Here is a link to some photos from the Team USA selection camp back in September 2008 that hadn’t been posted previously. Thanks to Coach Peter Turner and his staff for providing access to the camp and players.
Click here for our prior post regarding the final selections for Team USA, for the squad that will travel to Saskatoon, SK, Canada in July 2009 for the ISF World Championships.
Onsale to General Public – Mon, 12/15/08 10:00 AM CST
From Saskatoonhomepage.ca
2009 I-S-F World Men’s Fastpitch Gives Update, Gets Money
It wasn’t fastpitch weather Tuesday in Saskatoon, but the local organizing committee for the 2009 International Softball Federation’s World Men’s Fastpitch Championship was warmed up by a $100,000 commitment from the provincial government. The committee also announced that tickets for the July 17-26 event go on sale Monday [Dec. 15] through Ticketmaster. Early bird purchasers get a reserved seat and parking spot at the Bob Van Impe and Gordie Howe Park complex. Sixteen countries, including Canada, will take part. Three Saskatoonians, infielder Keith Mackintosh and pitchers Dean Holoein and Trevor Ethier are on the Canadian squad. The local committee also launched their official website at today’s news conference…2009worldmensfastpitch.com. The site will have all the latest news on the event as well as information for those people who would like to help out as volunteers.
(click banner to buy tickets)
Available Now in Full Color PDF
(photo: 2008 ISF Jr. Worlds Gold Medal Hero, Drew Faulkner of Australia)
(click logo for official tournament website)
We wrote previously about the Softball Magazine feature story on the ISF Junior World Championships at Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, “G’day for Gold”
For those who did not receive a copy of the magazine, but wish to read the story and view Maddy’s photos included in the magazine, we have posted the full-color PDF file here.
It’s a very large file, (almost a meg) so please be patient while it downloads to your computer. Adobe Reader required to open the file. Don’t have Adobe Reader? Download it by clicking here.
Editor’s note:
Softball Magazine, dubbed the “Sports Illustrated of Softball” is available by subscription, and now also at a variety of newstands and bookstores across the country, including some Borders, Barnes & Noble, Waldens, Michael’s, and all of the Books-A-Million If you’re not already receiving it, we recommend it to you.
We express our thanks to our friends at Softball Magazine, including Luann Madison and Nancy Robinson, who have been providing great coverage of Men’s Fastpitch since 2004, including feature stories on the AAU, Red Rock, Rose Cup, ISC, ISC II, Bahamas and ISF Junior World tournaments.
You’ll find Softball Magazine on the main menu at Fastpitchwest, permitting our readers to peruse all of the men’s fastpitch features in full-color PDF.
(click photo for original story)
The New Zealand men’s softball team opened their South American tour this weekend with wins against a club team and the Argentina national side in Santa Fe.
In the exhibition games, the Black Sox beat Parana 7-0 in five innings with five runs coming in the fifth inning, including a home run from Wellington’s Wayne Laulu which also scored his captain Jarrad Martin and Patrick Shannon.
The Black Sox then backed up that performance with a hard-earned 1-0 win over the Argentina national side, with Shannon scoring the sole run in the second inning.
The Black Sox have a further three exhibition games before they play in a tournament which will also involve the Argentina and Venezuela national sides as well as a number of club invitation teams.
BackSoftball Campaign Enters Crucial Year
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 10:18am EDT GB StaffInternational Softball Federation (ISF) President Don Porter said in a press release he believes the next 12 months are the most important in the history of softball as the BackSoftball campaign counts down to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Copenhagen.
Porter led a presentation at the Pan American Sports Organization General Assembly last weekend in Acapulco to re-introduce men’s softball onto the Pan American Games program after its elimination last year in Rio de Janeiro following seven consecutive prior appearances.
Porter also pledged to continue sending equipment and coaches to various countries in the Americas, as is done in other regions of the world.
The ISF last week announced the launch of the Easton Foundation Youth Softball World Cup in the Czech Republic next August, continuing the campaign’s commitment to promoting the sport to new audiences with special attention to young people and women.
Porter called the next year the “most important in our sport’s history. Hopefully we have shown the IOC how popular and successful softball can be at the Olympic Games and how much progress we have made since being taken off the Olympic program.
“Participation in the sport continues to grow at an astounding rate, with large numbers of women taking up softball, particularly in areas where sport is not so prevalent, such as the Middle East,” he said.
Also, there were international sell out crowds during the women’s fastpitch competition at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games and tickets for the competition sold out months ahead of the event. Huge television audiences tuned in to see Japan beat the defending world champion USA in the gold medal games.
There are softball events at the World Games in Taiwan, the ISF XII Men’s World Championship in Canada, the Central American Games in Honduras and the youth cup event in Prague.
The BackSoftball campaign is planning to be a major presence at several events to communicate to key stakeholders the progress it has made over the past few months.
