This Saturday night at the Midwest Sports Hockey Complex in Queeny Park its “Win and In” as the South Grand Slammers take on the RiverFront Crimes in the final regular season bout of the 2013 Turf War season. The winner will get to face the Dogtown Rockets in the Championship!

The South Grand Slammers are coming off a tough 153 - 104 loss to the Rockets last month and to get a rematch in the championship they have to go through a Crimes squad that has been gaining steam all year. The Slammers will be without star jammer Bat Wing as he is out with lower leg injury. Fortunately the Slammers are deep at the jammer position so expect them to lean on Hand Rail, Jagged Little Will and Gnat King Kill. Also don’t be surprised if you see Neil Death Experience or Spin Diesel don the star for the Slammers Saturday. The Slammers are looking to make their third, consecutive appearance in the Turf Wars Championship game, but it will be no small task for them to accomplish this.

The RiverFront Crimes are coming off a big 177 - 88 win over the defending Turf War Champion Rockets and look poised to make their first trip to the Championship match. To do this they will need to avenge a painful 166 - 163 loss to the Slammers back in March in which the Crimes really played well, but last jam heroics by the Slammers gave the Slammers the boost need to pull out the win. The return of Short Knocks to the Crimes has really given them much needed flexibility in the jammer rotation and this has allowed them to keep teams off-balance all season. Since a brutal loss to the Rockets by a score of 201 - 114 in the season opener, the Crimes have really gelled as a team and are playing very inspired derby. They have consistently improved in every bout this season and now have a chance to break into the Championship bout. The Crimes will need to figure out how to deal with the loss of Juke Blocks Hero who recently moved to Portland and leaves a huge hole in the blocking unit of the Crimes. It will be interesting to see who steps up to attempt to fill that role.

Whoever wins on Saturday night will punch their ticket to the 2013 Turf Wars Championship and get an opportunity to de-throne the Dogtown Rockets. Here is a look at the current Rankings:

I know what you are thinking: “Hey Hammer! Wait a minute! If the Crimes win, then all three teams are at 2 - 2! How does that work?” Well, the way it works is point differential. Time to put your math-cap on as I’m about to lay some heavy numbers on you. My good friends in the math department at MIT have sent this too me because when it comes to math I am luck to be able to count to ten without having to take my shoes off.

You take all the points scored for each team and then minus the points scored against that team to get their differential. So while the Rockets currently sit at 2 - 2, their total points scored is 567 and their points scored against is 561 so that gives the Rockets a +6 point differential. The Crimes still have this weekends’ bout to play but they currently have 457 point for and 458 points against giving them a -1. The Slammers are at 439 for and 444 against for a -5. If the Crimes win that will put everyone at 2 -2 and the Rockets and Crimes will play in the Championship due to point differential. Confused? Yeah, me too, but that is to be expected.

If the Slammers win they will move to 3 - 1 and get in based on record and all that math above will be moot!

On June 29th the GateKeepers Travel Team takes the track as the #4 Magic City Misfits roll into town. This is a special double header with the Arch Rival Roller Girls playing in the opening bout against the Jacksonville Roller Girls.

On July 20th come see the dramatic conclusion to the 2013 Turf War campaign as the winner of Saturday’s game takes on the Dogtown Rockets!

See you at the bouts!

Star-Spangled Hammer

Star-Spangled Hammer and Magilla Guerilla are the announcers for the St. Louis GateKeepers.