Winners And Losers...by Havelock Hewes

   Congratulations to Marvin Cohen on winning the pennant this season with the greatest number of wins over .500 of any season.  The accomplishment was the more remarkable for two factors...Marvin is 81 years old, and Marvin's lifetime record, coming into the season was the most games under .500 for any player (-140 games).
   Since I am the person most responsible for dividing the players onto "even" teams, it stands to reason that a player's winning percentage would reflect how much I overestimate them (more game lost than won) or how much I underestimate them (more games won than lost).  I looked through the lifetime records and found any players who are +50 or -50 wins/losses.  There are six players.
  There are only two players who are +50 wins, meaning that over a long period of time they have been underestimated...
Ben Indek         +56     210 - 154     .577
Jorge Loarte      +52     188 - 136      .580
  As you can see, Ben is the most games over .500 but Jorge has a higher winning percentage.  I think they can, for now, share the "most underestimated" crown.
  There are four players in the -50, or overestimated group...
Marvin Cohen       -121   506 - 627    .447
Dave Rosengard   -112   528 - 640    .452
Fred Lang             - 73    218 - 291    .428
Joe Balento          -  52    413 - 465    .470
  Another split decision, this time  for the "most overestimated" crown. Marvin, at -121 is the most losses over wins, but Fred, at .428, has the lowest winning percentage.
  2011 was not a great season for Marvin. He made many more errors than he had in the past.  This may have influenced me to bring down my estimation of him, as a player, a bit.  During the Summer I asked Marvin how it was possible that he could have such a great record this season? "I fooled you," he answered, "I got better."

Game OFF this Sunday

Dyckman Fields, Dyckman Street at Hudson River, 10:00am. Weather will be warm (for January)-- mid 50s. Please note: This announcement is for a game already played. There's nothing doing this weekend.

2012 SFL Season Ends, 2013 Begins

A strange game was played on December 15, where Havelock Hewes pitched for both teams, and won. And lost. On December 23, Hewes beat Freddie Melendez 27-25 in an offense-heavy game at Dyckman. Sam Melendez cranked 3 home runs and drove in 11 runs against his brother. I wonder if Freddie got him anything for Christmas.

SFL's 2012 season was a record-breaker. 105 games were played, due to an unusually mild winter and early spring. SFL batters came to the plate a record 7516 times, and scored 1647 runs on 2580 hits. Many individual records fell by the wayside. Sam Melendez scored 161 runs, got 197 hits, and batted 443 times, setting records in all three categories. After 29 seasons of no one driving in 100 runs, three players did. Eric Schulman drove in a record 147 runs (helped by 62 extra base hits and 22 sacrifice flies), Cid Rivera drove in 108 runs, and Freddie Melendez drove in 105. Cid also had 59 doubles, shattering his previous record of 36. Ian Parfrey won his third consecutive batting title at .514, and Marvin Cohen won his first pennant, winning 54 of the 89 games he appeared in.

Remember, our default setting from Christmas until Easter is "no game." When the weather, and player demand, are strong enough, we will play, and it will be announced here, as well as via facebook and email. The location until further notice will be the Dyckman fields.

There will be a winter meeting as always, date and time to be determined.