Here’s the roster and schedule for JRW & Associates, which finished 10th in last year’s ISC II Tournament of Champions. The pitching staff includes longtime Northwest pitchers Dave Drotzman, and the ageless wonder, Mike Trotter, still bringing it at age 65. (For someone that just turned 50, he offers a bit of hope and lot of inspiration.) Former Portland player Paul Reyes and pitcher Matt Barnes return to the Northwest to strengthen the JRW roster for 2005. Reyes played most recently with Team Rainey, while Barnes had been in semi-retirement in California.
2005 Roster & Schedule for JRW & Associates (Al’s Fastball)
Archive for the ‘ISC-II’ Category
A Look at the 2005 Roster & Schedule for JRW & Associates from Yakima, WA
Friday, May 13th, 2005ISC Commish Tony Acedo Announces California Area I.S.C. Qualifer for June 18-19, 2005
Thursday, May 12th, 2005California Area I.S.C. Qualifier Set for Candidates for World Tournament and I.S.C. – II Competition
International Softball Congress California Area Commissioner Tony Acedo is announcing the dates and location for an ISC qualifier which will send teams from his area to the 2005 ISC World Tournament and to the ISC-II Tournament of Champions.
Dates of the California competition will be June 18 and 19, 2005.
The location will be Little Lake Park in Santa Fe Springs, CA.
Format for the event will be Round Robin.
Entry fee is $325.
Deadline for entry is June 10, 2005.
Commissioner Acedo is enthusiastic about the event: “I expect that we will have a great turnout of teams which will be battling for our Area’s berth in the ISC World Tournament and also for our spot in the ISC-II Tournament of Champions.â€
For more information about the competition, or to enter the qualifier, contact:
Tony Acedo
425 Ximeno Dr.
Fullerton, CA 92835
310-505-8021 (Cell)
E-mail: reneacedo@sbcglobal.net
Click here to view photos from last year’s ISC California Area Qualifier, won by Team Rainey.
Gordon Wise
ISC Information Officer
www.iscfastpitch.com
sgwise@woh.rr.com
Leinenkugel Legends Added to our TEAMS page
Wednesday, May 11th, 2005We’ve added another team to our “Teams” page, the Leinenkugel Legends from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The Legends will be the host team for the ISC II Tournament of Champions, August 15-19, 2005, at Chippewa Falls, WI. Chippewa Falls is the home to the famous “Leinenkugel Brewery”, a stone’s throw from the ballpark. In addition to the brewery tour, you can visit the “Leine’s Lodge”,which hosts their free tasting room. (I was there in 2003 for the NAFA World Series, and, speaking from personal experience, would highly recomment a visit, (especially that tasting room)
If you would like to be added to the “TEAMS” page at fastpitchwest (either a link to your own site, or for us to create a page for your team), click the email link on the TEAMS page. Teams come and teams go, and website addresses change, so if your page or link is out of date, be sure to let us know. We’ll be updating all summer long. If you would like your own page and menu button at the teams page, a roster and schedule is a good starting point.
ISC II 2005 Pre-Season Rankings
Monday, April 25th, 2005On the heels of last week’s ISC World Tournament team rankings, the ISC II has released its own set of rankings, for the ISC II Tournament of Champions. Like the ISC World rankings, the ISC II rankings are used for seeding teams for the August tournament.
ISC-II capital of the world? It has to be Ontario, Canada, fastball hotbed, and home of Al Doran’s Fastball List. Ontario has 4 in the top 10, 8 in the top 20 and 11 in the top 30. Readers may recall the Ontario area’s dominance of the NAFA “AA” division for a number of years. A number of those teams, or their progeny have moved over to the ISC II Tournament of Champions.
Last year, the championship game was an all-Ontario affair, with two-time defending champion Harriston Mercurys topping Smullys Tavistock Merchants for the ISC II crown. As a result of the loss of a few key players, Harriston does not hold the top spot in the 2005 pre-season rankings, an honor that belongs to last year’s runnerup, Tavistock.
