40 & Over - Sectional Preview

Before the blog becomes too stale, I figured the next thing on the horizon worth commenting on is the upcoming Sectionals for 40 and over.  This should be a great weekend down in San Antonio, with both Men’s and Women’s teams at levels 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5+ traveling.  My guess is the Riverwalk Marriot will be one hopping place on Saturday night.

What I like about the 40 and over league is that it really does sift out a lot of the riff raff you see in 18+ and over.  There are no self-rates, and no young ringers.  Pretty much the playing field is level with everyone playing where they are supposed to be.  And whoever the psyco is with the obsession of Kelly, 4.5 is a 4.5+ league, allowing 5.0 players, so don’t pollute the blog with your Kelly rantings.

So here is the low down for the weekend:

3.5 Men

Keith Clark’s team is representing Dallas, and should represent well.  His team is comprised of many of the players he had on his 18+ team that reached the semi-finals at Sectionals, only falling to Freeman’s Houston team.  Clark’s team will need to be juiced and ready to go out of the gates, as they face Houston first thing at 7:00 A.M Friday morning, followed by playing Wild San Antonio  at 11:30 A.M. 

The good news is that this is a different Houston team, and only one player on their roster played on Freeman’s 18 and over Sectional team.  The fact that Clark took 2 out of the 3 doubles lines, and the dubs they did drop were  to self-rates, I like their odds.  Wild San Antonio is a  bit of a different story.  Their team is mainly comprised of players that also played 18 and over.  While their team was undefeated in flight play, they went 0-3 in City Playoffs and did not make the trip to Sectionals.   If Dallas wins both matches on Friday, they should be playing in the finals on Sunday morning.

4.0 Men

Greg Wiley’s team is representing Dallas, with Tom Peterson’s team representing Dallas Wild. Wiley has an impressive roster with top players from Le’s and Sisk’s teams with a few other of his Garland and Lifetime buddies..  Wiley’s team was not that fortunate with the draw, getting Wild Houston in their flight.  Unfortunately, Wild Houston is rostered with several players that played on Freeman’s 18 and over team that thumped everyone in Sectionals just weeks ago.  The good news is, the other 2 teams in his flight are not that strong, and should be good warm up matches before their showdown which is on Saturday at 11:30 A.M.  If Wiley gets past Houston, I like their chances to go all the way.

Peterson was a little bit luckier and has Midland, Amarillo, and San Antonio in their flight.  This is a solid team, but a bit of an eclectic collection of players that looks primarily like a merger of  Lakes players (some who defected to Garland and others who didn’t) with Klamecki’s Wagon Wheel team, graced with  the presence of Ohl & Beers  from Greenhill.  Outside of Klamecki being on the team, I see no reason they don’t win their flight easily, with perhaps a little bit of a fight with S.A.  While I haven’t had time (nor the energy or patience with Tennislink)  to analyze all of the teams, my guess is they face Houston in the Semis.  Since Wild Houston appears to be the stronger of the Houston teams, I tip favor to Wild Dallas to get out of the Semis and make the finals.  If Wiley beats Wild Houston, they should face NOHO in the Semis, and we could have an all Dallas final.  Now that would be a nice payback to Houston!!

4.5 + Men

As stated before, the plus sign is there for a reason, because this is 4.5 + 5.0's.  Dallas is represented by Greenhill Sweeney and has none other than Mr. Kelly on his roster along with Bent Tree’s Craig Bell, Spring Park’s Abbruzzese, and 3 other 5.0s.  Looks like a solid team.  But in the same flight they have Fort Worth which is Marc Rossouw’s Wagon Wheel team.  Marc did it again building an impressive roster of notable 4.5s from across the city to form a super team.  This time, I think he has the man power to go all the way.  While my knowledge of 4.5 players is limited, I like Sweeney’s team, but I think I like Roussouw’s team better (or at least know more of his players).  He has Myers, Feldman, Miles, Durten, Schwartz, and Mudsam, just to name a few, along with a couple of 5.0 rated players. 

