January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Drafted teams providing more balance to men's division
That could be the case as it's being given a trial run during the Michael Preece Softball Tournament.
All the players in the Men's Division were put into a draft to make the games more competitive and organizer Danny Cook said this could be the way forward, but there were still some drawbacks.
"Things are going well," he said. "All the games were played. We were able to get them all in to give us sufficient time to play the next two rounds."
He said the draft for the Men's portion of the tournament is getting a "mixed review."
"It's made the games very competitive other than one game...they've all been really close. The only drawback to it is we need more dedicated players. Some players who signed up for the draft, maybe didn't realize it was a month long tournament.
"One of the teams lost its first round draft pick, which was a killer. One of the teams lost its designated pitcher, which was a killer, but all in all it's been fun.
"You can't necessarily say one team is going to win the tournament, which is what we wanted."
He said it doesn't mean that the upcoming Winter League season - which starts in February - will have a draft for the Men's Division.
"This is a foundation to possibly have a draft; it's an experiment. At the end of the experiment we'll get feedback from the players and decide if they want to go back to the old formula of teams registering or if they want to continue with the draft."
He said another option would be to play with regular teams for the season and just use the draft for the Michael Preece Tournament.
He said the co-ed portion of the tournament has gone well with just one major upset.
"The only surprise is that Southlands didn't advance," Cook said. "Is it a surprise that they forfeited out? No. If they put their whole team out there they can compete with anyone, but they do have the habit of not being able to field a team. That's the only downer."
He said that likewise there is no clear cut favourite to win it all.
"I'm not going to tell you that Tuff Dogs is going to win the tournament, whereas before the tournament started I might have said that. Having said that, they should win because they do have the best team, but there are teams out there I think in a one game situation can beat them."
He said it's no guarantee as other good teams have picked up players to put them in the frame to be championship contenders.
"ACE has picked up Terence Corday and Joel Czember. Any team that has Terence on it can win on any given day. Docksiders picked up myself, Mac (Lowe) and Johnny (Ray), which has made them from a middle B that can beat Tuff Dogs on a given day. BEST picked up Steven (Simons) and Butter (Mark Herauf). They went from a team that had no chance of winning the tournament, just like Docksiders, that on any given day could beat Tuff Dogs."
He said this is made the tournament more fun, having more than one club that could hoist the championship trophy.
Cook said the best match-up for the next round should be BEST versus Marsh Madness.
"I don't think the other three games, in my personal opinion, being that competitive, especially without a handicap. BEST and Marsh are interesting because Marsh has an A Division on certain nights - Not a top A Division team, but definitely an A Division team when they show up with everyone. BEST can't with Marsh during the regular season, but you stick Steven and Butter on their team and all of the sudden they can compete."
The finals of Michael Preece Softball tournament are scheduled for November 30. Cook said he is hoping for an additional surprise for that night to honour Preece, an International Softball Hall of Fame umpire who passed away earlier this year.
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