2010 RL Softball Dynasty

[primelord]

This is my 4th year trying this and I have yet to make it all the way through a season. I am down to just 3 days a week this year and two of them are single game leagues so it should be a bit easier to keep up with it this season. The focus of this thread will be on the Wednesday night mens double header team I run. We have developed into quite the power house team over the last few years. I also play in a mens league on Tuesday nights and a co-ed league on Thursday nights. The co-ed team is also a pretty beastly team. We have lost a total of 3 games in the past 2 years.

I always like to start these threads with a run down of the arsenal of top end softball bats I have in my bag. Several years ago I developed quite the addiction for top of the line softball bats and that has only increased over the years. There is just shy of about $2500 worth of bats in the collection at this point. It's getting out of hand.

2008 Worth M75 May120 Mayhem


This is my current gamer. It is ridiculously hot right now. The ball sounds like a grenade exploding coming off the barrel. Unfortunately that also means it doesn't have much life left in it. If the bat makes it halfway through the first session I will be shocked. I'll hit some rockets with it while it holds up though.

2009 Worth Titan 120


I would have said this bat was next in line to be my gamer once the M75 breaks, but that was before I picked up the Combats this year. Never the less this bat is well on it's way to being sick. I hit a few bombs with it in BP and it feels like it has a ways to open up still.

2010 Woth BJ Fulk Mayhem


This may actually be the best Worth bat I own and it doesn't even have a single cut on it yet. It's essentially the progression in the M75 line and once broken in should be every bit as filthy if not more so than the M75. I honestly have no idea when I might swing this though. I may have to start breaking it in during co-ed games when they start to get out of hand.

2009 Combat Gear Supremacy x 2


This is the bat that is next in line for gamer status. For the last couple of years I have been almost exclusively a Worth guy, but last few products Combat has put out are crazy good. The upside to these bats is that they are hot right out of the wrapper, the downside is they are no where near as durable as my Worth bats. So with the extra production you also get a shorter shelf life. That is why I have two of them.

2008 Combat Virus Plague


This is the predecessor to the GS. Depending on who you ask it may even be the better of the two. So far I prefer the GS, but when they both break this puppy should be ready to step right into their place with no drop off in performance.

2010 Combat Gear Afflicted


This is my lone ASA bat. The Tuesday night league we play in is ASA so I needed to pick this up or I might have just picked up 3rd GS . I have not hit this bat yet, but I expect it to have a similar feel to the Plague and GS with obviously a little less pop.

2010 Miken MV-1 Supermax


This bat alone is evidence of my heavy addiction. I have absolutely no idea when I will get a chance to swing this bat. All reports are though that they are super sick so I had to have it. It will get used eventually, but who knows when and who knows if it will be this season.

I am going to try and hold strong and keep my collection to jsut these bats this season.

[primelord]

As I said above our Wednesday night team has really developed into quite a power house. When I first started up a Wednesday night team I was in for a bit of a shock. We were doing well for ourselves in a Sunday afternoon league and I had as start on the middle field on Wednesday nights. The place where we play has 3 fields and the competition level goes up from field 3 to field 1.

We has just won field 2 on Sundays and I figured field 2 was the best place to start on Wednesday as well. I think we lost our first game by 30+ runs. What I didn't really understand at the time was that the better softball players are generally playing tournaments on the weekends and play their league ball during the week. we got our asses handed to us for that whole session on field 2 and got it handed to us pretty good on field 3 after that as well.

Fast forward a few years and we are coming off of a season where we went 30-6 on field 1 for the 3 combined sessions and won the end of the year playoffs. Now certainly a big part of our much improved success is the significant progress myself and some of the other original members have made since we started. However the biggest reason is we have added some absolute monsters tot he team over the years. Here is a quick look at this year's roster:

The Horses:

RF: Joe - Probably has the fastest bat speed of anyone we have ever played with or against. His specialty is hitting line drive home runs that are still rising when they clear the fence. He can hit with equal power to any part of the field and has exceptional bat control. He could probably easily lead the team in HRs if he wanted to, but we play in a league with a 3 HR per game rule so he leaves most of them to some of our other sluggers and instead terrorizes the opposing infield hitting laser beams at them all night. He also has great speed on the bases.

C: Dennis - He is an absolute beast. He plays on a few other league teams as well and between all of his teams he hit 122 HRs last year in 140 games. Who knows how many he would have had if we weren't up against the 3 HR limit so often. The biggest knock on him is his bat control. He hit a fair number of home runs for outs last year after we were at the limit. The trade off is still easily worth it. He is the only guy I have ever seen get intentionally passed with the bases loaded.

LC: Derek - The fastest guy on the team by a good bit, and we have a few pretty fast guys. Has amazing range in the outfield and a fantastic glove. He is also an outstanding hitter. I believe he led the team in average last year and hits for plenty of power, but like Joe can keep the ball down most of the time when he wants to. Also drives the ball to all fields very well. had a crazy number of triples last year on balls that were cleanly fielded by the RF.

LF: Matt - His power isn't quite as consistent as Dennis' is, but in terms of tape measure shots he can stand up there with almost anyone. Following the common theme for most of our stud guys he hits for a high average as well and really hits the ball well to the opposite field. He has solid range in left, a very strong glove and a cannon for an arm.

P: Tip - While he doesn't have the power that the guys above do it is still pretty rare to see him go more than a couple games without a HR. He is fearless on the field. He is all too happy to get into a middle hitting contest with the other team. Before he started pitching for us I had my doubts as to how much a pitcher can really do in slow pitch softball. He can throw the ball from all kinds of crazy angles for strikes and just has a knack for getting good players to swing at bad pitches.

3B: Graham - The power train just keeps running here. he has developed a pretty set pattern over the last few years. He starts off the year hitting a good number of home runs and then as the year goes on they start coming down into missile line drives all over the field. Regardless of what you believe in terms of "clutch" ability in players he has made it a habit over the last few years of hitting a lot of very big HRs for us. He tends to bat towards the bottom of this group and I think they tend to let up on him after passing through the middle of our order and he burns them for it.