In the opposing flight is Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.  While your inclinations would default to choosing Houston, you have to refrain as this is not a Freeman team, and none of these players were playing at the 18 and over Sectionals just weeks ago.  While I didn’t have the inclination to look up San Antonio’s team and Austin’s team, to see if they had any players playing in 18 and over Sectionals, I still think that whoever  wins the showdown at 4:00 PM on Saturday between Dallas and Fort Worth, ends up bringing home the title, regardless of who they face.   

So there is my quick and dirty preview to the upcoming weekend in San Antonio.  As much as I would like to be a part of the action at the downtown Marriot Riverwalk, I will be camping up north since all of our matches are at Blossom.  Good luck to all teams, and lets bring some titles back home for Dallas !!!

Weekend Preview

At the request of posters, and because I’m tired of seeing the Caddyshack theme, a quick and dirty preview of this weekend.

4.0

Bazan by far has the easier path to Sunday morning, and I actually would be surprised if he doesn’t make it.  He starts off Friday morning playing QT-Laredo.  From what I can tell from Tennislink, this is the only team from Laredo, and qualified by playing a team out of Wichita Falls 3 times over a 2-day period.  That was all their whole season was comprised of.  In addition, they only have 9 players on their roster.  Laredo is a long way from Dallas, and wouldn’t be surprised if they are defaulting a line or two Friday morning, much less the rest of the weekend.  Bazan steamrolls them.

Their next match is Waco who historically has not put together that tough of a team.  They won their flight back in 2010, but outside of that, have typically ended up at the bottom of flight play.  While I wouldn’t fully discount them, I think if Cary gets through Friday, I say his chances of playing Sunday morning are looking good.  The only caveat here is that their match is at 2 PM on Friday at the peak of the sun and a very hot time.  But his guys should be well rested as Laredo is just a warm-up.

Saturday morning is North Houston (NOHO), who my guess, will be their toughest competition in flight play.   However, if they had any really good players, they would be playing for Freeman, so NOHO is the city’s leftovers.   Since it is a morning match and not too hot, I think this favors Cary and give the edge to Dallas.

Their last match is Wild San Angelo.  While it will be at the pinnacle of heat at 5:30 pm at LB Houston, it will be a cool down match and time to prepare for Sunday morning.

What’s nice for Bazan, is misery for Tony Le as he faces Houston right out of the gates Friday morning. His hope here is that all of Freeman’s boys can’t make it first thing on Friday in Dallas, which might give Tony an edge.  I don’t know all of Freeman’s players, but they had fairly easy wins in flight play, and the “grapevine” reports that he has a fairly stacked team.  Given the struggles Tony’s super-team has had this past season, I think he has a tough battle ahead of him.  That said, if he does pull off an up-set, his next toughest match in flight play won’t be until the end of Saturday against NETX.  In between, he has the Valley and Wild NOHO, which he should easily handle.  NETX went undefeated in flight play and looks solid on paper, so Tony can’t ease up here, unless he is already out of it with a Houston loss.

Sunday morning I think you see Bazan facing off against Fort Worth or Wild Austin, and Houston playing Austin on the other side of the bracket.  At that point, you need to come out and root for our home team to help them get through to the finals and heckle Freeman and squad.

4.5

Since this is so far out of my league, my insights are limited, but here you go. 
What is bad luck for Tony at 4.0, appears to be good luck at 4.5.  At least for flight play.  His 4.5 team has NETX, Midland and NOHO of which I think Le easily gets out of his flight. 

HOWEVER, and that is a BIG HOWEVER.  Fort Worth sits on the opposing flight.  Mind you, this really isn't a Fort Worth team, but rather another "Super-team" comprised mainly of Dallas ringers led by no other than Marc Roussouw himself.  (No wonder why he has been so silent on this blog!)  They appear to have tougher flight play with Austin in their flight.   While I think Austin is tough and gives them a battle, I think Fort Worth pulls through.

