All 2010 and Lifetime Stats Updated

Alltime leaders, alltime database, and final 2010 stats. See the sidebars on the right side of this page.

SFLOI website renewed

I've re-upped the website for another year. Thanks to Ian for taking good care of this baby.

GAMES OF 12/11

We played a tripleheader at M.S. 141 in Riverdale yesterday, some records were broken, and they are described in the previous post. Here are the games.

Hewes 8, Appell 4
Havelock Hewes (15-21) picked up the win. His team struck 4 times in the top of the first and never trailed. Adam Garcia and Adam Horowitz each drove in 2.

Garcia 14, Stoeth / O'Connor 13
Adam Garcia's squad trailed 11-4 after 5 innings, and mounted an improbable comeback by scoring 5 times in the 6th and getting 5 more in the 7th. Sal Cipriano (3-for-4, 2 2B, HR, 3 RBI) capped the 6th inning with a 2-run blast to left, and drove in the winning run with a groundout (immediately after blasting a foul home run down the left field line). Eric Schulman also drove in 3 for the winners. Garcia struggled with his command all day but pitched a 1-2-3 7th for the closeout. Alex Rivera went 3-for-3 with a HR and 3 RBI for the other side; Jim O'Connor took the loss in relief.

O'Connor 8, Connor / Hewes 0
After blowing a non-save situation in game 2, Jim O'Connor (14-10) redeemed himself by tossing an 8-hit shutout. Adam Garcia was 3-for-4 with 2 homers and 4 RBI, and Eric Schulman added 3 hits. Jerry Ramirez was 3-for-4 for Hewes's team.

Records Update

After yesterday's tripleheader, two more single-season records fell by the wayside. Zach Nilva scored 5 runs, giving him a total of 107 and surpassing Joe Gerber's previous record of 103 in 1995. Ian Parfrey drove in 2 runs, and after reviewing a scoring decision from the Nov. 28 games, was determined to have 93 RBI, breaking Larry Savell's mark of 92, set in 1994.

Zach added to his record total of hits. He now has 153 for the season. Freddie Melendez did not add to his record total of player wins, and still has 50 for the season. Alex Rivera added to his record total of doubles, and now has 36.

Now, with low temperatures forecast for next week, and the Christmas holiday on the following weekend, another game is possible but unlikely. Freddie Melendez's lead in the pennant is now only one game over Don Weiss, Nel Yomtov, and Ian Parfrey, and 1.5 games over Eric Schulman, Zach Nilva, and Phil Ciccone. Any of these players, should we play, and they show up and sweep a tripleheader, could win at least a share of the pennant.

Alex Rivera and Ian Parfrey are tied for the home run lead with 10, after Alex took Adam Garcia deep at the MS 141 field in Riverdale yesterday. Should Alex hit another HR, he will prevent Ian from winning the 4th Triple Crown in SFLOI history. The other winners were Jeff Miller (1991), Carl Weinberg (2002), and Chris Hall (2004).
Alex could also steal Zach's runs record if the season continues. He's only 3 behind, with 104.

Back in January, an informal pact was made between me, Zach, and Alex, to break all the records in the game. Other than triples, walks, pitcher wins, sacrifices, batting average (Larry Savell's .623 seems almost unbreakable), we basically did it.

Game recaps and updated stats to follow whenever my daughter stops sleeping next to the computer.

NO GAME TOMORROW 12/5

Due to a forecast that includes a high of 37 degrees and a gametime
temp of 33, we will not be playing tomorrow. We'll try again next
Sunday, Dec. 12, in Hastings.

Game Photos from November 19

These photos were taken by my friend Matt Holden at East River Park two weeks ago. He's a pretty good photographer, and there's some nice action shots and portraits. Enjoy!

Softball @ East River Park

Games and Notes of 11/28

Alex Rivera broke Phil Kotik's doubles record with a 1st inning flare to short center off of Havelock Hewes. Where anyone else would have stopped at first, Alex took second, and now has 35 doubles for the year.

We will be in Hastings, at Zinsser Park, Sundays at 10:00am when the weather permits it. Now, the games:

Melendez 11, Hewes 7
Freddie Melendez won his 17th behind the bats of Alex Rivera (3-for-4, 3 runs, 2B, RBI) and Ian Parfrey (2-for-4, 3 runs, 4 RBI). Sam Magnus homered for Havelock's squad.

Nilva 9, Schmerler 6
Zach Nilva (6-5) cruised to victory behind a balanced offensive attack. Nilva led 9-1 after 4, but Schmerler's team fought back. Alex Rivera homered and drove in 2 in a losing effort.

Hewes 10, Parfrey 6 (5 innings)
Jorge Davila homered and drove in 4 to back Havelock's pitching. Alex Rivera was 3-for-3 for Parfrey's team.

ZACH NILVA, RECORD BREAKER (part 2 and 3)

Zach Nilva got his 140th hit of the season, a 4th inning RBI single off of Freddy Melendez, to break Joe Gerber's single-season record, which had lasted since 1995. Nilva also had 17 consecutive hits over 5 games before finally being retired on a groundout by Jeff Appell. This is also a record as far as we know.

Zach needs to score 5 more runs to break Gerber's run record, and Ian Parfrey needs 10 RBI to break Larry Savell's record. Alex Rivera needs 3 doubles to break Phil Kotik's record. Parfrey also has a chance at breaking 2 more obscure records-- most times reached base and most runs produced, needing to reach 6 more times and produce 11 more runs, and also may become SFLOI's 4th ever Triple Crown winner. To recap, Zach has already broken the records for most hits and most singles; Freddy Melendez has broken the record for most player wins; Laura Stoeth has broken the record for most wins by a female pitcher; and Havelock Hewes has batted for the 6,000th time. It has been a historic season already and there may be more to come.

Now onto the games.

Hewes 6, Appell 4
Ken Walker hit a grand slam and tripled in another run, and Evan Peters added 3 hits as Hewes (13-20) held on for the win. Zach Nilva was 4-for-4 for Appell's team.

O'Connor / Garcia 21, Connor / Melendez 14
Game 2 was a slugfest featuring 35 runs, 41 hits, 12 walks, at least 7 errors, and 4 pitchers. Jim O'Connor (13-9) got the win and Freddy Melendez got the loss in relief. Adam Garcia picked up the save with 3 innings of relief pitching. O'Connor was staked to an 8-2 lead, but Connor's team scored 5 in the 3rd and 5 more in the 4th to take a 12-8 advantage. O'Connor's team scored 8 times in the bottom of the 4th and 5 more in the 5th to regain control. As you might expect, there are alot of individual performances to mention: For the O'Connors, Ian Parfrey (4-for-4, 2B, 5 RBI), Zach Nilva (4-for-4, 2 RBI), Adam Garcia (3-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI), Jeff Appell (3-for-4, 2B, 3 RBI), Joe Geller (2-for-3, 3 RBI). For the Connors, Freddie Melendez (5-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI), Sam Magnus (4-for-5, 3 RBI), Alex Rivera (3-for-5), Ken Walker (2-for-4, 3 RBI), and Havelock Hewes walked in all 5 of his at bats.

Melendez 13, Appell 9 (5 innings)
Eric Schulman homered and drove in 4 runs, and Adam Garcia was 3-for-3 with a triple and 4 RBI, as Freddy Melendez improved to 16-9 on the year. Alex Rivera had 3 hits in a losing cause, and Sam Magnus tripled twice. Melendez's team opened a 13-4 lead and barely survived their own defense.

ZACH NILVA, RECORD BREAKER

While leafing through the arcane lore contained in the lifetime stats, I discovered that Zach has set the single-season record for singles with 111 and counting. The previous record was held by John Grieco who had 100 in 1995.

GAMES OF NOV 14

It was a historic morning, as Havelock Hewes got his 6,000th plate appearance in game one-- he reached on an error; and Zach Nilva went 8-for-8.

Rosengard 10, Appell 9
Rosengard's team led 8-0 after 2, but Appell's squad chipped away at the lead. In the 7th inning, Zach Nilva (4-for-4, 2B, 3B, 5 RBI) doubled home two runs to tie it, took third on a throwing error, and scored on Adam Garcia's sac fly. In the bottom of the inning, Alex Rivera (2-for-4, 3 runs, HR, 2 RBI) homered to straightaway center to tie the game up again, and Ian Parfrey then walked, went first to third on a groundout, and scored on Joe Geller's 2-out single to center. Bill McLaughlin was 3-for-4 for Appell's team.

Melendez 9, O'Connor 6 (8 innings)
Another thrilling finish occurred when O'Connor's team, trailing 5-1 in the bottom of the 7th, suddenly woke up to tie the game. Jaime Orochena singled in Marvin Cohen, and Alex Rivera's throw home brained catcher Dave Rosengard, allowing Bill McLaughlin to score the tying run. Freddy settled down to get Ken Walker to pop out to short with the winning run on third, and his team went to work in the top of the 8th. Joe Geller singled to start the rally, Havelock Hewes followed with a bunt single, and Gil Schmerler walked. Nate Sillman's groundout plated the go-ahead run, and then Glen Lawrence singled to score Hewes. Schmerler came around on an outfield error, and Alex Rodriguez then hit a sacrifice fly. O'Connor's team didn't go quietly, scoring once in the bottom of the 8th, and bringing the tying run to the plate. Nilva had 4 hits in a losing cause, and Jeff Appell had 3. For the winners, Freddy Melendez backed his pitching by going 3-for-4.

Reflections on the end of Game One, or Why my Thumb Hurts

the ball starts in the pitcher's hand, which is Freddy, who can hang with anybody, outhit and outdrink the young kids, it flies toward right field off the bat of Sam who is trying to outthink the scouting report on him-- pull hitter, good pop-- and today will have nothing to show but two rockets into the glove, and Bill is catching this one in right, you gotta watch this one, he's sneaky, by which i mean his teams win an awful lot and once in awhile he'll hit a home run or gun someone out from the outfield hitting the catcher in the chest with the throw and you'll say, hmm, this skinny dude can play, but most of the time he is a cerebral and unobtrusive force in the dugout, well, in this case the bases are loaded and the man from third is Havelock, a week away from 6000 plate appearances, he is across home plate with career run #1103. can you get to know a man by his numbers? so the throw must come into the cutoff man, the tail runners can do anything they want but score, only one more out is needed here. I take the cutoff, and one thing you can say for me, 4 seasons in, is I have a knack for being in the middle of strange plays, which this is about to become when Alex rounds third too wide. the throw must go home, to stop his forward momentum, and Tony is catching, the godfather of the game, you didn't cross don corleone in his old age either. there is a rundown. Alex's resume involves a bunt triple and a baserunning style that borders on kleptomania. Glen is playing third, his reputation consists of 924 hits, and an aversion to aluminum, and he runs Alex towards the plate, and looks up, and there I am in the baseline, in the middle of another play, when I could be guarding second base or picking my nose, and the ball is there, and here comes Alex at full tilt and the only question is, will he succeed in ripping the glove off of my hand, which he doesn't so the comeback is dead as a doornail, and the fielders are celebrating.

