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So damn… REX Electric continues to roll… Taking nothing away from them, because they’re obviously for real… it just blows the mind that a rookie team that went just 1-11 last season… is now so thoroughly and completely dominating the League. At an amazing 11-0-1 they add another notch to their belt this week taking out top-ranked contender theBuzz, 7-2 in 5 innings. Still 3 tough ones to go though as REX first faces Cannon (7-5-0) next week, VOA (8-4-0) the week after next before wrapping up the season in a showdown with the Dogz (10-2-0) two days before the Tournament befalls us.

The other matchup of note from yesterday’s games saw Cannon (7-5-0) breaking their short 2-game losing streak with a win over Getty’s (6-5-1) to leapfrog them on the Leaderboard. I wouldn’t want to see either of these teams in my bracket on Tournament Day… both always capable of the upset.

As of today the Tournament Brackets page has gone live so you can follow along with who you’d be playing on Tournament Day if ‘the season ended today’… always fun for some… others most likely could give a shit less.. but it’s here if you want it ;-)

Pictures Next Week > And these will be our final pictures… JC Anderson immediately before their 6 o’clock game on Diamond 2. I’d like to take the picture just as the early horn sounds if JCA can get all their people out in time… this would help a lot in maximizing playing time for both the early and late games…

I’ve got an email out to the Park District… I’m hoping to run all of our games simultaneously at 6 o’clock on 09/09 and 09/16. Four on Upper with the four late games moving to Lower Hutchinson at 6. I’ll let everyone know the result of that query as soon as I hear. But keep in mind that next week will play exactly as this week did… if you’re the early game, start on time and surrender the field quickly… and if you’re the late game, get ready to go when that second horn blows and get going right away… and remember, NO batting practice…

Please remember that if you have anything you’d like to say, ask, question, etcetera… please feel free to do so here by clicking on the “comments” link up near the top of this post under the heading.

First off, sorry for updating so late… I had construction going on at the house and I just couldn’t get to it until now.

So for all the Leaderboard movement we had last week… this week, barely any at all… numbers 4 and 5 traded places, as did 7 and 8… that’s it… although the teams aren’t as close together as they were last week, things have loosened up a bit which is good news for some, not so good for others.

A couple minor upsets as well with Power beating Clune in this years battle of the construction companies… and we also saw Getty’s topping theBuzz… not really huge surprises although both saw the team with the better record losing the game… in the end, these were the two contests that unknotted the top of the Leaderboard a bit. And theBuzz loss coupled with a Ruder Group win this week left those two teams at 8-3 and currently separated by the scantiest 1 run allowed which is about as tight as it can get. These two play each other the week after next (thank the schedule-maker) and that game could possibly mean a lot… although theBuzz would have to knock off still undefeated REX Electric first in order to maintain that records tie.

In other action, Old Stylin’s winning streak came to an end after a 12-3 loss to Perkins&Will who ended a 6-game losing streak of their own… while the Dogz ended VOA’s 3-game winning streak with a 12-9 victory in 6 innings.

Darkness is definitely falling upon us earlier these days which makes it more important than ever for the early games to get started on time (if not a little early) and for the late games to take the field as quick as possible at there conclusion and get things underway fast. I heard some talk of late game teams that were trying to get in some batting practice before their games… please be aware that that just isn’t possible at this time of the year… we all really need to keep things moving along as quickly as possible to maximize the number of innings that get played. We’re going to stick with the 6:00/7:00 timetable for the next 2 game weeks… from there I’m going to check with the Park District on Lower Hutchinson availability… if we get lucky we might be able to run all 8 of our games off simultaneously at 6 o’clock for weeks 15 & 16 by moving all the late games to Lower Hutchinson… I’ll let you know what I hear back on that… otherwise we’re looking at 5:30/6:30 starts in those final two weeks.

Pictures are just about complete… the last ones I need are JC Anderson which I’ll get week after next… Otherwise, things are looking good… a lot of good matchups are still in store, up and down the Leaderboard… so as always, best of luck to all.

I’ll start off this week by apologizing for the lack of a horn at the proper time to end the early games. I had it in my hand at 7:07 but then got caught up making out my own line up (which was changing rapidly at game time) and I just forgot it. From the emails this morning it appears this caused some problems for the Kelso/VOA game on Diamond 2 for which I’m wholeheartedly sorry… That said, we’re into that point in the season where available light affects the late games. For those of you who are new to the league I offer the following as a primer;

Late game Captains need to keep their eye on the clock as well. In the absence of a horn (it happens) don’t be shy to let early game Captains know the time and that they should be in their last inning. Once the late game has begun and reaches the later innings with darkness falling, Captains should agree before every inning whether to play another. Once an inning begins, it must be played in its entirety, regardless of how long the top of the inning takes (unless of course the HOME team is in the lead). Keep in mind that this can be a touchy subject, especially to the team that’s losing, so be fair if you’re the team that’s winning. On the same token, realize that the team that’s winning has the right to not risk that win (and the associated runs allowed) by playing into darkness… all hell can break loose once the lights go out. These are waters we navigate every season, at the start and at the finish, usually without many problems… but it occasionally happens where one team wants to quit while the other wants to keep playing. All I can say is be fair. There’s also the option of calling the game officially over and then continuing to play just for the hell of it… knock yourselves out on that one.

