{"id":4613,"date":"2010-08-29T11:53:57","date_gmt":"2010-08-29T18:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=4613"},"modified":"2010-08-29T11:56:37","modified_gmt":"2010-08-29T18:56:37","slug":"dave-anderson-grass-valley-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=4613","title":{"rendered":"Dave Anderson, Grass Valley CA"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The Union.com:
\n<\/strong><\/a>
\n
\nBy Brian Hamilton
\nSports Editor
\n<\/em>
\nDave Anderson didn’t start throwing fastpitch softball until he was 34 years old, but clearly had a knack for it.<\/p>\n

Just days before celebrating his 61st birthday on Saturday, Anderson had pitched his A-to-Z Supply team into Wednesday’s championship game of the men’s fastpitch postseason tournament at Memorial Park’s Les Eva Field in Grass Valley.<\/p>\n

Although Anderson and his teammates fell 7-6 to Anything Green on a walk-off, inside-the-park home run, the hard-throwing righthander was still pretty pleased with his team’s performance. <\/p>\n

He took five questions from Sports Editor Brian Hamilton after the title game.<\/p>\n

Q. Why are you still playing fastpitch and not slow-pitch softball?<\/p>\n

A. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I tried slow-pitch once. I went out as a 50-year-old. I bombed one to the left-field fence and ran around the bases to third. But I was standing there and they called me out, because of a rule they had about being able to run past the bases. … I figured I was in the wrong place and I went back to fastpitch.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Q. Why do you prefer fastpitch?<\/p>\n

A. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is way more fun. It inspires you to stay young, to work out and keep your weight down. And I’ve been playing with these guys for 15 years now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u0007<\/p>\n

Q. How long have you been pitching?<\/p>\n

A. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I started when I was 34 in Colfax. I won my first game, won the league and won the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcC Classic.’ In 1989, we won the state and in 1990 we went to our first nationals. So I guess, it’s been 26 years now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Q. In covering the regular-season championship and now the postseason tournament championship game, I’ve watched a pair of one-run thrillers. Is this league always so exciting?<\/p>\n

A. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are some tremendous ballplayers here. You go to tourneys and see less hitting power than you’ll see here. Teams like the (regular-season champion) Bulldogs and this (tourney champion) Anything Green team really hit the ball.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Q. Why are there so many great players competing here, in this league?<\/p>\n

A. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It’s pretty much the last (fastpitch) league around. When I started, there was also a league in Auburn, five leagues in Roseville, two in Sacramento and two in Colfax. And now, this is the only one left.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Union.com: By Brian Hamilton Sports Editor Dave Anderson didn’t start throwing fastpitch softball until he was 34 years old, but clearly had a knack for it. Just days before celebrating his 61st birthday on Saturday, Anderson had pitched his A-to-Z Supply team into Wednesday’s championship game of the men’s fastpitch postseason tournament at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,18,15,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613"}],"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=4613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}