GAMES OF 11/7

Melendez 10, Hewes 9
Freddy Melendez won his league-leading 14th game. Alex Rivera (3-for-5, 4 runs) was caught in a rundown between third and home as the tying run to end the game. Melendez's team was led by Ian Parfrey (3-for-5, 4 RBI), and Eric Schulman (3-for-6, 2 2B, 3B, 2 RBI). Zach Nilva went 5-for-5 with 2 RBI for Hewes's team, and Sam Magnus was 3-for-5 with 3 RBI.

Schmerler 5, Parfrey 0
Gil Schmerler picked up his first win in over 2 years by throwing a 5-inning shutout. His team scored 3 times in the bottom of the first on RBI singles by Sam Magnus, Glen Lawrence, and Tony Connor, and never looked back.

GAMES OF 10/31-- FREDS VS MARVINS

Freds 11, Marvins 7
The Marvins had early leads of 3-0 and 5-3, but the Freds scored 5 times in the bottom of the 4th to open an insurmountable lead. The Marvins did succeed in making it nearly impossible for the opposing fielders to tell who was batting. Ken Walker was 2-for-3 with 3 RBI for the Freds, Josh Balsam drove in the go-ahead run, and Jeff Appell picked up his 7th win and lowered his ERA to 2.71.

Freds 4, Marvins 3
In the bottom of the 7th, the Marvins loaded the bases with no one out and a run already in. However, Jim O'Connor (12-8) induced Tony Connor to pop out, and then Havelock Hewes lined into a double play, as Freds SS Ian Parfrey made a diving stop and then doubled Alex Rodriguez off of second. The game was a pitchers' duel all the way, with Jim O'Connor scoring the go-ahead run on a dropped fly ball in the 5th inning.

Freds 4, Marvins 2 (5 innings)
Laura Stoeth (7-9) picked up her first win since July 11, allowing 4 hits and 1 earned run. The Freds scored all of their runs with 2 outs in the 4th inning, starting with Ken Walker's solo bomb to deep center. Parfrey then doubled to left. Sam Magnus walked, Joe Geller singled to center for the go-ahead run, and Jeff Appell ripped a 2-run double to left for the final margin.

Halloween Theme Game: Fred's vs. Marvin's

On Sunday, October 31 we will have the rare pleasure of playing on Halloween. As a tribute to two of our most sartorial unique players, we will celebrate the holiday by dividing players into "Marvin's" and "Fred's." Players are asked to dress as Fred Lang (major league uniform shirts and caps) or Marvin Cohen (rumpled dress shirt...) I expect that only about 20 % of us will put out the effort to participate. But about 50% of us could dress the way we usually do and have enough elements of a Fred or a Marvin to be easily grouped. Other players will be divided in a way which will make the teams even.
Before announcing the game, I talked with Marvin, who called the game a "Wardrobe Roast." The idea was originated in one of the Riverdale bound cars on Sunday afternoon and conveyed to me yesterday by Tony Connor. Bring your cameras.

GAMES AND NOTES OF 10/24

SFLOI record broken! Freddy Melendez won his 44th game of the season in today's Game 3, breaking Joe Gerber's record of 43 wins as a player in 1995. Zach Nilva has 41 wins this season, so it isn't guaranteed that Freddy will keep the record for very long. Freddy currently holds a 1.5 game lead in the pennant standings.

As for the games themselves, Tony Connor and Josh Balsam stacked their side with Riverdale players, but dropped a tripleheader to Ian Parfrey and Havelock Hewes's Brooklyn-Manhattan squad.

Melendez 7, Appell 4
Freddy Melendez (13-8) prevailed in a contest that was tied at 1 after 6 innings. Ian Parfrey's 2-run double to shallow right broke the tie in the top of the 7th, and then the floodgates opened. Melendez's team scored 6 times, and then had to hold on in the bottom of the inning when Sam Magnus smacked a 2-run HR to left-center. Alexander Rodriguez was 3-for-3 with 2 RBI for the winners.

Hewes 2, Martinez 1
Havelock Hewes (12-18) won a pitchers' duel. Parfrey had an RBI single in the 1st, and Alexander Rodriguez tripled to right-center in the 5th, and came around to score on a throwing error. Havelock's only spot of trouble came in the bottom of the 5th, as two singles and an error loaded the bases. Jaime Orochena's groundout drove in a run, a walk to Eric Schulman reloaded the bases, and Sam Magnus grounded out to end the inning.

Rosengard 7, Stoeth 3
Dave Rosengard (5-7) was in control throughout, and didn't allow an earned run. Nel Yomtov's 2-run HR to left in the 5th (on an 0-2 pitch with 2 outs!) broke open a 1-run game, and Rosengard's team scored 3 more times after that, taking advantage of two key outfield errors. Rosengard retired Marvin Cohen and Zach Nilva on grounders to snuff a 7th-inning comeback.

We Look at Softball Thru Rose Colored Glasses

The game is ugly sometimes. You cannot make Appell stop worrying about his ERA; you cannot make Martinez stop wanting to win so badly that he chews out his teammates. You can't make Havelock stop coming up with bizarre proposals in the tradition of Jonathan Swift suggesting we eat the poor, that even he doesn't take seriously. You can't make me unfocus on breaking at least one record in this damn game, and spending my lunch hour figuring out how to reach 1,000 RBI's before Tony Connor does.

We are so intense we forgot how to have fun playing? Some of us never knew how. It's fun when the ball does what you want it to, and the wins and the stats pile up. I have a respect for the people whose tenure in this game has an aversion to success. I couldn't handle it. I ain't no Mother Teresa.

The game polices itself. Havelock is waiting for Godot. No help there. No one else can pull the bat from the stone. If you come to play, you accept this. You take the crookeds with the straights, as Troy Maxson said. Can we figure a way to curb the worst tendencies of competition without neutering it completely?

Can we accept that within the rules of the game, we have the right to get every inch out of our talents, and celebrate that, instead of looking for ways to take away that edge and artificially level the playing field?

GAMES OF OCT 17

Nilva 12, Rosengard 10
This was a seesaw battle, as Zach Nilva (5-4) allowed 6 runs in the bottom of the first, and Dave Rosengard allowed 6 in the top of the second. The game was tied at 10 in the top of the seventh when Jaime Orochena booted Ken Walker's grounder, allowing 2 runs to score. Rosengard was victimized by 8 errors, and 9 of the 12 runs were unearned. Zach Nilva helped his own cause by going 2-for-3 with 3 RBI. Alexander Rodriguez was 3-for-3 with an RBI double in a losing effort.

Martinez 6, Hewes 3
Derek Martinez was in control throughout and improved to 5-6 on the year. Martinez helped to break a 1-1 tie in the 5th inning by getting caught in a rundown between first and second. He got safely back to first as Nel Yomtov came in from third with the go-ahead run. Hewes unraveled and allowed 3 2-out runs afterwards. Eric Schulman was 3-for-4 with an RBI in the victory.

Rule Change Proposal - hats off to our outfielders

For a man of my modest skills, I have received a number of tributes. You might think that having a pitching award named after oneself, a-la Cy Young, would epitomize a life of glorification. Not so. I know I'm not really the best pitcher in our league, just the one who you see the most. The greatest compliment I ever received was the passing of "the Havelock Rule," which dictated that on the third foul ball after a two-strike count a batter is out. I forced this rule into being by using my skill as a foul-ball hitter to work 63 walks in a season. Some will say that the rule was passed not so much to take away my advantage in getting the free passes as it was to stop losing the time my ten-minute at-bats would take. I know better. My skills, along with others, such as Bobby Naranjo, were so overwhelming that the league changed the rules.
Today, the league faces the same sort of dilemma in regard to solidly hit balls landing fair in the outfield, which our talented crop of outfielders turn into force-outs at first or second base. Whereas years ago these were conceded as hits, now Zach Nilva, Alex Rivera, Derek Martinez, Ian Parfrey, Brian Hernandez, and others, are routinely firing strikes to first and getting outs. This development has been particularly debilitating to our older hitters who still have the skill to guide a line-drive to a vacant spot in the outfield, but don't possess the power to make the outfielders play back in fear of balls hit over their head or the speed to beat the throws. As a result, we have Gil Schmerler hitting .198, me at .227, Paul Geoghan at .250, Dave Rosengard at .231 and Marvin Cohen at .082. Just as it was bad for the game to have me getting on base via walks at such a high rate, I think it has now become bad for the game that our slower players are getting on-base at such a dismal rate.
I propose that we instigate a rule to automatically award first base to any hitter who hits a ball which lands safely in the outfield and to award a safety at any base that additional runners are forced at as a result of the hit.
I imagine that support of this rule will break down on a largely generational basis, as players tend to vote their self-interests. I never voted for The Havelock Rule. But I trust that, should the rule be passed, our outfielders will take it as the greatest of compliments.

Boxscore of Game 2, 10/10/2010

Away 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0-- 8
Home 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 1-- 9

Away
pos player ab r h bi bb so avg
P Z.Nilva 7 1 2 0 0 0 .456
RF D.Martinez 7 2 2 1 0 0 .450
CF K.Walker 7 2 5 1 0 0 .548
3B S.Magnus 6 1 2 2 0 0 .302
SS F.Melendez 6 0 2 1 1 0 .484
LF G.Lawrence 7 0 2 0 0 0 .364
2B A.Connor 7 0 1 0 0 0 .385
OF F.Lang 7 2 2 0 0 0 .242
C D.Rosengard 6 0 2 0 0 1 .231

2B-- Magnus (4)
SF-- Magnus
DP-- Melendez

Home
pos player ab r h bi bb so avg
SS J.Orochena 7 2 5 0 1 0 .447
OF D.Weiss 7 1 3 0 1 1 .370
CF A.Rivera 7 2 3 1 1 0 .443
LF I.Parfrey 6 1 3 2 2 0 .536
1B S.Cipriano 7 0 2 2 0 0 .299
RF A.Rodriguez 6 2 4 0 1 0 .625
3B J.Appell 7 1 2 0 0 0 .361
2B G.Schmerler 7 0 1 0 0 1 .198
P.Geoghan 2 0 0 1 0 0 .250
P H.Hewes 7 0 1 0 0 0 .227

2B-- Orochena 2 (12), Rivera (29), Parfrey (14)
3B-- Rodriguez (1)

ip h r er bb so era
Z.Nilva L,4-4 13.0 24 9 6 6 2 3.89

H.Hewes W,11-17 14.0 20 8 4 1 1 5.03


Scoring
Top 1
S.Magnus doubled to left, D.Martinez scored
F.Melendez singled to right-center, S.Magnus scored
Away 2, Home 0

Bot 1
I.Parfrey singled to left, J.Orochena and A.Rivera scored
Away 2, Home 2

Top 2
D.Martinez singled to left, F.Lang scored
S.Magnus hit sac fly to center, Z.Nilva scored
F.Melendez reached on fielding error, D.Martinez and K.Walker scored
Away 6, Home 2

Bot 4
J.Appell reached on throwing error, A.Rodriguez scored
P.Geoghan grounded out to right field, J.Appell scored
Away 6, Home 4

Bot 7
S.Cipriano singled to left-center, D.Weiss and A.Rivera scored
Away 6, Home 6

Top 9
F.Melendez singled to right, K.Walker to third, on throwing error, K.Walker scored
Away 7, Home 6

Bot 9
J.Appell reached on throwing error, A.Rodriguez scored
Away 7, Home 7

Top 10
K.Walker singled to left, F.Lang scored, Z.Nilva out at home, K.Walker out at second
Away 8, Home 7

Bot 10
A.Rivera singled to shortstop, J.Orochena scored
Away 8, Home 8

Bot 14
I.Parfrey doubled to right-center, on throwing error, I.Parfrey scored
Home 9, Away 8

SFLOI PLAYS 14-INNING MARATHON

Melendez 7, Appell 5
Freddy Melendez improved to 12-8 on the season, as his team scored 4 times in the first and never looked back. Zach Nilva was 2-for-3 with a home run, and Tony Connor was 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Alex Rivera was 2-for-4 with a home run and 3 runs scored for Appell's side.

