Monday, January 26, 2009

League Updates - January 2009

LegalZoom Softball (Los Angeles - The Grove)
Season #1: 4-8-0, no playoffs
Season #2: 4-8-0, no playoffs
Season #3: 8-4-0, no playoffs
Season #4: 8-4-0, no playoffs
Next Game: New Season starts first week of April.

LegalZoom Basketball (Hollywood - LA Fitness)
Season #1: 7-0 season [finished 1st], 2-0 playoffs [won championship]
Season #2: 5-3 season [finished 5th], 3-0 playoffs [won championship]
Season #3: 7-1 season [finished 1st], 2-0 playoffs [won championship]
Season #4: 5-2 season [finished 1st], 2-0 playoffs [won championship]
Season #5: 5-4 season [finished 2nd], 2-0 playoffs [won championship]
Season #6: 1-0 season.
Next Game: Wednesday, January 28th @ 7pm.

Hitmen Softball (Long Beach - Joe Rodgers Field)
Season #1: 7-3-0 season [finished 2nd], 0-1 playoffs [eliminated in semi's]
Season #2: 8-2-0 season [finished 2nd], 0-1 playoffs [eliminated in semi's]
Season #3: 0-10-0 season [finished last], missed playoffs.
Season #4: 2-7-1 season [finished last], missed playoffs.
Season #5: Unregistered.
Next Game: I'm gonna try to start this team back up some time after winter cause David Peng ain't making it happen. Hopefully.

LBC Basketball (Wilmington - Banning HS)
Season #1: 5-5 season [finished 5th], 3-2 playoffs [reached semi's]
Season #2: 7-3 season [finished 2nd], 1-1 playoffs [reached quarterfinals]
Season #3: 6-4, season [finished 4th], 0-1 playoffs [eliminated in semi's]
Season #4: 10-0 season [finished 1st], 0-1 playoffs [eliminated in quarterfinals].
Next Game: Not sure when the new season is starting.

CrookedStraight.com Basketball (San Marino - San Marino HS)
Season #1: 5-5 season [finished 3rd], 0-1 playoffs [eliminated in 1st round].
Unregistered.

NotGuiltyBrand.com Basketball (Pasadena - Eagle Rock HS)
Season #1: 3-7 season [finished 5th], 2-1 playoffs [lost in finals]
Season #2: 2-8 season [finished 5th], missed playoffs.
Season #3: 6-4 season, [finished 1st], 1-1 playoffs [lost in quarterfinals]
Season #4: 10-0 season [finished 1st], 0-1 playoffs [lost in quarterfinals]
Next Game: New season will start in mid-February.

Rockets Softball (Woodland Hills - Northrup Grunman)
Season #1: 7-4-0 season, [finished 5th], no playoffs
Next Game: I'm not sure when the new season is starting. Hopefully not soon cause it's cold as hell.

New League (Maywood - Maywood HS)
I think we had a practice game or something yesterday afternoon. We won by 1.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Mammoth in Pictures

January 16th, 2009 through January 19th, 2009.





















Solid Start to Season Six

January 21st, 2009, 7:00 PM PST @ LA Fitness Hollywood

LegalZoom (1-0) started the season off on the right foot last night, edging FLM by a couple points.

We led by 8 to 10 points for most of the game. FLM is a newcomer with a former LZ player and Kev's former roommate.

We only had 3 players to start this game and had to pick up 2 players.



I sent out an email earlier today to the team regarding their attendence..

From: Viet Nguyen

Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 2:33 PM

To: Edgar Abramyan; Sean Akamine; milesb11@hotmail.com; Jack Chang; Brian Connell; lboogie3232@hotmail.com; frank@evaniskorealty.com; Troy Flowers; Eugene Kim; Brian Lee; Gregory Leonard; Kevin Lew-Hailer; Brian Liu; bedroomtunz@yahoo.com; John Moseley; Mark Mutafian; Monica Fletcher; Eric Tolbert; Keith Williams; Matt Withers

Subject: LZ BASKETBALL ROSTER SHAKEUP

Fellas,

Here's what I have for the roster:

1. Viet
2. Kevin
3. Frank
4. Ryan
5. Miles

6. Matt
7. John
8. Larry
9. Marlon
10. Edgar

*if you're not listed here, then please ignore the rest of this email*

Let me know what your plans are for the season. You're either in or you're out. I need to know ASAP so I can figure out who to drop. Last night, we only had 3 people show and had to beg the other team to let us pick up two random players just so we can run a game. That's ridiculous.

The Brian's are generous enough to pay for this league and we're all participating at no cost. As of right now, LZ has paid for 10 players (@ $50 per person). Even though I've negotiated a $100 discount to drop it down to $400 total, this is still a lot of money and the company is pretty much paying for all these open slots. And as manager I am responsible for getting the most productive team possible for each registration fee dollar.

So I need to know if you're gonna be committed to playing or not. None of this "I'll show up in a couple weeks," or "Yeah, I'll be there a little late," (and not show up). If you're on the roster, I expect you to respond and not go unnoticed by saying nothing. A no-response is not cool. I shouldn't be chasing each and everyone of you guys down to see if you're coming to the game. You're all responsible adults so be one.

