Okay, everybody gets a full week off after the end of the Outgames/Gay Games, and then the Gay Softball World Series starts in Ft. Lauderdale. Games start one week from tomorrow (Tuesday), and the athletes start arriving Saturday. 158 teams will be here (43 women's teams, 115 Open Division teams). Should be a fun week.

I am looking forward to it, although it is coming up way too quickly. I am glad to see there should be a decent turnout even with all the other activities going on.
I play with the Chicago B team sponsored by Hamburger Mary's. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Good luck next week to ALL the Chicago teams!!

A-Division: Sidetrack Stampede
B-Division: Hamburger Mary's Cougars
C-Division: Buck U's and SPIN Hitman
D-Division: Jackhammer Heat and 312 Crew

Women's B: Nubians and Stargaze Fusion

Chicago is the largest softball-playing city in NAGAAA. GO CHICAGO!

Oh boo hiss!! Chicago's teams have been the death of my teams for the past year!! Spin beat us at the San Diego World Series last year, and another Chicago team, Hunters, beat the team I was playing with in the finals of the Philadelphia tournament this year.

LOL - sorry about that SoFlaSpartan. I wish your team luck at the GWS too (unless playing Chicago)!!

BTW - I play with that Hunter's team in our Thursday night league. We had our play-offs last night and beat the #1 seed for the championship. :-)

Thanks, but sadly, my team had a late-season meltdown and won't be playing. However, I'm planning to be around the fields next week doing volunteer stuff and, of course, lookin' at the eye candy.

Then we expect a FULL report SoFla, including 'eye-candy' pics. OK? :-)

Well, no eye candy pics yet.

HOWEVER....

Today was the start of Round Robin play. Things seemed to go smoothly for the A and D Division teams, who are playing at Plantation Sunrise Park. They had a little lightning delay, but nothing too drastic. Same for the Women's Division, who played at Mills Pond Park.

But the fun was centered around the B and C Division teams, who were playing at Brian Piccolo Park in Cooper City, which is a long haul into Southwest Broward County (west, west, west of Ft. Lauderdale). The field crews didn't show up to set up the fields until 8 AM, which was when the first set of games were scheduled to begin. And they took their sweet old time with the set-up process. Needless to say, the teams who showed up at 7:00 to play their 8:00 game were less than happy.

Play didn't start until around 11 AM. Nope, not kidding. So we start three hours behind. And then the usual late afternoon shower that hits EVERY, EVERY, EVERY day in South Florida came at 3:30 PM, right on schedule, and lasted about 20 minutes, which is about usual. But it rained hard enough that it turned the fields to mud and made them unplayable.

So, the decision was made to move ALL of today's remaining B and C Division to Mills Pond Park, where the women were scheduled to be finished around 5:00 PM. Everybody scurried to show up at Mills Pond by 6:00.

Some of those teams were then informed that their new starting time was 11:00 PM!!! Other teams had gametimes at 10:00 PM and midnight!!! As I try to be supportive of our local teams, and with one of those teams who were scheduled to play at 11:00 being a local team, it was after 12:30 AM by the time I left the fields. And there were games still being played on other fields.

And on top of that, a number of those teams still at the fields at 1 AM then must turn around and play again tomorrow at 10 AM. I don't even want to imagine the quality of play you'll be seeing from some of those teams.

Wow, very interesting. Thanks for the report!!!!

We have some notes and photos from early round action.

Will this still be going on this weekend? I'm off and thought about driving up to see some games. When does it end?
thnx.

It ends Saturday.

Any GWS updates?

You can find links to all of the tournament brackets for each division at http://www.nagaaasoftball.org/gsws2006/tou...search_form.cfm

As of about 6:00 last night, all of the Chicago teams were still playing well. Not sure how this is possible (on Thursday) but one of the D teams (not sure which) was a win or 2 away from the championship.

If I hear anything today I will post an update.

Thanks guys! You're right, Chicago teams doing very well, especially 'B' and 'D' divisions. Congrats to my friends on the Hamburger Mary's and Jackhammer teams. So far, so good. :-)

Final results from the Gay Softball World Series:

Open A Division
Champion: Los Angeles - LA Vipers
Second Place: Atlanta - Venom
Third Place: Ft Lauderdale - Alibi Shock

Open B Division
Champion: Los Angeles - Killer B's
Second Place: Chicago - Hamburger Mary's Cougars
Third Place: Philadelphia - Woody's Men

Open C Division
Champion: Nashville - Tribe
Second Place: Memphis - Heat
Third Place: Dallas - Bud Light's Texas Toast

Open D Division
Champion: Chicago - Jackhammer Heat
Second Place: Ft Lauderdale - South Florida Bandits
Third Place: Nashville - Shock

Another great world series is in the books. The weather played some havoc at the start, but stayed away the last couple days, long enough to fit all the games in.
My Hamburger Mary's squad had a phenomenal run. Easily labeled the underdog, we continued to squeeze out wins all the way through the winner's bracket. Especially in the last game on the winner's side of the bracket against the LA Killer B's. We were down in the 7th with 2 outs, but put together an amazing rally to win.
The Killer B's made it back to the finals by beating the Philadelphia Woody's.
In the first game of the championship, the B's jumped on us early and often, and never allowed us to put together a rally. The game ended early due to slaughter rule. Which brought us to the "if" game. The B's had a small lead on us all game, but we were able to fight back and tie it to send the game to extra innings. Despite some spectacular plays and everyone playing with all their might, the B's were able to get that winning run accross in the 8th inning and take the B division championship.
The atmosphere during the last 2 games was very intense. The stands were packed full with LA and Chicago fans cheering loudly for their respective teams.
I am so proud of my teammates for their performance. The whole team came together and lifted each other to new heights each and every game. Everyone on this team were already my friends, but this week brought me even closer to each and every one of them. I will never forget this week.
The Killer B's are well deserving of their championship. They played spectacular softball all week, and seem like a great bunch of guys.

Hey Brian...

Congrats on a great GWS, you guys did Chicago proud. ;-)