Here is a new website/blog, from Argentina, C.P.E.F. Nº 5 - SOFTBOL “DEL POLY AL MUNDO.

Click here to view.

The site will test your Spanish but also contains a variety of photos, some of which you may have seen before, and others, like this one, which you have not. (Like the Ballparkradio girls times 100).

While Google Translator is not perfect, it will help you get the gist of the stories posted (and sometimes hilarious results)

More evidence of the game’s global reach.

Hat tip to our friend in Omaha, Nebraska, Matt Christensen for this link.

By KELSIE JOHNSON, NG Sports Reporter

Although the Bahamas Softball Federation (BSF) is not able to confirm how many teams will compete in the 9th Annual Austin ‘King Snake’ Knowles National High School Softball tournament, 1st Vice President Burkette Dorsette is confident that the tournament’s hit will be a ‘home-run.’

The national championships are set to be held from October 23-25 at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex. It is designed to unite all the teams from the various Family Islands, and it will also give national coaches and executive members a good look at the young talent in the country.

According to Dorsette, the BSF is really thrilled to host this year’s tournament, even though there isn’t a definite number. He feels as though tournaments of this nature are great for The Bahamas as they not only highlight the talents of our younger players but also points to the bright future in the sport.

“We are not able to confirm the number of teams as yet, but we have had calls from Abaco, Andros, Exuma, Long Island and Eleuthera. These are among the Family Islands that have expressed interest, so far. Of course we have teams from New Providence, most of the government and private schools,” said Dorsette.

“The response has been pretty good in the past. We’ve been having this tournament now for nine years and it is paying dividends for fast pitch softball. There are quite a bit of players who came into the (night) league from the Austin Knowles tournament. The men’s division in particularly has picked up some promising pitchers, who have played on those teams from Long Island. Quite a bit of the players from Long Island are now playing, I think, with the Proper Care team in the ladies’ division. In the men’s division we have new faces on the New Breed and the Sigma Brackettes for women, so it has paid dividends for fast pitch softball. It is like a feeder system for the sport.”

Although softball is the ‘lead-off’ sport for only private schools, Dorsette revealed that the government schools are ready each year. The government-based schools in New Providence may be placed at a disadvantage this time around as their after school activities have yet to start. However, he stated that the competition rises each year and this tournament should be no different.

Returning in search for their third consecutive title will be the team from Long Island, NGM Major Wildcats. They are hoping to retain the title despite having lost their coach, who was transferred to Eleuthera. As a result, four teams are expected to represent the island of Eleuthera, two coming with Tony Crean.

“There is going to be some keen competition. I have been around the islands, and particularly down in Bimini they have some very young players there, in Long Island as well. I haven’t seen any of the players in Exuma but in New Providence the teams are ready. It is going to be a very exciting competition. Stiff competition is expected, so it is going to be good.”

The tournament is expected to have a round-robin format, but this would be based on the number of participants. If there aren’t sufficient teams for the round-robin, a sudden death system will be used.

Editor’s note: Emphasis (bold) in story is mine. Nice to see a “feeder” system working to invigorate the game.

Click logo below to read the story at our brother blog on ISC II coverage, “The Deuce”:

NPSA Fast Pitch Championships Begin Tonight

(click banner for original news story)

[BAHAMAS] - The semi final round of the playoffs in the New Providence Softball Association resulted in some very good play all around and now the best two men and women’s teams will play for the ultimate league title.

Tuesday night the last semi-final series came to an end when the New Breed beat the Kings Real Estate Pros 9-3 in game four of their best-of-five series.

The victory advanced the New Breed to the championship series against their most hated rivals, D’ Truckers who are the defending champions.

After struggling during the final two weeks of the regular season, the New Breed found themselves in a battle for the meaningless second spot in the men’s division with the Pros, but on Tuesday they seemed to have regained their focus and easily did away with the Pro. Now the New Breed looks poised to dethrone the Truckers, which is much easier said than done. .

In game four on Tuesday the New Breed saw the Pros jump out to the early 3-1 lead after the first inning, but New Breed pitcher Leonard LaFrance got stingy and allowed just four hits the remainder of the game.

His offense gave him all the support he needed. They pulled to within one run after two innings then exploded for three runs in each of the fourth and fifth inning before adding another run in the top of the sixth.

New Breed batter Garfield Bethel was 3-for-4 off losing pitcher Cardinal Gilbert. He hit the only home run of the game. Marcellus Hall was 2-for-3 in the win.

The Truckers swept the Defense Force Commodores in the second half of the men’s semi-finals.

In the past few seasons, particularly when the New Breed was developing their team to beat the Truckers, the two sides have had a number of physical altercations that have intensified their rivalry. They will play in the feature game tonight at 8:30pm.

The action will begin with game one of the women’s championship series between the Proper care Pool Lady Sharks and the fourth seeded Sigma Brackettes starting at 7pm at the Baillou Hills Sports Complex.

(Click ASA logo for official press release)

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Amateur Softball Association recently announced Tom Dowd of Clovis, Calif. as the new Central California ASA Commissioner effective November 1, 2008. With over 20 years of experience with the ASA, Dowd is thrilled to be taking on this new position and thanks Dick Grove, former Central California Commissioner, for his guidance to get him to this point.

“This is an honor and privilege to serve ASA and our association membership in the Pacific Coast region,” said Dowd. “I want to build on the foundation that we have right now and continue to grow the sport of softball. Dick (Grove) has been a mentor to all of us and I am so fortunate he took me under his wing years ago.”

It was Dowd’s second daughter Anne who jump started his association with ASA dating back to 1987. She was eager to play the sport of softball and Dowd and other parents searched around the area and eventually started the Clovis California ASA league that is still in existence today. It started with teams ranging from 10-14-years-old and today ranges from 10-18- years-old with over 90 plus teams.

“Working with the association membership has been my most favorite part of ASA,” added Dowd. “I look forward to continuing those relationships and meeting new people from throughout the Central California association.”

Once the Clovis ASA League took off, Grove asked Dowd to come on board in a couple different capacities and he was named the Junior Olympic Commissioner in 1992. Serving in that position for almost 15 years, in 2007 Dowd then moved on from the JO position to Grove’s executive assistant in order to ease the transition after Grove’s retirement.

“Tom is a good guy and a great worker,” said Grove. “He knows how to get things done and is a good communicator. I don’t have any worries as he has been around and I have rotated him through a lot of things. This way everything will keep rolling and together we have things set up well.”

Dowd’s primary goals in the commissioner role is to expand the Adult Program Championship play in his area and also to bring back the visibility the men’s and women’s adult fast pitch game had years ago.

“It has been a little slow coming,” said Dowd. “I want to work to get the recreation departments to promote more ASA Championship Play in slow pitch. Our registrations in the adult area are great, but we have to get them into the championship play. Also, the adult fast pitch game…. We need to bring it back to the level it was at years ago.”

Editor’s note: We wish Dick Grove the best as he moves on from the position. Dick (along with our old friend “Hodgie”) were responsible for a lot of the fastpitch events in Central California. And we are encouraged by Tom Dowd’s comments about placing more emphasis on the game of men’s fastpitch. (Emphasis in story ours)

Related story from the ASA website on Dick Grove’s retirement after 23 years, after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Update: We bumped this one up, to include a link to the final bracket for the tournament. Click here for the bracket. (Still waiting for ASA to post the All Americans, link below)

[Fort Worth, TX] - Here are the results from the ASA website for the 50+ Masters National:

Place M/R Team Name Hometown Record

1st Harold’s Supermarket Lexington, MO 5-1
2nd United Sports Academy Galt, CA 4-2
3rd Texas Stars Houston, TX 5-2
4th Savala Painters Hayward, CA 4-2
5th Ohio Battery Ashland, OH 2-2
5th Geo-Per Houston, TX 2-2
7th Houston Diablos Houston, TX 1-3
7th Big Sky Helena, MT 1-3
9th Seattle Fast Pitch Seattle, WA 1-2
9th San Antonio Classics San Antonio, TX 0-3
9th Glow Worms San Antonio, TX 0-3

Editor’s note: ASA insists on calling 50+ fastpitch “Seniors” fastpitch. ( ASA Men’s Senior 50-Over Fast Pitch) In my book, ballplayers still playing fastpitch after 50 are anything but “seniors”.

Here is the list of All-Americans posted on the ASA website:

[ ………………………………………………………………………………………………]

Fastpitch Tournament in Santa Barbara

Sat-Sun Nov15-16
4 game guarentee
$350
Elings Park
Clyde Bennett 805-964-2114
6600 Stagecoach Rd 895-9007 cell
Santa Barbara,Ca. 93105

Editor’s note: A great way to support the future of the game ! Even if your team is not going, you can still send a donation to Clyde, to help the kids get ready for 2009, to defend their 23-and-under National title. (You can mail check to Clyde, or send via PayPal, to clydebennett13 (at) yahoo.com )

Tony Moyo, a pitcher from the Botswana ISF team is interested in pitching in the USA next summer. He is 42 years old and I’m told pitched in a several ISF competitions. He can be reached at tmoyo19 (at) hotmail.com

NAFA recently announced a change for the format of the Masters Regional World Series, changing the tournament from a weekend (Saturday-Sunday) event, that may require teams to arrive and play games on Friday, instead of Saturday and Sunday.

