Still early on, but Leaderboard activity yesterday was a bit interesting and off the norm as well… of the 3 undefeated teams that remained, two lost with Perkins&Will dropping Cannon 16-7 and theBuzz edging out Clune 10-9 in a thriller that came down to the 7th… and in the ‘I didn’t see that coming’ department… Goettsch, coming off of a forfeit, played the seemingly invincible Dobbins Group into darkness for a 10-10 tie… at the end of the day, the Leaderboard remains anyones for the taking… no team is running away with things going into the double-BYE.

A Short Word About Forfeits

The reason I bring it up is because we’ve had two forfeits so far in the early season… the two teams involved are long time Design League teams that just had circumstances creep up on them, shit happens and this is directed at them in no way… just wanted to remind all Captains that a forfeit not only leaves your opponent that day with no game to play… it also alters the natural progression of the season which of course seeds the Tournament. In other words, a forfeit brings a 7-0 final score, but what we’re interested in is whatever score would have resulted from the game having been played. The closer we can come to this ideal, the more ‘legit’ the Tournaments seeding… Please use whatever tools you have at your disposal within the rules to get a team on the field… playing a late game? Query early game Captains for extra players that wanna play two… playing an early game? Do the opposite… or call friends, friends of friends, whoever… We’ve kept our number of forfeits to a minimum for years now, let’s work together to keep it that way.

Pictures for our next game day on May 31st > Goetch, Old Stylin’ & Kelso-Burnett

To the teams already photographed, thanks for your cooperation… it has gone very smoothly so far.

There is a possibility that Upper Hutchinson will be available to us next Thursday for any teams interested in practicing… I’m going to check in with the Park District again early next week to see if that’s still on the table… If you’re interested in a possible practice, let me know via email and I’ll get in touch with you once I know the details.

Everyone have a great weekend.

But then our attention turned to getting all the games in as storms were materializing all across the Chicagoland area over the course of the evening… entering the later innings of the late games we saw lightning to the north and the rumble of thunder was evident… but in the end… we got Week 2 in and escaped the diamonds just as the rains rolled in… not exactly sure if it rained on the diamonds, but it was pouring at the Ohio feeder ramp at 8:20, so I imagine it was… Can you believe this is the first time we’ve played the first two game weeks of the season since 2008? That’s the fact… so I’m really happy as our attention turns to the extended forecast for next week which is currently looking pretty good… we get through next week without any rain and we’ll be in great shape heading into the double-bye.

Not quite ready yet to do any game updates as the Leaderboard is always in a chaotic state here in the early-season… but we did have a couple of 1-run games yesterday as well as a couple of blow outs… 3 of 4 Final Four teams from last season in Cannon, Dobbins Group and Clune have once again jumped out to undefeated starts… but the season is still young, plenty of time to plot and scheme to knock them off ;-)

Pictures Next Week > theBuzz and Ruder Group

Everyone have a great weekend… and feel free to post anything you’d like to the ‘comments’ section of this post… the more voices the merrier… currently, it has only been mine… which is getting a little lonely.

First a little history… the Ringer Rule was born in ’02 or ’03 after one of our teams that shall remain nameless showed up on Tournament Day with a pitcher straight off the Comcast Sportsnet Super 16 All-Stars. A pot-bellied dude around 50 that was throwing a 20′ arc and dropping it in the well most every pitch… and when he came up to bat he’d shoot a gap every single time not even having to exert himself when rounding the bases. Obviously this cat had never played a regular season game in the Design League or he would have been remembered… but there he was on Tournament Day providing the worlds largest unfair advantage… thus the rule was born…

I can’t even remember the original wording, but the problem from the beginning was how to enforce it. Over the years we’ve tried different wordings, but where its gotten to now is;

To play with your team on Tournament Day, a player must have been in attendance for at least 50% of your teams games that season.

How can anybody ever prove that though? The method tried over the last several years has been with pictures and the team pages… and to a certain extent there’s still a lot of good in that I intend to salvage here. In the effort to document a teams roster to support this rule we’ve actually evolved into a great routine for taking, annotating and posting team pictures/rosters. So good has come from this experiment, but at the end of the day, the Ringer Rule as currently worded is unenforceable for me. It just hasn’t worked out.

So before I get accused of changing the rule for personal reasons… I’m just gonna admit that I’m changing the rule for personal reasons. First the disclosure… going into the Tournament last year I had exactly a 10-person team… that was before our right fielder pulled a hamstring on that last Thursday of the regular season. He let me know on the eve of the Tournament that he wasn’t able to go… I considered going with 9… but then decided instead to call one of our alumni, a fantastic softball player no doubt, but also a guy who has played just about 100 Design League games with the Dogz going back to ’98… but none in 2011… so I broke the rule as written, but the way I felt about it and have for years considering what I’ve OK’d for other teams in the past… is that I didn’t break what the spirit and the intent of the rule was in the first place… which was don’t show up on Tournament Day with some Hall of Famer that nobody has ever seen before in a Design League game.