Hewes 9, Nilva 8 (14 innings)
There was talk of playing a tripleheader, but we decided to just play Game 2 forever instead. As is his usual custom, Havelock Hewes gave up 6 runs in the first 2 innings (only 2 of them earned), and then masterfully held Nilva's team to 2 runs over the final 12 innings while his team battled back.
Sal Cipriano lined a 2-run single with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th to tie the game at 6. In the bottom of the 8th, Nilva escaped a bases-loaded 1-out jam by retiring Don Weiss and Alex Rivera on short fly balls. Ken Walker singled and later scored on a throwing error in the top of the 9th, and Nilva got the first two outs before Alexander Rodriguez tripled to right-center, and came around to score on an infield grounder when Marvin Cohen failed to hold on to a high throw. In the top of the 10th, Ken Walker's single to left plated Fred Lang, but Zach Nilva was tagged out in a rundown between third and home, and Walker was out advancing to second to end the inning. Alex Rivera's 2-out infield single to deep short scored Jaime Orochena in the bottom of the inning, after Orochena had just beaten out a hustle double earlier in the inning. Rivera was gunned out with the winning run by Glen Lawrence on Sal Cipriano's single. Nilva escaped a bases-loaded no-out jam in the 12th when Don Weiss led off with a single and reached third when it got past RF Derek Martinez. Afrer two intentional walks, Sal Cipriano popped out, and Alex Rivera was inexplicably caught off of second base. Jeff Appell grounded out to end the inning. Finally, Ian Parfrey led off the 14th with a double to deep right-center, and scored when the relay throw to third ended up in the dugout. If anyone knows of an SFLOI game that went longer than 14 innings, let me know. I've never played in a game longer than 11.
Offensive stars in the long game were Jaime Orochena (5-for-7, 2 doubles), and Alexander Rodriguez (4-for-6, 3B) for Hewes's team. Ken Walker was 5-for-7 with an RBI for Nilva's team.

The Steal Rule

Previous posts have debated the increased pitching speed that has appeared in SFLOI over the past few years. What occurs to me is that there is no downside to a pitcher winding up and flinging it as hard as he or she can. Not the ricochet off the top of the backstop, bruises to the umpire nor fear of the hit-by-pitch free pass dissuades the fastball chucker. There are always consequences in baseball. An outfielder playing too shallow to cut off the line drive risks seeing the ball sail over his head. The outfielder who plays too deep gives up many doubles and extra bases. The slow pitch pitcher must use guile and throw pitches that are not strikes risking walks to get outs. So what is the risk to the fast pitcher? How can we even the score?

Enter the SFLOI Steal Rule.

1) For pitchers designated as "fastball" hurlers base runners are allowed to steal. This rule DOES NOT apply to non-fastball pitchers.

2) Runners cannot leave the base until the ball is released by the pitcher (option is until it crosses the plate).

3) Players can advance on passed balls and wild pitches (rule would be suspended with certain players who can only play catcher).

4) Catchers may attempt pick offs at first (Pitchers cannot pick-off since the runner can't leave until the ball is thrown).

4) A pilot game is proposed for Hastings in 2010 with full adoption to be voted at the winter meeting

5) Added bonus is rule adds strategy to the game and the hit and run play

I look forward to a lively debate.

The View From the Batter's Box, Part I

While Marvin is certainly our resident philosopher, I will admit to having spent most of the last three years thinking about hitting. It has done wonders for my batting average but has probably ruined the swings of half a dozen people I've talked to. The batting title is within my grasp this season, though Freddy Melendez scares me with his right-field power and disciplined approach, and he swings with a sort of precise gusto, if you will, embodied in the 3-run triple he clubbed off of me to end yesterday's game one.

I have also learned the advantages of a right-field swing, though when I see Don Weiss standing there and inwardly grinning at the thought of a line drive coming his way, I realize that given time a defense will adjust to anything. Anyway, I take pride in the ability to hit line-drive singles between the first and second baseman, and I am always on the lookout for the pitch that can be blasted right down the line and over the head of an unfortunate right fielder for a home run.

I have thought a lot lately about batting slumps, as I have gotten into one-- not a terrible one, where I am adrift at sea in an open boat and starving to death for want of a hit, but a more pernicious sort of slump where I find myself wasting several at bats a day-- flying out on a first-pitch chicken-dance changeup from Havelock; deciding to pull no matter where the pitch is and then popping out; that sort of thing. This season has seen far more horrible slumps-- Marvin going 4-for-108 at Heckscher; Alex Rivera's 20-for-74 midsummer; Fred Lang's recent 5-for-63 freefall on the heels of a 16-for-29 hot streak that involved a batting tip from Phil Ciccone and a lot of sharp grounders into the shortstop hole. And Havelock's whole damn season; Bob Holzwasser's as well, until the day he went 5-for-7 and then tore a groin muscle... so I am 11-of-32 in September. No biggie, right? I suppose not, but I find the feeling of wondering what the hell's wrong with my swing for six days of the week and then going out on the seventh to fuck up some more just as unpleasant as everyone else.

Slumps can be physical or mental or some combination thereof. Dipping the back elbow is a good way to get under everything. Thinking too much about placing the ball can be equally deadly. Injuries can cause slumps, though they can also cause hot streaks. I think Alex's slump may have been caused by the conundrum posed by his role as a top-of-the-lineup hitter-- should he take pitches like a #2 hitter or be aggressive like he wants to be-- so, for a little while he took strikes and swung out of the zone, with a resulting dip in average. Lang's slump was at first a natural reaction to an unnatural hot streak, but he got frustrated and dug himself in deeper. I thought to myself last week, a lot of slumps are caused by swinging too aggressively. So my first time up Sunday, I was struck out looking by Jim O'Connor. Lately I've been considering acupuncture, or maybe going back to drinking too much on Saturday nights. Hangovers sometimes lead to a meditative approach to hitting.

As you may have seen from the leader boards, the race to break records is once again on. Joe Gerber's marks of 103 runs and 139 hits may possibly fall. Gerber had 376 plate appearances in which to achieve this; Zach and Freddy and myself will be lucky to get much over 300. I'm not asking for an asterisk for Gerber. I just want good weather until 2011.

GAMES AND NOTES OF 10/3

Starting next week (Oct 10), and until the end of November, we're at East 10th Street and FDR Drive, 10:00am.

Ian Lebowitz is now the all-time SFLOI leader in batting average after getting his 1000th plate appearance today. He is batting .502 lifetime. Chris Hall is now second at .496.

O'Connor 10, Parfrey 9
Freddy Melendez's 3-run triple to right-center gave Jim O'Connor (11-8) a walkoff win. O'Connor led 2-0 after 4 innings when the bats woke up. Each team scored 4 times in the 5th, and Parfrey's team added 5 more runs in the 6th to take a 9-6 lead. O'Connor helped himself by going 3-for-4 with 2 RBI. On the other side, Parfrey was 3-for-4 with a double and 3 RBI.

Melendez 15, Stoeth 6
Freddy Melendez (11-8) finally got some run support, and was 4-for-4 with 4 runs scored. Dave Sommers was 3-for-4 with 6 RBI, Zach Nilva added 3 hits, and Brian Hernandez drove in 3. In a losing effort, Alex Rivera was 2-for-4 with his 6th HR of the year, and Phil Ciccone was 3-for-4 with an RBI.

GAMES OF SEPT 26

Rosengard 7, O'Connor 1
Dave Rosengard (4-6) tossed a 5-hitter, and Phil Ciccone and Don Weiss each drove in two runs.

Appell 2, Melendez 1
Jeff Appell (6-3) also allowed only 5 hits, but Freddy Melendez almost matched him. Alex Rivera drove in Zach Nilva for both runs, with a double and a sac fly. Melendez's team didn't score until the bottom of the 7th, when Ian Parfrey tripled and Brian Hernandez's sac fly plated him. Appell is 2/3 of an inning short of qualifying for the ERA title.

Nilva 15, Hewes 5
Zach Nilva (4-3) continued his run of good pitching performances, allowing 2 runs on 12 hits in 6 innings. He also had 3 hits. Alex Rivera (2-for-3, 2B, HR, 4 RBI) and Eric Schulman (3-for-4, solo HR) led the offensive attack, and Eddie Fernandez also homered. Hewes allowed 11 of the runs in the top of the 4th. His team was led by Jaime Orochena (4-for-4, 2B, RBI) and Freddy Melendez (3-for-4, 2B, RBI).

Next Sunday is the LAST DAY at Heckscher.

Nilva's No Hitter

In 28 years of Softball For The Love Of It, no one had pitched a no-hitter. While this pitching futility did not touch the Mets record of 48 years, it still spoke to how difficult a task pitching a no-hitter is. On Sunday game 3 was scheduled to be 5 innings because several players could not stay long enough to play 7. With Rosengard stuck at home selling his furniture in the front yard to make a few bucks and Jeff Appell having been officially suspended for allowing his dogs on the field before the field was open, we had used all available pitchers with the exception of the 22-year-old Zach Nilva. Nilva had pitched well at times, but, miuch like Don Larsen, had a career losing record. Also, Zach is such a great outfielder that using him on the mound seems a waste.
Three innings into the game Ian Parfrey mentioned to me that Zach had a no-hitter going. This depite having only three outfielders, as we had 19 players and we were playing 9-on-9. As if by magic, a young Frenchman with a baseball glove ran up to me saying it would be his greatest wish while in the americas to play in our game. I didn't know what to say, but wanting to avoid total responsibility for breaking the man's heart I told him to wait and I would ask the other team. I walked to the mound and told Zach the situation. He rolled his eyes and gave me a look that said "I'm pitching a no-hitter and you want me to take some Frog who has probably never played before?" I then made a case for the Frenchman. I told Zach that it would be easier to preserve a no-hitter with four outfielders than with three. I guess the combination of my logic and Zach's good nature worked because as I walked off the mound to tell the Frenchman the bad news, Zach called out, "I'll take him."
Manu, Zach's new right-centerfielder trotted out to his position. In that fourth inning he made two stupendous diving catches(turning one into a double-play by catching the runner off the bag at second with a laser throw. In the final frame I came up with two-outs and the tying run on third and hit a line-drive over the secondbaseman's head only to see Manu diving headfirst and catching the ball just before it hit the ground. Zach Nilva had pitched a no-hitter.
Word of Zach's feat has gotten around a bit. This morning I was walking down Broadway when who should I see but Dan Marino, wearing his Dolphins jersey. As he passed me the name written on his back was N I L V A.

