anyway, there was not enough offensive activity in this game to cause me any real concern about getting it wrong this time! However, I was not charting the innings and I'm only guessing when these events occurred. 

After Sunshine had "manufactured" a go-ahead run early in the game, most of the Waverley contingent remained fairly confident that our offence would eventually kick into gear and put up some "crooked numbers" on the scoreboard. Our chance arrived when Jimmy 'Ripken' Beresford laid down one of his patented drag-bunts and his hustle down the line induced a throwing error that allowed him to scoot to second base. It was perfect timing with our heavy hitters ready to cash in. 'Rusty' Russell promptly delivered a RBI double to tie the scores, followed by Grant 'Carter' Karlsen who delivered a RBI single to put Waverley on top 2-1. 

We should have read the ominous tea leaves when a double-play with our runner in motion snuffed out what threatened to be a big Wildcats' rally. Sunshine had escaped really serious damage and it no doubt helped to rekindle their self-belief that an upset remained well and truly on the cards. As it was to unfold, our Wildcats managed only one more hit in the game from the bat of Evan Phillips, while the Sunshine lads kept pressing and eventually squeezed out another run to tie the scores. They were to remain locked at 2-2 as the innings and the time ran out.

To pay proper due to the Sunshine team, if either team deserved to win on this night we would have to acknowledge that the Eagles created more opportunities. More significantly, their pitching and defence under these conditions was outstanding and this combination kept our potent offence largely under wraps. In complete contrast to our hitters, the Sunshine lads were prepared to play a patient game and to apply the running pressure on every possible opportunity. They managed to get their leadoff hitter on board in too many innings for Waverley's liking and this would eventually reap the couple of runs they needed, while we were constantly under pressure.

I have to say that, if Sunshine's hitters kept us under pressure, then this is one thing that we didn't achieve to any great extent last night. Batting patience is a bit of a "barometer" for our Waverley Wildcats and when we apply pressure to opposing pitchers we most often have success. I'm not sure whether it was the expectation of a comfortable victory that played on our minds, but we certainly made life way too easy for the Sunshine pitchers. I wasn't counting, but I reckon that there were at least three innings where they secured three outs from single-digit pitches... it did seem that several of our hitters were impatient and not content with playing "small ball" or simply putting the ball in play. I'm sure that the Sunshine team was delighted that their most effective starting pitcher was able to go so deep into the game with a low pitch count.

On the Waverley side, our specialist "mid-week marvel" 'Tommy John' Rynberk was on the mound to start the game and he was, as always, doing his level best for the Wildcats. I don't think that the constant drizzle affected him any more than it did the Sunshine pitcher, but the determination of the Eagles' batters to play "small ball" in the greasy conditions would make life tough for Tommy and he very often had to contend with the distraction of a leadoff base runner. The crafty Rynberk doesn't possess the pure velocity to make bunting really difficult and a couple of too-soft infield hits would also frustrate our defence. As we would expect, Tommy never gave up trying and he could hold his head high that he had kept us very much in the game. 

It is not my job to critique our managers, but on this occasion I thought that manager Scott Dawes pulled exactly the right string at exactly the right time when he relieved Tommy with Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks after another leadoff batter had found his way onto first base late in the game. 'Donnie' has looked as sharp as a razor lately and he produced just what 'Dawesy' would have planned by neutralising Sunshine's threats with a batch of overpowering strike outs. There is nothing better to stop runners advancing or to snuff out a rally that a couple of "Special K's"! Much like 'Flemmo' last Sunday, Donavon worked with an increased tempo and his pitches were certainly making a loud SLAP into Karlsen's glove regularly last night.

Well folks, with only three hits and one scoring inning on our side, we could hardly have expected more than the draw that we earned against the Sunshine Eagles in this game. The noise emanating from the Sunshine rooms as we trudged past indicated that they were very pleased with themselves, and rightly so... they had produced a tremendously courageous and gritty performance without their two big guns and they had very nearly taken a major scalp from our defending Premiers. Our team was understandably subdued after the game and there were not too many smiles in evidence. Hats off to you Sunshine!

Let's just hope that this setback produces the required stimulus for a big performance when we travel to Malvern this Sunday afternoon... I don't think that three hits will be enough for even a draw this time!

