Friday, March 21, 2014

A Tale of 4 Flights




It was the best of competition, it was the worst of competition, it was the age of putting the best teams in two flights, it was the age of putting the worst teams in two flights, it was the epoch of disbelief that our flight was so easy, it was the epoch of incredulity that the DTA would put the best teams together, it was the spring of hope, after it was the winter of despair, we had anew season before us, we had the geezer season behind us, we were all going direct to sectionals, we were all staying home claiming that the team going to sectionals were all cheaters..

While 4.0 is not my thing, Corey already did 4.5 and 5.0.  I will try to satisfy the 4.0 crowd and hopefully Captain Fantastic will satisfy the 3.5 crowd.  Since Kelly and Rossouw are neither 4.0 or below, they  should not dominate this conversation but I am sure they will.

First, I must commend the DTA in finally following through with giving more matches.  In the past, you would be LUCKY to get 7 matches.  This season, each team will be getting 9 matches.  This should help the uber-roster captains.

Now for the DTA status Quo… Per usual, the DTA managed to take flighting teams to a level badness that an accident seems unlikely.  I’ve always thought that by pure dumb luck, they would eventually get it right.  I stand corrected.  I can’t help but think of the great Bif Wellington Hitler video saying, what the hell does the DTA know, they always put the best teams in the same flight…  Yet, here we are and once again, the flights looks to be so bad, it is hard to imagine they are random.
Since it is only logical… We will start with Flight A

Flight A:

There are several of the city’s most successful 4.0 captains lumped together.  You have the reigning ity champion Bazan and he isn’t the usual one here we discuss.  We have Sisk and Somabut in this flight too.  I am unsure if the DTA seeds teams or not but if they do, this is pretty bad.  I believe you should seed based on actual known players as well as captain’s typical past success.  While it isn’t perfect, I am pretty sure Somabut, Bazan and Sisk will all put out quality squads.  With that…

The flight is top heavy.  It has the big three but it also has Oak Creek/Head.  They have a lot of players on one of the 40s playoff teams.  They won’t be a pushover.  Oak Creek looks to be light on singles players.
Bazan has a lot of guys on a different 40s playoff team.  It looks like Bazan raided McKinney/Peterson.  A solid crew.

Sisk has a lot of his usual guys.  It appears he added the remnants of Corey’s 4.0 playoff team.  He still has Flora.  This is another solid team.

Somabut has quite a few unknowns.  The unknowns are always scary but of his computer rates, few look like difference makers.  He has some good ones but not the numbers he is accustomed to having.  Carlquist, Hutchison and Bearden are good pieces.

I am going with

11)      Somabut… Based on his unknown players, Somabut’s best players are usually self rated or in this case fall rated at 4.5 on Hai’s team and struggled mightily.  Carlquist, Bearden and Hutchison are all very good computer rated 4.0s.  It is a mystery how they remain 4.0… Or is it a mystery???

22)      Sisk… He has Flora that is a very good singles option.  His regular guys are always solid and the Noel additions should make him very formidable in this flight.  Sisk has a history of picking up a guy along the way that is a real difference maker.

33)      Bazan..  This team could challenge for either of the first two spots.  There are a ton of doubles options and Rickman has won quite a few singles matches.

44)      Oak Creek/Head… They appear to have so very good doubles lines but no singles.  Sweeping doubles is a tough way to win a flight.

I don’t see much difference between the first three.  If Oak Creek can land a good singles guy, then they could make some noise.  Regardless, 4 quality teams in this flight seems like a lot when some of the flights are lighter.

Flight B:

This flight may actually be worse than flight A.  While playoff mainstays like Sisk, Somabut and Bazan may not be in the flight, there are a lot of other good teams.  This is probably the deepest flight.  You have Canyon Creek/McHugh, Greenhill/Ohl, Fretz/Clark, Eldorado/Browning and Gleneagles/Fults.
All of these teams above are good and can be very dangerous.  Ohl was in the finals of the Fall Playoffs and was close to winning.  McHugh has his very good 40s team.  Clark has a number of quality players and Browning’s team won their flight last year.  Fults has a ton of quality players.  Any of these teams can beat each other on any given week.  This is easily the toughest flight to pick.

My picks are…

11)      McHugh… He has great singles with Huff and himself.  He has several doubles and I think he would add a few more.  Dawson wins a lot of matches.  They’ve been together awhile.

22)      Fretz/Clark… This is a tough call.  He has Zackary who is a really good mixed player and per the previous thread’s comments.. “the best 4.0 singles player in Dallas.”  He has some good players.  Owen Wilson takes a break from Hollywood to return to Dallas for some tennis.  There are a number of singles options with Zackary, Pearson and Smithheisler.  I am just not sure how much he has in doubles.

