Champions (Ed Spinelli) is a charter member of Hardball Heaven. He resides in Philadelphia, Pa with his wife Jenny and family and works as a financial analyst/planner.
Champions is another of the more colorful members of our group. He sometimes itches for a little controversy and always has an interesting viewpoint on any discussion. Champions has experienced many life affecting challenges and issues over the last several seasons that has hampered his ability to devote the time he would like to the league. Regardless, he plows on and remains active every year and when things are quiet on the home front he has proven to be quite the competitor.
As one would expect, his favorite team is the Phillies while he is torn between Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt as his favorite all-time player.
Here is a look at his Hardball Heaven career thus far.
| Year | Playoff | Reg Sea | Win | Loss | Tie | % | GB | Moves |
| 2003 | 5 | 6 | 109 | 117 | 26 | 0.484 | 33.5 | 28 |
| 2004 | 2 | 6 | 126 | 121 | 17 | 0.509 | 27.5 | 57 |
| 2005 | 9 | 8 | 123 | 127 | 14 | 0.492 | 22 | 26 |
| 2006 | 7 | 9 | 113 | 134 | 17 | 0.460 | 35.5 | 27 |
| 2007 | 9 | 12 | 85 | 158 | 21 | 0.362 | 68 | 72 |
| 2008 | 11 | 10 | 110 | 128 | 26 | 0.466 | 35 | 29 |
| 666 | 785 | 121 | 0.459 |
2004 was the definite high point in his career as he made it all the way to the championship game before falling victim to Baseman and his historic season. Champions has the dubious distinction of being the losingest manager in Hardball Heaven history while also recording a league worst 85-158 season in 2007.
In H-2-H he has shown he is up to the challenge by outscoring such teams as Baseman, Hardballers and Perjured. Below is a recap of his H-2-H results.
W-Wins against listed team
| W | L | T | PF | PA | |
| Halfway | 5 | 4 | 3 | 66 | 63 |
| Baseman | 5 | 5 | 0 | 63 | 52 |
| Panties | 4 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 16 |
| Perjured* | 4 | 4 | 2 | 71 | 59 |
| Ageless* | 4 | 6 | 2 | 57 | 75 |
| Hitters* | 4 | 7 | 1 | 50 | 73 |
| Angels | 3 | 2 | 1 | 35 | 31 |
| Plasmatics* | 3 | 4 | 1 | 39 | 49 |
| Eagles* | 3 | 5 | 0 | 45 | 43 |
| Utica* | 3 | 8 | 1 | 50 | 86 |
| fried bread | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 9 |
| REDS | 2 | 5 | 1 | 35 | 54 |
| Stars | 2 | 8 | 0 | 48 | 67 |
| Zonk | 1 | 3 | 0 | 17 | 27 |
| Squirrels | 1 | 8 | 1 | 45 | 67 |
| BYKGiambi | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 14 |
| 46 | 71 | 13 | 666 | 785 |
Don't be deceived by Champs record. He is extremely competitive and when he can focus on baseball he can be very difficult to contend with. Hopefully 2009 will bring less challenges "off the field" and he can get more involved "on the field".
But wait.... if that happens then we may be looking at a repeat of 2004 or even better!
Randy
I think Champs should change his strategy and start drafting guys of the Ozzie Smith mold. You know the type of athletes who do back flips on the field. Then Ed would feel right at home as he is a former trainer for Olympic athletes in gymnastics! Here 's to a good season out of Champs!
ReplyDeleteHey Mark, Thanks for the note! Ozzie was awesome and I think you have a great strategy for me...obviously autodraft didnt work to well for me last year. HAHA 15 years coaching for the USA National Women's gymnastics team, coached athletes in 1992, 1996 & 2000 Olympics & coached the most decorated gymnast of all time, Shannon Miller, and you would think I could do better then being the "losingest " manager in Hardball history... haha well I got the Phillies World Championship behind me so hopefully it will motivate me...
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