Editor’s note: Mark Ertel will be writing daily updates from the Gay Softball World Series this week.
Championship Saturday has arrived at the NAGAAA Softball World Series, an anxious night awaits A, B, C, and D division teams still standing after the grueling demands of the week long tournament. Full coverage of all championship games will be provided along with the details of the closing celebration at the Harley Davidson Museum here in Milwaukee.
The city was teaming with life Saturday night down at Historic Walkers Point where NAGAAA fest held a two block street bash. Music and the aroma of ribs, chicken and other fine foods filled the air while many softball participants finally had a chance to cut loose and celebrate the camaraderie and good sportsmanship that always accompanies each and every NAGAAA World Series event. Win lose or draw every team put their best efforts forward and had a blast competing in this Midwestern city. By 4:00 PM Saturday we will have four champions. But for now we have 16 hungry teams fighting for the top spot.
Here are the remaining teams:
A Division
Phoenix Diablo’s
Phoenix Toros
Atlanta Sluggers
Orlando Force
B Division
Orlando Crush
Los Angeles Killer Bee’s
Chicago Spin Cougars
Dallas TKO
C Division
Twin Cities Edge
Seattle Maulers
Austin Shady Ladies
Fort Lauderdale Cyclones
D Division
Nashville Players
Seattle Avengers
Twin Cities Swingers
Los Angeles Frontiers
on Sep 8th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Thanks for blogging Mark, it was great reading your updates on the GSWS. I am disappointed that Outsports does not put much effort in to bringing news to the gay sporting world re: the GSWS, but oh well
I was please that NAGAAA updated the pool/double elim stats efficiently and very timely…kudos to them!
I was curious on what happened to the LA Frontiers? Guessing they were protested? Which brings me to this point. Our league has not sent a representative to the D Division WS in over two years. The reason being, that our teams are TRULY developmental. I watch some of these D Division teams and have to laugh that they consider themselves developmental. Why travel so far to get your butt handed to you by non developmental teams? It was a good idea when they created D divisions, but when you see the same teams year in and year out, (with the same players) it gets a bit old. Just look at the Seattle team, they won the whole thing last year, changed their name…and almost won again this year. As Gomer would say, “Shame, Shame, Shame!”
on Sep 8th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Two comments, CK. One, the teams that deliberately play in the lower divisions of tournaments (and not just the Gay World Series) or add higher-ranked players in order to beat the crap out of the true D teams are utterly despicable. My team played in our Memorial Day tournament and a team from New York had one player in particular that hit the ball so far we ended up intentionally walking him a couple of times. I almost feel like they should hold tournaments and NOT give out trophies so perhaps these teams will feel their participation is worthless and not show up.
Two, re: Outsports’ reporting news — you realize that this isn’t ESPN, with a bunch of employees gathering the news, right? It’s Jim and Cyd and that’s it (except for some contributors on the blog). They need people like Mark to report on events they aren’t able to attend themselves.
on Sep 9th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Hi Joe!
Thanks for responding :o) I truly agree about the D division, in fact, they should probably not invite the D teams to WS and instead create a C rec division. lol, but I think they tried that before. My last WS was in Phoenix and the amazing play of some of the developmental players was shocking!
Also, thanks for clearing up what I thought was a corporate run web site. Kudos to Jim and Cyd then…I did not realize that they were the only two! A lot of amazing content that two guys have managed to maintain :o)
Maybe when I retire from sports I will contribute more toward the softball end. My writing skills are not all that…and I would hate to be bullied by the grammar police like they do all over the internet…or I can just suck it up and report from the West Coast. I will email Cyd or Jim to see if they have any interest. I haven’t played for a couple of years (knee surgery), and am eager to get back to playing.
on Sep 9th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Just read through your blog Joe, good stuff :o)
Great picture of you and the Philly Phanatic too, lol!
on Sep 9th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Thank you!