Monday, November 19, 2007

News and Notes (Oak Ridge smack talk and ratings very soon)

Congrats to Bob Somabut’s High Point 7.0 Mixed Doubles team who was the runner up to Nor Cal this weekend in Las Vegas. I know first hand those Californians take mixed doubles seriously, we even had DQ’s in Mixed Doubles back in So Cal.

Keep an eye out this week as the year end ratings should arrive, I am hoping by tomorrow. For some interesting thoughts from USTA Texas check out the Houston Tennis Blog in which the blogger has asked the USTA to look into blatant sandbagging. There is a 5.0 team there so blatant about getting back to 4.5 they named their team "Danny Four Five." Some people have no shame.

Also this weekend the Ladies Fall Championships took place and the winners were:

3.0 Royal Oaks
3.5 Stonebriar
4.0 T Bar M


And I would be remiss if I didn’t repost some comments from the Oak Ridge team on a older post in which I referred to them as good tourney players but not quite good enough to hang with league playoff teams. Meowww!!!

Anonymous said...
What a bunch of pussies. If you've ever had to play 8 to 10 matches on a Friday through Sunday before, you wouldn't even mention that those tournament guys don't have what it takes. Also that team doesn't have any ringer type people, like jeromi or eddie hill, as they have proven records from the last year in the tourneys. Most every other team that is in this league has at least one or more sandbaggers on their team, so instead of trying to smear the only legit team, why don't you clean up yours.
November 18, 2007 7:26 PM
Anonymous said...
Nice language. Didn't really help you make your point.I agree with your comment that tournament play is difficult especially if you play singles and doubles.But don't fool yourself that any playoff team has no players that could be questioned as playing below level.I assume you are referring to Oak Ridge 3.5, but am unsure because Eddie Hill didn't play 3.5 this USTA season.
November 18, 2007 9:42 PM
Anonymous said...
What players do people think are ringers or sandbaggers at 3.5?

52 comments:

  1. Ok now I really can't wait till Nov 30th. BTW I have respect for tourney players because I am not built to play tennis that way especially at singles but just because someone can play multiple matches in a weekend doesn't make them a great player that just means you are in good shape. Eddie Hill was legit, he had a computer rating and when he moved up to 4.0 he lost a few and was moved back down again, he only played at his assigned level. If he was truly a ringer he would win easily at a 4.0 but that hasn't happened, same goes for Kyle from my team last year. Remember 3.5 includes 3.01 to 3.5 so having a player at the very top of that range is not a crime it is just good recruiting. Now on the otherhand for the cases I see out there of players starting at 3.5 or 3.0 for that matter and then going onto be dominant 4.0 or even 4.5 players that is just kind of sick but you can calm down about Jeromi and Eddie they are within range and Eddie is now a 4.0 and Jeromi will be in a few days so why fret about it.

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  2. I don't know how Eddie ended up in this dialogue, but the interesting fact is that he proved that you can be successful in League Play and Tournament play.

    Also, certain people complained about his rating, which was legitimate, since it was computer based. He played within the rules. If he were just so much a ringer, than why is it he did not go undefeated and cruise thru that Masters tournament.

    As good as Eddie was, I played him and others. I know of quite a few others who were at even strength with him.

    But the key fact is this. Eddie has totally moved on to 4.0, so there has to come a point where others have to let it go.

    I've also played Jeromi. He's good and not unbeatable. In 3.5, you will play people who are playing at the 4.0 level, but a lot of them improve within the season. That is why people practice, drill and take lessons to improve their game.

    Look at me, last season I had a below average league season and a weak tournament season. I have one good Major Zone tournament and automatically people start complaining.

    Personally speaking, I've only played one player who I thought was a "ringer". Even though that guy beat me, I thoroughly enjoyed the match, the ability to "hit out" with someone and try to push my game to a higher level was great fun.

    If Applachian State played Michigan ten times, Michigan would probably win all ten. But on one Saturday, with nothing to lose and everything to gain, Appalachian State beats Michigan and their season is met. They did not complain that Michigan was way out of their league, they battled, competed and eventually won after blocking their field goal attempt.

