Goodbye 2012!

This will be the last Hollywood Four blog post for 2012. The video below contains some picture memories from December 2012. Please check back on January 1, 2013 for a fresh, newly designed hollywood-four.blogspot.com website ... oh, and we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Animated fun from the PartnerShip Pole!

Here is a reprint of the article and video I posted on The PartnerShip Connection Blog this morning. So I thought I would share it here as well:

Continuing a tradition that began a few years ago, PartnerShip has once again created a short and fun seasons greetings video in appreciation for our customer partners and our carrier partners. This year's video gives you an exclusive, behind the scenes view of what goes on at the PartnerShip Pole ... we hope you enjoy it! (you can also view it directly on the PartnerShip YouTube Channel). The PartnerShip team wishes you all the very best during this busy holiday season, as well as a prosperous and joyous new year!



Special thanks to Barbara Teleha, the PartnerShip graphic designer responsible for this year's animated fun!

Holiday Luncheon at PartnerShip

Here is a reprint of the article and video I posted on The PartnerShip Connection Blog this morning. Thought I would share it on the Hollywood Four Blog as well:

Consistent with annual tradition, the PartnerShip employees gathered together last week Friday for a fun, holiday luncheon. In addition to good food, and a couple holiday games, we also had our first ever "ugly sweater contest." As showcased in the video below, the employees who participated in the contest really strutted their stuff. Ultimately, it was Alex West (customer service representative) that won the popular vote. Congratulations Alex and thank you PartnerShip for providing such a great workplace culture!

Mustangs Lose to Leafs in 2nd League Game

Friday night the Strongsville Mustangs played their second regular season game. Once again (fourth time this year including exhibition games) we played the Geauga Maple Leafs. Also, once again, despite being the home team we actually played on neutral ice at the Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, OH. It was another tight match with neither team scoring goals through two periods. In the third, we allowed the Leafs to sneak a couple goals past our goalie, but then roared back with a goal of our own scored by Andrew (#97) and assisted by Blake (#12). Trailing by one goal and with only a couple minutes left in the game, we pulled our goalie. Unfortunately, the Leafs scored an empty netter sealing the victory. Here are the highlights (including footage from Mr. Finch and from Mrs. Frederick).

Mustang Team Photos 2012

Andrew's hockey pictures have arrived. Here is his 2012 mug shot, along with the team photo.

Rock-N-Roll Cup in Cleveland

This past weekend Andrew and the Strongsville Mustangs team played in the Rock-N-Roll Cup tournament here in Cleveland. This was supposed to be a four team tournament against evenly matched opponents in a "round-robin" format where each team plays the other once and the top two teams play for the championship. Our first game was against MCYH (Rochester, NY). This was an extremely physical game and, despite outshooting the other team, the Mustangs lost short 0-3. In our second game we played Dayton and lost that one 0-10. In the end, Dayton was disqualified because they won all of their round-robin games by double-digits and were obviously a higher level team that was just "trophy-hunting." That left us in a game 3 match-up against Geauga (our nemesis) to determine which team would face MCYH in the championship game. The Mustangs exploded with a 7-2 victory that was led by Kanzig (#13) who had a hat-trick and an assist. Andrew (#97) was second on the team with three assists. Gaeschke (#81), Eisenaugle (#12), Beaver (#47) and Vandenbusche (#91) all chipped in goals as well with the assists coming from others on the team; and "the kid" Forsythe (#21) was spectacular in goal. The victory setup another physical rematch with MCYH on Sunday. Gower (#20) and Crossman (#87) led the Mustangs with solid "hits" in the game with 5 and 4, respectively. But despite both teams having around the same number of shots on goal, the MCYH goalie was simply too hot (he ended up MVP of tournament) and the Mustangs fell short again by a close score of 0-2. Overall, the kids played tough and earned themselves and extra game as well as the runner-up trophy and medals. Nice job Mustangs!

Petessence

Abby has been working on a fun project for her Sociology class the past few weeks. First she had to come up with an interesting new product idea (Petessence - perfume for pets) and target market (upper scale consumers); then she had to pitch it to investors (I helped her with that, including an ROI analysis that impressed everyone); and lastly, she she had to create a video commercial with testimonials. For this latter part of the assignment, she worked with her friends Paige (who was also part of the project) and Sarah to shoot and edit the following video. Overall, I think it turned out great (in a cheesy sort of way). I also think Abby could easily pursue a career in sketch comedy if she wanted with her different accents and personalities.