This then leads to probably the most exciting match of the weekend, which should be Tony Le's Dallas 4.5 team vs. Rossouw's 4.5 team in the Semis.  What a match.  I won't even try to speculate on who takes this one, but it should be good, and maybe filled with a little drama?

The winner of this will most likely face another Freeman team in the Finals.  Whoever wins, I hope a Dallas/Fort Worth team can take Freeman at 4.5, as I think Freeman will be walking away with the 4.0 title.

Regardless, best of luck to all of our Dallas teams!!

Disclosure:  The above is merely postulations and guess-work based on quick and rash analysis from Tennislink and on biases from past years’ results of cities which are no true indicators of future results.    It is no way to be deemed accurate or relied upon for purposes of placing wagers or the like.

 

I'M ALRIGHT

Well the season finale of city playoffs was as fitting as the season itself, full of twists, turns, and drama to entertain all.  Rather than total domination by one team as most former playoffs have transpired, this one was tighter than Jerry Joan’s forehead after his facelift.  Full of 3^rd set breakers and potential spoilers all weekend long, this was anyone’s for grab.

 With no total dominance or huge arch rivalries, and all the wackiness this season portrayed, it was more reminiscent of a tennis version of Caddyshack with the following cast of characters.

Ty Webb (aka Tony Le) – With his cool, calm demeanor and knowing how to “be the ball”, Le was the favorite entering the weekend, having just swept Sisk 5-0 and under the table the prior weekend.  His collection of players from High Point and Lifetime along with the City’s best 4.0 player, Weymer (also known as  the Tommy Le of tennis) were to be a sure thing.  However, when Weymer is MIA on Friday night, Le has to go with an alternate line-up and nearly squeaks out of a close one with CC.  All 3 dubs went into breakers, and became a recurring theme for them all weekend long.  Unfortunately, breakers have their odds, and having breakers in each and every match, the odds you end on the short side eventually take over.

Judge Smails (aka David Dawson) – While Dawson appears to be a lot more docile and not a hot head as  Smails the character, the playing out of the country club and the desire to derail Le is somewhat stereotypical .  Like in the movie, when Smails reaches for his putter, the Billy Baroo, Dawson had his own in the form of Blake Ericsson.  Ericsson dismantled Shreyas 2-0 to in singles on Friday night which put Le in knots as 2 of Le’s double lines dropped their first sets.   The boys from the country club made an impressive run, and should be congratulated for a well played season.  A point here or there, and CC would have been playing in the finals. 

Danny Noonan (aka Corey Noel) -  Like Noonan who worked for the club, Corey runs Fair Oaks tennis center, and took on a handful of players whom he had faith in, and whom he could afford at the bargain price of 2 Miller Lights.  Terrell and company were just recently 3.5’s.  But not any 3.5’s.  They were Bender 3.5s, and were the cause of Le going to the QT in the first place.  Although their weekend’s record was 0-2, they fought like champs and almost derailed HP again having split singles and taking line 2 dubs, Terrell and Schultz took Glassgow and Arcaria to their second 3^rd set breaker of the weekend.  A group of guys who had little depth, but big heart, and deserves another round of applause (or golf claps) for a season well played.

Al Czervik (aka Bovie Browning) – I actually have never had an opportunity to meet Bovie nor know what he is really like.  The reference of Browning’s Eldorado team to Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield) is for the care-free attitude and good gamesmanship they did display this weekend.  Eldorado is a player made up of good country club friends, and they appear to enjoy a beer or two together from time to time.   It is rumored that Blake Bearden practices with them on Saturday mornings until the club’s bar opens.  You definitely know the beer is flowing then.  If any player this weekend had a tennis bag that would have had a keg in it similar to Al’s golf bag in the movie, that player would have been on the Eldorado team.   They seem to be a good group of guys and had a very respectable season, knocking Garland down to the QT and out of City playoffs completely. 

