Fall League starts Sept. 4
Do you have news, opinion or just plain gossip to share about softball in Idaho? Need to contact a tournament director in North Idaho or western Montana?
Drop us a line at coach@o-fers.com.
I'm working on a format change for O-fers.com, so it is possible the website will be down through the weekend. I hope to have everything back working by Monday morning.
I'm sure they were just walking these ladies home at 2:45 a.m., because as you know, sports builds character.
This happens so rarely to professional football players. I don't know how anyone could have seen it coming.
I've been busy not thinking about the website for the last couple days, so there haven't been any updates. Fall league starts Thursday, 6:10 p.m. at Ramsey 1 for us. Good luck!
Mother Nature earned its second mercy-rule win over the O-fers on Thursday, as our game against Precision Gate Rollers was rained out again.
The re-reschedule is set for next Thursday, same time, same field.
I know sometimes we all have to sit the bench, and most of us drive for quite a ways to get to the fields, and it can be a pain not only for you but for the coach, who has to juggle players in and out all season ... but there is something really gratifying about having 13 players show up in uniform for the final scheduled game of the summer season.
Not to mention the feeling somewhere between irritation and condescension when I have to explain how substitution works in ASA softball. Rumor has it even the umpires were having the scorekeepers check the rulebook at the state tournament to make sure we were right.
We were. Surprising, the O-fers can read, I guess.
The O-fers played the role of bracket-busters on Thursday night, and it was delicious as we rolled out 19 runs in regulation and another 10 in the eighth inning to drop Capone's 29-20.
For the most part, it was what we've always wanted: A relentless singles hitting attack. We had just a couple botched plays on defense, but we looked sharp and distinguished ourselves with some smart positioning on the hitters.
This game was fun, and we were loud — just a taste of what the world is in for next season.
Fall league starts right after Labor Day, so it's approaching quickly. Let the head-counting begin!
Our rainout makeup game will be Aug. 21, 6:15 p.m. at Ramsey 5 against Precision Gate Rollers.
Mike Lawley, battling the wind all the way, makes a tremendous catch during the Sunday, Aug. 10, game at the state tournament in Moscow.
For more images from the state tournament in Moscow, click here.
"The O-fers are the only guys who thought playing horseshoes was too strenuous."
"Guaranteed top 8 finish at state!"
"The O-fers, partying at Baskin Robbins!"
"Morrison popped a lot of balloons at the carnival for that car."
"What discounts you got for teams that didn't score 10 runs in two games?"
That last one was Shawn Pearson's line while checking into his hotel room, and yes (sigh), it was that kind of tournament for the O-fers. We were clearly not the only team with trouble scoring runs, partly because of the headwind on field 2 and partly because of the no-home-run rule.
But for one weekend, our defense was tough. We had so many stellar plays, and let's face it, the routine plays were routine ... which hasn't been the case much this season. And House had the clutch hit of the season for the O-fers.
I was hearing reports of players at the casino and staying up late, and I wondered how much everyone really still cared about the game on the field. To be honest, I had my doubts, but I've never been happier to be proven wrong. You guys came out and played with heart. That's all that matters. A year from now, or ten years from now, when the results of the tournament have been long forgotten, we'll remember that we had a blast ... and sucked at hitting.
This is our family. We're the O-fers, we went 0-for-3 at state, and we still had the most fun, the most laughs, the most team spirit, and the most heart.
Thanks, guys.
You know, there's only so many ways to talk about games like this, so here's a picture of Eva Mendes instead.
Eva Mendes makes me not care how badly we sucked.
From Coeur d'Alene, turn right onto West Third (head west) and turn left onto Line Street. You will see Ghormley Park to your left.
Our first game is 10:15 a.m. Saturday against Taeo Steele. Our all-time record is 17-4 against teams with three consecutive vowels in their names. The full bracket is located here.
No matter what, we will have a Sunday game, so plan for it. Ma will call to figure out hotel room guesstimates on Wednesday.
Since Beck asked, here's what I found for RV camps.
The tournament follows standard ASA D rules:
No courtesy runners. (Practical effect: At least once during the tournament, the coach will have to explain to the umpire and opposing team the concept of a "substitute.")
