and so it goes (softball 2015)

wah wah wah... yeah, so we did good with a partial and damaged team... the championship team brought 16 players and the second place team brought 15 players and every other team brought at least 12-14 except for a very few, like us, who brought 10... and 9 to the biggest day of all... frustration, yes, because even with all the handicaps and obstacles we created we finished well but very likely would have done better had we had a full team prepared better...

what i've learned from my trips to tournaments (and the series is no different) is that most of the top teams cheat and the ones who finish in the top few are the ones who get away with it... we ourselves had one player who didn't belong in the D division, though he did not play as well as he could and was not there on saturday... the top three teams had at least half their team who did not belong in the D division and it was obvious on saturday when protests could no longer be filed... prior to saturday there were a few dozen protests filed and most were upheld, dropping teams out of the winner's bracket and completely disqualifying several teams (including a 5th place finisher)... the luck of the draw let the top three get away without protests (as there are teams, like us, who did not want to protest)... it is not fair and there ought to be a better system to check player ratings before and during the world series, but it is what it is and i accept the fact that the best cheaters with the best luck prosper... accepting it does not mean i won't mention it as i remember the fun i have at tournaments :)

so the nagaaa softball world series is over for 2015 and that makes three years in a row that i had the privilege and fun of going and playing (the last two years with my team, this year with a pick-up team)... my reflexes are definitely slowing down as my fielding is not what it used to be, but my pitching and hitting remains consistently good enough to push a team far along (when i stay up and confident)... the two games i was not up and confident were the only two we lost, alas, but i am just one of ten players, after all... if was a very fun week overall...

now to recover lol (cut the calories back and stop the spending spree for a month or few)...

how was your week? :)