    Now, I happen to also be a tourney player, but for whatever reason in 3.5, I just can't get up for each and every match. Unless my opponent is highly ranked or is one of the top players in the draw. I played a player named Jorge Robles in the first round, ranked #2 in all of 3.5 and I just came out blasting left and right, and won that match in straight sets. Played someone named Matt Ellis who had just made it to the semis of a major zone and I came out blasting and beat him in straight sets. But overall, I play better in league than I do in tourneys, so it is hard to judge.

    Lastly, since both Eddie and Jeromi are not in the playoffs, we should just let it go and talk about who is in the playoffs and what kind of challenge they present.

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  3. congrats somabut's team on a great season wow NorCal won the 4.0 mens Nationals and the 7.0 mixed Nationals

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  4. rumor is that new ratings will be out on November 28th.

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  5. Tournaments = Time

    Not many Guys with kids and Families can sacrifice a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, to play tournament tennis,
    That type of schedule lends it's self to a gentleman of a certain age,
    Perhaps one who's kids are grown,

    And men of that age generally do not have dominate games,
    I'm not saying they can't win,
    Most are smart players, who and tactically think them selfs to a win, and should not be taken lightly no matter how old they are,

    I guess the bottom line is if your young and hit the ball well,
    Your a ringer,
    If your old, have ugly strokes, but win a lot, your not,

    I think this season has the weakest set of singles players I have seen in the last 5 seasons,
    I think all of this ringer talk is greatly exaggerated,

    I think the USTA's aggressive DQ and midseason and yearend ratings changepolicies are doing the job.

    I Double Dog Dare some brave man to make a list of everyone they think should not be playing on a 3.5 team,

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  6. I agree OC BL my wife would laugh if I told her I was driving to Houston and getting a hotel for the weekend to play tennis. If I actually left she would probably change the locks and I would be stuck outside with my new ranking pts and shiny trophy.

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  7. Is under 50 considered young?

    I'm 47 and over weight...but after my last 3.5 match I was accused of being a 4.5 player who had competitive college experience and told I should be ashamed of myself after winning a match against someone who hadn't lost in two years at 3.5.

    For the record, I only played my 9th and 10th grade years in a very small HS, didn't pick up a racket for 25+ years, have never taken a lesson, don't have time for drills/practice and currently play 1 or 2 times a week. I really wish I had the time to play/practice but OC BL nailed it, wife and kids don't allow it.

    Since my strokes are ugly at best and I have been successful at 3.5, I'm hoping to be considered "old", because if I am a 3.5 "ringer", that title would be fitting for most of the 3.5 division based on what I have seen and those that it wouldn't fit need to be playing 3.0.

    Another thought about be called a "ringer". If I hadn't lost a match in two years, I would definitely be trying to play at the next level and would have never accused someone else of being a ringer.

    Guess the old saying, "it takes one to know one" may hold true.

    An with the ratings coming out, why do I get the feeling that everyone is hoping to NOT make the cut to move to 4.0 and stay at 3.5. And what is with this appeal if you get bumped? I'm hearing I should do that the first year because everyone else does it.

    Funny how anyone who was bumped to 4.0 but won an appeal to play 3.5 is always willing to tell you that they are really 4.0. Had one player tell me he has successfully won appeals two years in a row and seemed somewhat proud of the fact he was still playing 3.5 but told me he was really a 4.0 player.

    And now you ask, why am I frustrated?

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  8. The rating system is not perfect,
    but it is pretty good. There is always going to be people on the bubble, and people will always complain about. Who cares what they are rated. Just put somebody on the other side of net and play.

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  9. Cary,
    I think you maybe bias against Oak Ridge, because it's there first year, I think with most of our teams to took a few seasons to get the recruiting thing down before we had any success.

    Can anybody from Oak Ridge, Tell us how you got your team together?

    Did you just kind of meet up on the tournament circuit then pick a country club to join?

    Or were you all members of Oak Ridge CC before you got the team together?

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  10. Hey, maybe a solution here...play more tennis, lose weight, move to next level, be accused of being a ringer, repeat...

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  11. Newbie,

    I don't think 50 is old but it's close. :) I think you sound like a true 3.5 to me and I would love to know who said you should be "ashamed" I would love to give them an overhead smash to the groin. I know what you mean about the appeal process that really has to be looked at, I know of players that have appealed for years and that just perplexes me. I could go either way with my rating and I didn't bother appealing my mid season bump up. I figured I would let the computer decide this week and then I will decide after that. To be honest one reason I like 3.5 is I can generally find very competitive matches at line 1 doubles most of the time better than line 2 and 3 doubles at 4.0 and I still can be of help if needed at singles whereas my fitness level is not near strong enough to hang with 4.0 level singles players. So if I didn't have my own team and signed on with another group I would be playing bottom level doubles against guys who should be 3.5 and not get good matches.

