Wednesday March 27th, 2024
TEXT_SIZE

2012 HOF Classic Tournament Preview!

Welcome to the Show! 

Osceola County Stadium and surrounding fields F1-F4

The 2012 Nationwide Insurance Conference USSSA season continues Thursday, April 19th at 9 AM Eastern with a 32 team double elimination tournament which will end with the championship game being played on Friday night.  USSSA broadcast coverage of the tournament begins around 3:30 PM Thursday and runs through the final championship game of the second tournament on Sunday.  A Conference record 32 teams will play in this event out of the 40 league teams.

Click here for a link to the USSSA Live broadcast

I will have my camera up around 11:30 AM Thursday on SoftballCenter.com until USSSA Live takes over at 3:30 PM.  My flight is scheduled to land at 10:15 AM, so I will hustle over to the stadium and set up as soon as possible.  I really won't be over at Fortune Road at all so don't expect updates from over there.

Statistics.  All teams will be required to take a picture or scan of their score sheets and email them to dw@softballcenter.com for posting in a picture album.  All teams are required to turn in their totals spreadsheet to Stacy at USSSA in the couple of days following each weekend throughout the year.  Statistics for Las Vegas have almost all been verified and will be posted soon.  Thank you to all the score keepers that have worked with me to get things right.  Remember that Fielders Choices are scored as outs, not singles.  Sacrifice fly's, even game winners, are scored as outs and count as a plate appearance.  No exceptions.  All outs in each game must be accounted for and visible on the scoresheets for players to be eligible for conference awards.

On the softballcenter.com homepage we will have a chat room open most of the tournament for questions and updates.  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 diamonds #1-4 are approximately 330 down the lines, 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 310-325 foot fences all the way around.

Fortune Road fields FR1-FR4

Noone has stepped forward to provide picks, so I will give it a shot: 

Link to Hall of Fame Tournament #1

Link to Hall of Fame Tournament #2

Link to last years 2012 HOF Report

Link to 2010 HOF Report

Link to 2009 HOF Report

Link to the 2012 Las Vegas Tournament Report

 Looks like typical Florida weather.  A shower here and there to wet the infield down

Tournament #1 Preview/Predictions:

Gm 1: I don't expect Pure Romance to just roll over for Laser Vision in game #1 but it will be hard for them to overcome Laser Visions power on the stadium field.  Remember we did see Midwest Swing a year ago roll through some teams in their first trip to the show and EWS two years ago knocked off Resmondo in this tournament.  Then I also recall AJS putting up a huge inning to beat Dan Smith once on the stadium and Logo Express finished 2nd here as well.  'B' teams have done well at this tournament the last 3 years.

Gm 2: Westshore Pizza gets The Scene over at Fortune Road.  I have this game even.  Both teams should play well.  I am assuming they are using the stadium ball at Fortune Road? which would mean a high scoring affair.  Hmmm, lets go with The Scene by 2 – Westshore's defense and range won't mean quite as much in a high scoring game… About a half hour after I picked The Scene I was sitting at a gas station and looked up and the Little Ceasars Pizza that used to be next door to the gas station changed to a Westshore Pizza which I have never seen in Ohio…an omen?

Gm 3: Monster Energy is travelling a long way.  Both Monster and Major League are new conference teams.  Major League has some veterans that have battled in Conference events before.  Another even match up.  I'll go with Major League by 8.

Gm 4: Battle of the TYJA teams.  The TYJA/Suncoast merger with all kinds of talent and promise against Magic/S&S/TYJA who needs to get the "monkey off their back" and beat a top team.  Magic has improved, but I don't think baseball fields with ZN's is their game.  I'll take Suncoast by 10.  I hope to have my camera up for this game on the stadium.

Gm 5: Shoppe over P&P.  P&P is your defending 'C' champs and their first game as a Conference team probably won't be a memorable one.  I might get the camera up in time for the end of this game which starts at 10:30 AM on the stadium.

Gm 6: The first real good matchup at the stadium is West Coast and CA Sports at 1:30 PM.  I'll have the camera up for this one until USSSA Live takes over.  West Coast didn't really get a good win out in Vegas.  CA Sports we last watched finish 2nd at the Bash 4 Cash.  Another even game with both teams having a lot of conference experience.  You pick em, I can go either way on this game.  I'll go with West Coast by 3.  I need to see CA Sports pitcher a couple games before I get comfortable picking them on a stadium with a live ball but they look like a team that will get on a roll at some point this season.

Gm 7: Demarini/Dirty vs R&M.  Wow.  Demarini will be an exciting 'B' team with Adam Rockoff, Steve Loyd, Stevie Allen, Orlando Castilla, and Chris Wilson among others.  I think they can give R&M a run here and I'll take Demarini in the upset 18-14.  Hopefully both teams have all of their players.  I have to pick a few upsets.

Gm 8: Nordkap/Desert Falls/Easton should make quick work of a sometimes feisty B&B Sears team.

Gm 9: Baugh Ford will try to give Combat some grief but come up short.

Gm 10: Down2EarthSports opens up the stadium field and tournament at 9 AM by making short work of TG United.

Gm 11: 454 and Columbus Pipe.  This would be a fun game to watch for 3 innings over at Fortune before 454 takes a good Pipe team to the wood shed.

Gm 12: At 5 PM back on diamond #4 I'll be watching the Headhunters vs Team Demarini slugfest (as long as the wind cooperates).  Both teams may be a little light on defense is the rumor but heavy with the lumber.  I'll take Demarini 28-22 because of their outfield D.

Gm 13: Taylormade and Blitz.  A first round battle of good 'A' teams.  Taylormade has some good baseball field experience.  Lefty's are usually good over on F2.  Who has em?  Not sure, I'll go with Taylormade by 2.

Gm 14: Line Drive and Primetime on F1 in the morning should mean a low scoring game.  I'll take Line Drive 9-8 unless they make more errors than Primetime.

Gm 15: I don't know much about the Miken Mafia but we know SBS is playing well and should win this one.  5 PM on the F1 baseball field in the back will mean low scoring conditions.  The first team to adjust wins.

Gm 16: Resmondo over Buzini in 3 innings.  Buzini gets a short taste of the show.

In the Sweet 16: I like Laser Vision over The Scene big.  TYJA/Suncoast over Major League big.  Shoppe over West Coast.  Nordkap/Desert Falls over Demarini/Dirty.  Combat over D2E.  Interesting that game is at Fortune Road which could be fun.  D2E won't go down with out a fight in that one.  Combat needs to get some "toughness", this team feeling a little soft.  454 over Demarini will be a fun one.  Taylormade over Line Drive.  Resmondo over SBS.

In the Elite 8: I'm looking to pick an upset but will take Laser Vision over TYJA/Suncoast.  Nordkap/Desert Falls over Shoppe.  454 over Team Combat.  Resmondo over Taylormade.

In the Final 4: I'll take Nordkap/Desert Falls over Laser Vision and Resmondo over Team 454.  Both games are on Friday morning for those of you that want to tune in from work…

Final picks HOF #1:
1) Resmondo
2) Team 454
3) Nordkap/Desert Falls
4) Laser Vision

Poll Link to who you think will win Dual #1

The second tournament, as always, 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.

Final picks HOF #2:
1) Nordkap/Desert Falls
2) Laser Vision
3) Resmondo
4) TYJA/Suncoast

My 'B' team pick to click is Demarini/Dirty 

Poll Link to who you think will win Dual #2

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)
 2011 GTL over Resmondo (both Major teams)
          Resmondo over GTL (both Major teams)

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

Good luck to all teams, have a safe trip.

 

 

 

 

 


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.