Six of the top 10 teams are from Canada, with the other four from the United States. Last year’s third place team, The Bar of Appleton is the highest ranked U.S. team at #3, with the ASA “A” runnerup, Keatings Fitness, PA at #6, KMV Rise of PA #9, and Chub’s Pub of Fargo N.D. #10.
The highest ranked teams from the Western U.S. are the Colorado Rage at #23, JRW & Associates at #25, Bodle Chiropractic at #26, Rob Penticoff’s River City Rockers #34, and the NorCal Mavericks at #51. JRW & Associates was the higest finisher at last year’s ISC II Tournament, at #10. My guess is that the Mavs belong higher than #51, and will likely rise in the rankings as the season progresses. The Rage, Rockers and Mavericks will all be at Red Rock, as will #46 ranked Vannelli’s from Minnesota this coming weekened. Watch the Morning Brief for the live, streaming audio broadcast schedule on Ballparkradio.com in the next few days.
Official list at ISC II site, with judge’s ranking cards.
As we did with the ISC World rankings, some observations:
-Defending champion, and #2 ranked Harriston Mercurys received the most votes for the top spot, with seven votes, to five votes for #1 ranked Tavistock;
-All #1 votes went to either Tavistock or Harriston;
-All #2 votes went to Tavistock or Harriston, except for three, which went, one each to #3 ranked The Bar of Appelton, WI, #4 Norwich Razorbacks, and #7 Gladstone Whips of Manitoba;
-The greatest agreement among the voters was for the top two spots, with all 12 voters giving Harriston and Tavistock a #1, 2 or 3 ranking — with one exception, one voter who pegged Harriston at #7. If that voter had given Harriston a third place vote, Harriston would have owned the #1 ranking;
-Non-top-10 teams getting highest ranked votes: #18 Anderson Jaybirds of IN received a #4 ranking from one judge; #11 Wilber Lime, WI received a 3rd place vote; #14 Palermo A’s, ON, received a 3rd place vote and the #20 ranked Glencoe Astros, ON received a 4th place vote.
ISC-II Canada West Qualifier
Monday, April 25th, 2005Al’s Fastball List: ISC-II Canada West Qualifier Set for June 4-5, 2005 in Manitoba, Canada Last year, the Gladstone Whips from Manitoba, Canada qualified from the region, and was a Final Four finisher, falling to Smully’s Tavistock Merchants in the semi-finals. Smully’s Tavistock is currently ranked #1 in the world in the just-released ISC-II Rankings.
Ontario ISC II Top 10 Rankings
Friday, April 22nd, 2005My friend and broadcast partner at ISC II has released his Top 10 rankings for ISC II teams in Ontario, Canada. As most of you know, Ontario is a hotbed for men’s fastball and turns out some of the best teams in the game. Last year, both teams in the ISC II Championship game were from Ontario. (2-time defending champion Harriston Mercurys and Smully’s Tavistock Merchants.).
The full ISC II rankings for all teams — Canadian, U.S. and other are due out shortly, and it’s a good bet you’ll find many of the teams listed in the Ontario Top 10 near the top of the heap.
For the uninitiated, the ISC II is the “intermediate” level classification, just below the ISC World Tournament open teams, still in its infancy. In only it’s fourth year, it’s already drawing a solid 40 teams, roughly comparable to ASA “A” and NAFA “AA”. By way of comparison, last year’s ASA “A” runnerup, Keatings Fitness from Pennsylvania finished 12th in the ISC II. It’s a great place for teams not quite at the open level required for the ISC World Tournament. Last year, new ISC II Commissioner Blair Setford initiated an ambitious broadcast program for ISC II games, carrying 18 games live on the internet. (We were fortunate enough to be a part of that, and will be back at the ISC II this summer, in Chippewa Falls, WI.
Click here for Maddy’s extensive photo galleries from the ISC II taken last year in Fargo, N.D. As you can see from the shots, she was right down on the field to capture all the action.
