Kickball Standings, For Your Amusement

. Team Mercy Wins Wins Losses Mercy Losses Ties Winning % Games . . New Frontiersmen 2 8 1 1.000 11 . John Cougar Mellancamps 2 6 2 0.900 10 . Wrecking Crew 3 3 2 1 0.889 9 . Crucial Taunt 3 4 3 2 0.792 12 . Commitments 5 1 1 0.786 7 . Bacon Bits 7 2 0.778 9 . Dream Team 2 4 1 1 2 0.762 10.5 . Ye Olde Fashioneds 1 5 2 2 0.750 10 . Sugar Tits 1 4 2 2 0.722 9 . Prison 1 3 2 1 0.714 7 . La Resistance 3 1 2 1 1 0.706 8.5 . Kanguerillas 5 1 1 1 0.647 8.5 . Gingerballs 4 4 0.500 8 . Monster Squad 2 2 2 0.500 6 . Never Scared 5 5 0.500 10 . Continentals 1 4 5 1 1 0.480 12.5 . Wyld Stallyns 5 6 0.455 11 . Government Kickbacks 1 2 2 2 2 0.450 10

. Divine Sisterhood Etc. 3 1 2 1 0.438 8 . NYC Fun Club 3 4 0.429 7 . People's Court 1 3 5 1 0.429 10.5 . Lightning Turtles 1 1 5 0.357 7 . Stallionaires 2 4 1 0.357 7 . Kickball Fever 1 3 1 1 0.308 6.5 . Team Peavy 1 3 1 0.300 5 . Los Piratas Mechanicos 3 3 3 0.286 10.5 . Booze on First 2 4 1 0.267 7.5 . Regression Aggression 1 4 1 0.154 6.5 . Storm of Lazers 1 7 0.125 8 . Bourgy Ballers 1 3 4 0.100 10 . Luz Restaurant 1 3 1 0.077 6.5 . Dolls Kicking Balls 3 2 0.000 6

In a game riddled with errors, the John Cougar Mellancamps beat Prison in their first matchup of the season. But then the Bacon Bits beat the JCMs. Look for the Bits to be kind of Gonzagaesque in the Playoffs. Prison then took out their frustrations on the Kickbacks by Mercy-Ruling them.

Speaking of the Playoffs, my co-founder Jens Carstensen and I have decided that 2008's Playoff format will be World-Cup style, a multi-elimination system. Here's how it would go: there will be 8 brackets of 4 teams each. Every game except the Finals will be 5 innings. The top 8 teams will lead their respective bracket, and like last year, they will choose who is in their division. Then the schedule will go like this:

Sunday, September 7th: All day long, and each team will play twice

Sunday, September 14th (day after the dance): starts at 4, each team will play once

After that, some teams may be eliminated by the third Playoff week, and the start of the day be may be 1pm, or it may be 4.

And going into the last day, Sunday, September 29th, the remaining 8 teams will have their Quarterfinals, then the Semis, and again, the Finals will be 9 innings.

That's right: if your team is gonna win it all, you probably will play a minimum of 19 innings on the Final Night. We never said it would be easy, and it never has been for the Title-Takers.


One of our leaders, Jamilah Pemberton, got injured Sunday night, and we all hope that MRI comes back negative.

One surreal view was watching (from afar) the Continentals - Booze on First game as the the lightning threatened. Their opposing colors of Orange and Teal contrasted nicely. Non-Sequitor: if Stu (of the People's Court) gets to date someone from Booze on First, then it's Stu's on First.

Ok, ok. Anyway, someone asked me Sunday, "Hey, would you stop scheduling by winning percentage and throw the better teams a bone?" - meaning, will I schedule Mercy-Rule games? Sure, why the hell not? I dunno when, but someday, I'll schedule Mercy-Rule day, or Rookie Initiation Day, a one-time event.

Here are some pictures from last night. Yeah, we gotta start thinking about the tournament, but I can tell ya this: Brooklyn will have 3 teams, and we're having a hat lottery of all our All-Stars.