Blog

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.

So REX Electric appears to be for real for all the doubters out there… In last years Tournament they were the one glitch in an otherwise perfect season for the Ruder Group and came very close to knocking the team that ended up winning it all out of the Final Four… I remember thinking that that was a win that you could build some momentum from… and they certainly have. Now at 5-0 with an amazing 11 runs allowed, it becomes increasingly hard not to take them for real as they are one of our last two unbeaten teams along with Clune Construction… next to get a shot at them is Power Construction. And for our four new teams this season… take inspiration, this is only the second full season for REX Electric.

As for Clune Construction, there off to their usual winning ways for the regular season… next week their perfect record runs up against a Reservoir Dogz team riding a 4-game winning streak… all the possible outcomes… let’s hope the weather continues to cooperate… it has been a pretty great Summer weather-wise so far…

In other action yesterday… congrats to Old Stylin’ who jumps off the snide with their first win of the season 13-6 over Goettsch… and to theBuzz with a neat 3-0 win over JCA to move into a virtual dead heat for the 3-seed.

Pictures next week will be just Goettsch… before their 6 o’clock game on Diamond 4.

Pretty awesome weather out on the diamonds last night… and the first week where the late games truly had enough light to finish up illuminated… so the heart of the Summer is upon us. Unexplainable traffic and different events hung a light pall over yesterday’s games as well… a lot of people had a hard time making their way to the diamonds… Power Constructions forfeit (by the way) was done properly over a week in advance. This was due to an annual company event… last year we were able to swing a makeup game as we had only the 14 teams, but this year, we were all booked up.

We saw both Ruder Group and theBuzz fall from the ranks of the undefeated… leaving only REX Electric and Clune Construction to carry that no loss pressure at 4-0. Clune meets Kelso-Burnett and REX will run into Ruder Group next week… will another fall? 7 days will give us our answers.

REX Electrics win yesterday was a close 6-5 win over Goettsch while both Gettys Group and Perkins&Will eaked out 2-run wins in what appears to be great games… and perhaps most surprising was that SOM vs. STV ended in an 11-11 tie after 8 innings. I wrote to the SOM Captain that I’m always happy to see winless teams meet as it almost always results in one team picking up a win… but they figured out how to keep things within the 1% of the time category… one way or another it was a game that involved a lot of subs and probably wasn’t a true representation of either team, but they both live to fight another day.

Still looking for the following Captains to opt-in to this Forum’s mailing list (you can do so over to the right); Jason Bramhall & Dan Pierce (Gettys), Sal Pintauro (REX Electric), Matt Ruder (Ruder Group) and Sheldon Hall (STV). If you 5 could do this sooner rather than later you’ll avoid the assault on your inbox that I’ll be unleashing first thing Monday morning.

Pictures are moving along fine… scheduled for next week will be Perkins&Will before their 6 o’clock game and Kelso-Burnett before their 7:15 game… I’ll also be heading over to Diamond 1 around 7 o’clock looking for Power Constructions Jake Basten.

See everyone next week.