Yes, it’s a new look for our “Morning Brief” banner, courtesy of Maddy’s photos and her handiwork. Just sprucing things up a bit during the off season. Let’s see how good you are: Can you identify the players in the pictures? Drop a note in the comments section if you can.
Archive for the ‘Fastpitchwest’ Category
New Look for the Morning Brief
Sunday, November 13th, 200510,000+ Page Views For Sledgehammer22 at “2005 Rumor Central”
Sunday, October 30th, 2005It was scarcely more than a year ago, on September 15, 2005 when Fastpitchwest Forum member “Sledgehammer22” posted a note in the California fastpitch section called “2005 Rumor Central“:
“Now that the season has come to a halt and all there is left is the usual end of the year fun tourneys I ask the question………Where’s the rumors? I know there are some teams out there ready to make a run for 2005 and where do the players come from? Rumors baby…I need rumors. Who’s the Peter Gammons of the fastpitch world?“
The answer to that question might be Sledgehammer22 himself. Many know his true identity, while some do not. Whether one does or doesn’t does not seem important at this juncture. The fact is that Sledgehammer’s “Rumor Central” section has topped 10,000 page views in the past year. Fastball fans are indeed interested in the latest rumors, or developments in the world of fastball, and for California fastballers, that often means catching up on Rumor Central. The ‘hammer drops by from time to time with a choice tid bit of information, rumor, or just to stir the pot, and livens things up. As the 2005 season winds to a close, and we bide our time ’til next season, and as news, information and rumors fly about who’s going where for next season, there appears to be plenty of grist for the mill.
In the meantime, after helping to generate 10,000 page views in 2005, we’ll see if Sledgehammer22 will be back for an encore in 2006.
Stake Your Flag at Fastpitchwest’s Readers Map
Friday, October 28th, 2005
Frappr is a new online mapping service which allows readers of Fastpitchwest.com to post a flag showing where they are, add a note (and photo if they wish). Just enter your name and zip and Google Maps does the rest !
Take a look, or better still, add yourself to our map. (Once at the map, click a flag and the reader’s name, note and photo pop-up) Have a team website? Add the URL to the note (e.g. http://www.fastpitchwest.com)
Click here to view and/or add yourself to our map !
We strongly encourage you to post a photo; as you will see, it’s more fun to peruse the flags when photos are attached ! Feel free to use a photo of yourself posted at Fastpitchwest. The Frappr system will automatically resize the photo for you. Note that you can “zoom in” on any flag by using the grid on the left hand side of the page. (Zooming in will show you the city and surrounding area for the zip code entered)
Update: Thanks to those of you who have take the time to “plant your flag” on the map, and especially those posting photos (most have). If you decide you’d like to add or change your photo, or run into any problems, please email me (jim (at) fastpitchwest.com and I’ll delete you and you can do it again.
Update 2: You may include a website address in your “comments”, but need to include the full http://www.yourwebsite.com URL to create a hyperlink.
Update 3: If you have a high resolution (large) photo, Frappr will shrink your thumbnail, but post the photo in full size (which may be too large for online viewing). We recommend nothing larger than 800 x 600 (640 x 480 works fine, or even smaller if you wish). If you don’t know how to reduce that giant photo, email it to me and I will do it for you: jim @ fastpitchwest.com
Update 4: Great job out there. The map is growing by the day. Note that you can click “photos” link at the top of the map page, and view the photos, 9 to a page. You can click the photo to enlarge them as well. Right now, about 2/3’s of the members have a photo or logo for their flag.
Feed Blitz Update
Thursday, October 27th, 2005“Feed Blitz” is our automated email system that notifies you when a new item has been posted to the Morning Brief.
Note to our readers: We note that about a dozen or so people typed in their email to receive Feedblitz emails, but have not clicked the link in the “welcome to Feed Blitz email. So if you think you signed up for the service, but are not receiving emails from FeedBlitz — check that welcome email you received and click that “confirmation” link. If all else fails, you can just sign up again.
For more info, click the Feed Blitz logo above, or the link over there at the upper right that says “Get Morning Brief via Email”
Get the Morning Brief Via Email
Saturday, October 15th, 2005For those of you who like knowing when new posts go up at the Morning Brief blog, but don’t like to bother with checking back all the time, we have an easy, automated solution — Feed Blitz. In short, you just sign up to receive Morning Brief via email.
For more info, click the Feed Blitz logo above, or the link over there at the upper right that says “Get Morning Brief via Email”
p.s. if you do sign up, come back and post a comment here and let us know how it’s working and if you like the new feature.
Editor’s Note re: Al’s Fastball Archives
Wednesday, August 24th, 2005As a member of Al Doran’s Mailing List and daily reader of his Escribe archive, I was sorry to hear of the continuing problem in trying to restore service. [See Note from Al in story below] Al did a remarkable job at the ISC Word tournament, getting scores, boxes, play-by-play and more posted promptly to the ISC website, www.iscfastpitch.com. However, I think we all missed our daily dose from Al in the old familiar Escribe format for the mailing list archive. It was especially unfortunate that the crash took place during the ISC World Tournament.
Fastpitchwest.com has provided a temporary home for Al’s archives, and will continue to do so as long as necessary. We ask only that you bear with the fact that our archive page is a bit less user friendly than the old Escribe page. As Al noted:
“For now we are not calling it the TEMP site, its our only site at the moment.”