    Oak Ridge
    I actually love new teams they are what drive league tennis. Remember my mancrush for Westlake but with that said anyone who comes on here and calls everyone pussies and says they are the only "legit" team and everyone needs to stop sandbagging and cheating then I hope they get sweept out the playoffs. Go Garland! Go OC! (yikes I can't believe I just said GO Crusty old team...)

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  12. I guess since 47 is not considered old, and I have had success, then I must be a "ringer".

    Not sure I'm ready to admit/accept it but just in case can anyone tell me when/where the 3.5 Ringer's Annonymous group meets?

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  13. oc bl,
    Could you be more specific on your comment about country club types? I'm from Stonebridge and ike to think we get along well with others.

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  14. i think he was probably talking about Brookhaven

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  15. Frustrated USTA Newbie IN ORDER TO BE A rINGER YOU NEED PRETTY STROKES,
    And that Twist serve you have is U-G-L-Y.

    Get on the Singles court and run your over weight ass around, that's where the real ringers are!

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  16. Ruben,

    I know your Pro County Club,
    But the only guys that I have ever had a problem with just happened to be from CCs,

    But I guess if I was paying that much to play tennis I would take it pretty seriously, too

    May be they only treat the Public tennis center teams bad because they think we are going to show up at their club with cut-off jean and collar-less Shirts,
    Or Steal the center net straps, and are nice to other CC,

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  17. oc bl,

    I happen to be a member at a club, but don't consider myself pro anything.

    Sounds like you have had some issues.

    In my experience, no one has a monopoly on classless behaviour.

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  18. I haven't played a tennis match in over two weeks or a tournament in over 3 years. How come people are still complaining about me? I have heard mention of Eddie Hill and I take it as a compliment that I am being lumped in with him. I wouldn't mind playing a match with him if he is willing.
    As for the age thing... anything over 35 is considered old. :)
    Had I known that Oak Ridge was going to be such a pain in the butt I wouldn't have tried to be nice to the guy that I played.
    On another subject, I do have a question. I'm planning on making my "come back" to tournament tennis next month at the cotton bowl. If my rating gets bumped in the next week or so when all of that goes down when does it go into effect for tournament play? Do I have to move up to 4.0 for the cotton bowl? Or can I stay at 3.5 for the tournament?
    Where can I check to see if I'm being bumped?

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  19. I don't mean your a Tennis pro,
    I mean your Pro country Club
    and I'm Con country Club
    Does that make sense?

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  20. Good question about the tourney Jeromi (might be one for the tourney expert Jonathan) I believe thru the calendar year you can play 3.5. As far as when you get your new rating it could be anytime in the next week, I will put up a link here as soon as I know something. It should show up first on this site: http://www.texas.usta.com/usaleaguetennis/home.sps?iType=1054

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  21. oc bl,

    I understood your comments the first time.

    I don't consider myself pro country club.

    You seem to have issues with them for some reason.

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  22. Ruben,

    I have had pretty good experiences with CC's here in Tejas but that is a stereotype that unfortunately seems to be true more often than not. I do agree there are crude and jerky people everywhere but for some reason they do like to join CC's a lot. I know in So Cal we were more divided, there were two big CC's that dominated many leagues and would even waive down payments to the club to get players to join their teams so I know that anti-CC feeling. I almost came to blows with two guys who were mega-a-holes after one guy overheard me say that there was no feeling as good as sweeping their particular CC.