Dr Beeper (aka David Snow) – Another captain and team I am unfamiliar with, but deserve blog space for making it to City playoffs and putting up a good fight.  They also have on their roster T-Bar’s owner, Glen Agritelley who has a great game of tennis of which I got to witness first hand.  They almost took out Eldorado on Friday night, just losing in a 3^rd set breaker.   A tough weekend, but a great overall season.  Congrats.

 

 

Carl Spackler (aka Carl Spackler) – no one can replace Bill Murray in this role.  Nobody.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which leaves me with the final character.........

The Gofer (aka Cary Bazan) – If you recall the movie, after Carl Spackler blows up the golf course, that “little fury creature” wiggles his way out of hole and starts doing a jig to the song that made Kenny Loggins infamous, “I’m Alright”.  Well that was Cary Bazan this weekend.  Perhaps some might feel his cheerings for the team was more reminiscent of a high school cheerleader who just inhaled a large Pixi stick and chased it down with a Red Bull and Coke, but Bazan was the last man (or creature) left standing this weekend, and deserved to do whatever jig he pleases. 

Cary has consistently built solid teams over the years and has always graced his presence in the playoffs.  But every dog (and gofer) has his day, and today’s was Cary’s.  He constructed a team of core players he has had for years, and each year, seemed to pick up a notable player or two to add depth and strength to his roster.   It all paid off, and Cary Bazan can now claim a City Title and will be playing in this year’s Sectionals.  Cary - Congratulations to your team and a job well done.

In closing, I thought I would throw out a stat which caught my attention, and truly provides the evidence that there was no overly dominant team this year.  There were 18 third set tie-breakers played throughout this weekend.  Three of those  in the final match.  There was a total of 7 total matches played, which means each match on average had at least 2, if not 3 third set breakers.  That tells me there was some great teams and great tennis across the whole City, and it is a season all Dallas players should be proud of. 

Best of luck to Bazan and Le in Sectionals.

 

 

2013 Early Season League Ratings

The 2013 Early Season League Ratings for USTA League Tennis players is now available. 

 

Did your tank Job work? Did you get screwed?

Check out the fink and find out.

More to be posted as ratings are analyzed.

Dallas League Tennis – The Way It Should Be

So with the season wrapped up, and the QT around the corner, let’s have a recap of the season. 

First, my predictions at the beginning of the season, followed by the actual winners :
(Flight winner, followed by 2^nd place team going to QT, 3^rd place in parenthesis)

 Predicted:                                                                 ACTUAL:

Flight A – GTC, Eldorado                                         Eldorado, GTC  (LB Houston 3^rd) 

Flight B – 3 way tie Brookhaven, T-Bar &             2-way tie - T-Bar, Oak Creek

                 Oak Creek                                                (Springpark 3^rd)

               

Flight C – HP, Fair Oaks                                             Fair Oaks, HP

Flight D – Canyon Creek, Royal Oaks                    Canyon Creek, Royal Oaks

Flight E – McKinney, Greenhill                                McKinney, Greenhill; (Huffhines 3^rd)

With the exception of my dyslexic calls on Flight A & Flight C, you have to admit that was pretty good.  So the question begs to differ, out of having 45 teams and close to 700 players, has regular season play in Dallas tennis really become this predictable?  I only know a handful of players and made speculative guesses on many of the flight calls.  But to get it this close before a match was played?   

What I liked about this season is that the top 20% of teams and players are pretty well equal and competitive with each other on any given day.  What I got wrong was not giving enough credit to the core of Dallas tennis, and giving too much credit to the leaders of the past.   Congratulations to Eldorado for beating Sisk and team Corey for defying the odds and beating Le.  (Looks like Terrell earned his pay for those 2 Miller Lights.)  What looked like was going to be a flawless season for Bazan in Flight E , was disrupted by Hackberry with an end of season spoiler and raising concerns with some of their doubles strength.   The only team to emerge having a flawless season with no losses was the boys at Canyon Creek.  Congratulations and well deserved.  While impressive, enjoy things while they last, because I don’t think it will be that easy for you come Cities.  

