Fun Factor

Just my opinion here....(surprised?)

The fun factor momentum seems to have swung a little bit.  Granted, I haven't seen as many games as I have in past years, but I'd say things are a little different.

Here's my criteria on "FUN".

1.  Winning is generally fun.  Its not the be all and end all of fun, but it can play a role. More than being fun, winning can cover up some warts that a team may otherwise have.
2.  Losing with style.  Everyone loses.  Even the 2011 Dusty Cleats were kind enough to lose 2 games.  There's two ways to lose with style.  Lose close, be competitive and good sports to the end.  OR.  Lose terribly and still find a way to have fun.
3.  Participation at the club house.  The Legion is the probably the best measuring stick of a team's fun factor.  Do they come back en mass?  Do they get along? Do the have character and characters?

And what does the Fun Factor have to do with being declared champions at the end of the season?  Well, not much last season.  We had two pretty business like teams hit the final in 2014 with the Rusty Rebels and Dog Catchers.  But in 2013 were the Draft Kings and Tap Masters; 2012 the Brew Jays and Beer Bros. and 2011 the Grisslies and Dusty Cleats.  All six of those teams would have been high on the fun factor in those seasons.  Again, some of it was winning, some was losing with style, but most of it was from making the Legion servers work overtime.

So lets look at what I consider to be the 5 most fun teams as we approach the 1/2 way point of the season.  For the sake of not offending the 5 selected (like I've offended the 9 not selected) the choices are in alphabetical order.

Draft Kings:  The incumbent Nellie Award winners made the list, but barely!  The winning is certainly there.  The losing with style is there in spades as is evident by their 11-8 and 7-6 losses so far.  They are definitely in the top half of clubhouse participation, BUT; they aren't the devil-may-care, throw caution to the wind team that they used to be.  However, before we bury our Nellie team, lets remember that they're still in the top 5 and there's a heck of a lot of season left.  I doubt they'll stay where they are, they'll either ramp up with the warm weather and become the hysterical team that stays late or; Stike will finally have had enough of carrying the team things will morph into a spontaneous combustion situation.  Lets be honest, things haven't been right since "the sandals incident" at last year's all-star game.  That might be another blog.    

Dusty Cleats:   The record isn't impressive at 3-6-2 heading into week 9 of the season. Being under .500. And two ties just plain sucks.  But losing with style?  Sort of, they can 'not win' with amazing class.  They played a game a couple of weeks ago where they had to hold down a team in the bottom of the 7th to escape with a one run victory.  They managed it with some great defense and pitching.  Minutes after the game, it was realized that the scorer made an error in not counting a run for the opposition earlier in the game on a double play.  It was a confusing situation and it can happen.  The Cleats reaction?  "Oh well, we tied".  No bitching.  No moaning.  No double checking the score card.  No seeing if the ump had signed it.  They did the right thing simply because it was the right thing to do.  Then they went to the club house.  This team has Chiasson, Kookhaus, McCarron and Pully on it.  So its full of both character and characters.  There is no shortage of baseball strategy chat and ample comedy.

Grisslies:  The Grisslies have crawled their way back to .500 heading into week 9.  The wins have actually been pretty impressive.  So have the losses as is evidence by the minus 22 in the plus minus column.   The Grisslies traditional 'antics' have been down this year.  Life gets busy sometimes . But we manage to still have fun while getting trashed (on the diamond).  What's not down is the fun factor.  In a recent game the Grissleis were down 87-3 to the Dodge City Rounders after 3 innings.  Knowing we were going to lose with an arena football type score we moved all infielders to the outfield and the outfield onto the dirt.  Did the game turn around?  Nope.  Did the guys have fun?  Well, at least they got to try something different and were smiling at the end of it.  And for the 9th game in a row the Grisslies closed the Legion.  We have one player in Brampton who leaves after every game.  Another in Lindsay who leaves.  And 10 people that keep the Legion in business it would seem.  With Duggan, Goodin, Lyon, and Fordy (40) bringing Hodge, Vadja, Tinkler and Farah out of their shells, I go home with sore ribs from laughing nearly every game.

Master Batters:  Winning is fun.  It doesn't suck.  2nd in points, 2nd in wins and leading the league in +/- when week 9 started, rookie captains Tanner and Fleming were living the dream and thinking life was easy.  Happy captains, happy team.  They had their first ever big loss recently and the team still seemed to have happy faces.  It'll be interesting from a baseball sense to see if there's any long term impact from that.  Rookie Douma has fit in great and Keogh and Argue bring knowledge of the game and the league.  Adrian and Tanner on the same team freaks me out a bit because I thought they were the same guy for my first 3 years in the league.  There is a combo of players here that is just fun and its pretty evident at the Legion on any given game night.  Except Tuesdays it would seem evidently, where the team building happens at Coventry.  But that brand of team comradery seems to work out well for them too.

Sons Of Pitches:  The "Return of the Jedi" of the Tottenham Oldtimers.  I think its reasonably safe to say that this team's fun meter has had the biggest shot in the arm.  Is it the record?  Well, not really.  Like another team in this list, they're under .500.  Added to that they have lost their #2 and have pulled a player from the waiting list, they have a rookie P1, they have three players coming back after a year or more off, there are four players who have played the bulk of their career games at 2nd base and one guy coming back from major surgery.  There were lots of reasons to think that this season would be more tragic than magic.  Lost by 13, won by 12, lost by 11, won by 2, lost by 1, won by 2, won by 5.....  They've won lots of close games, lost bad and were able to bounce back and if you see them play you hear a chipper 'into-it' team.  Irrespective of they score card, they get good participation at the Legion.  What I really like about that is that the non-drinker(s) will go back for a coke and socialize and hang with the team.  I hope they are as fortunate as last year when they pulled Iacoucci from from the waiting list. That kind of spirit will take the from "in" the fun pool to the top.