Another Softball League In Jordan?

It's nice to see them jumping on board...

Softball begins period of growth in Middle East AMMAN—(Jordan Times)— Jordan is set to become the first Middle East home to the sport of softball [Mude says: Already been the home!] after the Executive Council of the International Softball Federation (ISF) on Sunday approved Jordan’s application to start a national softball federation, according to a statement from the Jordan Olympic Committee (JOC). The JOC, headed by HRH Prince Feisal, intends to use softball to introduce more women and youth to team sports in Jordan and provide a model for greater sporting inclusiveness throughout the Middle East. This is in line with the “Back softball for reinstatement onto the 2016 Olympic programme” blueprint which pledges to provide a sporting chance for women throughout the Middle East. Following Sierra Leone having recently been granted provisional membership status, the announcement increases the ISF’s membership up to 130 countries. “As part of our long-term strategy at the Jordan Olympic Committee, we are always looking for new ways to introduce young people to, and keep them in sport. I have been impressed with the success of softball in reaching out to young people—especially women. This addition to our portfolio of sports should see a dramatic increase in the number of young women playing team sport. This will send a powerful message to the rest of the Middle East. It is also an important statement before we host the IOC Women in Sport Conference at the Dead Sea in 2008,” Prince Feisal was quoted as saying in the statement.

Your Quest: Slay the Dragon

Which Traitors are riding the Dragon?

On Friday, August 10, the last day of the regular season, we will have an All-Star Game. Sorta.

The Traitors, the fire-breathing, undefeated wa7sh of the season, will have a new team to contend with: All-Stars selected from the other seven teams. The game will be an unofficial exhibition only, and it will not count towards the Tournament seedings in any way. But if the All-Stars can slay the dragon, it sure will be nice dining on Traitor flesh.

Selection of the All-Star team will begin this Friday, August 3. In order to be selected, you have to be good and you have to be available to play on Friday, August 10 at 3:00 PM.

Talk trash in the comments. (Commenting restrictions have been eased a bit for this purpose. I'm a humanitarian, after all.)

NOTE: I'll need a place to crash after the game, as my wife, Traitor Brooke, will not be very accommodating after her team loses.

We need to talk about where this relationship is headed

Ziggy crunches the numbers and Schwa passes on the catculations.

Ziggy and Schwa are taking a week off from prognosticating, as they did not fare so well last time (4 for 8). Their owner, your humble Slogger-in-Chief, isn't a genius, either. But I did correctly predict that the Cubs would catch the Brewers in the second half of the MLB season.*

Let's talk Tourney. This is in the Rules, but here it goes:

Tournament seeding will be based on how a team finishes in its own division, plus how they did against the other division’s “mirror” team. The two division winners “share” the top two seeds. That tie (regardless of overall records) is broken by the result of the one inter-division game between those teams, with the winner getting the higher seed. The two second-place teams share the 3-4 seeds, third place teams share 5-6, and last-place teams share 7-8.

In a nutshell: Traitors are tops. Beats are #7. Bling Bling & Stars will fight for #6 & #8. Nomads & Eagles can finish between #2 & #4. Slackers & Sluggos can finish anywhere from #3 to #5.

Details (Records indicate overall, division, inter-division):

Long Division:

Traitors (8-0, 4-0, 4-0): Clinched the Long Division title and the top seed in the tourney. Will play either Bling Bling or Stars in the first round of the Tournament.

Slackers (5-2-1, 2-1-1, 3-1) & Sluggos (4-3-1, 1-2-1, 3-1): Fighting for second place in the Long Division. Their first game against each other ended in a tie. They play again this Friday (August 3), which will basically settle matters. Slackers hold the edge over the Eagles, but not the Nomads. Sluggos hold the edge over the Nomads, but not the Eagles.

Beats (2-6, 0-4, 2-2): Cannot finish above 4th in Long. Clinched #7 seed with wins over both Bling Bling and Stars. Will play the winner of the Division of Labor in the first round.

Division of Labor:

Nomads (5-2, 3-0, 2-2) & Eagles (5-3, 3-1, 2-2): Locked in a battle for Labor title. Nomads beat the Eagles in their first game, and the second match is on August 10. Division winner is the Tourney’s #2 seed. For the #3 seed, Nomads have the edge over the Slackers, but not the Sluggos. The Eagles have the edge over the Sluggos, but not the Slackers.

Stars (1-7, 1-3, 0-4) & Bling Bling (0-7, 0-3, 0-4): Neither team can finish above 3rd in their division. One will be the #8 seed, and the other the #6 seed, because both teams lost all four inter-division games. Stars won the early game against Bling, but they meet again on Aug 10. If neither teams wins before that final game, and Bling beats the Stars, the teams will have identical records. The result of that last game will break the tie (since it's being played on the last day). This will eliminate an additional tiebreaker game.

The Tournament will be held on August 17, beginning at 9:00 AM sharp. There will be no warm-ups on the big field prior to the games and no infield warm-ups between innings. (Please use the small field.) The rest of the regular season game format will be used: 1-1 counts, 6 innings, 10-run limits per inning (except last two innings), etc. The new schedule is available here, or you may download it from the link at the bottom of the green sidebar (right side of Slogs).

THIS WEEK'S GAMES:

It'll be significantly cooler for Week 8's games, so please be sure to dress in lots of warm layers. The Slogs recommends three pairs of socks and long underwear. And ear muffs.

9:00 AM: Slackers @ Sluggos (Umps: Traitors)
10:30 AM: Traitors @ Beats (Umps: Stars)
12:00 PM: Stars @ Nomads (Umps: Beats)
1:30 PM: Bling Bling @ Nomads (Umps: Eagles)
3:00 PM: Eagles @ Bling Bling (Umps: Nomads)

*At the All-Star Break, the Cubs were 5 games behind the Brewers, but they've erased that deficit in less than three weeks and now lead the NL Central on percentage points.