[Alsfastball] 2005 ISC World Tournament Wrap-up - Thoughts and Thank You's

[Al Doran]

Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 18:08:12 -0500
To: fastball at pmihrm.com
From: Bret Baughman <stats4u at iscfastpitch.com>
Subject: 2005 ISC World Tournament Wrap-up - Thoughts and Thank You's

Let me start off first by saying Thank You to all the tournaments that had 
me come up and take care of statistics for your tournaments in various 
weekends through the year. This next year I will again pull out on the 
beggining of May and travel most weekends until I roll into the  ISC World 
Tournament in Kitchener Ontario Canada. If you want me to come to your 
tournament to take care of it all the way from the first pitch to the 
all-tournament teams get ahold of me when you can as my schedule fills up 
quick. I know I'm already slated to do the Boys of Summer (July 8,9,10th), 
The Hall of Fame Tournament in Des Moines (May 14, 15th), The Decatur 
Shoot-out (June 17,18,19th), the Albaugh Inc Classic (June 10-11, 12th). 
And as always I will be helping Gary with the Iowa Area State Tournament in 
June.

Now let's take a look back at the ISC World Tournament in Eau Claire, WI 
this year. First off I have to say thank you to the City of Eau Claire. 
 From the Plaza Hotel who provided me with the modem I used throughout the 
World Tournament to the amazing cheesecake on registration morning the 
Plaza was an amazing place to spend 11 days. The parks this year were 
awsome as we have come to except in Eau Claire, to the grounds crew, people 
raking and picking up garbage, and to all those people who were cooking, 
selling things, and spending countless hours at the park just keeping 
things going. A big Thank you goes out to all of you.

Ken Van Es - from the first e-mails we shared about two years ago all the 
way up and through Championship Saturday thank you for all your hard work 
and dedication that you and all of your staff brought to the World 
Tournament. In the course of any tournament as you know I spend 19 or more 
hours everyday at the park and the help of you and your organization ranks 
right up there as one of the best I have ever dealt with. Duane Hookum, 
Matt Pronschinske you guys were great to work with (thanks for the web-cam 
Duane great idea that I will be using for all tournaments here on out)

One of the hardest working group of people at any tournament are the 
scorekeepers, scoreboard operators, announcers and this year we had a great 
group and a couple I want to thank specially but lets start with who those 
people were. Wendy and Larry Duerkop, Todd Stuart, Dave Foster, Janet 
Chandler (School needs to start later, I need you at every world 
tournament), Jason Kenney, I know there are others I'm missing but I only 
had the list of names I stole from my pressbox wall.

A couple special thank you's go out to Kirk Howe and Dave Hansen who were 
with me most of the time. Kirk spent a lot of time on Diamond 1 and did the 
championship game for us (great job) and Dave who lived on Diamond 2 with 
me for the most part of 10 days. Dave and Kirk were the guys that spent all 
night with me Wednesday Night while we went through the 6 team playoff to 
decide our two wild card spots. Kirk left around what 4am and Kirk and I 
were there to the end with BILLY (not Billy Smith although he was there 
with me - late night protest committee I think we called it) but Billy the 
famous ball shagger even at 5:30 am he was going strong. I thank all you 
guys, if I didn't give you enough thanks then, believe me without you two I 
would have been up a creek.

The next group I want to thank and I already thanked them after the 
tournament at Sweetwaters for dinner but they are a group I honestly love 
and throughout the summer they are my family as we travel all over together 
but they are the ISC World Tournament umpires headed by Ron Brinkman (UIC) 
and Less Novak (Deputy) these guys get out there and work it each and every 
game and are simply the best in the game. Rob Deakin, Frank Omoe, Scott 
Mair (he really lives in Lincoln Neb.) Rich Silva, Jeff Whipple, Ken 
Vierling (who became best buddies with my 2 year old at dinner), Tom Boyd 
(He has been with me a long time now), Greg Pipher, Randy Souliers, Roger 
Cheyne, Ron Adkins, Kevin Wallace (a great friend of mine), Rick Havercroft 
(Congats on the championship plate and thank you again for all the coins), 
and who am I forgetting oh yes........ Bob Henning (He would be my brother 
if I had one and yes my daugther still has the car you drew with her at 
dinner) You guys are the best and you make my job so much easier and 
honestly your just a great bunch of guys, great bunch of friends and I look 
forward to hearing you call out the balls and strikes next year all over 
the country. I hope I didn't forget anyone or I'm going to get tossed next 
year for sure.

Dave Blackburn, Ferdi Nellisen, Ron Chambers, Billy Smith, and all the 
others that I did my best to keep up to date on the streaming broadcasts 
you guys work hard, I see it every day behind the scenes and I enjoy my 
time with each of you and thanks Billy for putting me on the air for a 
couple innings. All of us thank you for those broadcasts, I know I listened 
to everyone of them from Diamond 2.

I think those are all the Thank You's so on to what I personally thought of 
the Tournament. First off Congrats to County Materials and the Farm Tavern, 
what can we say about this championship game. It the first that went extra 
innings since I believe when Zack (we missed you) and Merideth went 11 
innings I believe in 95' that was the year Peter was 1/2 inch from winning 
his championship in Sioux City and one of my fondest memories in all the 
World Tournaments I have been to since I shook the hand of Ty Stofflet and 
got him to sign a ball in Allentown in 84'. This game you two teams played 
on Saturday late afternoon was simply a classic and in 20 years when I'm 
going back to try and remember all the special games I have seen at a 
ballpark this will be close to the top of the list. County Materials 
congrats on your World Championship.

Another amazing game hardly anyone saw because well we were playing late 
into the night was the 11 inning game between Keating's Fitness and Pueblo 
Bandits. Hillhouse and Manley went toe to toe, Hillhouse had a no-hitter 
into the 11th and Manley I think into the 9th. That is off the top of my 
head and I'm not looking to make sure. This game was great to watch, it was 
a classic.

All in all I spent 113 hours of actual time at the park, another 14 in 
meetings and registration or various other duties so If I went into every 
game that I enjoyed we would be here a while those are the two that off the 
top of my head stuck with me.

I guess that is about it for this year. Thanks to all the fans who came to 
the park to watch, all the players and teams who come each year and to 
everyone who tuned in on Al Doran and I's webcams that were broadcasting 
almost every game of the tournament over yahoo, something I'm sure we will 
continue to do and I will prolly add in the weekend tournaments I do. Also 
thank's to everyone who turned into all our streaming broadcasts, as I said 
earlier those guys are great and work hard to bring you the games.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this ISC World Tournament a success.

Bret

Bret Baughman
ISC Historian and Asst. Statistician
Fax: 319-396-4247
Email: stats4u at iscfastpitch.com
Check out all the latest ISC News at:
http://www.iscfastpitch.com/
The History of the ISC World Tournament's can be found at:
http://www.iscfastpitch.com/webstartme/history.htm

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