New News of High Value...

  

Upcoming Schedule (Updated 6-19-13, ~2:00 PM):  

           

Thursday, 6/20: 7:30 vs Yellowstone (3-2).  We’re 2-2 lifetime against them.  We Walks’ll Kill ‘Ya”d  them in 2010 (as Plungers, 19-15), and easily slaughtered them, 15-4, in 2011 when they debuted the Yellowstone name (and NASCAR-like uniforms).  Last year’s year of misery saw us drop the opener to them, 15-4, then lose a heartbreaker, 12-11, the second time around.  They’ve definitely gone “beefy” in the last year or so, with the result that they went from 3-7 in ’10 & ’11 to 7-3 last year, when they won the division, but lost in the semi-finals to eventual champs, Mourning Would.  In the good news (for us) department, Patrick’s school schedule for the new term was changed this week and he will now be able to play for us as a Thursday regular (albeit bad news for Nevin’s for whom he has been playing at Crown on Wednesdays).  Along with Patrick, all the regulars are expected: Jonas, Larry, Mark, Bob B, Cliff, me, Bob Se, Patrick, Orville, Shawn, Neal and probably Schmidtty. 

Tuesday, 6/25: 9:30 at Well Jesus (3-4).  Bob B is out and Tony is doubtful, so I will ask Larry and/or Cliff to sub.  All the other regulars are expected: Jonas, Joe H, Mark, Larry(?), Cliff(?), me, Bob Se, Kevin C, K-Mack, Shawn, Neal and probably Schmidtty. 

  

   

Old News of High Value...      

  

Recent Results (Updated 6-19-13, ~2:00 PM):   

     

Tuesday, 6/18: We learned (the hard way) that the Tuesday version of the Alkohaliks was twice as drunk on winning as the Thursday version as they completed their back-to-back Thursday-to-Tuesday sweep of us with a 20-0 slaughter in a mere 3-1/2 innings!  Stay tuned for more details--really?  Why?  For the boxscore click on the link on the bottom of this page or navigate to the "Boxscores..." after opening the "Handouts--Sheets" folder in the pane on the left side of this page.

  

Thursday, 6/13:  We were embarrassed by Alkohaliks, 10-0 in a 4-1/2 inning slaughter.  Not a whole lot to say about this game against a team that has now won 8 of its first 9 games.  We weren’t at all ready for the late-night superior competition and they made short work of us (5-0-2-3-x).  Indeed, after shutting us down in the top of the 1st, they got all the runs they would need as their Top hit us with 4 middle-right singles, accepted a walk and an SE to make 5-0 after 1 inning.  Defensively, we did a much better job of holding them thereafter (assuming they weren’t bored and/or tired), limiting their clutch offense to just another nickel’s worth of runs in their remaining three at bats.  That might have offered us some hope if only our offense wasn’t busy being hopeless.  With no bite in our bats we failed score for the first time this year although our last shutout was when we lost our lone playoff game 8-0 to them in last year’s Tuesday league.  In our 5 turns this night, we got just 9 hits, all singles (with 5 seminarians) and managed just one walk and an SE in our futile efforts to get at least one guy around and back to “go.”  It never happened, as infield groundouts accounted for 13(!?!) of our 15 outs including 2 GIDPs.  Meanwhile, Orville’s two outfield assists on 8-4 DPs, equaled our total infield assists without a single putout at first base!  It was that kind of weird game…one we need to avoid ever playing again, especially tonight, when we see them again.  For the boxscore click on the link on the bottom of this page or navigate to the "Boxscores..." after opening the "Handouts--Sheets" folder in the pane on the left side of this page.            

  

Administrivia (from the 6/18 Update): 

   

Money: The Big Guy, G.M. Tony Anton, bellied up at the bar last week, but, unfortunately, none of the stalwarts chose to do the same.  Still waiting to see the color of your money for 5 of you.  I am asking for $50 per person per league played as a regular from each player.  As always, regular attendance at the Mark II after our games would go a long way in reciprocating the generosity the Anton Family has shown toward our teams for 36 seasons!