A Monster Exhibition Game

Last week Friday, the Strongsville Mustangs (B2) team played a rematch game against the Geauga Maple Leafs  - the same team we beat a couple weeks ago in our season opener.  This game, however, was an exhibition game played at "The Q Arena" before the Lake Erie Monsters versus Rockford Ice Hogs game. This was our second year playing at The Q and, once again, the facilities and hosts were awesome. We ended up with a great game too. Unfortunately, Coach Mike was not able to make the game, so Coach Tony made his first appearance on the bench of the season along side Coach Todd. He even gave the team a nice pep talk before the game. Will "the kid" played goalie for us and did a nice job saving over 86% of the shots he faced. The Mustangs got off to an early lead in the first period on Gower (#20) goal assisted by Treible (#1). The Maple Leafs scored a goal in the second period making it a 1-1 tie game up until the final 30 seconds of the game. However, six penalties - two within the final two minutes - left the Mustangs short-handed two skaters; and a bouncing puck deflected in for the Maple Leafs giving them the late victory. After the game, the team grabbed dinner at The Clevelander and then headed back to The Q for the Monsters game.

Final Oireachtas Highlights

The 2012 Mid-America Oireachtas in done. Here are some video highlights of the weekend (of course, video taping of the actual competition in never allowed). Overall, Abby and the O'Hare Irish dancers had a very good showing. On Friday, Abby danced one hard shoe and one soft shoe dance in competition with around 125 other dancers. The top 60 were "recalled" to dance a longer "set" dance for final placement. Abby was one of those top 60 finalists. In the end, she finished a very respectable 44th overall (her friend Anne finished 7th). On Saturday the Ceili team took the stage. There were 36 teams competing with the O'Hare O15 Ceili team. Once again, only the top half "recalled" for the awards ceremony that evening. The O'Hare team was one of the 18 teams that recalled. Once the final scores were in, they finished 7th place overall. That was the best showing for the O'Hare school, which had a number of other Ceili teams competing at various levels. In fact, the Ceili team did so well, there is some discussion about entering them into the 2013 World Irish Dancing Competition in Boston next Spring.

Oireachtas Dress Rehearsal

Building up to this weekend's 2012 Mid-America Oireachtas in Grand Rapids, MI, Abby and the the O'Hare Irish dancers continued to practice hard, including this dress-rehearsal Monday night.

Oireachtas Pep Rally

Today Abby attended a booster club pep rally for the O'Hare Irish dancers that will be competing in the upcoming 2012 Mid-America Oireachtas in Grand Rapids, MI over Thanksgiving weekend. This annual event (see 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008) is a nice way to get the dancers pumped up for the big competition and celebrate all of their hard work leading up to it. 

Mustangs Beat Geauga 4-2

I finally got a hold of the game film for last Sunday's Strongsville Mustangs win over the Geauga Maple Leafs. It was the first game of the regular season and, after a winless preseason, the Mustangs pulled out the 4-2 victory. Even though we were the home team, the game was played at the Baron's arena in Parma. Goals were scored by Keane (#31), Crossman (#87), Frederick (#97), and Vandenbusche (#91). Maxwell was called down from our B1 team and he provided some great defense between the pipes. Our next regular season game is actually against Geauga once again the day after Thanksgiving. This next game will be played at "The Q Arena" before the Lake Erie Monsters game. Should be fun.

Poker Fest 25 Teaser Clip

As I have done in the past, here is a short "teaser clip" for the upcoming Poker Fest 25 tournament.

Click here for 2012 videos
Click here for 2011 video
Click here for 2009 videos
Click here for 2008 videos

The Strongsville Mustangs Bantam 2 team has had a rough preseason so far. After 5 games, we are 0-5. To our defense, the roster has been in flux, we haven't really had a permanent goalie yet, and the kids are still finding their "team chemistry." Still, the preseason is really just to benchmark all of the teams so they are properly placed for the regular season. One thing the coach implemented was a new dress-code policy: Nice pants, shoes, shirts and ties before and after all games. This will help the kids prepare for high school where that is generally required. Andrew - pictured here in his "Sunday best" - continues to skate hard, and he generally has a couple good hits per game. Yesterday he switched from Forward to Center. The team plays again today against a team that I think will be closer to our level, so it should be a good game. 

