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.

1000 RBI? Not This Decade by Havelock Hewes

   There is a fable about a tortoise and a hare.  They had a race. The rabbit got off to a quick start and established a large lead.  He dawdled and found distraction.  Meanwhile the turtle plodded along and won the race. 
   Sometime during the 2015 season Tony Connor should pass Joe Balento's RBI record of 935.  The turtle will be passing the rabbit.  While we should all be singing about what a "jolly good fellow" our tortoise Tony is, the number 935 is close enough to a larger, rounder number to believe the real race is to the one-thousand mark.  The journey from 935 to 1000 would be a hop-skip-and-jump for a hare such as Joe Balento.  However, given Tony's conservative at-bat-per-season numbers and his age he is projected for about 15 RBI per season - a number which has him reaching the mark in 2020.
  It is unlikely that the barrier will be broken in this decade.  Unless, Joe "the rabbit" Balento remembers he plays softball.  If Joe returned in 2015, even at the conservative rate of 22 RBI per season he would reach 1000 in 2017.  But, as the proverb goes "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts, oh what a Christmas we'd have."
  Third on the "most likely" list is Ian Parfrey, who, if The Long Island Railroad resists giving him a weekend schedule, is due to arrive at 1000 in 2022..."ifs and buts..."
 Fourth on the list, due in during the 2023 season, is the turtlish Havelock Hewes.  He is closely followed by a couple of guys who will have to run like a  rabbit and work like a turtle - Freddie Melendez and Alex Rivera.
 Seventh is Phil Kotik - who, like Balento, could become the favorite if he returned on a full-time basis.
 Chris Hall, Derek Martinez and Larry Savell round out the top ten prospects to get to 1000 first.  All will need to improve attendance to have a shot at breaking the barrier first.
 I know Tony is too honorable a man to get Eric Schulman to grow a long white beard and claim to be Connor for the few months it would take him to reach the 1000 mark.

Top 10 Candidates To Reach 1000 RBI's
Player             Current # of RBI Year Expected
Tony Connor                      927         2020
Joe Balento                        935         Not
Ian Parfrey                         510         2022
Havelock Hewes               756         2023
Freddie Melendez             425         2023
Alex Rivera                       428        2023
Phil Kotik                          701        Not
Chris Hall                          468        2025
Derek Martinez                 412        2026
Larry Savell                      676        2028            

Remembering Peter Libman by Havelock Hewes

   Peter Libman was a better-than-average infielder who played 134 softball games with us between 1994 and 2007. He was a career .404 hitter.  A close look at his statistics uncovers one of the most remarkable single seasons - albeit short -ever.  In 2001 Peter was 19 for 35 and had 19 rbi's and 7 homeruns.  Over a full season (say, 210 ab's) that would project to 114 rbi's and 42 homers.
  Peter was married to Sue Kostner and together they hosted some of our winter meetings.  Peter was a dean at a ballet school and lived in the dorms with possibly the most beautiful women ever assembled in one building.  Peter and Sue baked and cooked for us and served the most tasty eats ever at our parties.  I have a memory of a very contentious argument at their apartment in which the tree rule narrowly triumphed!
  After 1995, I saw Peter on his occasional appearances at games and at a handful of folk concerts.  I knew he had been ill.  Still, I was surprised when I got Paul Geoghan's e-mail saying that Peter had died.    He was a good listener, a great community member and, at least for one season, the most lethal power hitter in SFLOI history.