Mr. November

SFL's great streak pitcher, Jim O'Connor, is on a roll. In the month of November, pitching in the unfriendly confines of the Dyckman Street fields, O'Connor is 3-0 with an ERA of 1.24.

The streak began last Sunday with a 1-0 victory over Erik Mintz. O'Connor scattered 4 hits and 3 walks over 5 shutout innings, backed only by Cisco Velez's 3rd inning RBI single.

Jim picked up two wins on November 8. First he beat Havelock Hewes 5-4. O'Connor's team scored 5 times in the first inning, and then Havelock settled down and pitched shutout ball the rest of the way. Jim took a 5-1 lead into the 7th inning, and then things got interesting. After a leadoff error, two walks, and two hits, Sam Magnus came to bat with the go-ahead run on base. Magnus lined out to left, and O'Connor had his second win of the month, allowing 4 runs (one earned) on 10 hits.

In the third game of the day, O'Connor was matched up against Robert Rodriguez, and prevailed 4-3 in 5 innings. Jim allowed 3 runs on 5 hits, and survived another thrilling finish. He took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the 5th, but walked Sam Melendez and gave up back to back singles to Tom Haskin and Cid Rivera. He retired Eric Schulman on a sacrifice fly to center, but walked Cisco Velez to put the go-ahead run on base. David Rodriguez hit a grounder up the middle that hit the baserunner at second, for the second out, and Jim got Robert Rodriguez on a fly to left to end it.

Long Live The Revolution by Havelock Hewes

  Softball For The Love Of It has a great track record of success.  We do not require any attendance, yet early each Sunday morning we have enough players to play a game.  

   Yet, to watch the proceedings you would think we are dysfunctional.  Players accuse each other of cheating, umpires get fired and arguments abound. 

  My theory on this is that we are part of a sport revolution.  We do not follow the template of competitive sport.  According to the unwritten  rules of being a fan or a player, the first thing you look for is a villain.  You create teams and put on uniforms.  What follows is the procedure of making the best team possible.  This starts by not allowing any poor players on the team.  Gradually,   you get better and better players and those who are not as good are perceived to be “hurting the team” with their presence.  Soon, it becomes the nine best players against somebody else’s nine best players.  Everyone on your own team is a good guy and everyone on the other team is a bad guy.  Success is a 20-0 win.

  In our league we take whatever players we have and attempt to make even teams.  According to our template, there is no villain.  We play with and against  all other players.  We rejoice in exciting, close games.  This is a beautiful and revolutionary vision of sport.

  Some of us are more evolved in this understanding  than others, but none of us (with the possible exception of Marvin) are immune to the old template.  The indoctrination of the American man from little league teams to home town fandom makes  us require the enemy.    If we can’t find one in an opposing team, we create a devil in the umpire or the players on whatever temporary team is against us on that day.  We need to find anger in order to bring out the best in us.

  Will it be possible, some day, to call on the passion of playing without the anger?  I think our continued attendance, for 33 years, early on Sunday mornings, coming to a place where we are happy to see each other and to play close games with people of different ages and skills, is a testament to our vision. 

 

Unlikely Victory For El Cid by Havelock Hewes

Sunday, June 14 -  Alex Rivera played and managed his way to an improbable 6-4 win in game one.  "El Cid" Rivera led his troops into battle, going two-for-three with the game-winning RBI and two runs scored.  his lone "out" was due to one of the greatest shortstop plays ever witnessed on these Central Park fields. Rivera scorched a ball over second-base that all, had they had the time to think, would have assumed was a knock to center. Shortstop Zach Nilva dove for the torrid sphere, snagged  it on a hop, sprung to his feet and fired to firstbaseman Gil Schmerler to nab the fleet-footed Rivera.  What El Cid could not accomplish with his athletic skills he did with his managing prowess - a successful appeal to the ump to get a fielders interference call and the moxy to sit his best pitcher, Freddie Melendez, in favor of Jim O'Connor.  The pitching move paid off, as O'Connor met the challenge and shut down Havelock Hewes' squad, allowing only 4 runs - 1 earned - on 6 hits.
  What made the win "improbable" was not the strengtyh of the starting rosters - they were, as usual, perfectly balanced - but the four additions to the teams after the game had started.  Rivera's team had nine players to Hewes' eight so, when Tom Haskin, one of our better players - showed up he went to Hewes' team. Rivera's team was leading 2-1 after the second inning when Dave Sommers, another premier player, arrived. When the number of players on teams are even the trailing team may take or pass on a new player. Hewes took Sommers.  Caesar. a Central Park veteran - good but not equal to Sommers -showed up and went on Rivera's team.  Buoyed by the additions, Hewes team built a 4-2 lead going into the foiurth inning of the 5-inning-scheduled game.  After Caesar and Richie Seidner reached on singles for rivera's team, Sam Melendez - who was nursing a busted finger - clubbed a high fastball way over Kelly Harpula's head in rightfield.  Only the labrador-like retrieval instincts of centerfielder Haskin kept this a triple.  El Cid, himself, singled in Melendez with the go-ahead run.
   The light-hitting Paul Geoghan showed up and, by rule, was assigned to Rivera - subtraction by addition. 
   With Rivera's team leading 6-4 entering the final frame, Hewes squad did not go quietly.  Singles by Nilva and Matt Mishkin brought Hewes best RBI man, Sam Magnus, to the plate.  Magnus hit the ball hard but directly into the leftfielder's glove.  Ray Hernandez followed with a line-out to third, Gil Schmerler worked a walk to load the bases before Harpula's drive to center settled in the glove of - who else - Alex El Cid Rivera.
   The advantages gained in game one,  Nilva's stellar pitching, and a brilliant line-up designed by Haskin was enough to ensure an easy 10-4 win for Hewes' team in game two.  Rivera's pitchers -O'Connor, Phil Ciccone and Freddie Melendez - threw what might have been confused for batting practice for the two through seven hitters - Sommers, Magnus, Mishkin, Haskin, Hernandez and Harpula - in Hewes' line-up.  The six batters went 15 for 17 with a walk and a reached-on-error. The lone out recorded on the super six was a 4-3 groundout on Mishkin in the third inning.

Stats and Leaderboard Current as of May 31

There's been a lot of hitting so far this year, hasn't there?