SS: Ritz - I may have saved the best for last in this group. Ritz is new to the team and I have yet to even see him play. However he came to the team through Joe and Tip. Joe described him to me as a fantastic defensive SS who will walk on as the best overall hitter on our team. That is saying an awful lot given the guys skills above. Needless to say I am pretty stoked about seeing him play tomorrow night.

The Rest:

2B: Primelord - While myself and the guys that follow certainly are not in the class with the guys above, we all add something to the team. I have developed into a pretty solid hitter over the years. I am probably only good for a handful or so of home runs, but really with only 3 a game we really don't need many more power guys. I drive the ball well to all fields. If only I weren't deathly slow I would be quite a player.

RC: Bill - Has good speed and good range in the OF along with a strong arm. He is a very strong guy, but doesn't have the power at the plate to show for it for some reason. Still he is a solid line drive hitter and can make some things happen when he gets on base.

1B: Sam - Kind of the defensive specialist on the team. Overall he struggles at the plate, but is very streaky and will go through stretches of very solid hitting. An absolute rock at 1B though. Digs every throw out of the dirt which has saved us countless times. Also while he does not have exceptional speed he probably runs the bases better than anyone else. Just has a knack for knowing when to take an extra base.

We get our first look at our 2010 team tomorrow night. It's only a scrimmage game, but it will be nice to get all the guys on the field and get a real sense of what we have this year. I expect we will be a decent bit better than we were last year.

[primelord]

The scrimmage went well tonight. I had to grab another team late int he process because the original team bailed on us. The team we played tonight was much tougher than what we were scheduled to play and might be better than anyone we are going to play in league this year. So overall it was probably better for us to play them to get ready for the season than the cupcake team we were going to roll over.

We played game one with unlimited home runs and there was a serious jet stream heading out around center. I don't know what it got up to, but both teams hit a pretty ridiculous number of home runs. The other team certainly had just as many big power guys as we do and was happy to play the sit back and launch it game with us. We looked pretty rusty defensively and ultimately that cost us the first game.

In game 2 we switched to a much lower compression ball and put a cap on the home runs (though it didn't matter because only one person was able to hit the new ball out). Once we took all the raw power out of the game we started to pull away from them. All our big studs other than Dennis can really hit line drives more or less at will. Our defense was much sharper in the 2nd game and we won by 8 runs or so.

We managed to almost get a complete 3rd game in. We went back to the higher compression balls, but kept the cap on the home runs. Again this gave us the advantage. We even ended up having to play the last few innings with only 9 to their 10 and we were winning by 8 when the lights shut off on us in the top of the 7th.

So all in all a very good night for us. We played a tough team and took 2 out of 3 from them. Ritz is better than even advertised. He was outstanding at SS tonight making a number of ridiculous plays and was hitting missile line drives all night. He is going to be an incredible pick up for us this season. All of our other horses all hit very well tonight.

I had a solid night myself at the plate. I probably went 6 or 7 for 12 for the night and just missed 2 HRs. One was off the fence and the other was long enough, but a little foul. Things are looking awfully good for us.

[Big Six]

This looks like it will be a lot of fun to read, Primelord. Your comment about your teammate Dennis getting an IBB with the bases loaded reminded me of a guy I played slowpitch with back in the late '80s. His name was Bo, and he'd played baseball for the University of Georgia.

Bo could flat-out mash, and there was no home run limit in our league, so Bo was a threat to go yard every time he grabbed a bat. I remember a team walking him with the bases loaded and the score tied one night.

I was a pretty good friend of the guy who was managing the other team, and he explained his logic this way: if Bo got to swing the bat, he'd be paging Dr. Longball, and if Bo took that kind of cut, he'd probably hit a grand slam or a deep fly that would be caught at the fence. One run would certainly score on the deep fly out, and since the guy on second for us was fast, he'd possibly score as well.

Bo eventually quit playing for our team. He liked the guys on the team and we liked him, but he was intentionally walked so often that it simply wasn't fun anymore.

[DeToxRox]

How much do those bats run PL? I am looking for a new bat for this year. I've been using a couple of Demarini's but they're losing pop.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by Big Six

Bo eventually quit playing for our team. He liked the guys on the team and we liked him, but he was intentionally walked so often that it simply wasn't fun anymore.

Dennis gets pretty frustrated with the walks too. It isn't nearly as bad as it was a couple of years ago though. We have enough studs surrounding him now that it doesn't make a ton of sense to walk him anymore. The next few batters can go deep just as easily.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

How much do those bats run PL? I am looking for a new bat for this year. I've been using a couple of Demarini's but they're losing pop.

Just normal retail they generally run about $300 a pop. That is when they are brand new and they have just come out though. You can certainly do better than that on some of the models. If you are willing to buy used (which with composite bats isn't a bad thing at all as long as you can trust they weren't abused) you can do quite well on them.

If you were looking to pick up a sick bat for a reasonable price, Direct Sports is selling the re-issue of the original Worth Mayhem 120 for $170. The "Booger" is a fantastic bat. I have had 3 of them over the years and the first one I had still is the hottest bat I have ever owned. If you prefer a more end loaded bat they are also selling the Jeff Hall 120 for $170 as well. Also a bat I absolutely loved.

Mayhem Slowpitch Bat NON-ASA
ORGINIAL BLUE FLAME JEFF HALL120 MAYHEM

[primelord]

On another note I get my first official game action tomorrow night. I am filling in with another league team that I will would suspect I will end up playing 60%+ of the games with. They are a solid team. Matt from my team plays on that team as well, ti is his work team. Not shockingly he is the best player on their team.

[primelord]

I am officially out of control. Just picked up:

2007 Combat Anti Virus


This is the bat I really wanted when I bought the Afflicted. They are a little harder to find these days, especially at a decent price. Got a good price on this one though. I'll swing it a few times when it gets here and if I like it will sell the Afflicted.

