Playoff Results: Doublewide Wins

Funny, they couldn't play worth a crap when we needed them to beat PT to get us in the playoffs, but then the very next week they hold the same team to 5 runs and then go on to beat Dead Money in the championship.  Congrats on the victory though... too bad we weren't able to play this fall.  See you next spring... back to Randy Moss coverage!

Playoffs Tonight... Not that we care.

The much anticipated Fall Ball playoffs are tonight...unfortunatly the most dominate team down the stretch will not be participating.  Nevertheless... the event is worthy of a slightly sarcastic blog post.

How it will go down:

The first game will be #1 Dead Money vs #4 JJ's Orange.  At first glance, you might say that Dead Money is a lock to advance, however there are some red flags....  JJ's beat Dead Money once already,  Dead Money struggled down the stretch, JJ's has stepped up and won some big games (including a must win last week against the Donkey Mob which determined whether or not they made the playoffs).  On the other hand, JJ's has also lost a few head scratchers...and I am not quite sure they are prepared for the post-season atmosphere...the question is, what type of Line-Up will Dead Money bring to the game.   Will they try to field the most dominant squad possible, or will they play with the unproven guys??  My guess is that Dead Money brings out the big dogs and JJ's folds like a cheap set of lawn chairs.

Prediciton:  Dead Money 12, JJ's Orange 3

The second game is #3 Doublewide vs #2 PT General Mortgage.   This is a rematch from last week that few of us unfortunatly had the displeasure of watching.  Doublewide seemed to have the game under control, but inexpicably fell apart down the stretch, limping themselves into the playoffs.  It seemed to us that the 5 man umbrella infield wasn't working against PT, and the inability to make the adjustment, or atleast tighten up the defense cost Doublewide.  There is no question that the offense can come to play, scoring the most run's in the leauge...however, can they hit in the clutch?  They couldn't hit in finals during the summer league, and they couldn't hit down the stretch last week in a important game.  PT has also shown that dispite thier age and girth, they do have the ability to play defense....surrending the fewest runs in the league.  If I was putting money on this game (and I am, its on the book at Mystic) I would say that  this is a lower scoring affair than last week.  I am guessing that down the stretch PT takes away some extra base hits from Doublewides better hitters, and shuts down the bottom half of thier lineup. PT will come out ahead in the HR battle, and as long as they have guys on base, they will will win by 3 or more.

Prediciton:  PT General Mortgage 11, Doublewide 7

Championship Game.  Dead Money vs PT General Mortgage.  These teams met in week 6...with Dead Money pulling it out at the end 16-15.  This game will be very similar, or it could be totally different...  Predicting this game is like predicting whether or not I would update the stats promptly after having a bad game.  Like predicting whether or not Nelly would throw his bat after popping up, or whether or not fosmo would come to another game after getting the lead in the batting race... actually, those things aren't that hard to predict... this game shouldn't be either.  Dead Money will be happy just making it to the championship during a season in which they know they didn't exactly earn it in a very convincing fashion... Don't believe me? They are 8-2 dispite giving up 5 more runs than they scored throughout the year. 

PT is a team full of seasoned... cagey veterans. Alot of them can't run, but they can hit. The guys that can't hit can play defense... and most importantly, they have been in games like this countless times before. (FYI, we have not played PT all year so I really have no idea what I am talking about...anyway) Dead Moneys comeback during the summer playoffs will benefit them mentally...but by the time this game is over thier warm weather championship will be a distant memory. The cagey veterans pull this one off....shutting down Dead Money during the late innings after thier homers are used up.
Prediciton: PT General Mortgage 15, Dead Money 10

Its been a bad couple of years for the mortgage industry...maybe this will help turn things around.

Tiebreaker Breakdown.... Grizzlies Dead

Here is the official statement from the Rec Department... 

Softball Managers:
Attached are the final scores and standings for the Tuesday Men’s Softball League, as well as the updated playoff schedule. With three times finishing at 7-3, final standings were determined first by head to head competition, followed by total runs scored for the two teams (Doublewide & Dirty Grizzlies) that did not play each other. Therefore, the 4 teams moving onto the playoff round are: Dead Money, PT General Mortgage , Doublewide & JJ’s Orange. For these teams, please note that the game times have been moved up to 6:15 p.m. & 7:15 p.m.

For those teams not moving on, thank you very much for participating this fall season!

Tonights Recap....

