http://www.mymcmedia.org/i-and-the-jersey-shore-say-goodbye-sandy/
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The Midway Steak House – Best Cheese Steaks. Gone. October 29th – Sandy.
The actual date of this photos was August 8, 2011 – it was a lovely day on the boardwalk.
I took time this week to reflect on the meaning of the Nats being eliminated from the postseason – on the morning of October 12th. I read all the commentaries, listened to Baseball Tonight, and will eventually seek out friend and ESPN Baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian’s opinion on the 2012 Nats/Orioles season.
Carter with Ball
The first thing I know, it was a wild and enjoyable ride. The second thing is I can’t wait to see what the 2013 Nats can do. Baseball is back, it’s in our own backyard, and many would be fans in the MoCo/Metro area this year renewed their joy and love for baseball.
Putting all the talking heads side (including myself) the Nats and Orioles were hot teams all season, they were young and played loose. They exceeded our expectations and even with their abrupt elimination they brought game – and we all will never know what more could have been accomplished in October of 2012.
It used to be that for decades that spring meant pinning our hopes to the NCAA playoffs with Maryland, Georgetown and even George Mason or lamenting the woeful Redskins. Summers were spent driving to Baltimore to catch the O’s or reading about the upcoming Terps/Redskin/Ravens training camp and practice games. Now, at least in baseball has taken its rightful place between DC Metro basketball, hockey and football seasons.
Like the Normal Rockwell painting the Endless Debate – men talking baseball around the old wood stove – fans throughout the area will now talk, read (or listen) with renewed anticipation on what’s next in store for the 2013 Nationals and the Orioles. Who is traded away? Who is kept? Will they keep Davey (a no-brainer there)? Whom will they bring in or traded for? How much for the free agent? What new prospects are up and coming? When do they call up Pitchers and Catchers?
The October season in Washington (and Baltimore) is the best of all. I was there for the return of the postseason at Nats Stadium with tickets provided by my sons’ best friend (both of whom grew up as die-hard Orioles fans) and sat close to the action. Colleen Herklotz and her 10-year-old son Carter sat in the row behind my wife, Denise, my sons best friend mom, Bev and me. I listened throughout the game as Colleen explained the game and players on both teams to Carter. He will be a lifelong Nats fan.
In the middle innings a foul ball came arching overhead and landed 3 rows behind Carter – a gentleman – no doubt a Dad – grabbed the bounding ball and almost immediately reached over and handed it to Carter. It then became a running joke between Carter and me for me rest of the game to hold or touch the ball emblazoned with a NLCS Postseason tattoo on the hide. Carter never let it out of his possession – hiding it in his glove – only occasionally giving me a peak of the ball. He was now a converted Nats fan.
A good day at the Ballpark is better than at work
As fate would have it some 27 hours later at do-or-die Game 4 in which Jason Werth won it with a walk-off homer my son Philip (31 years old) sitting in those same reserved seats with tickets provided by his best friend catches a foul ball that bounded off some meat-handed adults. He claims it was the best baseball game he was ever at – and also that he kept the ball in his pocket the rest of the game. I can touch it the next time I visit him in Arlington.
Baseball is like that. The ball finds you.
The best part is that we can choose to root year round for our local teams, whomever they be – across all seasons of sport – and then come spring renew that baseball love when the dandelions and cherry blossoms reappear in 2013.
A sea of RED equals GOOD Natitude
Alright!
We had some changes, some defining moments, and some very good high school refs – who decided to stay down home and call the local football games. Friday night-lights brought me out to cover two games and one on Saturday – this past weekend. Well, there will be more on that later – lets now look at the results from both challenge leagues – MoCo and Metro.
MoCo league – The big news is the QO lost to Sherwood in the challenge. We all know that on actual field of play QO blanked NW but in the challenge league QO offensive stats against a good NW team were lower in comparison to those that Sherwood put up against Blair – whom they blanked. A combination of points allowed and lower offensive production did in QO not only in the MoCo league but also in the Metro challenge as well. Bullis got on the challenge board with a win against NW who lost in actual play to QO, meanwhile Bullis tromped on Avalon. In a nice confirmation of the Mythical Match Up Challenge formula logic there was an actual Challenge Match Up (MMU) that coincidently happened at the same time as actual play – Seneca Valley beat Churchill, as it should be. Lastly, Good Counsel had a BYE in the MoCo challenge.