PS: Just a final word about that toughest of tough guys Chris (or is that Christine?) 'Chipper' Maurer who milked all the sympathy you could imagine last Sunday with his arm dangling in his singlet-sling. DONE for the season!... facing surgery!!... what a sad customer he was facing perhaps the end of his baseball career! GIVE ME A BREAK!! Apparently he put on a callisthenics display at training during the week and he was throwing normally in warm-ups at Altona last night. Fair dinkum, I did give him credit for being a "tough customer", but this is ridiculous... we won't fall for that one again Chip! Seriously, it was great news to learn that things were not as gloomy as he may have originally thought.

PLEASE make sure that you support the WAVERLEY BASEBALL CLUB by purchasing your tickets for CLAXTON SHIELD 2007/08 via the club, please click here for information.  

HUNGRY WILDCATS MAKE A 15-0 MEAL OF MELBOURNE!
  Sunday, 18 November 2007 at Waverley 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Melbourne	0	0	0	0	0	0	0			0	4	1
WAVERLEY	0	6	4	1	1	3	X			15	12	1

It has taken a whole week for me to finally accept one reason why we had to endure that farcical 12:30pm starting time for the FIRSTS last Sunday… it was all just designed to help us fully appreciate how fortunate we are that the league’s forefathers decided that these games should be played at 3:30pm!! I suppose that we can all be guilty of complacency at times and this type of situation certainly makes us re-evaluate how much we enjoy the simple pleasures of life. It somewhat reminds me of a strange anecdote that my grandfather used to explain times like this… it went something like “I asked a man why he was banging his head against a brick wall” and he replied “because it felt so good when he stopped!”. For some reason the meaning of this is suddenly becoming clearer to me.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure that I speak for just about everyone at Napier Park yesterday when I say that it was a superb occasion for summer Sunday baseball… bright and sunny, but just a fraction on the warmer side of what we might prefer in the absence of any cooling breeze. The conditions were virtually perfect for playing the game of baseball and the ‘Waverley Nation’ was in good spirits despite a couple of resent setbacks in terms of our FIRSTS results.

As mentioned last week, we would be welcoming the return of a Wildcat “prodigal son” in the form of new Melbourne head-coach Andrew ‘Funnel’ Fennell who was a popular and long-serving player at Waverley. I’m sure that Andrew knew better than anyone that he would be facing an uphill battle with a re-building team against our defending Premiers who would be stinging from recent defeats. Another loss on home soil against the team on the bottom of the ladder was something that Waverley players and fans simply didn’t want to contemplate.

The game started without much action from either side with a few half-innings ticking by rapidly, but there were warning signs that things might break loose for the Wildcats once they managed to get the scoreboard moving. And so it proved with a steady flow of runs ever increasing the margin on the home half of the scoreboard.

For the Wildcats our starting pitcher Brett ‘CC’ Flemming was in no mood for charity after some rough luck lately and he was absolutely clinical in his disposal of the Melbourne hitters. We have often heard the term “sailing” to describe a pitcher who is dominating a game and this certainly applied to the high-quality performance of ‘Flemmo’ in this game. Brett worked with a quick tempo in the hot conditions, throwing a vast majority of strikes and keeping the Melbourne hitters off balance. It was a brilliant exhibition of starting pitching by Flemming and one that should give him tremendous confidence.

Our professional reliever Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks mirrored Flemming with a ruthless slam of the door in the final frame, using two strike outs to highlight his brief appearance. I will reserve special mention for the man who pitched between 'Flemmo' and 'Donnie'... Waverley's welcome "comeback kid" Evan Phillips. It's great to have a player of Evo's quality returning to the club fitter and keener that ever. Phillips had a quiet day, batting 3-4 with two doubles and a home run in the RESERVES game before backing up with a solid inning of relief in the FIRSTS... top job! His versatility could be a VERY handy commodity for Waverley as the season wears on.

I’m not going to take anything away from our batters who enjoyed plenty of opportunities to unbutton their shirts in this game, but it is fair to say that they were not beating up on Josh Beckett. However, as in all sporting contests, you can only deal with the opponents that you face on a given day and I’m sure that the Melbourne lads were trying their very best to provide stern opposition. And, how many times have we seen a more fancied team humbled by the underdogs in our beloved sport of baseball?

The hits and runs flowed quite regularly for the Wildcats once the dam wall was breached and most of our guys enjoyed the spoils of an offensive avalanche. Most notable was the private “Home Run Derby” that three of our bully-boys decided to conduct among themselves. It all started with Anthony ‘Rolen’ Reinke who produced a gasp in the clubhouse with his cracking bomb over straight-away centrefield. Our extra-base banger Grant ‘Carter’ Karlsen was next to whack one that carried over a similar part of the yard. Our Triple Crown man Andrew ‘Rusty’ Russell wasn’t about to let his mates hog the accolades when he muscled one out in just about the same location. These were not “cheap shots” folks, these big flys all carried over the deeper part of our yard.

If we had to judge the best, or the longest, of the three homers I reckon that our game MVP Anthony Reinke would get the nod on this occasion. We didn’t manage to extract the theodolite in order to measure the distances, but the sound of the ball jumping off Reinke’s bat certainly had everyone in the clubroom paying attention to the flight of the baseball… and, boy was it a long one! Of course a cheeky 'Rusty’ Russell wasn’t going to hand over his Superman costume to anyone when he suggested that he had not made pure contact on his long ball… imagine how far it might have gone if he had! In his case, nobody at Waverley would doubt that this was true. Andrew has been battling through a nasty illness recently and, on this evidence, he may be just about ready to run hot again.

The ever unassuming Grant Karlsen didn’t need to put his own case, but it is a great tribute to his consistent line-drive hitting that an extra-base hit, or even a home run, is nothing surprising for Waverley fans who have been watching this young guy develop into a genuine “beast” with the bat over recent seasons. Most would realise that Grant is no midget and his maturing strength is complimenting his sweet timing and improved pitch selection to make him a very dangerous package. What’s even more impressive is that he is maintaining a burgeoning average while hitting for power and driving in runs. Is there any need to emphasise Karlsen’s accomplished defence these days… no, not really!

It just so happened that these greedy guys were also the Waverley's only multi-hitters in the game as each tried to out-do the other and it made entertaining viewing for Wildcats supporters. 'Rusty' Russell would claim the overall honours because he added a double to his home run, but each of them produced a terrific exhibition of aggressive and purposeful batting, combining for eight of our twelve hits on the day.

While all of our other guys would have liked to join the home run kings in this game, maybe the most frustrated was noted power hitter Jarrod ‘Hammer’ Hodges who made a welcome return from a hamstring tweak that sidelined him for a few weeks. ‘Hodgo’ would have been thirsting for the chance to crush something in this game but, such is his reputation, that he rarely got anything to put the barrel of the bat on. He had to be content with watching Reinke, Karlsen and Russell touching all the bags while he spent most of his day looking at pitches out of the zone and trotting to first base on a free pass… baseball can be like that for the most dangerous hitters.

Just a closing bitter-sweet note from the weekend. The “sweet” would be the inclusion of our far-from-old veteran Kerry ‘KG’ Gassner, our all-purpose player / committeeman / selector, who enjoyed a very strong return to Division One action after mainly mentoring the SECONDS in recent seasons. The “bitter” would be the in the shape of the man who made way for Kerry in this game, the ever popular Chris ‘Chipper’ Maurer. There would be no bitterness from ‘Chip’ in providing Kerry an opportunity, but we all wish him the best with what appeared to be a nasty shoulder injury he sustained while catching in the early game. We know that Maurer is a pretty tough customer and it would be an absolute tragedy if he was to miss our finals campaign again this season… he deserves a slice of better luck.

It was a very solid and impressive overall performance by the Waverley team in this game, securing the much-needed win with a commanding 15-0 shutout. It would go a fair way toward easing the pain from a couple of recent defeats. There is now an opportunity for the team to re-establish itself in the competition with a late game this coming Thursday against Sunshine at Melbourne Ballpark, followed by an always-challenging away fixture against those competitive Malvern Braves next Sunday afternoon. It’s time for the ‘Waverley Nation’ to give the boys all the support they can during an important stretch of the season. 

