Tournament of Champions, Feb. 2008

The Joseph Chevy team competed in the prestigious "Tournament of Champions" (TOC) in Winter Haven, FL in February. (84) of the senior softball tournament winners from 2007 competed. Only (3) 60+ Major teams competed, including the Joseph team. The Joseph team defeated California Gusto twice to eliminate them. After splitting with a tough Human Kinetics (FL) team, we lost 19-17 in the finals, needing only two runs in the bottom of the 7th to tie, three to win. All in all, the team did very well considering it was the middle of February and the southern teams had been playing competitively all winter. The Joseph "All Tournament" selec-
tions were as follows: Rey Moore @ .778, Dave Beamer @ .688, and Roy Hern @ .667.

Upon returning home from TOC, we received a letter from the Sr. Softball Summit Team Ratings committee. The Joseph team has been elevated to the "super major" division, the highest status in senior softball. This is not good news, as this division plays a different brand of softball--it's called "home run derby". At this higher level, (8) home runs are allowed each team in every game. As a data point, the Joseph team had (1) home run in 342 at bats at the TOC. Obviously, we will have difficulting competing with this level of power and run production. We have protested this new higher rating and are awaiting response from Sr. Softball. However, we are not optimistic that our protest will be granted, so we have begun preparations to alter our 2008 tournament schedule. Indeed, we plan on attending fewer "national tournaments" where our team would serve as "cannon fodder" for the other super major teams. We will be attending more "local" and regional tournaments, where the big "super major" teams typically would not attend.

Once our 2008 tournament is solidified, we will post it on this web site. Our first tournament for 2008 is likely to be in northern Ohio in June, then in Columbus, OH in July.