ZACH NILVA THROWS NO HITTER

Game 1
Hewes 7, O'Connor 5
Havelock Hewes (10-16) needed most of a 7-0 cushion to pick up the win. Sam Magnus was 2-for-4 with a double and 3 RBI for the winners. Ken Walker (3-for-4, 2 RBI) and Freddy Melendez (3-for-3) led O'Connor's team. Hewes stranded the tying runs on base.

Game 2
Parfrey 10, Stoeth 3
Ian Parfrey (11-7) battled control issues in the first, when he walked the bases loaded and then allowed Glen Lawrence's 3-run double. He settled down to throw 6 scoreless frames afterwards. Alex Rivera was the offensive star, going 3-for-3 with 2 doubles, 2 runs scored, and an RBI. Ian Lebowitz scored 3 runs, drove in 2, and participated in a bizarre play where his short fly ball to center fell just in front of Don Weiss, who recovered to force out Parfrey at second, and the throw on to third got Bill McLaughlin, while Alex Rivera scored from third.

Game 3
Nilva 1, Melendez 0, 5 innings
Zach Nilva allowed no hits and walked three, and a French tourist walk-on named Manu made three difficult catches in right-center to preserve the no-no. He then asked me if we play every day, and I told him only on Sundays. I hope not to see him unless he's on my team. Zach's defense turned two double plays behind him, and the game's only run came when Mike Palma hit a leadoff triple to right-center, and then came around on Ken Walker's sac fly to deep left. Freddy Melendez was the hard-luck loser, scattering 4 hits.

Jacket Found

Navy blue "Arcteryx" jacket found at Hecksher today after the games.

Anarchist or Fascist?

I have spent the morning avoiding other responsibilities and considering SFLOI...
I remember thinking early in the season, maybe after the game in Riverdale when I gave up 17 runs in one inning, that many offensive records would fall in 2010. Six months at Hecksher Field has made things look quite different. The two records still in jeopardy are hits and runs. Ian Parfrey has 100 hits, 39 short of Joe Gerber's record. With approximately 70% of the season gone, Parfrey is on target to come in at 139. Given that it should be easier for Ian to collect hits at East River Park, it would seem that the edge goes to Ian eclipsing the record. However, an early snowstorm or a baby arriving on a Sunday morning could easily put a crimp in all this. A little more difficult, but still possible enough to get excited about, is the possibility that either Parfrey or Zach Nilva will get to the 103 runs record. Both are at 71 today and are projected to end the season at 102 runs. Again, they will have East River Park to help them, but weather, pregnancy (for Parfrey) and allegiance to The Dolphins (Nilva) mitigating against them.
An idea of a theme game I have been mulling for decades is the Anarchists versus the Fascists. In the past, few players have been able to chooses one. Part of the problem is that the concepts have such negative implications. Another problem is that some of us feel one way in our hearts and another in our interactions in the world. For instance I feel very much an anarchist (I'm all in favor of free speech and nudity) but behave like a Fascist ("I'll tell you which team you play for and what position you play"). So, rather than having guys choose themselves, I decided to make a list of Fascists and Anarchists, open it up for discussion, revise the list and go with it. I made the following list of the top 30 in plate appearances and made team captains. These are the guys who I think best represent the spirit of their teams. The rest of the list goes in descending order of fascism/ anarchism
Fascists
Gil Schmerler - Captain
Don Weiss
Glen Lawrence
Phil Ciccone
Havelock Hewes
Sal Cipriano
Ian Parfrey
Bill McLaughlin
Bob Holzwasser
Zach Nilva
Ian Lebowitz
Jamie Orochena
Charlie Block
Solomon Sarway
Nel Yomtov
eric Sculman
Brrian Hernandez
Anarchists
Alex Rivera - Team captain
Fred Lang
Derek Martinez
Jeff Appell
David Sommers
Tony Connor
Freddy Melendez
David Rosengard
Paul Geoghan
Marvin Cohen
Jim O'Connor
Laura Stoeth
Mike Palma
Please comment on these choices...
Also, I thought we might play one week in which the positions in the batting order are drawn from a hat, Thoughts?

Games and Notes of 9/12

Courtesy of Brian Hernandez and ABC News, here's a brief video of this morning's action. What you're seeing is Phil Ciccone's 3rd inning double to left-center off of Dave Rosengard in Game 1, advancing Zach Nilva to third. The infielders are Fred Lang (2b), Sam Magnus (3b), and Dave Sommers (ss).

Found at field: One righty Mizuno Premier glove, tan with dark brown trim, and an improvised relacing between the second and third fingers.

In last week's comments section, we learned that IF Bob Holzwasser is on the 60-day DL. Hope to see you on the field again soon, Bob.

Games of 9/12:

O'Connor 15, Rosengard 4
Jim O'Connor picked up his 10th win behind the batting heroics of Phil Ciccone (3-for-4, 3 doubles, 2 RBI), Ian Parfrey (2-for-4, HR, 4 RBI), Zach Nilva (3-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI), and Tony Connor (3-for-3, 3 RBI).

Appell 2, Stoeth 1 (8 innings)
Jeff Appell (5-3) and Laura Stoeth locked up in a real pitcher's duel. In the bottom of the first, Phil Ciccone singled in Don Weiss to give Laura a 1-0 lead. Appell didn't allow another runner to reach third base the rest of the way. His own offense was stymied by Tony Connor's pitching protege until a pair of errors in the sixth inning tied the score. In the top of the eighth, Bill McLaughlin tripled up the left-center gap, and scored on Dave Sommers' sacrifice fly. Appell flew out with the bases loaded to end the inning, but retired Zach Nilva and Phil Ciccone after Don Weiss's one-out single to preserve the win. Appell allowed 8 hits, 1 walk, and struck out one. Stoeth allowed 6 hits, 5 walks, and struck out two.

NYMSL PLAYOFFS SUNDAY!

Hello folks,

So as most of you know, I play for and co-captain the DC Comics softball team. Well this Sunday, soon after SFLOI's weekly gameday ends, DC will be squaring off against the Wall Street Journal in a semifinal match to determine who plays in the final directly afterward. High Times will be playing WNYC at the same time in the other semi. I invite all of you to stick around Heckscher and cheer on two of your boys, myself and Nel Yomtov, and the rest of the DC Bullets!

Here's the NYMSL Playoff info:

All games @ Heckscher Playground

Seminfinals: 1:30 pm

WNYC vs. HT, Field 1

WSJ vs. DC, Field 4

Championship Game, Field 1, 3 pm

Consolation Game, Field 4, 3 pm

Best,
Sal

GAMES OF 9/5

1. Hewes 6, Stoeth 5
Havelock Hewes (9-16) got Gil Schmerler to line out to SS Dave Sommers with the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the top of the 7th to preserve the win. Sommers (2-for-3, 2B, 3 RBI) supplied most of the offensive firepower for the winning side. Mike Palma was 3-for-4 with 2 RBI for Stoeth's team.

2. Appell 6, Rosengard 4
Jeff Appell (4-3) scattered 7 hits, and worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the 7th inning, allowing only Jaime Orochena's sac fly. Appell also doubled and drove in 2. Zach Nilva was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Rosengard got a 2-run double by Derek Martinez and little else in the way of offensive support.

3. Melendez 10, Martinez 2
These two pitchers squared off against each other in an equally lopsided game last week, won by Martinez, and this time Freddy Melendez (10-6) got his revenge, scattering 11 hits and pitching shutout ball over the final 6 frames. Don Weiss (3-for-5, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI) and Zach Nilva (3-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI) led the way, as Martinez struggled with his control all day, walking nine.

Recovery of All Time Pitching Stats

With a huge assist from Tony Connor, who kept all the scorebooks and SFLOI yearbooks necessary to compile this information, I was able to fill in the blanks in our pitching stats and arrive at a reasonably close approximation of lifetime totals. This is for all pitchers with 50 or more decisions, as of the end of the 2009 season.

1. Havelock Hewes W 453 L 436 (.510)
2. Dave Rosengard W 272 L 370 (.424)
3. Peter Bochan W 157 L 129 (.549)
4. Jeff Appell W 89 L 81 (.524)
5. Jorge Loarte W 84 L 64 (.568)
6. Gil Schmerler W 82 L 49 (.626)
7. Bobby Naranjo W 74 L 65 (.532)
8. Tony Connor W 46 L 26 (.639)
9. Derek Martinez W 35 L 21 (.625)
10. Lee Lowenfish W 27 L 45 (.375)

Jorge Loarte's 1995, when he went 27-11, may be the best SFLOI pitching season ever. Havelock went 27-19 in 1998, and has 9 20-win seasons under his belt, as well as the only 34-loss season ever, in 1994. Dave Rosengard and Bobby Naranjo had one 20-win season each, though Rosengard's is somewhat dubious, as he went 21-25.

Games and Notes of 8/29

Important-- all Labor Day games will be played in the morning at Heckscher. There will be no extra games on Labor Day weekend. We will try to play 3 at Heckscher in the morning, and that's it.

Martinez 13, Melendez 3
Derek Martinez (4-5) rode the red hot bats of Eric Schulman (4-for-4, 4 runs, 2 2B, 3B, 3 RBI), and Glen Lawrence (3-for-4, 4 RBI) to an easy win. Don Weiss and Bob Holzwasser each added 3 hits, and Ian Parfrey was 2-for-3 and scored 4 runs.

Nilva 11, Appell / Parfrey 10
In a stunning comeback, Zach Nilva's team scored 8 times in the bottom of the 7th to erase a 10-3 deficit and avoid a sweep. Nilva (5-for-5) tied the game with a 2-run double to right, and Chris Rouger's 3rd hit of the game, a single up the middle, won it. Both hits came with 2 outs off of reliever Ian Parfrey, who took the loss. The winning rally featured four consecutive errors, a costly bases-loaded walk to Mike Palma, and then the two big 2-out hits. The losing team got another big game from Eric Schulman (3-for-4, 3 RBI), with Derek Martinez and Ian Parfrey also contributing 3 hits each.

Appell 4, Parfrey 3
In a 4-inning game, Jeff Appell (3-3) shut down Parfrey's team after allowing a 3-run homer to Derek Martinez in the top of the first. Freddy Melendez (3-for-3, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI) was the offensive star, and Jeff Appell ripped a walkoff 2-run double to win the game.

