Shown above are the Westerville Capitals, from Ohio. Click the photo to visit their team site on www.myspace.com. You’ll spot a few familiar faces in their photo galleries, pitcher Jimmy Yates, our good friend Rich Markham. Rich spent a few years in San Diego, before returning home to Ohio. No matter where he is, you’ll be sure to find some good fastpitch nearby.
From the Long Beach Black Sox website:
Sox manager Fred Hanker today released the updated Sox single season pitching and hitting records. In 2010 Ryan Webb added his name to the list as he set 2 new records. His K/BB ratio of 8.6 to 1 and his 11.60 K’s per game both were new records. Sox ace Ron Rupp and Randy Clay hold 5 single season pitching records each…. Rupp’s most impressive records are his 22 wins in 2009 and his 1.46 ERA in 2007. Randy Clay has held all 5 of his records since 2004. Clay’s most impressive records being 203 innings and 40 games pitched in 2004. Chuck Vranich holds 4 records including an impressive 28 complete games.
Fred Hanker the manager and founder of The Sox holds 11 Sox single season records. Six of his records have stood since 2004 including games (70), at bats (196), runs (67), hits (90), home runs (12) and total bases (167). Todd Budke holds 2 single season records both set in 2009 when he had 30 walks and a .587 on base % breaking both records held previously by Fred Hanker. Andy Martinez with 65 singles and Dan Fleming with 12 stolen bases hold the other 2 records. Todd Budke also set the single season record for hits by a pitcher with 57 in 2009 breaking the previous record held by Ron Rupp.
Click link above for more details.
Editor’s note: We’ve bumped this one back up to the top to share a photo of the 2000 Sharks, courtesy of a member of that National Championship squad, Kary Moore.
(click image to enlarge)
Braden leads ‘perfect’ blend of inductees
By Scott Linesburgh, The Record, Stockton, Calif.
Nov. 15–There’s something perfect about this year’s induction class into the Stockton Athletic Hall of Fame.
Oakland Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden, the Stagg High graduate who threw a perfect game this season, will be one of six individuals who will be inducted Wednesday at the Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium, along with the Macfarlane family. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the program begins at 7 p.m.
Softball player Candace Harper, Pacific football coach and athletic director Jack “Moose” Myers, track coach Merv Smith, contributor-coach Dean Janssen, contributor Don Schrader and the 2000 San Joaquin Sharks men’s fast-pitch softball team are also being honored.
Tom Stubbs, a member of the hall of fame’s board of directors and the treasurer, said the organization is pleased with the quality of this year’s class.
“I think it’s just a fantastic group,” Stubbs said. “There’s a great mix of outstanding players, coaches and contributors. It’s a fine class.”
…
San Joaquin Sharks
The Sharks won the “B” fastpitch title in a 68-team tournament in Springfield, Mo. in 2000. They beat the Thunder of Albany, MO, 5-1 in the title game. Among their notable players were Keith Fry, Todd Garcia, David Boggiano, Jeff Hines and Bobby Smith.
Contact reporter Scott Linesburgh at (209) 546-8281 or slinesburgh (at) recordnet.com.
Visit his blog at recordnet.com/sportsblog
Click logo above for complete story.
The USA Softball Jr. Men’s National Team is still looking for players.
** These players need to be born in 1993-1996
** No softball experience needed to be part of National Team.
** Training will be in summer of 2011
** World Championships are in Parana, Argentina in 2012
Please give these young men a chance to represent their country. If you know someone, please forward the link below.
Click here to enter player bio and contact info.
We know there are many players out there that just don’t know there is a boy’s national team.
Please help us.
Thank You
TIMOTHY LYON
Head Coach
USA Softball Jr Men’s
National Team
801-244-7477
From the Long Beach Black Sox Facebook page:
The Long Beach Black Sox will be participating in a 1 day tournament which is the last event for The Sox in 2010 and 2011. Please feel free to join us.
Saturday, December 11 · 9:00am – 8:00pm
El Dorado Park
7550 E. Spring St
Long Beach, CA
All former and current Long Beach Black Sox players are encouraged to play in the free event. Please contact me if your interested.
Editor’s note: That’s my bike path to the right — look closely, you might see me.
We are pleased to share the news that Santa Barbara will be on the fastball map for the 2011 season. The news comes from, longtime Santa Barbara player, Phil Hiromerides. The team will play in local Santa Barbara tournaments, including, most notably, the best of the West tournament June 4-5, 2011 ( held in Santa Barbara) as well as Masters events. Lots of familiar names and faces on this group.
