The New Big Hoss System

New Changes for 2011!

I was truly surprised on how long it was kept a secret on who I was, especially in the softball world where there seems to be nothing but a whole lot of gossip on who swings dirty, illegal roster amongst many other boring topics. I started the Big Hoss Rankings, because I was bored of reading the same old stuff on a daily basis on the Mushboard and because I was extremely bored that day. I never thought people would actually like it or want to see more of it, I really thought the opposite was going to happen. I thought that it was going to get bashed and ridiculed just like every other post on the Mushboard. The reason for me wanting to unknown was simple, I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings or get massive text about why I didn't pick their team to win a certain game. I also knew that it would definitely be easier for me to be partial, especially to the team that I was coaching at the time and that was true, by the time I left Colt .45 to go to Repomonkey there was a small circle that already knew who I was and that grew by the day. It was tough to predict games partially, I mean really how do you pick your own team to lose, then expect to go out and coach them without them looking at you like your some kind of schmuck? You can't! So, yes I picked Repomonkey to make it to the State Finals, Win Regionals and Win Worlds.

I knew if I was going to do this in the future then things would have to change, so after some real quick brain storming and making a few calls I came up with a new way to keep the Big Hoss Report going and making it completely unpartial. Joining me this year with the Big Hoss Report will be 5 other people amongst the softball community to join in on the predictions, rankings and much more. I have found guys on every level or that have played every level to help me with this. I even found a west side and downriver source to help me, so I don't have to hear, "Big Hoss don't give the westsiders any love!" Between the 6 of us you will see how each person predicts games and their weekly rankings,  I still want to keep the coaches involved in a monthly coaches poll, but this year I want to involve players more. This is just the beginning of what I want to do, I really want to give the softball community something different, POSITIVE, and entertaining. As, the year comes this blog hopefully will be evolving into something more interactive with players, coaches and whoever from the softball community.

Now onto introducing the 6 "Reporters" for the Big Hoss Report for 2011:

1. Big Hoss - Pretty sure everyone knows who I am by now and if you don't I am sure you will find out very shortly. I will be involved in the Rankings and Predictions for the C and D classes this year. I wanted to get the C teams involved this year and I want to include R&L in those C teams since they play a lot of ball here in Michigan and have some Michigan players on their team. I will NOT be involved in anything that the E teams are doing since most of you know I am coaching Trust Sports/Wicked Sports this year and honestly I know I couldn't pick against my own team this year. You can reach me at bighoss3114@hotmail.com

2. Old Man - Old Man is retired from softball, but has played on many great teams in the past in pretty much every level that Michigan has offered. He will be doing Rankings and some Predictions for C, D, and E. Hopefully I will be having him do more blog work with some topics that I think would be interesting reads and that he would have a good perspective on. You can reach Old Man at old.man2011@yahoo.com

3. Softball Guy - Or what I like to call him Softball Guru, he has plenty of softball tournament experience and is still currently playing the game as well. He is well diverse and knows all 3 levels pretty good, moving up to each level the longer he has played. He will be mostly involved with the C and D teams, but I am sure he will do some E Rankings for us as well once he sees the teams out there since it has been a minute since he has watched any E ball. (his words, not mine). You can reach him at softballguy2011@hotmail.com

4. Buddha - Here is my west side/down river insider for the teams out there. Talked to him quite a bit during the offseason and he continually emailed me last year about the west side teams and gave me good info on them last year. So there will be West Side Love this year in the Report! you can reach him at mibuddha@gmail.com

5. The Goat - The Self Proclaimed Greatest Predictor out there, he will get his chance this year with his predictions of C, D and E tournaments. We will have to wait and see if he lives up to the hype that he keeps emailing me about. His main goal is to pick the UPSET SPECIAL every week! You can reach him at the-goat2011@hotmail.com

6. Great White Hope - White Hope has been involved in the D level for a few years now he will be mostly doing predictions for D and C teams. He will also have rankings for all three teams as well, Last year it was hard for me to really watch a lot of D games because of being involved at E, so now with someone involved at D hopefully their will be better predictions done this year at this level. You can reach him at greatwhitehope1010@gmail.com

Those are the names you will be seeing post in the blogs for predictions and rankings. I am going to keep who they are a secret, because as I learned it is hard to be partial once everyone knows who you are. With this mix of guys we have people at every level and every part of the SE Michigan State that is involved in USSSA softball.  So, hopefully everyone enjoys and we can see different predictions and views all year long.

I will start posting predictions for this weekend's early bird real soon, still waiting on some responses.

Thanks,

Big Hoss