Halfway there?

For some teams this is the halfway point, for others there season hasn't begun and for even more the season is starting to wrap up. But for the playoff teams, the crunch begins after the 4th of July.

It's about this time of year that the standings begin to gel and teams get a good sense of what they need to do to secure that playoff birth, or improve their seeding. For the first time in awhile, the field is pretty open for the top seeds. The re-emergence of Fat, Drunk and Awesome has landed them in the familiar territory of the Top 10, at #1 in fact. But, with games against DGS, Moderately Sober, the Dragon Slayers and a rather unusually high ranked Vito Power, FDA may find themselves sliding. Then there's the ever present DGS, Big Lebowskis, Pot Fever, Destroyers and Texas Republic lurking to take the top seed, but all 5 of those teams have rough final schedules ahead, most of them playing each other. Notably absent from that list, the Liberty Square "In"Sliders, the most obvious reason for that being that they've only played 5 games.

Knocking on the door of success are a fleet of teams who have always been good, but never really great. I mentioned Vito Power, who now sits at #6, they've got no breaks in their schedule basically from here on out, if they win out, they deserve the top seed, I find that unlikely though. Bases Loaded, Scared Hitless, Hired Gunz, Moderately Sober and the Big Sticks are all floating around the 8-15 range and could find themselves with first round byes if the current leaders beat each other up enough.

To date, not a ton of shocking news though. So I'll leave those of you still out there with my Top 10:

1 - Moderately Sober, yes, hidden in there record are quality wins over the Sliders and Slayers and only a 1 run heart breaking loss to Pot Fever.
2 - Fat Drunk and Awesome, they'd be #1, but a fairly weak schedule thus far.
3 - Texas Republic, still winning, still a top team to beat.
4 - Big Lebowskis, weak schedule, but still a heavy hitter.
5 - DGS, what can you say about a team that's always around.
6 - Scared Hitless, chance to make a statement against Vito Power.
7 - Vito Power, chance to make a statement against Scared hitless.
8 - Destroyers, great team, great people.
9 - Hired Guns, beating Big Lebowskis is a big win.
10 - Potomac Fever, play some more games, move up the list.

Most Beeriffic - Children of the Corn: From loveable losers to 8-0 this year, and some of the most prolific drinkers I've ever seen at Union Pub. These Children do Iowa proud.

2011 Season Around the Corner

It's that time again. I was walking down by the mall the other day and I saw a group of folks getting in some batting practice, a few minutes of pausing and listening to the crack of the bat and the slap of leather and I got that old fashioned feeling back. It's softball season.

The 2010 season was filled with excitement, great games and quite the drama if you followed the message boards (I'll assume most of you who read this blog don't spend much time on the Smack Talk board, but if you ever want some juicy daytime dramedy that puts General Hospital to shame, just check it out). There were upsets in the tourny, nail-biters in the regular season, lopsided pastings and games that turned into drinking parties. All in all, another success.

Sadly last season, I was mostly preoccupied and unable to fully focus on the league, I hope to provide the few of you who still read my blog with a bit more timely coverage. I'm working on my pre-season preview now, but until then, get out and smell the freshly uncut grass and get ready for softball!

CONGRATULATIONS LIBERTY SQUARE SLIDERS, 2010 HOUSE SOFTBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!

Bracketology

The Brackets are up and there is sure to be some excitement during this years playoffs. Clearly the team formerly known as "Insliders" has pulled the easiest draw this year, with very little standing in their way of an elite 8 bid except perhaps an unproven Lebowskis team, but this could be the year the Big L's get the monkey's off their back. The toughest quarter of the bracket has to be DGS, Moderately Sober, Keystoners and Harry's Full Disclosure, with the Blue Pups coming out of the first round along with upstart teams like Scared Hitless, Hired Guns and the Dukes of Haphazzard. So, here are the softball guys predictions.

Again, skipping the first round and moving on to Round 2:

DGS handles Scared Hitless with relative ease, Harry's Full Disclosure gets knocked off by the Hired Guns, Moderately Sober puts up a strong battle to the Blue Pups but falls in their opener, and the Keystoners fall to the upstart Dukes who advance to the Sweet 16 as a 41 seed. Sliders, Destroyers, BIJ, Pot Fever, Dragon Slayers and Texas Republic all move on with relative ease. License to Ill finds itself the victim of a 45 seed WAsabi upset making them the second 40's seed to move to the Sweet 16, while the Liberal Agenda takes down the Cap City Flyers. Big L's escape with their first tournament win in 3 years, the Saints hold off the Big Sticks, Owego Fire Department falls to an underrated Vito Power, and Capitol Punishment gets taken out by the Get Fresh Crew ending their cinderella story.