DEAR PITCHERS...

NO GAMES 8/22

The regular season will resume August 29th at Heckscher. We are at Heckscher through September, with the final game there taking place on October 3rd. Presumably our next destination will be East 10th & FDR, but that has not been confirmed.

Sunday September 5th will feature a morning and an afternoon doubleheader. The afternoon doubleheader will be in Riverside Park at West 108th Street. Details to follow.

In the event of uncertain weather like we had this morning-- unfortunately, it's impossible to predict what the weather will do, and what the Central Park Conservancy will do. All games are ON until they are officially cancelled, and unless it's raining in sheets and has been for some time, we simply don't know what's happening until someone shows up at Heckscher and sees whether the red flags are flying. You can call the Conservancy hotline-- (212) 628-1036 x807, which has been more reliable this season than it has been in the past, or you can call or text me at (917) 225-9271, although i am usually not at the field until a little after 8:00. The decision of whether to get out of bed & come down to the park on a morning like today is a difficult one, especially if you live farther than walking distance from the park. Thanks to everyone who came out this morning just in case there would be a game.

Hewes Gets It Done

A few weeks ago, we found out that the parks department was planning on closing down the Hecksher Fields in Central Park on Labor Day. I found this unacceptable. Today, I made a visit to the permits department on 61st Street and gave Melissa Pitre a piece of my mind. I told her that baseball is a Summer tradition and it is ludicrous to end baseball season before the end of Summer. I told her that softball is more than a game, it is a metaphor for life. I warned her that our young people, including Laura Stoeth and Zach Nilva, with all the extra time on their hands might get involved with street gangs and drugs. I reminded her that she was canceling what could be the last games for some of our older players. I told her of Rosengard's heart condition and Marvin's cataracts. By now I was practically throwing myself at her feet.
As I looked up she said, "I'll give you Hecksher through October 3."

Games and Notes of 8/15

Notes:
Pitcher Derek Martinez got the win as Lee's Tavern won the Staten Island Co-ed League championship. Derek says: I finished the year 11-1 as a pitcher and last Sunday won the championship 21-13. Crazy first inning where I gave up 10 runs but settled down to win by 8. A brief recap is at http://www.silive.com/recsports/index.ssf/2010/08/staten_island_softball_roundup_1.html

Games:
Melendez 8, Hewes 6
This contest featured prodigious slugging from Brian Hernandez and Jaime Orochena. Hernandez homered twice, including a first-inning grand slam, and drove in 6, while Orochena tallied 5 RBI with a sac fly, a 2-run homer, and a 2-run double. Havelock Hewes's first-inning woes continued, as his team fell into a 5-0 hole, mostly courtesy of Hernandez's blast to left-center. However, Freddy Melendez (9-5) had to work for his win, fending off several comebacks, and stranding the tying runs in scoring position. The winners also got contributions from Ian Lebowitz (3-for-4, 2 doubles) and Ian Parfrey (3-for-4, 3 runs). Zach Nilva was 4-for-4 with 3 runs scored for Havelock's team.

Parfrey 7, Stoeth 5
Ian Parfrey (10-5) became SFLOI's first 10-game winner in a sloppy 6-inning comedy of walks and bad defense. Bob Holzwasser's 3rd inning single broke a 2-2 tie, and two further runs scored on errors in the inning to give Parfrey a lead that he tried to give back but ultimately "failed" to. This game featured balanced offensive attacks from either side, with no outstanding offensive performances, although Alex Rivera did follow up last year's bunt triple with a fielder's choice "triple" on a grounder to shortstop.

GAMES AND NOTES OF 8/8

O'Connor 17, Stoeth 11
Jim O'Connor (9-6) prevailed in a wild slugfest of a game. O'Connor's team scored 7 two-out runs in the second inning to take a 10-6 lead. An Alex Rivera 2-run triple and a Phil Ciccone (2-for-3, 4 RBI) single brought Stoeth's team within 13-11 in the 5th, but that was as close as they would get. The winners were led by Jaime Orochena (3-for-3, 2B, 4 runs, 3 RBI). O'Connor and Don Weiss also drove in 3, and Ian Parfrey scored 4 runs. Eric Schulman had 3 hits in a losing cause. Stoeth's control issues finally caught up with her, as she walked 7 batters, and all but one came around to score.

Rosengard 4, Hewes 2
Dave Rosengard (3-4) pitched well, scattering 7 hits, and Don Weiss (2-for-2) hit a 2-run double in the third that proved to be the decisive hit. Phil Ciccone was 2-for-3 with 2 doubles and an RBI for Hewes's team, who stranded 5 baserunners over the final two frames.

Notes From The Commissioner

Two important issues came up this week regarding the nature of our team selection and management.
This morning at least one player suggested that the teams were unfair in the first game. Empirical evidence alone (a 4-2 game in which the tying run came to the plate in the last inning) suggests this is not the case. I will go on to describe the process of making these teams not so much to defend my personal honor, but that of the position of team maker because if players believe that teams are purposely being given an advantage it will destroy our good will. I made what were, to the best of my ability, two even teams (minus the pitchers) and declared that Laura Stoeth and I would pitch. I then gave Laura a list of players for each team and asked her to choose which one she wanted. She chose her team. A few minutes later I found I had forgotten to include Marvin Cohen on either team. I offered to take Marvin in exchange for swapping our shortstops. Phil Ciccone came to my team and Bob Holzwasser went to Laura's team. I clearly took the less advantageous choice. If anything, these teams were skewed (because of the addition of Marvin) in favor of Laura's team. As an aside to this, I want to acknowledge that I errantly made one team stronger in the second game. This happened because I was rushing to create two new teams in under a minute so that we could get game two in. I had to make up two new teams because of the complaints that the original teams (from the 4-2 game one) were unfair.
Pitching assignments: We have several pitchers. In recent years I've been doing much of the pitcher choosing. Alex Rivera has suggested that after I make teams we choose two captains (varying the captains each week). While i am skeptical that this will work because most players don't want to be captains, I am hopeful that I can give the responsibilities of positioning and choosing pitchers to these captains. Starting next week, we will be asking for volunteer captains. They will be responsible for assigning positions, creating a batting order and choosing pitchers, with the proviso that no player can pitch in both games.

GAMES OF 8/1

1. Hewes 4, Stoeth 2
Havelock Hewes (8-14) pitched a 9-hitter, and Laura Stoeth was almost as good against a tough lineup. Hewes's team led all the way, and Bill McLaughlin had a 2-run HR for the winners. Ian Parfrey had 3 hits in a losing effort.

2. Appell 10, Melendez 3
Jeff Appell (2-3) scattered 9 hits, and his team blew open a 3-3 tie with 3 runs in the 5th and 4 more in the 7th. Phil Ciccone (2-for-3, HR, 3 RBI) and Alex Rivera (3-for-4, 3-run HR) led the attack. Ciccone's 5th inning sac fly was the tiebreaker. Appell pitched out of difficult jams in the 1st and 3rd innings, and then settled down to retire the last 9 batters in order.

hey blue!

Whether or not anybody pays attention to this, SFLOI will go on and it will likely be something great we all look forward to one way or another. Having said that, the reason I'm writing is that SFLOI is a great game because we make course corrections and police ourselves as we go. I never realized how much work and thought guys like Havelock, Tony, Gil, Don and Ian (and many others) have put into keeping our game exactly what it is: fun to play, sometimes a pain in the ass, but always something we all look forward to.

After yesterday, I think now may be one of those times we need to think about making some course corrections.

This is not directed at any individual. It is directed at all of us who have ever umpired. Myself included. What we all agreed to, was that if there was a close play the umpire was not close to - the players near the play would be consulted. They were to do their best to help make a fair, correct judgement. The umpire needed to take this into account and although it was strictly up to him in the end, he needed to consider what the players near the play were saying. What we all agreed to was we need umpires to not make close calls for their own team.

We strayed from this several times yesterday. The fact that it helped one team win over another is not the point. It's only one game and who won or lost is not really a big deal one way or another. The point is that yesterday's games were not a fun environment to play in and we were not able to enjoy ourselves as friends and teammates.

This is something I've noticed seems to happen more and more these days. Sal wrote about it a while back and I overheard that he will not be attending our games because of a similar issue. If that's the case, that's really a shame. We need guys like Sal who show up, play a good game, a fair game - and contribute to SFLOI with countless hours on things like our website. We cannot afford to lose guys like this because we violate the spirit of our game.

There are at least two other people I know of who no longer come to our games because it simply wasn't fun for them any more. They are both great players and helped raise the level of our play a great deal. The over-competitive behavior, unfairness of umpiring and the resulting arguments made the game less fun and something they could no longer see wasting their time on. We are all the poorer for their absence.

As I said before, I'm not giving myself a pass on this. I have been as guilty as anyone else. It's only natural that an umpire would want his own team to win. But that's why we discussed making sure umpires gave close calls to the other team and not make the strike zone impossibly small for pitchers. It is exactly why we said it's OK for an umpire to ask someone who is close to the play for help - and to trust that we're all going to honor each other by being honest.

SFLOI has prospered because, in my view, we have managed to maintain an almost impossible balance of competitiveness, fun and fair play. So I would ask that we try to think about how we can return to that for future games.

GAMES OF JULY 25th

A couple of good, close games this morning.

Game 1-- Appell 8, Hewes 6
Appell's team built an 8-1 lead and survived a late onslaught to win. A disputed call on a diving no-catch by Alex Rivera opened the floodgates in the 3rd inning, as Appell's team scored five times, keyed by Appell's 2-run single. Eric Schulman hit a 2-run HR down the LF line in the next inning, and it looked grim for Hewes's side. They scored 5 times in the fifth, however, including an Alex Rivera 3-run HR, and closed within 2. The tying run came to bat in each of the next two innings but Appell (1-3) slammed the door.

Game 2-- Parfrey 5, O'Connor 4
This game had an even more thrilling finish. With two outs in the 5th, Zach Nilva tripled to right-center and came around to score when the relay to third was off-line. This tied the game at 3, but Ian Lebowitz led off the top of the 6th with a line drive HR to deep left (his first since 2003!) to give Jim O'Connor a 4-3 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Havelock Hewes and Paul Geoghan had successive 2-out RBI singles, plating the tying and eventual winning runs. Parfrey (9-5) pitched a 1-2-3 7th for the win, and allowed only 5 hits overall, but walked 6, adding to his reputation as the Ollie Perez of SFLOI. Zach Nilva had 3 hits and scored 3 runs for the winners.

On Paper

At the start of the first game today a brief discussion occurred regarding the balance of the teams. On paper the Havelock Ewes had the hitting advantage over the O'Connor Conmen. Better team average, on base pct, homeruns, extra base hits, RBIs and slugging percentage.

