Thursday, August 9, 2007

Yawkey League Elite Eight!

#1 Seed: Somerville Alibrandis 28-5-1 led all the way in '07. Rolled off 17 straight wins. Odds on favorite to win 10th Championship. 9th in a row. You know the names. Picture has not changed here. Now it is up to the other 7 teams to dethrone the King of the Yawkey League! Any takers?
#2 Seed: Revere Rockies 26-8-0 held the fort all season in #2. Great pitching and tremendous hitting team. Lots of veterans. Shocked by Southie last night in a barn burner. Also, killed by 3 huge errors. If they play good "D". Pitching and hitting may help the Rocks go all the way in 2007. My pick to give Somerville a run for their money!

#3 Seed: Al Thomas A's 20-14 were tied with 3 other teams until the last weekend of season. Won Tarpey Conference by 2 points. Team constructed with mirrors most of year. Al Thomas has become a solid threat after a year away from playoffs. Bobby Barrett #2 in YBL batting race. Aiden Powers is a solid lefty. Down 1-0 to Blue Fish, but watch out they play possum a lot!


#4 Seed: Medford Mad Dogs 22-12, played like "puppies' in the early going. They had the best ending of the season along with Southie. Pitching and solid hitting will carry them further than most teams. Sean Gildea is a leader on the hill. Tough to beat! They do not make mistakes. can they repeat? We shall see.....


#5 Seed: Brighton Brewers 21-13-0. Had an awful end to the season. BUT - they are BAAACK. Trounced Medford 15-0 last night to open the Dance. They can be a very solid team. Defensive and hitting gaps could hurt their chances of survival. Dirt Dog attitude and tough imaged players. Marc Hordan MVP and Triple Crown winner will lead them far.

#6 Seed: East Boston Blue Fish were 19-14-1 in regular season. Solid finish. Kyle Jones is my Roger Clemens award winner for 2007, but can he do it all in a short series? He did it last night vs Al Thomas. A 3-1 win and he gets another chance in the best of 5 game series. Playing angry right now. THAT could help and hurt. Good manager will stem the tide.


#7 Seed: South Boston Saints were 19-15-0 tied with WR, McKay Club for 7th & 8th slot and got the 7th seed due to total wins against both teams. HOT! 10-3 right now to end season and open playoffs. Won an exciting comeback game one against Rockies last night. My choice for Cinderella rating in 2007. Watch out for these boys. They are strong! Tenney & Dacy nice 1-2 punch. Rob Stephenson still has it in middle age!! Jon Tenney my choice for '07 Manager and Gentleman of Year - a class act! Best move Kevin George ever made!


# 8 Seed: West Roxbury Devils were 20-15-0 in regular season. Beat McKay club in a play-in game to garner 8th seed. Long shot, but tough to beat. Any team with Phil Davies and Gregg Rockwell will be tough to beat. Will Clang is a sleeper on the bump. Huge loss - Ryan Carey OUT at SS with an injury for season.

3 comments:

Bag-Balm said...

This series was closer than it appeared. Somerville is a great team, there is not doubt there. Game one was taken by Somerville on strong pitching and excellent hitting. Game 2 was a great pitchers duel ending in a 1-0 game that could have gone either way. Game three the Devils walked off with a win 4-3. However shame on the league for having it decided on a forfeit for game 4. The Devils could not field a team for game 4 @ the scheduled time of 1pm because of religious and family commitments by players on the team. They tried to move the game to 7:30 pm, but their request was not accepted by the league president. Both teams played their buts off on the field, and left it between the lines. This could have been an excellent series that would have brought even more stability to the league, in the end the league has taken a step back.

The Boston Baseball Head said...

The YBL over the past 25 years has scheduled games during the regular and post season on Sunday afternoons @ 1PM and 4PM. A schedule of games was posted long in advance and every player and coach was aware that West Roxbury would play @ 1PM on Sunday. It was not until after the Saturday game and everyone had gone home did I hear West Roxbury would have numbers issues for Sunday. It was my ruling YES that if West Roxbury did not have enough players they would forfeit. That was fair to integrity of the schedule and the opponent. Players opted to attend religious and family functions rather than attend the game. This is a free country. The West Roxbury players freedome of expression caused the forfeit and the demise of the team in the playoffs. NOT ME or my league! The League had no intention to accomodate the request made in the afternoon on Saturday less than 24 hours before the game on Sunday to move the start time to 7:30PM. No team or group of players have the right to dictate when and where they play in an organised league. If that were the case there would be chaos. The players on West Roxbury caused the forfeit due to their lack of attendance at the 1PM start. That is a shame YES. The shame is on West Roxbury as a team not the YBL or its leadership.

Bag-Balm said...

Valid points indeed. Non the less, WR and the league should have tried to work together to make this work. Players opted to attend religious and family functions rather than attend the game. This is a free country, you are correct. Players make thier individual choices in life, thats what makes this such a great country. But to say that the shame is on West Roxbury as a team to practice thier beliefs is a naro minded thing to say. Who is one person to say, what is more important than another. A deeply devoted man, Sandy Koufax once opted to observe the holiest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, instead of starting the first game of the 1965 World Series game. In the end the decision was made by people to attend what is important to them, and yes this resulted in a forfeit. When the dust cleared and choices had to be made about religion, family and baseball there was one winner and one loser. Last time I checked Sandy Koufax IS a winner in my book, and thats the only one that matters.

EAD '07