The Dog Bowl

Well, the Bulldogs had a rough go at the playoffs on Friday night.  In game one, their bats were slow and their defense was suspect, but they were able to pull out a victory in the final inning, against Dasbach.  But as the Bulldogs season goes, it wouldn’t be a game without a bit of controversy to go with it.

In the sixth inning, Chris Koelbel came up to the plate and tried stretching a single in to a double and was called out on a high tag.  As Nelson Rivera went out to argue the call with the umpire, Brandon Aiken of the Bulldogs, was cited for swearing on the bench by the Bolingbrook Park District representative on site.  This individual brought it to the attention of the umpire and the Bulldogs were charged with a 3rd out to end the inning.  The Bulldogs really became upset when they found out the curse word was “that sucked”.  The Bulldogs were able to re-group, however, and win the game in the bottom of the 7th inning.

In the nightcap, the Bulldogs faced off against Tailgators (aka Peanut Buttery & Jelly or PB & J).  PB&J was able to put the cap on their semi-final game which ran into extra innings and beat Aftershock to go to the final game against the Bulldogs.

Not without excitement both teams played great defense and both teams put up a ton of runs, but the Bulldogs ran out of time in the bottom of the 6th, as the second controversial event of the evening occurred.  The Bulldogs, who had the opportunity to close the door on PB&J in the bottom of the 5th, left two men stranded.  Going in to the top of the 6th, the Bulldogs were up by 10-runs (17-7), but then PB&J opened the flood gates, putting up 15 runs to take the lead 22-17.  Just before the Bulldogs were about to take the plate in the bottom half of the 6th, the umpires advised both teams that inning would be the last and he was going to call the game on time.

Obviously this caused another round of arguments regarding the timing of the umpires decision.  Nelson Rivera felt that the umpire should have announced the “last inning” at the beginning of the 6th, as opposed to right before their last at bats.  When Nelson consulted the Bolingbrook Parks rep on site, he agreed but wasn’t compelled to overrule the umpires on the field.  This didn’t sit well with the Bulldogs, since earlier in the first game, the BBPD representative was so vocal about the “cursing incident”.

The Bulldogs brought four to the plate in the bottom half of the 6th, but were unable to produce a run to regain the lead.

When Brandon Aiken was asked to comment after the game he replied by saying, “That Sucked!”

Obviously emotions were riding high on the playoff games, but this doesn’t diminish the success that the Bulldogs achieved this Summer going 13-1 and taking 1st place in the regular season.  It just “sucked” that they weren’t able to cap the season off with a Playoff Championship, as well.

Well the first round of playoffs are in the books.  The results have been posted to the Bolingbrook Park Districts Web site and the Bulldogs will be taking on Dasbach this Friday night in the semi-final round of the 2007 Summer Playoffs.

Dasbach (10-4) beat the Misfits (9-5) in the 1st round of the playoffs by a score of 12 to 1.  Based on the brackets that were posted late last week, the Bulldogs would play the winner of this game.

Tailgaters (12-2) took on the Southside Hitmen (9-5) in the first round and won by a score of 7-3.  Tailgaters, who slipped to 3rd place after dropping their game to Aftershock on July 27, will be looking for payback.  They will be squaring off against Aftershock (12-2) in the semi-finals this Friday.

As you may know, Bolingbrook Park District had changed the playoff schedule so that all games would be on Friday, August 3.  We had an issue with this and addressed it with Chris Corbett of the Bolingbrook Park District.

The primary reason for the change was due to the pending USSSA State Championship tournament on Aug 10-12.  One of the other teams who will be taking place in this tournament was trying to be proactive on the behalf of all the teams in Bolingbrook that would be taking part in the USSSA tournament that weekend.  This includes Tailgaters, PB&J, Aftershock and the players on the Bulldogs Softball Club that play for Adobo.

Without getting into details about what was discussed, bottom line is that we are back on with the original schedule of the first round on Friday, August 3 and the semi and final rounds on Friday, August 10.  This came out as a result of a conversation that Chris had with Mark Pawlowski (Director of the USSSA State Championship tourney) who guaranteed that none of the teams from Bolingbrook would play on Friday evening.