Within our Tournament Bracket last year, 2 of the 3 other teams in our bracket were vocally jeering the presence of our substitute right-fielder… and here’s the rub… how would any of them even know that he hadn’t played in any games for us last year? Would they know that sort of information about any player on any Design League team out there? The answer is that the Dogz have a website with our entire Design League history meticulously documented, accessible from any smartphone along the sidelines. Unfortunately, we’re the only team in the Design League with such a website and that leaves us over-exposed which turns out to be a competitive disadvantage… After multiple trips walking all the diamonds last Tournament Day I had suspicions about more than a few of the players I saw out there… but there’s no way to prove anything and where would the sportsmanship be in that sort of inquiry anyway?

But keeping that superstar player who’s visiting Grant Park for the first time off the diamonds on Tournament Day is still a priority, so here’s what I propose… Same rules for every team… straight up and above board, very easy to enforce…

• Pictures will this year become a priority. If you check this seasons Schedule you’ll see that starting in Week 2 we begin to take team pictures, you can check Weeks 2-8 right now to see when your team picture will be taken, pictures are now being scheduled in the pre-season. The goal is to have all team pictures finished by the latter half of June, definitely before the Lollapalooza break. The absence of your new shirts, a low attendance day, etc. will no longer be accepted as a reason to postpone your picture. Pictures happen on your scheduled day come hell or high water.
• The day after your teams picture is taken you will be sent the annotation request email… in response to that email you will send (a) an annotation of those in the picture, (b) a listing of all those on the roster but not present for the picture… and (c) the new category, Eligible Alumni… to be on this list a player must not be on your active roster but does need to be present (or listed) in at least one of your teams past team pictures/rosters.
• Once all the team pictures have been taken and team pages updated with the rosters, I will create a 16-page .PDF of all the team pages and post it to the website for anyone to print out as an on-field reference for the second half of the season on into the Tournament.
• If there’s any dispute on Tournament Day as to a players eligibility, drivers licenses get smacked down on the table and compared to the book… no muss, no fuss… easy to enforce.

And for those wondering why I even feel the addition of an Eligible Alumni list is necessary… the answer would be that I feel the intent and spirit of the rule should allow a team to draw on past members in circumstances of need while at the same time protecting an opponent from having to face a (never played a Design League game before) true ringer, like that one from a decade ago that started all this bullshit in the first place.

So that’s that… Rule A13 has updated on the Rules page as well as on the printable version… but that said, if any of you have thoughts on how this new approach could be made better or further tweaked, feel free to post to the comments on this post… I’m open to the back and forth… but speaking to my executive decision here to change things… all I can say is it’s time to try another approach.

So now after all that, we’re changing one more rule… and I promise that this one is a quickie… Rule A12 which now reads;

The HOME team picks/approves the game ball.

Will now be changed to;

Game Ball Rule; During Regular Season play and the Bracket Rounds on Tournament Day, both teams will agree on the game ball before the game begins. The desire should be to choose the hardest of the available balls. For both Final Four games as well as the Championship Game, all three of these games will begin with new, out-of-the-box softballs that will be provided by the league.

These are our two changes to the Rule book here at the start of the 2012 Season. Opinions, counterpoints and even good-natured ranting are all welcome here in the comment section. If you have an opinion on any of this, go on record… everything’s always open for debate.

For the second straight year, our Tournament Champion arrived at the Final Four having only given up 2 runs. The Tournament is inevitably about defense and Cannon Design exhibited that in spades this past Saturday. In fact, they gave up less runs in 5 games (10) than any other team did in 3 or 4 games… pretty amazing.

In the top of the 1st inning of our Final Four game, the Dogz started with a deep ball to left that had triple written all over it, Cannon’s left fielder ran it down with an amazing over-the-shoulder catch… next batter, a line shot at the pitchers head… which he snags… third batter hits a hard shot to the hole at short, a base hit against most other teams, Cannon’s fantastic shortstop sticks it and shotguns a throw across to their sure-handed 1st baseman. As an opposing Captain it gets you thinking ‘oh shit’… and that’s more or less how it worked out as Cannon dropped theDogz 10-5.