No over-the-fence homeruns are allowed, and any balls hit over the fence end the inning. (Practical effect: Moscow's fences are really, really short. This could be interesting.)
Any player ejected will have to sit out the next game as well, and possibly more.
(Practical effect: Hmm, I dunno, probably nothing, nothing at all.)
Game time is forfeit time. (Practical effect: None, since it's Moscow and there's not much else to do anyway, and if you aren't there 30 minutes before game time you won't play. How's that?) The tournament rules has this one in boldface, so I will too: It is against the law to consume alcoholic beverages on city property. (Practical effect: I don't plan on forfeiting or being arrested, and I hope no one else does either.) Base stealing is legal. (Practical effect: I don't think we've played a single game this year with stealing. Again, the word "interesting" applies.) Top three teams are eligible for Nationals, with a possibility that the top six could all find berths. (Practical effect: Nine teams in the tournament. Six could go to Nationals.)
The coach's wife, upon hearing the list of maladies that have befallen the O-fers this season:
"Your whole team is dying!"
The Godfather has another think coming.
Avast, ye hearties! The scurvy seadogs have taken over the ship! Raise the mains'l! Turn the turny-thinger! We're heading to state!
In a shocking blow to the coach's ability to figure out anything, it turns out we do have enough people willing to make the trip to Moscow next weekend. It's awesome and confusing at the same time, just the way we like it. More details to come.
We won Thursday night 13-1 in a game that ended in the most questionable play since A-Rod made a move on 73-year-old Madonna. Ewwww! In this case, a runner tried to tag and score from third on a fly ball to the pitcher's mound. Down 12 runs. In the fifth inning. Then he argued the call.
Game, set, match.
Lest we forget, there were a number of other events worth nothing from the weekend tournament in Cd'A:
Shawn Pearson throwing up, just a little bit, after diving after a ball in the outfield. Nothing stirs the digestion like smashing your spleen against the ground and inhaling a mouthful of sunflower seeds.
Yeah, he took another whizz in the outfield too.
The return of the Lord of Second Base, Steve Schmidt, to active O-fer play.
Dale Way reaching the near-pinnacle of lineup spots and hitting second for the final pair of games.
Beasley playing a flawless infield, earning defensive MVP honors over an 11-way tie for second place.
"You think we're fighting. I think we're finally talking!"
— from the movie "Jerry McGuire"
Yes, there were some tensions at the ol' ballpark on Saturday even though the O-fers won twice and took second in the four-team tournament at Coeur d'Alene, but, aw hell, none of that matters because
Yes, that Morrison. I'll give you a minute to refocus after that shock.
Back with us? Good. I was getting worried. It was the first time for the O-fers since 2000 that House hit a triple —
OK, you've got to stay with me on this one. Seriously, Morrison shot a line drive between right center and right field and just ho-hum went to third. No problem at all.
Who am I kidding? That -- was -- awesome!
Deal with it.
The "hands" team in the outfield did a good job, but it wasn't enough as the "bats" team didn't really show up Thursday night. Nor did the "arms" squad or the "speed" menagerie.
Screw it — where did I put the Togetherness Parka?
Looking at real estate, I see that a particular house is described as "priced to sell."
What's the alternative, priced not to sell?
What the hell kind of stupid selling point is that?
I think everyone knows by now that the O-fers won't be going to Superior this year. I don't have any particular feelings about it one way or another. Some things came up to keep people busy on this particular weekend. Instead, we're setting up for either the Mullan or Coeur d'Alene tournament the following weekend, July 26-27, with the state tournament in Moscow to follow two weeks after that.
Dust and winds are weather! Hamburglaaaaarrrrr! Lap!
I think the single paragraph tells all.
"I'll tell you one thing," said the 21-year-old concrete worker during his lunch break at The Brick of St. Louis bar, in the shadow of this city's storied Anheuser-Busch Cos. brewery, "if Budweiser is made by a different country, I don't drink Budweiser anymore. I'll go back to Wild Turkey." (Wild Turkey, a Kentucky bourbon, is owned by French drinks giant Pernod Ricard SA.)
Mike Black makes the double-play pivot at second base during the third game in St. Regis.
Ramsey 1, 7:20 p.m. on Thursday. It's against a church team, and for whatever reason we've historically done pretty well against church-sponsored teams. Maybe it's because they have to avert their eyes when they see us.
