Vancouver Grey Sox Top Host Pueblo Bandits in Marquee Matchup

Vancouver Grey Sox: 5
Pueblo Bandits: 3
WP: Mike Piechnik
LP: Sisko Sabate
HR: Brain Abrey (2) Cliff Wisdom

From

Friday May 23, 2008 – A very large crowd weathered the wind and cooler weather for an evening of very good Fastball.

Joe Santos Field
Lee & Joes: 6
Polito’s Beer Barrel: 5
WP: Mike Bobian
LP: Danny Villarola
HR: Lauro Felix, Mario Doose

Opening Ceremony
Joe Santos Scholarships awarded: Lita Romero Pueblo Central HS, Gerald Carrillo Pueblo Central HS, Travis Wilson Pueblo County HS.
Joe Santos Commissioner Award: Dan “Chopo” Vigil

Pueblo Bandits:12
Boulder Rebels: 0
WP: Sisko Sabate
LP: Russ Martin
HR: Shawn Vanduvall, Peter Mersereau, Allen West

Saturday May 24, 2008 – Pueblo Colorado – A very large crowd was entertained with good fastball all day long at the 5th Annual Joe Santos Memorial tournament. After the dust cleared, Vancouver Grey Sox won the Red Pool with a 5 to 3 victory over the host Pueblo Bandits. Both teams will advance to Sundays single elimination tournament. In the Black Pool Pueblo’s Joe and Lee’s won the pools with a 3-0 record. The 2nd seed was Polito’s Beer Barrel also from Pueblo Colorado.

Below are the individual game results: (more…)

“The Commish” Turns 40

Start Spreading the News — ISC II Commissioner Blair Setford celebrates the big 4-0 this weekend. Finally old enough to play in the “upper division”. Here’s an email link for friend wanting to send along birthday greetings, or managers of 40-and-over teams wishing to get in touch 🙂

Blair is a big contributor to the game of fastpitch, having headed up the very successful, very competitive ISC II division since 2004, including ISC II broadcast program, which has carried more than 100 games live-on-the-air over the past 4 years. He is also a frequent contributor here at Fastpitchwest, most especially to our ISC II blog, “The Deuce”. We send along our best wishes.

Update: May 21, 2008: Last month we wrote about some “fastpitch-unfriendly” airlines who were starting to charge $25 extra for a second piece of luggage. Today, American Airlines moved to the head of the class as the least friendly with this announcement:

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines will start charging $15 for the first checked bag.

So take your average team of 15 players, charge $15 for the first bag, $25 for the second — each way, for total of $80 per player. You’ve just added $1200 to the team’s bill for one round-trip flight. No small increase !

The prior story from April 2, 2008:

Airlines to Charge $50 Roundtrip fee to check second bag

One has to have a good memory to recall the old United Airlines advertising campaign, “Fly the Friendly Skies of United”. Nowadays, flying on United or most any airline is an adventure in the unfriendly skies. Post-9/11 security concerns have added hours to the flyers routine. We all grumble, but bear with it out of necessity. But the nickel and diming by airlines for “extras” that used to be included in the price of a ticket has flyers downright annoyed. And the nickels and dimes are now dollars — potentially hundreds of dollars in extra baggage costs to fastpitch teams.

Want to bring that your ballbag with you to that next tournament ? Plan on spending an extra $50 for the privilege, if you’re flying United Airlines, Northwest, Delta, U.S. Airways, or any of the other airlines following suit.

If you’re the manager or team’s equipment manager stuck lugging a bag of helmets, uniforms or other gear and need a third bag for the team? It will cost you $100 extra — that’s $200 round-trip on these unfriendly airlines. The airlines argue that it’s just a way of “being fair to those who don’t take more than one bag”, and a way to keep the costs down to those travelers. I’m not holding my breath for the day that happens. In some situations, you might be better off bringing another member of the family or booster club.

Airlines that are un-friendly to fastpitch teams:

United
Northwest
Delta
U.S. Airways

(more…)