It’s the opinion of the Bulldogs Softball Club that the schedule shouldn’t have been changed in the first place, regardless of the USSSA schedule.  We feel that all schedule changes should be done with at least 2-weeks notice if not longer and with the consent of all owners, not just a subset.  The USSSA schedule is put out at the beginning of the year and both the Bolingbrook Park District and the teams which participate in these tournaments, could have (and should have) cross-referenced the schedules at an earlier date.

In the future, to avoid any of these conflicts, the Bulldogs will do a better job of working with Milo Phelps (Manager of Adobo Softball) to better understand the tournament schedule, to ensure that we do not have this type of conflict in the future.

The truth of the matter is that either night would not have been optimal for the Bulldogs and we, also,  would have preferred a single night tournament.  However, the schedule was set and we had additional individuals who made plans for this up coming weekend due to the bye that we earned for Friday, August 3.

Chris Corbett is new to the Bolingbrook Park District this year and this was a learning lesson for him, as well as ourselves.  He was not aware, as to how many teams in our league actually played tournament softball.  Chris will be sure to double-check these situations in all future seasons.

In addition, we feel that Chris understands our point of not being excluded from major decisions regarding the format, scheduling or any changes in our league.  The Bulldogs Softball Club is of the opinion that all teams should have an equal voice in all issues and decisions.  We will continue to work with the Bolingbrook Park District and Chris Corbett to ensure the integrity and quality of the Bolingbrook Softball league.  We appreciate Chris’ commitment to dealing with all issues that arise and know that he is committed to working with all teams to make this league a success.

Bulldogs Management

The Bulldogs Softball Club capped their 2007 season by taking two games Friday night.  The Bulldogs only needed one win to secure 2nd place with a chance at 1st place.  However, the Dogs would have required Tailgaters to lose at least one game Friday in order for only one win to clinch first place for the Dogs.  So instead, the Dogs decided to take matters in to their own hands and put up the two victories which guaranteed them 1st Place in the regular season regardless of the outcome of the games going on at Remington Lakes sports complex.

The Bulldogs played the Cardinals in the first game of the night.  The Bulldogs were the visiting team and didn’t waste any time putting runs on the board.  The Dogs jumped to an 11-1 lead after two innings.  Backed by a stellar pitching performance and great defense, the Dogs went on to win 15-1.

The victory in the first game secured a 2nd place finish for the Bulldogs Softball Club, but the only way to guarantee a 1st place finish was to win out the evening.  The Dogs had a rough start in the 2nd game only putting up 1-run in the first two innings.  Going in to the 3rd inning with a 1-1 score, the Bulldogs got their second wind, putting up 11 runs in the 3rd & 4th innings combined.  John Kontek, who put up 5-RBI’s in the first game, put up another 3-RBI’s in the night cap.  Brandon Aikens continued his hot hitting going 3 for 3 with 3 RBI’s in the night cap.  This brought his total to 6 for 7 for the night.

Sean Killham had a stellar night on the mound, only giving up one walk all evening.  Sean has been pitching strikes all season and helping to keep the Bulldogs in every game.  In addition,the Bulldogs played great defense last night, capped by an ESPN-highlight-reel play by Jeff McMahon in the night cap.  Jeff, who was playing right field, laid-out for  a line drive in right field making an unbelievable out.

The Bulldogs have relied heavily on good defensive plays over the past couple of weeks, as last week, Jim Janetopolous saved the win last week against Aftershock with an amazing stop at 3B to end the game.

The Bulldogs hope to keep their pitching and defense working for them as they head in to the playoffs.  Securing first place, they’ll have a bye in the first round and a week off.  They will resume play on August 10 as they play for the 2007 Playoff Championships!

Summer League Play Offs:

I spoke with Chris Corbett of the Bolingbrook Park District today. Here is the low-down on the up and coming playoffs.

So this means that we need to be prepared to play on August 3 and 10. If we are able to secure 1st or 2nd place this week or next, we will not have to play on August 3, as this will be just the first round of games.

