THE PLAYOFF PICTURE COMES TO FOCUS . . . A LITTLE BIT

With the results from Monday night, the 2011 playoff picture in the SLAM League has become a little more clear: there are 7 teams for 6 spots.

I preface the below information with the fact that this is ALL “unofficial” projections by the commissioner (the numbers were crunched in my head several times and not on paper); but depending upon the results of a few key games, the landscape for the 2011 playoffs could look very different than recent history:

• HMA/RAMSA, PCF/HH and MGA have all clinched playoff spots
• SS must win one of its next two games to guarantee a spot
• FxF (already with a SLAM-record 5 rainouts to date) improbably still have 4 games to play in the next 2+ weeks, needing to win 2 of its remaining 4 games to lock up a spot

And here’s where it gets very interesting:

• Gensler controls its own destiny: Win the next two games (PCF/HH and EA) and they are in the playoffs. But if Gensler should split their next two games, and RRA/DBB wins its final game (and again, this is assuming SS doesn’t lose their final two games), then RRA/DBB would take the 6th spot because of the H2H matchup way back in April.

At the top of the standings, the seeds are just as interesting:

• PCF/HH and HMA/RAMSA each control their own destiny, making the August 8th matchup on the Great Lawn all the more important. If either team wins its remaining games, that team secures the #1 seed and a first round bye in the playoffs. Conversely, the loser could be headed for the #3 seed and no first round bye in the playoffs.
• Oddly enough, FxF, which has yet to guarantee a playoff spot could actually also lock up the #1 seed with a little help from some other teams in the league (FxF would need to win outright, GA defeats PCF/HH and PCF/HH defeats HMA/RAMSA). Got that?

In short, with two weeks to go in the regular season absolutely NOTHING is settled. And all this just as a precursor to what should be a very exciting 2011 SLAM playoffs.



STAY TUNED....

BREAKING NEWS - Multiple Division Format

ABBOTTABAD, PAKISTAN....

During a secret meeting of the S.L.A.M. Intelligence Agency (SIA), Commissioner David Solomon proposed a radical new structure for the future of our softball league.  The attendees of this meeting have not been identified, but sources confirm that S.L.A.M. is considering a new multiple division format for 2012 and beyond.  The growing discrepancy in skills among teams in our league has prompted SIA leadership to suggest a dramatic overhaul in the regular season schedule and playoff format.

When asked for comment, HM/RAMSA Manager David Solomon told our source "It's just not fun anymore.  We have won all three of our games by at least 11 runs, so why even bother playing?  With our upcoming match against lightweight Gensler, there just does not seem to be an end in sight."

Coming off their brutal 16-4 loss againt RAMSA, TPG Manager Josh Ginsburg added "We had no chance against them.  With the way they are playing, I don't think anyone can beat them".

The new proposed divisional structure would allow the best teams to play among themselves while the rest of the league has a full season worth of fun, competitive games.  Our source viewed a copy of the confidential memo distributed during the SIA meeting titled "Divisional Structure, what it means to you!".  The details are as follows:

DIVISION A
Holzman Moss / Robert A.M. Stern Architects (HM/RAMSA)

DIVISION B
Ennead Architects (EA)
FXFowle Architects (FXF)
Gensler Associates (GA)
Gruzen Samton (GSA)
Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects (KPF)
Mitchell Giurgola Architects (MGA)
Pei Cobb Freed / Hart Howerton (PCF/HH)
Perkins Eastman (PEA)
Ronnette Riley / Davis Brody Bond (RRA/DBB)
SOM / SHCA (SS)
TPG Architecture (TPG)

Each team would play 10 regular season games followed by a playoff bracket, but only against other teams in their division.  At the end of the season, two trophies would be awarded - one to the winner of Division A, and the other to the winner of Division B.

When asked for a final comment, David Solomon told our source "Now that's a system that makes sense.  We (HM/RAMSA) are the only ones who can beat ourselves, so playing 10 games against ourselves is the best way to insure a season of fun and competitive games.  This is a win-win situation, we get our trophy at the end of the year, and all of the other teams still have a chance to get one themselves".

What a day

The afternoon didn't start well.....

2:30pm - First came the realization that the Parks Department had inadvertantly made a clerical error and given our 7pm North Meadow Permit to another applicant....

That was followed by 1 1/2 hours of the commissioner begging and pleading for Parks to "make things right" and find us another field to play on (the toughest part, of course, was holding emotions in-check and not telling them what a bunch of incompetent a$$-holes they all are)......to their credit, they scoured the schedule for the entire island of Manhattan, even going so far as to call the heads of other leagues to see if they were using all of the fields they had permits for.