We won all 3 games like we needed to tonight.  We scored lots of runs like we needed to.  We basically did everything we needed to do....except get some help.  We needed the Amish Donkey Mob to knock off JJ's Orange....they didn't, losing by 1 run 8-9.  Then we needed Doublewide to not score a lot of runs.... they did.  Then, as we sat on the picnic table watching the PT / Doublewide game we needed Doublewide to hold onto thier 16-10 lead in the 4th.  This would have put us and PT in a tie and brought the total runs scored  tie-breaker into effect... (which we were comfortably ahead of them at that point).   Unfortunatly, Doublewide fell apart down the stretch, giving up countless hits and making multiple defensive blunders.... including but not limited to launching a ball into the trees from 3B to allow runs in.   It was tough to watch....and to cap it off, with the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the 7th, the Doublewide guy watches his last strike cross the plate and gets called out looking to end the game....  Season Dead.

We played 3 awesome games in a row tonight...and really 5 great games down the stretch with the pressure on us as all were must wins.... but at this point it looks like the BCS is going to keep us out of any meaningful bowl games.  Now we know what Boise State feels like.  There is still hope, my math could be wrong or I could have misinterpreted how the rec deptartment will breakdown the games so there is a chance we still get in.... but no matter what we did all we could do.

I will post something as soon as I hear it from the Rec Dept.  Who knows....maybe they will do a play-in game....  If not...it was a good season guys.  Thanks for playing.

Week 7 Scores

What a fun week of softball.  Its amazing what a few pregame beers will do to bring a team together.  Our mission to make the playoffs is well under way, and it looks like the Wild Turkeys almost did us a huge favor by nearly knocking off JJ's, unfortunatly it didn't happen and now it will be up to the Donkey Mob next week.  Dead Money must have been off thier game last night in a big way, playing a close one to the hapless CPC squad and then getting murdered by the aformentioned Donkey Mob... 31 to 6???  Wow.  Big 10 Silver bounced back from there loss to us to take down the Donkeys in the late game...which basically leaves just us and JJ's as the final 2 teams in the running for the last playoff spot....unless of course we both win out and overtake Doublewide or PT in a tie-break senario.  Also, much props out to the boyz at Mills Church.  The boombox intro music is truly ingenious...and the postgame scrimmage that lasted until 10:30 was fun as well.

Fall Playoff Outlook: Unfinished Business

Ok... as the playoffs approach I thought I should break it down and see if we still have a legit chance of making it into the top 4.  As I see it, Dead Money has locked up a spot as they have 2 winnable games tonight and should end up with atleast a 8-2 record.
1.  Dead Money
2.
3.
4.

PT General Mortgage and Doublewide both are very likely to be in the top 4 as well.  They do play each other however, so one of them will have atleast 3 losses and that would make them vulnerable to a tie-breaker....
1. Dead Money
2. PT General Mortage
3. Doublewide
4.

That means there are 4 teams left fighting for the 4th and final playoff slot.  JJ's, Big 10, Amish Donkeys and the Dirty Grizzlies. Whichever teams can finish with a 7-3 record as well should make it in.  That means all teams need to win out to make it.  Problem is, some of them play each other...
 
JJ's Orange 5-3
vs Wild Turkeys (4-5)
vs Amish Donkeys (3-3)
 
Big 10 Silver 5-3
vs Dirty Grizzlies (2-3)
vs Amish Donkeys (3-3)
 
Amish Donkeys 3-3
vs Dead Money (7-1)
vs Big 10 Silver (5-3)
vs Dirty Grizzlies (2-3)
vs JJ's Orange (5-3)
 
and the last team with a chance....
Dirty Grizzlies 2-3
vs Big 10 Silver (5-3)
vs Mills Church (0-8)
vs Amish Donkeys (3-3)
vs Cargil Dow (1-6)
vs Cargil Dow again (1-6)
 
We have alot of work to do but if we win out we would have a fair chance because of who we play...we would just need JJ's to lose and we would be in for sure with a 7-3 record.  If JJ's wins out, I believe they would be in for sure since they beat us head-to-head.  However, we have not played PT General Mortgage OR Doublewide at all this fall, so our head-to-head record is 0-0 and it would come down to a tie-breaker....most likely largest point differential.  They are at +45 and +33 respectively.  We are at -1.  But we have 5 games to go, they only have 2...and for which ever team loses in there matchup its more like 1 since a loss doesn't really help your differentail.  We on the other hand play the 2 worst teams in the league 3 times down the stretch.  If we can have some large blowouts in a couple of those games we could easly get to a +40 or better.  But again, non of this matters if we lose again, and I would have just wasted the last 15 minutes of my life.... wouldn't have been the first time though.