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.