40 and Over, Baby
Last week end started the 2013 season for the Dallas Men's league with the inaugural Men's 40 and over league.
I was initially excited about the changes to the leagues that the USTA was promoting.
I thought the by dividing the leagues into 3 separate age groups,
18 and Over,
40 and Over, and
55 and Over it might make for more competitive matches.
Keep Captains from trolling the school yards with bags of Candy recruiting the 17 yrs old ex high School phenoms. Allow more older players to keep playing singles. Shake up the stagnant ranks. Prohibit Sandbagging, Keep more realistic levels at sectionals.
But in typical USTA and DTA fashion it looks like it has devolved into a poorly thought out money grab. Instead on running the leagues at the same time, giving players the incentive to play in their age group. The leagues have been grouped concurrently to craft a 12 month revenue stream for the DTA.
A tennis death march, dragging the oldest players through the long winter and spring until they colapse in the summer.
Problem 1) Why start a league in December starting right before Christmas spanning the worst weather periods.
Problem 2) Why allow players with to sign up and play in 2013 with a mid season 2012 rating? Arenas, Juan 4.5 Bearden, Blake 4.5 Burton, Chris 4.5 Clark, Keith 4.5 Gerber, Alan 4.5 Kargel, Mark L. 4.5 Kingsley, Vince 4.5 Lee, Shyh-Chin 4.5 Minter, Michael Blair 4.5 Nguyen, Hai Thanh 4.5 Peterson, Tom 4.5 Voss, Doug 4.5 Any Idea why these guys should be playing in a 4.0 team?
Problem 3) 4.5+ WTF?? is that even fair? 12 - 5.0 players, 15 - 4.0 players, and 91 - 4.5 players. Why do these 12 5.o guys want to bother handing out the beat down?
Let me get off my soap box and look at Week #1
3.5 40 & over I don't know much about 3.5 tennis. But the award for most confusing team goes to:
Prosper/Oh 3.5
A team that plays in McKinney, not Prosper, at a facility called 'Lifetime Tennis' That is NOT in anyway affiliated with Lifetime Fitness.
If I have to pick a team here I guess it would be Fretz, this team features 'Feather Bob' Bender and 'Capt Fantastic' Bill Kiaser.
4.0 40 & over
A lot of parody here in the 4.0 division. With all of the week 1 matches finishing up at 3-2, I expect plenty of rocking and rolling before the season is over.
Team Rockwall Newman looks to be comprised of ex-HP Somabut re-treads
(BTW. After a pretty good 2012, looks like a tough fall for Newman and Voss, just saying)
HP Wiley - Greg has put together a surprisingly strong team at the last minute made up of Garland and Lifetime spare parts.
Greenhill, Canyon Creek, and Springpark should all be in the mix as well.
4.5 40 & over
It looks like the 5.0 players are pretty evenly distributed among the teams, But come sectionals time I can see a team of 5.0 players from another city blowing it out. HP and Greenhill swept in week 1. But the real high water mark may have been Tbar vs Fair Oaks where FO dominated in singles but TBar swept the Dubs for the win.
Next Week
Match of the Week 4.0 HP Wiley vs 4.0 Rockwall Newman
What happened to all of the prior posts?? This new format and all of the flash components make accessing anything on this site SLOW. And I have FIOS 50mbps download speeds.
ReplyDeleteIt does look like you got rid of Disquss which is a move in the right direction.
btw....nice write up.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the 4.0 flight seems to be the most interesting and should provide the most drama and entertainment. Especially this weekend with HP Wiley and Rockwall Newman facing each other. I can't believe the DTA got such an exciting match-up so early in the season.
ReplyDeleteWhat will be most interesting to see is who is thrown out there for singles. We all know the key is singles, and since there won't be any college ringers playing, it should provide for some good tennis. My guess is Wiley uses Gerber and TQ. Newman throws at Kargel and Teterud. Would love to see the 2 Lifetimers go at it for when it really counts.
I would guess Wiley would use Wyatt Sharp. That dude is the guy Newman has no answer.
ReplyDeleteKudo's to Klamecki on the write up and new format! Its about time! Looking forward to the Match of the week this week. No way Newman puts out Teterud in singles that would be an ugly beat down by either TQ or Gerber, although I would have to pick Kargel to beat etiher player on High Point team.