Thank you and have a nice day,
Viet
310-600-57xx

- Sorry to the rest of you guys who do show up and/or are legitimately excused.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Super Tilt - Last Softball Game of Season

January 20th, 2009, 9:00 PM PST @ Cheviot Hills Park

It was a terrible night.

I went to go play basketball @ UCLA last night and it was one of my better days shooting the ball. I was also grabbing rebounds left and right but somehow I lost all three games I played (all back-t0-back-to-back).

And then I had my softball game @ 9 where I showed up nearly late and was on dead-tilt to start the game. I'm not sure what it was but I was a pretty angry man. I was heated on the mound and it definitely threw me off. I was fighting the demons just trying to throw a strike.

To make matters worst, during my first at-bat, the girl pitcher on the other team threw me a cookie to smash and I swung as hard as I can trying to kill it and the ball spun up in the air straight to the pitcher for an easy out. I wanted to throw the bat threw the fence. Then on my 2nd at-bat, I was so pissed that the score was 15-3 that I batted left-handed and I swung and missed on both pitches. If you thought I was upset after the first at-bat, boy, I wanted to kill somebody after swinging and missing.

So I went 0-for-2 at the plate in the first 3 innings and I gave up a million walks, leading to 15 runs for the Prison Breakers.

I finally realized what an idiot I was after three innings and that I was killing my team with my attitude. I really was ashamed of myself even though I blame it on fatigue and starvation. I didn't eat dinner and I didn't get much sleep the night before nor the entire weekend in Mammoth.

Anyhow, I settled down after the 3rd inning and finished the game fairly well, giving up only 2 runs in the last 3 innings and going 2 for 2 with the bat.

That's it for the season. We finished with the same record as last season at 8-4. There will be no playoffs.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

In Need of a New Catcher

January 13th, 2009, 9:00 PM PST @ Cheviot Hills Park

The brothers, Minh and Nam filled in for this game and we lost a good one, 15-11. Our offense stank in this game and MVP Mary Griffith solidified the bottom of the lineup with three strikeouts. She also made some terrible toss-backs to me as catcher. It throws off my rhythm a little but that wasn't the reason why we lost the game. Our defense sucked and we didnt swing the wood well enough.

The only highlight of the game was two bombs from the little brother where he just completely crushed the ball. The outfielders were playing hella deep but he still blasted both pitches.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Bombed By Bombers

January 11th, 2009, 1:15 PM PST @ Banning HS

Our undefeated season went down the drain Sunday afternoon when we played the worst game of the season (first game of the postseason - 2nd round) and got eliminated by the Bombers (5-6). We finished the season at a 10-1 clip.

I didn't really get to shoot in this game, going 2 for 3 from the field. We took a lot of bad shots, turned the ball over one too many times and missed a ton of free throws. In the end, we didn't really deserved to win the game.

We had a one point lead with 20 seconds left but I fouled this guy driving to the basket and he made both free throws.

Our four-man, James had a crack to win it with a baby 5-foot jumper but he clanked it long after dribbling off the last 13 seconds of the game in an iso-1-on-1.

Goodbye perfect season.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Cold Night

January 6th, 2008, 9:00 PM PST @ Penmar Rec Center

This game was a near disaster in all aspects.

First of all, I finished playing basketball at UCLA around 8:30 and received a phone call from Kendy saying that the park was dead with no lights. That reminded me that the location of our softball had been changed. I was notify but I had forgot to relay the message to our team hah. So Kendy is at the park where we usually play (Pan Pacific) and is telling me that half the team is sitting in the dark and wondering what the hell was going on. Must of been fun.

Anyway, we finally got a hold of the directions to the new park and they all carpooled over there. Luckily, for me, Kev, and Freddy, the three of us had just finished playing basketball and the new park wasn't too far from UCLA. Jackpot for us.

After a few mis-directions and wrong-turns, we finally arrived at the park 10 minutes late and the other team was just waiting there with the umpire. Suckers.

As for the game, we lost by one run. I had a terrible 2009 first game, as I struck out badly (batting right-handed, not left-handed). I just never strike out batting right-handed but it happened. The night was cold. The air was tight and the ball wasn't carrying. We had zero minutes to warm-up but that was our bad for showing up late.

Outside of Kev's four solid at-bats (the one out he did make was the hardest crushed ball I've ever seen him hit - too bad the defense was ridiculously deep), the whole lineups' bat was just as cold as the night.





Regular Season Perfected Once More

January 3rd, 2008, 5:30 PM PST @ Banning HS

We had a makeup game this past week versus the Bombers (4-6) and we beat them. Barely. Everybody on our team just about played as bad as they have played all season. Good thing this was still good enough for a 2-point win at the end, where I intentionally fouled the opposing point guard with 3 seconds left coming out of a timeout with us up by only 2 points. The guy had made 6 straight free throws but we had already pre-determined in the timeout that we were gonna foul whoever gets the inbound pass.

The guy goes to the line and clanks the first free throw. The Bombers are out of timeouts so he has to miss the second. He does and we get the rebound. Gametime.

Click Here for the link to the upcoming playoff bracket: