As the first day of fall appears today on the calendar on my way home tonight, I noticed the leaves had already started to Change color, some to a nice shade of Orange, and it was Ironic that the two teams in the Championship games Of the Southwestern Ontario Challenge Cup both had Orange throughout their uniforms
The Championship game matched the Undefeated Host Team theInnerkip Orioles against The Kitchener Outlaws, Last years Champions of the same tournament staged up in Hillsburgh, Ontario
Kitchener Outlaws came the long route after losing their second game of the tournament then staged a remarkable Comeback of 7 consecutive victories (5 on Sunday) to win the Laverne Reichert Memorial Cup for the 2nd Consecutive Year.
With the Victory , The Kitchener Outlaws have gained a berth in the 2008 Tournament of Champions to be held in Appleton, Wisconsin next August
Congratulations to the Tournament Finalist the Host Team ,The Innerkip Orioles although they came up a game Short for the weekend, they showed the balance of the ISC 11teams in Ontario that they do belong up in the Upper echelon of the deuce program. It is extremely tough for a host team to be focused when they had to be On the diamond and yet still be willing to chip in at the food booth, the refreshment stand, and grab a rake when Called upon as a back up Grounds crew, A great job by Manager/Coach Tim Wright and the complete Orioles team For stepping up to the plate and being our host team for2007
assuming this task with only 5 short weeks to do All the planning. A huge Thank you from the ISC 11Staff for putting on a great show.
What can I say about the Weekend, for the 3rd weekend in September, we were blessed with three days around The 25 @ Celsius for you American readers our day time highs were in between 75 and 80 all weekend
To our Blue Crew, Led by UIC, Rob Deakin of Woodstock Thank you for a job well done , great to see The 3 man system used in 4 of the 23 games played
To ISC Fellow Commissioner Blair Setford of Mississauga , who assisted in a lot of the preliminary planning Before hand and then assisting in the relaying of the game summarys in a very timely manner throughout The whole tournament and for Al Doran again on being the vehicle on which we all rely on for all of our Fastball News
To My Crew of Game Controllers Jim Marr, Laurie Fraser, and Kyle Smith, Thank you for being there To support me. The experienced crew kept the games on schedule and every little detail handled in a very Professional manner
To the ScoreKeepers and the Announcers a Great Job, every summary sheet was handed back to me Within about 5 minutes of the completion of the gameTo the Kitchener/Waterloo group that came down And assisted with the scoring a Big thank you not only from me, but also the host Chairperson Tim Wright
To the young gentlemen, who assisted in the Grounds crew a great job in keeping both diamonds In tip.top shape (Sorry I did not catch your name) but you were a big part of all of this
To the Wives/ Girlfriends and Family Members of the Orioles who manned the Food Booth and the Refreshment Stand A big Thank you. ( the Roast beef on the Bun onSaturday was a Huge Hit)
To all the Media that helped in promoting of the Southwestern Ontario Challenge Cup Thank you And finally to all the Fans and the Sponsors of the Tournament,Thank you for keeping the game of Fastpitch Alive and very vibrant still in the closing weeks of the 2007 season in South Western Ontario
See you all in the Spring and have a Healthy off season
Joe Todd
ISC CanadaEast Commissioner
Ingersoll, Ontario
Ftode739(at)rogers.com