CMA softball week 4/5

Week 5

Unfortunately we didn't have a very good week. We were only able to get in one game with the rest being rained out. Monday Glencore was hitting the ball hard and often. They were able to accumulate 26 runs against 7 runs for Atlas Dryguys.

The list of games to be made up is growing. We have Glencore vrs All Marine, Stolt vrs All Marine, Eitzen vrs Odin, Moran vrs Fairfield and Odin vrs Stolt. So we have 5 games to reschedule. I have not put dates on these yet as there is a chance we might be able to get one of the Thursday dates in June and July. Captains keep in mind we have the field available to us on Fridays. The other alternative if any of you guys can get another field somewhere work it out with the other captain. Just let me know what you have arranged and then afterwords report the score.

This upcoming week we have:

Monday All Marine vrs Eitzen

Tuesday Weber vrs Fairfield

Wednesday Clipper vrs Moran

Anyone know a good SUN dance?

Chris Towne

The Commish

week 4 (already?)

We were able to get two games in this week.

On Monday Clipper broke into the win column with a victory over Glencore 20-7.

Tuesday was a tight game until the end. Weber closely trailed the entire game then exploded for 9 runs in the top of the 7th inning for a 17-9 win.

For the most part the walk rule seems to working, however I am now getting reports of a few batter going up there looking for the walk. The end result from the instances I saw was the batter ended up taking around 25 pitches then having to take an emergency swing to avoid striking out. This isn't really the intent of the rule. Let's use some common sense and if the pitch is reasonable take a hack.

Next week we have:

Monday Atlas Dryguys vrs Glencore

Tuesday Moran vrs Fairfield

Wednesday Odin vrs Stolt-Nielsen

The easy way to check the schedule and standings is to go to: http://www.cmaconnect.com/cmadsports.html

Johnny K. is great at updating it when I give him the right information.

Everyone have a nice weekend

Chris Towne

The Commish

CMA softball weeks 2-3

Glad to see the Captains are getting into the flow of reporting the scores. Things are moving along with all 4 games being played last week.

Monday Eitzen defeated Moran 20-6 Tuesday Glencore over Odin 16-12 Wednesday All Marine Spares over Clipper 19-7 Thurday Fairfield over Stolt 20-3.

Based on the weather forcasts I wasn't sure if any of this weeks games would be played. Luckily it cleraed up just enough to get two games in and they were both down to the line nail bitters.

Mondays game was closely played throughout with Weber bringing in 3 runs in the top of the 7^th inning to tie the game. Moran was able to push a run across to win it in the bottom of the 7th. Final score Moran 8 Weber 7.

Tuesday was just as exciting with the lead changing several times. Eitzen was able to hold on for the 13-12 win over Atlas Dryguys.

 As it stands right now we have two games that have to be rescheduled. I will notify the captains when the date is determined.

This lineup for the coming week is:

Glencore vrs Clipper

Atlas Dryguys vrs Weber

Eitzen vrs Odin

The sun is finally come out. Lets hope this stays around for next week

I wish you all a nice weekend

Chris Towne

The Commish

TS Empire State Passing Greenwich

Capt Joe Gross of Weber and George Rozanovich of Eitzen whizzed out for an inspection of the TS Empire State as she sailed past Greenwich at the start of her summer cruise.

  

CMA Softball Week 1

CMA SOFTBALL - week 1


The CMA Softball season is officially up and running. We were able to play 3 of the 4 games scheduled.

Monday starts us off with Odin taking advantage of the genuine Spring like weather by pounding the ball wherever they wanted it. They downed Weber by the score of 22-11.

Tuesday followed with a major offensive explosion with a total of 48 runs being scored. Fairfield topped Clipper by the score of 28-20. This was done all before it got dark.

Wednesday newcomer Stolt got off to a slow start but started to show some promise toward the end of the game but it was too late. The Atlas Dryguys scored early and often.
Atlas finish the game off with a 23-3 victory.

Thursday Glencore and All Marine Spares made a valiant effort to get the game in but the rain won out. Their game will be rescheduled for a later date.

I did get a chance to stop by all the games this week and from what I saw they were moving right along. Pitchers were around the plate and pretty much kept within the 6-12 ft range and the batters weren't waiting around for the perfect pitch. As some of you know pitching is not as easy as it looks. We did have our first walk under the new 10 pitch rule. But there was only one walk and the team in the field realized that the pitcher was having a hard time and made a change. So far the rule has had the desired effect.


On to next week. This is what we have coming up.

Monday Eitzen vs Moran
Tuesday Odin vs Glencore
Wednesday All Marine vs Clipper
Thursday Fairfield vs Stolt


Enjoy the weekend
Chris Towne
The Commish

Charles R. Weber Report Week 19

Searching for an Uptick in Sentiment

Oil prices rose once again this week with WTI trading above $58 for the first time since mid-November as economic indicators suggested that the pace of economic contraction may be easing. While this is likely good news further down the line, the immediate affect on the tanker industry remains in doubt as tanker rates remain abysmal, with VLCCs returning a negative TCE this week of around -$4,500.

Preliminary data from Oil Market Intelligence shows that oil demand declined by 3.2 Mbpd, or 3.75% in April from the same month in 2008. Simultaneously, EIA statistics showed that US crude inventories reached a fresh 19-year high of 375.3 Mbbls last week, Combined with the additional estimated 40-45 Mbbls of crude currently in storage offshore, there is currently much more oil than can be consumed in the next few months. The only positive news for the oil industry is that US gasoline stocks fell last week by a greater-than-expected 200,000 bbls and crude oil refinery inputs were up by 420,000 bpd.

Refineries are currently enjoying a differential between crude and petroleum products of about $5/bbl (double that of last month); nevertheless, they are reportedly running at about 82% utilization - well off the normal levels observed in the run-up to the summer driving season of 90% - as refiners remain realistic about demand levels and the prevailing abundance of inventories. Based on today’s outlook we think it unlikely that refinery utilization will increase by more than two percentage points given industry demand forecasts.

With demand fundamentals not supporting the spot and future crude prices, investors are instead trading oil and other commodities more in-line with the rising equity markets. A return to growth is forecast for the second-half of 2009, but whether it will materialize in the face of ever rising inventories is anyone’s guess. In the short term a crude price above $58 looks very difficult to sustain in the face of limited demand and huge inventories, it may be well into the third quarter before the market returns to some sort of equilibrium.

As we head towards summer and the end of a very long winter in the U.S. we can only hope for a much stronger than expected summer driving season in the U.S. (no-doubt at the expense of air travel) combined with markedly improved consumer confidence serving to stimulate retail ever so slightly. Even a slight lift in sentiment could serve to begin to eat away at inventories and ever so slowly improve the supply/demand balance, but it certainly looks like this will take some time.