33)      Greenhill/Ohl… Schwartz and Wettreich make an awful tough singles 1 & 2.  Burton, Schneider and Shanks are all good players that occasionally spend time at 4.5.  

44)      Gleneagles has McCullough and son.  These guys are very good players.  Moen and Fults are as good as any computer rated 4.0.  This is a very dangerous team that will beat at least one of the first 3 teams.

55)      Browning won their flight last year.  I’m not as familiar but they have a lot of the same players. 

This is a very tough flight.  I don’t see a team getting through this undefeated.  It is not impossible, but it will be very tough.  The great big Canyon Creek/DTA conspiracy theory doesn’t hold up here.  They would have moved Canyon Creek to another flight if there was a great big Canyon Creek conspiracy. 

Flight C

It gets easier because these next two flights are not nearly as loaded.  This is almost as easy to call as Flight D. 

11)      TBar/Snow… This is pretty cut and dried.  This is almost the same as the 40s team that I think will do very well at city playoffs.  I know a lot of these guys and they are strong.  They have Chapple, Chad, Lee, Walley, Perry, Snow and I know a few more will be signing up.  David has put together a good team.  His biggest problem is it is not a young team.

22)      The only possible dark horse is Springpark/Mauldin.  They have some pieces but little depth.

Most of this flight is pretty bad except TBar and Springpark.  Yet, this is not the worst flight.

Flight D

If there should be a DTA conspiracy, it may hold with Brookhaven.  Bartlett has the only team that would finish with a winning record in either flight A or B.

11)      Brookhaven/Bartlett… The rest of the flight is just plain bad.

22)      Fretz Jarayam… This team is the only other one that doesn’t just plain suck.

There you go… Feel free to disagree

With that, it is a far less important thing I do now than I have ever done before.  And I am going to a far better drunk now than I have ever known.Well not really, I have been much drunker.

69 comments:

  1. Just noticed but Flight B is ridiculous.

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    1. Flight A doesn't look much better. How can two flights be so tough and two flights be so bad?

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  2. Just now figuring out a conspiracy??? Of course Briokhaven in easiest flight. Wake up people!

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    1. I don't think there is a grand conspiracy; I think the flight maker just has no idea who should be seeded. I thought when Klamecki took charge that he would know enough to balance the flights.

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    2. That's what they want you to think. U r kidding yourself.

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    3. 11:36, is your real name Dale Gribble?

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    4. No, it's Juss Rohnson.

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  3. DTA says it was a blind draw this season.

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    1. A blind person could have done better.

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    2. They also had no idea how Kelley was moved to 5.0 but when cornered their memory came back.

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  4. no need for dta to remember - it's out in the open Russou was behind it and proud of it. Now that alan has lost Kelly and cannot win without him, he will be pushing dta for the 5.0 move.

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    1. Well, the luxury of starting every match up 1-0 is very, very difficult to have. He has won most matches before the first serve. SP still good but without him they are just about in the middle. To his defense he did not play against them. Class move.

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    2. class move? or just no need to play against sp?

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    3. A little of both. Knowing they didn't have to face Kelley made Greenhill decision easier.

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  5. I would have liked to have been in the room when Rooso got the word Kelley rating was reversed. He will never admit it but will haunt him forever. Russ J and B Myers feeling the pain too. They have hired Cory as the spokesman to bash Kelly and keep pourin it on. Don't know MK well but job well done for appeal. Be wary though, they will keep trying.

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  6. Is there away to filter the wrd Kelly on this blog. Of course, there are about 10 different misspellings f his name. Not to mention MK.

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  7. Wow, just looked online at early results of FW 4.5 men's. Pickett and Bobby Smith w nice line 1 win. They will be a lock down line just on experience alone. I am not sure how Pickett plays w all those muscles but today was an impressive debut. Yet again he has put together a deep, solid team, done without threats and begging.

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    1. Well well, it looks the the Canyon Creek ladies are back on the block salivating and checking out Joel's..... uh, ummm, results.

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    2. Not sure it's just the CC ladies posting. I think it could be a majority of the TCD gals interested in his numbers...uh.... I mean scores.

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    3. I am pretty sure, they are into his measurables

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    4. Looked at FW scores and I see Rossouw won. I don't see all the defections as he already has 22 players on his roster. All 22 can't be in the top 8. Most could be very good on other teams. Looks like a case adding players s he doesn't have to face them. Really needs to worry about Freeman's players rather than the FW spares.

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    5. Better not defect from his team.. You will get talked about, written up and receive angry phone calls from him. A really good captain.

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  8. Majority of Somabut team is tanking, a couple of them don't even know it but it's happening. Just watch and see.