So what appeared to be a foregone conclusion (a city finals with Sisk & Le) now turns to the battle in QT with only one of those teams emerging.  That is, if one does emerge.    While each of those teams have a handful of exceptional players (Le has Weimer & Glasgow; Sisk has Flora & Baker), they aren’t stacked.  The remainder of their rosters (while seasoned) appear to be on equal footing with other team rosters coming to the dance.  This was proven to us throughout the season by other teams with no hired guns on their roster able to take lines from each of these teams.   Also, the late additions to both of these rosters by both captains tells me they are still needing depth.  Sisk added a couple of self-rates so not sure if their losses are real or planned.  Le has recruited additional computer rated players, going as far west as to Fort Worth.  My question is why?  

In addition, will all of their players be available for the QT weekend?  I am sure when the season began the QT was not on either of these captain’s calendar.  This is an unexpected weekend they are having to play, and having to get their top players clearance for two straight weekends in the midst of summer vacations might be challenging.  The question is will Sisk need to get clearance from any parole officers for his newly recruited self rates?   

Even if one of these teams does emerge, it is a difficult task taking a team through 4 matches in the QT and then playing the following week in Cities.  In fact, I do not know of a team in the past that has won the QT to go on and win Cities.      

What becomes even more interesting and a topic of debate  is how the DTA will determine the flights.   I know I was disappointed this year with Roland Garros seeding 1-3, 2-4, which gave cause for the true final occurring in the semis.  The US Open did the same seeding.  However, if you look at the Australian and Wimbeldon, they seeded 1-4, 2-3.  In looking at years past of Dallas City Playoffs, I don’t follow any pattern.  If you look at the last time there were flights in City, which was 2011, it appears they seeded based on lines won, not matches won since two flights only had 7 matches as opposed to the other 3 flights having 8 matches.  That year, they were flighted 1-3, 2-4.  If you look back to 2010, it is a bit more confusing.  All but one flight had 8 matches.  If you look at matches won, they seeded 1-2, 3-4.  If you look at games won, there is no pattern as 2-3-4  were all in the same flight.  Rumor has it that they have been known to do “blind” draws if some teams had unequal amounts of matches.  Perhaps that’s what they did in 2010.  This year, all teams from all flights played 8 matches so I don’t think that would be the case.    Regardless, if you look at matches won or games won, it still seeds Le as 1^st and Sisk as 2^nd.

To make matters even more interesting, this is the 1^st time they have given 3^rd place teams a seeding in the QT. The  QT has typically been round-robin with no flights, so there is no real precedence here.   Given the wacky Fall play-off format we had, I think any seeding is possible.  What if the DTA actually tried to level the playing field some and for the QT seed 1^st and 2^nd place in the same play-off flight, followed by 3^rd and 4^th place in the opposing flight?  I’m not saying that is going to happen (although that’s how it was flighted in 2010), and would be surprised if it does, but that would mean you would have the GTC/HP showdown before Sunday.  Now wouldn’t that be amusing. 

My understanding is that schedules won’t be released until the week of play-offs, so we will all be in a quandary until then.  If it is 1-3-5-7 and 2-4-6-8, it will be Le, Ohl, Brauer & Walters in one flight and Sisk, Head, Parsons & Prather in the other. Regardless of how the flights are determined and seeded, the difficult part is calling a winner.   Whether in the same flight or not, I still believe we will see a GTC/HP match.  Given the recent roster adds, with Sisk having a few self-rates as unknown commodities, and Le’s added computer rates while good but not overly impressive, I have to go with Sisk winning.  I think Ohl makes honorable mention, if not for finishing 3^rd, at least for keeping me hydrated out there watching.  Greg- your cooler is safe with me! 

As far as Cities, we will look at that once we know the QT winner.   I think this year it is anyone’s to grab. 

Good luck to all teams playing in both events.