Teams Advancing to Sweet 16: DGS, Hired Guns, Blue Pups, Dukes of Haphazard, Sliders, Destroyers, BIJ, Pot Fever, Dragon Slayers, Texas Republic, WAsabi, Liberal Agenda, Big Lebowskis, Vito Power, Get Fresh Crew.

Round 3: DGS, Blue Pups and Dragon Slayers all win with ease. Big Lebowskis, still drunk off their first victory fall victim to the Liberal Agenda and fail to see Sunday. Destroyers face off with Big in Japan and the sheer power of BIJ's music sends the Destroyers home, while the Insliders hold off a scrappy WAsabi team to advance. The game of the round sees Vito Power's pitching shut down Pot Fever, while Texas Republic handles the Saints on their way to a shot at a repeat.

Teams Advancing to Elite 8: DGS, Blue Pups, TR, BIJ, Insliders, Dragon Slayers, Vito Power and Liberal Agenda.

Round 4: DGS and Blue Pups face off in a classic battle of old school titans with DGS getting the upper hand. Texas Republic sends Big in Japan packing. Dragon Slayers fall to Vito Power, making Vito the highest seed to make the final 4, and the Insliders mop the floor with the Liberal Agenda.

Teams Advancing to the Final 4: Insliders, DGS, Vito Power, Texas Republic.

Round 5: DGS faces long time rival Insliders (or Liberty Square Sliders) in a game that goes into the 7th inning still up for grabs. Some clutch hitting and defense by DGS secures a bid for the title. Texas Republic has ridden their offense into this semi-final game against Vito Power, but Vito's pitching dominates the pace keeping them in the game, but in the end, TR holds out and wins a shot at a repeat.

The Championship: Texas Republic enters this game looking for their second straight championship but are foiled by the Commissioner and his old guard veterans as DGS wins the championship. Meanwhile, the Insliders avoid losing the 3rd place game because there isn't one.

Tourny Time

With the Tournament just around the corner and the standings about to go dark, it's time for the Softball Guy to make some predictions. All predictions below are based on the current projections for the tourny and that all teams will hit 10 games (a current point of contention), but the end result will likely be close to the same.

Skipping the first round and going directly to round 2, it's easy to see Pot Fever, Liberty Square Sliders (surviving the Blue Pups), Dragon Slayers, DGS, Destroyers and Moderately Sober to win their match-ups. The Dude and the Big Lebowskis also should prevail, but without a Tourny Win to date, we won't put them in as a lock just yet. Owego Fire Department could suffer an upset at the hands of the sneaky 44th ranked Big Riggin who will have knocked of the Big Sticks in dramatic fashion, but likely escape to play again. BIJ wins, but is scared by a renewed FDA team, meanwhile The Diplomats lose to the Tourny tough Saints. Capitol Punishment celebrates their rise from most Beeriffic a year ago to #15 overall with a close game but eventual loss to the Hired Guns, but the Keystoners hold off the 24sixers to advance. Texas Republic gets a scare from the formidable Vito Power, who manages to escape the Raucus Caucus in a one run affair, but TR pulls out the W and continues on toward a repeat. Harry's Full disclosure loses to the Get Fresh Crew, while License to Ill and the Cap City Flyers manage to win their matchups.

In the 3rd round, we see some real match-ups, the biggest being the Liberty Square Sliders v. Moderately Sober, with the Sliders tournament roster prevailing to advance closer to their eventual non-existent 3rd place game. The Big Lebowski's, drunk with the joy of their first win ever, fall to their much hailed friends the Destroyers in another epic game. Texas Republic knocks off the Bubby despite his 7 HR's in that game, while DGS, Dragon Slayers, Pot Fever, Keystoners, and BIJ all win handidly.

The Elite eight sees the Destroyers fall to the team formerly known as the Insliders, Texas Republic knock of the Dragon Slayers, Pot Fever advance easily to the final 4, and DGS takes down Big In Japan in extra innings.

The Final Four pits DGS against the Liberty Square Sliders and Pot Fever against Texas Republic. In a shocking upset only to Robbie Softball, Texas Republic explodes for a route of Pot Fever, in the game TR rocks the sage pitcher for 4 HR's and advances to the championship to defend their title. LNF's Sliders put up a fight against the Commish and longtime rival DGS, but the resistance is futile and DGS escapes a nail-biter again for a win.

Texas Republic marches into the championship game confident of a repeat, but poor weather turns a sloppy game against them, dragging their power down and allowing for the linedrive hitting DGS to make it a game. Both teams keep it close through 6, but in the bottom of the 6th DGS drops 5 runs on TR and it proves too much for the Lone Star team to overcome, effectively ending their bid for immortality and returning DGS to their former glory.

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.