[primelord]

Got my first official game action of the season tonight filling in on Matt's work team. I have played with them some in previous years, but the squad they ran out tonight is not anywhere near what they have had in the past. I am not sure if their talent quit or they just couldn't make it tonight, but it was not a strong team by any stretch really outside of Matt, myself and maybe one or two other passable guys.

We had fairly rough conditions for hitting tonight. The ground was very soft from rain earlier in the day so ground balls were slowing way down and staying low. We also had a fairly steady wind blowing straight in. Matt probably had 3 home runs taken away by the wind tonight. He hit them on the screws and you could watch them just hit a wall when they got up in the wind.

I had a pretty solid night considering it was the first week. The results were very good I went 6 for 7 on the night, but I wasn't driving the ball as well as I would like. The right fielder was giving me huge room on the line and I was not able to take full advantage of that and drive one past him. I started the night off with a double and then it was five straight singles before they finally managed to retire me in my final at bat of the night. I had 3 RBIs and scored 3 runs, but they weren't anywhere near enough. This team just didn't have the players to put up much of a fight. It is going to be a very long year for them if they can't find some better guys.

2010 Stats
.857 (6/7), 5 1B, 1 2B, 3 RBIs, 3 Runs

[Travis]

Nicely done and glad to see this thread back!

[primelord]

I really hate rain. It is looking pretty dicey that we will get our games in tonight.

[primelord]

Should be a nice week of softball. We got rained out this past Wednesday and then I was supposed to be playing for another team in a tournament this past Saturday, but they ended up not being able to pull enough guys together. This week should be much better.

I am filling in with Matt's work team again tonight and then both my Tuesday and Thursday night leagues start up this week. The forecast is for great weather all week. Good times.

[Airhog]

I filled in on a team lat wednesday, and they had one of the newer Mayhem bats, a 2009 or 2010 model I believe. And wow, that was one nice bat. The pop off that bat was amazing, as I hit two balls deep, and I hardly ever hit the deep ball. Mayhem is actually one of my favorite's as I normally swing the 2005 model on both teams I have played on.

[Poli]

Heh, just saw this. Good luck, PL. I played Sunday afternoons in Pevely last year (until football camps started) on a terrible team that was nothing but a bunch of family and buddies having a good time.

This year I played in the snowball tournament in Pevely with a good team but I haven't played yet this spring. I may hook up with a church team that plays on Mondays, though.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by Airhog

I filled in on a team lat wednesday, and they had one of the newer Mayhem bats, a 2009 or 2010 model I believe. And wow, that was one nice bat. The pop off that bat was amazing, as I hit two balls deep, and I hardly ever hit the deep ball. Mayhem is actually one of my favorite's as I normally swing the 2005 model on both teams I have played on.

Yeah the Mayhem line is an awfully good line. I have had as many as 5 of them at once over the years.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by Poli

Heh, just saw this. Good luck, PL. I played Sunday afternoons in Pevely last year (until football camps started) on a terrible team that was nothing but a bunch of family and buddies having a good time.

This year I played in the snowball tournament in Pevely with a good team but I haven't played yet this spring. I may hook up with a church team that plays on Mondays, though.

ty sir. gl with your team as well.

[primelord]

Had a nice relaxing night of softball last night. The team I was filling in for had a number of their regulars back and were a much stronger team than the incarnation I played with last week. That coupled with the fact that the team we were playing against was not good at all made for a pretty stress free night. We won the first game 13-3 and won the second game 19-4 in 4 innings.

Unfortunately despite all the offense, I didn't contribute a ton to the effort. I had an ok night going 3 for 6 with a walk. However my timing was pretty off last night. The 3 at bats I didn't get hits I missed absolute meatball pitches. I drove one of them pretty well to RF where the OF made a nice catch, but the other two were weak pop ups. Never the less not a bad night overall.

The real concern is the softballs we have moved to this year. We have moved to a Utrip Classic ball which is a .40 core 325 compression ball. That is down from the .44 core 400 compression balls we have been using the last few years. The new balls are very soft in comparison. Graham filled in last night as well and between the 4 games I have played with Matt and two with Graham so far neither even really came close to a HR which is a bit shocking for them. I will be interested to see how it goes once we get the full squad out on Wednesday, but it looks like power numbers are going to be way down this year.

2010 Stats
.692 (9/13), 7 1B, 2 2B, 4 RBIs, 5 Runs, 1 BB

[primelord]

Tell me that doesn't take you from six to midnight.

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by primelord

Tell me that doesn't take you from six to midnight.

Yes.

I need a new bat terribly soon. Any good suggestions on a bat that is both ASA and USSSA certified?

[primelord]

Anything that is approved for ASA will also be approved for Utrip. That Gear Afflicted I have on the left side of the picture is a very nice ASA bat. Will you be the only one using it or will it be more of a team bat? If multiple people on the team will be using it I wouldn't get the Afflicted. The Combats are very hot, but not anywhere near as durable as most only of the other manufacturers. It will just break too quick if used as a team bat.

The Anti-Virus I have is also ASA and is completely sick, but they are hard to find these days. Especially at a reasonable price. People are selling them used with no returns for $200 which just isn't worth it in my opinion.

If I were going to pick up a new ASA bat that was not the Afflicted, I would probably go with a Worth Toxic:

2010 WORTH TOXIC SLOWPITCH BAT

I have several buddies who love that bat. Really though there are a ton of good ASA bats out there.

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by primelord

Anything that is approved for ASA will also be approved for Utrip. That Gear Afflicted I have on the left side of the picture is a very nice ASA bat. Will you be the only one using it or will it be more of a team bat? If multiple people on the team will be using it I wouldn't get the Afflicted. The Combats are very hot, but not anywhere near as durable as most only of the other manufacturers. It will just break too quick if used as a team bat.

The Anti-Virus I have is also ASA and is completely sick, but they are hard to find these days. Especially at a reasonable price. People are selling them used with no returns for $200 which just isn't worth it in my opinion.