4:00pm - When they finally secured a field (Riverside #4 @ 103rd Street), the commish had to scramble to inform his own team (GA) , opponent (RRA/DBB) and umpires of the last-minute switch.....luckily all had the "go-with-the-flow" attitude and took the change in stride.

6:30pm - Upon arrival at the field, however, the teams were confronted with the prospect of breaking up a MASSIVE pick-up soccer game that was taking place in the outfield. Despite the best diplomatic efforts, the horde of incongruent players refused to vacate the premises....

Perhaps driven by the frustration of the previous 5 hours, the tension was ratcheted-up a bit when the commissioner decided to start taking batting practice with the soccer game still going on in the outfield.....a line-drive to centerfield that struck one of the footballers in the back did nothing to calm things down....as more and more players took their swings, the situation appeared to be headed in an ugly, downwardly-spiraling direction....

Meanwhile, our calm-headed ump (Louie) had the foresight to call the NYPD....a short time later two officers arrived and diffused the situation.....within a few minutes of their arrival the field was cleared. Let's play ball !!!

7:15pm - Fortunately the delayed start didn't have an effect on the Gensler bats as they jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first inning.......taking advantage of the short porches in both left and right fields, there were homeruns and ground-rule-doubles galore. The offensive outburst was complemented by solid defense and pitching (no-hitter thru the first three innings). It all came to an end after five innings, and a 15-1 final score.

9:15pm - Recapping a Gensler route over pitchers of beer at Broadway Dive, just like old times .....the frustrations from earlier in the day seemed like a distant memory......It turned out to be a good day after all.

Nail-Biter

On a night that saw six (6) playoff teams from a year ago face-off at the Great Lawn, GA and SSC staged yet another epic battle in what has become the norm in this hotly-contested, evenly-matched rivalry.

In keeping with the 1st-inning woes that have plagued GA in each of their first two games, SSC struck early and often….tallying three runs on several solid hits up the middle. GA struck back in the bottom of the inning when Commissioner “Can I call you Bobby” Fuller drove in Co-Commissioner Roger “New Daddy” Lee….unfortunately Fuller, who obviously thought he was 10 years younger and faster, tried to stretch his RBI-triple into a 2RBI-homerun only to be tagged out at home plate by fellow old-timer Scott “I can’t believe you’re sliding head-first in the third game of the season” Habjan.

The GA defense tightened after the 1st inning, allowing just one more run (on a MONSTER homerun by Scott “He does that to us every year” Rosenbloom) the rest of the way. Aided by the motivation of potential BLOG ridicule for his belly-flop slide into home, Fuller rallied (more liked begged) the GA team to come back. GA slowly chipped away at the lead…3-1 after one…..3-2 after two….4-2 after four….4-3 after five…..until the bottom of the 6th, when the bottom of the GA order pushed across two runs, finally taking a 5-4 lead on Kris “DH” Gregerson’s two-out single. The GA defense held in the top of the 7th as they escaped with their second straight 1-run victory.

Rainy Days & Blogging

The rain has fallen hard this week as all 10 teams who thought they had a game spent a late afternoon working instead of playing softball. You have to feel especially bad for PCF/HH and PEA who have each had 2 rainouts and 0 games four weeks into the season. I guess the commissioner's failure to post the remaining season schedule as promised by 4/20 was foresight not laziness - now the remaining schedule can take into account rainouts so we can even up the number of games each team has played. Of course this assumes the schedule is posted promptly now that the worst of the weather is over (if not we are looking at laziness again as the motif).

So far a few teams have posted some great writeups on the Blog, and let's hope it continues. As a general guideline, the winning team should be responsible for doing the writeup, but the losing team should feel free to post their side of the story (either as a new post or a comment on an existing post). If you are too busy for an elaborate writeup, then a simple sentence inlcuding the final score and players of the game would be awesome. One other note on the writeup, please use "labels" when posting - in particular the abbreviations for both teams involved. This gives readers the ability to search for posts relating to a specific team (example - try clicking on the label TPG in the right hand nav).

