Back in issue #2 of Flying Horseshoes, we explained how the handicap system works in our horseshoe pitching club.  So has it worked the way we said it does?  Following is a quote from the handicap issue of this newsletter:

“In effect the handicap system does not necessarily reward only those who are better, but it mostly rewards those who are getting better.  Wow, what a concept!  A system that favors those individuals who show improvement over their “average”, rather than a system that only rewards those who are the best.”

The average score of a pitcher in our league if their average is pitched and added to their handicap is between 66 points and 69 points.  However, we have seven pitchers who are averaging between 69.3 points (with hdcp) per game and 74.3 points (with hdcp) per game.  How can this be?  It has happened because these pitchers, more often than not, pitch a night of three games above their game averages.  When their handicaps go up a point or two, they continue to improve their game averages the following weeks and score more for their team than what their average plus handicap would give them (66, 67, 68 or 69 points).

Who are the pitchers who are showing improvement?  Our top 30 feet pitcher is our vice president Frank Adams who is averaging 74.3 points per game with handicap added.  Our top 40 feet pitcher is our president Sam Payne who is averaging 71.3 points per game with handicap added.  It happens that Frank and Sam also have the best ringer percent in the club at this point in time, 39.0% and 32.8% respectively.  But week after week with few set-backs, they have each pitched over their average, lowered their handicaps, but in the meantime given their teams extra points over 66 to 69 points.

Averaging 70.6 points per game, I’ve found lately that I struggle to throw my average and give my team the 68 points that my average with my handicap is designed to achieve.  Clarence Warthan and Ron Stockberger are pitching a total points average per game of 70.1 and 69.8 respectively.  Following closely behind them is Norm Morris (pitching from 30 feet) at 69.4 per game and Keith Smith at 69.3.  The rest break down as follows:

R. Smith    69.0
P. Smart *30 ft.*    68.8
R. Impson    68.6
D. Estes    68.2
B. Querry *30 ft.*    68.2
B. Plass    67.2
A. Furr    67.1
S. Johnston    66.9
K. Russell    66.9
L Fish    66.9
D. Spray Jr.    66.7
D. Lungsford    65.0

So to answer the question posed in the beginning of this article, I would say the handicap system in our club is working fine.  We have had some very exciting and close evenings of play between different teams and the more accomplished pitchers have not had a noticeable advantage, unless they were showing improvement from week to week in their own games.

The combined team total averages per game with the eight teams that we have are as follows:

Adams-Morris    143.7
Payne-Wolf    141.9
Warthan-K. Smith    139.4
Stockberger-Querry    138.0
Smart-R. Smith    137.8
Impson-Russell    135.5
Fish-Johnston    133.8
G. Furr-Plass    131.9

With this system in place, any team can beat any other team on a given night, if the pitchers on the winning team out-pitch their own averages enough compared to how the losing team pitches around their averages.

Even the standings at this point in time do not totally correspond to or reflect the above team averages:

1  Payne-Wolf    40    12
2  Adams-Morris    37.5    14.5
3  Fish-Johnston    30.5    21.5
4  Smart-R. Smith    28    21
5  Querry-Stockberger    22    30
6  G. Furr-Plass    20    32
7  Russell-Impson    18.5    33.5
8  Warthan-K. Smith    16.5    27.5

Remember, all of this is dealing with averages over a period of 13 weeks.  As I said, on any given night, one team might really be up for the contest and out-pitch the opposing team; not caring what their opponents’ position is in the standings, the personal pitching abilities of their opponents, or any other factors.  They might be able to pitch better on that night and want to win badly enough.  That is what has made this season interesting.