If I were going to pick up a new ASA bat that was not the Afflicted, I would probably go with a Worth Toxic:

2010 WORTH TOXIC SLOWPITCH BAT

I have several buddies who love that bat. Really though there are a ton of good ASA bats out there.

Good advice, thanks. It's a bat mainly for me though one or two other guys will end up using it. I'll be playing every Friday and Sunday. Sunday is a double header league, so I am hoping to get like two years out of the bat.

I'm in my third year of softball, still making the transition from my baseball swing to my softball one. I have been using a leg kick when I swing lately, though still working the kinks out. Do you think that is the way to go to get more power? I'm a bigger guy, and I hit ropes but most of them lack much air so I don't put many out.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

Good advice, thanks. It's a bat mainly for me though one or two other guys will end up using it. I'll be playing every Friday and Sunday. Sunday is a double header league, so I am hoping to get like two years out of the bat.

I'm in my third year of softball, still making the transition from my baseball swing to my softball one. I have been using a leg kick when I swing lately, though still working the kinks out. Do you think that is the way to go to get more power? I'm a bigger guy, and I hit ropes but most of them lack much air so I don't put many out.

You can certainly use a big leg kick, but it's not going to make much of a difference in power. On my own team Joe takes a big leg kick, Dennis doesn't and they both crush the ball. The advantage of the big leg kick is really to help your timing. You can kick early and then judge from there when to fire off your back leg.

You may know some of this already, but I will assume you haven't had much instruction on the softball swing specifically. What you want to avoid in softball is what is called "casting" the bat. This is where you drag the bat through the zone with your bottom hand. This is very common in a baseball swing. You want to whip the bat not cast which is accomplished by pushing with the top hand and not dragging with the bottom hand. A drill you can do to get the feel of whipping the bat is to take you top hand and turn it upside down on the bat. Then hit a few balls focusing on pushing off with the top hand, you will really feel the whip in that drill and that is how it should feel in your normal swing.

Getting the whip action all starts with the grip. You want to make sure your middle knuckles are lined up. Again this is not a natural grip for a lot of people and will probably feel uncomfortable at first if you don't already grip it that way. Without your knuckles lined up properly you are almost guaranteed to cast the bat. You should also drop your pinky finger off the knob of the bat. Again this is going to feel uncomfortable at first, but you can't smoothly roll the bat over without dropping the pinky. Again you can feel this by just gripping the bat without dropping the finger and trying to roll it over at full extension, you will feel a bit of jump as you roll your hand over. Drop the piny and do the same thing and it will roll over smooth.

On the swing you want to focus on getting your hands pushed back as far as you can (a high leg kick does actually help with this too). The farther you get your hands pushed back the more time you have to build swing speed. Finally you should be releasing your top hand from the bat just before contact. When you hold on with the top hand then your back shoulder limits your swing speed. The bat can't get all the way through the zone at full speed because the back shoulder stretches and starts to decelerate the bat.

There are a number of other tweaks you can make to generate more power, but those things will make a world of difference if you don't already do them. What I will say is if you don't do them now most of those things are going to feel very weird for awhile. They did for me and they did for everyone I have converted since. I would suggest you keep hitting BP with the new style and even in games. Your performance will suffer a bit at first most likely, but you will be very happy with the results in the long run.

[DeToxRox]

Wow thanks for the advice. I am about to go out with a couple guys on the team and do some hitting since we start this weekend so now is as good a time as ever to try it.

Really appreciate it PL.

[Travis]

I've also found (and yes, I know this sounds geeky) it to be very helpful if you can get video of your swing or even have somebody take pictures of you while you're hitting. It's one thing to feel how you're doing something, another entirely to be able to look it over and see if you're dipping a shoulder, dropping a knee, getting out in front, etc, etc.

Been more than a few times I've found a hole in my swing thanks to some pictures taken at tournaments and stuff like that, can be a really handy tool if you do it consistently enough to really get familiar with how your swing looks and feels.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by Travis

I've also found (and yes, I know this sounds geeky) it to be very helpful if you can get video of your swing or even have somebody take pictures of you while you're hitting. It's one thing to feel how you're doing something, another entirely to be able to look it over and see if you're dipping a shoulder, dropping a knee, getting out in front, etc, etc.

Been more than a few times I've found a hole in my swing thanks to some pictures taken at tournaments and stuff like that, can be a really handy tool if you do it consistently enough to really get familiar with how your swing looks and feels.

Completely agree with this. Video review especially is extremely helpful.

[primelord]

Played my first real game for team I officially play for tonight. The Tuesday night league is a single game mens league. I am not a big fan of single game leagues. If you are going to drive all the way out to play, only playing one game is kind of a drag. The plus side to this league is that it is the only one I play in that has two umps. Having an ump in the field makes a huge difference.

It's actually a bit odd that I am on this roster. This was Graham's work team and they asked me to fill in a few times several years ago. From there I caught on with them full time. Since then Graham not only doesn't work for that company anymore, he also doesn't play for the team anymore either. At least not regularly.

I never expect a lot from this team. There are a few solid players and for this specific league we are generally about a middle of the pack team. However they actually merged with another company over the off-season and it turns out the merger brought with it a few more guys who look like they can play ball. We may be quite a bit better than I was originally expecting this year.

We started off very fast. We didn't make our first out until the 7th batter and ended up batting all the way through and getting 7 runs in the first. I had a nice hard ground ball through the hole at short for an RBI single and ended up coming around to score a run. My 2nd at bat was even nicer as I got a nice fat pitch on the outer half of the plate and crushed it over the RFs head for HR number 1 on the season. No one else on base unfortunately.

We stalled out a bit in the middle innings and the other team started to hit a little and closed the gap to 8-5. In my 3rd at bat I got literally the exact same pitch as my home run and apparently got way too excited about it. I over swung and weakly popped up to 1st base. The rest of the team started hitting again though and we started adding to the lead a few runs an inning while playing nice defense and holding the other team down.

