WaterWorks Softball: November 2010

Champions of Champions

Your 2010 Plano Tournament of Champions Winner...

What is certainly going to be remembered as one of WaterWorks Softball's finest moments almost never happened. Less than a week before the start of the tournament and mere hours before the registration cut-off; the team found themselves sitting out on another Tournament of Champions due to a paperwork mishap. After registering, the league office had informed the team that they were unable to locate a roster for the tournament eligible WW team. The Red Striped Warriors faced a similar problem with last year's TOC registration and, despite persistent pleading with league officials the team was turned down in '09. This year however, the team's crafty veteran lefty, Mike Carroll was thinking one step ahead by making a copy of the roster prior to submitting it to the league. A quick phone call and trip to Heritage Yards secured a spot in the big dance for WW and served as foreshadowing for a team that plays by the rules and never gives up.

The Grey Men that Bring Mayhem started the day against CottonWood Sports; an unfamiliar foe to WW. Early on the team showed some signs of light rust having not played in a few weeks. Cloudy and chilly conditions made bats cold and throws inaccurate.Once acclimated to the weather, WW settled in and played a rock-solid defensive game that allowed a sputtering offense to catch up and eventually take the lead and the game. After the game, speedy WW outfielder ZB would have to leave for a soccer tournament

Next up, The Gotti Boys. Again, an opponent new to WW and again the bats were slow to start. A sluggish offense would be reoccurring theme throughout the day as for the second game in a row WW would continuously strand runners in scoring position. Thankfully a watertight defense allowed an anemic offense to build comfortable a comfortable lead and maintain it throughout the game.

The win against the Gotti Boys meant that WW had secured their side of the winners bracket and at least third place. This also meant that WW expected to face a tough opponent in the semi-finals. The bottom half of the winners bracket had two teams that were tournament favorites. The Saints, who are known as a bitter rival of WW, had won at least three tournaments against WW in the championship game. Using primarily tournament players, the Saints typically have no problems tearing their way through tournaments. The other favorite, and new team to the tournament, VSSI made their mark by dropping the Siants handily after winning their 'play in' game. Waterworks picked up a break in the bottom half of the bracket when VSSI lost to SMASH. This meant that VSSI and Saints would have to play each other again in an elimination game and made the road to the finals a little less bumpy for WW.

The only thing that was know about SMASH was that they beat VSSI to make it to the Semi-Finals. Based on VSSI's reputation, this was no small task so WW expected a fight. WW also had to deal with more attrition when speedster Jonathan Frizwell had to leave the tournament for a previous engagement. What they got was a run-rule win against a team that put its leadoff batter on base only once and failed to score him. For the third straight game Mike Carroll shined on the hill and was backed by a strong defensive effort. When all was said and done WW cleaned house in the winners bracket giving up only ten runs in three games. The lineup also appeared to be gaining some momentum with the run-rule.

More to be posted/edited when I feel like it...

WaterWorks Softball 2010 OTA

One by one members of the water works softball team assembled at mike c's Plano estate to prepare to embark on the first annual WW organized team activity. after Mike's truck and Al's excursion were loaded the group set out on a trip they would not soon forget.

The first stop was the 7-11 on spring creek and75 to grab some last minute provisions. JW used this time to make some tall bloody marys in the parking lot. Not too long after, they were sharing the highway into Dallas with everyday commuters dreading the Thursday that awaited them. The drive through Dallas want bad at all. No accidents or major slowdowns. The group in Al's truck passed the time watching eastbound and down while everyone in mike's truck probably talked about investment strategies and 401k. The gaggle made it into Austin around 11 and were greeted by Mike's better half and and a jaw dropping view of lake Travis. *The phone camera does not do the view any justice.