And then one last twist of fate to find out that the other Final Four game had ended with #9 Clune knocking off the #1 seeded Dobbins Group… No need to change fields, the 2-seed was now the trump card. Clune traveled the Upper Hutch diagonal crossing from Diamond 2 to Diamond 4 for the title game, which got under way around 4:30 with a bright sun in the right field sky. Clune looked a little tired from the outset, it’s a longer road to a championship game from the #9 seed. They advanced from their bracket at 2-1, which is always more stressful and then they switched diamonds to play a team that had won 16 straight. Lost in all of this was the fact that Clune hung the only loss on Dobbins Group they experienced this year… but that they did… for the right to take that long walk over to Diamond 4 and a shot at the crown…

They were a bit gassed though… and Cannon seemed cool, calm and on a mission… which was how it worked out… a valiant effort on the part of Design League vets Clune Construction, but in the end, this was Cannon’s day… Final Fours in ’06, ’07 and ’10… but here in 2011 they’ve finally reached the promised land and grabbed their 1st Design League Championship since the move to Grant Park.

Congratulations on a great season.

On a side note, from my own perspective of having had the Dogz lose to Cannon in the Final Four game, a chain-of-events revealed itself as I thought about it in the aftermath that seems to give weight to the importance of your regular season seed’s influence on your chances on Tournament Day. One scenario that’s quite possibly true is that Cannon Design was just unstoppable this year, regardless of what their path to a title ended up being. On the last day of the regular season though, Cannon (#2) dropped a 3-2 game to 11th place Gettys Group. That should have dropped them from the 2 to the 3 seed, however the Dogz (#3) ended up tying 15th place Kelso-Burnett, equally unlikely, yet still missing out on the opportunity to take the #2 from Cannon. Assuming that the Dogz and Cannon would both have advanced with flip-flopped brackets, how that translates two days later on Tournament Day was that in their Final Four game, the Dogz were both the visiting team as well as having to move diamonds for the game… the result could very well have been exactly the same, even with the situation reversed… but it still makes me want to work towards the highest seed possible every season. The #1 seed is the ace-in-the-hole, you just need to win 4 games before you truly get to use it.

One way or another, a great season ending in the crowning of a deserving champion in Cannon Design, 5-0 with 10 runs allowed and 48 runs scored, a fantastic day.

The (extremely loud at times) Mexican Parade aside, it felt like a pretty laid back Tournament day to me. The dire weather forecast never came to pass and I think everyone was happy to be back on Upper Hutchinson. The consensus seemed to be that the outfields were still a little rocky, but considering the entire park was a steamy stew of slop less than a month ago, I’m actually amazed at the job they did in getting it playable again in such a short time. My wife and I took a couple trips around the diamonds taking some pictures… many of these will be posting to the leagues Facebook page over the next week or two… so if you’re on Facebook and not yet a fan of the page… stop by here and get it done so you don’t miss those.

At the end of the day, after the sun had set on Grant Park, I looked around and saw my Dogz, Power Construction, VOA and theBuzz, flagship teams still with camps that were going strong, squeezing every last bit of time out of the annual event… got me thinking once again of the ‘tradition’ that’s been spoken of so much over the last month or so. It’s worth fighting for. Due diligence will be paid and we will return strong as ever next year to carry things on…

In the meantime, have a great off-season.

Note; Simply type in the “comments” box below to add anything to this narrative you feel noteworthy, this is the Design League’s permanent record, all of your personal observations are both welcome and sought after here…  also find links below for sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter and all the rest…

First off, my sincere thanks to each and every team for what they’ve had to endure over the last 3 weeks. The longer trip to Waveland coupled with the earlier sunset and earlier start times created some real hassle for many of us… but in the end, of the 24 games scheduled at Waveland, 4 were decided by forfeit, which I feel was better than expected considering the circumstances. 13 of out 16 teams fielded teams for all 3 games. And a special thanks to Sean Bock from Old Stylin’ and the crew from Ruder Group who helped me out a lot getting the bases staked before each Thursday’s games. And last, to all the folks that took up the bases after the late games and humped ‘em over to Diamond 2, my sincere thanks as well…

Our last game day of the regular season and hopefully our last game at Waveland ever turned in a few exciting finishes as well as a couple of surprises… Surprise #1 was 13th seeded Gettys Group knocking off 2nd ranked Cannon 3-2 in the early game on Diamond 1. From what I heard, Cannon had two on and one out in the top of the 7th and failed to tie it… the Cannon loss opened the door for the Dogz to take the 2 seed if they could beat Kelso-Burnett in the early game on Diamond 2… In that game the Dogz entered the bottom of the 7th down 5-3… the Dogz picked up a run to make it 5-4 and brought one of their better hitters to the plate with 1 on and 2 out… a triple to right center tied the game but then the Dogz runner tried to stretch the game-tying triple into the game-winning score and was tagged out at the plate. Dogz tie and remain the 3 seed. Hats off to Kelso-Burnett who played a spirited game.

JC Anderson and Perkins&Will played a close game that appears to have ended in some controversy as it grew too dark to play… but in the end, JC Anderson’s 9-8 loss coupled with Clune Constructions 9-1 win over Old Stylin’ finds JCA and Clune swapping the 9 & 10 seeds… And the 3-2 win by Gettys Group over Cannon mentioned earlier allowed Gettys to jump 2 seeds from 13 to 11 as Old Stylin’ and VOA each drop down a seed courtesy of a loss and forfeit respectively.