Strongsville Hockey Pre-Season Begins

Andrew and the Strongsville Mustangs Hockey Bantam 2 team began their pre-season last week Sunday at home against a formidable, Mentor opponent. It was our first organized game, and we had an interim goalie, but the team still played two competitive periods of hockey (it was the middle of the second period that killed us when we gave up 6 goals). The preseason is basically used to gauge where teams are at, and then place them appropriately for the regular season. Andrew (#97, jersey usually tucked into back of his pants) had a great game with two shots on goal, some nice passes, and a couple hits. Here is a quick overall highlight reel that I edited down from the game CD from our team videographer (yes, we have one). Bryce (#11) had some nice shots on goal as well, and he scored our only goal. In the end, we lost 1-8.

Homecoming 2012

Tonight Abby is going to her 3rd homecoming dance. As she has done the past 2 years, she is going with a group of her girl friends. She got ready at a friend's house, then had dinner at another friend's house. Now they are heading to the dance. Afterwards, a few of them will be spending the night at the Hollywood Estates. She looks beautiful in her lovely dress. As a refresher, here are the Hollywood Four blog links for the past two years:

2011 Homecoming Dance
2010 Homecoming Dance

Abby Takes First Place in Michigan Feis

Abby danced in the Michigan Feis in Muskegon, MI today. Dad and Andrew had to stay home for hockey practices. I was delighted to learn, however, that Abby took First Place in the Championship level competition! Here is a picture that I received from Karen via text earlier today. I am very proud of Abby. She has really been practicing hard, and it's nice to see it pay off. Hopefully this will give her a nice confidence boost with the 2012 Mid-America Oireachtas (regional) competition just around the corner in November.

Global Village Festival

Yesterday, Abby and the O'Hare Irish Dancers performed at the Global Village Festival of Greater Akron. Despite the threat of rain, the weather was not too bad and the troupe seemed to perform well based on the video footage taken below by Mom. The performance also marked the dancing debut of the newest teacher to the O'Hare school of Irish Dance, world-champion dancer Michael Holland. He's been a great additional to the school, the girls seem to like him, and he is a phenomenal dancer.

My Interview with SupplyChainBrain

While attending the TMSA conference back in June, I was invited to do a short interview with the editor-in-chief of SupplyChainBrain, an online media outlet for the transportation and logistics industry. They recently posted that interview to their website (they have a very rich, streaming video component to their web content). The video clip is about 6 minutes long and it can be accessed here. Unfortunately (or fortunately) you can only access the video file if you first register to their website (it's free). I thought the interview was okay considering I didn't see the questions until about 5 minutes before the interview. Obviously I knew they were going to ask me about the TMSA and the value of the conference, which is why I had already given a little thought to my response to the last question in the interview. If nothing else, it was good exposure for my new company and the PartnerShip brand.

21st Annual BSFL Season

Tomorrow I will be participating in the 21st annual BSFL fantasy football draft. Once again, we will have 12 teams drafting, most of which are all friends from high school or college. We will have people drafting in southern California; Chicago; Buffalo; northern, western, and eastern Michigan; and, of course, northeast Ohio. The BSFL (along with our BSBL fantasy baseball league, and Poker Fest, our bi-annual poker tournament) has been a great way to make sure I stay in touch with our tight group of friends. After using an "auction" format to select players the first few years, the past 15 or more season we have been using a straight "pick 'em" draft format. However, this year we go back to an auction/bidding system, thanks to modern technology that make this format easy to execute online. I wish I could remember who won each of the past 20 season, but here are the ones that won the first seven.

1991 ... Britten
1992 ... Doneth
1992 ... Wibs/Stevage
1994 ... Britten
1995 ... Picklehead
1996 ... Mike/Matt
1997 ... Hollywood
1998 and beyond ... ???

