On Guard?

There's been quite a bit of talk on the boards lately about the "old guard" and the "new guard". The constant spitballing between LNF, the Dude, CaliforniaMash, Tin Cup and a fleet of other revolving monikers has to make the observer wonder, what's the point?

Do the Yankees, Red Sox and Braves constantly refer to the Marlins, Rockies and Rays as "new guard"? Of course not. They simply assume their the better team and go out and win. On the same token the others don't constantly seek to overthrow the "old guard" they simply go out and play the game. In a league where anyone can sign up a team, and where there are over 115 teams, is it shocking that new teams will show up just about every year, and that once in awhile they might be as good as the teams who have been around since league inception.

That alone begs another question, how in the world can you have an old guard when the league is less than 10 years old? For that matter how can you have a new guard? Isn't it just a bunch of teams in a league trying to win the title? What false sense of pride does being a part of a guard give this posters that it merits such a heavy spattering of posts? 

In it's short life the House Softball League has had some fine moments. Everything from tournament fights, message board brawls, epic games, and unexpected upsets. But it would probably serve all in the league well to remember how young the league is and that it simply hasn't been around long enough to have old and new guards. I suppose you could refer to the different groups as Seniors, Juniors, Sophomore's and Freshmen, which is about right for the style of commentary that it breeds.

Now to the exciting part...

Ok, so we've successfully meandered our way through the opening weeks of the season and there has been little worth noting, per usual. 

Those expected to be at the top of the league are. Texas Republic lost, ending a remarkable streak and dropping them all the way to 9th, ouch. The Arizona Booze Kittens, who I believe are the latest transfer over from the legendary Congressional League (but also bare a remarkable name similarity to the storied Booze Your Daddy's Wicked Kitten Militia of 2008), made a snazzy run to top 15 only to find out that the Blue Pups are not, as they appeared to be, dead. DGS has managed to avoid their first loss of the season which usually rears its head around this time of the year, but they play the team formerly known as Insliders in two weeks so don't hold your breath, that ones usually a barn burner. All in all, mostly uneventful.

Now is when it gets exciting. The sage teams know to schedule their marquee match-ups for the second half of the season and as we inch along they are start to emerge. This week the Slayers play Blue Pups and next week as previously noted, we get the Sliders/DGS game. And who can wait for the August 11th juggernaut bash between Channel 4 News Team and Hurricane Ditkas. Every week will be chalk full of games to watch which brings me to my pick of this weeks game of the week:

Softball Guy's Game of the Week/Season so far:

What Exit? v. Hoosier Daddy? - This matchup may not look like much to the untrained softball eye, but the very title alone poses a multitude of questions that must be answered. WE? has fallen into a nice grove alternating wins and loses every other week, coming due this week for their next victory. But HD? stands poised for redemption after suffering a rough one run loss to the upstart Category 6 team. So all of the softball world will watch in anticipation to see just "Who is who's daddy?" and which team will find their exit on Thursday. Softball Guys Pick: Hoosier Daddy? 8, What Exit? 6.