Tottenham Oldtimers Slo-Pitch League

Well week 1 is in the books ..... and what did we learn?

Opening Night, Hot Tub Woody's @ Dog Catchers

First off, we have a great rookie crop this season!  Also, it was nice to see so many smiling faces around the diamonds this week; players are genuinely happy to be back on the fields!  Speaking of fields, they're in tremendous shape this year! Usually, by now, we have someone who's been dinged by a bad hop, or twisted an ankle due to the wonky fields, but no sign of that this season.  The lights all seem to function, the crowds have been amazing, no significant injuries in week #1 & we didn't lose any time to rain in the first week of the season for the second year in a row!  (little YAY!)

Now onto the baseball.  

I personally didn't learn a heck of a lot, other than this.  I'm still waiting for the weak spots in batting orders to show up!!!  Ya, I'm older, granted, but I think that the caliber of ball has steadily improved year over year. Although, I'm perfectly willing to accept that I've just simply declined year over year and everyone else has stayed the same.  

Week 1 wasn't terribly "telling".  We have two 2-0 teams.  We have two 0-2 teams.  To which I say, bah.  Its way too early for trends.  

A beautiful look at Coventry 2

Stats and standings....

We're still kind of fumbling our way through this.  Lou Conforti remains the prime on entering stats, and Dan Chiasson and I are his backups.  As a matter of practice, Dan and I have been entering our own games.  I'm 1-1 and he's 0-2 so doing our own stats hasn't helped at all!!!  Lou has been doing the balance of the work.  

I'll be honest, we're learning this process on the fly.  Technically, there is no issue, the system is easy to use.  The effort around doing the stats and standing is decidedly less than the old spread sheet and website upload method.  The timing of data entry needs to be massaged a little but we'll get there.  We had two score sheets turned in late this week which causes delays.  One probably won't get into the system until Monday or Tuesday now.  That's life.  

But, excepting the late or missing score sheets, games have been entered online from within 30 minutes to 36 hours after completion.  We're a far cry from Monday's games stats and standings not showing up until the following Sunday.    

Beer Cup..........

The Grisslies entered the season in possession of the Beer Cup.  The Dodge City Rounders must have REALLY wanted it because they drubbed the Grisslies 27-7 to rudely snatch it away.  Dodge then went onto play the Rusty Rebels in game two and became the second team to be unable to retain the cherished jug.  

So now what?  The Hurtin' Units will try to trip up the Rusty Rebels next Tuesday at 7pm and win the Beer Cup.  And gentlemen, the Captains traditionally bet a jug of beer on the game (hence the name of the cup)

Beer Cup Games Played. 

1  Grisslies

1 Dodge City Rounders

1 Rusty Rebels

POLL.....

Last week we asked, "Assume you're not going to win the Playoff Championship, what other award would be your 2nd choice".  Here are the results.  

20.8% (10 votes) Championship Runner Up (at least we make the finals)

37.5% (18 votes) Regular Season Champs (a dominant run)

33.3% (16 votes) NELLIE Award (peer respect is a good consolation prize)

8.3%   (4 votes)   Beer Cup (sure its random, but tough to win)

Great start to the year gang!

 *** Special thanks to Lisa Piellusch for supplying game night pictures!!! ***