PartnerShip Fantasy Football League

Having participated in fantasy football for the past 20 years with my college and high school friends, I was delighted to learn that PartnerShip, my new workplace, has an employee-run fantasy football league. Unfortunately, there were no more slots left this year and, despite some big money offers, I couldn't buy a team from anyone. But I was offered a join-ownership stake in a team. The details are outlined in the faux news release I drafted below. Our official league draft was last night as highlighted in the short video at the bottom of this post. Should be fun!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

August 21, 2012

JOINT VENTURE ANNOUNCED IN THE PARTNERSHIP FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE

WESTLAKE, OH – Tyler Reid, owner of last year’s Hipster Nation has announced a new joint venture with Scott Frederick, the media mogul owner of various Hollywood properties and trademarks. The new team will be re-branded as Frostee Ruckers Hollywood Crushers for the 2012 season.

Despite a strong showing in his rookie 2011 campaign, Mr. Reid saw an opportunity to infuse his franchise with additional capital and football expertise. “When someone like Scott Frederick is available in the open market, you don’t just sit on the sidelines, you grab him while you can,” said Mr. Reid. “The alternative was having him buy into a competing franchise, and that was simply out of the question.”

It was rumored in recent weeks that Mr. Frederick was looking to buy a new team in the prestigious PartnerShip Fantasy Football League. Various reports indicate that, despite offering substantial sums of money, the marketing tycoon was not able to find any takers among the famously stogy ownership group in the PFFL.

“Yes, I admit I was initially seeking a full ownership position in the league,” said Mr. Frederick. “However, when Mr. Reid approached me about a possible joint-venture, I was very intrigued. I think we’ll make a great ownership team: Tyler provides the youthful confidence, and I provide the experienced arrogance. In other words, he’ll provide the ‘smack’ and I’ll provide the ‘talk!’”

Full terms of the arrangement have not been fully disclosed. However, reports suggest that, while both teams will have equal ownership stakes in the combined franchise, Mr. Tyler will remain as the head of operations, while Mr. Frederick will chair the board. PFFL pundits are already predicting the team as the early favorites to win the 2012 season.

Tyler Reid LLC, based in Brunswick, OH, also has investments in the music industry. Hollywood Inc., based in Medina, OH, will continue to own sporting properties in other leagues, as well as continue its well-known presence on the web, and at special gambling events.

For more information, please visit www.frosteeruckershollywoodcrushers.com (not)

First Day of School

Today the kids went back to school again. Abby starts her junior year in high school and Andrew starts 8th grade. Here a picture Mom took before they headed off to school this morning. It seems like only yesterday they were heading to school to start 4th and 7th grades. For a trip down memory lane, click the links below:

2008 First Day of School
2009 First Day of School
2010 First Day of School
2011 First Day of School

Andrew's Birthday Party

Last night Andrew had four of his best buds over to celebrate his birthday. The party started at 5 PM and began with a trip to the laser tag place. After that, they ate pizza and then settled in for some hard-core gaming. They took breaks at various points to run around outside in the dark, eat cookies and ice cream, and just to be loud (or so it would seem). We can't really say this was a sleepover since none of the boys slept. Here is a short clip of the cookie ceremony for the birthday boy.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Today Andrew turned 13 years old - yes, he became a teenager. And just like Abby on her 13th birthday (click here), Andrew got his very own mobile phone - an iPhone 4S. It's funny because we wrapped the phone in one of our old mobile phone boxes and when he first opened it, you could tell he wasn't sure what to believe. However, once he found the iPhone inside the box, his smile grew larger (see pictures below)! Oh, and click here to view a "memory lane" video I did for Andrew's 9th birthday showing how our baby has grown up.

Hanging with the Halls

This weekend the Hollywood Four met the Hall Five in Fort Wayne, IN. It was the first time in at least two years that we were able to get both of our entire families together. Saturday night we all went to a Fort Wayne Tincaps minor league baseball game (Dad's 25 minor league park), but unfortunately we only got to see one inning of baseball before the game was postponed due to rain. After that, we just hung out at the hotel and talked and watched the Olympics (the kids got a pay-per-view movie Journey 2). Sunday - after a quick swim in the pool - the girls went shopping while the boys went to Crazy Pinz for some bowling, bumper cars, and putt-putt golf. The weekend went quick, but it was sure nice seeing Andy, Anita, Emily, Christopher, and Matthew again.