We already know that Kenny will not be able to make August 3 & 10, due to unexpected travel with his new job. Please make sure to congratulate Kenny on his new position and wish him the best of luck.

We also know that Milo will not be available on August 10 due to company travel, as well.

This means that come August 10, we’ll be down to 10 full-time ballplayers. We will be leveraging our subs list for August 10.

If you know of any conflicts for any of the remaining weeks, please send me an e-mail.

Fall Ball Update:

As we had posted about previously, the Fall League is creeping up on us. We are already in the planning stages with the budget and night we will play.

Talking with Chris Corbett, his plan is to use an 80/20 rule in determining what league your team will be placed. The idea is that if your team wins 80% of your games or more, you will be bumped (regardless of what place you are in) to the A-League in the very next season. Likewise, if your team should only win 20% of their games in the A-League, he will give those teams the option of moving down to the B-League.

Right now, we have the option of playing either Thursday or Friday nights. We will be polling the following:

We will have a full squad tonight, so please start thinking about your answers now. We will begin gathering this information from you this evening and over the next week.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments about how we have run the team, uniforms, type of equipment we should look into (i.e. bats, hats, jackets, etc.), please share it with us. We will take all suggestions under advisement.

Below is the response from Chris Corbett of the Bolingbrook Park District to the e-mail that I sent out on June 29. I blogged about this e-mail under the post title, “Bulldogs Respond to Bolingbrook Park District“.

I am much happier with the response in this e-mail, compared to the dismissive tone of his first e-mail. He offers up very good points from the perspective of a commissioner doing a thankless job and from other owners within the league. However, this goes to the point that all parties should be involved in a decision (especially one as unprecedented as this) affecting the whole league. It’s not about the point-of-view of the Bulldogs, Closers, Lincoln Mutual, the Bolingbrook Park District or any other team in the league. It’s about upholding the integrity of the league as a whole.

At this point, we need to make sure that we come to play on July 6 against Closers. However, I feel that Chris brings up good points below in regards to leaving the ‘forfeits’ or replacing the ‘forfeited’ games with games against the remaining teams in our league, which I feel is still the better option. It’s apparent that arguments can be made on both sides and that neither side is necessarily wrong. However, a decision on how to handle this situation in the future, in my opinion, needs to be documented.

Though I see Chris’ points, I still am of the opinion, that any ‘openings’ in the schedule created by a team that has ‘forfeited’ out of the league, should be replaced with additional games against one of the remaining teams within the league. This, in my opinion, is the most amicable solution of them all. This satisfies the BBPD’s desire to fulfill their commitments to providing as “full” a schedule as possible. In addition, this does not disrupt the overall “makeup” of the entire league by inserting a ‘new’ team that others may not have to play against or have had to play at all. Finally, I feel that the circumstances surrounding this situation were ’special’ in that a team happened to be available at the right place and time. As Chris stated below in response to my question about the replacement of Hussman Brawlers, he said there wasn’t an “available” team. I would venture to say that this would be the case ‘most’ of the time. I would still liked to have seen Chris replace the Hussman Brawlers remaining games with additional games against the remaining teams in our league.

I will be proposing these rule changes to Chris and the Bolingbrook Park District to be adopted for all upcoming seasons. Again, feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below.

I only included the portion of the e-mail where Chris responded. His responses are in “red” below.

First, you are replacing a team half-way through the season (8 games had passed) of which four teams received “free wins”. How is this fair to the remaining teams who hadn’t played Lincoln Mutual who now actually have to ‘win’ their games against this new team? How is it fair that there are teams that do not have to play the new team at all? What happens if the team you were supposed to play this Friday doesn’t show up and you get a forfeit win? Now say 2 weeks from now, that team you just got a forfeit win from plays the #1 team and beats them? Is that fair for the #1 team when ultimately that game could determine the #1 seed since earlier in the season you beat that #1 team and now you won the league? Forfeits are “unfortunate” and bad for leagues because at the end of any season, teams can always make the argument that one team got 4 forfeit wins while you had to earn those 4 wins…. Right?

