Archive for September, 2007

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Young Bucks (23U) Benefit Tournament – Santa Barbara, Dec 8-9

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

Young Bucks Benefit Tournament

Date: Sat-Sun Dec 8-9
Place: Elings Park Santa Barbara
Divisions: Upper(A-B) Lower(C)
Cost:$350/team
Format 4 game guarantee 3 round robin Sat and single elim on Sun
Contact:Clyde Bennett 805-964-2114 805-895-9007
6600 Stagecoach Rd Santa Barbara, Ca. 93105
clydebennett13@yahoo.com

Editor’s note: “A Few Bucks for the Young Bucks”

We urge your support of the work that Clyde Bennett is doing with the young fastballers in So Cal. Clyde carries a big part of the financial load himself, and can use whatever help you can lend. He has been at this a few years, and the program is paying dividends — his own team won a National title in the 23U program last summer, and its graduates have moved on to play for the USA Jr. Men’s team (Kevin Castillo), and at the ISC II and other upper level programs. The kids are the future of the game, and we heartily recommend that you help Clyde’s 23-and-under program if you can. Even if you don’t take a team to this tournament, a small check to the address above would be a great way of saying “Keep up the great work, Clyde”.

Skip that high-priced cup of coffee today, or the six-pack tomorrow and send a few bucks to the Young Bucks.

Posted in General | No Comments »

YouTube Video from KFC American Challenge

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

A clip of some coverage of the KFC American Challenge, taken in July 2007 in Oklahoma City. Some familiar faces in this one —

Would be nice if it was men’s fastpitch in the lead-in, but plenty about the men’s team in the clip itself.

Posted in Videos | No Comments »

Brackets Released for NAFA Masters WEST

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007


(click logo to go to official NAFA Masters website)

Full schedules and brackets for the 2007 NAFA Masters WEST

Click links below (uploading as we speak, so if link dead, check back in 10)

35-and-over
or Printer Friendly PDF.

40-and-over
or Printer Friendly PDF

45-and-over
or Printer Friendly PDF

50-and-over
or Printer Friendly PDF

Posted in General, NAFA | No Comments »

MS Office 2007 for $60 (Students)

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

Since Excel and Word get a lot of use among fastpitch afficionados, we thought we’d share this one with you.

Microsoft’s software can be a little pricey, but this looks to be their best deal in a long while: Office 2007 for Students for $60. You have to be an eligible college student to get this price (and show proof of enrollment and all that), but it’s a great deal if you qualify. The new version is, IMHO, a big improvement over the old, especially Word.

From Wired Magazine:

Students: Grab Office Ultimate 2007 For $60
By Scott Gilbertson

msoffice.jpgMicrosoft is running a new student promotion, dubbed The Ultimate Steal, which allows eligible college students to purchase Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 at the discounted price of $60. Office Ultimate includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, InfoPath, Groove, OneNote, Outlook and Publisher. Office Ultimate 2007 carries a list price of $680, though a quick Google search turned up offers as low as $240.

The offer comes with a 30 day free trial (which is also available to non-students via the Office website) and the deal expires April 30 2008. The offer is available to students in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Microsoft recently ran a similar promotion (now expired) in Australia, and, judging by the way that one worked, the new deals will likely be limited to select schools and you’ll need access to your university .edu e-mail account.

If you’d like to know what all is new in Office 2007, have a look at Wired’s review from earlier this year.

Microsoft’s offer may seem a little extreme, selling Office Ultimate at over 90% off, but given the amount of piracy among college students, this is probably a good move for the company. At least they’ll potentially generate some revenue.


Update: I received a few emails about the free, OpenOffice.org MS-look-a-like software, including this one from Lukas Kamps, our resident computer whiz (Lukas is the one that tweaked our forum to match the design of the rest of the site):

I just saw the post on MS Office for students. I think you should mention that OpenOffice is also available to users at a great price! It is free and open source. There are many reviews on the web stating OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org) is very comparable to MS Office, and even better in some aspects. In fact, with the new design of Office 2007 many people are finding it difficult to use and are switching to OpenOffice!

Cheers,

Lukas Kamps
Ageus Solutions Inc
http://www.ageussolutions.com

And here is the last paragraph from the Wired article that got left out of the earlier post:

While Office Ultimate 2007 for $60 is a pretty good deal, we can’t help but think that OpenOffice, which is an even better deal at $0, would probably fill the needs of most students. OpenOffice can even handle documents saved in Office 2007’s OOXML format, so you shouldn’t have any trouble collaborating with your classmates.