WILDCATS SLUMBER AGAINST EARLY-BIRD BOMBERS!
  Sunday, 11 November 2007 at Waverley 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Essendon	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	0	4	7	1
WAVERLEY	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1

OK, I need to get something straight before I start… WELL DONE to the Essendon Bombers who have waited almost as patiently for a win against our Waverley Wildcats (not counting that raffled wind-tunnel game during the Claxton Shield early last season) as we had for last years’ premiership! We take nothing away from them as gracious, but not necessarily happy, losers on this VERY DISAPPOINTING SUNDAY!

No sooner had the “Tooth Fairy” finished visiting our neighbourhood children that someone tried to educate me that it was time for Summer baseball!? I swear I could hear the sunrise crowing of a faraway rooster as I was preparing to leave for the game. The Herald-Sun newspaper had only just landed on my driveway as we were leaving for the game and the ink was still not fully dry. There was also something terribly unusual about saying “GOOD MORNING” to those very few baseball friends who arrived just before 12:00pm for the experimental 12:30pm start.

After last weeks’ rain-out, surely our long-suffering Waverley Wildcats would be entitled to better… or is it only me? If you feel anything like I do, EVERY ONE of our home games means a heck of a lot to me/us and I certainly don’t appreciate having any ONE of them hi-jacked by grossly un-supported events like this!! As far as I am concerned, and the many I spoke with, it is an experiment totally without merit and it should be consigned to the “never again basket”.

As I told everyone yesterday, I really did hope that Waverley would win so that it would give me an even better “platform” to climb on the universal hobby-horse of what an ill-advised decision it was to play this game at the, only god knows why, time of 12:30pm? I have admiration for people who have the ability to “think outside the square”, but to implement anything without much thought or consultation just to “try something different” simply doesn’t cut it. To try to cuddle your pet funnel-web spider would be “something different”, but this wouldn’t make it a very good idea!!

Very sadly, our big “HOME OPENER” had turned into an ABSOLUTE FIZZER! Not only were so many of our ‘Waverley Nation’ not in attendance, but quite a few of our Life Members actually arrived later, just in time to see our “early bird” FIRSTS losing the unexpected pipe-opener of the day! And, forget the suggestion that hordes of senior players would hang around to support the RESERVES game… this would be as close to reality as my earlier reference to the “tooth fairy”!

I don’t know about the ‘Bomber Boys’, but this was not a popular decision for the vast majority of Waverley’s senior players… and, just maybe, this had a carry-over effect on the way they played. Not that our Wildcats played poorly, or that Essendon wasn’t very good, but there were some signs that our boys were not 100% “switched on” for the occasion. As much as it did put a major dampener on the entire day, I’ll now move on to talk about the game while trying to completely overlook the “time warp” issue.

First and foremost, we cannot ignore the quite superb performance of Essendon’s crafty starting pitcher Casey Jones who rarely found any trouble in pitching a near-perfect shutout against our much vaunted Wildcats’ offence. It was a far cry from the memorable Grand Final last 24 March when our boys shelled him from the mound in a blitzkrieg of batting. I won’t go as far as to suggest that Casey enjoyed the early daylight better than the lights at Altona, but he certainly pitched brilliantly on this occasion and we can only dip our caps to him this time.

Waverley’s pitching tandem of Brett ‘CC’ Flemming and Donavon ‘Drysdale’ Hendricks was also very good and the Essendon hitters had to battle and scrape to put four runs on the scoreboard… it was more than enough to secure the victory on this day. In the end the Essendon team just managed to out-hit our men 7-5, but there was no continuity in our offence as Jones managed to scatter our hits far too far apart!

It would not help that our star cleanup guy Jarrod ‘Hammer’ Hodges was again sidelined with a repairing hamstring, but the team was certainly strengthened by the inclusion of our new professional ace James ‘Ripken’ Beresford. Our premiership infield had been fully restored with ‘Jimbo’ back at short stop and he gave us a quick reminder of his talents as our only player to record two safe hits. After a short break at the end of an arduous season in the US, James will no doubt get sharper over coming weeks, but it was a most welcome return… great to have you back Jimmy!

What would a Waverley game be these past few seasons without Grant ‘Carter’ Karlsen thumping an extra base hit?… he nailed one again in this game, as did Anthony ‘Rolen’ Reinke who rifled a double into the left field corner. Unfortunately there was no backup hitting with runners in scoring position and our hits seemed to come mainly with two already out in the inning. This performance was not indicative of our proven batting strength, but we’ll give the credit to dominant pitching.

