The ladies men in red captured top honours on the final night of the indoor regular season with a 4-1 gallop over TeamSnap(ed), and after Suns of Pitches lost their 8 p.m. must-win fixture 5-2 to spoilers par excellence Our Preferred Pronoun Is Green (they wear dark blue jerseys… go figure). A hearty BA “Well done!” to Yanic Giroux and his crimson comrades, and a special “Are you human?” salute to Yan himself, who scored all four goals in the title triumph. 

Of note: At one point this indoor season (not that far back, in fact), five or six teams were within four points and a half-pint of each other in the standings. Things unclogged only at the very end, and mostly because of untimely absences and injuries. Says a lot about the efforts to balance squads and keep things fair for everyone. May the Investors Cup continue to reflect that quest for parity.

Investors Cup (April 6 to May 4): introducing… semi-finals!

• Two pools of four teams (1, 3, 5, 7 / 2, 4, 6, 8)
• Pool A: Bloody HammerRED, The Old Orange, The Milkmen, Team Snap(ed)
• Pool B: Suns of Pitches, Pink Panters, Our Preferred Pronoun Is Green, Man Shitty
• April 6, 13, 20: Three round-robin games in your pool
• April 27: Two friendlies* at 8 p.m. followed by 9 p.m. semi-finals between the top two teams in each pool (1A v 2B / 1B v 2A).
• May 4: three friendlies* at 8 p.m., followed by Cup final at 9 p.m.

*Bring a bite and a bevvy so you can stay to watch the semis in style after your friendly.

How points are awarded during the Cup

(sadly, because of allergy issues, we’ve had to drop the three points traditionally given for offering brownies to your opponents)

• Win = 6 (Chest pumper until you realize other teams have won as well)
• Tie = 3 (Parking the bus when being totally outplayed never sounded so good)
• Shutout = 1 (This measly morsel for a clean sheet in indoor? Hmm… seems like very little net gain)
• Loss = 0 (but see below)
• Goals = 1 point for each goal scored in a game, up to a maximum of 3 points, win or lose.

Cards received are now a tie-breaking criterion:

Here’s where the impact of being naughty or nice extends beyond Christmas. If teams remain tied after head-to-head, goal differential, goals for and goals against are counted, the team with the fewest cards over the entire season (Cup included) wins. This applies from now on to all regular-season and cup tie-breaking. Be nice, for your team’s sake.

Discipline update:

we were doing so well, then…
Three more cautions were issued March 23, as well as at least two March 30, causing severe acid reflux among exec members. So here, again, is what’s demanded from everyone playing in the BA:

• Stop mouthing off to and whining about the refs. Questionable call? Ask your manager to politely ask for an explanation. Better still, just move on.
• Don’t chirp at or argue with opponents and, do we even need to say this, your teammates. The only acceptable trash talk in the BA? Garbage collection in your neighbourhood.
• Avoid going in hard on 50-50 balls, going in late or challenging blind-side. Hold back; it’s not worth the risk. Period. If you do foul someone accidentally, apologize immediately and make sure your opponent is OK. Defuse, defuse, defuse.
• Don’t even think about committing so-called “professional” fouls in this league. It’s just a lame euphemism for cheating. If you think intentionally fouling others is a normal part of the game, you don’t belong in the BA, simple as that. Go play elsewhere.

Managers: remember that you’re authorized (and expected) to send off teammates who are in “troublemaker mode.”

If you want to spare in the other outdoor BA league this summer…

If you’re playing full time in one league, you can, as promised, spare in the other at no extra cost, but there’s an extra step involved because of a configuration conundrum we’ve encountered with the form: you need to register and pay for both leagues at the outset, but we then refund you once registrations close. Bottom line: your inclusion as a spare in the second league isn’t automatic. Please sign up.

Paying fees: credit cards only from now on

Now that we’ve integrated payments into TeamSnap, we issue invoices (wow…) and accept only credit-card payments. No more e-transfers, gents. Note that your total fee includes the usual gouging by Visa, MasterCard and Amex for processing, hence the difference between the BA fee and your pay statement.

First two outdoor Wednesday-night fixtures start 30 minutes later JDG unfortunately double-booked the fields the first two weeks of our new Wednesday campaign. So, our game times on May 10 and May 17 are 9-10 p.m. and 10-11 p.m.

Dome closure March 16: rental credit going toward end-of-season party

So, here’s the answer to, “How can you NOT play and still win?” The Superdome’s sudden closure and resulting refund, that’s how. Come to our end-of-season party May 4 to see how Tom Raffleman Borbely has used that extra cash to gather enough door prizes to keep your ticket hot until you spill your third beer on it. That said, the full-day tour of the Carp Landfill was sadly unavailable as a prize this year.

To close or not to close registration for outdoor

Finally, the executive is still deliberating possible cut-off dates for registration. Update coming as soon as the pizza has been delivered and we’ve been able to decide.

Wednesdays

• Wednesday night season runs May 10th to Oct 25th; you get twenty-five 60-minute games at 8:30 and 9:30 p.m, at JDG park near the intersection of Anderson and Leitrim Rds.
• Wednesday night format is 9v9, and the on-site pub will be open for us after the games
• $250 outfielders, $125 keepers, $25 spares

Saturdays

• Saturday morning season runs May 20th to Oct 28th; you get eighteen 90-minute games at 10 a.m., at Potvin (Shefford Rd). We are looking into July/August 9 a.m. starts, but that is still TBC.
• Saturday morning format is 11v11, and the pub of choice is the Bad Alibi on Youville Dr.
• $225 outfielders, $115 keepers, $25 spares

Your BA Executive