The latest issue of Softball Magazine (“The Sports Illustrated of Softball”) is out on newstands and includes Fastpitchwest’s feature story on the 2008 ISF Junior Men’s World Championships, held in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada earlier this year, “G’day for Gold”.
The magazine has a new printer doing their work, and the results are dramatic. Maddy’s full color photos that accompany the story “pop” off the pages. If you don’t subscribe, but want to, click here for more information. Since 2004, the magazine has included regular features on men’s fastpitch, including the AAU, Red Rock, Rose Cup, ISC and ISC II tournaments, and special features like the current one on the ISF Jr. Worlds and the Texaco Pirates tournament in the Bahamas.
If you want to get your hands on a copy of the latest issue, you can send a self-addressed stamped envelope (about $3.00 worth of U.S. postage), to Fastpitchwest, PO Box 961, Los Alamitos, CA 90720.
Past features from Fastpitchwest published in the magazine can be viewed by clicking the “Softball Magazine” menu button on our website, or directly, here. (Give the pages a little time to load, as the full color PDF’s are large files)
Information on where to find “Softball Magazine” below the jump.
From the official ASA/USA Softball website:
Posted to official website: 9/29/2008
ASA announces 2009 USA Softball Men’s National team
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Amateur Softball Association, the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States, announced today 15 of the 17 athletes that will be on the roster that will compete in a series of events leading up to and including the ISF World Championships in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan July 17-26, 2009. The two remaining positions will be announced March 1, 2009.
Below are the 15 athletes named to the 2009 USA Softball Men’s National Team roster:
Frank DeGroat (Ringwood, N.J.)
Chris DeLarwelle (Denmark, Wis.)
Nate Devine (Merced, Calif.)
Don Garvey (Appleton, Wis.)
Paul Koert (Brooklin, Ontario, Canada)
Adam LaLonde (Ashland, Ky.)
Terry Luster (Bunceton, Mo.)
Kyle Magnusson (West Valley, Utah)
Blake Miller (Kingsville, Texas)
Daryn Miller (Bloomington, Il.)
Matt Palazzo (Pleasant Hill, Iowa)
Stephen Pinocchio (Merced, Calif.)
Travis Price (Corona, Calif.)
Landy Rodriguez (West Haverstraw, N.Y.)
Chase Turner (Sacramento, Calif.)
The 2009 Men’s National team will be led by head coach Pete Turner (Stockton, Calif.) and assisted by Thad Brown (Modesto, Calif.) and Avon Meacham (Upper Marlboro, Md.).
Editor’s Note: Pitchers listed in bold.
Team USA was in camp over the weekend, at the Arco Olympic Training Facility in Chula Vista, CA (near San Diego) Friday-Saturday, September 26-27, 2008, with most of the 30-some-odd players on the current expanded roster present. Maddy and I were guests, courtesy of the USA Softball staff, and got a first hand look at things Saturday afternoon. We hope to be able to share some photos with you shortly. The squad broke camp late Saturday, with the staff to begin work on the final roster selections for next year’s ISF World Championships in Saskatoon, Canada. We’ll keep an eye out, along with the rest of you for the press release from USA Softball.
Click USA Softball logo above to see the list of players on the current expanded roster.
Drotzmann aims for National Team
By DANIEL WATTENBURGER
The East Oregonian
HERMISTON – In the world of men’s fastpitch softball, few have had the kind of year Dr. Dave Drotzmann can boast.
Not only did the Hermiston optometrist and school board chairman help his Bakersfield, Calif. club team – the Lumber Kings – win the International Softball Congress championship over the summer, he won the Most Valuable Pitcher award at the tournament and was invited to compete for a spot on the U.S. National team.
It was the fifth time Drotzmann had pitched at the international tournament, and though he has a lifetime ERA of under 1.00 at the event he had never reached the gold medal.
“It’s an absolute team game and the team that makes the least mistakes almost always wins,” he said. “That’s the reason I play – the challenge of trying to be the best.”
At the 32-team tournament, 32 games were decided by fewer than two runs and 17 were decided by one.
The 38-year-old and the Lumber Kings finished third in the 2007 tournament, losing in the semifinals by a run.
“The reason we didn’t win last year was the pressure,” he said. “You have to minimize your mistakes.”
Drotzmann carries a mid- to upper-70s fastball, which translates to about 110 miles per hour at the major league level.
In the off-season he works out four times a week and throws two or three times to keep his pitching sharp. The U.S. National team tryout is later this month in Chula Vista, Calif., near San Diego, where he will join teammate and tournament MVP Marcus Tan.
The National team will play in two international events, the AAU Tournament in Orlando, Fla. in January and the ISF World Softball Tournament in Saskatchewan in July.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Drotzmann said. “It will be fun to be a part of if nothing else. Just to be invited and train at the facilities will be a lot of fun.”
Many players in men’s fastpitch are former major league players, and a total of 34 were invited to tryout for 17 spots on the National team. Drotzmann is one of eight pitchers trying out for four spots.
