The Official Sox of the NCBL; EST 1981

Welcome to the home of the Ottawa SweatSox, a Tier V team playing in Tier II of the National Capital Baseball League

2009 SweatSox Award Winners:

Mr. Quarterfinal: In the quarterfinal series against the Outlaws, the Director reached base 7 out of 8 times finishing 4/5 with 3 walks, 2RBI, and a run scored.

The Bill Freeman Mr. Hyjinx Award: With the 2008 departure of the legendary William Freeman, a new contender had to step up to take the reigns as master of the Hyjinx. With dozens of quotes and "subheadings", the answer to any question on any subject, providing BBQ and propane (most of the time) to heat up some beef or chicken dogs, and after acting on the theory that it wasn't necessary to go to the pizza, that the pizza could be brought to him, Marc Lett is the clear cut winner of this most prestigious award.  Honourable mention go out to Travis Murdock, who definitely showed the potential to be a force to be reckoned for future 'Freeman' awards.

Comeback Player of the Year: After a 2008 season he would probably rather forget, Armando Navarro bounced back this year improving his offensive stats in just about every category. In only six more plate appearances than last year, he had four more runs scored, seven more hits, three more walks, four more stolen bases, and even recorded the first sacrifice bunt of his career this year. His batting average went up .126 points (from .176 to .302), slugging percentage was up .145 (.176 to .321) and on base percentage went up .123 (from .333 to .456). Army was one of the lone bright spots in an otherwise futile SweatSox offense.

Cleanest Uniform Award: “Why get dirty if you don’t have to” - That was the 2009 motto of SweatSox freshman Rafael Castillo. When stealing second and a slide would seem appropriate, Raf would go with plan B and run around the pending tag; if a ball was hit hard up the middle and any regular shortstop would dive to try and field the ball, Raf would simply run faster and field the ball on the move; and when he had a big game and got his #13 jersey a little too sweaty, he traded it in for #2. If there was an entry for the Clean Castillo, a picture of Raf would definitely be front and center.

Top Left Handed Pitcher: For the seventh consecutive season, Cory Bond is the proud recipient of the 2009 Top Left Handed Pitcher Award, an award he may someday have named after him.  Having been glossed by his teammates as the GLE, Cory led all lefties with 10 games pitched, 8 starts, 37 innings pitched, 31 hits allowed, 15 runs (8 earned), a career low 14 walks, 41 strikeouts, 3 wins, 1 save, a 1.22 WHIP, 7.76 strikeouts per 7 innings, and a 1.51 ERA - to name a few.

Best Name: It was a close vote, but in the end Travis "The Murdock" Murdock takes home his first ever year-end SweatSox award: the Best Name Award. You may be asking yourself what is so special about a two syllable word that starts with Mur and ends with Dock? How’s this: Pee Wee Herman’ing in public, knocking out a belly-button ring, a sissy little bitch, and a twenty-inch deepthroat. Honourable mention goes out to Babe Ruth, and shoutout to last year’s winner Denver Hunt. Oh, watch out for hidden links...

Top Teammate Award: What more could you ask for in a teammates who pays his full fees up front (well pretty much up front), then only shows up to 3 games. Mike "MIA Mike" Hindmarsh initially missed games to root on the Pittsburgh Penguins during their Stanley Cup run, but after that seemingly dropped off the mat. With a handful of games to go in the regular season, MIA Mike re-emerged with emailed promises he would qualify himself for the playoffs; we never heard from him again. The only thing that would have made Hindmarsh Teammate of the Century would be if he had only showed up on days where he was on beer. Although we haven’t heard from Mike in months, he will be the first one offered a spot on the 2010 squad. See ya next year bud.

Scorekeeper of the Year Award: Now I’m not one to toot my own horn or sing my own praises, but when it came down to voting for the Scorekeeper of the Year Award, I knew I, Shaun Keay, would be the winner. With all the time I spent on the bench this season (a team high 21% of innings attended) I was able to develop my own little strategies for creating the perfect scoresheet, including but not limited to: writing little notes at the bottom of the page to explain complicated plays Cory might not be able to decode, consult the Consultant on questionable plays to make sure the correct scoring is recorded, and keeping a second scoresheet on hand just in case someone else makes a mistake, cause you know I can’t have people messing up my sheet.