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  23. OK, for the record, several of us tournament players that had played the last couple of years decided to put together a team that did not have the jeromis and the eddies on it and just have a way to practice a bit more and see what would happen. We only wanted players that had a record of actually being a true 3.5, with no ringers or self rated type guys. As far as being the country club person thing that was mentioned, one of us knew the pro there and another one was a member at a sister club, so we asked about playing there and they let us with no court fees, so that was a good reason to play there. They have now shut down the tennis so we're looking for a new home and a few more players. We didn't realize that many of you league players were so biased toward tourney players, so with that said, this was our first year in the league territory and we went 7 and 1. We probably would have went 8 and 0 if five of us weren't in San Antonio for a big tourney and we had to miss. To make the playoffs is great, but that is just having some cake and getting to eat it also. Before this year started there were 2 players that were talked about quite a bit and how they shouldn't have been allowed to win their appeals. Those 2 made the final 8 tourney and both beat eddie hill, but eddie hill beat jorge robles, another self rated guy. ( The same 2 had their team go to nationals.) The guy that won the whole thing was also another self rated guy and is now bumped to 4.0. Being computer rated for the most part is OK, but anyone can manipulate their wins and loses when their goal is to stay down in level and just beat up on your so called old fat guys. What a sportsman. It's like elk hunting in a fenced in area.
    Well that's the big scoop.

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  24. Ok, so here is the Bad Blood score so far

    We have :

    The league players vs the tournament players

    The self-rated players Vs the Computer rated player

    The Country Club players vs. the Public Tennis Center players

    The old guys vs the young guys

    Fat Guys vs thin guys

    and last but not least
    Everyone vs the Ringers/Sandbaggers (even though no one wants to say who they are)

    Gotta love how the internet brings people together

    Who's ready for the Battle Royal

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  25. the players on oak ridges team want to know why the so-called odds on winning are 45-1. Seems to me that the odds maker does not very much about our team. We are a bunch of guys all ages that enjoy playing tennis & though it would be fun. but with all the crap thats being said about our team it seems like we should not show up at the playoffs because we have no chance of winning.I guess we will find out if we have any good players. I know one thing you have given us motivation to play our best & an mayebe if were lucky win a few games.

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  26. Sorry about leaving out the word know out but I think the message got through. I dont do this much but think its fun. Hope all the players we beat during the season will come and watch us get smeared. We cant wait till then

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  27. As far as who the ringers are is concerned, there aren't many of them around this go round. I don't know about the other sides of the league, as I haven't looked any of them up or played them. You'd have to say that Furgan Sunny Azhar, jeromiiiiii kelseyyyyyyy and a close 3rd would be Scott Blackburn. Mostly Scott has been playing doubles and when he played Furgan he lost. Again during this fall league no one else has showed their ability to be placed on that list, unlike during the summer. There has been a few DQ's which speak for themselves. So now all I know has been said.

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  28. Yep I don't think there are really any ringers, even the three DQ's don't seem to be that outrageous and as I mentioned Oberto is no world beater. Thanks for attacking one of my guys Sunny, I wish he could have made it to the Oak Ridge match to hand out some bagels but he was out of town. Although Jeromi even noted Sunny was not as good as Jonathan. Scott Blackburn, hmm shocking that he happened to beat Girder/Prather in straight sets, so let me get this straight anyone who beats you all is a ringer. Just want to make sure I have this right. Blackburn is a solid player but no ringer and by definition then Bob Kayser and Kerry Hall are ringers as well. Oh and also William Barron who beat you all that day so pretty much the entire Lifetime team and we beat them in the Spring so I guess my entire roster was a bunch of ringers. UGH!!! Buenos noches...

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  29. There are standouts when a team beats another team with relative ease, especially when Grider/Prather played in some leagues this summer and were only beaten by the 4.0 teams in that league. G/P played other good 3.5 level teams this year in tournaments and lost to Munoz/Bostick and Corfman/Leal. That doesn't make them ringers, they just played better that day. S. Blackburn is a standout player, but maybe not a ringer, just at the top of the 3.5 level, but his partner, William Barron is not near as good as Scott. There was another standout on Lifetimes' team, Stephen Bennett. He is very good. If you've played long enough, especially in tournaments where most of the time guys aren't trying to hide their skills and pretend that they're not that good, to try to stay down in level to play with their favorite buds to beat up on all the old guys, then it's easy to spot the exceptional ones and want something done when the real standouts standout. By the way, didn't your team finish 1 and 7 this fall? and didn't our team finish 7 and 1? meow

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  30. For the record there is only one 'i' in my first name and one 'y' in my last name. Jeromi Kelsey. I wish that you would stop crying about some of your team being in San Antonio during our match. We had several players who couldn't make it that weekend because of conflicting schedules also. You were the home team, you should have set a later start time. The week that I played Jonathan we pushed our match back to 5 because my military obligations wouldn't let me play earlier in the day. There wouldn't be so much crap being said about your team if your team (or a member on your team) wouldn't act like such a baby.
    I was not 'recruited' to play for SP, I'm an employee there in the proshop. It is only natural that I would play on one of their teams. Coming into this season I was probably one of the least known players in this flight.
    Seems to me that you should stop hiding behind an Anonymous sign and let people know who you are. It might help to change some minds about the Oak Ridge team as a whole, and just decide that YOU are a whine bag.