I understand your logic in wanting to replace the team to honor the commitment of 14-games, however that’s a moot point once games have been forfeited. Automatically you are playing one less game in the year once a team forfeits. So in the case of Lincoln Mutual, there were 4-teams who were not going to have a full 14 game schedule regardless.

Based on the above logic, why aren’t we replacing Hussman Brawlers? Why are we not replacing those games? There was no team interested in taking over that specific team. Like stated in my previous email, Andy Christensen (who is the captain for Closers) is on the roster for Lincoln Mutual. That is how that team got involved while I called Andy trying to get the non-resident fees owed from Lincoln Mutual.

I think there was another way to avoid missing games without replacing the team that would have been a better solution. That would have been to replace all of the spots on the schedule where Lincoln Mutual was to play (and Hussman Brawlers now) with additional games against the teams that are already in our league. In my opinion, this is better then introducing an “unknown” team into a league and potentially changing the makeup of the league that was established for half a season. This would have also satisfied providing us with the 14-game schedule that we paid for. I can replace the spots by re-issuing game schedules but then that brings up other issues that if I were to do that, you, along with other captains could bark about. These issues that could happen include:

1) What happens if you hadn’t played that team that forfeited yet and only play the 1^st place team once throughout the year? Where you were playing that team that forfeited out of the league, your “make-up game” could be against the #1 seed. Now is that fair for you to initially see that one game as an automatic win and now your faced with playing a team that may be an automatic loss?

2) If you want me to re-issue game schedules mid-season and confuse players with multiple schedules I can do that but is it worth the hassle for your players in case they look at the wrong schedule?

3) I could issue the “make-up game” without maneuvering other games but what happens if you already had a 6:30pm scheduled game and now the make-up game is scheduled for 9:30pm – would you like that to have to as a team sit there for 2 hours until your makeup game is played?

Which brings me to another point. You stated that it was not your fault that “my” guys made the assumption that we didn’t have to play on July 6th since Lincoln Mutual had forfeited 4-games. When it stipulates in the rule book “Any team that forfeits three (3) games will be dropped from the league with no refunds.” How is this an assumption on my teams part? How is my team to know that you are working on replacing that team, when no where in the rules it stipulates that you could or would possibly do this? If assumptions were made, they were made on both sides. I understand your point but if a team pays their “league fees,” along with their non-resident fees (which didn’t take place with this situation), I give the team a “last chance” opportunity to eliminate themselves from the league. I believe in the “good faith” principle where if a team pays their fee, I am going to try to work with them to play instead of taking their money and laughing while I basically “stole” their money. It’s in the best interest of the Park District as well as to the captain to allow flexibility to work with captains in that degree. I would suggest (maybe I didn’t make it clear at the meeting) that teams should not “assume” team’s status without having the Athletic Supervisor have the ultimate decision. I apologize and understand your concern regarding this but like I said, I believe in the “good faith” to give all captains the benefit of the doubt to help them out instead of “stealing” money and saying “tough luck.”

Also, you mentioned that Closers was going to pickup the remaining fee owed by Lincoln Mutual. How is it that Lincoln Mutual was allowed to play after week 3 without having paid their full dues? Once again, the league rules stipulate that the registration fee is due in full by the first week and the non-residents due by week 3. Lincoln Mutual was allowed to play 4-games and they forfeited the next 4 (over 3-weeks) yet they hadn’t paid their fee in full. How was that possible? The remaining fees are the non-resident fees that teams have until week three to pay (as you are aware). Lincoln Mutual was to bring the money the 3^rd week and failed to and then after that they left the league leaving a void in the non-resident fees owed. They paid their league fees up front right away so they are out of the $590.00 they paid for league fees (no refund was disbursed in their favor for leaving the league).

You mentioned that you spoke with some of the captains in the league, but not all. In the future, I would like (as a paying customer) to have the “options” proposed to all captains. Every team’s circumstances are different and polling just a couple of teams is not sufficient. I would like to see that all captains are consulted on these types of situations and work with you to decide the best way that is amicable for all teams and the league to move forward.