The 2011Team Santa Barbara roster:
(pitchers shown in bold)
Ben Limosnero
Joe Vigil
Phil Hiromerides
Mick Ventura
John Silacci
Tony Acedo
Bud Sander
Mark Bennett
Pete Favero
Steve Garcia
Steve Adams
Russ Arellanes
Clayte Robinson
Kevin Spiers
Robert Renteria
Joe Edwards
Ron Mizener
Aaron Owens (part-time)
Coach Gary May
Coach Clyde Bennett
Santa Barbara has a long history of men’s fastball in the Southern California area, including the Santa Barbara instant replay team of the early 1990s, and Santa Barbara Bucks team that followed. The Bucks represented California in a number of ISC World Tournaments. A number of the players on the 2011 Team Santa Barbara squad were members of those Bucks teams, Additionally, catchers Tony Acedo (Team Rainey), and Aaron Owens (Long Beach Painters, and as a young 18-year-old with the 1990 Vista Bombers) also bring ISC World Tournament experience to next year’s squad.
Editor’s note: I’m sure this news will bring a smile to the face of our friend Dave Blackburn, who is a longtime member of this group. We shared a quote from Dave about teammate Phil Hiromerides in a feature story about Phil some time ago, “The Greek God of Hitting“. In talking about Phil, Dave Blackburn said:
“We called him the Greek God of Taters, because he didn’t just hit the ball hard, he mashed itâ€.
PK Broward IL now the Illinois Pirates.
The 40 team field:
Aragua Venezuela Venezuela
Blackburn Transport Canada
Bravos del Norte de Tenerife Spain
Brewers de Venezuela Venezuela
Capitalinos de Caracas Venezuela
Chicago/New York USA
Cobourg Force Canada
Combatientes Fastpitch Venezuela Venezuela
CPI USA
Dominicana U.S. USA
El Dorado Venezuela Venezuela
Elmira Erb Electric Expos Canada
Florida Fastpitch USA
Gigantes de Venezuela Venezuela
Hill United Canada
Hooligans of Niagara Canada
Houston Carnage USA
Illinois Pirates USA
Indios de Venezuela Venezuela
Italian Athletic Club USA
Kitchener Outlaws Canada
Lanzeros Venezuela Venezuela
Los Socios Venezuela
Maccabi USA USA
Mexico Mexico
Miami USA
Millwood Countrymen Canada
Minnesota Angels USA
Niagara Fury Canada
NY / PA Metropolitans USA
Ohio Battery USA
Oklahoma Fastpitch USA
SC Tornados USA
Softball Canada Canada
Sopotocientos Venezuela
Sureño Soy Venezuela
Team Minnesota USA
Tijuana Fastpitch Mexico
Virgin Islands Eagles USA
Washington DC Metros USA
By country:
(more…)
From our friend Martin Jorge:
Argentina Men’s National Team Staff confirmed today that school will be touring in New Zealand and Australia between 24 November and 12 December in what will be the first international competition will face the national team since he is commanded by Eduardo Sabaté.
Selection will be leaving from Buenos Aires on November 24 for New Zealand where he held a series of meetings with the selected second in the world, the Black Sox. On 1 December the national group will travel along with the selected New Zealand to Australian lands, where they will play from 3 to 5 December, the National Championship Skin, along with the eight best teams in Australia. The international series between the three selected, will run from 7 to 10 December in the city.
Yesterday, the Body Coach of Argentina Mayor announced the list of players who will join the Argentina National Team during the international competition:
1-Bittor, Nicholas Paraná
2-Bolzán, Kevin Paraná
3-Brandauer, Juan Bahia Blanca
4-Cáceres, Mauricio Bahia Blanca
5-Ferrara, Lautaro Paraná
6-Godoy, Gustavo Paraná
7-Godoy, Manuel Paraná
8-Guerrinieri, Gustavo Paraná
9 – Jiménez, Nicolás BahÃa Blanca
10-Malatesta, Marcelo Paraná
11-Montero, Mariano Paraná
12-Montero, Maximiliano Paraná
13-Montero, Pablo Paraná
14-Motroni, Bruno Paraná
15-Petric, Fernando Paraná
16-Potolicchio, Juan Paraná
17-Rúa, Fernando Buenos Aires
18-Sabaté, Paraná Francisco
19-Sacks, Paraná Germain
It is noteworthy that two substitute players for any contingency that may arise with the squad (injury, administrative, labor or personal disabilities, etc.).