Best Hyjinx Save Award: Although he only showed up to 12 games this year and rocked a career low .156 batting average, Joseph Majic was an integral part of keeping the SweatSox morale at an all-time high. When the 14th annual SweatSox Family Fun Day was seconds away from being cancelled, Joe offered to host FFD at his place, and even organized a poker game and home run derby. That was only the beginning of Joe’s off-field contributions, later in the year when an MIA Mike hosted Hyjinx was approaching, Joe took control and bumped himself up in the rotation to make sure there was an Après Baseball Hyjinx worth attending. Joey saved the best for last though, late in the season, during a game no less, when a Code: Orange was confirmed, Joe pulled out his phone and called SweatSox uber Fan Mrs. Joe with an emergency request to raid the fridges of friends, family, or neighbours and bring them to the game; she did. 3 times Joe was directly responsible for saving the Hyjinx, earning him the highly coveted Best Hyjinx Save Award.

Reliever of the Year: After picking up a win in the season opener in relief of the GLE, then after struggling in his first start two games later, The Authority made the call to move Josh to the bullpen indefinitely. Mr. Burlinchester embraced the move, and in response pitched 19.33 innings of 13 hit ball, giving up only 3 earned runs with 15 walks and 15 strikeouts; B’Josh finished a 1.09ERA as a relief pitcher, picking up a win, no losses, with 2 saves. To truly earn this award though, you have to do a bit more than just pitch well, and Joshua did. Before several big games at the Sportsplex, Josh was spotted either in the bullpen or in deep left-center field relieving himself. Your reliever of the year: Josh Ramage.

Slippery Hands Award: During an Après Baseball Hyjinx, there are always several things you can bank on witnessing: a cooler full of ice and beer, a BBQ, an impromptu stacking of something, a Travis Murdock story, a Marc Lett anecdote, and of course a John Groves spill - No, not an always regrettable beer spill, but several potentially costly mobile device spills. At least have a dozen Blackberry spills were credited to the OMG, but we are happy to report that as of the final postseason game, his phone was still sending & receiving data. Fortunately John’s slippery hands did not carry over onto the infield, where he finished with a .968 fielding percentage.

Great SweatSox Pussy Award: Two of the greatest Hyjinx happenings this year involved the cat of our very own Craig Cornell. The first was during one of the earlier Hyjinx’ this year when despite the better attempts to keep the cat indoors, she found a way out including reaching up and opening the screen door, in perfect view of the Hyjinx’ers and the phone cameras locked on. This led to one of the greatest stories told this year from the reigning Mr. Hyjinx Marc Lett about a time when The Consultant’s cat managed to lock him outside for a couple of hours in only his boxers. For the actions of his cat, Craig Cornell is the proud recipient of the Great SweatSox Pussy Award.

The OMS Award: The OMS Award is given annually to the player who has the greatest single game performance of the season; for the first time since its inception, the winner is not Mark Dorrington, but it is someone with the first name Mark. The Bus Cop’s 17 strikeout no-hitter against the Outaouais Tribu on June 02, 2009 not only was the best performance this year, but may go down as one of the all-time greatest SweatSox outings ever. Honourable mention goes out to the Consultant who in the final game of the regular season went 5 for 5 at the plate.

The Chris Chapman Anger Award: May 26, 2009 may just be another day to you or me, but to Kent Johnston, it will be a day he will never forget. After several games of stranding runners in scoring position, The Director called a team meeting to demand the installation of ‘small ball’ into the everyday routine (a memo that Army wouldn’t receive for a couple months). The Director morphed into the ACF that day, but he wouldn’t remain angry for long; later that night he committed what everyone recognized as a throwing error in CF. When he found out about the ever so rare E8 in the SweatSox scorebook, he became FURIOUS, and transformed into the FCF for several weeks until a second E8 returned him to the much calmer ACF. Kent’s everyday motto: “I take serious issue with stupidity.” Somewhere looking for his second beer, Chris Chapman has a tear in his eye, proud that his tradition of fury still lives on.