It was just a few years ago that Team Rainey was going head to head with the Toronto Jaguars and the Sebringville Sting in the NAFA “AA” division before they moved up to open level ball. This year, a California team will be bidding for a berth to the ISC II Tournament of Champions in Chippewa Falls, WI, the NorCal Mavericks, with former Rainey player Chris Wright, joining forces with Troy Parker’s Leaf team. They’ll have Spud Barker and 2002 NAFA “A” MVPitcher Ed Gaspar on the mound. Keep an eye on the Mavs, and I don’t mean Dallas.
Our Red Rock Pages are Growing…
Thursday, April 21st, 2005The list of teams, schedule of games, tournament rules, maps & directions are up. Keep an eye out, as we’ll be adding team rosters, a “Predict the Elite 8” poll, and the live audio broadcast schedule for Ballparkradio.com in the days leading up to the tournament.
ISC Press Releases
Wednesday, April 6th, 2005The ISC website has been updated, including the page of press releases: International Softball Congress – Press Releases (cap tip to Al’s Fastball)
New Fastball Website – GHFL.ca
Wednesday, February 9th, 2005Today’s Morning Brief column is a “guest appearance” by my good friend and broadcast partner for the ISC-II, Blair Setford, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Most of you already know Ontario, Canada as one of the hotbeds of the sport of fastball. (remember, it’s “fastball” not fastpitch in that part of the world). Blair recently rolled out a new website for the league he helps run, the “Golden Horseshoe Fastball League”, at http://www.ghfl.ca . It’s actually home to a lot more than just the GHFL, but I’ll let him tell you more. Click the title of this column to visit the site. We heartily recommend it to you.
Here is Blair Setford’s Guest Column:
“With the launch of GHFL.ca, in no small part due to the tremendous contributions of Jim Flanagan, I am hoping to duplicate, albeit on a smaller scale, the success of FastpitchWest.com. Our focus will be on fastball in the hotbed of Ontario, particularly the ISC II brand of ball.
Most of the press in the game goes to the big boys – the teams and players that compete on the ISC World Tournament stage, at the Pan-Am Games and the quadrennial ISF World Series. And it should.
To borrow from the PGA – These guys are good. Nothing beats seeing the game of fastball played by the best players in the world. It’s a shame that we’ve never been able to successfully translate that poetry on grass to the television screens across North America. (More on that in a future guest column.)
But for every team competing at the ISC World Tournament, there are probably five, maybe 10, maybe 25 or even 50 teams that don’t have budgets the size of small Caribbean islands who play for the love of the game and the purity of the competition.
It was for these guys that the ISC II division was started a few years back and it’s where my passion for the game comes from. These players are the unheralded stalwarts of the game who are keeping it alive in all four corners of North America.
And, yes, these guys are good, too. They can run and hit and catch and make plays that will take your breath away. Only it’s not every play, and the imperfections in the game make one appreciate the gems sometimes a little more.
So, what can you expect at GHFL.ca? First you’ll get coverage of the Golden Horseshoe Fastball League. Beyond that, we’ll provide regular updates on the Ontario Top 10 Intermediate Teams, polls on the best hitters and pitchers, the best bats, the top parks to play in and much, much more.
Rumours and rankings are your thing? Log into the GHFL.ca forums and talk all you want about who’s the best and why. If you’ve got a hot scoop, pass it along.
We’re going to experiment with posting video and audio clips during the year along with still pix. Now, unless Maddy and Jim move to Toronto in the next three months, we’re not going to have anything along the lines of the beautiful galleries of photos that Maddy regularly graces us with, but we’ll try to post some new stuff every couple of weeks.
Lastly, tell us what you’d like to see on GHFL.ca. More polls? More rankings? More outside-Ontario material? More tournament coverage? More league coverage? GHFL.ca is literally in its infancy and the direction it takes as it grows is going to be determined by you, the readers. Please voice your opinion. We’ll be listening.
Cheers,
Blair Setford
GHFL.ca
Editor’s Note: Here is a photo of Blair and I broadcasting at last year’s ISC II Tournament of Champions in Fargo, ND. We’ll be back in at this year’s event, at Chippewa Falls, WI in August, broadcasting another dozen and a half or so games.