Unfortunately we were unable to supply any run support for ‘Flemmo’ or ‘Donnie’ who battled manfully to keep Waverley in the contest and they didn’t enjoy a lot of luck either. Flemming should have kept the scores tied at 0-0 for much longer but for some genuine misfortune in the third inning. For the second week running he was the victim of a controversial “safe” call, this time on the back end of an inning-ending double-play. The fortunate runner took advantage of his extra-life to steal second base, then he scored on an unnecessary infield throwing error.

The 1-0 lead seemed to provide a very useful confidence boost for the Essendon camp and it definitely looked fairly secure to the slowly arriving ‘Waverley Nation’ who were watching our batting innings vanish quicker than any remaining sense of humour among our supporters. Another of Essendon’s runs scored from a wild pitch that seemed to scoot off the front edge of home plate… it was just that kind of day for us Wildcats.

That’s about enough for this week folks… no, it wasn’t the most enjoyable or memorable day we have spent at Napier Park… far from it! The only bit of positive news is the thought that we won’t have to wait too long for sanity to return to our lives. Thankfully we have another home game next Sunday 18 November at the traditional time of 3:30pm… PHEW!! One of our popular and long-serving Waverley players Andrew Fennell will be bringing his Melbourne team to play what should be a really FIRED UP Wildcats unit who need to get back on the winning list!

WAVERLEY WET WIPES OUT BLACKY BLOCKBUSTER!
  Sunday, 4 November 2007 at Waverley 

The scene at Waverley's Napier Park at 3:45pm Sunday 4 November 2007 Visitors should appreciate our new "crowd control measures" with a crocodile infested moat!

Team

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

WAVERLEY

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

-

-

Blackburn

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

-

-

So much for our eagerly awaited home opener at Waverly's Napier Park... what a fizzer of a wipeout it was for the 'Waverley Nation' who have TOO patiently waited for 14 long years to end our Premiership drought! If it wasn't bad enough for Baseball Victoria to schedule FOUR full rounds in the 2007/08 season before allowing us the opportunity to unfurl the Premiership flag at Napier Park, now baseball's bloody weather gods have conspired to make us wait even longer!!!

Really, I just don't get these modern baseballers who like to think of themselves as "rough and tough" dudes who refuse to take a backward step on or off the diamond. These days, if it's not getting a just a bit too warm for them to risk heat fatigue, they are now starting to become scared of a few isolated drops of rain! Get the gumboots on fellas and LET'S PLAY BALL!!!

We were fully entitled to expect a "blockbuster" with our friendly neighbourhood rivals from Blackburn visiting for the big occasion because just about the only thing BIGGER than a Waverley versus Blacky game these days is the price of houses in those popular eastern suburbs. Those so-called "leafy eastern suburbs" may be a little more leafy today after the torrential downpour that deprived us of our baseball fix this past weekend. Just to rub salt into our wounds is the news that all of the other Division One fixtures were able to play, while at Waverley some of the later stayers in the clubrooms had to wade, waist-deep, to their cars!

We have long recognised that Waverley is situated in Melbourne's most prolific "rain belt" and every so often we pay a price for this, although we would have to balance this against the fact that our grounds at Napier Park are often a few shades greener than those at other venues.

Not far enough away to dodge the eastward moving rain was our near neighbour of Blackburn, who had waved their own white flag much earlier. My wife and son drove to Blackburn's Billabong Park just in case there was a chance that the THIRDS might be playing, but they arrived home soon after with news that the games had been abandoned early with a simple notice on the gate that there would be "no baseball due to grounds under water"... enough said! The only really good news here is that they hadn't driven to Geelong or Sunshine just to find that out!!

Back at Napier Park, things weren't too much better. In fact, we have a slightly different problem at Napier Park in that our diamonds themselves handle water quite well, it's just that the park drainage channels and overflowing creeks causes flash-flood conditions in the surrounding areas. With a bit of sponge work we may have been able to get the main diamond playable, even though the outfield may have been somewhat SOFT under foot <GRIN!>. The problems would arise from the fact that the team in the visiting dugout would need to be fitted with floatation jackets as they stepped across the white-water rafting course along the third base fence (pictured above). And, unfortunately, we have not been able to train our invading duck population to retrieve any stray baseballs that inevitably leave the diamond... we'd surely run out of baseballs!!

