The Face Plant and the Bounce Back saves!!

Let's try to get everyone caught up since you last visited.



Updating several games in the ongoing quest of the WaterWorks dynasty to secure the holy grail of softball. We were finally able to slip some games in under Mother Nature's wrath of fury that has descended upon the north part of Plano for some time now. We came off a month long "siesta" back on Sept 25th to play Chipotle, and proceeded to drop a "big stinky steamer" right in the middle of Field #2. The stench from this field was very noticeable once the clock showed 0:00. The Burrito Boys walked away with a 17-9 victory...honestly don't remember too many specifics about the game other than we had a very stout lineup from top to bottom that night, but we could not figure out how to cure the "cranial-rectal inversion" that everyone in the lineup had been infected with during the time off. Game was not even as close as the final score showed, as we scored several runs in our last AB when the game was already out of hand. One thing memorable about that game was JW hitting two straight foul balls which looped into the WaterWorks bench area through a small opening in the fence where it did not seem remotely possible that a ball could fit. In the post game interview, JW mentioned he has a talent for fitting things through openings were it doesn't seem possible....reporter did not elaborate any further on this quote. That is pretty sad when the most memorable thing from a game is two "bizarre" foul balls being hit. Date to circle on the calendar is Nov 13th....rematch game!!





One week later, we found ourselves playing uninspired ball yet again, trailing late in the game to the Texans (very clever and imaginative team name), and facing the possibility of being part of a "dark and shameful" event in the storied history of WaterWorks.....back to back losses!! We finally realized this was an opponent that we had "bageled" in our first meeting 15-0, and thus proceeded to right the ship and pull out a hard fought one run victory (13-12)! Now that my friends is WaterWorks softball.....losing two games in a row is not an option!! Don't remember any specifics about the game, but do recall the after game victory snacks at our Plano hideout were very satisfying! Our compliments to the chef on his imaginative use of chicken wings, batter and sauce! Additional details about this victory may be available in future posts.

Last Friday night, after again being idle for almost 3 straight weeks, we faced one of our arch nemesis opponents, ESI Out...which was coming off two nice Wins against Chipotle & Last Call. WaterWorks again saw the scoreboard not being kind to them in the early stages of the contest with the bad guys being up 8-1 at the end of 2 rounds. This number could have been much uglier, if it had not been for a fine diving catch by ZB on a line drive to right-center. This ESPN highlight catch also seemed to provide a calming effect on the team, as it wouldn't be a WW softball game if there wasn't a Bennett diving in the outfield! The ball seemed to really be "jumping" off the bat of the ESI players, and they all seemed to use the same hitting stick.....which led to several WaterWorks players speculating something was afoul here. This could have meant the bat in question was juiced, the ball being hit was altered (i.e. microwaved), or the more likely answer being we needed some type of excuse to hang our hats on for why we weren't making the necessary plays....I'll let you come to your own conclusion on this mystery. As the good guys came to the plate in the top of the 3rd, the gate seemed to open and the "beast" was awakened. WaterWorks proceeded to post a touchdown in our half of the inning and pull the contest even again at 8-8. Highlights of that inning included, TJ performing a homeplate shuffle around the Catcher to safely slap the plate in a close play at home (this move should not be confused with the Ickey Shuffle, as T-ball's version was much smoother). This exciting action at home plate was setup by the play of WaterWork's All-star 3rd base coach, Buckshot, who waved TJ around for his dance with the Catcher. Buckshot's playbook for coaching 3rd base in this contest was very bare bones, in fact it only involved one play, which we will call....GO!!! And yes, for those of you wondering, this is indeed the same Buckshot who has played in the last two FF Superbowls (a fact that few know)!!

Bad guys were able to plate 3 more in their bottom half of the inning. So, WaterWorks came in facing a 3 run deficit and the shrinking clock not being in their favor. Brian leads off and reaches base safely to bring up Rik. "Wild Thing" gets into one and burns the outfield, with BM able to score from 1st on the play. After hitting a ball that burned the outfielder, Rik is now all jacked up on Mountain Dew and rounds 2nd base like a spider monkey only to be picked off by a heads up play by the infielder cutting off the throw coming in from the outfield. Still down by 2 and the clock slowly winding down, WaterWorks once again reached down deep with "the most interesting man in the world" reaching base and then Lord Byron lighting up the sky with a bomb over the Left-fielder's head that resulted in a game tying 2 run round tripper. This seemed to totally "shoot the wheels off" of the bad guys and WaterWorks opened up a can to finish with 18 runs, which can mainly be attributed to the inspired 3rd base coaching by Buckshot....yes,"GO" was the word of the day and it was heard often. When you've been in 2 straight FF SuperBowls and experienced the "moment on the big stage", it makes handling these crunch time decisions seem as easy as telling someone to GO. With time being expired on the game clock by the end of our half of the innning, we closed the door on the ESI girls to secure a very satisfying 18-13 victory!! We again had to turn to Buckshot to reel in the last out and close out the contest.....as mentioned before, that big game experience really pays off!!

