pres 2005                  the other f or f
FACT OR FICTION 2005
courtesy of catdaddy and hawthorne

*THESE REPLIES BY NATE TOMKO
1- BASEKETBALL HAS GROWN TO LARGE.  WITH THE INCLUSION OF FRIENDS OF FRIENDS OF FRIENDS, MANY PEOPLE IN THE LEAGUE DON'T EVEN KNOW OR LIKE EACH OTHER ANYMORE.  TEAM ROSTERS ARE ABOUT AS LARGE AS NBA ROSTERS.  THIS HAS HURT THE ORIGINAL SPIRIT OF A BUNCH OF FRIENDS PLAYING A FEW GAMES A WEEK AT NATE'S HOUSE.
2- JOEL LEPAK IS THE GREATEST LOSS THAT BASEKETBALL HAS EVER FACED.
3- REFEREES IN THE SBL ARE TOO LAX AGAINST PHYSICAL FOULS.  ALSO, THEY ARE TOO INTIMIDATED BY THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS WHEN MAKING CALLS.
5- IN THE SBL, AS WILL BE EVIDENT THIS SEASON MORE THAN ANY OTHER, TEAM CHEMISTRY IS ACTUALLY MORE IMPORTANT TO VICTORY THAN STAR POWER.  OR: IF BIDD'S WHOLE TEAM WERE TO SHOW UP, THEY MIGHT SUCK DICK ANYWAY.
6- THE PLAYER OF THE YEAR TROPHY WILL BE AWARDED TO A 2-PLAYER COMBO INSTEAD OF JUST ONE:  NAMELY NAT TOKMO AND BILLY WEISBERG.
BONUS- WHO HAS THE BIGGEST UNSUBSTANTIATED EGO IN THE LEAGUE
FACT.  FACT.  FACT.  FACT.   the purpose of the sbl when it was created so many years ago was to give our group of friends something to do it this otherwise snoozer of a hometown.  the most important part of that statement was, of course, "our friends".  when i look at rosters and don't even recognize 50% of the names on them, it really pisses me off.  now i realize that i have a lot of good friends that i wouldn't know had it not been for baseketball- mcclelland, jamie and the whole ben/biddle/dank crew, to name a few- but at what point do we need to put our foot down?  we expanded to 8 teams this season not to get more people into the sbl, but rather to get more playing time for those already here.  captains then went about filling up their rosters with their friends, often those outside of the league because they may or may not have been better players, and now i find that my friends- those who the league was actually created for- are on the outside looking in.
obviously, when we're dealing with people who don't know each other, and in the case that one may be "stealing" playing time from another, it's only natural that there's going to be some resentment.  for anyone who didn't play during the first season, it would be nearly impossible for you to understand how much the game has changed in 5 years.  sure, the talent level has gone up astronomically, but i think somewhere along the way we lost what made baseketball so much fun.
i'd give anything to get the collective mindset of the sbl to move back 5 seasons to a time where winning was less important that hanging out and having fun.  i can only speak for myself, but i can pretty much guarantee that nearly everyone in the sbl would care much less about winning if they knew they were only losing to their close friends.
FICTION.  actually, i'd say that everything i just talked about in the first one would be the greatest loss that baseketball has ever faced.
however, if we're talking the greatest loss of a person, then yeah, it'd have to be joel.  honestly, who else have we lost along the way?  jeff meyers was too competitive, crackalakalakan's pants were too big, tim mclaughlin was a tool,  and hamlett sucked at life.  joel, i think, is the only person who's no longer in the league  (at least on a regular basis) that i wish was.  he made everyone's day a little more enjoyable and kept the league from taking itself too seriously.  in fact, the loss of joel may be one of the main reasons the league has gotten so competitively intense.
FACT. it's up to the sbl referee's to set the tone for the enitre game early on.  yes, most people playing underneath are bigger and stronger that they were in years past, but the last thing the sbl needs is for one of it's players to get injured because someone attempted to summit their back while attempting a tip-in.  i think the main problem is who is given the responsibility to ref.  obviously, any referee should have the backbone to stand behind their call, but we also need people who aren't afraid to blow the whistle when needed.  the over-the-back foul on a tip-in is by far the biggest problem-causer in the sbl.  so many tiffs have begun with a physical foul that went uncalled that i lost count seasons ago.
however, the players can be blamed just as much as the referees.  i've said in the past the one should play baseketball with a mini-golf mindset, not a football one.  if another player has inside position on for a tip-in, let them go. besides being good ol' fashioned sportsmanship, in most cases these are your friends you're attempting to slap in the head.  not cool.
the sbl is currently attempting to correct the current state under the boards by  either adding an extra ref to every game or narrowing down the pool from which we choose who refs games.  but probably both.
i'd like to add that there have been times where a referee really impressed me, so i realize that not everyone is dropping the ball on this one.  pat lackey making the correct no-call against pj & the ladies last postseason comes to mind.  he made the call and stuck with it, even knowing that he would get bombarded with shit for doing so.  good job pat.
4- JUKEBOX HERO MAY ACTUALLY NOT COME IN LAST THIS YEAR
FICTION. the league is more balanced this season than ever before.  the gap between the top team and the seventh team is so small right now, that i actually see jukebox losing 18 games at least.  it's just impossible for jbh to field a competitive team with such a revolving door of player filling it's lineup.  there's no time to ever get in any sort of rythym.  besides, the best players rarely play for the yellow mesh, so they can rarely rely on one big gun to get them through games as other teams can.
FACT. i think in order to win a championship, you need a combination of both star power and team chemistry.  having a good chemistry can often create stars out of modestly-talented players- take dennis lackey as a member of hoosier daddy last season- but, unfortunately for team bidd, having all the star power in the world can't create team chemistry.  in fact, since the biggest stars genereally have the biggest egos, it normally works the other way. 
even if bidd's team were to show up in full, potentially playing with 4 future hall of famers, it would be hard to call them one of the best teams in the league.   esenwein doesn't know mckednry or biddle, and neither does tark.  tark's played one season with esenwein, and they spent most of it fighting for the rookie of the year trophy.  the point is that the four big guns on team fupalooter don't, and never will, have chemistry. 
of course, this is never going to come to fruition, because esenwein might be there for the first 3 weeks, and tark ain't never coming again.  biddle's going to have to go with plan b, whatever that is, but let's hope for his sake it relies a little less on big names and a little more on solid games.
FICTION.  it would be much more likely to have 2 players from different squads split the honor that a pair of teammates.  with all of the p.t.p.-ers in the sbl now, having someone on your team snagging stats away from you can only hurt your chances at the poy trophy.  a superstar player on a team that's catered to his or her abilities will have the inside track on a team full of superstars every time.
also, i'd like to add that the award is called "player" of the year for a reason.  because it should be delivered to the best player of the year, not the best players.  in the off chance that two players are too similair statistically and in value to their team to make a decision (take olsavsky and weisberg in 2002), then it may be impossible to go with one.  but if the best player can be awared the player of the year trophy, it should be done.
hmm.  this isn't really a fact or fiction.  let's say that the biggest ego's in the league- myself, clayton, olsavsky, biddle-  can back it up, so i'd have to say the biggest unsubstantiated ego in the league would have to be in the tiny little body of seth salcedo.  what has he done besides win a scrum and make a few singles?  certainly nothing to warrant the shit-talking he spewed down the stretch last season.