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    1. The. Majority of that team has no need to tank unless they are looking to go to 3.5.

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    2. They are putting a 4.0 superteam together for 2015 and want to make sure all stay at 4.0. They are waiting for a few others to get back down to 4.0 (ie. Le & De la Paz.

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    3. That is alright, Rossouw will ensure they are not bumped down.

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    4. Great point. Btw, 1 Russo team down, 3 to go. Crushing loss yesterday to tbar... Who was the last match off?

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  9. He plays about 7/8 of the court and calls his female partner of most balls. Go and see a match sometime. It's actually pretty ridiculous how much he hogs the court.

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  10. It's not us CC women posting, we have been there, had and done that. Joel Thickett had 8 in one room in Houston. He may be rated 4.5 but in the real world he is a 7.0. You go bro!

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    1. More like Joel Stickett. That boy is ballin. Only thing bigger than his serve is his biceps. Man crush!

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    2. More like his ego and that's about it. Look were all of that got him, alone and living with his asian princess who is probably the one that posted this.

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    3. Only an Asian would think he had any size.

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    4. Keep posting hate and negative blogs. Makes others feel better to diminish and denounce those they wish they were. Joel is a good guy who would give you the shirt off his back. Althoug the last time he did the thongs, I mean throngs, of women knocked me over trying to get a peek.

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    5. Posting personal insults and attacks are why this tennis town is a joke. They follow the DTA's lead and trickles from there. Starts at the top and goes down. Real class acts here in Dallas to bring up Asians and personal attacks on a blog. Sounds like a rant from certain blog contributors.

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    6. This is a meaningless blog, get over it. The world is tired of endless people being offended at everything. Don't pull the race card; it is weak.

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    7. You must never win either. Asians rule Dallas Tennis!

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  11. Noel: Hanna was yor best player period!!! He was 6-2 at 4.5 and his losses were at doubles with an inferior player!! Are you pinning those losses on Hanna???? Lol! He was 4-2 at 5.0, think he's 4.5 or 5.0?? Not a ringer in your eyes because you didnt know how to use him!! You and Rossouw can explain yourself to to "alter boy" status, but we know different!!

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    1. They don't need to explain anything. People are slowly figuring things out. It is getting so bad some people are signing up on certain teams so that a certain " dictator" captain will not succeed. Trying to be holier than thou' has come back to bite him.

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    2. Wow that's comical. Why don't you look up the record of his inferior partners? Mark is a great player yes, but he had a legit 4.5 rating and that's that. A lot of guys from that team are 5.0 now. What does that prove?

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    3. Are his partners 5.0? He played 8 matches and got bumped, computer got it right. You had an out of level player before he played a match. If you had 8 Hannas, you go to sectionals. You had a ringer! Freeman, Pickett has a roster full! Having 1 or 10 you're in the same boat!!

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    4. If you have 8 Kelley's you go to galaxies! Of course you need a ringer but where can you find one?

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    5. Cory, Since you speak for and support Russo could you ask him how he felt when Kelly manual bump up was overturned? He has been awful quiet or maybe he doesn't know yet since he doesn't read the blog?

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    6. Having a ringer makes you a cheater? Cheating makes you a cheater. Having a ringer makes you a good captain. Having no ringer makes you a schmuck.

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    7. Yes, having Kelley makes you a cheater. Obviously the DTA thought enough of manually bumping him up so they did. Every league playoff, sectional and national win is a farce. I will not recognize any of his national titles nor any playoff wins.

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    8. Ok, let's suppose Houston would have won trilevel this year. Dallas won last year and Houston was close this year. Houston had 5.0's playing 4.5 and still didn't win the title. Had they of won would they be cheaters? Or coming in second is no problem? Are you only a ringer or tanker if you win nationals? Freeman is a great captain, we just needed a player of Kelley's caliber to put us over the top. Houston knows how to win and we don't bitch and moan about our ringers!

      A Houston 4.5 and proud of it!

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    9. With 8 Hannas I could make sectionals. Also could have with 8 Hawkinses or Xus or Fairs. All were legit 4.5s then. Now they aren't.

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    10. Not sure you could make sectionals with those other players mentioned. Nice players but avg 4.5's

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    11. Well Doug has won 9 out of 10 5.0 matches since then and Ben has above .500 record in 5.0 for a while now so false.

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  12. That is my point. He is beatable when he is not hoggin the ball. Just hit behind him, easily done.

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  13. Early in the season, after winning his only point of the match, Bazan will climb too high on a fence and will be too scared to come down until a firetruck shows up with a ladder to help him down sometime in late May.

    Flora, Sisk and co. plan to do some fishing and drinking I mean drinking and fishing this spring during the fish spawn.

