Team Spotlight: Dragon Slayers (a.k.a. Chilidragons)

If you've taken a passing glance at the league Smack Talk Boards you've seen the latest controversy brewing. How good are the Dragon Slayers/Chili Dogs/Dragon Dogs/Chili Slayers/Chilidragons/DogSlayers?

Well, right now they're #1 overall in the RPI rankings, they made the Softball Guys rankings at #2, and they are 4-0. They beat DGS, and they recently toppled Big Riggin who was 2-0 going into this week but is now 2-2. It would appear they are pretty good to me, but let's look a little under the surface.

The team name "Dragon Slayers" was in fact their original name from the teams early days under founding General Manager Sir Lancelot's reign, when the team was a floundering member of the League of Royal Softballers in Merry Ol' England during the Medieval period. It seems the team was playing their inaugural game and hadn't been given a name by King Arthur at that time, when suddenly the field was besieged by a fleet of angry dragons. Lancelot and his team killed the dragons and were thus named "The Dragon Slayers". The name was lost in translation some centuries later when team descendants traveled to America and entered via Ellis Island. The customs agent couldn't exactly grasp the accent, which has survived to this day as the local dialect on the southern California beaches, and somehow translated the name as "The Chili Dogs", a name that stuck with them for several seasons. Only last year were team officials able to uncover ancient team annals that traced it's heritage all the way back to Sir Lancelot, and thus were they able to change their team name back to the original.

Aside from the team names history, which may or may not be completely fictitious and a complete waste of 5 minutes of your life while you read it, the Dragon Slayers are a team with a new mission this season. What is that mission?

Defense.

"Last year we blew out easy competition by 30 runs on average, but lost to the better teams..." Assistant Coach Chris Margaronis said in an interview Friday "...this year we are focused on defense. We've turned numerous double plays in the infield already this season." This shouldn't come as a shock from a team that has 4 former college athletes. These razer's of reptiles have lived up to their new creed by only allowing a staggering 5 runs per game average.

What else do we know about these new League Leaders? We know they drink like sailors and fit the description of more than half the "characters" from my post game lounging post. We know they are a strongly California based team giving them the buffest, and most unintelligible Governor in the country (though at one point in close competition with Jesse the Body Ventura). We know that their fiercest rivalry is not with another softball team, but in fact between the SF Giants fans and LA Dodgers fans on the team itself.

Aside from all of these facts that we do know, we don't know what their future has in store. It is the Softball Guys opinion that this team will likely finish the year in the Top 10, will that finish also be at #1 overall? We'll just have to wait and see.

* If you would like to have the Softball Guy do a Spotlight on your team, please email me at HSSblogger@yahoo.com