But baseball (i.e. softball) is not a game played on paper. Whatever that intangible quality is that bonds players together to rise above their statistical mean was with the Conmen who bunched hits and made the most of Ewes' defensive lapses to score runs. It serves as a reminder that as predictable as we all may be as individuals, as a team we can accomplish much more.

GAMES OF 7/18

Game 1: O'Connor 4, Hewes 1
Jim O'Connor (8-5) scattered 7 hits in another fine pitching performance. Freddy Melendez was 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Havelock Hewes was touched for three runs in the first but recovered to pitch well and keep the game close.

Game 2: Melendez 6, Parfrey 4
Phil Ciccone (2-for-3, HR, 3 RBI) broke a 2-2 tie with a bases-loaded, 2-out, 2-run double. Freddy Melendez followed with a 2-run single, and that proved to be enough of a margin for the win. Ian Parfrey backed his own pitching by going 3-for-3 with a home run and 2 RBI. Melendez (8-4) retired Fred Lang as the winning run; there would be no Lang Bang walkoff today.

Also, earlier in the week, Riverdale thrashed SFLOI 13-4, getting 7 innings from long reliever and winning pitcher Jim O'Connor. Ken Walker was 4-for-5 with 2 doubles and a 3-run homer, and Bill Vernick had 4 hits as well.

GAME OF 7/11

Stoeth 5, O'Connor 4 (11 innings)

In one of the more thrilling SFLOI contests of recent years, Laura Stoeth (6-0) remained undefeated by throwing shutout ball over the final 9 innings. O'Connor's team lost an early 4-1 lead, as Stoeth's team scored twice in the 5th, started by a Freddy Melendez triple, and capped by a sac fly from Freddy's son Kelvin. That was it until the 11th, when Brian Hernandez led off with a hard line single off of Dave Sommers' glove, and alertly advanced to second on Alex Rivera's flyout. An intentional walk to Ian Lebowitz and a pitcharound of Freddy Melendez set up Havelock Hewes to be the hero, as he lined a single to right-center over a drawn-in infield for the win. Bill Vernick drove in two for the hard-luck losers.

Earlier in the week, SFLOI lost a similar heartbreaker to Tony Connor's Duke alums, 7-6 in 11 innings. SFLOI led 4-1 early, but fell behind 6-4, and fought back to tie with a Glen Lawrence RBI single in the 8th inning and a Derek Martinez sac fly in the 9th. However, David Larado led off the 11th with a bunt single, and scored on Tyler Patla's bomb to deep left. Glen Lawrence had 3 hits for SFLOI, and Rob Anapol doubled and drove in two. Tony Connor (1-1) pitched an 11-inning CG and had 3 hits for the Duke team.

SFLOI Interview #1: Tony Connor

I interviewed SFLOI founding father Tony Connor over a pitcher of beer at the Firehouse, on the night that LeBron James made his somewhat puzzling decision to join the Miami Heat, and immediately after Tony had defeated his arch-nemesis Havelock Hewes 7-6 in 11 innings on the Great Lawn. The conversations are re-constructed from my notes.

Tony began the interview by saying that he had invented the Tree Rule, which I suppose makes him the Carl Perkins of that rule, and Havelock is Tree Rule Elvis.

Tony described the formative years of SFLOI, which began with a single game he organized in 1982.

Bill McLaughlin: Who was there?
Tony: Lee Lowenfish, maybe... not Havelock...
Bill: So how did Havelock get involved?
Tony: I met him through Lee, who is a baseball author as well... Havelock had a TV show, New York City Baseball, on cable. He interviewed me, though I've never seen the tape. I was promoting my baseball book, "Baseball For the Love of It," doing interviews, book signings, that kind of thing. I invited Hav and Lee to join... a lot of the early players came from WBAI... you know WBAI?
Me: (vaguely) I've heard of it...
Tony: Well, on WBAI there was a show, "Home Fries," with Fred Hershkowitz and Lee... I played on the WBAI Turtles for one season, with Peter Bochan, Dave Metzger, Fred Hershkowitz, Rich Schraeder-- who would later be Mark Green's campaign manager, Milt Mankoff. We had a league of lefties, politically... The league was a lot more co-ed than it is now. We had a lot of players from Columbia University, where my wife was a grad student. She was a good player, as good as Sue Kostner.
Havelock: She was. Better maybe.

In the interests of accuracy, I should mention that the hitting stats do not back this up, though Havelock also said that Tony's wife Paula was a very good pitcher and fielder.

We got to discussing Tony's Little League coaching, which has brought such fine athletes as Zach Nilva, Alex Rivera, and Rob Anapol into SFLOI, and then, as the conversation sometimes will when a face is on every single TV screen in the bar, it turned to LeBron.

Bill: I don't see why athletes have to be role models.
Tony: A 12-year old kid doesn't see it that way. They're not like you; they're imitators by nature.
Me: And they see these athletes snorting coke and beating up hookers...
Tony: LeBron's different, of course.
Bill: When I was a kid, I wanted to be a giraffe.

So, I learned something I never knew about my cousin, and LeBron chose Miami, and the talk returned to softball.

Tony: I always kept stats. I think that's very important. Havelock expanded the statkeeping when he took it over in 1985, and Joe Gerber took it even further-- he's an accountant--
Bill: When did you start using a computer for the stats?
Tony: I don't know. In the early years I did them on a typewriter, later a word processor...

Havelock then tells a story about how his son Duncan got a pack of baseball cards in the mid-eighties and was disappointed that he didn't get a Joe Balento card.

Tony: There were several players who grew up with us. Carl Weinberg was 14 when he started playing, Joe Balento, my son Paul was 8.
Me: I've noticed some strange statistical seasons (Paul Connor had a season with one hit and 25 walks; Davey had a season with 5 hits and 26 walks). I guess SFLOI didn't have an Eddie Gaedel rule.
Tony (laughs): They played over the general objections of the league. Bobby Naranjo-- you've heard of him?-- in particular.
Me: Can we get back to your book for a moment? For example, I've read Marvin's baseball book, and it's rather abstract. Not your typical book about teams and players. What is yours like?
Tony: Well, I met with the majority of Hall of Famers still living at the time... I did two-hour interviews, 27 or so. I was still young enough to be in awe of them. I was 33 when I started the book, 36 when it came out... it was an incredible thrill, meeting Mickey Mantle, Yogi, Whitey Ford...
Me: What was the best interview of the bunch, and which one was the worst?
Tony: Eddie Matthews was probably the most interesting one... it wasn't exactly a good interview... we basically just got drunk together. He played in small markets his whole life-- Milwaukee, Atlanta... in New York he would have been a superstar with those 500 home runs. We had a long night of drinking and talking... but he was not very articulate. Stan Musial was a great interview. Another unrecognized player, because of where he played. He could do everything, even pitch. I interviewed him on a golf course. Nice guy. Musial said he knew what the pitcher was going to be pitching when he was in a good groove. He said he was psychically tuned in to read the pitcher's mind.

I asked if Tony had gotten to Ty Cobb, forgetting that Cobb died in 1961 and would have been close to a hundred years old had he lived.

Tony: We've got some serious students of oldtime baseball here. Marvin, Lee, Hav, Joe Balento too. You know Lawrence Ritter? He wrote "The Glory of Our Times," and he wrote the intro to my book. I had Roger Angell's assistant on my team one year. He (Angell) wrote some great stuff on baseball as well.
Me: Have you read any Bill James?
Tony: I met him once, at a SABR convention in 1982. He brought a different viewpoint to baseball writing-- more objective, analytical-- you've read him, I'll bet, and Seung, and Sal too...
Me: Yeah.

One of the recurring themes of the night was Tony's objection to my scoring all kinds of double plays in the DP category instead of just ground ball double plays.

Tony: Because hitting into a double play is a sign of bad hitting. It means you hit the ball right where the pitcher wanted you to. I hate double plays. That's why it took Jim Rice so long to get into the Hall-- all those double plays. I had one year I hit into about 12 double plays (note: it was actually 9, in 1989), and I probably didn't hit into one for a couple of years after that. And still, every time I come up with a man on base, Havelock says, "let's get two!"
Me: He says that when I'm up too.
Tony: You came up with the bases loaded last week and he said, "let's get three."
Me: Didn't happen... I wanted to ask about your career as a hitter. Some people turn in the same season over and over again, but your career numbers are all over the map, some years you hit for power, some years for average...
Tony: In 1996, I broke both wrists... and I had Lyme disease... that took awhile to come back from. And earlier, I gained about 20 pounds when my baby was born... and afterwards, it's hard to hit when you can't get a good night's sleep. In 1998 I started the Riverdale league, and I must have had a thousand at bats that year. Played for Duke, too, it was something like 8 games a week (Tony hit .547 with 73 RBI in 1998).
Me: And you're the alltime leader in doubles and triples...
Tony: I got a lot of those because I know how to slide.
Havelock: You still slide?
Tony: Yes. I learned to slide from my high school coach. Nothing fancy, no fallaways or head first slides. I just don't give them anything to tag me with. You can tag the tip of my toe, if you can find it...
Me: There's a story I've heard about Gil (Schmerler) teaching you to hit for power.
Tony: Yeah, he said something to me. We were playing at Riverside, with that wall, and Gil said, why don't you try hitting the bottom half of the ball? And when I did that, I had just enough power to get them over. Take Hank Aaron-- he hit 750 homers, and a lot of them just cleared the wall. All you've got to do is hit it enough to get it over. When I was young, I hit first or second mostly, and then later I somehow learned to hit for power. It helps to have a fence you can aim for, like at Riverside.

THE INDEPENDENCE DAY MARATHON

Thanks to everyone who braved the insane heat and made this weekend a success. By game 5, there was a cloud of flies circling me, which I took to mean it was probably time for a shower (or an embalming). Here are the recaps.

1. Melendez 6, Rosengard 4
Melendez's team took an early 4-2 lead, but it took RF Ian Parfrey throwing out Dave Sommers at first on an apparent bases-loaded single to keep the game from being tied in the 4th, and in the 6th inning, Bill McLaughlin did score the tying run on a botched rundown attempt on trail runner Derek Martinez. In the bottom of the inning, Fred Lang came up with the bases loaded and no outs, and lined the go-ahead single to center.

2. Martinez 7, Parfrey 6
Parfrey took a 4-2 lead into the 5th, but allowed 5 runs to score, keyed by Glen Lawrence's 2-run single. Furious comebacks in the 6th and 7th innings fell just short, as Martinez (3-5) struck out Fred Lang with two on in the 6th, turned an acrobatic 1-8-3 DP on Marvin Cohen's chopper down the first base line in the 7th, and then retired Zach Nilva with 2 on to end the inning. Brian Hernandez hit a monster HR into the trees in left for Martinez's team. Ben Indek had 3 hits in a losing cause.

3. Melendez 11, Hewes 0
Bill McLaughlin (3-for-4, 2B, 4 RBI) led the offensive attack against Havelock Hewes. Freddy Melendez backed his 5-inning shutout with 3 hits including a double and a triple. Ian Parfrey and a walk-on named Edward in a vintage Pirate jersey also had 3 hits each.