Ironman Award: When determining the winner of the Ironman Award, the voters take into account the number of games played, the number of innings attended, the number of full Hyjinx’ attended, and the number of preseason practices attended. Fortunately, this year one man led in each of these categories, our fearless coach and manager: Cory Bond. The Authority’s dedication and commitment to the SweatSox this year was unmatched; and on a personal note whenever I had to miss a game in favour of a golfing or Vegas vacation, I could always count on the HRK to get me updates so my website write-ups were always complete. Honourable mentions go out to Army Navarro, who only missed 1 inning of play (the time he went to Kinsmen instead of Sportsplex) and to Travis Murdock, who only missed 2 innings (the time he left the diamond to go home and get his water bottle or something).

Webmaster of the Year: When I accepted the position of SweatSox Webmaster effective on January 1st of this year, I had no idea what I was in for. Fortunately, there wasn’t much SweatSox activity in the winter so I had a bit of time to wrap my superior engineering degree mind around the ins and outs of Yahoo! Geocities. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that they were worthless, so in my first real move as Webmaster, I purchased our very own domain, SweatSoxBaseball.com. At about the same time, I realized that an embedded Twitter widget on the site would be the perfect addition, as I could provide real-time updates from anywhere my cell gets reception. I knew it was a brilliant idea, and so did other NCBL teams and even the NCBL league itself, because not long after that, Twitter windows were popping up everywhere; I think my innovation, originality, and ability to see the future of the league should earn me the NCBL’s President’s Award.

From the NCBL Constitution:
33) The President’s Award, to the deserving player or team as selected by the Commissioner, for any reason whatsoever.

After that, the rest was a breeze, remember what happened during the games and write it down. If someone took a video, we could upload it onto YouTube and I would embed it on the site. If I do say so myself, my job this year was far superior to anything Chapman did on Rogers, Harbic did on SweatSox1, and Shannon and Craig did on SweatSox2. I have no doubts my team option for a second year as SweatSox Webmaster will be picked up.  The winner of the Webmaster of the Year Award: me, Shaun Keay.

The Authority's Award: As per the SweatSox Constitution, the Authority has the power to honour any player this award, for any reason he deem fit. This year, Cory has awarded Rafael Castillo the Authority’s Award for his outstanding contributions to the Hyjinx. Raf’s résumé included being the first ever player to agree to bring food to a practice, then when he was unable to come to practice, he drove by, dropped off the food, then continued on his way. He later became the first person to bring Corona’s to the Hyjinx; and again when he was scheduled to bring the beer and food two separate times, on both occasions he performed his duties despite being unable to stay for even a single drink. Well done Rafael can’t wait to see what you have for an encore next year.

Most Green: Kent Johnston may have been angry or sometimes furious on the baseball diamond, but he was equally irate off the field, especially when somebody was caught leaving garbage on the bench, littering in the parking lot, or throwing empty beer bottles in the garbage. Kent would constantly remind everyone to clean up the dugouts after the game, put garbage into the garbage, and reminding everyone to reduce, reuse, and recycle. For his outstanding contributions to the environment and his commitment to making the planet Earth a cleaner place, The Director of Green once again will take home the SweatSox 2009 Most Green Award.

Manager of the Year: In his freshman year as the foot inside the Sock, Cory Bond recruited strong, signing Old Man Groves, Rafael Castillo, Travis Murdock, and of course Mike Hindmarsh, before the season started. He then led the SweatSox to a 7th consecutive winning record and playoff birth, while having the audacity to print off pregame lineups on his computer knowing the history of people’s punctuality. Congratulations to the Authority on a job...done. It would seem the NCBL agrees with the greatness of our leader, because just recently Cory was offered a spot as one of the 4 managers in the upcoming inaugural NCBL fall league. Good luck boss.