But the most interesting game of the night was theBuzz @ Dobbins Group in the late game on Diamond 3… how the hell you start at 6:35 with the sun setting at 7:16 and have a 7-inning game where 32 runs are scored is beyond me… but these two pulled it off as theBuzz lost a heartbreaker 17-15 as they took the best shot at Dobbins of any of us in their attempt to knock off the undefeated… what’s more amazing is that the game had no real consequence for either team… this was simply theBuzz trying to hang a loss on ‘em heading into the Tournament… and Dobbins fighting like hell not to let it happen… from what I heard theBuzz put up an 11 run 3rd inning dropping Dobbins way down in the hole… and they came back from it… as the regular season comes to a close, I think all hats are off to the Dobbins Group, a rookie team that ran the table on the regular season… let’s give them a collective pat on the back and then commence trying to knock ‘em out again on Saturday… 13-0, 8th ranked defense, 1st ranked offense. Congrats.

Tournament Info

Field Conditions : After the games last night I headed over to Upper Hutchinson and walked the diamonds. All the grass is firmly in place and looking pretty good… the one trouble spot is on the south end of the park where there’s a little patch of 10% grass 90% dirt… this affects right field for Diamond 2 and left field for Diamond 3 but I wouldn’t say it’s enough of a thing to really cause any problems. They’ve also already cut all the grass which was good to see. They were scheduled to do that today (Friday), but I’m assuming they cut it yesterday with the forecast for rain Friday… this ends up good for us I think, hopefully the fence will come down today… The last remaining issue would be the bases. Of the 12 on Upper only 9 were staked… I hold out hope that this can be rectified today… but I’m guessing we’ll have to stake in the bases we’ve been using at Waveland…. problem with that is I need more stakes (that aren’t bent) and what are we supposed to do about the sticks that are sticking out of the ground where the bases are supposed to be? Removing them will lose the spot… coordinating with the Park District on this one today…

So assuming the weather holds out it would appear all systems are go for Upper Hutchinson this Saturday morning… that being the case, the official Tournament Scoreboard will be located in foul territory behind 1st base on Diamond 1, along the train tracks. As always, one Captain from each team is responsible for checking in at the Scorer’s Tent between 8:30 and 8:55.

Captain’s Checklist

MOST IMPORTANT > Make sure your players understand not to assume a Tournament rain-out… Short of an all out deluge, the Tournament will go down as planned tomorrow even if we have to play through some rain. Too many teams would be adversely affected if we moved to the rain date to give up on tomorrow too easily.

This is what you need to do today… (1) Email all your players and get confirmations on their attendance, coordinate the supplies for your base camp and have everyone prepared to deal with some rain (tailgating tents, umbrellas, plastic bags, tarps). (2) Read and Print the conditions and info specific to Tournament Day on this page. (3) Print out the Rules, have a copy in your bag, re-read them quickly to get things fresh in your heads. (4) View the Tournament Game Day Matchups and extract your teams schedule. (5) Go to bed early with the alarm clock set.

On a side note, I still need pictures for Perkins&Will and SOM… I’ll be visiting Perkins&Will with my camera in the 1 o’clock hour… and I’ll be taking pictures of SOM in the 9 o’clock hour.

Feel free to comment on this post, I read all comments as they’re posted… or you can email if you have any questions… I’ll update via email today with any relevant new information as it becomes available.

And as always… Good luck to all.

The most likely scenario is that we’ll play our last games of the regular season at Waveland Fields on Thursday, Friday will be a day of rest… and then the Tournament will go down on Saturday at Upper Hutchinson. The only things that could change that would be rain on the 10th… or a failure of the Grant Park contractors to remove the fencing on Upper and release the park for use as they’ve promised on the 9th… if the latter were to occur, the Tournament would simply move up north to Lawrence Fields, everything else would stay the same.

For me, next Thursday through Saturday becomes all Design League, all the time. Scores from Thursday have to be gotten that same day on the diamonds so that the website can be updated and the Tournament Big Board prepared to be printed on Friday so that it’s ready for Saturday. I’ll be working on this stuff pretty much non-stop so here’s what I need from all of you;

First, Scores need to be given to me on the diamonds next Thursday, late game Captains will need to return the bases to me on Diamond 2 just as it happened last night. For the record, Cannon @ Gettys Group next Thursday has been switched to Diamond 1 to allow me to stay on Diamond 2 as I don’t want to change the routine we’ve established for the staking of the bases.

Second, understanding what a pain in the ass playing at Waveland Fields has been and the aggravation it has caused many of us, especially now with the 5:30 early start time… I would ask all the Captains to do their very best towards not forfeiting our last games of the regular season… this is just for one last Thursday. Even on my own team I have 3/4′s of my players agreeing to leave work a little early that day so that we can field a team and get 2011 in the books… just one last day of sacrifice.