Player Of The Week had many candidates this week including:
1. Rik - Wild Thing had a few nice catches in LF and the "big hit" to get the last inning of offense going. Ironically the same play that put him in the running for POTW (the Big Hit) is the same play that took him out with previously mentioned "spider monkey" base running.
2. TJ - pretty solid night behind the plate, good night with the bat, and the T-ball Shuffle mentioned earlier to tally a run.
3. ZB - A nice night at the plate and the previously discussed diving catch that stopped the bleeding in the early innings.
4. Buckshot - strong candidate this week with a good night at the plate, the unbelievable mastery of the 3rd base coaching box, and the game saving catch to end it (that may be overstating it a little, but seems I heard him describing it that way to ZB after the game). And again there is the 2 FF SuperBowl appearances that have to be factored in!

All strong and worthy candidates, but the POTW goes to Dr. Humphrey. Lord Byron was involved in turning two DPs to shut down innings, along with a nice night at the plate including the Big Bomb in the last inning to pull us even.

Boner Of The Week candidate list was quite a bit shorter. J-dub was looking like a contender with his coughing up of ground balls. Trivia question: what do JW and T.O. have in common.....besides the obvious resemblance?? Neither can seem to catch a ball these days!!

J-dub was bailed out for Boner Of The Week by this week's recipient......drumroll............none other than the Round Mound of Sound.......vaJJ....Mr. Jay Jamison! JJ accomplished something few have done in SLOW pitch softball, and this feat deserves the honor and recognition bestowed on it for BOTW! JJ struck out swinging two times in a row to start off the game. The first one was so bad, it led some to be concerned that maybe he was in the midst of a walking stroke, but we were able to discredit that notion after his 2nd appearance at the plate seemed to give evidence to the possibility that this was just a normal AB for him. We are searching online for a 14" softball that we hope to be able to put into play before JJ's plate appearances. Congrats again Jay on this honor!!

WaterWorks is now sitting in our "comfy seat" at the top of the standings at 3-1, but the four remaining games will all be tough ones....revenge game against Chipotle, 2nd game against ESI Out and two games versus the gang from Last Call. Next challenger to step into the ring is Last Call!!

Isn't There Something I'm supposed To Do On Friday Nights

Past two weeks have been washed out…At this rate we will be playing through December.

The Gauntlet Has Been Laid Down.

The powers that be (The softball scheduling dude) has seen it fit to assemble the greatest softball teams ever to play the game (on Friday nights in Plano) into one single hyper-competitive league. This fall we will be seeing our old foe’s/beeotches Esi-out as well as Last Call, a respected adversary of old. The Texans will be in the mix as well as Chipotle who we faced in the semi-finals of the Summer EOS tourney. This is basically what we have all been asking for all along. None of these games will be cakewalks and we should expect to see a lot of close games going 7 innings. Or we could just beat the tinkle out of everyone and clinch the league 6 weeks in.

We kick off the season this Friday, August 28 against the Texans and then take a week off before facing our arch-rivals ESI-Bee-och on the September 11th.

Well that was a waste of a perfectly good Saturday

When the WW club first began discussing the Summer EOS it seemed as though it would never happen. Too many guys out of town and just not enough interest. I mean, come on. Who wants to run around in the Texas sun every other hour when you could be at home doing something constructive... like anything but playing softball. After a few e-mail exchanges the push for fielding a Summer EOS team gained some momentum. Two days short of the deadline we had finally set our roster with 12 guys. Only 5 of which are regular WW players. A quick scramble to get enough WW jerseys together was successfully and the Summer EOS was a go.

The day long journey for WW began at 9:00AM on field two against Big Sticks. WW had faced these guys in the past and no one could recall them ever really being a threat. After only scoring one run in the top of the first, BS would take the lead by 4. WW would need a few innings to take control of the game for good. The nail in the coffin was Bryan Jones' 3-run home run off the scoreboard in the 5th. BS couldn't manage to get their offense going after the first couple of innings, but they were able to keep the game close enough to play all seven innings.

WW wouldn't play again until Noon so most of the players went their separate ways. The Jones' of course went to grab a beer (You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning). Rik and Chris H went on to help two separate teams to victory filling in for missing players. JW, Melton, Mike Long and Byron went to Little Gus' and didn't have to wait too long to be seated at the counter. Now, I have a love/hate relationship with little Gus'. I get there, and I see all of these specials and I remember how good it was the last time I came. Then I start doing the math trying to figure out which special costs the least but comes with the greatest amount of food. I then precede to eat until I'm sick and begin to hate LG' for having such great food. I had the two eggs two pancakes special with sausage. It also comes with potatoes; which I hadn't had there before. This was far and away the best breakfast I've paid for in Texas. I'm coming out and saying it, Little Gus' is better than Poor Richards. Enough with the food review...

