CARDINAL SIN

A heart felt HOLLER BACK!!!!!!! to all my loyal readership and friends out there as I have been remiss in my coverage of the softball community. Over the last few weeks I have been off on vacation (more on that in a near future blog) and tending to other "Real World" matters. But without much further ado, we all know that Spring is here and that a young man's fancy turns to his love of softball every year at this time. The Season is fast approaching and let's get down to softball business.

If you've read any of my blogs over the years your familiar with my belief in the existence of the Softball gods.

What you might not know is that I went to Catholic school for 13 years (my parents sent me an extra year to piss me off). While I'm down with freedom of religion ironically I'm not really much of a Catholic anymore. However, one thing I do remember from my parochial school days is the concept of The Seven Deadly Sins, also known as the Cardinal Sins, which is a classification of the human vices : wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.

Well I have committed a Softball Cardinal Sin

and have left the Westlanders to join the Cardinals in Saturday Gunn Sports league http://softballinsider.blogspot.com/2010/03/245-highlights-saturday-softball-spring.html.

Some would consider this an act of madnesswhile others would consider it as a Homecoming.

I was treated very well and fairly by Westlander management/players the last two years and still maintain a very strong friendship with many of them. But I couldn't turn down the chance to help run and forfeit avoid for my original team the Cardinals. Both teams are sure to lock up in a memorable softball war again this year.

2010 is going to be a lot of fun for everyone.

HOLLER !!!!!! SOFTBALL IS BACK!!!!!!!!

New 5/24 Rule Highlights the Saturday Softball Spring Preview

Last night I attended the league meeting for the Gunn Sports 2010 http://www.gunnsports.com/ Saturday's men's modified sports league. I covered what winter softball meetings were really about in my classic blog http://softballinsider.blogspot.com/2008/01/btc-betta-have-my-money.html. I usually never attend meeting but I went to last night's get together b/c I will be helping Cardinal manager, Sierra, run the Cardinals (and I had major Cabin Fever and nothing better to do) in 2010.

Gunny's league has evolved from a neighborhood league in the school yard

to a viable below 96th softball competitive option. For years Gunny's league has been hampered by extremely poor field conditions at Dewitt Clinton Park

but that all changed last year thanks to a major upgrade/renovation at 54th street

that has put Gunny's league back on the softball map. (fyi :He also has fields in Central Park's North Meadow)

If the Central Park Softball league http://www.centralparksoftball.com/ at
Heckscher Park is the Tiffany's of Saturday Softball,

then Gunny's league is more like your friendly neighborhood Joyeria Pepe Jewelery store

Gunny's league may not have "The Sheep’s Meadow" or "Tavern on the Green" nearby, but things are kept much more real. Some keep it real quotes from Gunny's league/website/meeting are as follows:

"Everything else will be explain in the meeting!!NO Hidden Cost....."

""Start using the Message Board"Trash talking allowed !!! "

Now that's keeping it real.

While both leagues are well organized and play in front of big crowds they are both very different softball experiences and you should play in the one that best matches up with your preferences and schedule. The Central Park league is a more corporate, laid back, touristy type of league while Gunn Sports is more hardcore, prize driven, competitive, wildleague and a truly all day event for it's loyal players like Lou Gonzalez Freddy "Little Unit" Suarez

and the talented "Flaco"

So before picking which Saturday league to join get all your facts straight.

A good meeting is one that gives you all the facts/information right of the bat, pun intended. At Gunny's meeting league president Carlos Gunn and commissioner Hector Hernandez

explained a new (new to me anyway) and controversial pitcher's playoff qualification rule. The Gunn Sports rule is as follows "To qualify for the playoffs a pitcher must appear as pitcher in 5 regular season games and pitch 24 innings". Very Bold and Interesting. It has some loopholes that still need to be worked out like emergency playoff pitchers, but overall I like the idea/premise behind the rule. Basically they want pitchers to show up and play. That should always be the idea. They are trying to eliminate/reduce people making a mockery out of the game by doing that bullshit where a pitcher shows up, throws one pitch or inning and then leaves. I give them credit for having the balls to make this rule and these guys are always at the park so they should be able to enforce it. Kudos to Gunn Sports.

Another strong positive from Gunny's meeting was their enforcement/ application of http://citysoftball.wordpress.com/ & http://softballinsider.blogspot.com/ pitching rules. They handed out printed version of our rules http://10manmodified.com/web/ which proves the old adage that "imitation is the greatest form of flattery".

I would be remiss not to note that other issues remained unresolved at the meeting like total team roster size and the league provided a pitcher's banned list on their website. Hopefully, these topics will be addressed at the next meeting.