Some have expressed support of the decision, saying it will allow them to get a four game guarantee instead of three, while others point to the fact that it will require them to take off another day of work (Friday for those flying, and Thursday and Friday for those driving). Some note the 10pm starting time for some of the Friday night games, and point to a tournament where games run hours behind schedule, and the possibility of playing til 2am, then coming back for an early morning game Saturday.

Here is what the press release from NAFA said:

Currently the plan is for each team to play one game Friday night, 2 games on Saturday and then the Single Elimination on Sunday. Some teams have requested 3 Saturday round robin games and no Friday game. We will try and accommodate their requests as much as possible but the consideration of all teams will take priority. If we did play Friday night it would be after 5pm with furthest driving teams playing at 6:30 or 8:15pm or 10 pm.

Whatever your opinion, vote in the poll to tell us what you think, and remember you can post more detailed thoughts in the comments section.

Fastpitchwest’s last poll asked readers their opinion on the ASA’s decision to split the “C” National in two. Voters overwhelmingly opposed the idea (337-61, 85%-15%) The poll and readers comments have been forwarded to the ASA for their information.

Have an idea for a future poll at Fastpitchwest? Send to jim (at) fastpitchwest (dot) com.

From:

(click icon to see original post at Al’s Fastball)

Circle Tap Fastpitch
September 29, 2008
Denmark, WI USA

Hello fastpitch world. On this dreary, rainy Wisconsin evening I have some dark news to share with you. The Circle Tap Fastpitch organization has decided to cease operations.

First, I want to truely thank Darren Derricks for his 15 years of sponsorship of this organization. Circle Tap Fastpitch was born in 1994. In 1996 Circle Tap earned it’s first berth to the coveted ISC World tournament and shocked the world putting up a 6-2 mark and a 7th place finish behind the pitching of Hayden Smith and Terry Downes.

The Tappers top finishes were in 2004 and 2005 when we placed 4th and 3rd in the World respectively. Those teams were loaded with talent and will always hold a special place in my heart, who knows what could have been if we could have kept it together. In all we had six top 10 finishes.

In the ASA National Tournaments we fared pretty well in recent years as well. 2003 Runner-up, 2004 3rd place, before winning it all in 2006. Darren’s generosity over the years allowed us to travel the country with competitive teams and have a whole lot of fun. The loyalty to the local players was tremendous. That’s not to take anything away from all of the
out of area players that played for CT over the years. We were lucky enough to have played with some of the most talented players from around the US, Canada, and beyond. The CT team was run just a little bit different than all the others and I think that is what made it special. The game of fastpitch opens the door to meet a lot of different types of people from a lot of different cultures. Everyone might not always see eye to eye on the field but at the end of the day it’s the passion for
this little known game of fastpitch softball that creates an energy that can’t be matched.

I want to thank everyone who has ever worn a CT uniform, as well as all of the umpires, fans, and competitors as well as the many sponsors that chipped in here and there. It’s been a helluva fun ride both on and off the field and I’m sad to see it go but all good things must come to an end. So many memories come flooding back as I write this but there just isn’t enough time.

On a couple of side notes, the Boys of Summer will continue, I can be contacted for information. The tournament is an icon of open level fastpitch today and exploits the competition that drives teams during the regular season.

Also, if there are teams out there that need contact info for any of our players, feel free to contact me and I can get you that information if they want me to release it.

Thank You all, and maybe I’ll see you at a ball park next year.
Dean Kane
CT Fastpitch
zakkflash@greenbaynet.com

Editor’s note: While rumors of the demise of Circle Tap had been swirling since the end of the World Tournament last month, it is always hard to see a team of this caliber disappear from the landscape. We wish Dean Kane, Derrin Derricks and all of the folks at Circle Tap the best in their future endeavors. Circle Tap has been a mainstay of ISC Fastpitch for more than a decade, with many of the games best players wearing their uniform over the years. They will be missed, but I am happy to see the tradition at Boys of Summer continue. By all reports, it is one of the most popular among the players, no doubt because of the hospitality enjoyed at their park.

Dean aka zakkflash has been one of the more frequent posters to Al’s Fastball, something we hope continues in the future.