Next up for WW would be the Vipers. These guys were unknown to the WW crew but looked to be a formidable foe. The team definitely looked the part, and I overheard a couple of their players talking about where they played college ball. WW again would need a little bit of time to warm up and would have to struggle to maintain a lead, once again being the visiting team. Solid defense is what bought WW enough time to create a comfortable lead. WW would again play all seven innings and outlast the Vipers.

After an hour wait WW moved to field 1 and took on Next Generation. Again WW faced an opponent they had never meet before in competition so they weren't sure what to expect. A couple of guys from NG couldn't help but mention that they 5 guys that played college ball. I think I was more worried about the fact that their SS had neon green shoes. Actually he wasn't too bad. A couple of guys though he had good range but when you are playing in shallow left you kind of make it look like you have range. I don't really recall this game being too close. We were the visiting team again but we got ahead and didn't look back. Mike Long blasted a 3run shot to help put the game away and the WW bats made up for a couple of mental mistakes. The most notable play of the game was a pure hustle play by Chris H. Morris knew when he hit the ball that it was going to be a close play so he took two steps and dove to first. Unfortunately his hustle wasn't rewarded and he was thrown out by 50 feet. Very good effort though.

Two hours later WW would face off against Chipotle who had no problems moving through the lower bracket, run ruling a couple of teams along the way. WW would not have a problem against the burrito makers and would actually win their first and only run rule game of the day. The defensive play of the game came at the hands of Macek, who went all the way to the fence chasing down a towering fly ball only to stop at the fence... camp out for a few seconds and then make the catch with his back to the infield. I couldn't tell if he just got lost with a 'Who put this fence here' moment or it he just stopped to pray but he eventually reeled in the popup and put an end to a potential rally. Although WW won this game convincingly, we also suffered our biggest set-back of the tournament when Bryan Jones came up lame after his AB in the first inning with a hamstring injury. Byron moved to Right center to try and fill the void in the out field but after the game Bryan would not return to the defensive lineup and only saw one more AB in a pinch-hitting role. This win would put WW in the finals against the Saints who eventually manhandled Chipotle to win the losers bracket.

With Bryan Jones out of the lineup WW went on to face the Aints in the finals. WW would actually be the home team for the first time in the tournament but got off to a rocky start finishing the first inning down 3. The second inning was over quick and WW found themselves down 7-1. WW was able to stop the Aints bats for a couple of innings and was able to tie the game up by the fourth inning. The Aints would eventually take back control of the game and hand WW their first loss of the tourny.

Five minutes later we would start it all over again. This time around WW would be the visiting team and would have control of the game early. After the first couple of innings the score went back and forth. until time expired with both teams tied. We went to a full count extra innings format where WW would take a three run lead. The Aints then came up to bat with the meat of their order and had some solid clutch basehits to put the game away.

It was rough to play all day long only to see us lose to a team like that. This isn't unfamiliar teritory for WW. This happened a year or two ago against the same team, and I remember the same frustrated feeling. It sucks to go all day playing good, smart ball only to lose in with two outs left in the final inning. It really sucks to do that losing to a bunch of D-bags. Aside from Mike Cs lifelong friend Zad, these guys are just a bunch of thugs. They are pretty much what I don't like about softball. Running their mouths all the time, throwing behind runners and running their mouths all of the time. I think the problem with guys like these is that they never really played ball at a higher level so they don't know what it is like to play with class since they've never had an authority figure to teach them. They also haven't played against guys that would put up their crap. Whether or not they just weren't good at baseball or their parents couldn't keep from dropping them on their heads I just can't stand teams like that, and I really hate losing to them.

Thugs or not, the Aints were a good hitting team. Those guys play a lot of tournaments and probably treat softball much like we treat our livelihoods. For a bunch of once a week league players, I think it says a lot to be within two outs from beating a time like the Aints. Despite the physical errors and lack of hits with 2out RISP, which typically comes with playing playing ball for 8 hours out of the day we still played these guys tight and I believe that all of our guys left it all out on the field.

WaterWorks Disappointed In Summer EOS Finals

After coasting through the winners bracket WW dropped two to the Aints in the finals. The second loss went into extras where the Aints hit a walk-off double with the winning run on second to complete the four run come from behind inning.

Summer EOS Tourny

The roster has been set. Names are listed in order of awesomeness. I’m not sure if list is ascending or descending. Our first game will be at 9:00 AM on field #2. A loss will have us playing at 11:00 AM on field 1. If we win we get a break until Noon and we will play on #3.