Metro League – QO lost in a very good challenge match up against Stone Bridge. The match up point (MP) spread between both teams was just two overall points – where Stone Bridge had the slight advantage in offensive performance. Both teams faced a more accomplished opponent this week in actual play (Stone Bridge played Broad Run, QO played NW). The big winner this week was Old Mill who just outclassed Northeast in actual play while in the challenge they beat up on Westfield. Lastly, Good Counsel beat Wise, whose team continues to release minimal stats for public viewing. Friendship Collegiate had a BYE in the Metro challenge.
Analysis – After 3 weeks of the challenge a few things stick out. To win the challenge you need to play great defense. Actual scores (points) on the board in actual play that a challenge team allows is a key factor in determining a teams overall MMU points. For instance not allowing the opposing scheduled team in actual play to score any points – as did Old Mill and Sherwood in week 3 – sets that challenge team up for a great challenge week score against their MMU challenge opponent. So, allowing fewer points defensively equates to better mythical points (MP).
In the case of MMU Challenge team Westfield in Fairfax, VA – they can score – but they can’t defend. They allow opposing scheduled teams in their actual play – to score lots of points against them. That hurts a MMU challenge team – because Total Offensive Yards are divided by the Final Score (as in Defensive points allowed). So scoring big time with no defense makes for a bad combination in this match up challenge.
So with that in mind lets now look at the standings
MoCo League
Team Win Loss Total MP
Quince Orchard 2 1 720
Winston Churchill 2 1 205
Seneca Valley 2 1 57
Good Counsel 1 1 363
Northwest 1 1 218
Sherwood 1 1 26
Bullis Prep 1 2 264
Remember that each team has one BYE each during the MMU Challenge
Metro League
Team Win Loss Total MP
Good Counsel 2 0 344
Stone Bridge 2 0 145
Old Mill 2 1 776
Quince Orchard 2 1 720
Friendship 1 1 44
Wise 0 3 346
Westfield 0 3 52
So there you have it – after 3 weeks its Quince Orchard with 1 lost still on top of the MoCo League Challenge while in the Metro League Challenge – Good Counsel leads the way with 2 wins and zip losses.
Week 4 of the MMU Challenge will have the following pairings.
MoCo – Mythical League
Winston Churchill versus Sherwood
Good Counsel versus Quince Orchard
Northwest versus Seneca Valley
Bullis has a BYE week
Metro – Mythical League
Westfield versus Good Counsel
Friendship versus Wise
Stone Bridge versus Old Mill
Quince Orchard has a BYE week
So this week I spent time at many of games. I covered the 1st quarter of the QO versus NW game; the second half of the Urbana versus Walkersville game; and the first half of the Good Counsel versus Gonzaga game.
Impressed as I was with Good Counsel and QO – it was the Walkersville team that might raise some eyebrows in the MD 4A state playoff format. This 4A West team from Frederick will match up against some MoCo 4A team in the playoffs – and they are big along both the offensive and defensive line. Walkersville has the team – they just need to offensive prowess to take advantage of their opponents mistakes. Side note: (Urbana turned over the ball 4 times in the 2nd half and Walkersville could only capitalize on one situation).
Here are a few photos from the above games.
Good Counsel highlights
Saturday, September 22
Good Counsel kick-offs on Buchanan Field – Gonzaga College HS in Washington DC. It was a very common formation for GC on this day.
Good Counsel’s offensive line opened up holes for Dorian O’Daniel to rush against Gonzaga for 336 yards on 24 carriers.
GC’s Dorian O’Daniel outpaces Gonzaga/s defense on an 11 yard TD run at Buchanan Field
Quince Orchard highlights
Friday, September 21
QO Team prepares to enter the Cougar Dome in Gaithersburg
#5 Matt Choi for QO runs back a NW Kick-off in the 1st Quarter
Nebraska commit – #3 Marcus Newby stops a NW receiver
Urbana/Walkersville highlights
A look forward to a possible MD 4A West match up from Frederick can be seen in Walkersville
Walkersville celebrate the go ahead TD catch that made the score 17 to 7 against Urbana
As always you can check the Mythical Match-Up Challenge schedule and rules here.
Stay tuned as homecoming game time of year start off this week.
September 26, 2012
Yes, everyone who played reported this week and thus we are now off to a great start with the MMU Challenge. All challenge teams won last weekend so- now it is truly their performance that will differentiate winners from losers.
