During the next week or so, we’ll be doing some year end housekeeping at Fastpitchwest.com to get it the site ready for the new year. Hard to believe it, but 2006 will be our ninth year on the internet covering men’s fastball.

Because the size of our site has grown so much, we may be moving to a new “server” at the company that hosts our website, and it’s possible that the site will be down briefly, or that some features will be offline temporarily. In case we do lose touch with you during this server move, we set up a temporary site set up using our Word Press blogging software, at:
http://fastpitchwest.wordpress.com

We recommend that you bookmark it for future reference. On most browsers, that means clicking the link and then hitting “Control-D” . This site is for temporary use only, in the event that our main site is down for any appreciable length of time.

We look forward to another great year of men’s fastball in 2006. First stop: Orlando, Florida for the AAU International Tournament, January 19-22, 2005.

Update, Friday night, 12/16/05: Well, I’m pleased to say that the transfer of our website to the new server was completed this evening without problems. The site, blogs, forums, and calendar appear to be up and running – and noticeably faster thanks to the new server. Drop us a comment if you note any problems, but things look good from here.

How close is the competition at ISC II? The answer is that the division is incredibly competitive with parity across most of the board. Any team that manages to make the playoff round has a legitimate chance to win the ToC.

Here’s a quick comparison between the 2005 & 2004 scores.

Round robin games
During the 2005 round robin, 79% of games were decided by 6 runs or less, compared to 70% in 2004.

2005
1 run: 22 = 29%
2 runs: 19 = 25%
3 runs: 9 = 12%
4 runs: 4 = 5%
5 runs: 4 = 5%
6 runs: 2 = 3%
7+ runs: 16 = 21%

2004
1 run: 12 = 17%
2 runs: 10 = 14%
3 runs: 7 = 10%
4 runs: 12 = 17%
5 runs: 5 = 7%
6 runs: 3 = 4%
7+ runs: 21 = 30%

For the 2005 round robin, 66% of games were decided by three runs or less and over half – 54% – were decided by two runs or less!

In the 2005 playoff round, 19 of the 23 games were decided by 4 runs or less.

The breakdown is as follows:

2005
1 run: 6 = 26%
2 runs: 6 = 26%
3 runs: 4 = 17%
4 runs: 3 = 13%
5 runs: 1 = 5%
6 runs: 0
7+ runs: 3 = 13%

2004
1 run: 7 = 30%
2 runs: 4 = 17%
3 runs: 2 = 9%
4 runs: 3 = 13%
5 runs: 2 = 9%
6 runs: 1 = 5%
7+ runs: 4 = 17%

For 2005, 69% of playoff games were decided by three runs or less, and again, more than half – 52% – were decided by two runs or less!

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To all our American friends, on behalf of The Deuce, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Decatur Withdraws as 2007 ISC Host

After being awarded the 2007 ISC World Tournament and ISC – II Tournament of Champions, the Decatur Sports Foundation became aware of issues which may have jeopardized their ability to host quality ISC Tournaments. According to ISC Executive Director, Ken Hackmeister, “we have been in communication with them the past several weeks, seeing what options might be available to allow Decatur to retain and conduct our 2007 championship tournaments.”

Unfortunately, it was felt by both Decatur Sports Foundation and the ISC that in the best interests of all concerned, it would be best for Decatur to withdraw from hosting the tournaments in 2007. This withdrawal is mutually agreeable with both entities, and the ISC has given Decatur Sports Foundation encouragement to bid for future ISC tournaments.

The Decatur withdrawal letter states:

“Due to unforeseen issues after our successful bid on the 2007 World Tournament and ISC-II Tournament of Champions, the Decatur Sports Foundation regretfully must rescind their bid. The Decatur Sports Foundation looks forward to bidding again in the future.”

We sincerely thank Decatur Sports Foundation for taking a professional and objective approach to this difficult decision, and we welcome a future bid from them.

The ISC plans to announce a new host city for 2007 later in November.

November 14, 2005
Gordon Wise – – ISC Information Officer