I got one more chance at the plate in the top of the 7th and hit a nice rope into RC for a single. I was stranded there, but it didn't matter we allowed one more run in the bottom half of the inning, but this one was never in doubt and we took game 1 of the year 15-6. So for the night I was 3 for 4 with a HR, 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs. My timing felt 100 times better than it did last night. I am pumped for my "A Team" to get started tomorrow night.

Tuesday Night Record: 1-0
2010 Stats:
.706 (12/17), 9 1B, 2 2B, 1 HR, 6 RBIs, 7 Runs, 1 BB

[DeToxRox]

Was hitting a lot the last two days with a new swing. I am trying the knuckle thing and I feel a difference. Also saw online about a golf club grip that was not bad either. I'm keeping my hands as far back as possible and the bat basically rests on my right shoulder pre swing (I'm a lefty)

Ball was jumping when I made good contact. Really noticed a difference. Now just need to toy around with it.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

Was hitting a lot the last two days with a new swing. I am trying the knuckle thing and I feel a difference. Also saw online about a golf club grip that was not bad either. I'm keeping my hands as far back as possible and the bat basically rests on my right shoulder pre swing (I'm a lefty)

Ball was jumping when I made good contact. Really noticed a difference. Now just need to toy around with it.

Yeah it really does take some time to get used to. Especially the knuckle alignment. It is very worth it if you stick with it though.

[primelord]

After what seemed like far too long of a weight, Wednesday night softball was finally here. We were licking our chops when we first showed up to the field. There was a team out warming up that, while they had jerseys and were trying to look like they knew what they were doing, quite obviously had no idea what they were in for. In general I am not a big fan of destroying teams that shouldn't be playing on our field. The exceptions are the teams that are super cocky for no reason. I love to put those teams in their place. The team had that look about them. They were back handed tosses to each other on mock double plays. The first baseman had a jersey with the number 199 on it and the name Naste Nate. It was pretty obvious by the way they were strutting around they thought they were awful good. I thought they were in for a shock.

Unfortunately it turned out they were in the wrong place. They were supposed to be on the lowest field, which is most likely the right place for them. The team we were actually playing showed up and looked far more like they knew what they were doing. I spoke with the other "coach" and he told me they had won field 2 last year. The field 2 teams are solid so that meant this team probably can play a little.

Lineup for tonight was:
Derek, Tip, Ritz, Joe, Matt, Graham, Dennis, Rick (me), Sam, Bill

Game 1:

We start out in the field and in the top of the first we had one guy down and a guy on first, when I get a tailor made double play ball hit at me, which I let go right through my damn legs. Not quite the start to the season I was looking for. Instead of being out of the inning, the next guy shoots a line drive in to left and they score two. They tack on another one and we are down 3-0 and all 3 runs are squarely on me. Awesome.

The top of the lineup got us right back into it in the bottom half of the inning though. Three straight rocket balls through the infield for singles followed up by a 3B from Joe and we quickly have it tied back up. Graham drove in one more and we took the lead 4-3.

The second inning was really the defining inning of the game. We held them to 1 run and then went on a bit of a tear at the plate. All 10 batters came up with Sam hitting twice. No long balls, but lots of hard line drives everywhere. We put up 7 in the inning and took a pretty commanding 11-4 lead.

From that point the bats went just slightly cold. Everyone was hitting overall, but we had just enough outs mixed in to kill any big innings. The other team continued to grind out some runs and pushed us pretty hard. It got to be fairly frustrating that, while they did have a core of fairly solid hitters, they kept extending innings with bloop singles. I lost count how many they had, but they really were the difference between a blow out and a close game. Still decent offensive out bursts from us in the 4th and 6th let us stay out front and we took game one 18-16.

The whole lineup hit well int he first except for Matt and Dennis who were 1 for 8 combined. Having them go 1 for 8 and still getting 18 runs is pretty impressive. Our defense was solid, but we had a few mishaps including a couple from me. I hate that. Still you have to be happy with getting that first win over a decent team and knowing the ceiling is still much higher.

I had a solid game at the plate going 2 for 4 with an RBI.

Game 2:

The second game was a bit of a different story. The defense turned it up a notch in the first two innings shutting them down, but we were only able to get 2 runs of our own. The 3rd inning ended up being a pretty big inning for both teams. 6 of the first 7 batters all got hits in the inning, capped off by a monster 3 run home run by Derek. We got 6 total in the inning and were leading 8-0.

Our opponents came out firing the next two innings though. They got 5 in the bottom of the 3rd and after we didn't score in the 4th, picked up 4 more on a grand slam to take a 9-8 lead. Both teams were blanked in the 5th and we managed to pull back ahead by one with two in the 6th. I was feeling fairly good at this point when the other team had one out and a guy on first in the bottom of the 6th. The next batter hit a routine line drive out to Derek and somehow he misjudged the ball. He never makes mistakes like this, but the ball went off the top of his glove and continued on to the fence. They ended up getting 2 runs in that inning and we went into the top of the 7th down by 1.

We were at the bottom of the order to boot, to start the 7th. Sam had actually had a very solid night hitting the ball, but I was still pretty nervous. I made it clear to both Bill and Sam they needed to be patient at the plate. Sam listened well and took a walk. Bill took the first two balls and then swung at a bad pitch..... and lined it for a base hit into left center. I guess I have to let that slide. That opened up the flood gates from there. We put up 7 runs in the inning and had a comfortable 6 run lead going into the bottom of the 7th. They got a couple hits in the bottom half, but could only manage one run and we took game 2 17-12.

Once again I had a solid, but not spectacular game. 2 for 4 one again with a sac fly and a couple RBIs. Graham and Tip were the hot hands on the night. They were a combined 15 for 18. Matt and Dennis both shook off their first game rust and had more solid 2nd games. Overall there was no one on the team that had fewer than 3 hits on the night. I really do think we will get better too. Even with the 35 runs scored we missed some opportunities that we don't miss.