Player of the Half Decade (2005-2009): Knowing he didn’t need to play this year to win the award, Mark Dorrington took the season off to work on his golf game. In the 4 seasons prior, the One Man Show compiled an overall record of 20-2 (14-1 regular season) on the mound with an ERA under 1.00, and 166 strikeouts in only 100 innings pitched. At the plate Mark only batted .388 with 8 homeruns. In 2007, Show had his greatest season and picked up the following hardware: the Doug Dorion Memorial Trophy for team MVP, the NCBL’s Tier II Top Pitcher Award, and the NCBL’s Tier II Most Valuable Player Award. OMS will return to the SweatSox lineup next year and make a run at the Player of the 21st Century Award, needing to play only one more season, or maybe two, to qualify.

Player of the Decade (2000's): Before I start I just want to say that when Cory submitted this award to me, I, Shaun Keay was the winner, probably because I was here for all 10 years. Unfortunately, I cannot accept this honour because I feel there is somebody more worthy, and that of course is the GLE, who is too selfless & gracious to give it to himself. Cory has been our rock on the mound, pitching at least 37 innings in each of the last 7 seasons, picking up a total of 38 regular season wins with a 2.75 ERA, numbers that were unthinkable in SweatSox nation 10 years ago. Offensively, the HRK sits with a batting average just under .300, and led the team this past decade in triples, sacrifices, and tied me in homeruns with 9. His greatest season came back in 2005 when he won the Doug Dorion Memorial Trophy for team MVP; he then went on to win the NCBL’s Tier III MVP Award. Mr. A&W is a steady presence at the Hyjinx, and has even climbed the ranks to finally become the General Manager, Coach, and Authority of the SweatSox. The people’s choice for the first Player of the Decade of the 21st Century: Cory Bond.

Defensive Player of the Year: When you think of SweatSox defense, you might immediately think of ridiculous, bizarre, terrible, dreadful, or frightening; and you would be right. Fortunately, we always have A Shining Star (ASS), a man who always knows to take two steps over and one step in: Kent Johnston. His presence in center field not only puts fear into the eyes of a runner thinking of taking an extra base, but with his knowledge and experience in the outfield Cory can just throw anyone out there and know Kent will have them positioned correctly. For the fifth consecutive year, the Director takes home a Defensive Player of the Year Award; and for the second consecutive year, KJ will have to share the hardware. That’s right folks, we had two studs on D this year. SweatSox freshman Rafael Castillo was a machine at shortstop, recording a team leading 53 assists with 29 putouts for a .891 fielding percentage. In only his first season, he has become the greatest shortstop the Sox have ever had. If the SweatSox can get more guys like Kent and Raf, we may turn into a Tier IV team playing in Tier II of the National Capital Baseball League.

In a new SweatSox tradition, we will honour the players who played their positions just a bit better than the rest.  We will call them the Gold Gloves.  Your 2009 SweatSox Gold Glove Winners:
* a player can only win 1 gold glove per season
** they must meet a minimum requirement of total chances at their position in order to qualify
*** the minimum requirement per position is modified at the discretion of The Authority

 P - John Groves
 C - Marc Lett
1B - Cory Bond
2B - Travis Murdock
3B - Craig Cornell
SS - Rafael Castillo
OF - Kent Johnston
OF - Armando Navarro
OF - Mark Bond

And finally, a medium sized shoutout to the following players who committed 0 errors at a position they played this year (with at least 1 assist or putout recorded):

 P - John Groves
 C - Craig Cornell
 C - Mark Bond
2B - Travis Murdock
2B - Mike Hindmarsh
3B - Travis Murdock
OF - Cory Bond
OF - Rafael Castillo
OF - Marc Lett

Rookie of the Year: Handpicked to wear the number eighteen jersey from displaced SweatSock Rookie Bill Freeman, Travis “the Murdock” Murdock rose above the initial pressure and was a vital part of what little success the SweatSox had this year. Travis led the team in at-bat’s & RBIs, was second in doubles and third in hits, batting average, and stolen bases. On defense he was third in assists and second in putouts, with an impressive .947 fielding percentage. Having been touted as a superstar catcher, Travis threw out just about every baserunner attempting to steal on him, and the ones he didn’t "weren’t his fault". On the mound, Travis fought is way up from sporadic appearances into a playoff start, and was the only SweatSox pitcher to finish the season with a winning record (3-1, 2.17 ERA). What shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle was Travis’ commitment to the team, having missed only 2 innings of play all season. Our unanimous winner, and nominee for Rookie of the Year: Travis Murdock.