  

IWBYABIYATFPATMTTTM: Tuesday’s IWBYAB turned out to be the least expensive one for me this year—apparently no one felt up the task of guessing team names in order to win a beer.  Guessing players, years, months or dates is no problem, however, actually remembering team names apparently is.  Anyway, I drew the questions from the Stat Chat that day—our team stats and records since 1986 through the first 7 games of the year.  The questions/answers/lone winner were: (1) Our best year was easily 2005 when we had the most AB(288), R(148!), Hits(172!), 2B(31!), 3B(11!), RBI(143), AVG(.5597!) and SL%(.906!) yet only compiled a 5-2 record—so, name at least one of the teams that beat that offensive juggernaut.  (Mark got the freebie on this recalling that Any Given Whatever-Day-It-Was, in this case Thursday, beat us that spring, 11-10.  The other team that beat that team in the first 7 games was Jury in another one-run game, 22-21.  (2) Our only perfect 7-0 year was 2008 when we slaughtered 5 of our first 7 opponents, so I asked if anyone could remember either of the two teams we beat, but did not slaughter..no one could (SO, 11-6 & BB’s, 13-5).  (3) The following year, 2009, we started out with our only 6-1 record, so I asked anyone to name the team we lost to…again, no one did (BB’s, 9-7).  Finally, the JHFB? also went unanswered (even though he was there)…it offered him the opportunity to simply identify the only two stat categories that we are doing “better” through the first 7 games this year compared to the 7-game averages between 1986 & 2012.  A simple glance at the chart would have Blue Mooned Jonas, assuming he noticed that we’ve had 15 SEs this year after 7 games (compared to an historic average of 13 at this point) and that we’ve made “just” 20 errors this year (compared to an historic average of 21).  Of course, the unfortunate message (for all) disguised in this freebie is that we are doing worse through 7 games this year in ALL of the remaining 16 stat categories, compared to our 7-game average over the last 27 seasons!      

  

Unlike the previous Thursday, when a wake precluded the IWBYAB (for the first-ever time that I could find since I started this silly game in 2001), the Sheet did have an IWBYAB last Thursday. But, this week, no one played.  Given our 9:30 scheduled start, our 9:55 actual start, our dismal 10-0 performance that concluded around 11:00 and the fact that only Peg and the 3 sexagenarians were even considering going to the bar after all of that (not to mention Bob B and I having been at the UC for 5+ periods of hockey the night before), we decided to skip the bar and save my pocketbook.  The answers were published as the attachment for this week's Mark II Update.        

See you out there! 

LN, 6-18-13 

 

  

  

Old News of Medium to High Value...

From the Mark II Update, 5/2/13:

  

Rules & Schedules--Review & Analyses:

  

Rules: A copy, released 5-1-13, is always available on this website--follow the "Handout: 2013 Administrative..." link on the Home Page or see the "Administrative" section of the "Handouts...'Sheets'" folder.  Also attached/available on the website is the ASA Illegal Bats List--if you're considering buying a new bat (or bringing one you already own), make sure you check this list first!     

  

Most of the rules appear to be the same, including the unique-to-SPD ones (a runner can't leave the base until contact, not when the ball crosses the plate, ONLY after contact by the batter; mound is 50' with an additional 4' "comfort zone" allowed straight back; caught 2-strike foul ball is live; you can delay the start of the game up to 10 minutes waiting for players, but that game is then limited to 60 minutes maximum, otherwise there is no time limit on any game; etc).  A couple of new rules: you can start the game with 8 players (not the 9 ASA requires) and don't have to take the automatic out for the #9 spot; if you only have 8, you can also still add up to 2 players from other teams, but no more than 2 and they must bat at the end of the lineup and must be removed if/when your regular player(s) arrive; players must play in 4 regular season games to qualify for the playoffs; no smoking/drinking/dogs/metal spikes/"F-Bombs"/fights/etc allowed on park district property

  

