Mid-Season Awards Voting

 

With not much going on at the moment and most leagues at the half-way point, let’s open up the forum for mid-season fan voting.  I started to pick my own winners but it’s accurately been pointed out that I have a 4.5 bias so you can pick your winners at whatever level you know best.  We’ve all seen it before and we all have an opinion or we wouldn’t be on this blog.  Now’s your opportunity.  Hopefully these are pretty self-explanatory. 

We’re the best but no one seems to realize it
Former Major League Manager Chuck Lamar – The only thing that keeps this organization from being recognized as one of the finest in baseball is wins and losses at the major league level.

Biggest whiner

Former Bears coach Mike Ditka – What’s the difference between a three week old puppy and a sportswriter?  In six weeks the puppy stops whining.

Close but no cigar
Major League comedian Bob Uecker – I led the league in ‘Go get ‘em next time.’

Who, me bend the rules?
Former NFL coach Bill Cowher – We’re not attempting to circumcise the rules.

Great thinkers of our time
Former Yankee’s catcher Yogi Bera – Ninety percent of this game is half mental.

We really think we’re better than we are
Former Yankee’s catcher Yogi Bera – You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.

 

State of the League

Well, another week is in the books and Mother's Day is over.  Why do we play on Mother's Day Weekend? 

Not much happened this week other than everybody's favorite player had his matches DQ'd.  Contrary to the hopefuls, he was not made a 5.0.  The USTA modified the Move Up/Split Up rule and you can only have 3 Nationals players combine.  You can have more than three if an entire team moves up.  Kelly was the fourth with 3 bump-ups from a 40s league.  Until this week, I was unaware of that rule change.  It is a really stupid rule but it is what it is and "He that shall not be named" is without a team.

In other blog comment blabber, the Tony Le tank machine is suppose to be in full force.  When I look at the results, I am not seeing the over the top tanking that the comment folks are seeing.  Other than Tony getting blasted while playing with a 4.0, nothing looks overly suspicious. 

Now for what really matters.  I prefer to talk about teams that are actually contending.  It is hard for me to get too much energy for teams that have zero chance of making the playoffs.

In Flight A, JCC is undefeated and Michael has amassed a very good team.  His additions of Kiron, Molina, Cambron and Williams are going to make them tough to beat.  They took out TBar 5-0.  That is a beatdown and I thought TBar would win this flight.  With the exception of Oak Creek, they don't have much left between now and the playoffs.

Flight B had Rossouw losing to Oak Creek/Sands.  That Sands lineup was not comprised of killers.  It was a solid lineup but the right 8 should have been able to beat them.  Brookhaven is still undefeated but the question of the former Superchamp that committed to college has to be a concern.  Is he clean and cleared to play or is he a DQ waiting to happen?  If he is cleared, BH is on their way to the playoffs.  If he is not, it is concerning because that 3-2 win over Rossouw turns.

Flight C has 5 team sitting with 3-1 records.  I still think it is Brookhaven's to win but every week that you aren't playing wither Sisk or Le, you have a tough match on your hand.

Hopefully I will have more motivation either next week or later this week.

The Blogger Who Cried Wolf

 

Once upon a time in the far away world of USTA tennis, there lived a young boy who tended his sheep in the dangerous fields of Dallas tennis.  Every season he would gather and tend to his sheep but every season he would fall just short.  But the boy truly believed that one day his sheep could travel past the fields of Dallas.   

After many seasons of tending to his sheep without the success he desired, the boy decided that his sheep weren’t really good enough.  What he needed to do was attract some new sheep.  Sheep that were different.  Sheep that weren’t quite as pure as his old flock.  Now the boy had more success but it still wasn’t good enough to leave the confines of Dallas.  The problem isn’t my sheep, thought the boy.  It’s everyone else’s sheep.  If I could get the villagers to believe that everyone else’s sheep were really wolves then my sheep would be good enough.

So one year he cried out as loud as he could, “They’re all wolves and it’s not fair.”  He cried to his friends, he cried to villagers passing by, he even cried online, where ever anyone would listen to him.  The villagers were taken aback.  Could this young boy be right?  And they came running to his aid.  But sadly, the villagers eventually wandered back to their families and the boy was left with his sheep.

The next year he decided to cry even louder, “They really are wolves.  How can you allow this?”  The villagers rallied to his aid again.  But the villagers couldn’t agree on who the wolves were and who the sheep were.  “You may be right," one villager told the boy, “but your sheep have been eating my singles players for years, does that mean your sheep are really wolves?”  And again, the villagers lost interest and wandered back home.

Finally the boy decided he would try to kill the wolves himself.  But the wolves ate him.  The end, hopefully.

Good luck to all the 4.5 hopefuls in Dallas.  And a special good luck to all the poor sheep in Fort Worth 4.5 leagues now that Marc and Joel are both hunting in their fields this spring.