Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

With my apologies to Tim Burton.

Although I am a recent blog contributor, I was previously only a casual blog observer.  I did see enough, however, to watch a lot of nonsense packed in around several notable blowups over the last few years.  While this last week doesn’t match some of the high profile blowups of the past, it hasn’t really happened in a while and it got me thinking about why this happens.  I suppose it’s inevitable, mainly due to the anonymity, but it is interesting none-the-less how people can get so worked up about all this considering almost no one is ever willing to admit that men’s recreational tennis (or mixed recreational tennis) is that important to them.  Evidently it’s very important.

Jack said it best in the attached video, “Why can’t we all just get along?”  Of course you see what happened to Jack.

Much Ado About Nothing

As much blog press as the High Point versus Greenhill 4.0 match got last week, the actual event looks like it was a yawner.  Neither team really rolled out their best lineups.  Guess we’ll learn more come playoff time.  Until then, here are the teams that are still in the running.  We’ll need a few more weeks under our belt before we can address much of this with a high level of certainty.

4.5 flight A – Here’s a shocker, Reiman is undefeated and 14-1 so far.  LB Houston and team Corey are undefeated as well but they’re playing for second.

4.5 flight B – Oak Creek and Lakes are the two undefeated teams in this flight and they should be the two left in the end.

4.5 flight C – the Village sits alone but Brookhaven’s only loss was a 3-2 to Village so I still expect it to be those two.

4.0 flight A – there are three undefeated teams in High Point, Oak Creek and Oasis, and Corey still has the wild card to QT.   I don’t have a whole lot of faith in High Point and even less in Oak Creek.  I have never heard of anyone on the Oasis. 

4.0 flight B – High Point (the new Kim Kardashian of Dallas tennis press) seems poised to roll on into the playoffs.  McKinney is the only other undefeated team but I’d still take Greenhill for second if they can get better lineups out.

4.0 flight C – As it stands now McKinney is the only undefeated team in this flight.  Nothing else in this flight gets my attention so I’ll take Brookhaven for second. 

4.0 flight D – It’s a two horse race between Oak Creek and Garland.  I know that Royal Oaks is undefeated but I don’t see that holding up. 

Now that is some blog interest...

While we always hate to hear all of the tanking and cheating talk, it at least brought the blog viewers back.  The stats had nearly a thousand views for today alone and over a thousand yesterday.  I'm not sure what has happened or if anything actually happened.  In the meantime, lets see where everyone stands.

5.0 Jooste and Collins did not disappoint.  Collins laid it to Culley and Jooste and partner laid it to some people I don't know.  As long as these two are in the lineup, I can't see the Village losing.  They will each win their respective lines.

4.5 

Flight A:  Reiman knocked out Rossouw in a sweep.  That is making a pretty big statement.  LB Houston and Fretz are still undefeated.  neither have been tested.  Although, Noel plays Rossouw this week.  If Rossouw is still motivated, he can field a mighty good team.  LB has another light week.  I expect Rossouw to win and there are then 2 unbeatens.

Flight B: Oak Creek and Lakes are the only unbeatens.  TBar got beat by the always dangerous Sam Grand.  For those who don't think they are dangerous, just go down there tonight and check them out.  This flight is so ho-hum, it is hard to get excited.

Flight C:  The undefeated Village is in first and Huffhines/Hammond and Greenhill/Alzuro are undefeated.  I am pretty sure the only one that will remain undefeated for any length of time.  The Village knocked off Brookhaven/Harlee and should be good to go the rest of the way.  Harllee and Hammond hook it up this week and Greenhill plays the TBar B Team.  I expect there to be only 1 unbeaten left come Monday.

4.0

Flight A:  There are three undefeated teams.  None of which I picked to be anyone.  Fretz/Noel must not have got the memo that the wildcard is into QT and not city playoffs.  They lost to undefeated Oasis.  I looked at the results and Oasis fielded 5 lines of guys nobody knows.  Oak Creek/Wei-Bin Lai has a lot of guys with names I neither know nor can pronounce.  Last is High Point/Gardner.  They have a lot more guys I don't know.  I still think Fretz wins this flight but that is a bad loss.

Flight B:  High Point is an impressive 10-0 and the play the likely QT representative in Greenhill this week.  Greenhill can beat them if High Point does not take this serious.  Zackary (or is is Zacry, Zackery, Zackrey, Zacrey or whatever you guys call him... he has more spellings than Kelly...  I looked it up; it is Zackary) is probably going to beat anybody High Point has.  Largent is another strong singles guy.  It could be closer than they all think...  Who am I kidding?  High Point sweeps.