And last, with all that has happened this year and all that I’m continuing to deal with on a daily basis… the last thing I want to happen is for any of our teams to bail on the Tournament last minute… my understanding right now is that all teams are good for the Tournament except for Old Stylin’ who are having issues due to one of their players getting married on that day. Their Captains continue to work on putting together a skeleton crew, that’s being worked on… but my assumption is that I don’t have to worry about any of the rest of you. Please communicate with your players early and often on this so potential issues can be dealt with over the course of the next week.

So that’s it… paying attention to those 3 things would help me out tremendously and if all goes well, 2011 will be in the books with a new champion crowned within the next 8 days.

On the fields yesterday we continued to pay the price of having been displaced from Grant Park… 7 of the 8 games got played, and I thank all of you for the effort in getting out there… but I know that many of us have seen our lineups decimated due to the strange circumstances… this has statistically skewed things a bit and it’s one of the issues on my list for the Park District.

That said, not a whole lot happened in terms of change yesterday… JC Anderson and Clune swapping the 9 and 10 seed marked the only movement on the Leaderboard. Other than that, there were no real upsets… a disappointment to me was that the game between #2 Cannon and #4 Goettsch was obviously affected by depleted rosters and trouble getting to the park on time for the 5:30 start… Bears traffic on Lakeshore Drive also played a role in our problems…

But on to better times right… next week is THE week… and I don’t know about any of you… but no matter how much I enjoy Design League softball and usually wish we could play all Winter…. this year, I’m gonna be happy to see things draw to a close… hopefully we’ll get a bright, sunny day for our Tournament and have a redemptive day on what’s now the newly re-constructed Upper Hutchinson Fields. Keep your fingers crossed.

In game action, the most significant movement on the Leaderboard came in the top 4 seeds where Cannon was able to outlast Ruder Group 7-3 as they played into darkness which allowed them to leapfrog both Goettsch and the Dogz who played each other to a 4-inning 9-9 tie. An exciting game where Goettsch scored 3 to tie it in the bottom of the last inning and the last play of the game was an out at the plate as the Dogz were able to preserve the tie after giving up the lead.

The Dobbins Group continued their undefeated run as well with a 6-3 victory over VOA. They now have a 2 game lead with 2 games to go, so they can clinch the #1 seed with a victory next week against SOM. And speaking of seeds, the Tournament Brackets page on the website has now started to update as the Tournament is just a mere two weeks away… check ‘em out…

And with the Tournament just two weeks away, it’s really time to start surveying your players and making sure you have a full roster for Saturday, September 10th… I’m particularly interested in hearing back from Old Stylin’, SCB and Kelso-Burnett on how they’re looking for the Championship Tournament.

Regarding the Forum post that I’ve asked everyone on every team to both read and comment on… we’re currently up to 28 comments and I have to say… they’re all excellent… exactly in the spirit of tradition we’re looking for… the only problem is that there needs to be a lot more… at very least I would hope all the Captains that haven’t commented yet would do so… whether today or if you want to send yourself the link and do it at home over the weekend… it all works. The link to the post is going to be forwarded to the Park District next week, most likely Tuesday or Wednesday… in the meantime I will continue to send emails requesting comments from those that haven’t done so yet… I spoke to many of you yesterday that promised me you’d get it done.. please do it… it’s important.

> http://chicagodesignleague.com/forum/2011/08/traditions-in-jeopardy-at-grant-park/

All for now… and again, I apologize for the shear amount of reading I’ve asked you to do over the past couple weeks… those of you that have been around for a while know that it’s not my usual M.O. But in having had the league disrupted in such a significant way, this has become an important issue and I’ve chosen to communicate everything as opposed to under-informing… hopefully the majority of you are alright with that.

The grass that had formally dominated the park was gone, in its place a swamp land of mud and trampled debris. The stench of beer and litter everywhere are two things usually banned on Park District property. As it has now turned out, the rest of our season has been relocated to a park that’s about a twenty minute drive north up the lakefront. Wouldn’t seem like the end of the world but a handful of our teams aren’t able to deal with the change of venue logistically, opening us up to certain forfeits and a statistical skewing of our season.

As human nature goes, I admit to being more offended this year than in years past because the annual swath of damage left in Lollapalooza’s wake has now directly affected me and my league. For the first time since the festival arrived in 2005, the surface of Upper Hutchinson Fields had been destroyed along with Lower Hutchinson. For the uninitiated, Upper and Lower Hutchinson, located on the southwest and southeast corners of Balbo and Columbus respectively, are home to 16 of the most prestigious softball diamonds amongst the Chicago Park Districts 534 total. Centrally located, beautiful vistas, superb management, great ground crews… Summer’s were sweet in Grant Park before Lollapalooza arrived.