Any persons wanting to park cars in the eastern car park would have found water up to the level of their car seats if, indeed, they had not been washed away. Other hardy revellers who wanted to wait out the weather in the cosy confines of the clubrooms would do so while playing "Russian Roulette" with their chances of getting out later with water levels rising at the rate of one centimetre per minute. Of course some of them would find this just another great excuse to explain their failure to extract themselves from another LONG festive occasion at Waverley.

For those of the Wildcats "inner sanctum" who celebrated the occasion of our opening home fixture at Waverley with me last season, I can happily report that we should all feel much better today than at the corresponding time last year. But, I must remind you that this is simply a short POSTPONEMENT and our opening home fixture still awaits us. If it is anything like it was last year we will be almost as "drenched" on the inside as we were on the outside on this occasion.

While it would be far from me to suggest what they should do at Baseball Victoria, there would seem to be a near-perfect window of opportunity to re-schedule this game as a mid-week fixture at Napier Park on either 14/15th of November (week after next) as neither Waverley or Blackburn has a mid-week game in Round 6. If the re-match doesn't happen sooner, I hope to see you all for the flag raising ceremony when we host our Grand Final opponents Essendon next Sunday.

WOUNDED WILDCATS NAILED 6-7 AT NEWPORT!
  Sunday, 28 October 2007 at Sunshine 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
WAVERLEY	0	0	3	2	0	1	0	0	0	6	9	3
Newport	4	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	7	12	1

OK, you can say what you like about playing at Newport… sorry, that is YOU can say what you like… unfortunately there are some things that we just can’t publish on WBCWEB! News obviously travels fast in Victorian baseball circles, because my long-exiled twin brother must have heard about the controversy at Newport yesterday afternoon. He contacted me asking if he could assist with the report as there were several of his favourite topics that he was just dying to comment upon. I had to remind him that he is still very much “yesterday’s man” (or is that “tomorrow’s man”?) and that we are not yet ready for his style of insightful honesty.

So, where was I?... ah yes, you can say what you like about playing baseball at Newport, but you certainly never can complain that it is dull or uninteresting! Is it just Waverley, or does every team in the competition have to deal with strange climatic conditions and even stranger dramas on the baseball diamond? Our visits to K.C White Reserve always seem to be shrouded in some type of controversy, while our hardy crew of loyal supporters always needs to brave various types of inhospitable weather conditions.

On this occasion the temperature was not unbearably hot, but the howling gale from the north-west barely stopped for a few moments to allow any real comfort. The warm wind was strong enough to whip up massive clouds of red dust from the en-tout-cas infield cut-out and to produce a visual barrier for outfielders as it swept towards Melbourne. I’m not sure how the pitchers managed to keep any real balance on the mound under these conditions and players on all teams should be admired for their performance under these conditions.

Welcomed back for Waverley was Premiership star Glenn ‘Ferrett’ Mascoll who wasn’t interested in taking any extra time off after arriving home from playing in the Netherlands just a few days earlier. “I can’t stand watching” was his typically uncomplicated explanation. Mascoll’s return somewhat offset the loss of star outfielder Jarrod Hodges, who is nursing a slight hamstring strain, by allowing ‘Rusty’ Russell to return to right field… only temporarily as it was to pan out!

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how influential those “baseball gods” can be when slices of good fortune seem to benefit one team or other… there is no explanation for this… it’s simply an accepted part of following baseball, and another good reason why important trophies should not be decided by only one game! Just ask Waverley’s starting pitcher Brett ‘CC’ Flemming who suffered the brunt of the misfortune in the opening inning of the game yesterday.

‘Flemmo’ has been tremendously effective so far this season, but there was little that he could do about the four-run first inning compiled by our hosts. Not only did he have to throw strikes into the teeth of the typhoon, but he was also met by a rare assortment of “chinkers” and “bloop hits” that somehow managed to bisect fielders swarming from all directions. It wasn’t the fault of the Newport hitters, who are entitled to take whatever advantage they can get, but it was hardly a fair reward for Flemming who had done nothing to deserve the 0-4 hole that the Wildcats had found themselves in.