ReplyDeleteGonna have to go the other way on motw. TQ and Gerber assuming thats the lineup will beat Kargel. TQ will wear him down and Gerber is playing solid tennis. The other singles player for Newman will be Lee. Kargel vs. Gerber & TQ vs. Lee make for solid match-ups and could easily end in a 1-1 result, leaving it up to the dubs and who's playing.
ReplyDeleteThere are rumors out there that the Newman team may have some tanking players, is that fact?
ReplyDeleteTheir first match sure looks like tanking.
ReplyDeleteSingles and line one doubles win and looks like line 2 and 3 doubles proceeded to tank after each being up a set.
Why would you win a set and then tank? Everyone knows the perfect tank score is 6-2 6-2 . 4.0 players must be just as bad at tanking as they are at tennis.
ReplyDeleteBif
So Bif is still out there. When's the next video?
ReplyDeleteBif is right though. No need to tank now given ratings already out and this is the beginning of the 2013 Season.
I do agree with Klamecki - it is sort of stupid to use 2012 mid-season ratings for a league that is in 2013 and all results count towards your 2013 year-end rating.
I want see Gerber and Teterud play each other. Both have huge egos and pride. Teterud thinks he should be a 4.5 -- Gerber just needs to give him a beat down.
I'm just waiting for the news to hit that the blog is back to allow Anons. Gerber will be on here posting in no time talking smack.
The news has hit, Dipshit. Why else would you be on here talking crap as an anon.
ReplyDelete@12/13 @3:33... That kind of civility is the exact reason that Klamecki opted to go all Disqus on us. I would rather keep it like this.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, I think Newman has more firepower than Wiley. Kingsley/Bearden are better than anything Wiley has. Newman/Voss are too but they certainly had a rough fall after being so strong at sectionals.n I see them splitting singles and Newman gets at least 2 doubles lines.
Although, in the end it all comes down to who has their best players available.
Kingsley.....are you serious? That guy can't win when it counts.
ReplyDelete@12/13 @3:33... aka the great gerber, welcome back! Good luck this weekend you will need it!
ReplyDeleteSaw Wiley beat Newman. Kingsley must be tanking.
ReplyDeleteHeard Gerber is tanking. Can't beat them, join them.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone tank at this point?
ReplyDeleteYE ratings are already set.
Gerber just got beaten.
I would think Kargel would beat Gerber too. I can't imagine that was a tank. The only reason Wiley beat Newman was Newman was missing players.
ReplyDeleteAnybody that knows anything about Newman and or Gerber knows that Newman tanks every fall (and most of his teammates) and that Gerber would never tank, he is way to competitive and egoistic. I agree with the above poster he just got beat by a better player.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the other single player for Wiley, I dont know anything about him or his game but it looked like he got "TQed". Many tennis player dont give tq any credit for his game because he dose not hit many winners or dose not pound his ground strokes but he is still very effective and tough to beat.
I meant the other singles player for Newman not Wiley.
DeleteIn 4.5, you can only use 2 5.0s and they have to play 1 Singles or 1 Doubles so the other cities won't have an advantage. HP beat Greenhill in the 4.5 Match of the week. The mighty Kelly and Sleazy Abbruzesse are off tanking this week.
ReplyDeleteFunny stuff, good to see the blog is rolling again!!! For the record, I did not tank nor would I ever, simply don't see the point. Had an off day in a big way and Kargel is a solid 4.5 player. Been working on my stroke and it affected my game on Saturday, such is life. I'd like another shot at him cause I'm positive the next match will be much different but until then, Kargel is the better player. Over 40 league is a good time and glad the weather has cooperated.
ReplyDeleteGerber
Nice of you to man up. Kargel is very solid.
DeleteYou stay classy Serena.
DeleteAnd you keep hiding behind the puss mask, porky.
DeleteBoring week next. Wiley gets Springpark/Femrite but the other contenders get virtual byes. Newman get Stonebridge. Rich folks don't beat Somabut boys. Peterson gets HP/Jameson. Peterson is loaded; Jameson is not. McHugh gets Prather; McHugh continues his 1st place march to playoffs. Alzuro plays CC/Hodge and becomes 2-1.
DeleteMatch of the week is Wiley again. I take the upset with Springpark winning 3-2. Springpark and Greenhill may have the best teams.
A lot of parody here in the 4.0 division. This may have been intentional or you mean parity.
ReplyDelete