From Al’s Fastball:

Here is the listing of the All-Tournament Selections. Thanks to Hank DeWild, ISCII Statistician, who loaded each and every game into the computers which made it very easy to make selections. Each player received a plaque.

2006 All-Boys of Summer Team:

(more…)

For those of us following the So Cal Teams (and players) at the Boys of Summer Tournament in Denmark, WI:

Budke HR Keys Farm Win in Opener

-Todd Budke hit a 3 run homer in the first inning of the Farm’s (WI) opener against Kegel Black Knights of Fargo, ND, then helped his teammates hold off a furious rally by the Black Knights, who scored 3 in the 6th and 3 more in the 7th, but came up a run short in a 7-6 loss to Budke’s Farm Tavern Squad. The Farm plays at 9:30am, 3pm and 5 pm EST (6:30am, 12noon, and 2pm PST).

(click photo to enlarge)

Former Teammates Squaring Off

One of the more interesting match-ups of the day will be the 5pm EST (2pm PST) game between Budke’s Farm Tavern squad, and Team Rainey. Budke played with Team Rainey in several early season tournaments, including the Red Rock tournament in St. George, UT. Additionally, former Team USA catcher Todd Garcia played a number of years for the Farm Tavern, but is now a member of Team Rainey, opting to stay and play closer to home to spend more time with his son. So instead of looking out at Farm Tavern pitcher Dean Holoien with a catcher’s glove on, he’ll be holding a bat.

–Team Rainey is back for their third visit to the Boys of Summer tournament and plays at 9, 1 and 3 pm EST (6,8 and 2pm PST).

-The So Cal Bombers make their first visit to the fabled Denmark, WI “old time fastball” facility, and play at 9, 1 and 3pm EST (6, 10 and 12 noon PST)

No scores reported for the So Cal teams yet, but keep an eye out here, and at our linked pages above.

Time for my shameless plug for Nomar. But hey, c’mon, is there a more deserving player left off the NL All Star team? Click here and vote for Nomar Garciaparra to be the “Final Man” chosen for the 2006 NL All Star team. He’s hitting .361, with 10 homers and 47 RBI, and has struck out fewer times than anyone in the National League. Just for good measure, he’s hitting over .550 in the 7th inning or later. Pinch hitter late in the game? Click here to check out Nomar’s stats.

From Al’s Fastball:

Novi, MI

As many have heard, Doug had a stroke last Wednesday night. He is still in the hospital, but is walking around, pacing the halls and moving as much as the doctors will let him. Speech and handwriting are improving everyday. His personality is 100% Doug…he’s laughing at jokes, rolling his eyes, flailing his arms….all the mannerisms that he had before this happened.

The doctors have said that he is an excellent candidate for recovery based on his age, overall health, and willingness to work. When I talked to his wife tonight, she said that the doctors are looking at him going home on Wednesday.

Many, many thanks to all in our softball world who have called, or emailed, or asked about Doug….every little bit counts and it is all appreciated. Following is Doug’s address and a means
to reach him at the hospital.

Doug Gillis
43100 12 Oaks Crescent Dr, Apt 2044
Novi, MI 48377-3430

To send him a note at the hospital….
http://www.botsfordsystem.org/corp/email.cfm

In honor of Father’s Day, we share a piece from today’s LA Times, an interview with a favorite of ours, Vin Scully.

Scully’s Stepdad Was Simply ‘Dad’ – Los Angeles Times
Scully’s Stepdad Was Simply ‘Dad’
Dodgers broadcaster ached to know his real father, but that was soothed by his stepdad.
By Steve Henson, Times Staff Writer
June 18, 2006

Dad was working late as usual, finishing up a 14-hour shift at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Vin Scully had finished his homework and was getting sleepy. Although something was on his mind, he couldn’t wait up, so he wrote a note and put it on his dad’s breakfast plate before going to bed.

It was 1943 and Vin was 15. His stepfather, Allan Reeve, left for work each morning at 4:30, riding buses and subways to the shipyard, often not returning home until after nightfall.

Reeve had an opportunity to take a civilian job on a ship headed to the combat zone in Europe. The money would be good, maybe even enough to get the family out of its $40-a-month, fifth-story walk-up apartment in Washington Heights.

Vin had only a hazy memory of his biological father dying of pneumonia 11 years earlier, but he knew the toll it had taken on his mother, Bridget. The thought of losing Reeve, a reserved, pipe-smoking Englishman who had brought stability and love to the household, terrified him.

So in the note, Vin asked his dad to turn down the job.

“I was afraid he might be put in harm’s way,” Vin said. “I didn’t want him to risk the family to make a few more dollars.”

Vin Scully’s verbal artistry as the Dodgers’ broadcaster has been described as silky. Coincidentally, his father, Vincent Aloysius Scully, was a silk salesman at an upscale clothing store.

Vin remembers his father only from a few grainy photos. After he died, Bridget took 4-year-old Vin to Ireland to spend time with her family.

“My mother told me later that when we came back, I had a brogue you could cut with a knife,” he said.

Money was tight, and his mother rented out two spare bedrooms, usually to merchant sailors. One, Reeve, was a British seaman who worked for the Cunard Lines and bore a resemblance to actor Ralph Bellamy.

Reeve and Bridget eventually married and had a daughter, Margaret Anne. The family moved to Manhattan and Reeve found work as a doorman at an apartment building on Central Park West. He brought home hand-me-down clothes for Vin from residents he got to know.

“He’d spent his life at sea, now he was going to live on land and it was difficult for him,” Scully said. “We were poor but not poverty-stricken. He was wonderful, in a quiet, shy way. And in watching him work, I developed tremendous admiration for him.”

These days, of course, Vin, 78, is called Dad and Granddad. He had three children with his first wife, Joan, who died early in 1972, and another with his current wife, Sandra, who also brought two children to their marriage late in 1973.

“I hope they look upon me as Dad,” he said of his stepchildren. “The thing that helped with our Brady Bunch, as we call them, is my wife. She is a tower of strength.

“I’d say to her, ‘You deserve a medal.’ ”

So one day Vin went to a jeweler and had a medal engraved, wrapped it with a ribbon and presented it to Sandra as a token of his appreciation for her being there on so many summer days and nights when he was serving as voice of the Dodgers.

Today, Scully is in Oakland with the Dodgers, doing the job he has done so masterfully for 57 years, and doing it with a measure of regret.

“My ache now is all the things I missed because of my job,” he said. “Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, you name it.

“It has been a series of misses. And it has made my heart ache. Baseball just devours you.”

Allan Reeve read Vin’s note at breakfast and did not take the job that would have sent him overseas.

His relationship with his stepson continued to grow over the years.

“To me, he was Dad,” Vin said. “I never thought of him as a stepdad. I had an ache because I never knew my father, and it was washed away by my dad

.”