Probably the story of the night was the lone HR we hit. That is crazy for this team. The top 7 guys in this lineup all have legitimate consistent home run power. These new balls are making a huge difference in the power game. Dennis may kill himself before the season is through.

Wednesday Night Record: 2-0
2010 Team Stats:

Player	GP	AB	R	H	1B	2B	3B	HR	BB	RBI	SAC	AVG	SLG	OBP	OPS
Derek	2	9	4	3	2	0	0	1	0	4	0	0.333	0.667	0.333	1.000
Tip	2	9	6	7	3	4	0	0	0	7	0	0.778	1.222	0.778	2.000
Ritz	2	9	4	6	4	1	1	0	0	4	0	0.667	1.000	0.667	1.667
Joe	2	8	4	5	3	1	1	0	0	5	1	0.625	1.000	0.556	1.556
Matt	2	8	4	3	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	0.375	0.375	0.333	0.708
Graham	2	9	5	8	5	3	0	0	0	6	0	0.889	1.222	0.889	2.111
Dennis	2	9	1	5	4	1	0	0	0	4	0	0.556	0.667	0.556	1.222
Rick	7	25	8	16	12	3	0	1	1	10	0	0.640	0.880	0.630	1.510
Sam	2	8	2	5	5	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.625	0.625	0.667	1.292
Bill	2	9	4	4	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.444	0.556	0.444	1.000

[Travis]

heh, sorry to hear you didn't get to play the first team. I know exactly what you mean about seeing a team that just seems like they need a lesson taught to them. It's kind of like my impulse reaction to *that* guy who is wearing #69 at the age of 30 and still thinks it's the funniest joke of all time.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by Travis

heh, sorry to hear you didn't get to play the first team. I know exactly what you mean about seeing a team that just seems like they need a lesson taught to them. It's kind of like my impulse reaction to *that* guy who is wearing #69 at the age of 30 and still thinks it's the funniest joke of all time.

Overall it was for the best. While I certainly always want to win, overall I prefer competitive games. Those guys were quite obviously not going to be competitive with us. However it would have been pretty sweet to knock the smug look off their faces.

We had a similar situation last year, although the opposing team wasn't a terrible team. We were supposed to play them in week 1 and again in week 4, but both weeks got rained out. So we went 5 weeks into the session before we had played them yet and they were new to the league so they hadn't really seen us play. As we were warming up most of us clearly heard two guys on the other team talking. One guy says "These are the guys that are in first, are you kidding me?" The next guy responds with "Yeah can you believe it? We are going to crush them".

I can't imagine what they thought they saw, especially considering that even though we hadn't played them, they know we beat other teams that had already beat them. None the less we beat them by 18 in the first game. Our league mercy rules are 20 in the 3rd, 15 in the 4th, 10 in the 5th+. We were up by 19-0 in the 3rd and out of HRs when Dennis hit one out for the 3rd out with a guy on 3rd base. They managed one run in the top of the 4th and the game was called there. While it was very satisfying, it would of been hard to top 20-0 in 3 innings.

The rest of our games against them that session were a good bit more competitive, but we ultimately played them 5 times in the session. We went 4-1 against them including beating them in the championship game of the playoffs by 10 run rule. The one game we lost was after we had won game one of the double header that clinched the regular season title for us. I am not saying we weren't trying win the second one, but we were far more relaxed and experimented a bit with people other positions and still only lost by 2 runs.

They decided not to come back this year.

[primelord]

The week was going so well. From Monday through Wednesday I had won 5 straight games. I was hitting reasonably well. I went to the park expecting tonight to be nice relaxing. We generally run this co-ed league. We won the league last year and finished second the year before losing only 1 game. As you can probably tell from the tone, the night did not go as expected.

We were really killed by one bad inning. We had a slew of error sin the 2nd inning that led to 9 runs by the other team. To their credit they were a solid hitting ball club. Even the girls were solid. However we should have been able to keep it much closer at the very least. I am going to spare you some the gory details, but we ended up losing 22-11. Bad defense and not particularly great hitting really doomed us.

I had a particularly bad night. My offensive line was ok I guess. I ended up being 1 for 2 with a 2B, 2 RBIs and a sac fly. However I only hit the ball hard once and it wasn't even on my double. My last at bat I finally put a good swing on the ball and hit a rocket that was meant for RC, but I got a round a bit too quick and ripped at the pitcher who caught it and then doubled the girl off first. My double I hit between left and left center and they just misplayed it, but most nights it is a fly out and I weakly grounded out to 2nd in my other at bat.

To top things off I made 3 or 4 errors in the field. I lost count. It was a rough night. Oh well we have a long season and this team ultimately should be fine.

Thursday Night Record: 0-1
2010 Overall Stats:
.629 (17/27), 12 1B, 3 2B, 1 HR, 12 RBIs, 8 Runs, 1 BB, 2 Sac

[DeToxRox]

Just figured I'd post here. We had our Friday opener against the team who eliminated us last year (and wound up runner ups) tonight. We won 10-7 in a game that was featuring some big wind. Ball was all over the place. The new stance was great though, I went 3-4 with a huge triple and two singles that would have split the center fielders but this teams LCF is a monster. Tons of speed.

One thing that was nuts though is a guy on our team hit a pop up that got caught in the wind. Their SS went out to the outfield for it but it blew back. As he came back in he slipped. He tried to turn around on his side and make the grab but instead took the ball to the chin. For sure broken jaw. Nasty sight.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

One thing that was nuts though is a guy on our team hit a pop up that got caught in the wind. Their SS went out to the outfield for it but it blew back. As he came back in he slipped. He tried to turn around on his side and make the grab but instead took the ball to the chin. For sure broken jaw. Nasty sight.

Yeah things like that suck. A couple of years ago we were playing in a late fall league at field we don't play at much. There was a team there that had 6 guys who had all played minor league baseball and most of the rest played at least college baseball. Needless to say they were a beast of a team and absolutely crushed the ball.

