2002 Year in Review

CSA SOFTBALL REVIEW

The year started with the winter league. Starting on January 17, 8 teams braved the elements to complete an exciting season. The season was marked by rain-outs and cold weather. In an ironic twist, when we played on January 31, the temperature was 70 degrees and when we played on February 28, it was 20 degrees.

The league champion was Bar Gravy, who went 9-1 and were a finalist for Team of the Year. They won the "One Night Only" playoffs by outlasting the Sweathogs, We're Not Hungover, and Cleats & Cleavage in the finals.

In the spring, CSA saw more history made. The Buds won the Piedmont League co-ed softball championship in the joint Monday/Wednesday league playoffs. The Buds became the first team to lose a playoff game in a single elimination playoff and go on to win the championship. They lost their second round game, but their opponent was disqualified and the result was vacated.
The spring leagues also saw the birth of the first CSA softball dynasty. Peaked In High School, who had finished the regular season in a four way tie for the division championship, outlasted Pete Rose Bets on Us in a defensive struggle to win the Thursday Dresden league title. It was the first of four championships for Peaked.
In the Wednesday league at Dresden, the Turbo Swiners managed to best nine other teams and claim their first title. The CSA men's softball league had a repeat champion. Atlanta Auto Group completed an undefeated season with their second straight league championship.

The summer was very exciting on the softball field. Peaked in High School won not one, but two championships. Batting For Beers completed one amazing night of comebacks to win the coveted Frankie Allen weeknight title, Loaded Bats made it two years in a row, winning the experimental double elimination playoff for the Saturday Piedmont Park league. The Desperados became the masters of "Little Fenway" in CSA's first co-ed league at Aviation Park and the Independent Strippers Union (ISU) surprised everyone with their unlikely summer league championship in the Thursday Dresden Park league.
In the men's game, Atlanta Auto Group made it three in a row, with another undefeated season, and Frankie's got the monkey off their back with their first title.

Peaked In High School continued their run of dominance. In the Thursday Piedmont Park league, Peaked finished second in the regular season, then, after making a big last inning comeback in the semi-finals, faced off with top seeded Spotted Dicks. In a dominating performance, Peaked rolled over Spotted for their third CSA championship, and second in two weeks. Only weeks before, Peaked won the Frankie Allen Sunday league title. After winning the regular season division championship, Peaked rolled through three games, including a four inning mercy victory in the title game. The two summer league championships made Peaked In High School the first co-ed team ever to win three league titles.

In the premier CSA league, Batting For Beers came back from big deficits twice in one night and won three games to win the Wednesday Frankie Allen title. After falling behind by nine runs in the top of the first inning of their first playoff game, Batting for Beers came back from that deficit to advance. Then they knocked off the regular season champs, Glove'm & Leave'm with a come from behind victory, and in the finals, they outlasted archrival, Chico's Bail Bonds for their first CSA championship in five tries.
The highlight of the league wasn't the playoffs though. It was the C.O.B. game between Batting for Beers and Damn Drunks. The final regular season game was a marquee match-up and had an exhibition kickball game afterwards. It also established a new tradition in CSA. All leagues with both Batting for Beers and Damn Drunks will finish the regular season with a match-up of the two.

Loaded Bats were the last team standing in a Saturday league that started in April at Dresden Park and finished in August at Piedmont. After suspending play at Dresden because of problems with Dekalb County, CSA took a month off and resumed play at Piedmont Park. We split the season into two five game halves and paired up two divisions in an experimental playoff format. For the first time in a co-ed league, CSA held a double elimination playoff. The format was a success. Loaded Bats lost their first playoff game, but swept the next five games to win their second Saturday Piedmont league championship (they won in 2001 as It's Roger's Fault Again). In the title game, they gave It's All About the Beer their third title game loss.

The Desperados put on a power show on "Little Fenway" and won two classic games to win the Wednesday Aviation league title. In the semi-finals they came from behind and won on a walkoff three run homer, and in the finals, they held on to knock off CCRT Ballers 26-24. That game set a league record for total runs in a co-ed championship game.

