Many Thank You’s to the American Darts Database

This is GREAT Stuff! Why? It’s neat to know who the top shooting American Style Dart players in the world are – and it shouldn’t be a shocker that Darrin Young, Johnny K, and Mark Wuerstle show up at the top. But beyond that, if you are running a tournament and have either a cap or a handicap in place, now you can have an “official source” to reference as far as averages go.

The American Darts Database has records from over 110 tournaments and leagues, including States and Nationals.  And while nothing is perfect, this is a great place to start.  In fact, Nationals uses the database as their source for averages.  So, if you plan on shooting in Emmaus, they already know what your average is.

Build a Team:

They even have a “BUILD A TEAM”function.  Here is a LINK TO IT.  Now, you find the players you want to shoot with, and this tool will tell you your averages.  So, if you plan on shooting in a 3 Man 110 Cap tournament, you can find out if the team you plan to take is under the cap.  And, the tournament director will know as well!

This is going to be sooooo much better than wading through paper copies of league averages at the tournament sign up table.  Just have a laptop and you can look up a player’s”Official ABDA” average and use that.  And then if they shoot a 59, they shoot a 59 – even if their average is a 37.  Sometimes the darts all find a way to fit.  But there won’t be any serious discussion about whether the player’s average was completely fudged at sign ups.

I run handicap tournaments, and I know that I will be making use of this tool/website!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here is a list of the Top Ranked Players in the World on the American Darts Stage . . .

Rank     Player     Games     Points     Average
1     Darin Young     116     6,032     52.0000
2     John Kuczynski     87     4,273     49.1149
3     Jim Newman     9     442     49.1111
4     Mark Wuerstle     97     4,738     48.8454
5     Jamie Zortman     31     1,502     48.4516
6     Mike Wilson     36     1,722     47.8333
7     Alan Miller     136     6,494     47.7500
8     Bob Miske     62     2,952     47.6129
9     Bob Shirey     106     4,949     46.6887
10     Tommy Hill     28     1,307     46.6786
11     Joe Hoffman     111     5,156     46.4505
12     Jason Kroh     131     6,067     46.3130
13     John Jackson     12     555     46.2500
14     Keith Foley     28     1,290     46.0714
15     Buddy Smith     36     1,655     45.9722
16     Joe Haganey     74     3,399     45.9324
17     David Breese     99     4,530     45.7576
18     Albe Bodolus     81     3,706     45.7531
19     Chris Kuehn     122     5,561     45.5820
20     Don Snook     43     1,959     45.5581
21     Joe Swatsky     26     1,177     45.2692
22     Bruce Unverdorben Jr.     35     1,578     45.0857
23     Mike Sexton     33     1,485     45.0000
24     Rod Seitz     141     6,312     44.7660
25     Dan Zerbe     8     357     44.6250

*  I know no one will read this, but I still want to reinforce that this is the Game of American Darts, not ranking of Americans who shoot English darts (steel tips/soft tips)

Darto has been making darts for decades, and they usually run a couple of different feather colors. You can pick them up in . . .

• Traditional White
• Black
• Blue
• Red
• “Patriots” -a combination of one red feather, one white feather and one blue feather

For the moment, they are looking for a new supplier for the metal parts of the darts. As a result, they’ve stopped producing for the time being. I’ve sold out of all of the Darto stock we had, including the darts put aside to become part of the “Sampler” packs.

I’ve found them online elsewhere, but they are pricey. There is a set of Patriots on ebay for $42.99, plus shipping.

When they begin producing darts again, I’m sure we will be back to stocking all the different colors they make. In the meantime, that’s why we have a lot of “Out Of Stock” badges in the catalog.

American Darts Message Boards

I know it’s the “off season”, but I wanted to have something in place now so when the fall comes around, and players are looking for leagues, tournament directors are announcing events, and home shooters are wondering if anyone else shoots “darts like these”, we’ll have a place to meet online.

We’ve been averaging a couple of hundred visitors a day to the site, so if you’re running an event, it’s a good way to get the news out.  and it’s easy to post recaps, and even pictures of the event to share with everyone who lives outside of driving distance. 

The forums will replace the newsletter.  Actually, when I started collecting names from people interested in receiving a newsletter, I thought it would be nearly 100% from Pennsylvania.  Instead, there are people from South Carolina, Virginia, Texas, California, UTAH, and points in between who have been shooting American Style Darts.  But, it was hard to put together announcements that would be interesting to everyone on the list.

Now, if you live in Florida, you won’t have an email landing in your box telling you about a dart tournament in Upstate New York.  BUT, you will have a place to go to kindof keep track of the action, and tell others of your darting exploits.

The new dart forum is also set up so that members can add photos, either to their posts or to their own personal page.  So, you can have a photo album online.  Leagues can have pictures of their champions, or more colorful characters.  People can post pictures of their home dart set-ups.  That’s something that I’m looking forward to, actually.

I just got the finishing touches on the forums yesterday (well, there will probably always be more touches you can add), and no one has signed up yet, so if you’re looking for a chance to be the first to do something, this is it!!  sign up and leave a “hello world” message, and you’ll be poster # 1!