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  31. Jeromi,
    It is my understanding that the year end ratings will affect the 2008 season and not the Cotton Bowl. The Cotton Bowl tournament is a 2007 Event, most people who find out that they are being bumped up, chose to play in the higher category to earn points. I'll use myself as an example, I'm rated 3.5, maybe at the end of the year, my rating will rise to 4.0. I can play the CB in December, but after December 31st, I can no longer earn points within 3.5, only 4.0 and higher.

    So, if my goal is for my ranking to get higher, it is more efficient for me to play 4.0 tournaments.

    But, if you are tournament rusty and want to get your feet wet, so to speak, I'm pretty sure that you would be allowed to enter into the 3.5 Draw, even if you get an end of the year, "bump up".

    But if uncertainty is still there, just call or email the tournament director, and they'll let you know.

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  32. Hey any Oakridge players gonna be at the CB if so let me know I will sign up and personally send you to the consolation bracket. Wow you are such a big time player picking on my 3.5 B team who will be a future strong 3.0 team. I agree with Jeromi on the scheduling conflicts you know you can work around things like that and even move the match date if your team has a good enough reason. At playoffs last year I was missing players and at sectionals didn't have one of my best doubles player but that is why you put more than 8players on your roster. If your team is so fragile that a few players out can turn you into an ordinary team then you really aren't that good. BTW we didn't have enough players to have a B team this year but when I saw the teams in the C flight I went out and recruited brand new players that had little or no competitive experience and they hung with many players in that flight just to give you some much needed perspective.

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  33. 3.5 All Ringer Team (Top 10)

    Oberto (Garland)
    Kelsey (SPk)
    E Molina (OR)
    Blackburn (LF)
    Yauch (OC)
    Rivera (OC)
    Bowman (HP)
    Rajiv (GE)
    Paul Welch (Garland)
    John Carlisle (GH)

    Honorable Mention DQ’ed:
    Jeff Wier
    James David Lee
    Dewayne Ahner

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  34. Hey Jeromi glad to see you signed up on the meetup.com group. I am going to try and keep some good tennis going from Dec-April while we get ready for the Spring season. I urge any of you to come out yes even the Oak Ridge people are welcome. No ratings, no 3rd set tiebreakers, no DQ's, no sandbagging just playing some tennis.

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  35. to Jeromi,Oak Ridge would like a rematch against your non-playoff team. Since you have a lot of things to say about us. Fyi when your team played us 5 of our top players were in San Antonio that weekend or you would have not beaten us!!!!! You also need to show some respect to older players. If you think your so great start playing where you belong and stop bragging how good you are. Maybe Roger Federer will schdule a match with you.HaHa

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  36. to oc bl big talk about sweeping the oak ridge team.Hope you can play as good as you talk.

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  37. to Bazan, You seem to also have a lot to say about Oak Ridge,I guess you were not at the match when we played your team if you were I think we probably would have gotten a little respect from you since we beat your team badly. another item about our win over greenhill without john sims playing if you check his results against our players in tournaments he has never won a match. I think that was 3 matches against 3 different players. So the result probably would have been the same.I think the players on Greenhill & Life time have a little different opinion after playing us. I hope we can hold our own against these great teams in the playoffs. I guess your odds before the season didnt give us a chance of winning our section. But I guess we suprised you Hope we can do it again!!! Hope the playoffs are as much fun as this is.

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  38. So when was the last time one of the
    "Oak Ridge Boys"
    Actually Won a Tournament?

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  39. Dear bazan, probably 4-5 of us Oak Ridge Boys will play the cotton bowl and maybe you will be lucky enough to get beaten by one of us.See you at the play-offs. Or probably not since your team finished last.So hope to see you at Cotton Bowl.