The Body Coach of Men’s Argentina is headed by Mayor Eduardo Sabaté, along with his assistant Mariano Spotorno (not travel due to labor), Rafael Salguero, Ricardo Biondi, Laureano Gomez, and Javier MartÃnez Team Leader.
Jorge Martin
Head of Media and Communication
Softball Confederation Argentina
From Our Friend Martin Jorge, the communications director for softball Argentina, and host of Latin America’s number one fast pitch website “Softball News LA”:
Editor’s Note:
Parana, Argentina will be the host of the next ISF Junior boys world championships in 2012. In 2008, Argentina moved up in the ranks of the Junior boys competition, notching their first ever win over playoff round bound New Zealand, as well as the USA. The metal around in 2008 consisted of eventual gold-medal winner Australia, silver medalist Canada, bronze medalist Japan, and playoff round qualifier New Zealand. These four countries still remain the teams to beat, but in the next tier, a number of Latin American countries are improving their level of competition to press the USA as contenders to advance to the medal round, including Argentina, Venezuela, and Mexico. The other four competitors from 2008 are relatively new to the program, Denmark, the Czech Republic, South Africa and Botswana, but are advancing as well. The 2012 competition in Parana, Argentina is still more than a year away, but Argentina is among those countries getting busy presently.
(Google translation)
Argentina launches third phase of the Youth Men’s National Team
The Body Coach of Men’s Youth Argentina announced last night the list of players who at first continued in the selection process, which ends with the formation of the National Team to compete in the ISF Junior Men’s World Championship 2012, to be held in the city of Paraná. A total of 63 young people from 13 cities were selected by the Technical Corps for what will be the third stage, called “Preparing the Athlete.”
“The principal novelty of this new period is to reduce youth group with which to work, which were selected on a technical level, physical and attitudinal that the coaching staff intends for the program now,” said Mariano Spotorno, Head Coach of Argentina Youth Team. “In turn, the youth group will be divided into two sub-groups, one called ‘National Team’ and one ‘Development Group’.”
The National Team will be composed of young people who at the discretion of the coaching staff, are currently best able to meet a higher level of competition and training. For its part, the Development Group will be the kids who, for whatever reason, currently fail to meet the boys at the National Team, but it is considered that in the course of a year may reach. However, it is clear that these groups are dynamic and can leave or enter them every young person who is deemed appropriate.
From Technical Corps added that “the second important point is this stage is to start making skills with other teams for the preparation and evaluation of the existing game.” He further clarified that “with the National Team try to make teams for 1st Division Men of all locations that we visit, as well as participate in all national powers Division 1 Men we can. For its part, the Development Group will have powers against male youth teams and / or Senior Men teams a level consistent with the aforementioned group. ”
The Technical Corps reported to begin this stage, there will be a championship called “Selective Tournament, to be held in the city of Paraná on 13, 14 and 15 November, which will form the two sub-groups, and a merger of the National Team on 27, 28 and 29 of the same month in the city of Buenos Aires. In development work, there will be “training camp” where children must remain at least one week concentrated activity to be undertaken in times of summer and winter, with dates to be confirmed.
Finally, members agreed that the Technical Corps “No doubt what has been done so far encourages us to continue betting on this program and hope to get a team representing our country in the most dignified way possible, it is a long way we should go, but the enthusiasm they have put so far our young people and the support we received in each city visited and the Confederation of Argentina, we feed the desire to do more and improve the things we did before. ”
The list of players selected by the Technical Corps for the Athlete Preparation stage are:
1. Kuperman Rodrigo Morón
2. Julián GarcÃa Morón
3. Espeche Jesus La Plata
4. Lanzavecchia Homer La Plata
5. Civic Dario Campana
6. Avalos Campana Neri
7. Geuna Brian Bell