Joe Westrich
Byron Humphrey
Rik Montgomery
Brian Macek
Chris Heinrich
Mike Long
Bryan Jones
Brian Melton
Jason Jones
Travis Piesker
Adam Stellar
Fred Clausen

Friday Night Lights Fantasy Football League Live Draft Date, Time and Location Set

Owners and GMs of the twelve team league will descend upon the Bennett Sports Bar (Plano Location) in an effort to lay claim to the greatest talents available in the NFL, all in the hopes of amassing the greatest team ever to compete in the FNLFFL. All essential team personnel will be arriving at 5:00 in order to discuss and possibly vote on outstanding issues for the upcoming season. There seem to be plenty of hot issues surrounding the start of this year’s draft. The first being whether or not this league is a keeper league. I am aware of at least two owners that were under the impression that the league was currently operating under a keeper league policy. Since there weren’t any rules created adding restrictions and limitations on the league in the scope of keeping players, the commissioner should have no problem stating that this year will be the first keeper draft. If this is the will of all of the owners, an official statement should come from the office of the commissioner stating the beginning of the keeper league and that players should be drafted accordingly. Another point of contention amongst owners is whether to allow slot positions in the starting lineup. While two slot positions may seem a little too excessive, many owners would like to see the addition of at least one flex position which will make late round picks even more important. The ruling on the slot position will mostly affect beer drinking owners who will more than likely be under the influence by the late rounds of the draft, which will be critical picks with the slot position in the starting lineup. There have also been calls to combine both divisions creating a single league of twelve teams fighting for six playoff spots. All in all this will take away from character of the league and create more meaningless games late in the season. Last years season was by all accounts a great season with an abundance of playoff races. While it is true there could be just as many teams battling for a playoff spot. You have to remember that with a balanced schedule late in the season there is a greater opportunity of playing against a team that doesn’t have playoff hopes or has already locked up a spot. When this happens there is always the possibility of collusion. Combining the leagues could be one of the worst things to ever happen to the league if the vote goes through. Again, the two leagues option adds a nuance to the league that promotes competition. This is a major factor in some of the calls by owners to simplify the scoring removing the special team points, defensive points, etc. If the league falls into this trap it will become a cookie cutter league without uniqueness that currently draws in the fans. It will be interesting to see what issues go to a vote and what the outcomes of those votes will be, but all in all I think everyone is just excited to be getting closer to the start of the season.

WW suffers worst regular season loss of the year...

It's actually our first regular season loss of the year. I do feel somewhat responsible for mentioning the quest for a perfect season in my last post. Either way you slice it, it was a bad loss. I know we went into the game with a laid back approach that win or loss we still had the championship, but I just hat losing to AA. Actually I don't think since I've been playing that we ever had lost to AA. I do enjoy seeing us flip the lineup and have the outfield in the infield and vice-versa, I really look forward to these types of games. I just wish it was some other team. WW started out kinda soft giving up 8 runs in the first as AA peppered the right side and to their credit, hit the ball really well in the first. WW was unable to get anything going in the following innings but tighten the defense up a little. Jay and Rik made some nice sprawling plays to rob basehit linedrives. Brian twisted a 5UA-3 double play at third. We were able to string together some runs but a horrible effort by the back end of the lineup made it difficult to extend rallies. The anchor of the bottom of the lineup was Byron who had an oughfer night at the plate. Nice job... Boner of the week for you. The player of the week will have to go to Mike Carroll for bringing a woman back to life while on a business trip. This is not some kind of euphemism, this lady was dragged from the bottom of a pool by Mike himself and wasn't breathing. Mike and another good Samaritan administered CPR and got this woman breathing minutes before the paramedics arrived. We will have more on this story in a later post. On a side note, I just misspelled paramedic and the spell check suggested spermicidal. I assumes that is what it sounds like, but I am still failing to understand this term. I digress. WW was able to keep from being run ruled with a three run rally but time ran out on the dream of a perfect season. 14-8 was the final. Some of the WW team will be competing in the Summer EOS tournament but we are still working the details out about whether this team will feature the WW name or the Tuesday Night Development team name Strikeforce. Either way we will be roasting our asses off this Saturday.

That was a little anticlimactic...

Maybe it was just me, but there seemed to be a lot of hype built into the WW Goodfellas game last Friday(7/31). Some of that hype was probably lost when GF lost to AA in extras the week before. Still there seemed to be plenty of reasons out there tp make the second matchup a good game. GF was able to play long into the Spring EOS tournament so there was a sense that they would be a formidable foe prior to the first game of the Summer season. A GF player had mentioned to Mike C. that they had WW circled on their calender so they obviously knew who the team to beat was. After WW beat GF 9-3 another player made the excuse that 3-4 of their best players weren't at the game so I guess I was lead to believe that GF had the potential to hand WW their first loss of the season and have an outside shot at stealing the league championship. This perception was indeed incorrect. Maybe GF has some ringers that just weren't able to make it to both the WWs games and maybe they are better than they showed this season, but I never expected them to get romped 16-0 through 4.
WW got off to a great start putting up 4 in the first and never looking back. Mike C. was on the bump again to allow an ailing Pete some time of from the field. I could only remember one runner reaching Third and the outfield did a great job of keeping the ball in front of them (It was physically impossible to get the ball behind them for the first couple of innings since they seemed to be sitting on the fence) and off the ground. There were way too many good things that happened this game which makes it tough to pick a POTW. I think one of the things I enjoy about this team is that we really don't have any standout. We play solid together and pick each other up. In the end I think we'll give POTW to Mike C. for shutting down GF again. BOTW has to go to Byron for sending Jay from second on a basehit to LC. He just looked so fast rounding third, I didn't want to stop him. It was like poetry in motion... until the last 20 steps when the catcher had the ball.