Flight C:  McKinney continues to quietly march along.  Oak Creek is the other undefeated.   I couldn't tell you a single player on the Oak Creek roster.  McKinney has a lot of players that have been around a long time.

Flight D:  There are 4 undefeated teams.  Oak Creek and Garland are probably the favorites to win this flight.  Garland plays the Greenhill team I said is someone to watch.  Apparently, I missed that.  Lost a lot of third set tiebreakers so I wouldn't worry too much about them if there was pressure.  Oak Creek gets undefeated Huffhines.  I think Oak Creek drops them.

Week 1 Down. Feels like we just finished...

Week one is in the books.  A few surprises.  I thought the winner would be the rain but we got a lot of tennis in this weekend.  Lets just get started as time is short.

5.0+  I am changing my pick to Perkison. Collins and Jooste were not on the roster when I made my initial pick.  Jooste was a former Baylor #1 player and Loren Collins is fairly well known as a top guy.

Collins dropped Braga pretty hard.  This team is now officially loaded!  Hard to see them falling if they get their players out.  A very good team just got better... Significantly better.

4.5
Flight A:  There were no surprises here so little to report.  A few matches are not reporting either.  Reiman, Rossouw and Noel all won but they also didn't exactly play anyone of note.  They did what was expected.  This week is Reiman versus Rossouw to determine who the likely flight winner is.  I like Reiman's team to win this.

Flight B:  The only contender that played was T-Bar.  They won 4-1 and Lakes was on a  Bye week.  No real match of the week in this flight.

Flight C:  Village beat High Point 5-0 and looking like it wasn't even competitive.  In a surprise, Oak Creek lost to Huffhines.  Huffhines swept doubles.  I still think Brookhaven/Village wins this flight and that happens next.  Brookhaven easily dispatched the TBar B-team.

4.0
Flight A: Expected favorite Fretz/Noel wins 4-1 against Eagles Landing.  WTF is Eagles Landing?  Since there is nobody else worth mentioning, I will stop there.

Flight B:  The much discussed High Point/Le team won 5-0 against a Fretz team with 8 3.5s on it so nothing unexpected.  They weren't expected to be copetitive and they weren't.  Greenhill won 3-2 beat Springpark 3-2.  The winner of this is likely your QT participant.  Nothing major being played this week.

Flight C:  McKinney easily dispatched the Village without dropping a set.  Brookhaven handled El Dorado 4-1 so no surprises here.  McKinney does play a Fretz team but shouldn't have trouble.


Flight D:  In a surprise beat down, Oak Creek took Fretz 5-0 but Fretz defaulted two lines.  In the surprise team I have never heard of a single player is Greenhill/Wendelken they won 5-0 over Gleneagles.  Gleneagles is usually pretty decent so this may be a team to watch.

For all you clamoring about 3.5...

3.5
Flight A:  The wild card from the fall already lost 3-2 to Stonebridge by losing 3 3rd set tiebreakers.Oak Creek leads the pack.

Flight B:  Nobody has reported or played.

Flight C:  McKinney and Brookhaven won easily so that is that.

4.0 Breakdown

I'm still not motivated but apparently some want to see their team name in print so I am now giving a 40 breakdown.  I'm not doing a 3.5 breakdown.  Maybe Captain Fantastic will be happy to do it but  don't ask me.

If the light blog chatter is correct, I guess High Point/Le is the clear favorite.  Looking through the rosters, I have to agree.  I don't think they are as unstoppable as the blog chatter but a team with a roster deep enough to go deep at sectionals and a few pieces might go deep at nationals.

Flight A:  This flight is down right bad.  I guess CoreDawg must have got cozy with the DTA as his team has the QT wildcard but I don't think he will need it.  I can't even pick a second place team.  I would go with Greenhill but I am pretty sure this is the second team.  Instead, I am going with the Village to emerge to QT.

Flight B:  This is High Point's to win.  They have a deep roster of 4.5 bump downs with Kemp, DeLaPaz, Le, Arcaria, Newman, Voss, Alarid and Wilson.  This team is clearly stacked and should be working in sectionals lineups right now.  Second place has some decent teams as possibilities.  Springpark is my pick to finish second.  Greenhill is also right there too.  This apears to be Greenhill's better team.  As long as High Point loads up against these two, they shouldn't have much trouble.