For the record, many in our league love the fact that Chicago has Lollapalooza through 2018. It’s a cultural touchstone and obviously a tradition in its own right having just celebrated its 20th anniversary. We’re also glad that it happens in Grant Park. It always means a month of downtime for us at the two-thirds mark of our season, but we’ve melded this fact into our own tradition over the last 6 years, it’s the dog days down time, many plan their family vacations for this period, others in fact attend Lollapalooza.

But like Lollapalooza, the Chicago Design League has its own definition of Grant Park in the Summer. We’re a collection of the cities foremost architecture, engineering and construction firms. We’ve been playing softball together for the last 25 years and we’ve been on Upper Hutchinson in Grant Park for the past 11 years. Thursday nights from May through mid-September for over a decade culminating with an epic all-day Saturday Tournament as our season concludes each year. We’ve never used umpires, absolutely all batted balls are in-play and we always make sure our trash ends up in the cans before we leave. We have a tradition in Grant Park as well… and we now feel as though it’s being profoundly threatened.

Our goal is in no way, shape or form to displace Lollapalooza. We collectively realize how much money is generated by the event and understand as well that the festival is under contract through 2018. What we’re in search of is a solution that can allow all the indigenous tribes that use Grant Park every Summer to coexist in harmony. For us specifically, that means protecting softball in Grant Park which has been a Chicago tradition for the past half century.

The dismantling of Perry's Tent post-Lolla 2011. August 10, 2011

Towards that end we seek a conversation with the Chicago Park District focused on how to better protect the 16 softball diamonds at Grant Park from the legions that annually trample them during Lollapalooza. We consider it paramount that softball may resume on both Lower and Upper Hutchinson come mid-August once the festival has left town. We’d like to start that conversation with the following two suggestions;

First, an alternative location needs to be found for “Perry’s Tent”.

For the first time in the history of Lollapalooza’s residency at Grant Park, a massive tent covering almost the entirety of Upper Hutchinson field was set up as a response to the growing popularity of DJ’s and the concert goers who enjoy dancing to them. This resulted in the destruction of the 4 diamonds on Upper Hutchinson in addition to the 12 annually destroyed by the main concert grounds on Lower Hutchinson. Previous to this year Upper Hutchinson was reserved for emergency and VIP services as well as one of the bathroom banks. This low level of usage preserved the diamonds in a playable condition giving those who organize activities at Grant Park a ‘buffer zone’ in which to relocate events displaced by the destruction of Lower Hutchinson. This buffer zone has now been taken away which has caused a displacement of far too many events to locations outside of Grant Park in Lollapalooza’s aftermath. As Grant Park is a public park, this simply isn’t fair nor is it in the publics best interest.

Second, and speaking more towards ALL of Grant Park’s 16 diamonds being returned to a usable condition following the festival every year, would be to delay the “reconstruction” of Lower Hutchinson post-festival until permitted park activities drew to a close any given year, realistically October 1st. Having spoken to landscape architects on the topic it’s preferable to lay sod at this point in the Chicago season anyway as the sun isn’t as hot any longer and more rain tends to fall. In the meantime the diamonds themselves could be quickly restored, the outfield dirt graded for smoothness and softball could continue. Not ideal… having grass in the outfields would be the best possible scenario if a way to protect it could be devised, however a compromise we’d be willing to make in order to never be displaced from our park post-Lolla again.

The Mission Statement of the Chicago Park District reads as follows;

To enhance the quality of life in Chicago by becoming the leading provider of recreation and leisure opportunities.

To provide safe, inviting, and beautifully maintained parks and facilities; and

To create a customer-focused and responsive park system.

As merely one of the organizations/leagues/traditions that have occupied Grant Park over the last decades, we feel that the Park District has run afoul of their stated mission. We ask to sit down with them now, soon, while the issue is topical and Lollapalooza 2012 is still a long ways off, to come to some sort of compromise moving forward. Understanding the amount of money that Lollapalooza brings into the city, there must be some way that can continue without further disruption to the folks that have made Grant Park their home long before there ever was a Lollapalooza.

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For those that may be visiting for the first time, feel free to roam around our website a while, the tradition we are trying to preserve will show through.

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Editor’s Notes > Keeping track of outside links related to this topic; Check out Jim DeRogatis’s comments from September 18, 2011 for WBEZ…

Playing games yesterday was a gift actually as it marked the first time ever that the Design League has played on the same day as the Judicata event… As it turned out, the Park District House League, which would usually still be playing on Lower Hutchinson yesterday, finished early due to Lollapalooza restrictions that were new this year. That provided the opportunity for us to make up our Week 6 rainout and for that I’m thankful… as of right now we’re on track to play all 14 scheduled game days, so let’s hope all the rain that’s going to happen this Summer happens over the next month… but playing down on Lower felt alien to me as it always does… funny how you can be just across the street from your normal location and have things feel so different… oppressive heat down in that pit, little flies that bite your ankles, temporary backstops and diamonds that are even closer together than they are on Upper… but it all got done and the results have posted.

