I haven't seen a more solid all-around team than what we had in 2011. Last season, I thought the Master Batters were by far the most talented team in the league, but they choked in the championship, losing to the Bus Drivers by a run.
This year, the talent was certainly better all around, but the Swingers were defensively dominant for most of the season and efficient offensively. And we liked each other, which made games fun and mistakes meaningless.
Here are the final stats for the season (One note: I missed a run somewhere in the regular season--we actually had 160 runs, but I don't feel like going game by game to find one measly run):
Our final softball banquet is this coming Saturday where league awards will be given. I'll let you know who won which awards as best as I can remember (there's all you can drink beer and all you can eat pizza for league members, so the banquet may be hazy). In the meantime, here are our team awards:
* Tournament MVP:
Mitch 6-6, 3B, HR, 4 R, 5 RBI
* Season MVP:
Josh 30-39, .769 Avg, 11 2B, 4 3B, 5 HR, 24 R, 18 RBI
* Top Rookie:
Shawn 22-38, .579 Avg, 7 2B, 3B, 4 HR, 17 R, 24 RBI
* Top Female:
MaryKay 17-41, .415 Avg, 14 R, 6 RBI
* Old Dog: Lee 24-36, .667 Avg, 6 2B, 3 3B, 2 HR, 16 R, 13 RBI
* Biggest Surprise:
Daniel 15-31, .484 Avg, 2 2B, 7 R, 4 RBI, 1 Walk-off double
Old Dog goes to the best player over 30 on the team. Since Doug and I were the only players over 30, that made the award the easiest on the team for me to win!
Biggest Surprise goes to the player not expected to do much of anything but came through in the clutch. Daniel is a Brit and had never picked up a glove nor baseball bat before our first and only practice before the season. I tried to coach him up, but it was quite amusing to see him catch and throw without bending his elbows. However, he batted nearly .500 on the season and got us the win in our regular season match up against the Pitch Slappers.