Did we get all of that out of our system? Gawd! We hit fairly well, but they didn't give us much help in the infield, and we gave them aaaaall sorts of help when we were on the field.
As usually happens when you're trying to play the Dust Bowl, in the middle of all the errors you actually get a couple nice plays. Bobo made a good catch back by the right field fence, and Art turned a sharp 5-3 double play.
Peanut's double to left was probably the hit of the game, but there were a few good ones.
More action photos to come, and some content updates as well.
We only look like we're paying attention.
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Kevin Collins in a cloud of dust at home plate in St. Regis.
Another year of highlights in St. Regis for the Fourth of July Firecracker Tournament. Mark Bohn takes out his frustrations on the R2 unit ... Beck whips out his Reggie Jackson impersonation ... civilizations rose and fell on the outcome of a dramatic game of washoes ... and yeah, Kevin Collins dove into home plate as the O-fers put our win away in game 2.
I've got to say this about the Regis tournament: We took a 2-year hiatus from it before returning in 2006, and since then, we've had nothing but good times. Even when SVT beat us 758-3 on Sunday morning in 2006, we had fun — all we wanted to know was whether they all sold their souls to hit like that, or was just one or two souls enough?
This year was no exception to the "new" St. Regis. The weather was great, the beer was cold, and the fields are getting better each year. Fences today, removing the rocks tomorrow?
Congrats and thanks to all the players who made it to the tournament. I'll see most of you on Thursday night. More pictures and updated stats to follow soon.
Like a dead Taiwanese hooker (huh?), the O-fers had the game against Angelo's in the bag. In the bag and ready to be dropped off in the desert. But like a ... umm ... dead Taiwanese hooker zombie (Jesus, Burger, what did you do?), Angelo's rallied for five runs in the sixth inning and felled the O-fers on Thursday night.
We've got to point this loss, which put us at 4-3 in league, solely on ourselves. We managed just 13 hits in 35 at-bats for a .371 average. A couple more hits in the right spots, with the defense that we've started to show lately, and I think we would have held on to win.
The defensive play of the game was clearly Bobo's snowcone catch in right center followed by the throw to complete the double play. The hit of the game is harder to pick, since nothing was a "wow" moment. I'm giving it to House, because he came up his first two times in clutch situations and came through both times.
Stats are available through the usual link. I'll try to update the league page this weekend and maybe some others besides.
No game Thursday, and then it's Regis for the usual hijinks.
With all that excitement past us, I've turned my attention to the stats from the Rainout Tournament. Like Burger after a night with a Taiwanese hooker, the scoresheets are a crumpled, incoherent mess. I think I can decipher them, but it's going to take longer than I thought. By Thursday night's game, we should be up to date.
We've got an 8:30 game Thursday at Ramsey 3. I hope everyone can make it. We'll start an official head count for Regis this week.
With the manager away on a mission of peace, the O-fers apparently showed they don't need him by posting a 15-4 victory over Cd'A Builders on Thursday night.
I don't have any more details than that, but I'm sure they'll filter in today as soon as somebody remembers to frickin' call me. But don't call until tonight.
Gary Beck sat at 2-for-2. A small rumbling was heard in the distance. Slashing his third hit of the night, Beck forced open the gates of Hell and the demonic armies prepared to unleash their unholy blight upon the earth. Armageddon approached.
But then Beck popped up to the pitcher his next time up, and the gates closed and the armies went back to what they were doing and the Great Chain of Being remained unsundered.
Or do you think that was a little dramatic?
OK, well, we won 22-11 and are now 3-2 in league. There were lots of hits to go around. I'm now six games behind in stats, but the good news is that the papers from last weekend are finally dry. By Monday, everything should be caught up again.
Good game. Look in this space for more in the upcoming days.
It wasn't the coldest tournament we've ever played, and it wasn't — quite — the wettest tournament we've ever played. But I was so cold and wet when it was over that I put on two layers of warm clothes and took a two-hour nap under the blankets as soon as I got home. We weren't even upset when Methuselah called the final game on time limit in the fifth inning. The fields had been technically unplayable and potentially litigious for two hours, so if you're gonna enforce one rule, it might as well be the time limit.
