Damn. I wish there was something to talk about in the league. Really, I do. I like writing these columns. I like finding neat little quirks, delving into and exaggerating the details, and shedding some light on a unique or at least somewhat interesting aspect of the league. But we are at a point in this year where there isn't anything we can do that with.
Poring over stats to find trends is useless, nor can you find the players who are tearing it up and leaping ahead of the rest of the league. It is impossible with as wide of a spread we have in number of games played. Sure we have a ton of numbers, but they are not comparable to one another unless the games/innings played are close to matching up. So, without being able to use the written history, should we just go with something like: man, I saw this awesome performance the other day!, and then proceed to get 75% of the details wrong in retelling the account?
Or do you want us to talk about how the teams look so far? Well, that is another problem. Many teams have not even played with there full lineups yet.
Ass Kickers,
Belgian, and
Westside have only played with three-man rosters.
GRD played with four, but were missing a key component in Nick Braden. Then you run into the problem of not seeing teams like the
Mattseals or
Commandos play in two weeks. The DeLoppes are one team who have been playing amazing, and also working just as hard behind the scenes to keep the league running smoothly, so I could gush over how incredible the start of the season has been for them. Oh wait,
I pretty much wet myself doing that over on the Week 4 Preview.
I guess I could talk about how the DeLoppes home field,
Frenchtown Field, has become an incredible place to play with the doubled-up tall wall, always dry, fast playing surface, eight-inch elevated pitchers' mound, and kick-ass, thick foul lines. Okay, so I did that. What now?
I will say that since the introduction of the calender for scheduling last week, many teams have really stepped up and the rest of the season is shaping up nicely. Kudos to the Adam Grant (CC), Mike Constanti (AK), Chad Hoppe (WD), and Carl Coffee (FS) for helping things move along so well with scheduling. The Commandos and DeLoppes both have 20 games scheduled, the Squirrels are at 19, and the Ass Kickers are at 14 with a few more possible games pending. All four of these teams have also set their full season series against each other. See, using this calender to schedule works. Now, if only the Mattseals, Westside, GRD, and Belgian would get on board and serious about it we could have the season set in a couple days!
Then once we start moving through that schedule we can have substance worthy of being written about in these articles. We'll have stats we can compare to make power rankings, maybe some kind of regular "top pitchers/hitters" lists, identify and follow the prevailing trends in the league (batters getting better? Pitchers improving?), and just flat-out have fun with the numbers. Plus, once we start seeing players regularly, we will be able to pick out the stand-out, flashy performances by players who deserve to be profiled and celebrated on here. So, while we have been stuck in the mud here at the start (yes, both figuratively and literally by weather), this 2011 season is now starting to roll and when the final few pieces get in gear WSEM will be clicking on all cylinders, finally, and able to bring the on-field fun off the field and turn it into the insight and entertainment our players deserve!
My first idea is based on something the NHL does: giving out stars to players after each game. The NHL gives out a 1-star, 2-star, and a 3-star to the top three performers in a game. My idea is to give out stars to the top hitter, pitcher, and fielder in each game, or maybe just for the two game series. There can be a few different ways to determine who gets the stars. Either two players (preferably the captains) on each team can decide together who gets the stars. Another idea is if someone keeping score is not a member of either team, they can decide who gets the stars. It won’t be rocket science, and I doubt any controversy would come about from it. If no one player can be decided, I wouldn’t have a problem giving out ½ stars to two players. Why add this Carl? What is the point? Well, my main reason is because I would like a better way to determine the Diamond Digits. Having stars attached to players would be an easy way to determine the best fielders in the league. Giving out stars to the best hitter and pitcher will also help with weekly awards, and it could be a neat little stat to have. Maybe I can even have WSEM Stars made, and players who win them can add them to their hat like college football players do on their helmets. This will be a very simple and fun addition, and it will help me not get ridiculed ever again when I decide the Diamond Digit winners.
My third point is more of a concern. Towards the end of last season I saw a lot of ugliness from certain teams, and I hope it doesn’t carry over into next season. If I wanted to play a game with a bunch of jerks and crybabies, I never would have stopped playing softball. I believe over 90% of our league treats wiffleball the way it should be treated, but there’s some in the 10% that let their emotions get the best of them. I love winning as much as the next guy and losing can sting, I know. Luckily, we have never had a physical altercation which I know other leagues have had to deal with, so I wanted to be proactive with this. Just remember, wiffleball is a children’s game that we take way too serious, but in the end it will always be a children’s game.