Flight C:  This is between McKinney and Brookhaven.  I am done picking Brookhaven as they always find ways to lose.  Therefore, McKinney gets this by default.  This flight is on par with Flight A for mediocre.

Flight D:  This is a fairly strong flight.  You have Fretz, Oak Creek, TBar and Garland.  I am taking a surprise pick and going with Oak Creek to win this flight and Fretz to get the trip to QT.  Garland could get there too but that is a small roster and only a few usual names.  The GTC Mafia has been broken up.

In the end, I like High Point to run away with everything and let Houston stay at home this fall.

I hope I was able to pick whoever wanted to see their team so bad.  If not, prove me wrong and I will make you famous.

League and Flight Breakdown... The Age of Mediocrity

40s is over and the real season is about to begin.  After a long off season of recruiting the latest 5 Star prospect to get the teams over the hump into QT, many hopeful captains are once again certain they will finally make that elusive trip to the Qualifying Tourney.

As I look through the league, for the most part I see a lot of ho-hum mediocrity.   While there are few (very few) good teams, for the most part, the league appears fairly mediocre.  Recruiting and self rated ringers are missing.


I heard one captain boast that his latest crop of new players were a good mix of mediocre players and underachievers.  He said one of his new ringers was a High School ZAT that is slow and averaged 33 double faults in his matches.  It was a State High School record and to have a Texas state record holder has to mean something.  He also had a new guy that was quick to panic when serving at break point; he should be a good fit into our program.  His all star new recruit was one he said that "He was a little concerned when nobody was pursuing him but when he beat Mike Kelly 1&1 in the fall, he knew he was a star.  He wasn't concerned about that was his only win and managed to beat Mike Kelly and remain 3.5.  This was a guy that knew how to play the system.  This is the type of player I can build the franchise around."

The season is ready to begin and I think most of us are ready for it to start...unless you are over 40 and the season just ended.  So, here is my highly paid analysis of the coming season...

5.0+:  This league is finally starting to grow.  As the USTA has pushed people up, there are now enough 5.0s to field a good competitive league.  This league is no longer about just trying to get back down to 4.5.

TBarM won the fall and has the automatic bid to the spring QT.  I was unaware 5.0 had a QT but maybe that starts this year.  Does this mean they get an automatic bid to cities?  Regardless, this team has 1 5.5 in Paul Chappell.  He is a top notch 5.5 considering he played for TCU just a couple of years ago.  Bartzen is always extremely strong.  Brett Ryan and Byron Talbot are back from a good 5.0 Nationals runner up a couple of years ago.  Oscar the Pimp from that 5.0 season is also here.  I like this team to win.

Village is my pick for second.  Perkison and a good team is synonymous.  There are no 5.5s on the roster but it is loaded with good 5.0s.  Perkison, McCoy and Carona and countless others are all very strong players.  They will be a tough out for anyone.

Brookhaven is my pick for third  they have a 55 in Anderson and Braga as a 5.0.  Braga gives them a second 5.5 that can play anywhere.  Since you only have to win 2 lines, they will be tough to take out.  I still expect TBar to win it all but any of these three are capable.

4.5

Flight A:
Greenhill has the wildcard into QT and Rossouw has not disappointed with another very large roster.  With the season still a week away, he has 23 highly rated journeymen on his roster.  This is a good team and has a chance to win the flight.

JCC has another large and deep roster.  Stitt's kid is on this roster and he is very good.  Reiman has put a good team together with Feldman, Pollard, Cambron, Williams and Sumrow.

In the end, JCC wins this flight.  Greenhill goes directly to QT regardless but likely finishes second.

Flight B:  This flight just isn't very good.
Lakes are the favorite to win this flight. They have a good roster but they are no better than a QT team.  Due to a weak flight, they make city playoffs.

Oak Creek has a small roster at this time.  They are largely past their prime and wouldn't get a mention if the flight was any good.  They will be in the mix.

TBar is not that great either but gets a mention as a possible player because the flight is that bad.

In the end, I expect the Lakes to win and not win any matches at city playoffs.

Flight C:  This flight isn't any better than Flight B.

Brookhaven should have about as hard a time with this flight as it did in its 40s flight.  A lot of good journeymen on this roster.  I think they finish third in flight A but they aren't there.

Village is probably second but they definitely need more bodies.  They have Ipson and Castro but no depth.

Oak Creek is probably next but nothing excites me there.

Bold way too early prediction:  I pick JCC to win and go to sectionals.

That is all for today.  When I feel more motivated, I will break down 4.0.