Early one the games one of their guys hit a missile knuckle ball that hooked right around our SS glove and hit him square in the jaw. Broke his jaw and to have it wired shut for 6 weeks. Good times.

[Travis]

lol, oh man, you guys would have loved my "moment" a couple of years ago.

Background: I play in a league near where I live, had started getting to know a captain of another team in the league, he had played a couple tournaments for me but I still didn't know many people on his team.

I'm at home on a Saturday the week before our biggest tournament of the year (Edson). Phone rings at 10:30 and it's this captain wondering if I can make a 2pm game as a couple of players bailed on them, I say okay and start getting ready. Half an hour later one of my team players calls wondering if I could play a tournament with one of his other teams. I decline due to the call from this other guy.

Long story short(er, heh), I leave my place at 1, get to the diamonds at 1:45, game starts at 2. I draw in at SS. In the 4th inning (25 minutes later, game was going super fast as the D on both sides were humming), with a runner on first and none out a come backer is hit up the middle (the guy that asked me to come out and play is pitching), pitcher snags it, turns to feed me at second as I'm coming across for to try for the double play.

The throw is high and behind me. I jump, trying to keep my momentum, the plan was to catch, still get a toe to swipe the bag then make an off balance and (in my head) spectacular throw to first to finish the play.

What happened instead was I went up, got 80% of the ball and on my way down landed entirely on my left foot. Only hitch was the shale was like glass and hard as rock. My cleat never broke the surface, foot went left, leg went straight down. Fibula broke about 10 inches below the knee and the upper portion actually came down, cut across and exited out of the inside of my ankle.

I have no idea this is what happened. I think I've blown my knee, land on my chest, realize I don't have the ball and flip myself over to try and pick up the ball to tag out the runner. At this point I hear the outfielders yelling at me to stay still.

In the end, broken leg, compound fracture with exit wound and my ankle essentially shredded.

And a WHOLE lot of blood on the infield.

On the plus side, the girl playing second did pick up the loose ball and tagged out the runner who apparently stopped in terror as I was between her and second

[DeToxRox]

Oh man that's crazy Travis.

Just another reason I don't play co-ed

[DeToxRox]

PL - Your advice has been a godsend. Started our Sunday doubleheader league last night. We won both games. I was a combined 4-7 with a triple and three doubles, plus 4 RBI.

Also had two sac flys.

Two of the three I missed were pitches I should have let go by but didn't. Other then that I was just mashing the ball. I can really notice a different now.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

PL - Your advice has been a godsend. Started our Sunday doubleheader league last night. We won both games. I was a combined 4-7 with a triple and three doubles, plus 4 RBI.

Also had two sac flys.

Two of the three I missed were pitches I should have let go by but didn't. Other then that I was just mashing the ball. I can really notice a different now.

That's awesome man. You hit on one of the points I failed to mention too. Pitch selection is also obviously key. More than even strike vs non-strike it's about knowing what kind of pitches you like and hit well, then adjusting yourself in the box to try and maximize your opportunity to get those pitches. If you are comfortable hitting with two strikes then it's often even good to let a strike go buy if it isn't one of your "money" pitches.

I am glad the adjustments are working out for you. It should keep getting better as you continue to get used to them as well.

[primelord]

Travis - I have managed to dodge any real injury over all these years playing. What you described is the kind of thing that might convince me not to play again if it happened to me.

[primelord]

I'll be filling in for Matt's work team again tonight. At some point I guess I am going to stop considering it filling in since they seem to be asking me every week.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by primelord

Travis - I have managed to dodge any real injury over all these years playing. What you described is the kind of thing that might convince me not to play again if it happened to me.

Heh, the only really bad part to it was some of the night shift nurses I had to deal with during my 3.5 days in the hospital.

And some of the day nurses more than made up for that

Plus I figured I had gotten pretty lucky. I've had a couple of concussions over the years and separated my shoulder pretty bad in grade 8 on the wrestling team, but other than that, nothing major. This was an odd way to break that streak (hell, this was the first time I'd ever had stitches), but all told I got hurt on July 26th and made it back for a ball hockey game on October 23rd. Probably have 95% of my flexibility/range of motion back in my ankle and have had no complications due to anything related to the injury since.

I can't vouch quite as much for the guy on that team that was in the dugout who is apparently still quite haunted by the sound my leg made. I guess between the initial noise and the echo in the dugout it made him a little queezy

More on topic though, we have our first practice tonight. I've got 5 (including me) confirmed to come out (only two others who are full time players on the team) along with 6 maybe's and 2 people who haven't bothered to let me know one way or the other. I generally like to run with a roster of 13 (9 guys, 4 ladies) and right now I have 5 guys and 2 ladies confirmed for the season.

3 weeks until the first game of the season and I'm already getting close to the first panic mode of the year. Really hoping I get some more confirmations for full timers tonight.

[primelord]

Monday night ended up being a bit of a mixed night for me. It was only in the high 50s so the balls were quite hard and jumping much better than they have all year so far. We played a team that Joe's little brother plays for. It's funny to watch him hit as he really looks like a mini Joe. Has the exact same stance and swing, although doesn't hit it quite like Joe, he is still a good hitter.

I played 3rd base and had a very up and down night. I was pretty proud of myself, as I managed to stay down and in front of everything that was hit to me and there were some scorchers hit my way. However I had some real issues throwing the ball, and the LC threw too beautiful strikes to me on guys trying to advance from 2nd. We should have had both of them, but the first one I dropped the ball in my attempt to get the tag down in time and the 2nd one I didn't get the tag down because I was over thinking not dropping it.

So while my fielding was off and on I had my best night so far swinging the bat. The results didn't quite reflect it, but in 6 at bats I hit the ball very hard 5 times. My first at bat was by far the worst of the night. I swung at an awful pitch that was way short and hit a nubber to the SS. He botched it though and I managed to reach safely. I made up for it in my 2nd at bat where I hit a screamer over the LC head and it short hopped the fence for a double.

