NAFA MASTER’S EAST WORLD SERIES
(Rockford, IL) September 14, 2009 – It was an awesome event with perfect weather and great fields, great umpiring and the new four-game guarantee was well received by all, except for a few players with really sore muscles today.
Congratulations to the Champions of this year’s event:
35 & over – New Image, WI
40 & over – Seadogs, MA
45 & over – Eagle Pack, IN
50 & over – Nietzer’s/Kelly, MI
55 & over – Co-Champs Texas Stars, TX & Bower Electric, WI
For the complete brackets and All-World Teams, please see the results on our web site at www.nafafastpitch.com .
Thanks to Marianne Larson of Rockford Parks District for having an awesome friendly staff and taking care of all the players and staff like they were her own. Field Prep Supervisors Dave and Gene and the entire field prep staff were awesome. Concession Manager Gene and his staff were great. Hospitality Ambassadors Cindy and Mary took care of everyone working the whole weekend and it was much appreciated by all. The gate staff and scorekeepers were friendly and accurate. Thanks to tournament directors Loren Lathrop from Wisconsin, Mike Watson from Kansas, UIC Carley Parish from Canada, Business Manager Kris Russom from Oregon and Masters Committee member Mike Clark from Iowa.
Every team that played in this event and the West Masters are invited to the “East vs West Battle†in Vegas in late October where we will play a regular four-game guarantee tournament for all who attend. In addition to the regular event, the West Masters Champ will play the East Masters Champ in each age division in a one game winner takes all World Championship game Saturday night. There will be no Friday games.
The teams voted overwhelmingly to return to Rockford for the East Masters next year on the same weekend September 10-12 in 2010, the weekend after Labor Day. They also voted to keep the same four-game guarantee format with one round robin Friday night game at 5PM or later, two more round robin games on Saturday that seed all teams into a single elimination on Sunday. The championship games will be scheduled at 4:45PM or earlier and preferably at 3PM.
The teams wished to continue using the NAFA ball but nearly 50% want to change to a yellow ball for visibility, especially for night games, so we will look into that some more. Almost half the people wanted to allow the courtesy runner be the last out like the present. They would also like a player not in the game to be able to be a designated runner once per inning. I will give other players and coaches the chance to fill out the survey for another week and post the rest of the survey results as soon as possible.
To the Teams that have made NAFA the first choice in Masters play, we thank you for your support. 60 masters teams from the U.S. and Canada are participating this year in the East and West and the growth is surely due to your participation and your willingness to give input to our NAFA Directors who guide your program and it is truly the “Players Program”.
The awards, fields, field preps, ball, format, , supervision, the friendliness, openness & willingness to make things right, along with the camaraderie between the teams in the Masters program is unmatched anywhere. Overall the umpiring was very good and consistent.
From the 31 year old who is turning 32 this calendar year to the 71 year olds(there are 7 of them), the NAFA Masters program is supremely successful because of you the players. We wrote down pitching velocities for most pitchers and the new player photo ID check went well and was well received and appreciated by all coaches.
Every event is not without hiccups and we had a couple, but we made every attempt to make them right when they were brought to our attention.
Thanks to each and every player, coach and spectator for making this an event to remember.
Yours in better Men’s Fastpitch,
Benjie Hedgecock
NAFA Executive Director
Nafafastptich ( a t ) gmail.com
www.nafafastpitch.com