The contest was revived in the top of the third inning when a couple of Waverley base runners was too good an RBI opportunity for Andrew Russell to pass up. With one swing of his lethal bat ‘Rusty’ had cleared the left field fence by some margin to cash in three runs and suddenly, not quite expectedly, a 3-4 scoreline had transformed it into a much more interesting ballgame for the somewhat subdued ‘Waverley Nation’. Victorian pitchers will not need me to remind them that Russell has an insatiable hunger for hitting baseballs and he has only started on his appetiser at this stage of the season. We don’t see that lightning-quick bat slowing down any time soon!

The pulse had suddenly been re-energised in the Waverley dugout and, with two runs in the fourth and another in the sixth, we had turned our 0-4 deficit into what felt like a reasonably secure 6-4 lead in the game. Flemming, to his great credit, had settled into his task admirably after his first inning setback and the Rams’ hitters had become relatively quiet… well, as quiet as the home dugout ever gets at Newport.

It was very soon after that one quite harmless event was to change to mood, and ultimately the course, of the game. The rocket-launcher arm of Waverley catcher Grant Karlsen had found a Newport base-stealer not much further than half-way to second base when the ball arrived for short stop Glenn Mascoll to supply the simple put-out tag. It all looked fairly routine until… ZAP…. Zzzzzz…. Crackle… Buzzzzzz…

Sorry, don’t know what happened to transmission there folks, you’ll have to excuse the temporary loss of signal that has prevented me from outlining exactly what happened in the “comedy capers” that followed. I can only report with total accuracy that, when the dust had settled, the Newport runner was safely ensconced on second base, having been called safe, and Waverley’s protesting fielder ‘Ferret’ Mascoll had been ejected from the game, along with manager David White under the “zero tolerance policy”.

Motivation has never been a problem for Newport players, but this event certainly got their slightly dormant competitive juices flowing again, while our Wildcats were forced into a defensive re-shuffle that we certainly didn’t need in a tight contest. While we didn’t lose too much with ‘Rusty’ Russell taking over at short, the removal of pitching guru David White from the manager’s position may have been a decisive blow in this game.

I’m not going to go quite as far as to suggest that co-manager Scott Dawes may have erred in the situation, but one wonders if ‘Whitey’ may have taken a different tack when our starting pitcher Brett Flemming was clearly starting to fade in the seventh inning. ‘Flemmo’ was entitled to be tiring under the conditions and a rare walk issued by him was an alarm signal that he could be struggling. It is always easy to second-guess in these moments, but history will record that a pitching change may have prevented the game-tying home run that followed from the bat of the next man up. There didn’t look to be much “zip” on the pitch that he lifted over a similar part of the fence that Russell had cleared earlier.

Just as ‘Rusty’ had done with his “big fly”, this home run had changed the momentum of the game and the 6-6 tie was a nervous situation for Wildcats’ supporters with the Newport Rams always batting last in the late innings of the game. ‘Steve Carlton’ Hood was terrific again in relief, coming into the game after the home run in the seventh, then to add an impressive scoreless eighth. Our boys had a couple of opportunities to take the lead in the eighth and ninth but, when they failed to break the tie, it was an opportunity that would not be wasted by the Rams.

Under other circumstances, ‘Hoody’ may have completed his stint before starting the ninth, but it is probable that Waverley were keeping left-hander Donavon 'Drysdale' Hendricks up our sleeve in case the game rolled into extra innings. Besides, Hood had shown no signs of getting into trouble until a couple of opportune hits and a well executed sacrifice bunt put Newport runners on second and third with one out. Newport then gleefully grabbed the win with a RBI hit that scooted over the third base bag… game over!

I’ve already mentioned Andy Russell’s ‘bomb’ as the offensive highlight for Waverley on this day, once again stealing the spotlight from our magnificent catcher Grant ‘Carter’ Karlsen who could ONLY manage two more hits today, allowing his average to slide just below .500 for the season. The other repeat-hitter for the Wildcats was the consistent Ian ‘Ichiro’ Geduld who still likes to fly under the radar. It was also great to see our JUNIOR stars Wade McConnon, Josh Hendricks and Taylor McEvoy hitting safely as we continue to invest wisely in their future with valuable playing time at this level.

