HOCKEY IS ON THE HORIZON
Aug 2, 2019
Nick Nollenberger is in his fourth season as the play-by-play broadcaster for the San Jose Barracuda. The native of Santa Cruz pens a blog each week during the offseason, updating fans on everything from hockey to his summer adventures and more. This week he dives into the promo schedule and the office softball team "Flavortown".
Happy Friday everyone! Hope you had a great week. We’ve made it to August which means we’re less than two months away from Barracuda preseason action (Holy cow, we’ve got a lot of work to do before then!). We’re also just 36 days away from the Anaheim Rookie Faceoff which will take place at Great Park Ice (Irvine, Calif.) from Sept. 7-10 and will include the brightest young prospects for the Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, LA Kings, Vegas Golden Knights, Arizona Coyotes, and Colorado Avalanche. The Rookie Faceoff rotates hosts every year. If you remember Vegas held the event last September and the year before it was hosted by the Sharks. It’s the unofficial start to the hockey season.
As I’ve done the last two years, I’ll be calling the action on SJSharks.com so if you can’t make it down to SoCal we’ve got you covered.
The big news of the day was the release of the Barracuda’s 2019-20 promotional schedule that features six jersey auctions, four bobblehead giveaways, a pair of t-shirt giveaways and more. What’s so great about this year’s promo schedule is that there will be essentially a promo or giveaway at all 34 home games. 2019-20 also marks the team’s 5th Anniversary which includes a three-part collectible bobblehead series and a 5th Anniversary celebration night that includes a t-shirt giveaway and black specialty jerseys. It’s hard to pick any single promotion as my favorite but there are a few I’m extra excited about. Below are my top five in no particular order.
Cuda Classroom Day (Wednesday, October 30, 2019 & Tuesday, March 17, 2020)
Hockey Fights Cancer Night (November 3, 2019)
Pucks and Paws (Sunday, December 29, 2019)
Cuda “Country” Night (Friday, March 6, 2020)
408 Night (November 17, 2019)
What’s your favorite night?
Now onto my weekly work softball update. I referred to it as the company softball team last week, but for accuracy sake, we’ll just call it Flavortown. It is the team’s name after all and it doesn’t exclude all the other folks at work who aren’t on the team. Also, I’m trying to build the brand;) #Flavortown @Flavortown
Let’s be blunt, Wednesday didn’t go well. We got shellacked for lack thereof a better term. Granted, we were missing a few key players due to family obligations and injuries but the result wasn’t good. The silver lining in it all is that we can play better than we did. MUCH, MUCH BETTER.
The score may not depict it, but there were some good moments from our loss (full press release below). Like Stephanie Dubin’s (Sharks Community Relations Program Manager) continued hot bat, the addition of new team member Casey Roberts (Former Sharks Foundation employee) and our pitching depth between Nate Hone (Sharks Digital Media Production Manager) and Joey Goldstein (Barracuda Marketing & Community Relations Manager). Plus, Taylor Hone (Sharks Video Producer) invited his fiancé and two friends from Michigan so we had fans for once.
Without a doubt the highlight of the night came from Nate Hone. He brought a portable speaker and played everyones walk-up song during their a-b. The result didn’t show it but the tunes definitely uplifted the spirits.
Let’s talk strategy quickly before we dive into the presser below. We’ve got to get back to what good teams do on Wednesday night co-ed softball at Twin Creeks. Two things make a team successful, solid defense and selective hitters. Walks are better than hits most of the time. There's no doubt it's nearly impossible to hold off from swing the bat but if we want to win we’ve got to show that discipline.
I didn’t want any backlash from the team text-thread this week so I elected to put together a game-recap press-release from Wednesday. Disclaimer: I wrote down limited details from the game and don’t know any names from the opponent but I can say this team looked like they were part of the California League. Guys had batting gloves, leggings, cleats, sweatbands, headbands (slight exaggeration), gold chains, diamond earrings and pine tar on their bats. They looked the part and backed it up.
So without further ado, enjoy…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Barracuda Media Relations
Aug. 2, 2019
KITCHEN TOO HOT, FLAVORTOWN BACK TO .500 AFTER BLOWOUT LOSS
Sunnyvale, Calif. – Coming off an opening day win just a week prior, Flavortown (1-1) entered Wednesday’s matchup at Daniel Smith Championship Field (Field 1) against an unbeaten Productive Outs (2-0) club hoping to stay perfect, but a seven-run bottom of the second proved too costly in an 18-4 loss.
After a four-run top of the first, that saw Joey Goldstein and Stephanie Dubin come up with RBI knocks, Flavortown never found its offensive groove after that point. Productive Outs didn’t wait long to take its first lead as they plated six in the bottom of the first to go up 6-4.
In the top of the second, Flavortown went down 1, 2, 3, failing to cut into Productive Outs two-run lead. In the bottom half of the inning, it looked like Flavortown was going to get out of the inning without giving up any more damage, but Productive Outs managed to score seven runs with two outs, extending its lead to 13-4.
The bats would stay cold as Flavortown failed to round the bases in its final three innings of at-bats. In the bottom of the third and the bottom of the fourth, Productive Outs would score two runs in each inning. The two runs in the bottom of the fourth came via the long ball as Bronson Arroyo’s (Don’t know his name but he had Arroyo level flow) evil twin hit a towering shot to centerfield.
After five innings the game concluded due to the mercy rule.
Next up… Flavortown is back in action next Wednesday (August 7, 2019 – 9 PM *Field 9*) when they take on Eye Black Out.