If someone would have told me the 4th Annual Star6 Memorial Softball Tourney Champion would have to play 13 games in two days in 108 degree weather and nearly 95% humidity, I would have told them there is no way that could happen. But it did!! The SOCAL ALLIANCE, a combo team from several Southern California Law Enforcement agencies did just that. Five games in a row on Saturday, then 8 games in a row on Sunday to win the championship against A-1 Towing Hardcore in double dip fashion.

Before the season began we wrote a 4 piece installment of the East and West pre-season top 25 team projections. A few weeks ago we re-visited those articles as we looked back at what we said then, and where they are now. So far we have covered the East and West 11-25. Today we take a look at our pre-season top 10. Who is exceeding expectations and who is not living up to them?

This next installment of the Hot Corner (new name...Budweiser threatened us if we continued using Hotseat) features Rick “Slick” Tirelli. Rick is best known for being manager and CFO of the NYPD Blues. Rick has been involved in LEO ball for 13 years and he is the heart and soul of the NYPD Blues. Rick is a true professional and one of the classiest gentlemen you will meet in the LEO game.

Throughout the season we will be bringing you “snapshots” of our players thoughts. Up this week on the hotseat is Del Pickney. Del became involved with police softball in 1997 when he ran the Tustin PD “Sticktime” team. Del was hooked on the camaraderie and the competition and along with Jeff Blair, he formed the SoCal Alliance in 2001. When he and Jeff had difficulty finding information on tournaments, they both started policesoftball.com in 2005 as a clearinghouse area for tournament directors to list tournament information. The website became more than just a tourney listing board and evolved into what it is today. In addition to running the Alliance and the ps.com website, Del is tournament director of the World Series. Now on to our snapshot.

On July 1st, the nomination period for the 2009 Police Softball Hall of Fame class will close. If you have any nominees you want to nominate, please do so before July 1st. On July 1st, the Hall of Fame committees will start reviewing the nominees and will be asked to make some very difficult decisions. Once again the Hall of Fame committees are chaired by Dennis Leonard (East) and Tony Costanzo (West). The rest of the committee members are as follows:

Time to re-visit or pre-season projections. How are things shaping up? Were we on target or did we miss the mark? Here is a blow by blow account of all our hits, misses and plain old do-overs. Where does your team fall on our mid-season report?

This years annual West Palm Beach tournament once again raised the bar and showed why it is one of the best tournaments on the circuit. Jack Olson, John Scollo and all the people who helped deserve a pat on the back for making this a special tournament. Although the rain was threatening the entire weekend, it stayed away at the right times to allow the tournament and associated festivities to mostly go on unabated. For those players in town on Thursday, there was a great time had at Rocco’s Tacos and Dr. Feelgoods. Friday saw the annual golf tournament and players party at the Grease Burger bar.

The PoliceSoftball.com World Series V will be October 16-18, 2009 in Palm Springs California. (As of this time, it is our intention to hold World Series VI, - the 2010 World Series - at the yet to be built, state of the art Big League Dreams facility in Las Vegas Nevada. More on that in the coming year)All East coast teams who attended the event in 2008 are invited back for 2009. If you are an East coast team who played in World Series IV and plan on attending World Series V, please confirm with us by May 1st, 2009. Your entry fee will be required by June 1st, 2009 to hold your spot. At that time, any unpaid spots will be opened up. If you are an East coast team who attended last year’s World Series and will not be attending the 2009 World Series, please let us know so we can open up your spot.

Brett Helmer has released details of the Easton Sports Law Enforcement Program. Easton has been a huge supporter of the police softball circuit and they are doing even more in 2009!

In 2007 Policesoftball.com implemented a ranking system that was based on points accrued in relation to performance at certain pre-determined tournaments. For purpose of this article we will refer to that system as version 1.0. We believe that by the end of each season (07 &08) that version, although not perfect, was an accurate reflection of how the teams should be ranked based on the objective performance standard.