    Somabut will have knee surgery in early April. Carlguist's elbow surgery is slated for mid May. Hutchinson will have hip replacement late May. Bearden will check into rehab 1st of June.

    Hey guys we are the best team ever put together in Dallas 3.5, 4.0, 4,5 and 5.0 period. CC will win this city championship. We should have won the 40 and over but we were in a bad flight and we got the toughest line ups. If you count the games won/lost than we are the champions. We ARE the best team this city has ever seen. BH sucks! They always get flighted with the hacks and, no doubt, we would win flight C outright.

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    1. Now this is quality trash talking and blogging.

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    2. Best thing on the blog since the Hitler video.

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  14. to 11:36, great post! Only thing a constant is Kelley finishes in first place again on his over 40 mixed team. Another national mixed trip to Hawaii is in April for his 40 and over team from last season. As much as things change they stay the same.

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    1. We didn't come in 4th place bec Kelley didn't play for SP this 40 and over, we were just playing for fun. Didn't matter as long as everyone got to play.

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  15. Good luck with that. Let me know how it works out for you.

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  16. This is interesting, this is a 4.0 thread and Pickett, Rossouw and Kelly are the conversation.

    I think Ohl is the team to beat in Flight B. They were fall finalists and added a few pieces. The added a couple of pieces that will put us over the top.

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    1. Which added pieces? Those new players are below average 4.0s.

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    2. I would be surprised if the were in the top 5 of that flight. After they lose 3 or 4, Ohl will empty the bench.

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  17. Why the heck is Kelly on the thread? He hasn't played a men's match in 7 months. He could care less. Blog about other people you can't beat. CC and Hookhaven should be rejoicing anyway. He is doing a half triathlon the day before mixed playoffs so if he plays he loses for sure. Kelly will no longer be a force in Dallas tennis. His best days are behind him.

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  18. Yep, he is done. He sux. Might as well quit playing.

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    1. PEOPLE! KELLEY IS NOT PLAYING MEN'S LEAGUE AND WILL HAVE NO EFFECT ON PLAYOFFS! PLEASE STICK TO PLAYOFF TALK THAT IS FACTUAL. WE HAVE PLAYOFFS THIS WEEKEND! LET'S DISSECT THAT!!!!

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    2. who is this Kelley person?

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  19. Don't need to let you know. Mixed is a waste of time.

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  20. Great great post 10:51!

    However, if he was playing, which team could use him the most?

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  21. Anybody else wondering why the men's only playoffs this weekend are being played on Friday night and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday? After work, playing at night with lights, instead of on Sunday during the day like the entire season.There is a reason men's leagues are played on the weekend. Many people hate playing at night with lights. It would be understandable if they was play on all three days, but not with just two days of play.

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  22. Same reason Brokehaven has cakewalk in their 4.0 flight. Play at their place under their lights. Wake up and smell the politics!

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  23. A disclaimer: I play for Sisk.

    First off I’m glad they made 4 flights of 10 teams instead of having 5 flights 8. The more matches the better. I think it might even be fun to make 8 flights of 5 teams and play each team twice and then expand the playoffs because as so many people have said before, the real season starts with the playoffs. Unless playoffs are designed like they were last year. We won our flight and our reward was to play Arcaria in the first match on Saturday. We lost 3-2 and we were done. We had one match left but Arcaria had clinched the flight already. We played the entire season to get one match in the playoffs. What a letdown that was.

    As far as two of the flights being “stacked” and two being “awful”… I was thrilled to see this. I think this will make a much better experience for everyone involved. I think I’m an above average 4.0 player, but I’m certainly no ringer or 4.5 player. With that said my biggest complaint the last two years of league play isn’t the few players who tank from 4.5 to 4.0, it’s how bad the regular season matches are. I feel like almost half of the 4.0 players are really out of level 3.5 players. That comment will probably get me flamed to hell, but so be it. I got back into tennis to have fun & competitive matches, but unfortunately the regular season is usually neither fun nor competitive. If anyone bothered to do the research I bet the winners of each flight were predicted accurately over 80% of the time. (I pulled that number out of my ass, but it’s probably close). Usually everything is a foregone conclusion. Now none of the four flights are a foregone conclusion. The two “good” flights are up for grabs while the two “bad” flights will be equally competitive. Flights C & D will have good competitive matches almost every week while flights A & B will have good competitive matches at least half the time as opposed to only once all season.

    If you can’t win your flight, you sure as heck aren’t going to win at the city tournament much less Sectionals. I’m very much looking forward to this season.

    David Terrell

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    1. Fair point David. Are your fall results legit? If not, how is that "having fun? "

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    2. Agree that 4.0 has been awful the last few seasons and may still be overpopulated with players that should be 3.5.

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