A Tale of Two Citywides

Complete and total parity in the 4.5 division. Out of all reported matches, only one was not a 3-2 score. Literally a few points here and there could have resulted in a complete reversal of the standings. The 4.0 division, on the other hand, was the complete opposite, as three teams (Hurricanes, Lakeside and Sienna) proved to be on a completely different plane from the rest of the division.

Two guys who've taken a lot of ribbing on the blog this year came up big: Ken Douds and Ward Jannuzzi. Jannuzzi's wins are but a footnote as his team was unable to overcome the absence of Borkop. I will say he's been telling me for a year that he would beat Sarosh (in fact, he and Pumma may have bet on it?)...and he backed it up beautifully.

Coming into the 2010 playoffs, there was little reason to think we would "remember the titans". Ken Douds 2009 team went 4-5 in the regular season. Subtracted from that team were Sean Straley, Jason Cooney and Luis Fernandez. Added...John Griffin. How do they go from sub .500 to city champs? Well, it helped that the competition was down a peg or two.

Clearly Antoine Ford was the MVP of the playoffs. As I've noted before, last year he had to play Omon, Odion and Aadrian, losing to all three in the third set breaker. While there were some quality players in the playoffs this year, none were of that caliber, and Antoine's game has probably raised a notch this season.

I'm happy for Ken Douds. Every year he puts together a quality team. He does his best each offseason to improve his roster...a few years back he did his best to scoop up some of my old Mob Squad teammates to strengthen his chances. It's nice to see him get up to Dallas with a team comprised completely of "his guys". Good luck to him and everyone (Toney, Freeman, Spoor) who did a great job getting their teams to Dallas.