Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Well, I did see this coming...

It looks like Atsushi Fukunaga from the West Side Black Sheep 4.5 team was disqualified. I'm assuming it was for a "three strikes" violation, though I have no details as of yet. Interestingly, it puts the mismanaged Rice team back in the playoff hunt, where they could be somewhat dangerous, believe it or not.

21 comments:

  1. Hey Greg,

    Good blog, keep up the work. Don't let the haters keep you down.

    Why did the westside guy get DQ'ed?

    His scores were too bad? Or was he giving up a few games to make it seem not so bad?

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  2. The guy is a major ringer; I think he played on the Japan Davis Cup team.

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  3. Red Benson is blogger. It's so obvious, everytime someone says anything about him that isn't good it's erased.

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  4. He is definitely one of the top suspects.

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  5. Who are the other suspects?

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  6. Does it matter that much to know who the Blogger is. Obviously It's someone who knows Houston Tennis well and is open to all discussions.

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  7. As I stated today in response to previous post, I don't think that the blogger is Red Benson nor Allen Teague. Allen & I were playing a make-up league match at the City Club last night, and didn't finish until around 10:30. Red was playing next to us until around 10:10 and watched the remainder of our match. HTown's blog last night was posted at 9:55pm, so it would have been impossible for either one of them to publish the blog while they were on the court. If it is Red or Allen, then they have a team blogging under one tag name; -which is possible. I think Greg Dwyer could be in the mix too. In any event, most of the blogging has been entertaining and fun to follow. I have stayed on the sidelines until now, because I wanted to stay clear from the trash talking. However, I put my helmet on and put myself into the game, because the info I am posting gives everyone a new perspective on the discussion at hand. Also, whoever published a message in a previous post as "Anonymous" bashing other players, such as Allen Teague, is just not necessary. All I can say in response to that comment is, Allen and I are 4-0 as a team over the past two weeks, and 2 of those teams were 5.0. Keep blogging.

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  8. Craig, thanks for your post; good detective work! Ha!

    I think the blogger is from the MPTC-Hangovers also, but I really don't want to know who it is because the blog then wouldn't be the same.

    Congrats on you and Allen's record. Those who disparage others are either friends busting chops, or jealous rivals who probably got whupped by the person(s) they're bashing. No one ever says they lost legitimately (except me!).

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  9. Just because he was on the court does not mean it is not him. You can manage a blog from a treo or blackberry. He could quite possibly have a partner or have someone post for him.

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  10. Yes, I agree. Plus, I made it a point to say in my previous post, that there could be a team of guys managing the blog. In any event, good point, and well taken.

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  11. I think the Blogger is Peter Rothe.

    Atsushi was hit with the 3 strike BS rule. He played a match that went 2 hours in no-ad and won 6-3 6-4 against Rice with 7 Deuce Points. Then Atsushi played what has been said in this blog as the last place team in the worst 4.5 division, twice with wins 6-0 7-5 and 6-2 6-0. He did not shave games, he is a cancer research doctor for M.D Anderson and he is an honorable man. He has been on my team for a year, he is not an USTA Summer time ringer.
    He hurt his left hand and played Doubles at SugarCreek and won 6-4 6-4 with 5 Deuce points. The other team said they played poorly, my team said we got lucky. Well the computer does not see this and we lose him. HE is about 140 pounds, he his not a power player, he is a pusher with placement. So strong players beware but as everyone knows, strong players win 3 and lose 1, win 3 and lose 1 and that is more BS. USTA knows this happens, I have never thought of it as I have a 4.5 team and we are solid but now I have to worry as to see who is next. When a computer makes decisions in a real world situation and does not take how a match was played or won, we are all screwed. This just goes to show that my team has earned the name -- Black Sheep.
    Scott Carr
    Westside 4.5 Captain

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  12. I don't think that the blogger could be Peter Rothe for a few reasons. First, Peter isn't very familiar enough with the 4.0 players or 4.0 league. Second, the blogger is very complimentary or certain players games, such as Chris Hunkler. The blogger seems to talk about Allan Teague every week. It is not in Peter's personality to give rave reviews about anyone's play, even if that player is on his team. Peter doesn't know Allan Teague that well, and even if he did, he probably would only ever mention him in passing. Thirdly, I doubt that Peter has the time to do this all the time. The blogger has to be familiar with a lot of players in three different divisions and has to spend time on research. The blogger is someone who writes well and has time on their hands, and is infatuated with certain players games and teams. Who might that be? Not Peter Rothe.
    Mr. Blogger, this comment was not intended to offend you, only to defend Peter since I know him well.
    Keep up the good work, these are fun to read.

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  13. Fukunaga won the Japan Open I think back in 1992 I think.

    Scott, stop whining. The guy deserves a 5.0 rating. He can play with you guys in the Fall.

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  14. As David Hall said "The blogger is someone who writes well and has time on their hands, and is infatuated with certain players games and teams." Who fits this profile, none other than Greg Dwyer. Bingo!

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  15. I think what happened to Atsushi is just plain wrong. I've played league tennis for over 15 years and have seen much worse "violators" at both the 4.0 and 4.5 level get to Dallas and beyond. My only caveat to how I feel about the decision is that I do not know what Atsushi's actual tennis background is. Obviously if he played at the college level in Japan or was on their Davis Cup team (who came up with that!), he should be playing at the 5.0 level.

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  16. Or maybe USTA and HTA are finally enforcing the rules properly as they should have been all along.

    Some people need to stop living in the past when the rules were too lax.

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  17. Yeah unfortunately theres guys much better than him in 4.5 that now that you have to lose 10 or so games minimum per match and lose a few that dont matter. I played ona team where the captain forced players to do this so its not just rumors. The computer works both ways as far as ringers are concerned.

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  18. He should have just dumped a match like Tim Greens new guy did last nite. Teaching pros should be embarrassed to play 4.5 what do they get out of sandbagging?

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  19. I think Tor is not a "walkover" in 4.5, he just beat Armstrong last week. Not all teaching Pros are at 5.0 level, good at teaching does not equivalent to good at playing. I bet Williams sister's Dad, the "Teaching PRO" at best a 3.5 player

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  20. Anonymous said...
    Fukunaga won the Japan Open I think back in 1992 I think.

    Scott, stop whining. The guy deserves a 5.0 rating. He can play with you guys in the Fall.

    Please post your name?

    As you can see, I'm not the only one who feels this way and Atsushi is a Doctor, not a Japanese team anything. In 1992 he was in medical school.
    Scott

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  21. Scott, I'm just jackin' with ya, chill out pal. :)

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