Moving Plastic Furniture while serving 25 to Life

Despite getting a record number of comments recently
http://softballinsider.blogspot.com/2010/09/obvious-hidden-in-plain-sight-jb-factor.html (thank you), I have been hit with a severe case of writer's block for the last 2 weeks.

Why?

It's not one thing. Key factors include :

• Looking for a Big Softball performance/breakthrough
• Looking for a Big Story
• Knockout's poor performance and management tension
• Self softball pity
• Citysoftball http://sites.google.com/site/inwoodsoftballleague/

I've fought through most of these issues and gotten peace to some extent except with one : Knockout Poor Performance. You see Knockout is our team in Inwood and it's the equivalent to a 25 to Life softball prison sentence. Like the Eminem's song 25 to Life



Knockout makes me feel like I'm stuck in a bad relationship. The worst part is the apathy. Most players are there to just be there. We've been compared to Mayaguez http://softballinsider.blogspot.com/2010/05/softball-mount-rushmore.html from the Big Apple League in that we are a talented bunch who can't get it together. Don't get me wrong that all falls on the manager, Me. I've made my share of mistakes, but I've also been loyal, selfless, and committed. So what to do?

Step 1 Relax Fellow manager Dio Jackson of the Westlanders gave me some good advice "Ricky bottom line you and I take losses home with us, but the players go home and forget about it so relax". Dio is right. He helped relax me and I've been able to replace my anger, hate, and disappointment now with something better Honesty. They say the truth will set you free and the Truth is Knockout as currently constituted has two chances to win : Slim and None. We are like plastic furniture
tacky, sterile, and an eyesore. Being an above 96th street kid when I was little we had plastic furniture which I hated but from time to time my mom

would re-arrange the furniture. I asked my mom about this yesterday and she said that even though the furniture was ugly she would "cambiar los mubles para buscar suerte" (change the furniture to find good luck).

This week when I play the two time defending championships Westlanders. I am shifting my entire plastic furniture team around. I will be loyal to my nucleus for playing time, but everything else is out the window. It's not panic, it's a necessity. The house needs a makeover and I'm not afraid to remodel my 25 to Life home. I'm not expecting to add beautiful new microfiber furniture, but I can't sit down and get glued to the plastic as the heat turns up down the stretch. "Hay que buscar suerte"

Obvious Hidden in Plain Sight JB Factor

A common mistake many people have made over the last 3 years http://softballinsider.blogspot.com/2010/09/much-more-excellent-and-not-so-evil-as.html is to think that Choice Parts "CP"was solely John BrownWell that fallacy was clearly been disproved by a classy and talented staple of polished players over the last several season.

Still almost every conversation that involves the Parts inevitably turns to the John Brown Factor which includes the following (which anyone who has ever seen him play can attest to):

Physical Factors

• Dominant high speed pitching with a heavy ball
• Filthy Change Up
• Good Hitter - all fields
• Smart defender

Intangible Factors

• Intimidation - depends on the experience/heart of his competition
• Gamer - Admirable Unmatched Desire to Win. True warrior
  

These characteristic provide CP with many positives, but one obvious hidden in plain sight advantage it affords them is Leverage in Recruiting.

CP's manager and players work together brilliantly and without hesitation to recruit top players to surround JB. All winning business, organizations, and teams build upon their #1 asset to promote themselves and CP's #1 asset is JB. This is very smart as if you have top starting pitching, then the top players will follow b/c they want to win. Very smart.

Softball recruiting is a ruthless cut throat dirty game where you have to use every edge possible to your advantage to attract and keep top talent. It's really quite simple, if you have a top dependable dominant starting pitcher who happens to be a great guy (fellow Met/Jet fan) like JB, only a fool wouldn't use him as a recruiting chip. Again very smart

Much more Excellent and not so Evil as CP 3Peats!!!!!!!

The official Big Apple (BASL) results are in

and it is UNDENIABLE that Choice Parts (CP) is quite possibly one of the BEST TEAMS EVER in the BASL.

The low easy road would be to be mean, hateful, and jealous of them but the truth is they are the deserving Champions of the Big Apple League for the 3rd consecutive year and are so much more Excellent

than Evil as they have been portrayed in the past

http://softballinsider.blogspot.com/2008/05/evil-empire-strikes-back.html http://softballinsider.blogspot.com/2009/07/800-pound-gorrilla.html

They are the best team in the league and deserve accolades for their effort.

CP's team motto is "Step on 'em hard and step on 'em early" and with the smart, polished, and talented roster they've assembled they back up their words. They truly have built a phenomenal team that deserves recognition.

This is coming from someone who used to personally hate CP, but that's changed in the last few years. I've actually become a CP fan and sincerely congratulate them on their softball achievement. Well done.

You see people (like me - before my time) forget that CP did their share of playoff losing to Contact during the 90s. They were perpetual "bridesmaid." They had (and still do) the best pitcher in John Brown "JB"

who has more desire to win than anyone else out there. But even he cant do it alone. Something was missing and manager John Rosenmiller knew it and did something about it through shrewd recruitment.

The turning point to reshaping their roster was acquiring Mike P and Eric Z. They brought speed and were singles hitters who got on base and took extra bases. They brought a new energy, conviction, enthusiasm ...not the quiet, white guy professional style that had been the Parts trademark.