Posted in Computers | No Comments »

NAFA Masters WEST – Sept 15-16 in Carson City

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007


(click logo to go to official NAFA Masters website)

“Go West, young man, go west!” wrote Indiana newspaper writer John Soule’s back in 1851. Well, the men in the masters division may not be young, but west they will be headed.

On the heels of the completion of the NAFA Masters EAST in Rockford Illinois last weekend, NAFA will hold their western regional Masters tournament in Carson City, Nevada this weekend, September 15 and 16, 2007. Carson City is located about a half hour south of Reno, (aka “The Biggest Little City in the World”) Carson City was founded in the boom days of mining. A center of silver mining, Carson City is the capital of Nevada and was named for explorer Kit Carson.

Watch here for the brackets, due out any day now.

Posted in NAFA | No Comments »

Penticoffs on Rachel Ray TV Show Sept 13, 3pm PST

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

Yesterday, we posed the question, what do fastpitch and Rachel Ray (TV host) have in common?

Today, the answer: The Penticoffs, Rob and Leti.


(click photo to enlarge)

California Fastballer and his wife to appear on nationally syndicated Rachel Ray TV Show Sept 13

Rob is a longtime member of the River City Rockers team out of Sacramento, California. His dad, Roger also played in So Cal for many years, known for his prodigious home runs. While missing from the box scores during his team’s recent runs at Nationals, Rob, has had a busy summer, tying the knot in Hawaii in July.

Rob and his lovely bride were recently flown back to New York, to appear on the Rachel Ray TV show. We’ll let him tell you the rest:

As most of you know, I threw Leti our surprise wedding in Maui on July 21st. What some of you don’t know is that David’s Bridal contacted Rachel Ray who then contacted me. The Rachel Ray show asked if they could be part of the surprise and followed me around here in Sacramento the day that Leti’s twin sister (Ali) tried on Leti’s wedding dresses. They also were in Maui when Leti was surprised with the wedding. Lastly, Rachel Ray flew Leti and me to New York last week and we were guests on her show. So, I’m letting you all know that our wedding story will air on Thursday, September 13th. Please check your local TV station for air time. I know here in Sacramento the show is air on KCRA 3 at 3:00 PM. This whole event has been crazy, but I’d do it all again to see the look on Leti’s face when she opened the doors to the church and saw that she was about to get married…man, what a sight.

Editor’s note: Broadcast times vary, so check your local listings. Congratulations Rob, and Leti. Rob will be back on the diamond this coming weekend in the 35+ division at the NAFA Masters WEST in Carson City, Nevada.

Posted in General, Nor Cal, Players | No Comments »

Kitchener Hallman Twins, Orillia Riversharks Merge

Monday, September 10th, 2007

“Rivershark Twins”

From

With the costs of sponsorships escalating and the ability toretain or entice premier players more difficult, two of the games most respected sponsorship teams have joined forces to keep a major fastball entity alive in Ontario .

Over the weekend the Kitchener management team and their primary sponsor Jim Hallman, and Bob Nydick long time major sponsor of the Riversharks club met in Kitchener. After hours of discussion it became clear that the principles and professionalism that both the Twins and Rivershark teams have been built on could only continue if there was a sponsorship partnering opportunity for each club. Both Hallman and Nydick are committed to make the Rivershark-Twins a continuation of their personal commitment to excellence.

“ It is very important to me to keep a major fastball team alive in the Kitchener – Waterloo area, “said Hallman, “ I can no longer do that on my own.” The Twins organization celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2007 and are widely regarded as Canada’s longest continually operating major men’s fastball team.

“ The opportunity to keep the Rivershark name alive is important to me,” said Nydick, “ but I am more excited about the lineup we can put together by partnering up with the Twins organization. I think our chemistry is going to be tremendous and that alone will translate to success in its own right.”

The roster has yet to be finalized and with a limit of 6 PRAWNS there are obviously going to be players gone from both 2007 clubs.“ It is more important to talk to the players who we cannot keep right now than it is to start announcing a new lineup,” said Nydick. “ We have all made some great friendships through this game, the last thing we want to do is to lose one of those.”