Time to Get Caught Back Up...

So it's been a while since the last post... The last time we checked in we heard about how a shorthanded WWs team easily handled Austin Ave. Since then, WW has handed Rick's Appliance Repair and Hiro a loss to put their magic number at one with two games left to play. Let's summarize these two games...

WW had their work cut out for them when they faced Rick's(1-3) for a second time this season. The first time these two tangled, WW managed to escape with a 17-2 victory. This time around it wouldn't be so easy as Rick's made some adjustments that all but assured their second win of the season. Always thinking one step behind, Uncle Jesse (Rick's Manager/Brian trust) came out of retirement/off the DL to play firstbase. This allowed Uncle J to orchestrate his strategy a little closer to the action. We also saw Hannibal Lector move to the outfield so that Rick's could try out a new pitcher in the hopes that giving WW a new look from the mound would slow down their offensive assault. These managerial moves along with some pre-game misfortunes for WW seemed to spell victory for Rick's. First we saw Brian Macek show up to the park without any shoes. Byron received a call on his cell phone from Chris H. in the parking lot explaining the situation. Byron, always the improviser looked into the cab of his truck and noticed his golf shoes sitting next to his workout shoes. They were white/brown saddle shoes... Nice! Crisis averted. WW got off to a slow start and at one point trailed Rick's by a couple of runs. This was do in large part to a calamity of errors on a single play from Byron. Byron's bad play put him in the running with Brian for BOTW. During the third inning WW offense got rolling and began to put the game out of reach. Once the game began to get out of hand WW began shifting their defense around to try some players out at different positions. This move allowed Byron to redeem himself from his first inning blunder by mowing down a potential base stealer at second. WW also was able to turn a couple of double plays and managed to hold Rick's to three runs on the day. Once the dust settled it was a 15-3 victory for WW. The Boner of the week would go to Brian for ShoeGate. It's tough to pick a player of the week when everyone is hitting and not making mistakes... I can tell you who wasn't a player of the week. That might be easier.

WW then set their sights on Hiro(1-4) who fell to WW 17-6 earlier in the season. I'm not sure what the family friendly way is to describe what happened when WW was supposed to play Hiro so I am just going to abstain from trying to describe it. Basically, No one from Hiro showed up to the park. No one called in a forfeit. This was obviously premeditated or else there would've been about 7-8 guys in the other dugout calling their friends on cell phones going "Hey man... Where you at?". This wasn't the case. At any rate, WW took some BP and the forfeit and went to HooHoo's. On the way to Hoots some of the WW players stayed behind to watch the rest of the Austin Ave. GoodFellas game. AA had given away a 5 run lead to niceguys and couldn't manage to get a runner from second to home with one out. With time expired the game went into a one pitch extra inning format. AA was able to get out of the top half without any damage and then manged to score a run with two outs on a cluster foofah play. It really wasn't as exciting as it sounds.

After the two victories to the one win teams WW had a bye week to get ready for Goodfellas(now 3-2). WW would only need one win with two games left of a loss of less than 5 runs to niceguys to clinch thier second championship of the year.

Mid-Season Call-Ups Help WaterWorks Coast Past Austin Ave.

Although no one said it out loud, there was a little bit of uncertainty going into this past Friday's game against AA. WW would play this game with only 6 of it's regulars in the lineup against a team that had put up 14 or more runs in their only two games of the season. This uncertainty lingered through the first inning as WW was only able to hang a one on the board. AA followed by scoring a run of their own to tie up the game. It wasn't until the bottom of the second that WW seemed to control the games as they put five runs on the board and shut down AA. Again Mike C. pitched a gem and was backed by a strong defense that only allowed two runs. WW even managed to turn a 4-6-3 double play (We aren't going to mention that the runner was recovering from hernia surgery). When it was all said and done WW walked away with a run rule in the fifth with fifteen minutes left on the clock and a 13-2 lead.
On hand for the post-game festivities were Buckshoot, 8-Ball, JW and Nine. Everyone else chose to be losers.
Out of the lineup this past Friday was Rik who is still recovering from a foot injury, Chris H. who is seeing an ankle specialist in Erie, PA. and Chris W who couldn't break away from a contractual agreement with one of his sponsors. The most newsworthy absentee was Pete Bergan who again was a game day scratch as he assisted Maureen with the birth of their second baby. We are still awaiting more details of the birth but the word from our sources is that all are recovering fine. This will give Pete the player of the week... Congratulations Pete and Maureen! Way to procreate! Boner of the week is going to have to go to Fred. While playing first, Fred took a throw from third off this chin. We are going to have to add that this ball wasn't in the dirt. And the Sun was behind Fred. And it wasn't that windy.
Called up to play this week was Travis (WaterWorks Developmental League), Fred (WDL), Brian M.(WDL/Out-of-retirement) and Dave W. (Unsigned).

