Spotlight on Halfway Hardballers

The Spotlight series will take a look at the career of each active manager in the league.

Halfway Hardballers (Randy Stovall) aka "The Commish" is Commissioner and co-founder of Hardball Heaven. Along with fellow fantasy baseball lover Tommy (Hitters) Coleman, he was getting tired of playing in leagues plagued with dead teams, stupid trades and managers of questionable commitment and ability. In 2003 he and Tommy set out to create a different kind of league. One with dedicated, knowledgeable managers that played to win to the bitter end. Hardball Heaven is the result of that effort.

As the name implies Hardballer lives in Halfway, Ky (Yes it is on the map). Retiring from retail management in 1998, he is the 911 communications coordinator for the county and performs other duties for the city of Scottsville. He is married and has 3 children. 1 - 28 year old son (autistic) 1 - 23 yr old daugher (graduated from Georgetown and currently attending Asbury Seminary College), and 1 - 17 yr old daughter a junior in high school (and also a starting C/OF for the high school softball team). His favorite team is the Atlanta Braves and his favorite all-time player is the great Bob Gibson.

Hardballers has the distinction of being the winningest manager in Hardball Heaven history with 787 ! His is also the only manager to have repeated as regular season champion having accomplished the feat in 2006 and again in 2008. Despite the regular season success he has only managed to break in to the top 3 twice in the playoffs.

A look at his carreer demonstrates the learning curve he has experienced with the league.

Year	Playoff	Reg Sea	W	L	T	%	GB	Moves
2003	7	7	110	124	18	0.472	36.5	27
2004	3	4	131	114	19	0.532	21.5	38
2005	7	10	119	130	15	0.479	25.5	24
2006	3	1	148	98	18	0.595		28
2007	5	5	132	114	18	0.534	22.5	39
2008	4	1	147	95	22	0.598		46
			787	675	110	0.538

A hard-boiled competitor, Hardballers plays it one week at a time. His desire to win every category, every week, against every team is evident as a look at his H-2-H results shows consistent success against almost every team, especially the major contenders.

W=Wins against listed team

Team	W	L	T	PF	PA
Eagles*	7	1	0	50	38
Perjured*	7	5	0	70	64
Hitters*	6	4	2	77	55
Utica*	6	4	2	68	53
Basman	6	4	0	57	46
Ageless*	6	6	0	74	65
Plasmatics*	5	3	0	51	39
Stars	5	4	1	59	52
REDS	4	3	1	51	41
Squirrels	4	5	1	64	52
Champions	4	5	3	63	66
Angels	3	1	2	42	27
Panties	3	1	0	30	16
Zonk	1	2	1	20	26
BYKCGiambi	0	2	0	6	17
fried bread	0	2	0	5	18
	67	52	13	787	675

*-Denotes teams that have played under more than one name

Having never won the championship in the league he helped conceive, he continues to set his sights on the ultimate prize. No doubt he has established himself as a force to be dealt with each season. Will 2009 finally be the year???

Randy Stovall