The Bigger They Come, The Harder They Fall

After a long and patient off-season, the season finally opened. And for team TPG, it opened with a bang as they beat Gensler for the first time in at least 5 years with a final score of 11-10. It was a hard fought battle with 6 lead changes and a walk-off win for TPG in the bottom of the 7th. With bad weather all spring, and no official practice permits, the rust was thick. It was obvious that this was the first game of the season, and errors for both teams were plentiful. The top of the first was ugly as TPG pitcher Ron Alalouf walked the first two batters, and with a couple of hits Gensler easily scored 2 quick runs and was threatening for many more. TPG got out of the inning with some decent defense including a running catch by RCF and recent new dad Josh Ginsburg.

It looked like this would be a long afternoon for team TPG. But our offense came back in the bottom of the first with a lead-off walk by SS Len Emmanuel (arguably the fastest runner in the league), who came all the way around to score on an RBI single by last year's team MVP Omar Cevallos (4-4, 4 Runs, 3 RBI). With Omar on first, last year's SLAM Big Bat award winner Justin Aharoni (2-3, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 1 BB) belted a 2 run home run deep into right center field, and TPG took the lead 3-2.

Pitching and defense marked the second inning as both teams were held scoreless. Gensler scored 1 in the top of the 3rd, and the game was tied again. TPG put together a string of walks and singles scoring 3 before ending the inning with bases loaded. TPG now leads 6-3. In the top of the 4th, Gensler scored two runs on a few good hits, and a overthrow error by Josh. Gensler's defense shut down TPG in the bottom of the 4th including an outstanding 6-6-3 double play by All Star SS (and another recent new dad) Roger Lee, sending the teams to the 5th with TPG up 6-5. TPG held Gensler scoreless in the top of the 5th, and then added two more on Justin's second home run of the game. 5 innings in the books, and TPG leading 8-5.

The 6th inning would prove to be near-fatal for team TPG. Gensler had the biggest rally of the night for either team and put a big five-spot on the board. It would have been more if not for a stellar defensive 2-3 play by Catcher Princess Salvacion. TPG went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 6th and we headed to the 7th with Gensler leading 10-8.

TPG has always played Gensler close in the regular season (one run losses in both 2007 and 2008), and this game was no exception. After all was said and done, this game came down to a coin flip won by TPG giving them home field advantage and crucial last licks. Catcher Princess led of the inning with a walk, before SS Len hit into what appeared to be a 6-4-3 double play. But they couldn't catch Len, as he beat the bang-bang throw from Roger. A quick single by 2B Adam Woods, followed by an RBI single by Omar (his fourth hit of the game as he tries to outdo his unreal .700 batting average from last season), and TPG had 1st and second, one out, down 10-9 with Justin coming to the plate. A quick thinking substitution by Manager Josh brought in fleet footed Shyam Kumar as the tying run on second. Justin popped up his next at bat just over second base when normally sure handed Roger dropped it. since the runners were holding, Roger had a play to 3B Robert Fuller in a "commish to commish" play that would decide the game. Roger's throw was good, but with 3rd Base Coach Derrick Blocker managing the baserunners, Speedy Shyam slid in safe under the tag as Robert bobbled the relay. Now it was bases loaded, one out, and 1B Mike Stevick at the plate. Would it be a dramatic game ending walk-off hit? Not quite. He ripped a ground ball to Roger who stepped on second for one, and did his best to turn two at first and end the game. But not this time, as Roger (who in past years had singlehandly shut down TPG with his trademark double plays) threw wild by the 1B, and two runs came in to end the game on what will go down in the books as a FC, RBI, and an E-6. Not the cleanest game ever, but only the final score counts. What a great way to start the season.

Game Balls go to Omar Cevallos and Justin Aharoni for their outstanding hitting.

2009 Playoff Format

The official word is in from the "Executive Committee", and this year will see a 6-team playoff regardless of record. Per the email from our esteemed Commissioner:

• The top six (6) teams make the playoffs (regardless of whether or not they have a .500 record)
• Usual tie-breaker rules still apply (head-to-head; run ratio)
• The top two (2) seeds will receive 1st-Round byes.
• Seeds 3 thru 6 (3 vs. 6; 4 vs. 5) will play a best-of-three series.
• Semi-Finals (1 vs. 4/5 winner; 2 vs. 3/6 winner) will be best-of-three series.
  
• Finals will be best-of-three series.
• Highest Seed gets choice of home/away for games #1 and #3.
• All playoff games to be full 7-innings (Note: Regular season games to be official after 4 full innings).
  

The good news is that all playoff games are now a best of three series. The bad news is if you finish in 7th due to a run ratio tie-breaker (which would have kept one of last year's two finalists, FXF, out of the playoffs). Season Starts Monday!