Apparently softball is played outside of Plano by bigger losers than us.

Here is a link to deadspin's weekly post about softball failures... Hopefully we won't ever have any material to contribute.

http://deadspin.com/5294063/sir-your-foot-appears-to-be-dying

Carroll Shines as WaterWorks Drops Goodfellas

In a game day decision Mike Carroll was called to mound to pitch against WaterWorks' summer league rival, Goodfellas. Carroll, who was filling in for a scratched Pete Bergan, was relentless in pounding the strike zone, getting in front of most of the batters he faced. Despite a couple of mistake pitches that turned into extra base hits, 8-ball was able to pitch out of jams giving up only one earned run in seven innings. It was a defensive laps in LC by Chris Weyand that lead to two unearned runs on a basehit turned little league homer. Due to a solid defensive performance by WW there really aren't any other nominations for boner of the week so we are going to give that to Weyand.
WW's game against GF lived up to it's expectation as the game stayed tight for much of the first half. WW was able to string together some hits followed by some timely extra-base hits to get a 6 run lead. As GF tried to fight back WW would always answer by coming back and winning the inning. Throughout the game the 6 run lead never seemed comfortable, but Mike was able to close the door and stayed strong through all seven innings. The win against GF gave WW sole possession of first place with one more game left before the first half of the season is complete. WW will face long time nemesis Austin Ave. this Friday at 7:00. A dangerous AA team will be looking for it's first win of the season after dropping their only two games of the season by one run. Making matters more interesting for this game will be the internal struggles of Jay's allegiance. If you don't recall, we were first introduced to Jay on Friday nights when he was playing for AA in their last fall season. Buckshoot was quick to recruit Jay and bring him into the WW family but some internal sources have revealed that Jay's heart may have never left AA. I think we will all find out this Friday night, where Jay's loyalties lie.

Cool... Another Friday where I get to drive into Plano only to turn around and go home.

This cell has the potential to break up. I sure hope so. With any luck my next post won't be how we have a lot of losers on the team that won't go to Hooters after a rain out.

***UPDATE. Looks like the cell strayed south. We were able to get the game in with dark skies and some distant lightning. For future reference... There are a lot of guys on this team that won't go to Hoots after a rain out.

Well... We've got the easy work done.

Two weeks into the Summer season there are only two teams that remain undefeated. WaterWorks, who improved to 2-0 after coasting past Hiro(1-1) and Goodfellas(1-0) . GF edged out AustinAve(0-2) 16-15 last Friday to notch their first and only win. Despite the close win against a team that hasn't won a game this season, WW is going into Friday night with a lot of respect for a GF team that finished third in the Spring EOS Tournament. You might recall GF as the team that caused an hour long delay while they protested their opponent's (ToppsTown) roster. Oh... you didn't hear about that? yeah... there were some other teams thinking what we were thinking. I guess GF thought the tournament was worth risking $50 (cash!) on an appeal on ToppsTown's roster. One problem. The front office couldn't find the rosters. After about 10-15 minutes of searching the administration realized they sent the rosters from any team that won their league to the main office in Plano. After a quick drive to the other side of the city and back there was definitive proof that an illegal player was on the TT roster. Unfortunately he was the worst guy on the field. An hour after the appeal TT administered a triple decker pecker wrecker on GF and knocked them into the losers bracket where they went on to get railed by the team that knocked us out. Long story short. GF cares a lot about softball... and they appear to be on our level.
Now that I'm done with my incoherent rambling about this weeks matchup, let's have a flashback to last week when we coasted past Hiro. Not much to report in this game except that we took a new hit to the lineup when Rik jacked up his knee. Buckshot should have some broken ribs from repeatedly bodyslamming/dry humping the outfield. There was no clear cut player of the game so I need to figure out what to do about that. The Boner of the week goes to TJ for the throw back to Pete that ended up in the outfield letting the leagues slowest base runner make it to third.

Hannibal Lector and Uncle Jesse unable to save Rick's Appliance Repair

WaterWorks and gravity got the best of Rick's Appliance Repair this past Friday at Heritage Yards #3. After Staking WWs to an 11-2 lead by the second inning, Rick's was unable to get anything going with the bats and eventually let the lead drift to 17-2 before the game was called in the fourth. What appeared on paper to be an offensive outburst by WW was really just a showcase of RAR's inability to get their gloves in between the ball and the ground. RAR's defense seemed to be in the right place thanks to the brilliant softball mind of uncle Jesse from 'Dukes of Hazard', but the outfielders couldn't manage to execute.
The lack of defense was a major disappointment to Hannibal Lector who did a great job of getting WW hitters to hit his pitches. Lector 's defensive support was not the only thing missing from the game as WW infielder Byron was a game-time scratch. The reason for the removal from the lineup was not disclosed leaving only speculation as to why the player was a no show. The early rumors from the WW clubhouse was that 'Nine' had hit a low point in his struggle with sex addiction and had to seek help. That gossip was later dismissed as a WW spokesman confirmed that there was a contract dispute and that WW was ready to release the player if a contract wasn't signed under their terms. B's agent was not available for contact. Actually, the agents phone appeared to be disconnected.