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  40. Y'know what. At some point everyone needs to let this go. I have played at least four of the guys from the Oak Ridge team (Phil, Pedro, Samuel and Ed). All four of those guys are very gracious, complementing and nice guys. Especially Phil. I played someone else this Fall season in league play, don't remember his name, but he was and is a good guy as well.

    Now, Oak Ridge went 7-1 and that's a good thing. You never know, there's a great chance that they might win this "tourney" now and might even advance after the Spring section as well, and then they will represent Dallas, TX. In other words, they stand a great chance of representing everyone that is "blogging" or talking against them right now.

    That's not cool. That's not what league tennis is all about. I realize that trash talking is fun, it feels good, and I have played a couple of matches in which I did those things. But in each instance, I allowed it to get me to eventually say something I regretted.

    Personally speaking, I think Oak Ridge is a very good team. They have good singles players and pretty good doubles players. They beat our team pretty handily 4-1, even though we were one of the weakest teams in their flights, but they took care of business.

    So Good Luck next weekend. And by the way, I don't play for them, but there is just so much bashing going on, that I was led to say something positive on their behalf.

    Lastly, does this team complain? Nope. There might be one, two or maybe a third member who does, you can't judge an entire team based upon the actions of a couple of players. But overall, they play who is in front of them, and I have never heard a negative word said about any of them from what happened on the tennis court.

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  41. Aww Jonathan let us bash them a little more, it is too much fun. It is slow at work and I still have 2 hours before I go play tennis so have to spend my time doing something.

    As noted before I do have respect for this team but my odds were based on the fact they are up against two very good teams in their flight so I think Vegas would agree with my odds. Looking back at my first post about the C flight I actually predicted they would contend along with LF and GH in that flight.

    Cotton Bowl: I will see what I can do about playing in that tourney, I should be in town. Make sure you play 3.5 because if you play in the 4s you won't make it out of the 1st round.

    (sorry Jonathan I couldn't help myself)

    Smack talk:
    I happen to love smack talk but I grew up playing basketball so I maybe that is where that comes from. I have actually toned down my demeanor on the court but still enjoy having fun while playing otherwise what is the point?

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  42. Seems to me whoever is posting from Oak Ridge has prompted much of the backlash based on classless language, questioning other players, and talking smack.
    That is a choice that prompts responses.
    I agree with Jonathan on one point - let the play on the courts do the talking.

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  43. only 1 1/2 weeks till playoffs so there will be some on court talking very soon. Although even more important than the playoffs will be the year end ratings that will let us know which of these teams is weakened the most or kept strong. And more importantly what will my rating be???

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  44. Is it Classless ?

    Or

    Classic !!!!

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  45. I will be one of the first to admit that the guy that I played at Oak Ridge (William Moore) was a nice guy. We talked during change overs and when we left the court I had no hard feelings towards him and I still don't. I wish him the best of luck in the playoffs (unless he is one of our anonymous friends). However, as I was walking through the gate leaving the court instead of the normal "good match" a couple of the players started attacking my rating. It should be worth noting that at least one of them wasn't even playing that day, and he found it necessary to clap on unforced errors the entire match. I still don't have anything against the "Oak Ridge TEAM" just the players who are complaining.
    As for the rematch, if my rating doesn't get changed I'll see you in the spring. If you want to play a match 'for giggles' between now and then let me know, I'll play. That is what I'm here for.

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  46. to jonathan marcus, thanks for saying something nice about our team. it is appriciated by me and the rest of our team. This has been fun for me since david told me about the website.I have only responded 3-4 times to voice my opinions. I cant wait till the playoffs to see what happens.Until a few days ago I didnt know all of the negative things that were being said or would have responed sooner. Ed Ratcliffe one of the OLD guys

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  47. I'll stay anonymous simply because I can and it is irritating to even be on this thing. Communicating with jeromiiii is the worst part and I guess he's only 12 or so or at least that's the way he acts, so I could get in trouble for talking bad to a minor. Also, the only thing that has been said that's possibly wrong was when I referred to jeromiiii and his fellow bashers as pussies and actually that only means whimps or it refers to someone that beats up on ones that aren't as young or fit as he might be. A bully is another word that could be used in this situation for someone like jeromiiii.
    I have had no bad feelings towards anyone in the league group until I was told about this e-mail site, then I was shocked and at first pissed off; now it doesn't really matter anymore.
    If jeromiiii is a teaching pro then he isn't even supposed to be playing in this level and if he's a front desk guy and stringer then one of our guys does that, and that's OK, as far as ethics are concerned.
    It doesn't really matter who beats who because there's always someone else who can beat you too, so what's all the bragging about anyway. I guess it's like having to have a big truck or a super sports car to make one feel good about himself when he might be a little lacking in other areas.