The other statistic I found interesting was the percent of a pitcher’s shoes that score, either for a 3 points ringer or 1 point.  Some of the top pitchers in this category are:

88%    F. Adams
82%    S. Payne
71%    K. Wolf
70%    R. Smith
69%    R. Impson
68%    K. Russell
67%    B. Plass
66%    R. Stockberger
62%    C. Warthan

Beginning with the 5th week of pitching (first 4 weeks being used to establish handicaps); Individual and team, game and series, records with handicaps are presently as follows:

High Individual Game With Handicap
F. Adams    88
P. Smart    85
R. Stockberger    83
N. Morris    82
R. Impson    82
S. Payne    82
K. Wolf    82

High Team Series With Handicap
F. Adams-N. Morris    464
P. Smart-R. Smith    448
K. Wolf-S. Payne    439
B. Querry-R. Stockberger    432
K. Russell-R. Impson    427

The top High Game scores without handicap (also counting only games pitched after pitching for 4 weeks) are as follows:
F. Adams    67
S. Payne    56
K. Wolf    52
R. Impson    51

Statistics have been fun to keep this year as we have everything set up on Excel spreadsheets.  The spreadsheets do all the work for us.  We only have to key in the individual scores and ringers per game for each pitcher and update the standings after each week of pitching.
 

Ron Stockberger deserves most of the credit for spending much of his time painting the club house with white paint and Teeny Bikini Blue trim.  Keith Smith also spent some hours helping with this project.  Some of the rest of us spent a few hours painting, but Ron took it on himself to see to it that we had a look to our clubhouse that would make us all proud of our entire facility.  Ron even spent quite a bit of time helping rake the entire court to get it ready for the Hot Dog Festival Tournament.  He has become quite an asset to our whole club in his capacity as a “Get ‘R Done” guy.  Thank you Ron for a job well done!

Keith Smith was the one who leveled our Curt Day Horseshoe Courts sign and did a very good job.  A few months ago, Frank Adams went around to all the courts and painted the backstops with white paint.  Pete Smart has helped prepare the courts for our two tournaments this year as well as paint the yellow stripes on the first six courts for the 30 feet pitchers.
Besides the contribution of the gravel that Sam Payne poured into the parking lot near the road, he continues to lead our club with the leadership that a club needs to be successful and fun to participate in.

We are getting all our ducks in order to present horseshoe pitching to this community, in a way that will attract many new pitchers and even some who might have left the fold for a number of years.  With the nucleus of voluntary workers we have in the club now and the good spirited enthusiasm we get from all our members on league night, we are positioned to bring this sport back to the awareness of this community.

I hope that our members and others who have had the opportunity to read some or all of our Flying Horseshoes newsletters have enjoyed the materials we have presented for your reading enjoyment.  I enjoy writing these newsletters and presenting them to our members and the public in an effort to promote the sport of horseshoe pitching.  Also, for those who have Internet access, the Curt Day Horseshoe Courts web site continues to draw attention to and email from folks around the country and I’ve even answered email from a Canadian.  Curt Day was a champion in every sense of the word and it is an honor to be able to honor him and his horseshoe pitching achievements over his own life.

The state of Indiana and its horseshoe pitching organization (INHPA) was also long overdue to have their own web site, displaying its long history of great horseshoe pitchers and records in the sport.  The Official home of the Indiana Horseshoe Pitchers Association is located at the Internet web site of http://www.geocities.com/indianahorseshoepitching.  I presented the site to the president and the vice president of the INHPA.  They liked it and I’m fortunate to be the creator and editor of the web site, where we can show off our current and past state pitchers to the rest of the country and the world.  It is listed on the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association web site on their Indiana page.

A lot has been accomplished in the last year towards promoting our sport in our community, in our state and in the country.  Those of us who pitch at the Curt Day Horseshoe Courts have a great legacy in the person of Curt Day, who spent many many hours of his life perfecting his own game on the very courts that we pitch on each night.
Our 6 O’clock Tuesday night league usually has between four and six pitchers who show up for a more casual format of pitching.  As we discussed in issue #3 newsletter, we pitch two 40 shoes partner games, with each pitcher pitching their own horseshoes and we walk back and forth to each pit.

Each of us has the opportunity in our daily living to find potential horseshoe pitchers and encourage them to come out and share in the activity that the rest of us are enjoying. Let’s not keep it entirely to ourselves!