2008 Champions – Westlanders

Written By Ricardo Ronda

Before we get to the championship we need to talk about the wild finish to the Westlanders (WL) – Criminals semi-final series.Game 3 was continued Sunday in freezing temperatures with the game all tied at 4 a piece. The Criminals struck quickly with a run in the top of the 8th however, a “clutch” sacrifice fly by WL Stud Hitter Anthony “AROD” sent the game to the 9th where a bases loaded infield in full count single propelled WL into the Finals. This fantastic finished capped a great classic Inwood series. Unfortunately only 1 team could win, but the Criminals and their classy/cool manager Rudy are to be commended and recognized by the league for their outstanding play.

Waiting for the WL were the Bizcocheros who quickly squashed any WL momentum the by scoring 4 quick runs right away off Mario. WL got excellent relief from Adam and came all the way back to take a 7-4 lead into the 7th, but in stunning fashion the Biz scored 4 runs to steal game one by a score of 8-7. Another classic Inwood game.

In Game 2, WL ace Fran took control and had a 6-0 lead heading into the 6th thanks to the bats of Hector, “AROD” and company. Both teams emptied their bench at that point b/c it looked like the last two innings were only a formality for the deciding game three. However, the Biz staged a furious comeback by scoring 2 in the 6th and 3 more in the 7th only to leave the tying run on 3rd and fall 6-5.

In Game three, WL seemed to handle the cold much better than the BIz and took advantage of numerous mistakes to win 6-3 and earn the CitySoftball 2008 Championship!!!

Congrats!

A word from Commissioner Juan..

Special thanks to the following for helping us get through a difficult season:

- Ric Ronda, who worked very hard this year making and re-making schedules, contacting teams, collecting fees, and as usual dealing the Parks Dept to get our permits. Ric also put alot of effort into the Knockout team which had a nice run and for the most part had alot of fun.

- Carlos “lootch” the umpire.  Lootch is always there for us and does his best to get us umpires who are at least reliable.  Switching to 1 umpire this year made his job of getting good umps harder.

- Chelo – he dissappeared for the semis but he came strong for the chip and turned field 2 into Yankee Stadium. He’s a pain in the ass, no doubt, but the league needs him.

- All the managers and teams who patiently dealt with all the rain, schedule changes, waiting for games, and fixed fields.

It was a difficult year for all of us, but in the end, we had a great playoff run and a worthy Champion. Hope to see you all back next year.

Down But Not Out!

Westlander’s fearless leader has been stricken with a bum appendix.  It’s been removed and he’s recovering fine. Hopefully, for his own good, he will not show up Sunday. Do you think he will? (see poll below picture) or Read Ric’s reason why he will…

Superbowl Sunday

OK, so its not the Superbowl, but its the next best thing – the Inwood Fall Championship is finally here.

Criminals and Westlanders split the first two games, then finished game 3 in a 4-4 tie after 7 innings.  Criminals fought back to tie that game after being down 4-0 in the top of the sixth.  They will continue their game this coming Sunday at 10am, the winner to face the Bizcocheros at 10:30am on field 2.

Knockout fought valiantly, but in the end, the Bizcocheros were the better team. The Biz beat KO 8-2 and 8-6 to make their first Inwood final.  Congratulations to Eddie and Elvis.

Adrenaline Rush

(picture courtesy of qbaseball.com)

A wise old man once told me, “90% of everything is bullshit.” I agree; stuff we buy is bullshit; stuff we see on TV is bullshit, politics is bullshit…I could go on. In that other 10% of the “REAL” stuff lies our playoffs. These games are simply the real deal. Its softball at its best. These guys are playing to win, playing for pride, it means something to win here. I got a rush watching the games this weekend.

Chaos gave the Westlanders all they could handle in two tough losses 7-6 and 6-4.

The Criminals upset the Twins 2-0, and 5 – 3.  We knew this was not a 7-5 team and would be very tough to beat in the playoffs.  They face the Westlanders next; that series will be bananas, I guarantee it. I predict 3  low scoring games and at least one with extra innings.

The Tainos suffered to very tough losses to the big hitting Bizcocheros. Holding a 1 run lead with two outs in the last inning; a walk and an error caused the Tainos the game and probably the series.