Mike and Tammy gave the grand tour and shared stories of the lake house remodeling project. Most of the guys wondered around the house half listening and half mumbling to themselves about how unbelievable the view was. After all were unpacked mike handed out the guest bags containing golf balls, tees, divot tool,sunscreen and most importantly, the course notes and pictures prepared and printed by Mike himself. The notes were incredibly accurate, which meant that Mikeprobably had to learn the course the hard way. The group was met by former WW legend Pat, who's legacy includes breaking a bat while hitting and getting dropped by a thrown ball while running to second on a double play. Mike led the way to the course where most of the guys had time to waste all of their good swings on the driving range. The days tournament would be a three team best ball. The groups were split by WW seniority. Mike, Scott, JW and TJ. Pat, Pete, Rik and Rory. Jay,AL,Al's nephew and Byron. The course was in pretty good shape and there were deer everywhere. I honestly don't know how we managed not to hit at least one. When all was said/done the seniors beat the not-so-seniors by a stroke and the juniors fell out of contention on the back nine.

After a short trip back to the house Mike started working on dinner, brauts and sliders accompanied with baked beans, etc. Completely full of good food and beer, we spent the rest of the night socializing and catching up. The guest house had darts, ping pong and poker so we all stayed pretty busy. Pat, Jay, Rik and B stayed up playing poker. That's where Pat got the bright idea that he needed to mess with somebody. Since Al was on the couch in the guest house he was the perfect target. I guess the best he could do was tobasco sauce. After a couple of attempts to get some in his mouth Al finally woke up and Pat was already back in his seat. The next time around Al woke up with pat in mid stride and the bottle of hot sauce right in from of the couch catching Pat, red handed I guess. All in all a below average prank, but given the resources at Pat's disposal what else could you expect. When it was all said and done I think Rik and Jay ended up with winning big at the poker table.

Mike had tee times early next morning and after a night of drinking most of the guys woke up a little slower than they did Thursday morning. We had to change courses since the course we had our tee times scheduled with had their greens aerated so we ended up on the sister course (Wish I could remember the name). This was a beautiful course and was pretty fun to play. Having a late start on the day we missed our tee times but the pro shop was nice enough to cut us loose right before the start of a couples tournament. The group split the teams up again but, since there wasn't any money on the line I can't remember who was with who but, Scott, Pete and B ended the day with the best score. This round of golf was like a big plate of pancakes. All exciting at first but by then end your sick of them (credit Mitch Hedberg). I have never wanted to get off the course so bad in my life. Nursing a small hangover plus 6 hours off sleep in the past 2 nights and a sore body from the round before, the 18th hole was a welcome sight. I made taking a shower a top priority. After heating up some leftovers some of the guys tried to take naps but, that ended up being a mistake since most everyone thinks pranks on people who are sleeping are cool. Since a nap wasn't an option and Pete wasn't satisfied that others weren't drinking as much as he was, I made my drink of choice for the night Mt Dew and vodka. It was my best effort at a buckshot but since we didn't have redbull I had to improvise. Al worked on getting his stew on. I guess when you are making a big ass bowl of chilli you need to have small strips of wood to keep the heat on the bowl evenly distributed. I guess the wood we brought was too big so after a short trip into town and the purchase of a demo tool later, JW was working on splitting logs with this little hatchet in his sandles. This was actually a pretty impressive site. I think a midget indian would have rather taken a spoon into battle than that little tomahawk looking thing JW was using. In the mean time Scott was busy taking on all challengers a washers. They stew was top notch and definitely a highlight of the trip. Al did a great job on this and I recommend that this be part of the tradition. It didn't take to long after dinner and after most everyone had a chance to play washers for a tournament to break out. We all picked teams on a 'free agent' basis and were ranked by the official Washers Tournament Committee headed up by B.

1. JW-Al
2. Mike-Pete
3. TJ-Jay
4. Rik-Scott
5. Rory-Byron

One of the more memorable sights of the tournament was Scott's signature "Silent but Deadly Squat Toss" which led his team to the finals. During that trip, Rik and Scott ran into Rory and Byron where they survived the back-roll-double-bird finishing move from B. It was in the third place match where B double faulted twice to give S&R a shot at the title. S&R's dreams of becoming the WWOTA2010WTC were destroyed when JW and Al destroyed S&R in double elimination final. This tournament was a blast. Fun to play and watch.