AFBLog

AFBL Season 8 started with an official bang on Saturday. We had at least 13 players, some notable rookies (Roger Estes & Brian Yetzer) and the triumphant return of Jim Houser after a full season off. The start delay, from our usual October, helped elevate the urgency of everyone involved.

The first series of games were dominated by the squad of Houser, Freeborn, Santore, Fuscia and Lin. After a solid run the team was disbanded in the tradition of AFBL fairness.

The real drama came in the last game – as is the usual case in AFBL play. A undersized team of Freeborn, Andrew Jones, Estes, Allen (sorry, don’t know your last name) and AJ Wright got off to a horrible start and found themselves down 7 to 0 to the house favorite squad featuring Ethan Conner-Ross, Fuscia, Santore, Allen and Brian Yetzer. At this point the game became a standard of AFBL erraticism. John Freeborn came down and hit a much needed 3 pointer. Andrew Jones did his part and kept the team in the mix. Another dry spell put the underdogs down 14 to 8. Another 3 by Freeborn raised the stakes to 14 to 11. The game ended finally after several missed 3 balls by Freeborn and Jones. But the effort and comeback was a fitting end to Season 8, day one.

Events of note from day 1.

Rookie Roger Estes dove on the floor for a loose ball. If he maintains this level of effort, Rookie of the Year is in the bag.

Jim Houser returned to action after a year or more off. He showed no signs of the time off and scored the ball like the Jim of old.

The games were video taped – stats? Don’t hold your breath.