| Rumors & Innuendo Edition |
 This one could end up being long and bounce around a bit. Lots of good stuff though. First off, thanks for those who come up at tourneys like these and are complimentary about the 12's. All I get on here is the LG 33, Softball Guru and Composite Bat Hero taking shots - their subscriptions are canceled and they will not get this year's swimsuit issue which feature the wives, girlfriends and baby mamas of the 763. A pleasure to meet a new favorite umpire who reads the 12's with a former Intramural adversary of mine. I also met Geno's Mini Me - Kelly from CC/Spectrum - good dude who talks just like my guy Gene. He is officially the only player to ever be on two teams in the Top 5 of the Top 12's at once. CC was #1 the week Spectrum was #4; that's some JT's Top 12's trivia. Good times, wish I had more time to talk this weekend - but when you lose game 1 you end up playing all day.For a C tournament, I saw a who's who of B players. Poopstick, Kelly, Gallery, Guys with PIPAC Gear, Guys With TCP gear, guys who were playing for Damage Control last season, etc. But in the end, you have to beat the team in front of you - no matter what level they play at or have played at. The quote of the weekend though was from Gallery, "I'm going to a C tournament? Do I need to bring a glove?" Hopefully, he found some respectable competition. I didn't get to see him play, but if he hit like he did for CC at Shako I'm sure he was one of the reasons Canteen/Hirschey's made a run. Umpiring was great, with one exception that I will get to. It appeared to me that they were told to enforce the kennel up rules and not take any talk from players what so ever. 8Ball wouldn't have enjoyed himself!!! It was effective, however, not a lot of give and take - umpires were in control. The only real poor umpiring I saw was in our only break on Saturday. Laserbax were on the tough side of two bad calls by the same overmatched plate umpire. I foul ball, OBVIOUS trap in rightfield; and a foul ball that hit the batter while he was in the box - ump said he didn't see it and they tagged the hitter out. Weak calls, cost them two outs vs. Vic's Bar. However, that all gets trumped by the guy who got himself ejected later on and forced his team to forfeit. I was so happy to read FUJ's comments this morning - I hope no one is trying to justify what that guy did. He was acting crazy on the bases all day, and then he tried to steal a base on a ball that barely trickled away - gets thrown out and called out - and throws a fit like it was the base umps fault. Wrong. He was done, and he earned his ejection by throwing handfuls of dirt toward the ump. Sad finish to a weird game. Weather was a factor. We had hurricane winds, with out the rain and ocean. You really had to grind to get wins. It made the games not as much fun, but the competitiveness was impressive by all the teams. Thanks to the good people who were in charge of this tournament; they worked as hard as they could to make it a top notch event. Moorhead deserves to host these types of tournaments, they just may have to put a dome over the facility. Funny. I looked at the Old Scout and every post that congratulates a team that won an ASA C National this weekend is followed by this quote: "They should have won the C, they were a B team!" I knew after seeing Suburban's site that they would be a handful, but they weren't unbeatable. In our game Friday night it was 0-0 after 3 complete. They end up beating us 15-1. They played great D, and their skinny #6 hitter hit two bombs - the 1st came after a swing and a miss. They seemed like very cool guys, and just had the right mix of youth and experience. Yes, they can compete in B - but as far as I'm concerned we lost to a team that deserved to win. Congrats to them. It was a great weekend for Minnesota Softball, here are the 12's: 1. Redwood - Surprise, Surprise. What a great season, for this group. They left no doubt by beating Tharaldson's and the 3rd place team. They are National Champs - but I'm sure they can't hardly celebrate because they are yet to get over the beating we put on them at Open State!!! Seriously though, congratulations on a great season that isn't over yet. 2. CC - Looking for the USSSA B title that could get them the #1 spot. 3. J@H - USSSA C National Championship a week after a WSL B Championship, which followed last year's WSL Panama City C Championship. They don't blow you away, but they beat you. This is a solid squad, but did I mention they have a couple of midgets? 4. Tharaldson's - Nothing wrong with a solid 2nd place finish, hopefully they can do as well in the WSL. 5. Lucky 13's/MN Jazz - To win 10 games in that mess is amazing. Their pitching is outstanding, their infield defense has been tremendous, the left fielder they added to run down everything with Sheets was a difference maker, they were well coached and used their team speed to their advantage. They wanted this thing badly, and they earned an impressive 2nd. That fat ISH team got them in the 2nd round, but it was a marathon - not a sprint - and they 20 runned them in the rematch. I can not say enough complimentary things about this team. They really built around some young guys and a couple of vets, and they suffered through a lot of 0-2's and 1-2's but it has paid off. They ended 2007 strong and 2008 stronger. Now its football season. 6. BBS/Miken - Another fun season, and a great entire team effort this weekend. We made two huge pickups this year, and they helped us step up a level. We won 7 in a row after Friday night's loss, and then were eliminated by the Jazz 7-6 with the wind gusting in. If you lose to the top 2 team's in a 57 team tournament you can live with it. Congrats on making All-Tournament to Forsy and Brad Worm. In addition, Jesse Worm hit .788 to lead all hitters in the tournament. If their was an MVP award for all of Minnesota Softball, he would have earned it this Summer. The highlight game of the weekend was beating Quizno's 30-29 Sunday morning. Wind gusting out, we scored 17 in the 1st and had to hang on against the closest thing I saw to a B team all weekend. Game ended with them grounding out to Bucky with guy's on 1st and 3rd. Thanks again to Babs at BBS for his sponsorship - when he came on board two years ago we were dead in the water. Everything we've done over the last two seasons has been due to his generosity. You won't find a better man, we've been lucky to have him be a part of our team. Thanks again, Babs! 7. Eitzen State Bank - They will make a run at the WSL. 8. Viesmann/BBS/Miken - Big rumor here: It may be over for this epic squad. They've been great as long as I can remember. If they really break it up, its a given that Perfect Guy is welcome to play on my team anytime!! Great team here, if they stick together, I'd be happy to see it. 9. Homes Unlimited - Won a couple in the B Loser's Bracket. 10. Team Viesmann - Could this Viesmann team be done as well? We'll have to hear from Crummy and the boys. 11. BBS/Imperial - Top 5 at USSSA C National. They've been through a lot this year and had some good finishes. 12. Outpost - This team will be better next year if they stick it out. Others: Vanhouse C@A - My favorite D team won the USSSA D National this weekend. I'm happy for this good group of guys. Sioux Nation Blueline MHC Rockets Dave's/Tanel GMHI Peter's Signs Hope this was worth reading and can inspire some commentary. Be good in the offseason, its Football time. |