{"id":9870,"date":"2011-04-18T10:15:52","date_gmt":"2011-04-18T17:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=9870"},"modified":"2011-04-18T11:17:54","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T18:17:54","slug":"black-sox-june-tour-to-be-a-family-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=9870","title":{"rendered":"Black Sox June tour to be a family affair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cap tip to readers Eric Legge and Blair Setford, who noted the ISF’s first release of the date for the ISF Sr. Men’s 2013 World Championships, March 1 to March 10, 2013 in New Zealand. <\/em>
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Click logo for complete news story.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

By Tony Smith, Stuff.co.nz<\/p>\n

A five-year-old Pita Rona brandished a “Black Sox Rock” sign to welcome dad Brad home after winning the world softball championships in 2000.<\/p>\n

A decade on, father and son will be playing together in the same infield when the Black Sox tour North America in June.<\/p>\n

Brad Rona \u2013 “I’m 35, not 45; make sure you get that right” \u2013 says he “always dreamed” of playing alongside son Pita, 16, in a black uniform.<\/p>\n

But the thought never crossed Pita’s mind in 2000 when he went to Auckland Airport.<\/p>\n

“I was five years old. I had my face painted [in Black Sox colours], I made up a sign saying `Black Sox Rock’. I was on TV for that; it was pretty cool.”<\/p>\n

Pita, a Year 12 student at Glenfield College on Auckland’s North Shore, has grown up alongside the Black Sox.<\/p>\n

“In 2004 [at the world championships in Christchurch] and 2009 [in Saskatoon, Canada], I was always just by the dugout, pretty much right next to all the boys. In 2009, I thought `I want to be in the dugout with them’ and now I am going to get to. I am just over the moon.”<\/p>\n

Father and son agree their joint goal is to play together for the Black Sox at the 2013 world championships in their own backyard \u2013 Rosedale Park at Albany. The International Softball Federation this week confirmed the tournament will be held there from March 1 to 10.<\/p>\n

Click here for the complete story and a great photo.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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