Friday, September 25, 2015

Blessed

Pope Francis is in town,













but I don't need him to bless me because in real life I already am:





















In Softball I am also blessed to know many people who have made me a better player and person



"You were always determined to be better, do better , play better. The drive has been your biggest asset and it has Paid off big time ." .. Lou 22 .. on me.. ridiculous compliment.

I still feel there is more, I guess that's a blessing too.

The Beginning

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Morphing into Softball Gods

For the 2nd time in 5 years 

2011 Throwback picture

















The Spitfires have won the Sunday Morning Bum Rush Championship.

Their squad this year was legendary with Ang, Jrod, Howie, Greg, and Eriz as they became softball god like




On the season they earned the top regular season record as their pitching was paced by Greg and Mickey. Their playoff run was softball god like as they won two hard fought best of three series

  • Semi-finals they outlasted Asylum in best of three series 2 games to 1.
  • Finals they overcame a 0-1 series deficit in dramatic fashion. In game three, they were down 1-0 in the 6th inning until Howie (Bums Rush League rookie) and Mickey delivered two clutch two out singles in the 6th inning to pace a 4 run rally en route to a title clinching 4-2 win.  

Excellent.


The Insider Salutes Mickey Peckins and Sandy Zinn



















who captured their 3rd Central Park Championship in 5 opportunities this year. That's a 600 Championship batting average - Hall of Fame softball Gods stuff. Well done and congratulations.

Monday, September 21, 2015

The Old Adage Rang True... There Is No School Like The Old School"

Yesterday the Old Adage Rand True as

"There Is No School Like The Old School"





Ridiculous team effort as all I can say is that everyone on my team helped us win.  Everyone.

That is truly Old School. 

It was my privilege to lead our little dysfunctional modern family.

Thank you guys for putting up with all my Crazy shit

The insider would like to salute and acknowledge a great champion as Choice Parts with players like Sandy Vic Miranda Jrod etc they defended their title to the very end. True Warriors.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Right Now!!!!!!!!!!! .....Breaththroughs Fuels "B/C It's More Than Just A Game" Sequel...

There is good in Softball and Last year we proved it



with the and this year we will be doing it again. Cancer is relentless and does not discriminate and we are going to do something about it right now, this year as  the



is back in 2015! Charity Tournament Game Details
 We have all lost to CancerI hate losing and I hate this dreadful disease. To fight back we have to be relentless and this is my way of doing something about it.

My Charity is CRI: 






I carefully selected this charity because I wanted one that used a large percentage of donation dollars to fight Cancer and, more importantly, they are trying to prevent Cancer using Immunotherapy, That's smart and forward looking. 

In baseball/softball we use stats to measure performance will check out CRI's impact player statistics:

In the fiscal year (July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015), CRI committed more than $29.3 mil. in new funds to accelerate cancer immunology research in 14 states, 7 countries, 41 institutions. The awards include:

  • 26 postdoctoral fellowships for young scientists who are bringing creative new insights and perspectives to the fields of immunology and tumor immunology
  • 13 Clinic and Laboratory Integration Program (CLIP) grants, which provide two years of support for transnational laboratory investigation
  • 7 Clinical Strategy Team grants that will fund preclinical research necessary to generate innovative new combination immunotherapy clinical trial concepts
  • 4 Clinical Accelerator trial grants, including:
  • A phase I/II trial of intratumoral immunotherapy & checkpoint blockade in cancers
  • A phase I/II trial of a small molecule inhibitor or a vaccine, in combination with checkpoint blockade, in lung cancer
  • A clinical trial of immunotherapy following autologous stem cell therapy in multiple myeloma
  • An addendum to the phase I/II trial of an anti-PD-L1 antibody and a novel TLR8 agonist in ovarian cancer

Cancers researched include

  • bladder
  • brain
  • breast
  • cervical
  • colorectal
  • cutaneous
  • T cell lymphoma
  • head and neck
  • kidney
  • leukemia
  • lung
  • lymphoma
  • Merkel cell carcinoma
  • melanoma
  • multiple myeloma
  • ovarian
  • pancreatic
  • prostate
  • skin
  • sarcoma, and 
  • uterine
CRI scientists are shedding light on some of the most important questions in cancer immunology, including:

  • the targeting of new immune checkpoints,
  • imaging of the tumor immune microenvironment, immunosuppression and its part in the cancer immunity cycle, 
  • macrophages and their role in cancer immunotherapy, and 
  • the role of the microbiome in cancer development and progression.

Something is being done to Stop Cancer and we are going to help them with this event.

Right Now.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

SB Kings Never Die

The Softball gods remembered the class McHales showed last year after they were upset in the playoffs and they were reward in 2015 as they won  Championship of the Show Business League posting a decisive 12-4 win over Failte. 