The inning before our next at bat, the other team hit a line drive square off our pitcher's nuts. He was wearing a cup luckily, but they had been going middle a lot int he game so I was fairly pissed off about it. The guy apologized and all, but it is rec league softball and you should be staying out of the middle of the field. In my next at bat I hit a very hard one hopper at the pitcher. I wasn't trying to hit it at him, but I can't say I was super broken up about it either. I scorched it, but since it was right at him it hit his hand and then his body and he was able to make the play and retire me. As we came out for the next inning I went to pick up the ball for our pitcher and I noticed there was blood on the ball. I managed to literally draw blood from the other team. Again I would have actually felt pretty awful about this had they not already drilled our pitcher.

In my 4th at bat the SS robbed me of a hard ground ball hit in the hole. He made a very nice play on that one. My 5th at bat I ripped a ball over the LFs head for another double. And in my final at bat of the night I hit a line drive rope right at the RC for an out. I am making a habit of hitting .500 lately. Still I felt very good on all 5 of my last swings. That is hopefully good news for the next few weeks.

The other team had us well over matched unfortunately. There are a number of guys who just aren't that good on this team and we just couldn't keep up and got 10 runned buth games.

2010 Season Stats:
.606 (20/33), 13 1B, 4 2B, 1 HR, 14 RBIs, 10 Runs, 1 BB, 2 Sacs

[primelord]

I used to run both the Wednesday night team and a Sunday afternoon team. I decided to drop the Sunday team this year because I was frankly just tired of running two teams. It gets to be old tracking down people to fill in all the time. I have however found myself in that role again with this Tuesday night team. Anytime we need players it is on me to find them and it seems like they are fine with playing short handed or possibly even forfeiting if I can't get people. It's kind off frustrating. I found myself in that position tonight when the team manager told me we only had 8 and he wasn't going to be there.

I know roughly 18,347 softball players so I guess it should be easy to find people, however I had a hell of a time doing it tonight. In the end we got 10 though. We started off very hot int he 1st inning, much like last week. The leadoff batter made an out, but the next out wasn't recorded until the 10th guy in the lineup. In total 13 guys came to the plate and we got 7 runs. I had a nice single down the 3B line that drove in a run and ended up coming around to score.

While our opponents lacked some skills on defense, they could hit, and 8 of them all hit consistently to right with some pop. I have never seen with that many guys that could do that. We didn't give them enough credit for the in the bottom of the first and they quickly got 6 back. We stalled a bit in the 2nd although I did have a nice 2B over the RC head that drove in another run. I got stranded though and we went into the bottom half up 8-6.

Some defensive miscues and some nice hits by the other team led to 4 more runs and we were down 10-8. The middle guys in this lineup could really drive the ball, including the 3rd hitter who ended up having 2 HRs on the night. However the real killer was the rest of their team basically. They didn't hit super deep drives, but they were great at hitting short line drive after short line drive over and over again. Those kind of hits are essentially unstoppable.

We got no runs in the 3rd and they extended their lead to 16-8. A decent 4th inning, that I did not contribute to as I weakly grounded out to SS, got us back in the game at 16-12. We just could not stop them once we got in the field though. They pushed the lead right back to 21-12. All 5 runs came after we had two outs too, which was frustrating.

We made one last run at it in the 6th. We ended up putting up 5 runs. I again had a nice single down the line, but didn't drive anyone in and ended up getting stranded so it didn't mean much. The game was then called on time and we lost 21-17.

This team loses a lot of games like this. They are reasonable enough hitters, but really kind of come up short in the field. I would expect to see a number of these type of games. I broke the .500 streak by going 3 for 4 tonight which was nice.

Tuesday Night Team Record: 1-1
2010 Season Stats:
.622 (23/37), 15 1B, 5 2B, 1 HR, 16 RBIs, 11 Runs, 1 BB, 2 Sacs

[Airhog]

I haven't had a change to put into practice those batting tips, but next time I get some batting practice I will. I seem to make decent contact with the ball a lot, im just not getting much pop off the bat.

[Travis]

What do you use for a bat? There is a degrading life span on the barrels of bats so if it's a bat that's had a lot of hits on it already, the barrel may be pretty much dead.

Or could be a dud as well. Definitely worth trying a few different sticks to see if you're getting similar results from all of them.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by Travis

What do you use for a bat? There is a degrading life span on the barrels of bats so if it's a bat that's had a lot of hits on it already, the barrel may be pretty much dead.

That's not the case with composite bats. The fibers in composite bats do stretch out and break down, but that continues to make the bat hotter and hotter. They keep getting hot right up until they break. Aluminum bats are a different story though.

[primelord]

Got some bad news today. Ritz had his baby sitter quit. So he is out at least for tonight and until he finds a replacement he is out period. Why is it so hard to hold on to good shortstops?

We should be ok for tonight. Dave and possibly Brian are going to play with us. Both have played SS for me in the past and both are plus defenders, but neither are quite Ritz. They are unlikely to be able to play regularly though so if Ritz can't find a replacement we may be in trouble.

[Airhog]

Originally Posted by Travis

What do you use for a bat? There is a degrading life span on the barrels of bats so if it's a bat that's had a lot of hits on it already, the barrel may be pretty much dead.

Or could be a dud as well. Definitely worth trying a few different sticks to see if you're getting similar results from all of them.

Its pretty much the same on nearly every bat I use. I don't swing any aluminum bats either, everything I swing is a composite.


I can usually get balls that fall in the gap in the outfield, but it is very rare that I can hit it to the fence.

[Airhog]

Went 4/5 last night. Struck out at my first at bat with that different grip. All of the other at bats were line drives over the second baseman. (Yes I am a lefty)

Even though we lost last night in our second game, it was the best we have played so far this year, scoring 18 runs. I was pitching, and I am not very good at it, and the other team hit a lot of bad pitches that were hard to handle.