Winter Haven Senior Softball

A Day of Oscars.

The 88^th Academy Awards are taking place on Sunday, February 28^th, with that in mind the write-up will center on the awards history. All the films mentioned in this article won an Oscar for Best Picture.

Visitors, Braveheart: Rivera, Rad, Keller, Parker, Denny, Roy, Capozzi, Coffman, Smith and Abney.

Home, Gladiator: Ford, Stier, Doerbaum, Alumbaugh, Gazarek, Matta, Seguin, Burns, Pinnick and Thirey.

Braveheart excited audiences with it’s thrilling battle scences and speeches. It won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1995. Gladiator was released in May of 2000, it met with great success at the box office, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 2000.

Lights, Camera, Action, the Gladiator team came onto the back lot and performed right from the start. We scored 5 runs in the first inning off of hits by Ford, Stier, Doerbaum, Alumbaugh Gazarek, Matta and Seguin. Nick Burns drove in the 5^th run with a SF, the only out of the inning. They must have heard the command, “Maximus: At my signal, unleash hell.”

Team Braveheart has been battling injuries and people leaving the team for business reasons all season. These guys play brave every week, not even knowing if they will have enough players to fill their team on a given day. William Wallace: “Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!” They answered back in the 2^nd inning scoring 3 runs. Roy, Coffman, Smith, Abney and Rad all contributed to scoreboard.

Overall, there was not a great deal of scoring in the game, both pitchers, (Roy and Doerbaum), made the batters look like Forrest Gump. “My Mama always said you’ve got to put the past behind you before you can move on.” – Forrest. In the 6^th inning Team Gladiator put the past behind them. We had been shut out 3 out of the past 4 innings, but we hit Oscar gold in the 6^th inning. Doerbaum won an Oscar for best special effects. He made the ball disappear over the left field fence for a 3 run homerun. (Ford, Stier and Doerbaum all scored on the “Chariot(s) of Fire”, type shot, that Dave smashed. Gazarek and Matta later scored in the same inning after reaching base. They were knocked in when Seguin and Burns did their “Rocky” impersonation and knocked the ball out of the ring, or at least the infield, for hits. When they came to the plate they were there to take care of business. Apollo's Trainer: Hey, champ, you oughta come and look at this boy you're gonna fight on TV. It looks like he means business.  Apollo Creed: Yeah, yeah. I mean business too.

The score after 6 innings was Braveheart 5- Gladiator 13.
Along with the solid pitching performance that both pitchers turned in, there were many good defensive plays. Two plays that stand out were made by Ford and Alumbaugh, they had outstanding catches in the outfield. They both win the best supporting actor award. An award won by such actors as Peter Ustinov, “Spartacus”,  Walter Matthau, “The Fortune Cookie”,  George Kennedy, “Cool Hand Luke”, Sean Connery, “The Untouchables” and Denzel Washington, “Glory”.
Neither team managed to score much to close out the game. It was Team Gladiator that won best picture on this day, as they lead throughout the game. Final Score: Braveheart: 7- Gladiator: 16.
WP: Doerbaum.
Special thanks to our great fans in attendance, many of them came out to root for Doug Ford.
Special thanks to players who were injured and put the pain aside to play ball.
 
Braveheart, Best Actors In A Hitting Role:
Rad: 3/5 with a double.
Roy: 4/5.
Smith: 3/4.
Abney: 3/4.

Gladiator, Best Actors In A Hitting Role:

Ford: 5/5.

Stier: 4/5 with three doubles.

Doerbaum: 5/5 with a HR.

Gazarek: 3/5 with a triple and double.

Matta: 4/5.

Burns: 3/ 4 with a SF.

Seguin 4/5.

Oscar's Funny moments: After being presented with an Academy Award for his role in "City Slickers," 73-year-old actor Jack Palance took the opportunity to demonstrate his strength. He dropped to the floor and performed a series of one-armed push-ups in the middle of his speech. Billy Crystal, who acted as the host of the 64th Academy Awards, made it a running gag for the rest of the telecast.

"It's my privilege. Thank you." That was Joe Pesci's acceptance speech, in its entirety, after winning for Best Supporting Actor in "Goodfellas" at the 63rd Academy Awards. It's also one of the shortest in Oscar history.

At the beginning of his speech, Cuba Gooding, Jr. told the producers of the 69th Academy Awards that they could cut away from him if he ran over his time limit. He did, and they cued the music. However, Gooding didn't stop; he continued to thank everyone he could remember, shouting "I love you, I love you!" as the music swelled behind him. When he was finished, he placed his Oscar on the stage and jumped for joy.

Write Up by Nick Matta