All indications are that there will be a very balanced split of both Twins and Rivershark personnel suiting up in the revamped lineup. While the roster is not complete as of now, Nydick did say the following players have made their commitment to the Kitchener team :

Todd Martin
Don Scott
Frank Cox
Patrick Shannon
Blair Ezekiel
Jody Eidt
Ian Fehrman
Ryan Wolfe
Jeff Ellsworth
Steve Mullaley
Derek Shackelton
Evan Boyd
Dan Loney
Dave Bailey

The remaining roster is expected to be finalized in the very near future. The coaching team sees ISC Hall of Fame managers Denny Bruckert and Larry Lynch joining Nydick, while former Twin head coach Doug Eidt is still making his decision on the future. Bruckert will fill the field managers position. While there are a number of details to be worked out yet the Kitchener based team will be looking to build on the experience and leadership of its veteran coaching staff to mould this club into something special for Ontario fans.

“ Denny and I have a long history of matching wits across the chalk lines” said Lynch,“ we have already talked philosophy and strategy for this group and we are absolutely on the same page.” Bruckert echoed Lynch’s feelings, “ Naturally we will have some work to get to know all the players but as far as working together we will talk lineups and strategies as a coaching team and let the players do the work on the field. There is a great deal of respect amongst the coaches, we areconfident this will spill over to each and every player on our ballclub.”

Twins spokesman Dave Bailey has been a key to keeping the local entity alive over the past 4 years and has been at the center of negotiations over the past week. “ When we had the sponsorship conversation with Jim Hallman prior to the World Tournament we knew there would be significant changes to our team make up in 2008. I don’t think anyone would have believed how fast things would fall into place, or for that matter how we would be able to keep it quiet. With the PRAWN limitations it meant some of my closest friends would not be able to be part of this team next year. The game will really break your heart sometimes.”

The Rivershark Twins will now focus on putting finishing touches on both a roster and schedule, “ We have sometime now to sit back and start the process, “ said a beaming Bob Nydick,“ I guess the season never does truly end.”

Larry Lynch
llynch9@rogers.com

Posted in Canada, ISC, Teams | No Comments »

Fastpitch and Rachel Ray?

Monday, September 10th, 2007

What do Fastpitch and Rachel Ray have in common? Stay tuned for the answer in tomorrow’s Morning Brief.

Posted in General | No Comments »

NAFA Masters Champions, EAST

Monday, September 10th, 2007

From the NAFA Masters Website brackets:


(click logo to go to official NAFA Masters website)

35+
RK Broward Pirates, Royalton, Illinois, 6-4 over RD-SF, Juda, Wisconsin

BK Broward Pirates (Royalton, Illinois)
Blackhawk Athletic Club (Rockford, Illinois)
Central Illinois Budweiser (Virginia, Illinois)
NAFA Free Agents (Salem, Oregon)
RD-SF (Juda, Wisconsin)
Tory Strothers & Company (Appleton, Illinois)

40+
Jordan Realty, St. Paul, Minnesota 1-0 over Planggers, Benton Harbor, Michigan

Central Illinois Budweiser (Virginia, Illinois)
Cobourg Force (Cobourg, Ontario)
DC Current/Goshen Gators (Bremen, Indiana)
Weiner’s Bar/Feature’s Bar (Holmen, Wisconsin)
Jordan Realty (St. Paul, Minnesota)
Team Chicago (Chicago, Ill)
Plangger’s Furniture (Benton Harbor, Michigan)
Ramsey Financial (Bowen, Illinois)
Sprayers (Des Moines, Iowa)

45+
Harold’s Supermarkets, Lexington, Missouri 5-0 over Nietzerts, Kalamazoo, Michigan

AF Gushow (Auburn, Michigan)
Bay Area Merchants (Hayward, California)
Elkhart (Elkhart, Iowa)
Fort Wayne/Anderson (Anderson, Indiana)
Harold’s Supermarkets (Lexington, Missouri)
Holland Plumbing (Galena, Illinois)
Master Key (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Neitzert’s/Roberts Steel (Kalamazoo, Michigan)
The Insurance Center (Onalaska, Wisconsin)
DSM Metros – Des Moines, Iowa
Savala Painters – Stockton, Cal
The Stock – Woodstock, Ill
Planggers – Benton Harbor, Mich

50+
Fastpitch Chronicle/Ohio Battery, Ashland, Ohio 9-8 over USA (United Sports Academy), Stockton, California

Blackhawk Athletic Club (Rockford, Illinois)
Bowar Electric (Middleton, Wisconsin)
Buck’s Bombers (Thomson, Illinois)
Cardinal Home Improvement (St. Cloud, Minnesota)
Nohren Farms (Champaign, Illinois)
Ohio Battery/Fastpitch Chronicle (Ashland, Ohio)
Symba’s (Green Bay, Wisconsin)
United Sports Academy (Stockton, California)

Sidenote: The ASA 40+ and 45+ Masters tournaments for 2007 were cancelled due to lack of interest.