Knockout and Jicome were in a real battle. KO won the first game 2-1 after Jicome left the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the 7th. Once again, KO pitcher, Gil, took over the game and simply stopped the rally.  Game 2 was a back-and-forth battle which ended in a 7-7 tie to be continued this Sunday at 9am; the winner to face the Bizcocheros.

Contenders or Pretenders?

Fidel stopped by to check on his Knockout team. Fortunately, they beat Hawksquad two straight games. But Fidel is not convinced; Knockout had two good innings thanks in part to a big error and quite a few walks.  Otherwise, this series would have been very tight. Knockout faces a very tough Jicome All Stars on field 3 this Sunday. Fidel will be watching closely….

CHAOS!!!! It pays to pay your league fee early; its good karma.  Chaos upset Sajoma in two straight games to advance to play the Westlanders. Can they do it again next week?

The Criminals swept Keenans and will meet the Twins – ouch!

The “we cant wake up early” Tainos won a dogfight with the tough Tigers team.  After losing the first game 2-0, they came back to win 4-3, 7-3.  Next up for them is an early 9AM game vs Bizcocheros-Boano mix. Everyone, please tell Taino Juan, the game is at 9am!

Last week, 36% voted the Westlanders were voted to win the Chip. This week:

Ducks on the Pond

The mighty ducks have taken over field 3 so we’ll be using only fields 2 & 4 in the playoffs. Because of this and daylight savings (clocks change this Sat night Nov 2), we’ll be starting games at 8:30am.  The top 4 teams get a bye this weekend; the rest play 2 out of 3 series. Lets hope the rain stays away and we have great playoff season.

The Westlanders clinched 1st place with a convincing win over the very strong Twins. Congrats to them and their football roster. Also a special thanks to the Westlanders and Twins for helping to fix field 2. Jicome & The Bizcocheros worked therir way into the bye round with fairly easy wins over the Panthers and Hawksquad. The Tigers hung on to the last playoff spot and a match up against the Tainos (aka The Incredibles); this series will not be a cakewalk. Knockout, as usual, missed the bye and earned their yearly match with the Hawsquad. This series will go 3; it always does. Criminals match up against Keenans, and Sajoma will face Chaos.

All that said…

2008 Finish Line

The final regular season schedule has been posted. For the first time in our 9 year history, we are wrapping up the season at 12 games due to the rain-outs. Because of the shortened season, we are expanding the playoff structure to 12 teams and reducing the qualifying games to 4.

PLAYOFFS will start next week Nov 2nd and will run 4 weeks. The first 4 teams will get a bye in the first round and teams 5 -12 will play high seed vs. low seed in a best of 3 series. The second & third rounds round will also match high seeds vs. low seeds. Most playoff series will begin at 9am; there will be little room for accommodating requests.

PRIZES will go al follows:
Regular Season: 1st Place: $400, 2nd place: $200
Champion: $1600, Sub-Champ: $600

Enjoy the winter…

New Schedule Posted (next two weeks)

Please check the new schedule carefully.  Most teams are playing three and four games in the next two weeks. By the end of October, every team will have played at least 12 games. Our plan is to start the playoffs the first week of November. We have an exciting plan for a playoff structure; stay tuned…

Message from God

Some managers seem to think I have the power of God over the weather, so I submit this message to you as him:

There is no need to panic; the rain is officially turned off for Sundays and the league will definitely complete at least 12 games for each team. The goal is still 14 games. We will play into the winter as long as we need to complete the season including 3 weeks of playoffs. So get your long-johns and and hand warmers ready for November.

Ric is in the process of scheduling a few teams for this Saturday and will have an updated schedule for this Sunday by Tuesday night Oct 7th.

PLEASE PAY your league fee balance by this weekend. Rosters will be closed after next Sunday, Oct 19th.

- God

Time to Rev it up

A new schedule has been posted and it includes extra games for almost everyone!  We need to make up games because of the rainouts, so come prepared to play 3-4 for the next two weeks.  Make sure you bring enough balls, ump fee, and fill out your line up cards.  The rosters will be due next week Oct 12th.

Please note, in order for a player to qualify, he must have played in an OFFICIAL game. If you play 3 innings and you get rained out, that game never happened and nobody in that line-up qualifies. Sorry, it doesnt make sense any other way.