4. Parfrey 10, Hewes 7 (8 innings)
The action shifted to the Great Lawn on Monday, courtesy of Joe Gerber. Parfrey's "Paisans" battled back from a 5-2 deficit to score twice in the 6th on RBI doubles by Joe Gerber and Joe Geller, and once in the 7th as Bill McLaughlin tripled to lead off the inning and subsequently scored on an error. In the top of the 8th, Parfrey's team scored 5 times. McLaughlin drove in a run with a double, then Parfrey (4-for-5, 3 RBI) hit a 2-run single to right-center. Ross Barkan (3-for-5, 3 RBI) singled in another run, and then Parfrey "stole" home on an erroneous flip back to the pitcher. Hewes's team (aka Connor's Compadres) loaded the bases with one out, and did get 2 runs back on a groundout and a Chris Hall single, but Hewes grounded out as the tying run. For the winning team, Mike Palma added 3 hits, and Glen Lawrence (playing first base!) had a key assist, recovering an overthrow and gunning out a runner at third to snuff out a 6th inning rally. Hewes's team was paced by Rob Anapol (3-for-4, 3B, 2 RBI), and Zach Nilva and Bill Vernick (in his first at bats of 2010) also had 3 hits.

5. Melendez 3, Nilva 2
Freddy Melendez (7-4) won his 3rd game of the weekend against SFLOI's unluckiest pitcher. Nilva pitched well, but Freddy singled in 2 runs in the 3rd inning for an insurmountable margin. Nilva's team scored twice in the 4th but Freddy retired Zach and Alex with the bases loaded to escape further damage, and then retired Josh Balsam with two men on in the 5th inning of a game shortened by darkness and extreme heat.

GAMES AND NOTES 6/27

Reminder: Bonus games Monday July 5th in addition to regular schedule. Great Lawn #8 at 5:00pm.

Games of 6/27:
Stoeth 7, O'Connor 1
Laura Stoeth (5-0) threw a 5-hitter, allowing a run in the first on an Ed O'Connor double, then completely shutting down a good lineup for the final 6 frames. She was backed by a balanced offensive attack led by Phil Ciccone (2-for-4, 2B, RBI), and Sam Magnus (2-for-4, 2 RBI).

Parfrey 7, Hewes 2
Ian Parfrey (7-3) scattered 7 hits and struck out 4, and was backed by Phil Ciccone (3-for-4, HR, 3 RBI), and 3 hits from Fred Lang. Alex Rivera (2-for-2, RBI, SF) led Hewes's team in a game that was close until Parfrey's team scored 4 times with 2 out in the top of the 7th.

Let's Play 2 update: LP2 split a doubleheader this week, losing 9-2 to the NYC Knights, but beating the Wallbangers 2-1 on a complete game gem by Jeff Appell and a 2-run, 2-out single by Nick Stefanides.

Extra Games!

Softball For The Love Of It will play, as usual, on Sunday morning, July 4. Assuming the other leagues take the day off, as is their tradition, we will be able to play an extra game or two. Also, thanks to Joe Gerber, we will be playing on Monday july 5 at 5 pm on The Great Lawn Field #8.

GAMES OF 6/20

Game 1:
Stoeth 5, Hewes 2
Laura Stoeth (4-0) tossed a 4-hitter backed by Ed O'Connor's batting (3-for-3, solo HR). Her team scored 3 times in the first and never looked back, capped by Paul Geoghan's 2-run single following a semi-intentional walk to Bill McLaughlin.

Game 2:
Melendez 6, Nilva 3
Freddy Melendez (4-4) scattered 11 hits and lowered his league-leading ERA to 3.43. Glen Lawrence had an excellent day at the plate (4-for-4, 2B, 3B, 3 runs, 2 RBI). Dave Sommers went 4-for-4 for Nilva's team, and Ed O'Connor was 2-for-4 with his second HR of the day, and 2 RBI. Nilva's hard-luck streak, temporarily broken with a win over Havelock, resumed today. He had pitched most of the way out of a 7th inning jam when Ian Parfrey hit a soft line drive to SS Phil Ciccone, who caught and then dropped the ball. It was ruled a catch, though in the resulting confusion, the defensive team 1) tried to double Glen Lawrence off of third, where he was safe; 2) tried to double Alex Rivera off of first, claiming he had never returned to the bag; 3) allowed Lawrence to sneak in with the 5th run in the ensuing argument; 4) allowed Alex Rivera to score all the way from first as the argument continued and home plate was left unguarded.

As this play, and a similar David Cone meltdown from the early 90s Mets both prove, it is best to call time out before arguing, or at least to guard the bases ahead of the runners.

GAMES OF JUNE 13

Two dramatic finishes, and a 3-sac fly day for Jaime Orochena!

Game 1
O'Connor 6, Hewes 3
Jim O'Connor (6-3) scattered 11 hits for the win. Ian Lebowitz had 3 hits in a losing cause, and the game ended on the bizarre play described in detail below. Jaime's first sacrifice fly was a liner to shallow center in the bottom of the 1st.

Game 2
Parfrey 8, Appell 7
Ian Parfrey (6-3) managed to blow all of a 6-1 lead, and needed Phil Ciccone (3-for-3, HR, 2 RBI) to bail him out with a long blast down the LF line to lead off the top of the 7th. Parfrey stranded the tying run in scoring position in the bottom half. Freddy Melendez contributed 3 hits, and Derek Martinez was 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Appell's team was led by Alex Rivera (2-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI). Jaime had sacrifice flies in each of his first two at-bats, the first on a popup to shallow left that Phil Ciccone made an excellent catch on.

Strange Plays I Have Seen

Sunday's Game One ended on one of the more bizarre plays I have seen in my SFLOI career. With one out in the top of the 7th, and runners on first and second, Bob Holzwasser-- the tying run-- hit a bloop to shallow center that fell in front of OF Derek Martinez. Martinez came up throwing to third, where runner Solomon Sarway was narrowly forced out. Trail runner Alex Rivera forgot how many outs there were, and wandered off of second base thinking the game was over. He was retired in a brief rundown.

Now, two obscure rules governed the putout at third base. Martinez's throw was low and into the runner, forcing the third baseman (me) to stretch towards home plate and inadvertently block the entire bag with my body. Solomon, rather than sliding into me and knocking me into next week, gave himself up. There was still a pretty strong collision. This is an interesting test of the no-collision rule. The runner would have been within his rights to slide into me. With Holzwasser, the batter, representing the tying run, it would have made good softball sense to slide, but perhaps bad common sense, because, as was mentioned a few weeks ago, there is nothing of vital importance at stake here, and we need to be able to go to work on Monday.

The other rule is the interference rule, which is widely debated and sometimes misinterpreted whenever it's called into play. As the fielder, I am allowed to go into the basepath to make a play, whether on a ground ball, popup, or attempting to field a throw. So the play was legit, the umpire made the correct call (assuming the ball actually beat the runner), the runner did the right thing by giving himself up, and the only unfortunate circumstance of the whole play is that it came in a situation of game-changing importance, and snuffed out a last-inning rally.

Before I recap this week's games, here are a few other strange plays from the last few years:

In the bottom of the 7th inning of the last game of the 2007 season, Phil Ciccone was on third base as the tying run with two outs. The next batter, John Pyne, hit a soft ground ball down the third base line. Phil remained on the bag, and made no effort to avoid the ball (and may have even leaned into it a little). It hit him and bounced into foul territory. Phil was called out for interference, and a long argument ensued. As I interpret the rules, the call was correct, even though being on the bag usually provides protection for the runner. I believe the hit-by-pitch rule in baseball is a reasonable parallel. If a batter leans into a pitch, he may not always be awarded first base.

Amusingly, while umpiring, I fucked up a similar call in early 2008. Phil was the batter this time, and smoked a line drive that hit runner Seung Lee on third base. I called Seung out, as he was in fair territory. This was probably the wrong call, IF he was still on the bag. I don't remember. Maybe Seung does.

Now, here's a couple of interference plays. While pursuing a popup in one of the Great Lawn bonus games last year, 1B Freddy Melendez collided with a runner. Both runners were declared safe because of Freddy obstructing the lead runner. This was an incorrect call, because Freddy was the fielder nearest the play, and HAS THE RIGHT TO ENTER THE BASEPATH TO MAKE A PLAY. The runner has the right to leave the basepath to avoid him, but the fielder has the right-of-way if he is pursuing the ball AND is the closest fielder. I believe the correct call would be that the runner should have been out, and the batter awarded first base. If the runner's interference were intentional (it was not), both would be out. In this case, the legendary vociferousness of Joe Gerber influenced the umpire's call, but the game was still won by Freddy's team.

The other case is Marvin's injury from last season. A slightly errant throw carried Marvin's momentum into the baseline, where Jim O'Connor collided hard with him. The umpire ruled Jim safe, and this was also correct, because Jim was in the baseline, and had no time to try to avoid Marvin-- when ball, fielder, and runner arrive at a base simultaneously, there is no interference.

Maybe Sal Was Right

While I vociferously disagreed with Sal Cipriano about his suggestion that we divide playing time evenly, in the seventh inning on Sunday I found myself not sitting lesser fielders in the seventh inning. My team did have a five run lead, so putting in the lesser fielders was not bound to lose me the game. As is often the case with civil rights issues, the goal of a protest is the changing of a law or a rule, but as great a gain can be in the hearts and souls of those administering a rule. Congratulations, Mr. Cipriano.
With my new found outlook, I thought "how can we apply this evenness in a positive way? It came to me that if the lesser fielders on a team played when the team was ahead it would be more likely that the opposing team would catch up and we would have a close game. Concurrently, if a team were behind and played its finest fielders it would be more likely to catch up. The combined effect of such a system (the team behind using its best fielders and the team ahead using its worst fielders) could produce the close results we strive for. Each week, the opposing captains would list the five worst fielders on his opponents team. In any inning in which a team held the lead, those weaker fielders would have to play. In any inning that a team was behind they could play the best fielders (with the priviso that no one sits more than two innings).

GAMES OF JUNE 6

Game 1
Hewes 11, Rosengard 7
After giving up 6 runs in the first, Rosengard settled down, and his teammates rallied to cut the deficit to 8-7 after 3. Hewes slammed the door after that with four scoreless frames, and got his league-leading 7th win. The winning team got 3 hits from Derek Martinez, and consecutive 2-run doubles from Jaime Orochena and Solomon Sarway.

Game 2
Martinez 6, Melendez 2
In a strange coincidence, Martinez' team, with most of the same players, scored 5 in the top of the 1st, and cruised to a victory. Zach Nilva homered, and Solomon Sarway tripled and drove in 2 runs. Freddy Melendez backed his pitching with an opposite-field HR, but it wasn't enough, as Martinez scattered 6 hits for the win.