Miami Hockey Camp

Yesterday we picked up Andrew from the Miami University Redhawks Hockey School in Oxford, OH. He spent the full week (5 nights) there with his buddy Patrick. They had four on-ice skating sessions each day, plus a lot of off-ice stuff like classroom instruction, swimming, conditioning, etc. Miami has an excellent college hockey program, and the facilities there were phenomenal. Before we packed his stuff up to come home, we were able to watch a final scrimmage with Andrew's "red" Bantam team playing the "black" Bantam team. Andrew looked really good, and he played aggressive which was nice to see. On the way home, Andrew feel asleep from exhaustion. All-in-all, it seemed like a great hockey camp. Here are the highlights.

Summer Vacation Picture Recap

Since we are known to take a lot of pictures on our vacations, we generally do a video recap of some of the pictures that were taken along the way. So here is our closing Hollywood Four summer vacation highlight reel ... in pictures.

World's Largest General Store in 2 Minutes

As I mentioned in my post this morning, on one of our last day's of vacation we stopped at the Country Junction: The World's Largest General Store. Here is a bonus clip of the kids walking through the entire store in 2 minutes.

Summer Vacation Days 7-8

Our last couple days of vacation were spent in traveling to Harrisburg and Altoona, PA for minor league baseball games. On our way, we stopped at Country Junction: The World's Largest General Store. This was an interesting stop, to stay the least. That evening we attended a Harrisburg Senators game on City Island which was a very cool stadium. Unfortunately, we only made it through 3 innings before the game was rain postponed. The next day we were going to hike the 1,000 Steps Hiking Trail, but it was too rainy. So, after killing some time, we finished the day off at the Altoona Curve baseball game. This was another gem of a stadium, but again we were only able to enjoy 4 innings before more rain. So, we drove home last night and that ended our summer Hollywood Four vacation.

Summer Vacation Day 6

For day 6 of our Hollywood Four vacation, we planned on going to a big, local waterpark. However, I forgot to pre-purchase the tickets online and the price at the gate was too expensive (plus the place was a mad house). So we decided to take another hike down Indian Trail on Camelback Mountain. Despite this being less than 2 miles, in the 90+ degree weather, we were hot and drenched with sweat. So we headed for Sand Spring Lake in Hickory State Park for a refreshing swim at this "off-the-beaten-path" beach. It was a short swim, however, as the storm clouds began to roll in. So we left the beach and checked out the very cool Boulder Field in the park before we left (it was an endless field of boulders). To finish off our night, we had a huge pizza dinner at Trattoria's 903. On the way back to our room, we stopped at the Jim Thorpe memorial park to learn a little about the person to which this town is named. As a nightcap, we watched a family movie together (Smurfs).

Summer Vacation Day 5

On day 5 of our Hollywood Four vacation, we enjoyed a nice, hearty breakfast at the Broadway Grill and Pub then headed out for a 5 mile hike along the Glen Onoko Falls Trail in the Lehigh Gorge State Park. This turned out to be an awesome 3+ hour hike, with a lot of scenic payoffs along the way. The highlight video below captures many of the cool waterfalls we saw (keeping Andrew and Abby refreshed along the way). After our hike, we went to Mauch Chunk Lake for a quick dip to cool off from the 90 degree temperatures. After that we returned to our hotel to clean up before enjoying a nice dinner at Molly McGuire's Grille & Pub. For our nightcap, we played some cards and enjoyed a family Movie (Tin Tin) in our spacious hotel suite.

Summer Vacation Day 4

On the fourth day of our Hollywood Four vacation, we did some hiking in the Lehigh Gorge State Park along the Lehigh River. The trails were not challenging, but there were some nice waterfalls and views. Then we checked into nice little hotel called The Inn at Jim Thorpe where we have a large, one-bedroom suite with a queen sofa for the kids. The suite has been renovated and is very nice. It will be serving as our base of operations the next few days as we do more exploring. We also enjoyed a nice meal at the Inn's restaurant called the Broadway Grill and Pub.