Here is the quick Week 2 run down
MoCo league – QO over Seneca Valley; Churchill over Bullis; and Good Counsel over Sherwood. After 2 weeks of challenge play QO and Churchill lead the league with 2 wins each – and NW, Sherwood and Bullis have yet to win in the challenge
Metro League – Old Mill beat Wise; Quince Orchard over Westfield; and Good Counsel trumped Friendship Collegiate. Note on the Friendship Collegiate game – they won as forfeit but had no performance statistics so Good Counsel basically won hands down. After 2 weeks we have Quince Orchard with 2 wins, Wise and Westfield have 2 losses and everyone else in between.
Week 3 of the MMU Challenge will have the following pairings.
MoCo – Mythical League
Winston Churchill versus Seneca Valley
Sherwood versus Quince Orchard
Northwest versus Bullis
Good Counsel has a BYE week
Metro – Mythical League
Westfield versus Old Mill
Good Counsel versus Wise
Stone Bridge versus Quince Orchard
Friendship Collegiate has a BYE week
Over in the Metro league in actual play (not Mythical) this week Westfield will be playing Robinson so I predict Westfield will notch it’s first challenge win – because Old Mill plays Northeast and it will be up to both teams defenses to hold down the offensive juggernaut that Westfield and Old Mill possess. The way I see it Westfield finally stands up scores and plays some defense by blanking Robinson.
Looking over at the MoCo league teams in actual play (not – Mythical) Northwest travels down the Great Seneca Highway to take on Quince Orchard. QO has a very tougher end of actual play going up against rival Northwest. Then on the opposite side of QO’s Match-Up bracket Sherwood plays Blair. Blair has not shown much this year so Sherwood will have a field day at home against Blair and I predict that the team performance statistics will favor Sherwood thus giving QO – it’s first lost of the season in Challenge play.
As always you can check the Mythical Match-Up Challenge schedule here at www.PhotoLoaf.com Next week I will start posting the league standings on that site so you can see how many Mythical Points were earned along with the win-loss standings.
Enjoy the ‘lights’ on the weekend.
September 20, 2012
Ok the week 1 results are in.
MoCo League – we have winners with Quince Orchard, Winston Churchill and Seneca Valley. Those with their first lost include Bullis, Good Counsel and Northwest. Sherwood had a bye the first week.
Metro League – we have winners with Stone Bridge, Friendship Collegiate and Quince Orchard. Those with their first lost are Old Mill, Westfield and Wise. Good Counsel had a bye the first week.
QO Defensive Line – against Blair
So going into the Match-Up Challenge Week 2 – for both leagues – Metro Mythical and MoCo Mythical the match-ups are:
Metro – Mythical League
Old Mill versus Wise
Westfield versus Quince Orchard
Good Counsel versus Friendship Collegiate
Stone Bridge has a BYE week
MoCo Mythical League
Seneca Valley versus Quince Orchard
Winston Churchill versus Bullis Prep
Sherwood versus Good Counsel
Northwest has a BYE week
The week 1 results for the Metro League were a mixed bag because Good Counsels game in New Jersey had no Friday, August 31 stats reported and Friendship Collegiate’s game was cancelled. So, I improvised and took their results from their official prior games to make up the difference.
Eyes of the Middle Linebacker, St. Regis is focused on Blair’s QB
Week 2 will also prove to be problematic once again in the Metro League because Friendship Collegiate’s game against Valley Forge Military was forfeited earlier this week by VFM due to injured players – so FC wins a 6-0 forfeit – with no stats. They will be a loser this week in more ways than just the Mythical Match-Up Challenge.
As for the actual games this week – there are three major contests spread out across the DMV (District, Maryland, Virginia area). We have Paint Branch up against Quince Orchard at QO. Then Westfield will face a young Lake Braddock team over in Virginia, and Wise is up against the always-potent Eleanor Roosevelt over in PG County. Churchill goes up against – their “not-your-rival” BCC. Seneca is at Northwood – it should be an easy win. Old Mill is playing North County which in my opinion is probably a very tough game for OM who will put their undefeated winning streak on the line against them.
The Sept 7 game against Blair was a blowout by QO, a 55-0 win.
Lastly looking at the privates – Good Counsel plays H.D. Woodson and Bullis hosts St. Mary’s of Annapolis.
Let’s hope that all Mythical Match-Up league teams do well and keeping my fingers crossed – report their results.
You can check the league schedules and rules by going to www.photoloaf.com and search for the Mythical Match-Up category.
I, for my part will be cheering on “the Boss” with Denise at Nats Stadium this evening.
September 14, 2012