WW Development League game called due to excessive thunder

The first game of the season for the Tuesday night WWDL league game was called 2/3 the way through the top of the first. The umpires try to call the game early after leadoff hitter Byron smoked a ball to short. The umpires had to be informed that what they heard was not thunder but, was in fact the sound that is typically made when Byron makes contact with a softball. A fly to center from a prospect picked up prior to the game was followed by a screaming single from Slurry Joe that moved B over to second. A deep fly to left from Buckshot moved Byron to third. Mike Long hit a P rod to left center to score B and move JW to 2nd. The game was then called due to thunder. The silver lining in Tuesday's game is that the WWDL players had a chance to test their endurance prior to this Friday's game and the Saturday EOS Tournament.

Despite a perfect season some of us chose to be losers

Winning the Spring A league is becoming a tradition for WW softball. For the third straight year WW has claimed their league title and this year they did so convincingly. With exception of the two Budweiser games and the first meeting with HDR, WW was able to coast through the season without breaking a sweat. Going into last Friday WW had put themselves in the driver seat of the league needing only to get a win against HDR or Budweiser in their final night of Spring play. WW would start the double-header against Bud who seemed to be the toughest competition seen by WW all season. Despite an anemic offense WW was able to get ahead early and play near flawless defense holding bud to only 6 runs. Pete escaped the first and third inning without throwing more than 5 pitches each. Not bad against a team that averaged a little over 13 runs a game. WW had some timely hits, most notably from lefty B. Macek who sent a sharp oppo liner with a couple of ducks on and turned it into a little league homer. When it was all said and done, WW walked away with an 8-6 victory and the Spring Championship.
After the victory against bud WW was able to sit back and take a game off, so to speak, against HDR. With the lineup flipped, the infield in the outfield and JW pitching WW put themselves in a position to get their doors blown off. In spite of their best efforts, WW again played spectacular defense with all the wrong people in all the wrong places. I think JW even managed to get out of an inning wasting only 6 pitches.
With Spring '09 in the books their was a roll call for the post season celebration. After much lobbying for more teammates to join in, a group of only four would make their way to Frisco to celebrate. There were wide range of excuses for missing the post-season celebration. Some had to get home and get their panties washed prior to the tournament the following day (I guess some people still hand wash their delicates). Others needed their sleep and I'm sure there were some valid reasons but in the end... Pete, Buckshot, Chris H. and Byron were the real Champions.

There are some who call me... Tim.

OK. One of our newest team members Jay, has seen fit to issue some suggestions for nicknames. Here are some excerpts from the e-mails that cover the names and some responses from JW and Byron.


Joe : Depending on the night (Tuesday or Friday), Joe could go with the following
-Tuesdays – JW (pronounced “jay-dub”)
-Fridays : Slurry Joe – This is derived from the Happy Hour Extravaganza that Joe participates in before the Friday night games.
-JW is pretty solid despite all of my efforts to get momentum for a Forest Gump type nickname seeing as how Joe does share some resemblance and he has those knee braces.

Rik : “Crotch” – I don’t think I’ve seen anyone take a ball to the nether-regions (or close to) more times than Rik.
-Crotch and balls-out both seem to be walking the fine line of gaydom especially since balls-out will inevitably be shortened to balls.

Albert : “Digs” – This is derived from the numerous times that Albert has to plow the dirt in front of 1st base in order to dig the ball out that many of us (not naming any names…Slurry Joe) throw his way.
-I kinda like digs more than A-train since it hints at Al’s ability to save our asses and highlights the fact that our infield can’t keep the ball out of the dirt.

Byron : “Nine” – For the number of hot wings Bryon will forever get at Hooters.

Chris H. : There are 2 possibilities here…one gay, one that reaches a little too much.
-“Heiny” – Last name credibility, but could be mistaken for gaydom on the softball field.
-“Morris” – Reminding Chris that his Alma Mater is like the fat girl at the prom with regards to the NCAA Tourney. Just happy to be there.

Pete : “Deuce”…..this either has something to do with some bathroom innuendo or hold on to your seat as this will blow your mind…..his jersey number is 2.
-separate tag name for Tournaments though, such as “Schleprock” or the “Human Injury Magnet”.

Mike : it’s very complicated to explain but I’ll give it a shot…….he wears # 8 on his jersey…..open your mind and see if you can figure it out…..if not let me know.
-Another obvious one for Mike is “grandpa” or “gramps” or “papa”…..you get the trend here!