I agree with you that this is recreational softball and that when money is involved it can get competitive. One reason many good teams come to Bolingbrook is because BBPD pays out money. It helps to offset costs for the fall or up coming season. However, that is why it is that much more important that all owners are consulted when it comes to changes like this in the league. We have a heated race going on for 1st & 2nd place. These are the two biggest payouts. Aftershock no longer has to play the new team and we may take a 2nd loss on a forfeit that shouldn’t have happened. This also affects the middle of the pack vying to make the playoffs, as well. Closers is certainly not out of reach of those teams and a team now can get bumped from the playoffs due to these changes, as well. Trust me when I tell you that if say the #1 team from Sunday wanted to join the league, I wouldn’t have done that. I am not going to put a team that is going to steam-roll over the current teams in that league just for the sake of “filling out your schedule.” Lincoln Mutual is 1-8 (5 remaining games) – yes they could win 5 straight and ultimately make the playoffs possibly but is it unlikely – yes…

We are going to do everything we can to ensure we have at least 9 players for next weeks game, but we are going to be handicapped. The points that I make above are to give you an “owners” perspective on the affects of the decision. I would certainly like to work with you in coming up with a process that can be inserted in the rules on how to handle this in the future. In fact, I will be insisting on it as a rule modification or addition for the fall and 2008 season. I can poll all teams at the captains meeting for the Fall but either way you look at it, forfeits are bad for any leagues… If there was a way I could eliminate teams from forfeiting I would but unfortunately its part of the game… That is why I told all captains to let me know the next morning if they had any issues with game times, dates etc so I could work around that when producing the schedule… I can provide you with multiple captains who I did this for…

I don’t mean to come across as not understanding your concerns. I totally do, but like I said, forfeits unfortunately are bad for any league. If there was a way I could avoid it I would but as stated, my job as the director of the league is to give all teams what they paid for. The last thing I want to do is “screw” you out of wins but then on the other hand “screw” other teams in a race against your team because you now have 4 forfeit wins where they had to earn those 4 wins (ultimately giving you a division and the $$ because of 4 automatic wins where its obviously tougher to have to actually legitimately win 4 games)….

Call me Monday if you want and we can discuss this further….

Hussman Brawlers are the next team to have forfeited out of the league. I personally had spoken with a couple of guys from Hussman Brawlers at our scheduled game against them on June 8. Apparently all of the guys on the team (or majority) are all carpenters who work for Hussman Builders. The night of our game against them only two players showed up and the rest were working.

In case you didn’t know, Hussman Brawlers were in the Friday B League last summer and they went by the team name Hussman Stickmen. This is obviously not a case of “negligence” on their part, as work takes precedence. These guys all work in an industry in which when work comes along, it has to take priority. These guys are putting food on the table for their families and work is definitely not steady in that industry.

However, I am a bit concerned that Chris Corbett has elected to simply allow the remainder of their schedule to go on as forfeits. Earlier this season, in an unprecedented move, Chris replaced the Lincoln Mutual team with a team from the Sunday Men’s league called the Closers. I wish that Chris would have at least looked at the option of replacing the remaining games on the Hussman Brawlers schedule with additional games against the remaining teams in our league. I feel this would have been the best decision, which keeps in line with his desire to limit the number of forfeits, which prompted him to replace Lincoln Mutual.

I will be addressing the Lincoln Mutual/Closers issue along with the Hussman Brawlers issue in e-mails to Chris Corbett. I’ll be sure to let you all know what transpires.

I know that I speak for everyone on the Bulldogs in wishing the players and the families of the Hussman Brawlers the best of luck and hope that we will be able to see them in future leagues under better circumstances.

Lincoln Mutual dropped their 3rd forfeit on the year on Friday, June 8, effectively eliminating themselves from the league.

Based on the Bolingbrook Park District league rules, under section “House Rules” item #5:

5. Any team that forfeits three (3) games will be dropped from the league with no refunds. Future league consideration will be evaluated. Teams will lose returning team status as well.

This essentially means that all remaining games on the schedule for Lincoln Mutual will also render a forfeit. Unfortunately, this also means, that Lincoln Mutual will be hard pressed to re-enter any future leagues, though this is at the discretion of our league commissioner.