IMPORTANT > Late games have been moved back 15 minutes to 7:00 pm starting next week (one week earlier than originally planned). So horns next week will sound at 5:55 and 6:55. Also be aware that for the last two game weeks of the season on September 9th and 16th, early games will begin at 5:30, late games at 6:30. This might require some planning for some of you in terms of leaving work earlier.

Now back to the business at hand… Week 11 saw an unusually high amount of Leaderboard movement from top to bottom, teams shifting around all over the place… which is good, it keeps things interesting. REX Electric won again, remained undefeated and essentially has a 2 game lead over both the #2 and #3 seeds by virtue of their tie with just the 5 games to go. The Reservoir Dogz and theBuzz are separated by only 3 runs allowed in those 2 and 3 seeds, so that’s a barn-burner… and by virtue of their own tie, Clune Construction can leap frog upward with any win coupled with a Dogz or Buzz loss… And then Ruder Group and VOA lie in wait just outside that pack… so the whole top half of the Leaderboard is still very much in flux.

Down low on the Leaderboard we saw Getty’s Group and Old Stylin’ continue to build upon winning streaks while Power Construction got back on track with a 17-10 victory.

The one last thing to mention this week is to ask that you start planning for Tournament Day with your teams right away… this has been a pretty great season in my opinion and I really want to see it end with all 16 teams out strong for the Tournament… and for those of you that are languishing near the bottom of the Leaderboard… always remember that all bets are off come the Tournament… anyone can win it… the Regular Season simply determines how steep the climb is.

I’ll start with the weather as I knock on wood… we’ve made it through Week 10 with only the 1 rainout, which has been rescheduled. We got lucky again yesterday as early in the day a massive storm skirted over to the north completely drenching Milwaukee all the way down south of the border. Driving home north on the Edens at about 2:30 am I watched a massive lightning storm out in front of me. When I got home I checked the radar. But we were good again… hopefully it continues through the end… it might be possible that every team plays every other team once… that would be the first time that happened as well.

So, mayhem at the top of the Leaderboard with a lot of movement both up and down as well as a tightening of the records and tie-breaking numbers that create an exciting race heading into the final 6 games. Starting on Diamond 1… theBuzz handed the Dogz an 11-4 loss pulling their record even at 7-2 and trailing the Dogz now just by virtue of 4 runs allowed. The Dogz dropped from the 2 seed to the 3 seed as a result of a really exciting game between Clune Construction and undefeated REX Electric. Going into the game the thought was… someone’s gonna lose and opportunities will exist because of that… but leave it to these two teams to thwart all that by playing to an 8-inning 5-5 tie. This obviously works out well for both teams as a tie is a whole lot better than a loss and they now both have one in their pockets. Any team that passes them in the final 6 games will need one more win to do so, which makes things a lot more interesting.

Further down the Leaderboard in other action… Old Stylin’ continues their resurgence with a 9-7 win over Power Construction for a modest 2-game winning streak as they’re on the rise… up one in the standings and looking strong heading into the break. Kelso-Burnett learned, as the Reservoir Dogz did as well I think, that coming out early to practice on a day where the heat index is over 100 is most likely not the best idea. They dropped a 16-1 decision to Cannon Design. SOM fought hard but still took a 13-11 loss to Goettsch Partners and Ruder Group and VOA got back to winning ways with victories in both of their games… STV forfeited to Getty’s Group on Diamond 4 in the late game.

One thing to draw your attention to while we’re still well short of the end of the season… please notice that the Tournament Brackets reflect the seeding changes that we discussed and voted on last year in the 14-team season. The change that was made more or less is that the top 8 slots on the Leaderboard are handled as the NBA playoffs are; 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5. From there the lower 8 slots are split 4/4 and slotted in as would be expected. Any comments on these brackets should be submitted via the “comments” section of this post as opposed to sending me an email on it… what I’m getting at is to make all discussion part of the public record as well as any replies.

Pictures are going well as pretty much all are done except for three teams I still need to get to after the break. In our first game day back on August 12th I’ll get Getty’s Group before their 6 o’clock game on Diamond 3… I’ll also get the Goettsch Captain picture I’m missing hopefully… a reminder will come in the game week. Also of note was that Old Stylin’ was the first to take me up on my offer for picture retakes yesterday resulting in a much better picture that included more of their people… I encourage any of the rest of you to do the same if you had a bad turnout when yours was taken.

So far this has been an awesome season… it started with only 12 confirmed teams back in March… we got past that hurdle getting back to 16 teams and it happened pretty painlessly… we’ve made it through the first 10 weeks without losing any games to the weather and we have a lot of really interesting races going across the Leaderboard… So everyone have a great break, get recharged… and we’ll lace ‘em up for the final push to the Tournament about a month from now. If you’re heading out on vacation, have a great time… I’m now officially out of here.