TJ : “T-ball”……now I’m not sure if this has to do with some human anatomy oddity, the competitive game of T-ball baseball, or a derivative of his name. To be determined.

Scott : "Buckshot" ……it’s a jersey number thing again, sorry to blow your mind there again

Jay : "Round Mound of Sound" since he always seems to be voicing his opinion about something but, this nickname is a little to long so we are going to have
to find something better and JJ is just too obvious.

Chris W. : I could be talked into scooter or scoot for Chris W since he has that cute little scooter.

ZB : I’m waiting for ZB to make a sprawling goalie catch in the outfield so I can start calling him stretch

Finally, some competition

This past Friday (5/1) WaterWorks got back on the field for a double-header after playing one game in five weeks. WW saw three rain-outs, a forfeit and a rec-level team over that stretch. Standing in their way were two of the tougher teams in the league, Budweiser and HDR. Both squads had only one loss a piece and those losses came against each other. Adding to the pressure was the fact that WW was swept by Bud in the last league of '08.
WW would start the night against bud. The queen of beers quickly got ahead on a solo HR. Chris Heinrich answered back with 3-run shot to left. The game was neck and neck until the bottom of the 4th. WW batted through the order and put the game out of reach despite a last ditch effort in the top of 6 from bud.
Next up was HDR, who jumped to an early leading touching home seven times in the top of the first. The front of their lineup did a great job of knocking the fences down and then the lower order dropped in some gorks. While hitting, and up 7-0, the HDR first basemen decided to argue a play that wasn't even close. We are going to refer to the first baseman as moron for the rest of the post. Actually, Moron's gripe was that Chris H. who was playing short, missed second base on a force play. The funny thing is that CH actually almost fell on his face cause he tripped on the bag. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Moron was arguing from the dugout... I'm sure the view was much better from in there. This got Moron a warning. During the bottom half of the inning Brian couldn't advance to 2nd on a base-hit due to obstruction from Moron. Brian was awarded second and Moron argued and was given the old heave-hoe. The always clever Moron replied to the ejection with the good old F U. This would prove to be the turning point of the game as HDR would reach home safely only two more times. I don't recall the outcome being so lopsided but the final was 9-18.
WW improved to 6-0 on the year and is now in the driver seat for another Friday A Championship. The Player of the week goes to Chris Heinrich who nearly hit for the cycle against bud and played near flawless defense the whole night (I was going to just say flawless but I remembered that ball that got your fingertip... Don't worry man... that's just between you and me). The Boner of the Week has to go to Byron for going 1-6. In a softball double-header. Good job loser! WW will not see action until the 15th when they play another double-header against bud and HDR. A win in either of the two games or a loss to bud of less than 4 runs will be all it takes to crown WW in the Spring.

Back by popular demand...

It has been over a little over a year since our last post on the WW blog. After that last post we have received a steady stream of mail demanding that we activate the blog again. Through time the requests have become a little more desperate and in some cases threatening. We have also seen internet traffic reports for the site and we noticed an increase in site traffic since the last post. We would like to give in and start the site back up but if we were to do that, the terrorists would win. Instead, we have opened up a new siteand imported the old posts in so it's like we never left... Except for the fact that there hasn't been a post in over a year. I would like to thank all of the loyal fans who have waited patiently. Hopefully, we won't let you down.
Now it's time to get everyone caught up on the past year for WW softball. If I remember correctly, we lost the very next game after the last post. That loss demoralized the staff at HOTG and contributed to some of the factors that led to the shutdown of the old site. Despite the loss WW still won the league to make it 4 straight Friday A Championships. WW played well through the fall and summer but took some difficult losses and broke the championship streak. Since we won the spring league we were eligible for the end of season Tournament of Champions, but due to some paperwork issues WW was denied entry. There was an investigation into the rejection of the WW team and the official result was a technical glitch that affected the WW roster. An unnamed source (We can't say his name cause he was our lawyer and we wouldn't want to do him like that) close to the investigation said the problem was due to the mishandling of some paperwork at Plano P&R. We ended up settling out of court but it was pretty crazy.
The 2009 Winter meeting was a success. We picked up a full time player in Chris Heinrich, a power hitting infielder with speed. ZB was promoted to full time duty and is currently patrolling the outfield. Jay Jamison has committed to the team full time after spending a season with Austin Ave. Jay is an infielder that has been contributing in a utility role and is what we like to refer to as a 'softy'.
WW kicked off the season in the Pre-Season Tune-Up Tourny. Despite the 50 degree temp and winds of 30 MPH WW managed a 3-2 record. WW is currently 6-0 in the spring league. With two games to go WW is two games ahead of the 2nd place Budweiser. WW will face the queen of beers along with DHR next Friday (5/15) in a double header. WW will wake up early the next morning to play in the A league End of Season Tournament. We are still trying to decide how to handle the bye week this weekend since we don't play this Friday(5/8). There is some early talk of having a light BP session on Saturday and then recover at someones house nearby to discuss strategy and rehydrate.