Monday, August 18, 2008

Oh What a Night...

The 4th Annual 2008 Oxford Blues Coed Slow-Pitch Softball Banquet is in the books. It was a classic evening, following in the tradition of past banquets. As usual, a storm was brewing on the horizon while we traveled to Queens. Tanya and Catherine were the early heroes though and arrived in time to snatch up some dry tables.

We drank countless pitchers of Staropramen and munched on European grill fare until it was time for the awards. For those of you that missed it, here is the complete list of awards for this season. If you haven't received your award yet, I'll be dropping it off soon.

Kate "Chaw Time" Brown - Position Player Award
Joe "The Gator" Cognard - Comeback Player of the Year
Martin "M-Cole" Coleman - Al Cascio Memorial Award
Andrew "Flowing Locks" Fargnoli - Slide of the Year Award
Iain "Rounders" Finlayson - True Blue Award
Brian "Prison Break"Hurley - Gold Glove Award
Joe "Uh Oh" Jackson - Best Dressed Award
Ben "Banned from Bar" Keene - Most Improved Player Award
Tanya "Cakes" Laplante - Step Into the Spotlight Award
Michelle "Chelly Chell" Lipinski - Rookie of the Year Award
Dan "The Intimidator" Ozzi - Mr. Hustle Award
Catherine "What Should I Do?" Rae - Team Player of the Year Award
Robert "The Rocket" Repino - Cy Young Award
Ebin "Voice From Heaven" Sandler - Utility Player of the Year Award
Ned "St. Louis Slugger" Sears - Home Run Crown Award
Ninell "Silver Mountain in German is called…" Silberberg - Eagle Eye Award
Kyle "Hawaii Five-0" Taylor - Web Gem Award

Elyse "Turr-minator" Turr - On Base Award
Rachael "Did you know Bob Dylan's real last name is..." Zimmerman - Bench Player of the Year Award
Jared "Closing Time" Wright - Most Improved post-game Player Award


Although Andy was out of the state, he collaborated with Ben Keene to create an acceptance speech and Mr. Keene delivered it on his behalf. It was the funniest acceptance speech ever written and nearly killed Dan Ozzi. At the end of the awards, I was presented with a large frame of some lovely Blues photos from the past four seasons and autographs of actual Blues players (past and present). It was a great gift and I'd like to thank everyone that contributed to it.

After the awards ceremony, things went up a notch. There were loud Swingers quotes, wet shirts, the leaning tower of Ben Keene, dancing, and the epic trial of the People vs. Catherine Rae, who was indicted with soliciting relationship advice from a homeless man. She would later be acquitted of the charges as the jury found insufficient evidence that the man was homeless. For my emphatic feelings on the verdict, be sure to check out the video in Jared's photos.

Michelle also ended up with a fun batch of pictures. Ben claims to have some good photos but four days after the event they are still not available. It was a great night.

As for the future, there are rumors of another chance to play ARTstor next week in a post-season exhibition game. I'm flying out that day so I won't be able to attend. Although I won't be at the helm I'm compelled to leave you with a few last bits of advice in my final blog post for next week and beyond; run hard to first base, call out the pop flys, have fun, listen to Tanya, and raise a glass to toast the team whenever possible. Go Blues!