8. Andrada MatÃas San Antonio de Areco
9. Fernández Franco Lincoln
10. Simonelli Lincoln Michel
11. Villagra Juan C. Santiago del Estero
12. Tucumán Walter Fernandez
13. Villaroel Esteban Tucumán
14. Tucumán Sergio Morales González
15. Buera Leandro A. Villa Clara
16. González Kevin D. Villa Clara
17. Zalazar Silvio Villa Clara
18. Yery Walter D. Villa Clara
19. Migliavacca Paraná Teo
20. Migliavacca Paul Paraná
21. Angiolillo Lighuen Paraná
22. Paraná Fausto Villanova
23. Gini Franco Paraná
24. Masmú Paul Paraná
25. Minigutti MatÃas Paraná
26. Paraná Mateo Terrace
27. Aranaz Daniel Paraná
28. Scialacomo Giuliano Paraná
29. Paraná Ivan Sacks
30. Paraná Alejandro Juarez
31. Paraná Lucio Rodriguez
32. Paraná Lautaro Rickert
33. González MartÃn Paraná
34. Deu Nicholas Paraná
35. Gandoy Juan Carlos Paraná
36. Paraná Francisco Lombardo
37. Correa Franco Paraná
38. Alvarenga Hernán Paraná
39. Paraná JoaquÃn Alegre
40. Vuoto Felipe Paraná
41. Godoy Roman Herbel Paraná
42. Carril Facundo Paraná
43. Malarczuk Paraná Ladislao
44. Tessore Nicholas Paraná
45. MatÃas Zapata Paraná
46. Rubilar Paraná Lihue
47. Paraná Gastón Suárez
48. Zara Juan Cruz Bahia Blanca
49. Olheiser Federico BahÃa Blanca
50. Ezequiel BahÃa Blanca Saenz
51. Grimaldi Bruno BahÃa Blanca
52. Abraham Augustine BahÃa Blanca
53. Huemul Mata La Pampa
54. Fernández David La Pampa
55. Ãlvarez Maximiliano La Pampa
56. Madariaga Franco La Pampa
57. Morales Daniel La Pampa
58. Ortellado Franco La Pampa
59. Rivero Waldemar La Pampa
60. Rocha Alfredo Mendoza
61. OlavarrÃa AgustÃn Ferreyra
62. Navarte Augustine Olavarria
63. Peruilh Mariano Olavarria
The Body Coach of Men’s Youth Argentina Mariano comprises Spotorno (Head Coach), Julio Gamarci (General Coach), Martin Scialacomo (Leadership Team), in collaboration with Gustavo Guerrinieri (Physical Training) and José Guerrinieri (Pitching) .
Jorge Martin
Head of Media and Communication
Softball Confederation Argentina
Editor’s note: Speaking of the Black Sox, here is the latest on the New Zealand Black Sox, from their Facebook page, on the “new look” team for the upcoming series versus Australia in December of this year. Having dominated the world for more than a decade, until Australia took ISF gold in 2009, it will be a new look squad, though anchored by an all-star veteran nucleus of Casley, Rona and Shannon, but looking to the future led by youngsters like Ben Enoka and other newcomers. The Black Sox system has shown time and time again why they remain among the teams to beat.
From their Facebook page:
Black Sox Team for Test Series vs Australia
by Softball New Zealand on Monday, October 18, 2010 at 2:10am
There is a new-look to the Black Sox softball team for the up-coming test series against Australia. From the team that lost in the world championship final to Australia last year just four players – Rhys Casley, who will captain the team, Brad Rona, Patrick Shannon and Ben Enoka remain.
“We are in a development phase of a new campaign, historically the Black Sox only ever pick their best team every four years and we see no reason not to continue with this logic,” Black Sox coach Eddie Kohlhase said.
“Whilst some regulars have missed selection for this tour we have a group of 40 identified squad members whom are all committed to the goal of raising the bar to ensure the Black Sox keep evolving.”
While there are four players from last year’s team remaining, Kohlhase has also recalled Thomas Cameron, Tyson Byrne, Regan Manley, Bernard Hale and Wayne Laulu who have all had time in the Black Sox team in the past four years.
The new-comers to the side are Te Wera Bishop, Shaun Jamieson, Aaron Kuru, David Butler, Bobby King, Dan Tarapi, Campbell Makea and Jerome Heretuku.
Of those eight the biggest surprise is perhaps the inclusion of the 17-year-old Bishop, who will be the back-up catcher to Shannon. The series in Australia is an opportunity for the Wellington youngster to learn from the experienced Shannon.
The team will assemble in Christchurch on December 2, and depart for Sydney four days later. The series is from December 8-10.
It is hoped that while the team is in Christchurch they will play against Argentina before heading to Australia, but that is yet to be confirmed.
Pitchers
Regan MANLEY (HB)
Shaun JAMIESON (HV)
Thomas Cameron (WN)
Catchers
Te Wera BISHOP (WN)
Pat SHANNON (AK)
Infielders
Tyson BYRNE (HV)
Rhys CASLEY (c) (HV)
Brad RONA (vc) (NH)
Aaron KURU (HB)
David BUTLER (HV)
Bobby KING (AK)
Outfielders
Bernard HALE (AK)
Ben ENOKA (AK)
Wayne LAULU (WN)
Dan TARAPI (WN)
Jerome HERETUKU (AK)
Campbell MAKEA (WN)