Those acquisitions were only the beginning as the rich got richer. Perhaps their greatest moves were adding Lou Gonzalez Jr and Jack Steinman. True gamers. Guys who are calm and focused in the clutch and infect their teammates with the belief that the team is a winner. Its called Championship Swagger. Lou has an ability to energize and inspire a team. He's a great motivator, gets clutch hits, and wants it so bad you can see it in his face. Jack is another breed. He's won 6 of the last 7 BASL championships, that's not a coincidence. He is the ultimate heads-up ballplayer and there are few players, if any, better in the clutch. He has that winning edge. Their will to win and stellar play never allowed CP to rest on their laurels or rely on JB again.

They have play makers all over the field. Guys like Kip, Vic, Doc not to mention Dave Levine, Angelo, Jack, Hector, Lou and Lorenzo are all extremely talented guys who would be stars on other teams batting 2-3-4-5 but accept their particular role on the Parts in order to play on a winning team. Across the board,they have solid players and that is why they win.

Their defense is sick and deep. They have at least 5 shortstops on their roster. When you combine a dominant pitcher with a web gem defense making incredible plays that usually demoralize most opponents and leads to a championship.

Again, congratulations guys you are truly classy champions in every sense of the word.

########################################
On an Editor's note I would like to thank Fran and Dick of Lucky's for the photo and Mike P you tube link)

Citysoftball.wordpress.com Updated

Inwood's website http://citysoftball.wordpress.com/ has finally been updated after 3 weeks!!!!!!!! FINALLY!! But this begged lead softball analyst John Sheppard to ask the following questions



Top Ten Reasons it took so long to updated the Citysoftball Website
10. The Computer Makes the Schedule
9. We didn't have enough money to renew the site
8. The Computer Makes the Schedule - competitive balance very imp
7. Too Busy watching the Jets with all our fellow Goon fans

6. The Computer Makes the Schedule - your starting to get it right?
5. Distracted while spanning other websites
oh my bad I forgot this is a "family blog" - back to softball
4. The Computer Makes the Schedule - always stick to this line when you mess up - always
3. Too Busy shopping for the right Halloween costume What Can I say we are weird like that?

2. Gil hadn't shown up to Inwood yet we needed his feedback before updating anything

and the #1 Reason it took so long to updated the Citysoftball.com Website

1. None. We apologize. Thank you for your patience

Holler!!!!!!!!!

Hatin' My SB Refelection

Every morning we all wake up and look in the mirror and decide if we like what we see. Someday you look for more than grey hairs or wrinkles as you look into your soul decide if your living the right way. Some days you like what you see, someday you don't. When you don't, that's when you need the courage to change.

In his new brilliant Recovery album Eminem rapped about these same issues in the song "I'm Going Through Changes"

In softball we all have a reflection and we also have to decide if we like what we see. Lately I've hating my softball reflection for the following reasons :

1. An old wise Spanish saying says "todo los dias no son dias de fiesta" - it means not everyday is a day for a party. In softball that is so very true, you have to take the good with the bad and try and remember that if your biggest problem is your batting average you have a good life. Yeah whatever. OK in the grand scheme of life that is all good, but fuck that politically correct sesame street good guys finish last double talk. THIS IS SOFTBALL and the majority of hardcore players I know want to hit, make plays, pitch gems, recruit stud players, and most of all win. Lately there has been many team and personal failures where failure shouldn't have happened. It's a very empty feeling when there are more valleys than peaks.
2. Popping the maximum number of 200 mg of Ibuprofen every time I play to get through the pain. It's a pain killer addiction. Not good when you can't stop with these pills. It's gotta stop. They ain't M&M's
3. Softball recruitment - it's a ruthless selfish cut throat dirty game. Balancing keeping good people and loyalty is almost impossible and it doesn't make me feel good. It's a cut throat scheming evil world where compromise is almost impossible and if your around long enough you eventually become the bad guy and lose a bit of your soul.
4. Softball Collections - collecting money from softball deadbeats is a waste of my life force
5. The Blog. Lately I have received heavy criticism on not being an honest editor/writer b/c I don't criticize my teammates, friends, or teams enough. I will address these issues in a near future blog. More importantly. I've been getting a lot of self centered guest writer or appearance requests with personal agendas for the blog. I deeply appreciate all my readership, but what I want my readers to understand is that I've always taken a Dave Chappele approach to the blog. Chappele was brilliant on the "Dave Chappele Show" but suddenly quit in the 3rd season at the height of his popularity after breaking up with his longtime writing partner, Neal Brennan. You see Dave and Neal always wrote/did the show like no one else was watching they just fed off of each other's creativity and sheer comedy genius resulted. When the networks started demanding that Dave be funny he quit. I always write all my blogs with one softball target in mind, my longtime partner and friend Juan "Blonde " Moreiras (seen below in his Fidel outfit )

he's taught me most of what I know about softball and life and if I can capture his softball attention in a blog then I know everything else will flow. Readers/fans need to understand that all good blogs inspire/provoke thought, laughter, and imagination. Once a blog becomes vindictive, selfish, and demanding then it will suck. Points 1-4 above plus readership demands has given my writer's block lately.

When looking in your softball mirror it's important to remember that none of us are SB bulletproof, and should stand up and man/woman enough to change. I guess I'm too stupid to quit so I will keep on trying