Last week I identified three possible games of the week… two of those ended up lopsided as Cannon dumped theBuzz 11-2 (“ignominiously” as theBuzz Captain put it) and Goettsch took down Perkins&Will 10-6… but I also mentioned Power as the next team to get a chance at knocking off the last of the undefeated… and so close they came too… but Dobbins escaped with the 8-7 victory on a walk-off in the bottom of the 7th… on a relevant side note, when making the schedule back in early April I was only able to schedule 14 game days as opposed to the usual 15… this meant that there would be one team in every teams schedule that they wouldn’t play this year… the way I made the decision on which game day to dump was an attempt to save one of the rookie teams (in this case Dobbins Group) from playing defending champs Ruder Group… suffice to say, that didn’t work out like I expected ;-)

In other action we had some really close games yesterday… Old Stylin’ got past Gettys Group 11-10 as they’re off on a 2-game winning streak, the Dogz got past Clune 6-4 to hold onto the 2-seed and the Ruder Group outlasted always competitive JC Anderson 10-9 to come within 1-run allowed of theBuzz and the 5-seed… and in the Battle at the Bottom, Kelso-Burnett put up 5 bottom of the 7th runs to walk off against SCB 8-7.

In an armchair examination of the Leaderboard the first thing I notice is the 2-game spreads… 2 games between the 1 and 2 seeds, 2 games between the 4 and 5 seeds and 2 games between the 7 and 8 seeds… with 4 games to go those 2 game spreads are difficult, but not impossible to close. One thing that makes this years Leaderboard more volatile than in years past heading into the final four games of the season would be the record number of ties that we’ve had… for instance, Power trails Perkins&Will by 2 games in the win column but by only 1 game in the loss column… theoretically that makes the gap easier to close than it would be without the tie… but only time will tell I suppose… anything can happen and often does… Dobbins Group would appear to be a lock for the #1 seed, but the Dogz, Goettsch and Cannon at 2/3/4 are in a virtual heat and we still have Dogz @ Goettsch in Week 12 and Goettsch @ Cannon in Week 13… And as mentioned above, Ruder Group trails theBuzz by a mere 1-run allowed and those two teams will matchup straight outta the break on August 18th…

So we have an exciting last third of the season to look forward to… and then of course…Tournament Day, Christmas in September… hopefully all of you are starting to cement your roster for that epic day. Saturday, September 10th… let your people know now, it’s right around the corner.

Have a great break everyone… see you on the 18th.

1 > The league rules are the business of every team, captain and player in the league. The more people there are that know the rules, the fewer the amount of dust-ups that will occur on the diamonds. Captains, please forward the link to this Forum post on to your players, EVERYONE should be aware that these changes are taking place. Also let them know that they are able to subscribe to this Forum by inputing their email address at the bottom of the right-hand column… that way they will receive the same automatic notification of new posts as all of the Captains do.

2 > Its never been said to my face, but through the grapevine I’ve heard that it has been said… “Nic makes up the rules as he goes along to best favor his own team…” If these words have ever rolled off your tongue, come and find me sometime soon and let’s have a discussion… nothing could be further from the truth. More times than not what I actually find to be the case  when having a discussion/argument regarding rules on the diamonds… is that I KNOW the rules and whoever I’m talking to doesn’t… not the case with everyone, but a good 75%. Do you yourself know the rules? Answer the question honestly.

Since the Design League formalized in Grant Park 11 years ago… I’ve been the compiler and the editor of the rules… those of you who have been around for a good portion of that time know that I always solicit opinions and suggestions and that I’m always open for a discussion. Many of the rules currently in place were voted in democratically as was the initial draft of the rules done back in 2001. It’s a document perpetually in flux where the main objective in our umpireless scenario is to leave as little to interpretation as is possible… so that’s what we always strive for… but please don’t argue the rules if you don’t know them, that’s simply not fair… I’m not suggesting you read them 300 times as I have, but a few times a year wouldn’t hurt, maybe twice that if you’re a new Captain… and please have a print out with you on the diamonds… I’ve taken the time to make it available, the least you can do is print it out and throw it in the bat bag…

3 > The rules discussed below have already been changed on the site as well as in the printable version… but that doesn’t mean they still can’t be edited if anyone were to illuminate an aspect that has been overlooked. If you have anything to add to this discussion, PLEASE DON’T send me an email… instead, enter it in the “comment” box you’ll find at the bottom of this post. If you don’t see a comment box, then click the word “comment” directly under the Title for this post (up near the top)… As I said above, the goal is always to find language for a rule that leaves as little room for interpretation as possible while maintaining a conducive environment for great softball to be played… with that in mind, consider the following;

