The downside of weeknight D/H'ers

Hey Hey Wickermen-

Here's basically what I've gotten back from my Gold Star guys:
=================================================

They aren't against the two new teams PER SE, but they don't want the
additions to screw up weeknight games (due to the early game traffic-
delays, and the likely poor playing conditions as the late game
flirts with darkness... imagine: if we have an average amount of
rainouts, compounded by darkness postponements, and pissed-off 6:15
double forfeit re-schedules! Oyyy!)

So, as of now, after hearing their comments, to honor their wishes,
at our next meeting I'll likely propose another vote to modify what
we are currently doing:

KEEP the 14 teams, but NO weeknight Double Headers (Weekend D/H'ers
O.K., IF consecutive!)

• INSTEAD: simply reduce the amount of games to 14:

Play everyone else once- plus one more game- to get that 14th game
in ...new guys vs. new guys... original teams play each other...
champs vs runner's up, against a classic-natural rival etc...

• AND: take the playoffs to a "round-robin" format, where it takes
two (or more) losses to eliminate you, and maybe sneak half of those
games onto a SATURDAY or two!

===========================

• This approach would compress most of the potential season-long
weeknight chaos we've invited into two nice dry, warm, bright and
sunny August championship SAT/SUN weekends!

• No extra work-related traffic stress/forfeits rushing to Wicker...
nor in-progress post 8 p.m. games postponed due to darkness... no
"crappy endings" on a squibb bloop single nobody can see due to the
"Gloamin'" darkness!

• And it guarantees ALL teams at least a second playoff game to try
and salvage their season, which might be nice for a change (believe
me we've all felt the pain of an "early exit", probably nobody more
than us "Old Scars"! ;-< )

Anyway, get back to us on how your guys feel about it (remember-
wouldn't it just SUCK to see CLEM proved right about this year's
experiments? ;-) Maybe we can hash things out / tweak it just right
so the next meeting will go so quick Clem will show up after we have
all left the building already!

Sincerely- Best wishes on 07 May right thru the Finals!

TimmO'Shady- Spitballer64 - `Old Scars

http://www.chomiczewski.com/softball/goldstar/goldstar.htm
http://www.chomiczewski.com/softball/goldstar/goldstar.htm

(P.S. - Below are forwarded some of my guys better comments... for
you to check out (with names deleted to protect the innocent/ Clem-
like! ;-)

=============================================

Doubleheaders on Sundays would be OK if the team could play them back-
to-back!

Weekday double headers I think would be a problem since the 1st game
would have to start & finish on time and we know how that goes!

--------------

I like doubleheaders, except when it's 97 degrees. I don't know how
well 7:15 start times will work, with no lights, even when the 6:15
games don't start late. And considering we often have only 4 players
by 6:25, how well would 6:15 work either?

===========

"I like double-headers, makes the long journey into wicker more worth
while"
Eugene O'Neill

===============

I also think the weekday DHs will be problem. Kelly's
been proposing those since he went to 12 teams and the
idea never got out of the box before.

More forfeits with the 6:15s because people won't be
able to get there (traffic keeps getting worse);
On the 7:15s, games will be called early because of
darkness, some as ties (that could mean a makeup for
one or two innings).

Why funk up the schedule with weekday DHs just to
allow expansion teams?

=============

The easiest solution is to forget about a 19-game "balanced" schedule
and go to 16 or 17 games.

Barring that, get rid of weeknight doubleheaders (there appear to be
24 additional weeknight games), add weekend doubleheaders, add an
extra Sunday game at 6pm (10 games added back), and finish the season
on Aug 13 instead of Aug 3.

Or any combination of changes: a 17-game schedule without weeknight
DHs and with games on Sundays at 6pm would end the season exactly as
is (24 games removed from weeknights minus the 14 games crossed off
the schedule minus the 10 games added to Sundays).

Think about the mass confusion that reigns in this league already,
and then add in 11 suspended games to reschedule (when?) and the
complaints of games ending in the 5th inning due to darkness.
Weeknight DHs won't work.

AND.......

Back to the "unbalanced" schedule, 16-17 games instead of the "fair"
19: who cares much about what division you are in? Can anyone
actually recall who was in our division last year? The big teams
won't like it, but for the sake of the league it would be better to
go to more of an NFL schedule. With 14 teams, everyone plays every
team once for 13 games. For the final 3-4 games, forget about
division--the teams with the best records the year before should have
tougher schedules (i.e. play each other). Who is it fun for to watch
a top team run up a 25-2 score twice on one of the bottom dwellers?
It'll take some effort, but it isn't too hard (it's tricky with 7
teams per division): the first place teams in each division should
play each other, and so on for the 2nd place on down incl. expansion
teams (one add'l game). Then in each division, last year's first
plays 2nd, 3rd v 4th, 5th v 6th in one division, 5th vs EXP in the
other division, and EXP vs 6th across divisions (2nd game). Then in
each division, last year's 1st vs 4th, 2nd vs 5th, and again
variation at the bottom: 3rd vs EXP in one, 3rd vs 6th in other, 6th
vs EXP across divisions (3rd game). Something similar for a 4th game
also. It might not be as "fair" as a random schedule, but it would
make the league more competitive, and would add many more interesting
games. (The best teams will shine in the playoffs anyway.) Just
think if MLB tried something like this: instead of the 1st place
Yankees playing 19 games vs Tampa Bay, they'd play TB 13 games and 6
more vs the 1st place White Sox--maybe not more fair, but more fun.
Of course, if every team in MLB made the playoffs like in our league,
they might just do that, because whether the teams slipped to 2nd
doesn't matter much when they're playing Kansas City instead of Tampa
Bay in the playoffs.

==============

YES

------------------

IM IN !!

===============

Sounds like too many teams combined with too many games = a season
that will drag on through Labor Day. I'm not sure anyone remembers
the weather in Chicago when they put these schedules together. You
can always count on at least 3 - 5 days of rainouts that will have to
be made up at some point. CPD must've been hit with some serious
budget cut in '06. Either that or they're pocketing a portion of the
fees paid by the teams in the league which is driving them into a
"Dennis Kozlowski" (TYCO) frame of mind where there's never too much
money. They either needs another field or fewer teams but they're
heading toward the softball equivalent of an O'Hare mishap with too
many planes trying to cross too few runways. Is there a 16"
equivalent of the FAA ? Regardless, count me in for whatever they
work out. God Bless ya' for sloggin' through the quagmire we call
Wicker Park Softball.

Cheers!

============