Summer Vacation Days 1-3

Here are some of the highlights from the Hollywood Four 2012 summer vacation. This year we headed east again, starting with a stop in Pittsburgh, PA where we met up with the Plackowskis for a nice German dinner at Hofbräuhaus. The next morning Dad woke up with a head-to-rash from some new medication he was taking. So, we had to make an emergency stop at a pharmacy for some new stuff to get rid of the rash (seems to be working). Then we headed southeast to Frederick, MD where we walked around downtown and then took in a Frederick Keys minor league baseball game (Dad's 51st in a long list of professional baseball parks). On day 3, we made our way for the Poncono Mountains, but we made a couple pit-stops at the Gettysburg, PA historic park and the Hershey, PA chocolate factory.

Africa Dance (Waka Waka)

This week Karen went upstairs around midnight to find all of the kids (Abby, Andrew, and cousins Emily, Jake, Chloe) performing a "Waka Waka" dance. So she grabbed the video camera and got them in action. It's very well choreographed!

The PartnerShip Golf Team

The four-person PartnerShip golf team participated in the Cleveland Corporate Challenge tonight. The last event I participated in was softball. The company has competed in at least two more events since then (kickball and skeeball), but I wasn't a part of those teams. Our golf team -- shown here -- was comprised of me, Leah (marketing), Polly (program manager), and Joe (operations). Of course, I led the team with the lowest score, but everyone was still pretty close. Unfortunately, not close enough to finish in the top five. Oh well, we still had fun (and maybe we'll still get a couple points). There are more events to come, but the final two that I will participate in will be bowling and 3x3 basketball (here's to my good health!).

Astros Lose Close Opening Tournament Game

The Astros played a great game tonight in the opening round of the year-end tournament. We played a tough opponent in the Reds who played us well all year round and were, possibly, the second best team in the league. But before the game started, I recognized all of the kids contributions throughout the regular season (click here final regular season video & stats) and awarded Joe our Most Valuable Pitcher award; Dillon our Most Valuable Hitter award; and Madison our Most Valuable Player award.

For the game tonight, Joe was our starting pitcher once again, and he gave us three solid innings allowing only 4 Runs (3 earned). We hit the ball well early as well, giving us a 9-4 lead after three innings. Cody came in for relief and, despite some solid pitching, he lost some of the magic from the previous two games in which he allowed no hits and no runs. That combined with some fielding mistakes and next thing we knew we were down 13-9 with bases loaded. Dillon then came in and walked one hitter while striking out the side and avoiding another major Reds inning. But in the top of the 7th and final inning, we just couldn't get our bats going again. So final score was 14-9 (final tournament stats in the image above). A nice game and a nice season by the Astros (special thanks to my assistant coaches Regis, Jim and Dave for all the help this year). I really enjoyed getting to know and coaching these kids - and I can't wait for next season! Enjoy your summer everyone!

North American Irish Dance Championships

This weekend Abby competed in the 2012 North American Irish Dance Championships in Chicago (otherwise known as "The Nationals"). Mom and Abby drove down from the Ott Cabin, while Dad drove over from northeast Ohio. We stayed at the Sheraton Water Tower Hotel, which is where the competition was. Unfortunately, Abby was suffering from a cold and/or allergies all weekend and so her breathing and stamina was not the greatest. So, despite a solid effort, she wasn't able to "recall." Still, competing with 200 or so of the best Irish Dancing 16-year olds in North American is something to be proud of. We also took some time to enjoy a little bit of Chicago with stops at The Original Gino's East, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, and a couple other great little restaurants along the way. Here are some video highlights (shot using '60s style with my new 8MM app for my iPhone).

The Hair Ninja

The other day Abby sent me a text with this picture. She called it her "Hair Ninja" pose. I just love the photo and had to share it on our blog. She's only been gone a few days (up at the in-law's cabin), but I already miss her.

The Astros 2012

Now that the regular season has finished, here is a short video highlighting the Astros team and 2012 baseball season. As I told the kids the other night, it was fun getting to know them all, and my privilege to coach them for a year. Although our won-loss record was not great (4-12), considering we were a very young team (only two 14 year olds, and 2 players that were actually young enough to play in the 11-12 league), I think we developed and played well in most of our games. In fact, other than 4 or 5 games, I think we had a legitimate shot at winning almost every other game. It was just a few little things here and there that held us back. In any case, it was nice seeing the kids improve their skills over the season (and me as a coach). Although the regular season is over, we still have a chance to make some noise in the year-end tournament that begins July 9. After defeating the regular season champion Cardinals last night, I feel pretty good about our prospects (although three of my players will be gone).