Schedules: Although the competition is tough both nights, I like our 3 division opponents both nights (whom we play twice each) better than our 4 non-division opponents (whom we play once).  That's not to say our division opponents are not good teams, rather I find that they are the type of teams we enjoy playing against rather than the likes of some of the more "punk" teams in the other divisions.  Of course, we also have one "new" team in our division each night, so we'll have to see whether we enjoy playing Well Jesus or Gamecocks twice each this summer.  The game time split is about as equal as we could hope: 2 at 6:30, 3 at 7:30; 3 at 8:30 & 2 at 9:30 in both leagues.  Although even at 5-5, the home-away sequences are rather weird each night: Tuesday's schedule contains an obvious error as we're the home team both times we play one team in our division while our crossover games are 1 home-3 away and the sequence is quite streaky at A-H-H-H-A-A-A-A-H-H.  Meanwhile, the Thursday schedule is correct on home-away within and outside our division, but anything but streaky: H-A-H-A-H-A-H-A-H-A. 

  

Here's an updated review of the structure and teams in each league:     

  

Tuesdays: 8 teams; 2 divisions of 4 (new for Tuesdays since we only had 6 teams last year); you play each team in your division twice and each team in the other division once for a total of 10 games; need .500 record to qualify for the playoffs (or minimum of top 4 teams if fewer than 4 qualify); after the "Playoff" championship is decided ($250 to winner), there will (again) be that crazy second playoff game between the two first place teams for the "Divisional" championship ($200).  There are 3 new teams and one that is gone (Reznick Group).

Mays Division: 

--Alkohaliks (7-3; 1-1 last year; beat us 8-0 in semis; lost championship to WC Stars 5-4) 

--Crush (new name for Ninos team, WC Stars, who were 9-1 & 2-0 last year)

--Rombones (new team, apparently a good team that used to play in the Tuesday league)

--Balls Out (new team, known to SPD guys; also played in Lincolnwood's Friday league)

Musial Division:

--Boss (4-6 last year as Boss/Stones; we were 2-0 against them)

--Stone Ponies (3-7 last year; we were 2-0 against them on Tuesdays & 1-1 on Thursdays)

--Well Jesus (new team; no book--apparently comprised of kids from one of the Niles schools)

--Angie's Mark II (we were 6-4; 0-1 losing 3 games to Alkoholiks and twice to WC Stars)

Thursdays: 8 teams; same deal as Tuesdays.  There is one new team for sure (The Rat Pack); one that's either new or otherwise renamed (could Gamecocks be No Glove/No Love?); and the other new team, Alkoholiks, is just new to Thursdays.  Bob DeL said that two long-standing teams are gone for sure (Villains and Mourning Would).  The status of No Glove/No Love is unknown.

Mantle Division:

--Alkohaliks (new to Thursdays; 7-3; 1-1 last year on Tuesdays--see above) 

--Yellowstone (7-3; 0-1 last year; we were 0-2 against them)

--Chicago Akkadians (7-3; 1-1 last year; we were 0-1 against them)

--The Rat Pack (new team, no book)

  

Williams Division:

 

--Master Batters (AKA Master Belters, etc; 7-3; 1-1 last year; we were 0-2 against them)

 

--Stone Ponies (3-7 last year; we were 2-0 against them on Tuesdays & 1-1 on Thursdays)

 

--Gamecocks (possibly a new team, or the MIA No Glove/No Love who were 3-7 last year; 1-0 vs us)

 

--Pete's Mark II (we were 1-Aaarghh!)

Administrivia: 

     

Missing a game: If/when you know that you’ll miss game(s) due to a vacation or schedule conflict, please make sure I record those dates on my calendar.  The sooner I know, the easier it is for me to plan and get subs.    

  

Rain: Skokie’s Rainout Hotline number is 847-674-1500 x2196.  Skokie and I also the above-mentioned Twitter accounts.  These accounts and the Rainout Hotline number are listed on the bottom of the Team Calendar and the Team Roster and all are also available on our website Home Page (eteamz.com/MarkIISoftballTeam).  The bottom line on rainouts:  If the Skokie Hotline is not reporting that the games are postponed and you can’t reach me and I have not sent out an e-mail and/or updated our website and/or the Twitter accounts are not reporting a rainout or postponement, always assume we are playing & show up!  (Every year we’re amazed and surprised at least once or twice when we’ve played even though it looked like we wouldn’t play right up until game time)!.  

See you out there! 

LN, 5-2-13