Posted in NAFA | No Comments »

Fastpitch Chronicle/Ohio Battery wins NAFA 50+ Masters World Series EAST

Monday, September 10th, 2007


(click logo to go to official NAFA Masters website)

Fastpitch Chronicle/Ohio Battery wins NAFA 50+ Masters World Series

From

Rockford, IL – It wasn’t the normal way to win national title but the Fastpitch Chronicle/Ohio Battery men’s’ 50+ Masters team did it anyway with an interesting win over United Sports Academy of California in the NAFA 50+ World Series.

The win avenged a round robin loss on Saturday night to the California contingent.

The Fastpitch Chronicle/Ohio Battery club opened the NAFA 50+ Masters with a hard-fought 4-2 win over Bowar Electric of Middleton, Wisconsin. Victor Flores started in the circle for the champions but suffered a calf muscle injury early on and as replaced by Lonnie Brooks. Brooks pitched well and got out of several tight spots en route to the win. Neil Jones took the loss but pitched well in holding off the big bats of the eventual champions.

They had a game off and then took on the California crew in that second round robin game that turned into a high-scoring affair early when USA jumped on them for a quick four runs in the first inning. The two teams battled back and forth for the #1 seed with USA claiming the win, 8-5. Russ Snow was the winning pitcher while Brooks took the loss.

On Sunday the Fastpitch Chronicle/Ohio Battery club took on Symba’s (Duck Creek Masters from the Green Bay, Wisconsin area in) another slugfest. Rick Ferry opened in the circle for Duck Creek while Lonnie Brooks got the ball for the eventual champions. The game was tight most of the way but Jeff Gaugler nailed a three-run homer in a pinch hitting role to open up a wider margin and The Chronicle Battery men went on to a 14-9 win.

The next opponent up was Cardinal Home Improvement of St. Cloud, Minnesota. Steve McFadden started in the circle for The Fastpitch Chronicle/Ohio Battery club and got relief help from Brooks who eventually got the win as the men in blue came back with an 8-4 win. They were trailing 3-0 as they headed into the sixth inning.

The championship game was played on two different fields, twenty minutes apart as the lights went out at Sportscore 1 right after the 6th inning had been played. The Fastpitch Chronicle/Ohio Battery club was ahead 9-8 as both teams were knocking the ball around pretty well. The teams packed up their stuff, moved to another complex 20 minutes away and waited for the slowpitch distances to be switched to fastpitch ones. They had to prepare the diamond, move the pitcher’s plate, move the bases in where they needed to be, chalk the field and then play ball.

The Fastpitch Chronicle/Ohio Battery went down without scoring in the top of the seventh and Brooks faced Unites Sports Academy in the bottom of the 7th. Brooks fanned the leadoff batter before the next USA batter reached first. When USA attempted to move the runner into scoring position the bunt was popped up and the runner at one was retired to set off a Fastpitch Chronicle celebration.

Shortstop Steve Betts (Indianapolis, IN) was named the Most Valuable player of the tournament and was joined on the All World Team by Lonnie Brooks, Jeff Gaugler and centerfielder Tim Kauffman.

Russ Snow of United Sports Academy was named the tournament Outstanding Pitcher.

For detailed results of the entire tournament and results from the 35+, the 40+ and the 45+ NAFA Masters tournament go to http://www.masters.nafafastpitch.com/east/50/bracket_results.htm and see them there.

Tomlinson and the legendary Nick McCurry of Ohio Battery sponsored the club on the weekend and look forward to going back to Rockford in 2008 to defend their title.

“for Nick and me, it was a pleasure getting these guys together,” said Fastpitch Chronicle publisher Bob Tomlinson. “Nick was much more nervous than was I so winning it was pretty special for him. We’re happy for all of them.”

“It was a fun weekend in Rockford,” said Tomlinson. “Getting to see so many of the people that subscribed to The Fastpitch Chronicle over the years was great. I had some great conversations in Rockford. I’ve said all along, since 2004, that I wasn’t going to disappear from the men’s’ fastpitch scene.”

Faspich1@aol.com

Editor’s note: Bob Tomlinson was inducted into the ISC Hall of Fame last month, in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, in the “Service to the Game” category. We congratulate Bob on a well deserved honour. Bob’s work was a large part of the inspiration for the start of Fastpitchwest.

Posted in NAFA | No Comments »

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