The 2007 season of the SNEFSL came to a rousing end with a grand celebration at Hartford's Chez Est. The food spread and the hospitality of the Chez Est were superb. Everyone had a grand time as evinced by the pictures on our website. The festivites began with a show by Big Red Mike, who as a drag queen made difficult viewing and whose jokes were flatter than her chest. It was all in good fun and Mike was great. The individual awards were given to Stephanie of New haven for outstanding sportsmanship, Bobby Wilson of New Haven for best defensive player (something he has won several times before) and Ed Hamilton of Springfield for best offensive player. All the individuals were well-deserved winners. Springfield received its hard-earned first place trophy. In a highly competitive league, Springfield did not take over first place until after the final week and had to come out of the loser's bracket to edge Hartford in the playoffs.

 

      This season was one of growth and promise for more success. Though the help of a number of people, we had more new players in our league than in many years. After a year of absence,Springfield returned to the SNEFSL with the Hob Nob as a strong sponsor, hosting the playoffs which was a grand celebration of softball and socialization over two days. On July 5 our league was granted non-profit 501C4 status with the IRS. Your commissioner with board's approval had applied for a 501C3 status, which NAGAAA received in 2006. Despite many attempts with back and forth communications with IRS we were unable to get that status. However, we are still non-profit which does have certain benefits and lends credibility to our league.

 

    Although the official softball playing season has come to an end, we are always looking to the future. For the first time in many years, our league is sponsoring the entry of two teams in the Gay Softball World Series in Phoenix, Arizona October 1-7. There will be over 100 teams and thousands of players competing. Check our website for updates. I will be attending the national NAGAAA meeting in Seattle Washington, the site of the 2008 GSWS, during the first week of February. Prior to that meeting we will be having our annual winter meeting during which all executive board positions are up for election. I strongly urge members of our league who have never held office to consider running for one of the positions. We of course will continue to look to add new players and possibly more teams in 2008. Keep watching the website and emails related to the league winter meeting.

 

    Finally I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to serve as your commissioner. I am blessed to have such fine, competent people on our executive board who really care about our league (Sam- Athletic Director,Nick-Treasurer, Billy-Secretary, and John-Webmaster). We also had wonderful team managers (Phil,Teddy, Mark, Billy, and Nick) who do the REALLY hard organizational stuff. All of our sponsors were great, providing everyone with terrific hospitality every single week. Without our sponsors we would not have a league. We of course had some bumps along the way. That is to be expected. However, we did make significant progress as mentioned above and the fruition of our labor bore fruit during the playoff weekend and the awards celebration. Have a safe healthy offseason. I hope to see all of you in 2008-and bring your friends along to play. David