Posted below the video are the final, regular season team statistics. Before our first playoff tournament game, I will announce a few awards, including:

1) Most Valuable Pitcher: ______________
2) Most Valuable Hitter: ______________
3) Most Valuable Player: ______________



Final Regular Season Statistics (click to enlarge):

Astros Defeat Regular Season Champs, the Cardinals

In the final game of the regular season, the Astros did me proud. We beat the Cardinals tonight - the regular season champions. As usual, "Joltin" Joe gave us 3 solid innings of starting pitching to pickup his second victory of the season. In his second appearance of the season, Cody "Hustle" struck out the side in the fourth and final inning, again with no hits and no runs. The real story, however, was the offense in the second inning where the Astros scored a whopping 14 runs to take a commanding lead which we never let go. The final score was 19-8. Your Astros Stars of the Game were:

• Joe, Cody, and everyone else!

The Astros finish the season with a 4-12 record while the Cardinals finished 12-4. The Astros will now take on the third place team (Reds or Athletics) in the first round of the playoffs in a week from next Tuesday. We'll be without three key players (Patrick, Connor and Andrew), but I am hoping the rest of the team shows up ready to play like they did tonight.

I'll have the final regular season statistics posted in the next few days (along with a final regular season video tribute).

Astros Start Strong, Fade Against Reds

The Astros continued to play hard in back-to-back games against another really good opponent in the Reds. Despite missing some of our biggest bats - and playing with only 9 players - the Astros had a 7 run first inning to take a 7-4 lead. We continued to grind through a couple more innings to a 11-11 tie, despite another solid starting pitching effort from "Joltin" Joe who pitched three innings giving up only 4 earned runs with 7 strikeouts. However, with Andrew "Freddie Ballgame" suffering from a shoulder injury, and Connor "The Comet" with a hurt thumb, we had to go deep for relief pitching once again. Stepping up was "Pokey" Matt who made a solid pitching debut going 1 1/3 innings. Patrick "P-Diddy" filled in for 2/3 of inning. The real story was Cody "Hustle" who made his pitching debut in the final inning and didn't allow a hit or an earned run. The final score was 11-20, but we continue to develop as a team, finding new strengths as we prepare for the playoffs. Your Astros stars of the game were:

• Patrick "P-Diddy" ... 3 hits (1 double), 2 runs, 2 RBI
• "Joltin" Joe ... 3 IP, 7 Ks pitching; plus 2 BB and 2 runs as a hitter
• Cody "Hustle ... 1 IP, 1 K, 0 R pitching; plus 1 hit, 1 run, and 2 BB as a hitter

Our last game is this Thursday under the late night lights against the regular season champion Cardinals. How sweet it would be to finish the regular season with a victory in that game!

Astros Show Grit Against Athletics

The Astros played a heck of a game tonight against the Athletics. It was another see-saw battle with the Astros jumping to a 4-3 lead after 1 inning, and 11-7 lead after 4 innings on some solid. "Joltin" Joe and Andrew "Freddie Ballgame" gave us some good pitching over the first three innings. But then we had our one bad inning where - despite some good pitching from Connor "The Comet," we managed to give up 9 runs in the 5th inning. After reaching deep into our bullpen, we had another tough inning in the 6th, giving up 9 more runs. But facing a 12 run deficit in the bottom of the 6th inning, the Astros showed some grit and never gave up, scoring 10 runs in the inning and almost pulling off the come-back victory. The final score was 22-24, but I was proud of the team for playing hard tonight. Your Astros stars of the game were:

• Patrick "P-Diddy" ... 5 hits (2 doubles), 3 runs, 6 RBI, and 6 SB
• "Joltin" Joe ... 2 innings pitched with only 3 runs scored (non earned); plus 1 hit, 1 BB and 3 runs
• Andrew "Freddie Ballgame" ... 1 inning pitched with only 2 runs scored and 2 Ks; plus 1 hit, 2 BB, and 4 runs
  

Two more games left in the regular season this week.

