[Alsfastball] Shortsightedness by Groves not Baillie

[Al Doran]

From: "Rick Rogers" <lightning_storm at sympatico.ca>
To: "Al Doran" <fastball at pmihrm.com>
Subject:  Shortsightedness by Groves not Baillie
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 02:22:51 -0500


      I really hope that Mr Groves takes this with a grain of salt as I am 
only a huge fastball fan and not an owner/coach or manager with something 
to lose by my own shortsightedness and not the will of others. I had a 
great seat right behind the back stop for the Calgary / Halifax game and if 
there were mistakes made at this tournament it was in this game and by the 
officials. As an umpire myself admitidly not of this calibre I have always 
had some sort of timepiece with me on the ball diamond especially when a 
time limit is concerned. The homeplate umpire missed the boat on this one 
as he allowed Barry Pennman of Halifax to play with the time as well as 
decide the fate of an awsome Calgary team. Well now to the "Suckerpunch" 
call. Mr Groves in my humble opinion it was you and not Mr Baillie that 
suckerpunched one of my favorite fastball teams the Fedlock Falcons. I have 
had a few oppertunities to meet you in the past once in Orillia as well as 
Kitchener and now in Monkton. I have always thought we shared a lot of the 
same ideas when it came to the game of fastball. I can't count the times I 
sat and shook my head in agreement reading your notes at Al's website. I 
had always admired your professionalism on and of the field. I thought your 
comments concerning the tournaments were needed and maybe appriecated as 
long as they were not jaded by your experiences between the foul lines. As 
I stood behind homeplate and watched you yell at Mr Baillie and listened to 
your comments about how you expected Mr Baillie to " come and tell my guys 
because Iam not! " how you (Fedlock) were ripped off and then yelled at the 
top of your lungs how " we (Fedlock) should be out there " I witnessed a 
very child like act... a professional man would have had the decency to 
follow Mr Baillie as he asked to the side where it could be disscussed in 
private and in an adult manner. After a short time the only thing I could 
come up with concerning your tantrum was embaressment. You were to 
embaressed to face your guys and tell them of your fate, I mean what 
explaination could you give them. As you sat in the beer tent with them I 
guess assuming you were going on. Steve Shucker of the Heflin team had a 
presence of mind to ask questions thus nowing what was expected of his 
team. I guess you were out managed in this respect. The other words that 
seemed out of place in your review of a sporting event were "Rightful 
Spot"  As far as I am concerned Rightful Spots like respect are earned and 
not given.By your own admission "Fedlock played very poorly against Heflin. 
Fedlock gave this game away." and "Fedlock tried to mail this one 
in..."  against County. Had the team had better luck and or execution your 
"Rightful Spot" Would have been taken care of and your review likely would 
have been much more favorable. As far as items missed or not handed out by 
Mr.Baillie and the organization commitee prior to the start of the 
tournament this might be chalked up to growing pains the same growing pains 
other commitees suffer when trying to run a tournament of this stature and 
not some little weekend venture played in the guise of a major tournament, 
right Mr.Groves ? You can bet The people of Monkton will have most if not 
all the bugs irioned out next year and the years to come. Each years event 
will bring new problems and new issues but you can be assured they will 
never be morally or life threatening. I hope Mr Groves and the Fedlock 
Falcons will stop by Monkton next year and play ball to the calibre they 
are capable . I am sure Mr Baillie would have no problem shaking your hand 
as he hands you a cheque for $6000.00... I know it's only $149.00 US. but 
nothing is perfect...


                                                                                                            Rick 
Rogers
lightning_storm at sympatico.ca


PS. Thanks to all the Teams for some great ball and especially our Twin 
City Sting for a great weekend.Big Thanks to Brian Baillie and all the vols 
I was treated like gold. I am the guy with the tomatoe cage.

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