From our award winning statistician, Dale:

Hi all,

Another season is in the books, including a great end of season party hosted by Elliot and Sierra. Thank you! Also thanks to Bill for his fearless leadership, and to Bill and Pete for their creative trophies. If you weren’t there, you really missed out.

But not on this year’s stats. You can get all your numbers right here.

Last year, we set what I thought were 5 unbeatable records:

1. Most players per game (20.1)

2. Most player appearances (522)

3. Most games with 20 or more players (12)

4. Most players in a season (95)

5. Most new players (61)

All unbeatable? Hardly. This year, we broke 2 of those, tied one, and almost broke another. The only record that might seem safe is for new players: after 32 years, it’s hard to find 61 or more new players.

First, the overall records set or approached this year:

1. Thanks to 3 basketball players (and Rachel) who joined us for the last game, we broke the record for most players in a year: 97. This beats last year’s record of 95.

2. We had the highest total number of player appearances, breaking last year’s record of 522 with this year’s 536.

a. Although we did not break the record for most players per game (34, set in 2002), we had third-highest (32 on July 29), fourth-highest (31 on Aug. 12), and fifth-highest (29 on Aug. 26). All of these games were at the beach.

3. Although the beach usually gets the high attendance marks, we set the record for most players on a field game this year: 28.

4. We had 12 games with 20 or more players, tying the record set last year.

5. We tied the record for most games played in a season: 27. It’s the fifth time we’ve played this many games.

6. We didn’t quite reach the incredible record of 20.1 average players per game set last year. This year: 19.9.

7. Although we didn’t come that close to last year’s record of 61 new players, this year’s total of 46 was second highest ever.

8. Remember the perfect weather last Tuesday? So did 22 players, the most ever for the last game of the season. (Interestingly, 22 is also the record for the season opener, set back in 2001.)

9. We came close to last year’s record number of 32 “regular” players, with 30 this year. Our statistician has a low requirement for this threshold: just 5 games. That was still one game too many for 6 players this year.

10. We had 6 “super-regular” players, with 20 or more games. That’s third-highest ever, with the record of 8 dating back to 1999.

Individual records and honorable mentions:

2. Dave raised the bar even higher on the old timer record. He didn’t just up the age by one year to a true senior status at 65, he also upped his attendance to 19 games, just one shy of super-regular.

3. At the other end of the spectrum, we have a new record for youngest competitive player. Not the youngest player ever (Ben, who wasn’t yet 6 when he played with us for the first time), but a player who can hold their own against stiff competition. This is Jared, who was only 10 years old this summer. Coincidentally, Ben was at the game when Jared set this record, 11 years after Ben set the youngest player record. How cool is that?

4. Congrats to the 3 streakers with 10+ games in a row: Pete, Dale, and Bill.

5. Congrats to the 6 super-regular players with 20+ games: Pete, Dale, Bob, Bill and Richard and Peter. Four players were just one game away at 19. Shoulda-coulda-woulda!

6. Kevin C had the most games for first-year players with 17; Bill N was close behind with 16.

7. Jason had the biggest jump in attendance: from 8 to 17.

This leads to the…

Frequent Attendance Record Trophy (FART)

As always, here is the list of the (30) regular players this season, with 5 or more games played.

FART winners, since its introduction in 1995: