Player of the Week (Sp09): Week 6
Jack Shannon became the first Barnburner to take home hardware this season with a Week 6 win for Player of the Week.
The Player of the Week Award was established in the Spring 2006 Season to reward the player who had the most outstanding performance that week. The winner is presented a Wiffleball Keychain. The keychain is no longer produced. After buying all available on ebay, the league owns enough to present the award until 2014
The award has always been voted on by the league after players were nominated either through an automatic formula, or by the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner. The votes were originally cast by emailing the Commissioner. Voting was limited to players in the league. In Week 6 of the 2007 Spring Season, the voting was moved to the website and all players, fans, media, and players families could vote.
Starting with the Spring 2012 Season, the public vote was mixed with a vote of the managers of the league teams to determine the winner. The public vote and the managers vote each count for 50% of the final tally.
Name | Wins | Nominations | Weeks |
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Jack Shannon became the first Barnburner to take home hardware this season with a Week 6 win for Player of the Week.
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Tony Ragano didn’t need to stuff the ballot box this week to pickup his second Player of the Week award. |
We only played four games during Week 6, but that doesn’t mean people didn’t stand out. Will the Barnburners split up the vote? Will the best team in the PWL go an entire season without a POTW winner?
Week 6 Nominees:
About POTW: Each week three nominess will be announced for Player of the Week. The league, fans, and press will vote for the winner. Winners receive a very limited edition wiffleball keychain.
The stats scandal is solved, though the mystery of the falling batting averages remains outstanding.
Week 5 Nominees:
POTW Week 5 (Sp09)
Alexander Filides
About POTW: Each week three nominess will be announced for Player of the Week. The league, fans, and press will vote for the winner. Winners receive a very limited edition wiffleball keychain.
Kris Garcia of Catalista Revolucion won his third Player of the Week award for his play during Week 4.
Garcia is now tied with Nicholas DiCrosta for third place on the all-time POTW award winner list.
A tough week all around the PWL for offense. Sometimes there are four or five people that deserve to be nominated for POTW, and we have to pick three; and sometimes there are two, and we just throw in the best of the worst. This week is the latter.
Week 4 Nominees:
About POTW: Each week three nominess will be announced for Player of the Week. The league, fans, and press will vote for the winner. Winners receive a very limited edition wiffleball keychain.
In what is probably the most positive development of the month for the national Republican Party, Tony Ragano of Clubber Lang, picked up Player of the Week honors after an intense few days of voting.
279 votes were cast in what was a close race, for a time, between Ragano and other first time nominee David Korkoian of the Rossi Posse. Jake Tomko of the Blandsford Barnburners was out of the running early since he had better things to do with his time than win a web-based vote.
This week’s votes are the most cast since Week 5 of Summer 2007 when 1,076 votes were cast, 97% of which went to Stephen Zigmund. League officials never explained the voting irregularities, or confirmed if they believed those votes were legitimate.
The voting process came under scrutiny this week as Korkoian and Ragano’s battle at the ballot box raged. Some have suggested public voting doesn’t really reflect the opinions of the league members and players, giving fans (and player relatives) too much influence. Others have raised questions about technological advantages and multiple vote scenarios which would taint the results.
Commissioner Gallaway laughed off concerns, saying “when the federal election process is fixed, then we’ll fix this. But if massive voting problems are good enough for our American government, they’re good enough for the PWL”.
Ragano will be presented his POTW keychain award during a Week 4 ceremony.
Let’s face it, wiffleball is about hitting. It’s an offensive game. All the advantages are to the hitter, and not the pitcher. Especially in a slow pitch game like ours. That’s not to say that good pitching isn’t important, it’s just less important than hitting. No room for debate, it’s a closed subject.
However, this week all three nominees for POTW are up for their pitching performances. Before Week 3, there had been four perfect games over seven seasons entire seasons. During Week 3, there were three on one day. So amazing are the pitching performances this week that a guy who pitched a no hitter, but allowed a single baserunner with an error, isn’t even nominated. (Sorry, Clapp, any other week and you’re up there.)
The bats may return next week, but this one belongs to the hurlers. None of the three nominees has previously won the keychain.
Week 3 Nominees:
About POTW: Each week three nominess will be announced for Player of the Week. The league, fans, and press will vote for the winner. Winners receive a very limited edition wiffleball keychain.
Nicholas DiCrosta of Scared Hitless picked up his third keychain for Player of Week after voting closed for Week 2. The award will be presented prior to games Week 3.
The third award puts him in special company. Only five players have won the award more than once, and DiCrosta now ranks third on the all time winner list behind certain first ballot Hall of Famers Stephen Zigmund and Tony Cani. Even the Babe Ruth of the PWL, Ross Duenas, only won the award once.
Is DiCrosta destined to be among the greats? Has he already earned that place? Or, is he the beneficiary of some sketchy internet voting patterns? Share your thoughts by clicking Color Commentary.
Multiple Week POTW Winners
Each week three nominess will be announced for Player of the Week. The league, fans, and press will vote for the winner.
Winners receive a very limited edition wiffleball keychain.
Votes are Due at NOON on FRIDAY.
Week 2 Nominees: