2011 HOF Classic Tournament Preview!

The 2011 Conference season opens Thursday, April 14th at 2 PM Eastern with a 27 team double elimination tournament which will end with the championship game being played on Friday night.  USSSA broadcast coverage of the tournament begins around 2 PM Friday and runs through the final championship game of the second tournament on Sunday.

Click here for a link to the broadcast

On the softballcenter.com homepage we will have up a chat room most of the tournament for questions.  With the tournament being played at Osceola County Stadium (home of the Houston Astros spring training) and around the corner at Fortune Road Athletic Park it will be difficult to keep up with all the games until we get down to 3 fields.  The stadium field and diamond #1 and #2 are approximately 330 down the lines and 390 to the gaps and 400 to center.   Fortune Road has 4 fields listed as FR1 – FR4 on the bracket and those are softball fields with 325 foot fences all the way around.

I am going to give a preview of the tournament based on the information, brackets, and rosters that I have.  This is all in fun and just my opinion for what thats worth.  I hope to see plenty of great games and upsets.

Tournament #1 Preview/Predictions:

Gm 1:  I am hearing som good things about Bullshippers but Doerflinger's experience and pitching should win this game back on diamond #2 behind the stadium.

Gm 2:  I'll take the revamped Suncoast over a Blitz team travelling to the HOF looking for a big points week.

Gm 3:  Down2Earth opens the tournament on field #1 against a Transat/Combat team which will consist of the remaining Canadian players that tried out but didn't make the Combat/Pharmapar team.  The tryouts were held this past weekend in Florida as part of a spring training for the new Major team.  This will be an interesting game, I'll go with Down2Earth as the throw together teams don't seem to have much success when you look at the Sin City team that played in Vegas 2 weeks ago going 1-2.

Gm 4:   This game is Shoppe and Gold's Gym from Texas over at the Fortune Road Complex.  Look for some solid scoring and a Shoppe win.

Gm 5:  The Scene/AJS made some nice pickups of Scott Zaciewski, Ryan Parfitt, and Mark Dennis, all from the folded Wood Law team.  I'll take The Scene over Midwest Swing in a game that opens the stadium field at 2 PM Thursday and hopefully will be available on the internet.  Midwest will be hitting those stadium zn's for the first time, you never know how much confidence that could give them though.

Gm 6:  I'll take Famous over the local 'C' team Wiley's.  Wiley's has looked solid in the past for a few innings in this tournament before and had a nice team at the 'A' worlds last year but it won't be enough.

Gm 7:  I haven't had time to ask who the Orlando Players team is but I'm going to take a wild guess it is Troy Nance and some of the old T&R Stucco guys.  I could be totally wrong but this could be a decent game back on diamond #2.  I'll take Primetime to win.  They need to get the season started on the right foot.

Gm 8:  Gas It plays Team 454.  454 is loaded and I'll take them over a Gas It team that is better suited for the Fortune Road fields.

Gm 9:  I'll take EWS over Turano in a run rule.

Gm 10:  Dave's Place has some talent (Loyd, Wilson, Stillwell) if all those guys listed on their roster show up.  This is a dangerous game for Darkside but I'll go with Darkside in a 7 inning game.

Gm 11:  I'll take R&M metals over Pace at 3:30 PM on diamond #2.  R&M is the old Pipac team and should put up some big numbers in this game.

Gm 12:  Resmondo over Doerflinger.  Doerflinger put up a nice fight in Vegas against Team Combat so don't expect them to roll over for Resmondo ala EWS last year…

Gm 13:  I'll take the new Suncoast over the new Sinister in a coin flip.  There is really no way to pick this game.

Gm 14:  Shoppe over D2E.  Of course there is only 8 homer's and the game is at Fortune Road…

Gm 15:  The Scene over Team Combat/Pharmapar as the second game at the stadium at 3:30 PM Thursday.

Gm 16:  GTL over Famous.  Another great game back on diamond #1.  Both teams coming off a nice Vegas weekend.

Gm 17:  454 over Primetime.

Gm 18:  EWS over Darkside

Gm 19:  Team Combat/Laser Vision over R&M.  Hoping for a shootout in this one.

In the Elite 8  I'll take Resmondo over Suncoast.  Shoppe over The Scene.   GTL over 454.   EWS over Team Combat/Laser Vision.  We need some upsets…it would be boring otherwise!

In the Final 4  Resmondo over Shoppe.   GTL over EWS.  A pair of great games.  Lets go GTL over Resmondo for the fun of it and see if Resmondo has enough in the tank to win the second tournament over Combat/Laser Vision.

The second tournament will depend on which teams played a lot of games in the loser's bracket of the first tournament.  Any team which plays more than 2 or 3 games is going to have to wake up Saturday morning and remind their bodies why they love this game or they will be 2 and Q real quick in the 2nd tourny. 

History of the Hall of Fame Classic:

2006 Bell Corp over Benfield (both Major teams)
2007 Resmondo over Team Combat (both Major teams)
2008 Resmondo over Dan Smith (both Major teams)
2009 Dan Smith over Resmondo (both Major teams)
         Dan Smith over Long Haul (both Major teams)
2010 Dan Smith over Sinister (A)
         Resmondo over Logo Express (B)

So as you can see, a non-major team has never won the HOF Classic.

Good luck to all teams, have a safe trip.

The sun on Diamond #1 behind the stadium can be rough on pitchers just before dark and rough on batters in the morning.  The wind and the high fences on diamonds #1 and #2 usually factor into the outcome as well.

Link to Hall of Fame Tournament #1

Link to Hall of Fame Tournament #2