    Thanks Jonathan for speaking the truth about several of our players and I want you to know that I appreciate it very much and I'll let you know it personally the next time I see you.

    It doesn't feel like it's a safe enough place to expose who I am; it requires friends or ones I might want to be friends with for me to be known, but if anyone is a good enough hacker then they could find out anyway, but because I'm over 40 why bother.

    I plan on playing the Cotton Bowl as well and I'll try, as I always do, to do my best and to have some fun too. So bazan, you'll have your chance and maybe jeromiiii as well, but until then I'm just trying to be ready for the playoffs and who knows what'll happen.
    I happen to believe that all of the teams in the playoffs, as well as many others, have mostly all good players and even some might be friendly also.
    I know several guys from a few of these playoff teams and I respect them quite a bit. Some are friends as well, so good luck to all of the teams in the playoffs.

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  48. OC BL asked when was the last time one of the "Oak Ridge Boys" won a tournament.

    Please take a looking at the State Rankings for both Singles and Doubles.

    Both David Prather and Phill Grider went on to the tournament in Austin reserved for only the top eight players in the state. So they both won or reach a few finals this year in Major Tournaments (Major Zones). Pedro Montalvo will reach the quarters or semis of most local tournaments. Ed Ratcliff is a super smart player and will find a way to win. Enrique Molina will also reach a least the quarters if not more. Sam Bert's has a game will allow him to move through the draw easily. There is a difference between League Tennis and Tournament Tennis and I respect both players. I know I don't want to mess with a League guy the first round of any tournament because they are really tough. Third and fourth round I don't mind so much.

    That Oak Ridge Team is a good group of guys with lots of up and coming players like Don and Jim.

    I have respect for all players both League and Tournament because we all sacrific (time, family, and work) and put our bodies through a lot as we play a game we all love.

    Lets have fun in late November.

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  49. anonymous I got a kick out your last post it is helping me get over this headache before I go to bed (got it from getting beat in straight sets tonight) damn ringers..

    my favorite lines: "jeromiiiii" and "irritating even to be on this thing."

    Trae and Danny said they are up for Cotton Bowl as well so it looks like we should have a good time. It looks like last year they started on Friday for 3.5 singles but I see the start date for the tourney listed as Thursday, do you think they would start on that day?? I work down the street so I guess I could take a long lunch or would it be evening matches?

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  50. I'm not entirely sure how I am acting like a 12 year old, but everyone has their own opinions. I have never tried to "bully" opponents that are older than I am, in fact I generally give them a little more respect because they tend to be craftier with their shot selection.

    If you have ever seen me feed you would know that I am not a teaching pro. It gets ugly sometimes. But I am a pretty good stringer.

    My 4.0 team qualified for the playoffs next week so I should be out there, at the very least cheering. Please feel free to come over and talk to me if you want to. But, I'm not going to be there to argue with. I have never intentionally said anything bad about anyone that I have played in this league. Maybe we can figure out what the problem is.

    I'm looking forward to the CB because I miss tournament tennis. Some of my best memories have come from tournaments, and I enjoy the feeling of waking up the next morning tired and sore. It makes me feel like I worked hard and accomplished something the day before. I'm not going to carry any hard feeling or grudges into the tournament with me. I'm just going to show up and play.

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  51. I am sorry about those 12 yr old comments Jeromi, they seem way out of line but that guy is trying to get to you. He just makes me laugh honestly, I have a vision of this old guy with a mustache and beer hunting and pecking on the keyboard and holds down the "i" when he gets angry as if your name brings up residual childhood issues or something. It has the makings of a great sitcom.

    Jeromi if you are looking to play doubles as well let me know if you don't have a partner, I might be up for it if my wife lets me enter two events.

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  52. RE: Cotton Bowl

    I believe Thursday is for Jr's Only,

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