Batter of the Year: When one player leads the team in 8 offensive categories and is second in two more, there can be no question who the heart of the SweatSox offense was this season. Craig Cornell, who batted .386 with a .509 slugging percentage and a .527 on base percentage, also led the team in plate appearances, hits, doubles, triples, and walks. Hitting out of the leadoff or number two spot in the order, the Consultant still managed to record 12 RBI and 14 runs scored. In the final game of the regular season when the Sox needed a win to secure themselves a winning record, Seductive Eyes went 5/5 and was an integral part of the comeback; in fact most of his hits came in big situations when the pressure was on. Craig was our most consistent, clutch, and dependable hitter this year, and is our nominee for Batter of the Year.

Pitcher of the Year: Cory Bond once again had a great season, pitching a team high 37 innings with a team low 1.51 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in a much more balanced rotation. The GLE worked hard in the offseason to improve his accuracy, and it paid off when he recorded a career low in walks with 14. A victim of unfortunate circumstances for most of the year, the SweatSox lefty lost TWO games against the first place Mudd by a score of 1-0, skewing his win-loss total in a slightly negative favor. Travis, of Travis Tracker fame, was the first to point out that with a clutch hit here and a defensive play there, Cory could have finished the year 7-0 (with a save). Bond was the SweatSox go-to guy on the hill and demonstrated, once again, why he is consistently mentioned as one of the Tier’s top pitchers.

Sportsmanship & Ability: Armando Navarro, also known as #12, or sometimes just as the fast guy who stands so far up in the batters box he’s practically on the pitchers mound, is the SweatSox representative for the Tier II Sportsmanship & Ability award. Army can always be seen on the diamond with a smile on his face, pumping his teammates up with a double fist bump. Army is a class act on the field and always respects the officials; I’m reminded of a game in Quebec when he was ejected for running into the catcher – even though he knew it was a legal play and the ejection was uncalled for, Army calmly walked to the dugout and never complained once (it should be noted moments later the ejection was indeed reversed). Another example of Army’s sportsmanship was when he was asked to enter a very close game as per the SweatSox Equal Playing Time Policy; Army countered that if it was all the same he would stay on the bench and be ready for a late inning pinch run, all because he didn’t want to disrupt the Sox momentum. Army didn’t get into the game and broke his Ironman streak, but the Sox won and that’s all he cared about. Army’s ability to play the game of baseball is never an issue, this year he batted .302, and led the team in runs scored and stolen bases, and was second in hits and walks – all from the leadoff spot. Finally on defense, Army was asked to make the move from 2B to the OF and not only was he perfectly fine & willing to do it, but he worked hard to improve and recorded a .909 fielding percentage including an outfield assist. Army may sometimes get down on himself, but he never takes it out on his opponents, the umpires, or his teammates; he respects the game of baseball, and if he knew in advance he was being nominated for this award he probably would have tried to convince us to give it to somebody else. Great job #12, we're all proud of you.

Doug Dorion Memorial Trophy: For the second time in his career, Craig Cornell is the winner of the Doug Dorion Memorial Trophy, meaning his is the SweatSox Most Valuable Player. With his victory this year, he becomes the first player since Marc Lett in 2004 to win the award without pitching a single inning; which means his combined effort on both offense and defense was extra special this year. Craig led the SweatSox in 8 offensive categories and was second in two more – he batted .386 with a .509 slugging percentage and a .527 on base percentage, also led the team in plate appearances, hits, doubles, triples, and walks. Hitting out of the leadoff or number two spot in the order, the Consultant still managed to record 12 RBI and 14 runs scored. On defense, Craig made the move from 2B to 3B and set multiple franchise records from the hot corner including 30 assists, 19 putouts, and a .860 fielding percentage. When needed (which was often), the man with the greatest hair in the league was both willing and able to play different positions including 2B, SS, C, CF, and DH. The SweatSox Player of the Year: Craig Cornell.

Awards will be handed out every day until the SweatSox Team Party sometime around the September 12th weekend