Top Tourney Seeds on the Line

The top four seeds in the post-season tournament will be decided this weekend as the top two teams in each division square-off. In each division, two teams enter the their match-up with flawless divisional records. The victor in each game will be rewarded with one of the top four seeds in the post-season bracket.

The idea of rewarding the divisional champ with one of the top four seeds is a notion that has been heavily debated over of the years. Last year it was decided at the beginning of the season that division winners would earn a top seed, but after much debate and soul-searching, Commissioner Corcoran decided to scrap the idea and seed the tournament based primarily on a team’s overall record.

This year, steps were taken to attempt to balance the level of play across divisions and to create a schedule where a team would more often play other teams of similar ability. Because of each of these factors, and others, many on the Board members felt that rewarding divisional winners a top seed seems fair and creates additional excitement toward the end of the regular season.

The board has also released the criteria that will be used to award seeds 5 through 24. The six board members will meet at an undisclosed location after the conclusion of week 10 and rank teams based upon their overall records, strength of schedule, quality of wins, sportsmanship, and how good each team was about providing referees.

The bracket will be unveiled at the KVKL Tournament Bracket Release Party the following night, Mon., Aug. 6th, at the Bottleneck at 7pm. Each team’s seed and match-up will be released, and games sites will also be randomly determined the evening as well. The Bracket Party will have a cover charge of $3 with all proceeds going directly to the league, so come out and support the league and see who and where you’ll be playing in the tourney!

Commissioner Calls for Cooler Heads

Hello Kaw Kickball Community,

First off, I would like to say that this year has been a great time so far. The new scheduling system seems to have made for a lot of highly contested matches, the game of the week at Hobbs has been getting bigger every week and the new equipment seems to be working out well. This week at Hobbs Sunday Night Lights 8:30 game of the week we will witness what is sure to be a rivalry in the making. The RED HOT Wildman Vintage Team who recently on the www.kawvalleykickball.com forum message boards explained that they were changing their name to Papa Totinos (suggesting that you can call them “The Papa Totino’s Pizza Rolls, Papa Totino’s Ten-For-Ten-Dollars, Papa Totino’s Pizza Bones, Papa Totino’s-With the Slice as Big As Your Ass”) takes on the 6-0, Undefeated Powerhouse of Papa Kenos. This game should be a classic so please come down and show your support.

Now on to less pleasant items of discussion.. Last weekend this league experienced an unacceptable showing of unsportsmanlike behavior at one of the games. This game was played in a west Lawrence neighborhood at “Dad” Perry Park between Papa Kenos and Yello Sub at 7pm. After much investigating it has been determined by the KVKL Commission that both of these teams were WAY out of line. There were MULTIPLE instances of players who are not the captain or co-captain disputing calls by the refs. There were several reports of name-calling, heckling, and other forms of school yard bully behavior, there was even one account of a player throwing his beer at the other team and exclaiming “do you wanna go!”, do I even need to mention the report of a player calling a referee a Bitch? This my friends is NOT GOING TO BE TOLERATED BY THIS LEAGUE.. PERIOD. The Commission has spent this week’s entire allotment of time discussing how to prevent these things from happening EVER again and what to do about the current situation. No we didn’t spend time discussing what other fundraisers we can do for the league or anything positive like that, we spent it cleaning up the mess of some folks that can’t seem to control themselves. Because there are conflicting reports of exactly what happened and there has not been any 1 player identified to be the problem in this game, we are not kicking anyone out of the league. However we are putting both teams on a very strict and public probation for 2 games. If during these 2 games either team has a player step out of line AT ALL they will be tossed from the game for sure and possibly from the league. THIS MEANS NO MORE WARNINGS!!! I think we all realize that sometimes referees make a bad call, it happens, its part of the game and its part of ANY game. A bad call will NEVER be an excuse for any player to break the rules of the league or to act in an unsportsmanlike way. We are going to go out of our way even further to have hand picked refs at the probation games of these two teams and if there is even the smallest issue, this email is a promise of severe punishment and that means potential PLAYER AND/OR TEAM EJECTION. Also because of this we have spent some time polishing up the disqualification section of the rulebook and would like to ask that all teams provide the best refs they can for the games you are responsible for refereeing. A good referee not only knows how to make the right call, they also know how to “police” a game if necessary and how not to get pushed around. Up until now the rules have been a little cloudy on what a ref can and cant do but these revisions should bring some clarity to that. If a ref thinks someone is out of line, they should tell them so and give them a warning. If they do it again after the warning, it is the refs call whether to eject the player from the game. Also notice in the new rules that it says that the commissioner (and the commission) can and will review all disqualifications. This is so that if a player feels they were unfairly ejected from a game they can appeal the decision and avoid further punishment from the league. Look, we all have played with people who get a little heated sometimes but I can tell you now that our stance from this point forward is that rules are rules and when broken there must be consequences.

Here are the rulebook revisions…

C.6
Only a team’s captain or co-captain may discuss calls with a referee. All other players are not permitted to dispute calls.

L. Disqualifications
1. If any referee feels threatened or insulted by any player, or is repeatedly questioned about calls by a non-captain (or co-captain), that referee should issue a warning to that player by notifying that team’s captain and all other referees. After a warning has been given to a player or players, any referee may eject that player or players from the game for any further un-sportsmanlike conduct. Ejected players must leave the game site immediately, or they forfeit their right to appeal their disqualification.
2. Fighting of any sort can result in an immediate ejection. The head referee has jurisdiction over what is considered fighting.
3. If a player is disqualified from a game, that player is then banned from all future participation in the Kaw Valley Kickball League. Disqualified players have the right to appeal their disqualification by requesting a Commissioner’s Review of the incident.
4. Any team who uses a disqualified player in a game will forfeit that game and is subject to further disciplinary actions from a Commissioner’s Review.
5. If two referees from different teams feel that a specific player or a team in general exhibited extremely poor sportsmanship in a game, they may register a complaint with the Commissioner within 24 hours of the game. The Commissioner will conduct a review of the incident and recommend any appropriate disciplinary actions for a specific player or team, including but not limited to player suspension, team probation, team forfeit, barring of team from post-season play, and ejection of player or team from the league.
6. The Commissioner’s recommended disciplinary actions must be approved by a majority of the other voting KVKL Board members.

Ok so thats enough of dealing with this negative non-sense. Lets go out this week and have a great time.

Thank you to all of the players that don’t have these problems and to those of you that move in that direction in the future.

-Josh

Halfway Point Marked by Tight Finishes

With the completion of week 5, we’re halfway done with the 2007 regular season. If the second half of the year is anything like the first, we’re in for a treat. Greater parity among the teams and a brilliantly-designed schedule have given us some tight match-ups and numerous exciting finishes, including 6 games in week 5 dicided by a single run.

I had the pleasuring of taking in the two games at South Park last Sunday evening (2 Hands/Merc vs. Replay, Rudy’s vs. Red Lyon), and neither of these match-ups disappointed. Defense was plentiful and runs were at a premium in boths contests.

In the first game, Replay opened up a 3-0 lead by the sixth inning, but the Merc was able to stay in the game by the way of some fantastic catches. The Replay defense finally surrendered two runs late in the game, but was able to hold on for the win and keep their record unblemished at 5-0.

The second game featured one of the league’s most productive offenses in Red Lyon against one of the league’s tightest defenses, Rudy’s Pizzeria. Just as in the first game, scoring was low, but Rudy’s was able to open up a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning. In the seventh, multiple runners on base for one of the few times all game, and tied the game at 3, scoring two runs on a wild play at the plate. Red Lyon won it with two outs in the bottom of the ninth by burning the Rudy’s outfield for the first time in the game.

These two games were well-played by all teams involved. The closeness of both matches did bring to light one of the negative consequences of the higher level of play and the tightness of many of this year’s competitions: increased pressure on our referees. With games being so low-scoring and closely contested, each call gains more importance and can potentially effect the outcome of the game. There were instances in each game where the refs were forced to make some tough calls that would impact the final talley.

With this in mind, I’d like to make a couple of points. First, players must remember that the referees in their games are volunteering their time so that they can play an organized game. Also, the realities of the league keep us from being able to hire qualified and experienced umpires to call our games, nor can we really train refs outside of game experiences. Those reffing our games are our peers, and they are doing us a service by volunteering to ref. Please keep this in mind when they are forced to make a tough call and it doesn’t go your way.

Secondly, it is very important that teams provide the best referees they can. The most knowledge and experienced members of your team will most often make the best referees. Forcing a player who is new to the game and/or not well-versed in our many rules to referee will usually lead to an unpleasant situtation for all. Also, if you are volunteering to referee a game, you are volunteering your undivided attention to the action throughout the entire game. If not, you are doing the participants a disservice and they may rightfully resent you when miss a call because you were sending a text message, flirting, trying to light a cigarette (etc).

So as we approach the second half of the season, let us hope for more exciting kickball action, more good times with old friends and making more new ones, and more beautiful (although a little sticky) evenings in the park. Keep in mind that kickball is all about having fun, and for you competitive sorts, the regular season doesn’t matter much in the playoffs anyway. Good luck in the second half!