DIVISION 'A': HOWARD COUNTY

It's not always a given that the regular season champion prevails in tournament play. This year, for example, Division 'A's Harford which ran the regular season table from start to finish with a sterling 35-6 record met its demise (9-6) in the second round of the playoffs to a rejuvenated Glen Elg.
However, Howard County, which was waiting in the wings for most of the season, and struggled to beat the last place Old Liners 4-1 in the second round, regrouped and overwhelmed the upstart Glen Elgers 25-6 to take the tournament championship
CONGRATULATIONS HOWARD COUNTY!

DIVISION 'B': BEL AIR

Here again, Carroll Blue, which sported the second best regular season league record at 34-9, and looked like they would take home the spoils, after annihilating Parkville (34-8) in the second round. But guess what? In the finals, they were done in by third place Bel Air (16-14) which ran over Catonsville (16-8) in second round play and thus took the tournament championship. By the way, to accomplish this, Bel Air had to win 3 straight tournament games. CONGRATULATIONS BEL AIR!

DIVISION 'C': CARROLL GRAY

Carroll Gray was the only team to win both the regular season division and the tournament championships. They did this by winning an easy 20-5 game over Bowie Gold in the first round. Then they met 2nd place Dundalk who they had beaten 7 straight time in the regular season. So this should have been a piece of cake right? ....Wrong! They did win, but it wasn't easy. Here's an entry in the comment section of the scoring form submitted by Carroll Gray:

"In a hard fought contest that was scoreless until the 5th inning, then both teams decided they wanted to win.
Dundalk was ahead by 1 run going into the 9th inning and Carroll Gray scored 2 runs to win the playoffs.
The final score was 12 to 11 and both teams fought hard for the win."

CONGRATULATIONS CARROLL COUNTY!

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POST SEASON NOTES:
This ends seasonal play. In the past, when the league operated with 3 divisions, the final league standings determined which teams changed divisions the following season. In this regard, assuming there will be 3 divisions next season, here's the way the affected teams will probably change divisions:
Division A:
'A's Old Liners finished last based on "Intradivison wins" tie-breaking criteria with Glen Elg and will transfer to the 'B' Division.
Division B:
'B's Carroll Blue will transfer to 'A' Division. 'B's Bowie Bronze will transfer to the 'C' Division.
Division 'C':
'C's Carroll Gray will transfer to the 'B' Division.

The Commissioner has advised that while this is what everybody agreed to last year, it still takes a formal action on the collective body to make it happen.

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Here's hoping we're all back next year to enjoy another great season!

Congratulations to the 2009 BBSSL Champions

Division 'A's Harford wound up with an impressive 35-6 record and led its division from beginning to end. Division 'B's Carroll Blue also attained a sparkling 34-9 record to lead its division all the way. Both teams agreed not to play their scheduled July 29th game because it would have no impact on the standings. That's why the standings below show them playing in all but one of the scheduled games.

Division 'C's Carroll Gray which led the division for most of the year, had to play Dundalk a make-up double header today that was postponed on May 5th to determine the championship. If they wound up in a tie, Gray would have won because it had beaten Dundalk in all of its 6 previous meetings. Just to be sure, Gray beat Dundalk today in the first game 8-5 which clinched the championship. Therefore, their second game was unnecessary. And so was a 2nd game of a double header that was postponed on April 29 between Dundalk and Greenbelt, as well as another make-up game between the same 2 teams that was postponed on May 4th. Hopefully this explains (or even confuses some) as to why the final standings below show these teams not having completed their season's schedule.

Anyway, congratulations to Harford, Carroll Blue, and Carroll Gray for their respective championships. Incidentally, interdivisional play wound up with similar results: the 'A' teams won 76% of the games they played against the 'B' teams, while the 'B' teams won 77% of their games they played against the 'C'"teams. Except for a wet start at the beginning of the season, we had truly a great season. Especially when you consider that the season ended in grand fashion when Bowie Gold ended their 5+ year losing streak. Congratulations to all and good luck to the playoff teams.

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Final Results of Interdivisional Games

For the season, the A teams were 54-17 (76%) against the B teams and outscored them by 473 runs ; whereas the B teams were 52-20 (77%) against the C teams and outscored them by 504 runs. If you're interested in the details, please click on this link for games between A and B, and this link for games between B and C. This analysis was brought to those interested for information only.

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2009 League Realignment

As a result of the BBSSL Fall Meeting which was held on September 18, 2008, the managers agreed to realign the league for the 2009 season. The minutes of that meeting can be viewed by clicking here.

The following table shows the new alignment. In addition, the number of times teams play each other and the total number of games to be played during the season are shown below the table.