I'm still waiting for the stat sheets to fully dry from the weekend, so it might be a few days before I'm caught up again. I couldn't even tell you at this point how much will be readable.
Congrats to all the O-fers on a fine tournament. We had as much fun as possible under the conditions. Pearson showed shades of Nostradamus, although in all fairness, predicting Beck hitting into a double play right now doesn't quite require the Necronomicon. Bobo said after Dale struck out looking (!) that the rain got worse because God was laughing so hard he peed his pants.
It didn't quite work out this way, but Pa had the stealth line of the day. When Corey said, "We should get two byes in the tournament," Pa said, "We do ... bye bye."
With wit like that, how could we fail to have fun anywhere we go?
Oh yeah, baby, the O-fers brought their mad skillz to play tonight. That first game ended about as expected: the opponents (jerks) won by one run in the bottom of the seventh. Dave Hunt made just about the best throw of his life*, but it wasn't good enough. If we can lose in walkoff fashion, it's just fate that we do it, the same way our sexy bellies are fated to make the ladies swoon.
The second game suddenly featured the O-fers putting on a hitting display and winning our first mercy-rule game of the year. Age and infirmity beats youth, speed, talent, looks and money at least 9.6 percent of the time. I'm pretty sure if that's not in the Bible somewhere, it should be.
In the middle of it all, we only had one guy get hurt and one guy fall flat on his face -- literally. I think we can all call that a moral victory. At our age, we'll take victories of any type we can get.
But I'm beginning to think that Black kid might have some potential.
* I'd still go with the throw that pegged Randy Ashby in the coconut about four years ago. What can I say, I like violence.
Rainout. Doubleheader next week and the tournament on June 7 at Plantes Ferry Park.
The final game in May is on Thursday. The O-fers have started league play, splitting the first two games, but we could still be very much in the running for a league title. Taking all of that into account, I'm not sure this is technically the one-quarter point in the season, but it seems like a good time to discuss what we've seen so far, and what we're looking for in the future.
Offense: We're scoring just 11.4 runs per seven innings so far. That's not going to get it done. Our OBP+, which includes errors as a credit to the batter, is at .525. It needs to be at least .560 in order to average 15 runs per game.
I know it sounds crazy to some of you to hear that reaching base 4 more times per 100 plate appearances is the difference, but that's what it is. In 2007, the O-fers had a .561 OBP+ and scored 15 runs per seven innings.
The difference was not homeruns or power in general. Last year, 2.3 percent of our plate appearances ended with a homerun. This year, it's 2.9 percent.
Sure, if homeruns account for half your hits, you can increase your run scoring about 35 percent over a team that doesn't hit any homers at all. But guess what?
You can't. For one thing, none of you are Mike Macenko. Second, leagues and tournaments that would allow us to hit 15 homers per game are a bit scarce in North Idaho. So unless you're faster than a speeding throw from the outfield to home plate, don't look to the four-bagger for the answer to our run-scoring woes. Homers are a bonus, a nice treat, and occasionally a game-winner, nothing more.
This brings us to...
Defense: It ain't good. We're basically giving up a run for every out right now. Yes, including the third out. That puts the other teams' OBP+ at or just over .600. We've made some decently spectacular plays, but too many routine flies or grounders are ending up with the hitter at second or third base and no outs made. This has to be fixed. We simply can't sustain that kind of damage every inning of every game and expect to win.
Coaching: We have a lot of players. One of the downsides of a low OBP is that we don't get to bat as often. We're losing about four plate appearances per game just because of the 40-point drop in OBP from last year. On top of that, three of our games haven't gone the full seven innings, so we've lost playing time there too. It has been difficult to find enough swings to go around. I have to write in the players who are contributing with the bat, but I also need to find playing time to allow everyone else to find their sweet spot. It has been a challenge.
Outlook: Surprisingly good. We will get better, we will get healthier, and now that we're getting some games in, the team will gel and we'll start heading to some tournaments.
The natural order of the universe has been restored: Beck, Dewey, House, Dave and Pearson all in the dugout at the same time, and the O-fers beating the Floods & Co. — playing as Copper Basin this year — 11-6 in the Thursday night league opener. Erm, only it was on Wednesday night.