Rules A7 & A8

These are a pair of rules that were re-written just last June… but after a year in practice it’s become apparent that the ‘spirit’ of these rules hasn’t been properly communicated. In our defensive league, the intention is to give the defense every opportunity to make a legitimate defensive play, while at the same time preventing an overthrow at 1st that rolls out onto Columbus from allowing that batter to circle the bases while the ball is being retrieved. The main problem with the old wording was defining a distance (currently 15′) beyond which a ‘legitimate’ defensive play could no longer be made… It has also proven problematic to determine if that distance had been breached during actual game play… that said;

The old wording…

A7 • All overthrows on the bases warrant (1) extra base. The ball is ruled dead and no play will follow. Overthrows are defined as a throw that’s “airmailed” to a base heading off into foul territory at least 15 feet beyond fair territory. Thus, overthrows that merely reach the grass beyond 1st and 3rd base do not automatically award the baserunner an extra base.

Has become this new wording as we look to try something new…

A7 • When a ball is out-of-play; No thrown balls are automatically out-of-play. The onus falls to the defensive team to call a ball out-of-play. This is accomplished when a defensive player raises his/her hands over their head and clearly yells “out-of-play”. A line extending from the ends of the backstops parallel to the base lines defines the boundary a thrown ball needs to pass before making it eligible to be deemed out-of-play. When a defensive team calls a ball out-of-play, that moment defines baserunner position(s) and ALL baserunners are awarded the base they are approaching plus (1) extra base. If a defensive team DOES NOT call a ball out-of-play, baserunners may continue to advance at their own risk. Bags, bikes, beer and other team paraphernalia along the sidelines remains in-play unless called otherwise by the defense.

And as A8 then no longer made sense in the new context… it has changed from this old wording…

A8 • Balls that are kicked or otherwise knocked away during a play at a base are NOT considered overthrows, the ball remains live and runners may advance at their own risk.

To this new wording…

A8 • When a baserunner intentionally kicks, strips, smacks or otherwise knocks away a ball thrown by a defensive player in an attempt to make a play, that baserunner is automatically called OUT and all other base runners must return to the base they occupied before the play in which the interference occurred.

Rule B8

The problem with this one was brought to my attention by a Captain asking a question regarding the making of his lineup… How this one escaped my notice for so long is hard to say but the current wording doesn’t reflect how things are done on the diamonds so the wording has been changed… Here’s the old…

B8 • When playing a traditional 10-slot lineup, substitutions in the batting order must be reflected on defense and vice versa.

And here’s the new…

B8 • When playing a traditional 10-slot lineup, any individual player can only occupy a single slot in that lineup throughout the course of a game. i.e. if Player X starts the game batting 2nd, he/she can only bat 2nd during that game. If Player Y is inserted into the lineup in the 6-hole once the game has begun, he/she can only bat 6th for the duration of that game. Any player that steps to the plate ‘out-of-order’ will generate an automatic OUT and shall return to the sideline until his/her actual spot in the lineup comes up.

Defensive substitutions are handled exclusive of the offensive batting order, although a player must take at least half of the at-bats in any given slot in the offensive batting order to be eligible to play defense. (Keep in mind this only applies to a traditional 10-slot lineup, if you’re playing a ‘deep-lineup’, please refer to Rule B5 as the rules for that are different).

Rule C1

Has just had a couple of lines added to it… here’s the new wording…

C1 • Team Captains are responsible for keeping the score of their game. Captains should also verify runs scored with their opposing scorekeeper every half inning. It’s also suggested that teams review their opponants batting order before the start of every game.

Rule C8

Another one that is worded incorrectly and has now been fixed… the old wording…

C8 • The ‘infield fly-rule’ is in effect; With less than (2) outs and runners on 1st and 2nd or on 1st, 2nd and 3rd, a pop-fly on the infield is an automatic out on the batter. Runners advance at their own risk but must ‘tag-up’ to advance if the ball is caught.

Has become the following…

C8 • The ‘infield fly-rule’ is in effect whenever there’s a ‘force’ situation on the infield and less than (2) outs. In this situation, the batter is automatically called out upon hitting a pop-fly on the infield, runners advance at their own risk but must ‘tag-up’ to advance if the ball is caught. An infield-fly is defined as any pop fly hit on the infield in fair territory.

Still a gray area here is the short-center fielder… defined as an outfielder, this position still functions as a 5th infielder a lot of the time… open to suggestions on how that can be further defined…

All for now… again, if there’s anything anyone would like to comment on, please do so by entering your comment in the comment box below… if you don’t see that comment box… click the word ‘comment’ under the title of this post up near the top and that will take you to a page where the ‘comment’ box will appear.