They proved Softball Kings Never Die

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It truly was a team effort with everyone getting a hit. They were down 2-0 after the first but scored 3 in in the top of the 2nd and never looked back. Bobby Fishman pitched all 9 innings. The weather was glorious and the game was played in honor of the McHale's scorekeeper Georgianne Reilly who died over the winter. 

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Less is More


For those suffering from championship lag :




and more importantly for the hardcore softball lifers out there  Citysoftball.com has been updated as Inwood Fall Ball 2015 is back.

This year the motto is Less is More, we "only" have 8 teams , 
  • Chelsea - with many players from the 01',02',03'04',05',08',09', 11' Champion West, Highlanders, Westlander, Hustlers squads
  • Bizcocheros - 2013 Champion
  • Sandlot - 2011 Champion
  • Plus perennial Playoff Teams - Kings, Tigers, Brew Crew, Chaos, and Hell Kitchen that will all be highly competitive.
all 8 Love playing ball in Inwood and at the end of the season that will be the most important thing. The Top 7 teams will make the playoffs this year with the #1 seed getting a 1st round bye.

I didn't all out recruit this year. It's all good. Less is More.

As an fyi: Very Important this year we have the following new rules effective for the 2015 season

Note :Effective 2015 -

  1. Pitching Rule - to qualify as a pitcher for the playoffs a pitcher must pitch 21 regular season innings (2/3 of an inning counts as 1 inning). If during the playoffs an injury or absentee situation occurs, then a pitcher/player who has not thrown 21 regular season inning can only be used if approved by both the league and other manager prior to the playoffs.
  2. An umpire must ask the home team to take the field when they have 8 players there at Forfeit Time.
  3. Final Roster Size is 25.
  4. Rosters must be completed by the eighth game of the regular season
  5. You must have at least eight (8) players to start a game.
  6. The EH is allowed to play the field.
  7. Courtesy runner is the last batter to hit into an out. If it is the 1st inning and there are no outs then the last batter in lineup with out a runner must run.


CHAMPIONSHIP LAG

There is a long 3 week time lag between the Big Apple Semi-Finals and Finals this year.

The best of five series features the defending two time Champion

Versus new comer



The long time period is not the league's fault as the the labor day holiday weekend plus a park closure has delayed the start of the finals. Will the delay matter? The Insider took to the streets to find out

Some People Say YES!!!!!!!!



Some People Say NO WAY!!!!


Insider Take: It Is What It Is. The smart thing to do is find something else to do like Enrique has:




Inwood.. hmmm.. That takes me to my next blog .....

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Forever

Ever since Bravey left the Monday league, RAOUL’S (RJK) has been virtually unstoppable!!!! 

Their dominant runs seem like it's been going on Forever.

;


This year RAOUL’S (RJK) SWEEPS THE 2015 PASL CHAMPIONSHIP!!


On a balmy late summer afternoon, the two Division Champions entered the PASL Finals, both with fine records and high expectations. Only one team lived up to those lofty expectations as 

RAOUL’S (RJK) was clearly the superior squad, allowing just one run in 14 innings of championship play.



In the opener, RAOUL’S scratched out a run in the bottom of the first but then they finally broke out, putting together a big four-run rally in the middle of the game to salt Game One away, winning handily, 5-0.

In the nightcap, an egregious E4 in the top of the first with two outs and runners in scoring position gave RAOUL’S a 2-0 lead, then the eventual Champs added another run in the 3rd for a 3-0 lead.

Spotted Owl scored their only run of the afternoon off of P Mike Peckins on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1, but RAOUL’S (RJK) got that run right back in the top of the next inning, making it 4-1.

Owl did have a glimmer of hope when a lead off triple opened the fifth inning, but that was snuffed out when they couldn’t push the run across and leaving him stranded at third.

To their credit, they did bring the tying run to the plate with one out and two on in the bottom of the 7th, but Mickey Peckins got out of it, inducing a weak popup and a fly out and that, as they say, was all she wrote.

RAOUL’S (RJK) won the game 4-1, sweeping the Series and claiming the Heckscher Challenge Cup for the second time in three years.

Congrats go out to Manager Mike Peckins and his band of merry men (18-1) for a job well done.

Insider Analysis:

Mickey has now won the Monday and Wednesday CP day leagues and now has his sights set on the Tuesday league where his team will be prohibitive favorites over McHale's

UPSET but in the end ... Softball should bring out the best in all of us and be fun win or lose.

The softball gods remembered last year so on Tuesday's this year

McHales 4
Old School 3









Heartbreaking, sickening, and empty loss for Old School Tuesday's






, but as wise softball lifer Fran Levitt said "Thanks for being gracious today.  Softball should bring out the best in all of us and be fun win or lose."

Congrats McHale's well done and deserved.