Astros a No-Show versus Orioles

Not much to say about this game other than the Astros really didn't show up ready to play tonight's game against the Orioles. We committed 8 fielding errors (not counting the balls we just didn't show effort trying to get to), we had 10 strikeouts hitting, and we walked 13 opponent batters pitching. Other than that, we played really well. To put salt in the wound, the Orioles - in a total "Bush-League" move - took an extra long, full-team huddle in the middle of the field with a 10 run lead, only to try and pull the "third-baseman really has the ball and not the pitcher so we can tag your runner out" trick. Luckily the umps called it a balk, but not the sort of play you call when your beating a team by ten runs (although before the move, we had actually just scored four runs and had some momentum going).

Your Astros stars of the game were:

• Dillon and Madison who both gutted out catching duties in 90+ degree temperatures
• Connor, Andrew and Joe who gave us some descent pitching (other than too many walks)

We have three more regular season games to play. Hopefully we can get back into the groove we were in a few games back when we were playing really good baseball. All teams make the playoffs, so if we can end on a high-note, we start with a clean slate for a possible playoff run.

Astros Lose Tough One to Cardinals

The 3-8 Astros put up a fight against the division-leading 8-2 Cardinals. It was a see-saw game with the Astros leading 5-4 after 3 innings. But the Cardinals are a good hitting team and they had an 8 run inning that really killed us. The Astros fought back to make it a 9-12 game, but ended up losing 9-16. Our Astros stars of the game were:

• Matt (2 doubles, 3 runs, 2 SB)
• Madison (1 hit, 2 runs, 2 walks, and a show of toughness catching behind the plate despite injuries)
• Dalton (2 hits, including a triple, 2 runs, 2 SB)

No rest for the wicked - we play the Orioles tomorrow night in another 90 degree hot-weather game.

Here are few highlights that were shot from the peanut gallery this evening (most of Andrew).

Irish Dancing Weekend

Abby and the O'Hare School of Irish Dance - Ohio performed at the Medina Library and at a the Baroque Music Barn in Hunting Valley (intermission for The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra performance). I wasn't able to attend due to a softball tournament for work (see post from earlier today), but Karen took a few video clips of both performances.

PartnerShip Challenges Area Businesses

PartnerShip LLC is once again participating in the the Cleveland Corporate Challenge -- a 14 event corporate athletic competition promoting company camaraderie, employee wellness and business networking while helping local charities. We are competing in the Division 1 category (1-79 employees). Our first event, co-ed softball, was this past Saturday. We won two games and lost two. The team photo is shown here (I am second from the left). It was good fun, and a nice employee bonding experience - although my old muscles could feel it the next day! I don't recall which events PartnerShip will be participating in, but I signed up for 4 events: Softball, Bowling, Mini-Golf, and 3x3 Basketball. I'm looking forward to the next event.

In somewhat related news, our parent organization - NACS Inc. - made #30 on the Top Cleveland Workplaces 2012 list in the medium (150-499 employees) category. It was a nice confirmation of what I now know about this organization versus the last place I worked.

Astros Fall Apart Against Indians

Coming off a big win against the Orioles two nights earlier, I had high hopes for the Astros last night against the Indians (we beat the them the last time we played). The team had been playing really well, but the wheels fell off last night. Andrew "Freddie Ballgame" pitched the first inning and was steady, giving up 2 runs (1 earned). However, he got clobbered advancing home on a passed ball in the top of the 2nd inning, so I needed to bring Connor "The Comet" in to pitch an inning earlier than expected. Connor gave up 3 runs, but couldn't go beyond the 2nd inning due to a sore arm. After that, it was one pitcher after another. All told, we gave up only 4 hits to the Indians, but we walked 18 batters and hit two more! So, the final score was 2-18. My Astros stars of the game were:

• Nathan (2 hits and our only 2 runs)
• Dillon (1 hit, 2/3 inning pitched, hard play)
• Andrew (1 IP, 1 ER; 1 BB, 1 SB)

No time to ponder the past, next game is tomorrow night against the Athletics. If we can make it through that game, we get stead "Joltin'" Joe back next week; plus Cody "Hustle" brings his big bat to the team from South Carolina.