In the Thursday Dresden league, Independent Strippers Union (ISU) went from a ragtag individual team, put together by CSA, into a champion. The championship game between ISU and Screwballs was the runner-up for game of the year. The game set records for combined runs in a championship game (37 - since broken), longest game (1 hour 45 minutes), and innings played (8 - tied record).

In men's league play, one team continued their run of dominance and one team finally got the monkey off their back. Atlanta Auto Group won their third straight Sunday Aviation league championship. With their second straight undefeated season, AAA has lost only one game in the last three seasons.
In the Sunday Frankie Allen league, Frankie's, with no players with a CSA championship under their belt, won a slugfest against Slow N Steady, and took the league championship.

The Fall leagues had one thing in common, rainouts. Four of the five champions had perfect seasons. The fall season schedule was massacred by weather related problems. Three championship games were played in December, including the final game being played on the 18th of December.

The first league to finish up was the Sunday Frankie Allen co-ed league. Their, Peaked in High School added another jewel to their crown. After completing the regular season 7-0, Peaked won two playoff games, including a heartstopper in the championship game against It's All About the Beer. The win gave Peaked their fourth consecutive title, and their first perfect season.

The next league to finish up also had an unbeaten champion. The Monday Aviation Park league was won by 2002 Team of the Year, The Independents. The Independents had the single most statistically dominant season. The league was earmarked by an unusually high number of schedule changes. For seven straight weeks the schedule was changed because of weather related factors.

The other co-ed champion was another unbeaten team. Roger's team, the BIG hITS, dominated the marquee league. The Wednesday Frankie Allen league featured four former CSA champions, and two more regular season champions. Roger's group completed a 10-0 season by rolling over their opponents.

In Men's play, Dazed & Confused won the Sunday Frankie title almost by default. In a season affected by weather, that had almost as many forfeits as games played, Dazed was solid in two playoff games and took the championship. In the Sunday Aviation league, Atlanta Auto Group did not play, and they opened the door for a revamped Ed Voyles Honda team to take the championship with an 8-0 record.

In 2002, the CSA softball program continued it's run as the standard in recreational leagues. The level of play consistently rose and should reach new heights in 2003.

Co-ed Softball
# of games played: 601
# of runs scored: 13666
Tie games: 8
One Run games: 96
Games decided by over 20 runs: 16
Games decided by over 10 runs: 186
Games in which one team scored over 20 runs: 113
Games in which one team was shutout: 13
Games in which one team scored one run: 22
Games where the total combined runs were:
        50 or over - 2
between 40-49 - 10
between 30-39 - 104
between 20-29 - 278
between 10-19 - 180
between 0-9 - 3

Forfeits - 24

Most runs scored - one game - combined - 57 - 9/23 - PT BP2 (29) - Termnet Terminators (28)
Most runs scored - one game - one team - 30 (twice)
        8/3 - Grizzleys (vs Team Perforex)
        10/21 - The Independents (vs Termnet Terminators)
Most runs scored - one game - one team  in a loss - 28 - 9/23 - Termnet Terminators
Largest margin of victory - 26 - 10/21 - The Independents (30-4 against Termnet Terminators)

Men's Softball
# of games played: 385
# of runs scored: 9901
Tie games: 2
One Run games: 49
Games decided by over 20 runs: 30
Games decided by over 10 runs: 145
Games in which one team scored over 20 runs: 154
Games in which one team was shutout: 4
Games in which one team scored one run: 9
Games where the total combined runs were:
        50 or over - 7
between 40-49 - 28
between 30-39 - 100
between 20-29 - 156
between 10-19 - 63
between 0-9 - 4

Forfeits - 27

Most runs scored - one game - combined - 69 - 9/29 - Galyan's (35) - American Golf (34)
Most runs scored - one game - one team - 50 - 7/11 - Aeyones (vs Portman)
Most runs scored - one game - one team  in a loss - 34 - 9/29 - American Golf
Largest margin of victory - 50 - 7/11 - Aeyones (50-0 against Portman)