Games and Notes of Memorial Day Weekend

Sorry this took so long to put up, but I was haunted by my epic meltdown in Game 4 (see below), and it wasn't until now that I was ready to focus on the positives. Despite the fatigue and occasional frustration of playing 5 games in a weekend, we managed to get some good ones in.

Game 1
Sunday 5/30
Rosengard 9, Appell 1
Dave Rosengard returned from the DL to baffle Appell's team with an 8-hit gem. Ben Indek and Bill McLaughlin were each 2-for-3 with 2 RBI. This game also marked the return of Phil Ciccone (ankle) and Marvin Cohen (eye surgery) to active duty.

Game 2
Melendez 5, Martinez 4
Melendez's double broke a 2-2 tie in the 4th, and Solomon Sarway drove in 2 runs. David Sommers had 2 hits and 2 RBI for Martinez's team.

Game 3
Nilva 7, Hewes 5
Zach Nilva recorded his first win as a pitcher, after going a hard luck 0-7 over the last two seasons. Fortunately, unlike 1990s Met hurler Anthony Young, Zach had his outfielding and hitting to fall back on. Derek Martinez backed Nilva with 4 hits including a solo HR. Jaime Orochena homered in a losing cause, and Ian Lebowitz drove in 2. Nilva stranded the tying run on base in the 7th.

Game 4
Monday 5/31
Stoeth 9, Parfrey 5
Crusing with a 5-1 lead in the 6th inning, Ian Parfrey surrendered 8 runs. The first 4 came on Ken Walker's grand slam. Freddy Melendez's 2-run single broke the tie later in the inning. Bill McLaughlin was 3-for-4 with an RBI for Parfrey's team, and Laura Stoeth ran her record to 3-0 on the year. Havelock Hewes recorded his 100th career sacrifice bunt in this game, on an amusing play where pitcher Parfrey accidentally kicked the ball right into the waiting glove of Marvin Cohen.

Game 5
Hewes 7, Martinez 2
Alex Rivera broke a 2-2 tie with a solo HR to lead off the 6th inning. Rivera was 3-for-4 in the game, snapping out of a slump. Hewes pitched masterfully, scattering 6 hits.

Dave Sommers' LP2 team dropped a 4-0 decision to the ridiculously named Lawyertime.com, and are now 5-1 on the year. LP2 is off this week, and resumes action Wednesday June 9th.

What’s wrong with SFLOI?

I don’t come to SFLOI every week to break records, nor could I if I wanted to. I come to have a good time and to try to hit the softball as hard as I can. Sometimes it doesn’t have much of a result, and sometimes it has the greatest. Either way, it should be fun, and mostly I try to have a good time. However, SFLOI has become increasingly a tougher place to do just that.

When I started here, almost two years ago, it seemed a lot looser; sure there were incidents here and there, but it seemed rather cool. Of course, maybe this was because I started in the fall season. Going into last summer, I could tell the heat heated up competition as well, but that all seemed fine as well. One incident that first raised my eyebrow, though, was a benching of Glen Lawrence that seemed not the right thing to do. That led to a bit of controversy that then led to the 2-inning sitting rule, which in itself is a terrible cop-out which insures that most “good” players stay in.

So, that said, we come to this Monday’s game where I sat an inning in Game One and then was asked to do so again in at the end of Game Two when there were a few players that had not sat at all. Now, let’s get a couple of things straight, 1. I will never say I am a good fielder, but I’m not terrible as well. I’m one of the mid-of-the-road players. 2. Being one of the team managers of my company’s team I also understand having to sit players. However, there lies the major difference and where all the disagreements stem.

See, I play in a league where TEAM victories count. Everyone on our team understands this, and everyone is OK with the tough decisions that need to be made by me and the other manager. Heck, I rotate myself in and out all the time. Whatever contributes to the team winning, I’m into. I understand this.

SFLOI, though, is nothing like the league I am in. SFLOI is a pick-up league where the stats are gods, and there are no real team concepts. You are my teammate and opponent, maybe on the same day, and all that matters is how we do in that game. At the end of the day, if you lost two, but went 8-8, you may act sad, but we all know you’re damn happy with yourself. The “pennant” really doesn’t mean much, other than being another stat.

So, I argue and disagree with the notions presented by Havelock in the prior post, and also by Ian in the comments. Winning a ballgame should never get ahead of doing the right thing in this league. There should never be a player that has paid his/her dues that sits more than someone else. No one should be exempt from sitting, no matter how good they are. Ever! Surely not in this league. Not in a league where team wins don’t mean anything to anyone but the pitcher (more on that in a bit). After all, this is Softball for the Love of it, not Softball Winning at all Costs.

And that’s the basis of my whole post really. SFLOI is getting away from what I thought it was: a fun pick-up league. I shouldn’t walk away with contempt for anyone. Guys like Joe Gerber and others who yell at their teammates need to step back and look at what they are doing. We’ve had numerous injuries in the past year, and one of ours even had a heart-attack. In light of those occurrences is softball that important; why has this game become increasingly more serious?

Which brings me to my next question that stems from all of this seriousness, why is it that certain pitchers are fast pitching or quick pitching? Certainly I’m not the only one that has noticed that the velocity in this league is going up, am I? If I wanted to join a fast pitch league, I would. Yet more and more, I have to deal with looking out for an errant pitch, which I’m sorry control issues are increasing with the velocity, or swinging out of whack and pulling some muscle just to try to catch up. Honestly, it’s becoming harder to just enjoy coming to the plate. Related: On Monday, Ian Lebowitz did everything to turn defensively on a Derek Martinez fast pitch and ended up smacking Ian’s girlfriend with a foul ball. Would he have hit it like that if it weren’t coming in as fast, I don’t know, but it seemed like there were many hard hit fouls balls when Ian and Derek and sometimes Havelock pitched.

So let me tie this all up with a bow, because I think there is a root to these issues, and that being that the pitchers are the players who care the most about winning said game. Their records are the ones most affected, and to this I cannot argue. But what I can argue is that the pitchers, or someone that usually pitches, are usually also the team captains, and this is leading to a more dangerous and unfair game. Certainly not one that sounds like it should be played under the acronym of SFLOI.

I’ve always said pick-up softball is about the hitters, and I think our pitchers need to loosen up their pants, and realize losing isn’t the end of the world. I challenge our fast pitchers to turn it down and be crafty like Dave Rosengard or Jim O’Connor. These guys don’t need speed to win, as witnessed this past Sunday by Dave. I know the three gents I’ve mentioned in this post can pitch well even without it, so I’d like to see them try. Let’s see what you got. I also challenge Havelock to give the captains chair to players who do not pitch at all. Let them make the decisions. But I also tell them to be fair to everyone. I honestly think that would be the case anyway.

I love being a part of the fabric of this league. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have contributed this website, and everything else I’ve tried to do for it. I wouldn’t have spent the time to write this if not. I want to continue to be a part of this, too, but I want our players to have a good time, I want decisions made for the players to continue to have a good time. So please, Powers-that-be, step back and look at what’s been going on here, and make the right decisions going forward. This is not about an ego gone wild, this about Softball for the Love it. Remember that?

See you all in a couple of weeks.
--Sal

My Softball Weekend

I didn't hit well and, apparently, made a number of umpiring errors this Memorial Weekend. Somehow, I had a great time! We played three games on Sunday and two more, thanks to Joe Gerber, on Monday evening on The Great Lawn. Most of the games were close. For the first time in my life, I was part of a triple play, tagging Ian Parfrey at the plate for the third out. Sunday featured the returns of Phil Ciccone, from his broken leg and David Rosengard from his heart attack and subsequent surgery. Ciccone reached firs base in game one only to look over at the opposing pitcher, Jeff Appell, and thirdbaseman, Ian Parfrey and recognize that these were the same duo who were manning the positions when Phil was last on the field )and attempted to take the extra-base, slid into third and looked down to see his foot at a 90-degree angle from the rest of his leg). The folowing hitter singled and we all thought Phil might try to take the extra base again, but Ciccone neglected to tempt the fates and settled for staying at secondbase. Rosengard, who had two stents put in his heart, pitched a brilliant game, only allowing one run, unearned, in beating Jeff Appell's team 9-1. After the game I thought I heard Jeff on his cell phone saying "Doc, can I schedule you to put those stents in on Tuesday, I want to be back on the field as soon as possible."
As for my umpiring..in my defense, I am willing to umpire and call em as I see em and take whatever criticisem comes my way. Many people refuse to umpire because they don't want the grief. If we don't take it a little easy on the kind people who volunteer to be arbiters we won't have any.
Speaking of tough jobs, being captain of a team is almost as thankless as umpiring. Dealing with players who can't play certain positions because of injuries, aging veterans who still want to play shortstop, kids whose parents don't want them to catch for fear of facial injuries, etc. We captains do the best we can to balance these needs and desires. Another aspect of captaining is to make sure everyone plays. Over the years we have worked out a rule for this. Every player must play at least four of the first seven innings in the field (baring injury or requests from the player to sit more time). Within this rule, we leave it to the captain to decide who should sit and when. This leaves the possibility that with only one extra player a single player may be asked to sit six of the fourteen innings of a double-header. On occasion I have heard from sitters who believe a more equitable approach would be an improvement. From a captains point of view, I believe the rule is a balanced one. It insures that every player is playing most of the time but gives the captain some wiggle room. For instance, on Memorial Day I was captaining and pitching for a team in which no one wanted to catch. Stoeth had just pitched seven inning in Game 1, Cipriano's leg hurt him, Connor was getting too old for this...so I was begging them to give me a couple of innings each. At the same time I was getting some pressure from team-mates to put our best defense on the field. That meant leaving our best outfielders and shortstop and thirdbaseman at their positions. This left four players to split firstbase, seconbase and catcher and also split the sitting. I'd like hear any suggestions on how to fine-tune this system.
See you on Sunday! -Havelock

GAMES AND NOTES OF 5/23

1. Celebrate Memorial Day with a softball marathon! Sunday May 30 is business as usual, 8:30am at Heckscher. Monday May 31 we're on the Great Lawn in the late afternoon-- courtesy of Joe Gerber-- time and field will be posted here soon.

2. Games of May 23:
Hewes 7, O'Connor 3
A shaky defense and the clutch hitting of Nate Sillman (3-for-3, 3 RBI) prevented Jim O'Connor from becoming SFLOI's first 6-game winner. Zach Nilva also had 3 hits. O'Connor's team stranded 13 runners. Jaime Orochena was 4-for-4, and Laura Stoeth had 3 hits.

Parfrey 9, Connor 2
Parfrey's team exploded for 6 runs in the 3rd to break a scoreless tie, and he improved to 5-2 while only allowing 4 hits. Connor's team got a 2-run bomb from Brian Hernandez, but little else in the way of offense.

3. Let's Play 2 played a Thursday doubleheader, beating the MMC Outlaws 5-1 in game one, and playing Weintraub & Haber to a 2-2 8-inning tie in the 2nd game. The Appell / Parfrey pitching duo combined to allow 3 runs in 15 innings. LP2 is currently in first place with a 5-0 record.