The biggest complaint about the archive page that we are hosting is that the newest items are at the bottom instead of the top of the page, requiring readers to scroll to the bottom to see the latest news. I have the same complaint myself. Unfortunately, the software that we use at present to generate the archive page for Al’s does not permit me to change that format. (Control-End keys together will take you quickly to the bottom of the page on most browsers)
While Al looks at his options, we are researching software that would archive the emails in a format similar to Escribe. In the meantime, we have shortend the URL to eliminate the “.htm” at the end, to simplify things, to just:
http://www.fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball
Please pass this web address/URL along to your friends so they can find Al’s Archive. You can bookmark it by clicking the link and then Control D.
—
Jim Flanagan
Editor, Fastpitchwest.com
Fastpitchwest Forum member “Sledgehammer22” Once Again With the Inside Track on Rumors
Monday, August 22nd, 2005Once again, Fastpitchwest Forum member “Sledgehammer22” has the inside track on information regarding the upcoming ASA “C” Nationals, which apparently will feature a number of players on their way home from the ISC World Tournament. Says forum member “sledgehammer22”:
“My sources tell me that there are several A and open players pitching in the “C” nationals in Stockton. Reports show that Jason Porto has now signed on to pitch for the Painters of Fresno. Porto looks to be the number 6 in the rotation. Is this just a ploy by Jeff “The Doc” Coleman to keep a good pitcher off another team? Unidentified sources say no but Porto claims to have a mid 60’s downball and a Tony Peeples change-up. Could he really be the number 1 or 2? I doubt it. Other notable players signing on in the circle are Todd Garcia, Nor Cal Masters, Chris Wright, unidentified team, Jesse Duncan, Panteras, Nate Devine, California Crew, Troy Parker, Savala Painters Bakersfield. Only time will tell if these hitters can get it done in the circle. It’s a lot tougher than it looks.”
Hey, ‘hammer, I notice you left Rod Rainey’s name off the list. He’s in the regular rotation for a team in the Wednesday night Artesia league.
Sledgehammer22’s posts at the Fastpitchwest Forum generally garner the most page views over at the forum. Good at stirring the pot, you might say. If his current “page views” numbers hold for 2005, he will be in line for some “Fastpitchwest Gear”. (sorry, ‘hammer, the girl modeling the gear not included)
Read his post and many more by clicking over on this link.
A simple one-time registration is required if you are not already a Forum member.
Here’s another post from “Sledgehammer22” where he takes Fastpitchwest webmaster Jim Flanagan to task for his tardy coverage of the So Cal Bombers at the ISC World Tournament:
Just a quick note on Southern California’s OTHER team. The So Cal Bombers are 3-0 at the ISC World Tournament. We have received great pitching from all three on the staff and timely hitting from some veteren players. It’s been a great atmosphere here as both teams from Cali have showed up at each other’s games and supported. It’s great how two rival teams during the year realize that we are representing Callifornia and show up for their friends to support the cause. I hope we get two teams in the next round. It would be Huge for California fastpitch. Maybe you’ll hear more at the morning brief??? Who knows.
Looks like the Sledgehammer’s line drives are not limited to the playing field. No word yet on whether there is any truth to the rumor that Sledgehammer22 has been asked by Fastpitchwest to serve as moderator of a new forum section called “The Rumor Mill”.
Papa’s Got a Brand New Blog
Thursday, May 19th, 2005
First, it was Fastpitchwest getting a companion site, Ballparkradio. Now, this Morning Brief blog has a companion, the all-new-ISC-II blog, “The Deuce”, with an easy to remember web address.
“The Deuce†is a blog providing Un-official coverage of the ISC II at Fastpitchwest.com. It is written by Fastpitchwest’s Jim Flanagan and ISC II commissioner Blair Setford, and designed to give ISC II teams, players and their fans a place to find the latest news and information on the ISC II.
Like the Morning Brief, The Deuce got its start using Google’s “Blogger” software, but now takes advantage of the same “WordPress” software that we use here. The new blog gives our readers access to the same features as you find here — a search engine to find any item, RSS syndication feeds, links to all of your favorite sites, the ability to print any single item to a page, posts organized by categories. The new blog “The Deuce” is also interactive, permitting you to post your own comments to any item posted on the blog. You’ll also see links to ISC II teams, and to the latest rankings promulgated by the ISC II.
The ISC II is the newest classification of competition for men’s fastball, with the first ISC II tournament held in 2002, for teams just below the “ISC World†open classification. For details on eligibility, click the “eligibility†link under Official ISC II links below. The annual tournament hosts 40 top men’s fastball teams, held at the same location as the ISC World Tournament. Following a “name the tournament†contest in 2003, the annual ISC II tournament was named the “ISC II Tournament of Championsâ€.
The 2005 ISC II Tournament of Champions, August 14-19, 2005 will be the fourth annual, held this year in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, just down the road from the ISC World Tournament in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
We hope you enjoy “The Deuce†and make it a regular stop to catch up on, and keep up with the ISC II.
Facelift for “Morning Brief”
Wednesday, May 18th, 2005In a word, “olive”. The Morning Brief has received a facelift, thanks to the efforts of Lukas Kamps, who runs a fastball site of his own, Tri-County Fastball. Lukas is a 26 year old computer whiz from Ottawa, Canada, who took the time to hack the Word Press blogging software to give our Morning Brief the familiar Fastpitchwest black and olive color scheme. Thanks, Lukas!
Feel free to click that comment link at the end of this post, and let us know what you think about the change.
FPW’s Main Menu
Tuesday, May 17th, 2005No, your eyes were not deceiving you. The main menu at Fastpitchwest has been rearranged a bit. We put things in alphabetical order for your convenience. Let us know if/how you like the change. Keep an eye out for a few other cosmetic changes coming soon.