Duane Miller and Mike Black homered, and — get this — Pearson, who hadn't even been on the field yet this year, hit a two-run homer in his second trip to the plate. Sooooooo easy.
More to come tomorrow. We didn't get hard copies of the schedule to pass out, so I'll make sure we post the schedule here at O-fers.com and print schedules for next week.
May 3: O-fers placed Ron Sullivan (shoulder) on the 15-day DL.
Last night's game was much better than the one two nights earlier, but we've still got a lot of room for improvement.
Hmm, Hit of the Game: Goin' with the Hit Man himself for this one, the Hamburglar. The two-run triple in the sixth inning brought us to within one run, and would have sparked us, if the O-fers were a team prone to being sparked. We were unsparkable, to coin a phrase. But that hit was definitely sparktastic.
Defense of the Game: I'm going with Rick Jackson on this one. He didn't have the chance at anything spectacular at third base, but he made enough plays on hard-hit balls — including an almost-double-play — that he bailed us out of trouble a couple times.
I guess we've got some work to do, hmm? There's a whole bunch of rust that needs to break off and blow away, and the lack of a decent spring hasn't helped matters.
At least nobody on the O-fers fell down on the basepaths Wednesday night.
Hit of the Game: Well, we only had three of 'em, and two were flyballs that dropped in, so I guess it goes to Bobo, who had the only line drive ... and scored the only run.
Defensive Play of the Game: Duane Miller, who made a running catch with his back to the infield right at the fence.
Dale W. of somewhere, usually the visiting team's dugout, writes in to ask the O-fers record in one-run games when the guys in green scored 16 or more runs in the game.
It's 5-6.
Looking at the game record from the other side, the defensive side, the O-fers are 84-26 (.763) when we allow fewer than 13 runs. When the opponent scores 13 or more, we're 16-88, "good" for a whopping .154 winning percentage.
What's also interesting to note is that, despite our solidly earned reputation as a team that's in the middle of the pack for scoring runs, we've won a lot more games by blowout (12 or more runs) than we've lost. Since 2005, we've won 43 such contests and lost 24. What this has led to is, like last season, a team that loses more games than it wins despite outscoring its opposition overall.
I don't mean to get caught up in such little things. This is, after all, basically trivia. I find it interesting, but it's not particularly helpful. What will be helpful, however, are the series of pieces I'm working on about softball scoring in general. Even our rare readers outside the green spectrum might pick up something or 'nother from it.
We've won 80 percent of our games (62 wins, 15 losses) since 2005 in which we've scored 16 runs or more?
Did you know the O-fers were 13-28 in one-run games over the last three years?
Art Wright guns down a hitter at first, just like they teach it at the Baseball Academy.
I'm working on quite a few things behind the scenes, so to tide everyone over, I'll put a couple more pictures up.
In all fairness to Rick Jackson, here's a graphic representation of the defense played by Bryan Sullivan at third base in the opening game:
Scientists have carefully reconstructed this simulation of the coach playing third base in the first game.
If you don't look at the ball, it can't hurt you.
For a warmup, that wasn't half bad, not half bad at all. I mean, Beck fell on his face in the first inning of the first game of the season. If that's not 100 percent O-fer softball, son, you ain't been watching for 12 years.
We wound up in a bracket higher than we expected, but even though we went 1-2, I wouldn't have it any other way. The first team, the Spokane Splitters, got off to a hot start aided by our sheer awkwardness on defense, and that was the difference in the game. We basically hadn't practiced yet this season, except for occasional games of catch on King Street and trips to the hitting cage, and that yellow ball comes at you mighty fast when you just roll out of bed.
We hit over .500 for the tournament, which is where we'll need to be all season if we want to win, but we've got to cut down on our tendencies yesterday to hit into double plays and get picked off base. Subtract the extra outs created by those bad puppies and our OBP+ (which includes errors) drops from .578 to .500.
Peanut made an outstanding over-the-shoulder catch at the wall during the second game.
This year, I think I'd like to choose Hit of the Game and Defensive Play of the Game. We've tried choosing MVPs and Gold Glove winners in past seasons, but it doesn't work for about 20 reasons. By focusing on each game to itself, that gives everyone a chance at some glory. So for the first tournament, let's go with...
