{"id":18,"date":"2005-02-09T08:48:18","date_gmt":"2005-02-09T16:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=18"},"modified":"2005-02-23T08:51:01","modified_gmt":"2005-02-23T16:51:01","slug":"18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=18","title":{"rendered":"New Fastball Website – GHFL.ca"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Morning Brief column is a “guest appearance” by my good friend and broadcast partner for the ISC-II, Blair Setford, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Most of you already know Ontario, Canada as one of the hotbeds of the sport of fastball. (remember, it’s “fastball” not fastpitch in that part of the world). Blair recently rolled out a new website for the league he helps run, the “Golden Horseshoe Fastball League”, at http:\/\/www.ghfl.ca<\/a> . It’s actually home to a lot more than just the GHFL, but I’ll let him tell you more. Click the title of this column to visit the site. We heartily recommend it to you.<\/p>\n

Here is Blair Setford’s Guest Column:<\/p>\n

“With the launch of GHFL.ca, in no small part due to the tremendous contributions of Jim Flanagan, I am hoping to duplicate, albeit on a smaller scale, the success of FastpitchWest.com. Our focus will be on fastball in the hotbed of Ontario, particularly the ISC II brand of ball.<\/p>\n

Most of the press in the game goes to the big boys \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the teams and players that compete on the ISC World Tournament stage, at the Pan-Am Games and the quadrennial ISF World Series. And it should.<\/p>\n

To borrow from the PGA \u00e2\u20ac\u201c These guys are good. Nothing beats seeing the game of fastball played by the best players in the world. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a shame that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never been able to successfully translate that poetry on grass to the television screens across North America. (More on that in a future guest column.)<\/p>\n

But for every team competing at the ISC World Tournament, there are probably five, maybe 10, maybe 25 or even 50 teams that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have budgets the size of small Caribbean islands who play for the love of the game and the purity of the competition.<\/p>\n

It was for these guys that the ISC II division was started a few years back and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where my passion for the game comes from. These players are the unheralded stalwarts of the game who are keeping it alive in all four corners of North America.<\/p>\n

And, yes, these guys are good, too. They can run and hit and catch and make plays that will take your breath away. Only it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not every play, and the imperfections in the game make one appreciate the gems sometimes a little more. <\/p>\n

So, what can you expect at GHFL.ca? First you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get coverage of the Golden Horseshoe Fastball League. Beyond that, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll provide regular updates on the Ontario Top 10 Intermediate Teams, polls on the best hitters and pitchers, the best bats, the top parks to play in and much, much more.<\/p>\n

Rumours and rankings are your thing? Log into the GHFL.ca forums and talk all you want about who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the best and why. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a hot scoop, pass it along.<\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to experiment with posting video and audio clips during the year along with still pix. Now, unless Maddy and Jim move to Toronto in the next three months, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to have anything along the lines of the beautiful galleries of photos that Maddy regularly graces us with, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll try to post some new stuff every couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

Lastly, tell us what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to see on GHFL.ca. More polls? More rankings? More outside-Ontario material? More tournament coverage? More league coverage? GHFL.ca is literally in its infancy and the direction it takes as it grows is going to be determined by you, the readers. Please voice your opinion. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be listening.<\/p>\n

Cheers,
\nBlair Setford
\nGHFL.ca<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: Here is a photo of Blair and I broadcasting<\/a> at last year’s ISC II Tournament of Champions in Fargo, ND. We’ll be back in at this year’s event, at Chippewa Falls, WI in August, broadcasting another dozen and a half or so games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Morning Brief column is a “guest appearance” by my good friend and broadcast partner for the ISC-II, Blair Setford, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Most of you already know Ontario, Canada as one of the hotbeds of the sport of fastball. (remember, it’s “fastball” not fastpitch in that part of the world). Blair recently rolled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}