Leaving the unnecessary controversy out of the equation, we can take nothing away from the victory recorded by our hosts. The Newport Rams have simply maintained their well-earned tradition of playing hard. They have always epitomised what seems to be a simple baseball formula of solid pitching, good defence, timely hitting and excellent team chemistry. I don’t think that there has been enough said or enough credit given to the Newport Rams for their survival as a Division One team in the latter stages of the 2006/07 season.

To be completely truthful, the Rams looked destined for a plot in their neighbouring cemetery with a handful of games remaining last season and their successful “escape” would make the great Harry Houdini look like a part-time magician at a child’s party. I can’t say that the ‘Waverley Nation’ ever really enjoys losing at any time, but we must agree that our baseball world wouldn’t be quite the same if we didn’t have this ongoing rivalry with the Newport Rams. We look forward to the next chapter fellas!

Finally, I can’t conclude any trip to Newport without some pathetic attempt at making fun of their adjoining graveyard. On this occasion I thought that I did detect a number of ghosts stirring behind us when our “late-40’s” co-manager David White took the mound (and collected the WIN!) near the end of the exciting RESERVES game. Many of those peacefully resting souls would have been well and truly alive when ‘Whitey’ first came to Australia as a pitching ace with the Newport club way back in the last century!

After five rounds of the new season, I’m glad to announce the long-awaited arrival of our HOME OPENER for the 2007/08 season. And, who better to help us celebrate the unfurling of our Premiership flag than our nearest and dearest local rivals from Blackburn. If it’s anything like the festivities on opening day last season it will be another memorable event at Napier Park. 
Don’t you dare to miss it!

'FUZZ' FARRELLY FLATTENS EAGLES 11-2 WITH 6RBI's!
Sunday, 21 October 2007 at Sunshine 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
WAVERLEY	0	0	2	0	0	0	9	0	0	11	13	0
Sunshine	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	3	1

Perhaps there has never been a more aptly named suburb than SUNSHINE? The ‘Waverley Nation’ has visited the wild western city of Sunshine on three occasions since their baseball club the Eagles were promoted to Division One and the weather has been almost identical on each occasion. The first year it was very hot, last season it was even hotter and yesterday it was virtually the same as our first visit.

Had there been a “Heat Policy” in vogue at the time we may not have played in 2005/06 and we all recall the abandonment of last seasons’ fixture due to the excessive heat. There were a few anxious moments yesterday when the sun was radiating at its hottest during the Reserves game that the thermometer may be edging close to a repeat postponement. When the sun was beaming down and the air was motionless it was quite oppressive but, by the time the FIRSTS were warming up, some cloud cover and a consistent breeze had made it much more pleasant.

With no disrespect intended to the other Sunshine players, there is always the same disconcerting thought when you are contemplating a fixture against the Eagles and this comes with the threat of facing their outstanding players Wiltshire and Kent. Starting pitcher Greg Wiltshire has been “The Man” for the Eagles in their rise to Divvy One and the recent AROOS representative is also the most recent winner of the Claxton Shield Championship MVP for his exploits with the successful Victorian Aces in Perth. Catcher Matt Kent is also one of the most dangerous hitting catchers in Australia as an AROOS team mate and the Helms Award winner as the MVP of that same Claxton Shield carnival in Perth.

This illustrious pair also played together professionally with the El Paso Diablos in a US Independent League this winter and it goes without saying that the battery mates are most respected and formidable opponents. But folks, it never pays to become too obsessed with opposing stars, especially when we have plenty of stars on our own side and we would expect to field a team with a superior depth of talent. There are very good reasons why our club won the pennant last season and it certainly wasn’t because we relied upon one or two stars to carry the ballclub.

Wiltshire, as we would expect, was as difficult to master as he always is with his tremendous control and variety of pitches keeping the bases pretty much vacant during most of Waverley’s batting innings. Thankfully, our own starting pitcher Brett Flemming was equally as good at keeping the Sunshine hitters under wraps. Our Wildcats did manage to strike in the third inning when Luke ‘Fuzz’ Farrelly cashed in two valuable RBI’s with a clutch single to left field. Our two run lead was then quickly halved when Sunshine struck for a single run in the bottom half of the inning.

With both starters beginning to feel the effects of the heat, the mood started to change in the sixth inning when the hitters finally found some