Game 1: I know Duane Miller came out of retirement and hit a triple and homer in the game, but for Hit of the Game my pick has got to be Dave Hunt's three-run double. It was a huge spark in that game when we desperately needed it — right after the first inning. Defensive Play ... uhh, does anyone remember anything particularly great? How about Bobo's two strikeouts? I think he ended up with four on the day.
Game 2: I don't think a booted groundball should count as Hit of the Game. This was another tough call. I'm going with Bobo's leadoff double in the bottom of the sixth. We were down 11-6 at that point, but he started the rally that gave us the lead going into the seventh. On defense, Peanut's catch saved us, but so did the great relay from Dewey to Rick to Art that cut down the runner trying for third base in the final inning. Instead of a runner at third and one out, they had no one on base with two outs. Both plays, I think, saved the game for us — and there were other good plays as well.
Game 3: OK, OK, this one has got to be Dewey's homer in the first inning. It didn't go nearly as far as theirs — it didn't go half as far as theirs — but it was a blistering line drive that tied the game at 2. It looked for a while that we were going to be in a close game, but our wheels fell off. For defensive play, give the pitcher some credit. Bobo swatted the kid's line drive in midair, which was good because it woulda hit him in the blinkers otherwise.
Finally, a bit of good news. One of the criticisms leveled at myself by, mainly, myself was that I didn't have stats updated regularly last summer. Mea culpa. This year I've made a commitment to stay on top of the stats. I'm one of the biggest supporters of the arguments that most of us don't know how well people are doing, even by watching them every game. Humans tend to reason by inference, meaning that if you saw someone get 3 hits in a game, you tend to assume that's how they always hit, even when you're not watching.
So I've put a link to the 2008 stats on the right-hand menu. For now, it's just a simple image that will open in another window. As we go, I'll gussy it up with charts and graphs that will knock your socks off.
In the next few days, I'll get the 2007 stats onto a page, for those of you who were curious what the books said.
Well, let's see, it rained and hailed today in Liberty Lake. Tomorrow, I believe the schedule calls for cats and dogs, then we'll see a nice, healthy dose of frogs on Thursday. Friday, the sun freezes over ... and I fully expect that mutant zombie snowmen armed with laser rifles will invade on Saturday. In other words, more of the same.
I think it's fair to say that we're all going to see a mix of sun, rain, snow and cold weather this week. The thing is, when you see it depends on where you live. It sounds like the whole thing is just kinda swirling around us right now. Someday we'll see spring again.
It's cold and wet with not much of an end to the rain in sight. I'll be at the field, in case anyone quite desperately wants to throw the ball around. But if you read this first, don't show up. It won't be worth it.
We'll be dropping our mojo on the field next Saturday basically from a cold start. I have all the confidence that it will all be fine in the end.
After two successive second-place finishes in the Spokane County Spring Fling Invite, the O-fers stand poised to open their 12th season with another appearance at Plantes Ferry Park in north Spokane.
The tournament is April 12-13, and although it's been a difficult spring — replace the word "difficult" with something that rhymes with "mucked up" — we're in and excited to get 2008 on the road.
Practice Sunday. You know where.
Our season starts in just a few days. We've hardly been on the field. We've got a bunch of new faces. Oh, golly, the odds are stacked against us again. Whatever shall we do?
Despite claims to the contrary, there's no evidence whatsoever that steroids and ultra-strict weightlifting regimens have any negative effects. And you'd be a fool and a Communist to suggest otherwise.
Coach: Dale, that's a lap.
Dale: Look, it's still snowing!
Coach: Make that two.
Dale: Still gonna snow...
Coach: Three laps. Wanna make it four?
Dale: Four? Pretty snowflakes!
Coach: Five laps. I can keep this up all night, mister...
Roving reporter Gary Beck, who attended the first half of the tournament in Mullan last fall, presented photo evidence of the most recent O-fer scandal:
I think the picture says it all. Considering that Ron used to leave his spit cans around for unsuspecting Pepsi addicts like myself, frankly I kinda hope the dog peed in the cup too.
I saw snow while I was driving home from work. This is Dale's fault. In fact, the hell with it — all weather-related incidents this year are blamed on the Hamburglar.
So watch this video. No, don't cry. Try to learn something.
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