So in a week where rain looked like a certainty for much of it… the softball gods once again came through for us by stopping the deluge in enough time and launching the sun so we could get off our game day. On top of that, the South Loop was tremendously less populated than the same time last week and I’m sure everyone enjoyed that as well.

On the diamonds we lead with upstart Old Stylin’ who pulled out the 8-4 upset of last years champion Ruder Group to give themselves a bit of a boost up while dropping Ruder to the middle of the pack… JC Anderson pulls out what can be considered an upset as well, 8-1 over Power Construction… and we also had three real battles as Clune Construction grabs the 11-10 win over Gettys Group and VOA eeks out the 4-3 win over Cannon Design while theBuzz maintains their top 4 position with a 9-7 win over Kelso-Burnett. REX Electric remains undefeated with a 17-6 victory over Perkins&Will but find themselves matched against Clune next week in the last game before the break where that undefeated record hangs in the balance.

A note about scorekeeping > I’ve been tracking which teams report a final score on the day after and I can say that on that front we’re good… everyone is reporting… the problem is that I’m getting a few too many inconsistent reports which causes me to then have to reach out to the Captains in question to get at the real score… This slows things down and it’s a pain in the butt… Please confirm runs scored inning by inning on the field and then come to agreement on the final score at the games conclusion. Take it seriously… it’s the basis for the Tournament seeding and it’s important… and for those of you who are spot on week after week… I know who you are… thanks.

Pictures next week will be theBuzz before their 6 o’clock game… I’m also offering retakes to Power Construction and Old Stylin’ if either of those teams are interested.

So to some, Taste of Chicago is a seething cess pool that turns our relatively quiet corner of the South Loop into Grand Central Station… to others it makes downtown Chicago feel more vibrant and alive than it usually is… I probably fall somewhere in-between these two extremes, although I’m glad that next week should bring better traffic and more reasonable parking rates… In the end, the most congested day of the Design League season seemed to go off with out much if any problem at all.

From what I’ve been told, the Ruder Group win over Power Construction was a pretty exciting game where Ruder was down 6-1 at one point and fought back for an 8-7 victory. Power has run into a streak of bad luck recently… but take it from me, you don’t want them in your bracket come Tournament Day, no matter what seed they’re coming in as… so I’m reserving any sympathies until after the fat lady has sung here in 2k10.

In another top half of the Leaderboard battle, theBuzz upended VOA 13-5, finding their offense once again after scoring only 6 runs in their previous 3 games. To VOA’s credit though, they’ve figured out that you can have pizza delivered directly to the diamonds, skipping all the inconvenience of patronizing one of the many South Loop establishments… as I reminded VOA though, beware that even though the police enforce Park District drinking laws rarely on Upper Hutchinson, it has been known to happen… and if it does, it’s $85 tickets for all. Best bet is to keep unopened beer hidden in bags or a cooler… and dispose of empties right away as opposed to throwing them all on the ground for later pick-up… Don’t draw attention to yourselves.

Although Old Stylin’ mounted a bit of a late inning comeback… REX held them off 13-7 to remain the Design League’s only undefeated team here at the conclusion of Week 8. Perkins&Will is the next team with a shot at taking them down and that will happen in the late game next week on Diamond 2.

IMPORTANT > This new interface was put in place as it includes an easy method by which to add your own comments. As I’m personally only on one corner of Upper Hutchinson every Thursday… reports on what happened on the other diamonds are more than welcome… as are inquiries about the rules or anything else that’s on your mind after a particular game day.

No pictures are scheduled for next week other than an SOM re-take… I’m also able to retake REX or Perkins&Will if either team is interested.

So we’re down to one in terms of undefeated teams as Clune drops their first to the Reservoir Dogz 9-2. REX Electric holds on to their own undefeated record courtesy of a 7-6 nail biter over Power in a game that I heard they were down 6-1 in… which gives just a bit more credence to their viability as they hung in and kept battling. Next team with a shot at REX is Old Stylin’… that’ll happen in an early game on Diamond 4 next week. Right about now they should start feeling the pressure of every opponent gunning for them… it’s a long road to an undefeated season, I wish them the best of luck… but courtesy of our Week 2 rain out, the Dogz will be waiting for them in Week 16 if they’re able to hold off the challengers until then ;-)

In other action, Old Stylin’ and Getty’s battled 9 innings and settled for a 4-4 tie. Old Stylin’ seems to be getting their competitiveness rolling, two straight games of fighting it out hard… And Cannon handed theBuzz the same 3-0 loss that theBuzz put on JC Anderson last week. Scoring 3 and allowing 3 over two games is an anomaly in our league of high scoring games… theBuzz matches up with VOA next week, look for some fireworks there.

Busy week for pictures next week as things continue to roll along on that front… Old Stylin’ and REX before their 6 o’clock game and the STV team picture before their 7:15 game.