I filled in on Sunday for an umpire who had heatstroke on Saturday... Ended up doing 8U (which is way less stressful to umpire than the college and HS games I did last week).
Wow, there were a lot of $400 bats in 8U Travel
And man, some of these 7 year olds can ball...
Someone messaged me privately saying that I go out of my way to 'protect' or 'defend' umpires...
In many ways, yes, I am going to give the umpire the benefit of the doubt especially when we are only getting one side of what happened. I wasn't there - I don't know what ACTUALLY happened - nor...
Well lets see... it was 1,000,000 degrees with 100% humidity. I was in a full sweat before we started the 8am game - it was like breathing water. So that was fun.
Did 6 games Saturday (with 1 break), 5 today (with none). 13 hours Saturday... 9 Sunday plus 2 hours a day driving there and back...
Can't wait to hear this justification from the NCAA. You would think ESPN would want the game available to broadcast at 7pm like the other games.
You have a great game that rates well and you decide to play it when people will find it hard to watch it. Especially the more casual fan who only...
"Blue, what kind of strike zone do you have? Do you give them the river"
Correct answer: "A strike is a strike" (For all those umpires out there - NEVER talk about a strike zone)
The sarcastic answer in my head: "Yes, I like to make up my own rules and create a new strike zone based on personal...
A coach told me I couldn't call his runner out for leaving early because "she is really fast and steals lots of bases" (Didn't say it, but in mind I am thinking maybe leaving early is part of that)
Next inning he said "It is a really hard call to make" (Didn't say it, but in mind I am thinking...
Just spent a few weekends doing some younger age group games (and some older ones as well).
HS age teams - they look for 10-15 minutes or so per inning as a goal. And that is for completing the whole inning - not a half. Not always achievable of course, but in general that is where you need to...
Back on the fields today. 2 wins. and now it is pool and cocktail time...
It was interesting. Parents were spread along the outfield fence. I guess there was some social distancing. Generally parent cliques were together in groups.
Social distancing in the dugout doesn't work. It just doesn't...
Original Revfire unit. Two 12" balls - one ball still in plastic, one still in great condition.
$275 shipped. First to PM and pay within 24hrs gets it. No takers I'll dump it up on ebay.
*** AND SOLD*****
Well, there have been some depressing threads on college recruiting the last few days - and they are important because all of them highlight the many, many pitfalls and issues and parent-blindness etc that happens way too often.
But we should also celebrate the stories of ways it goes right...
Jordan Taylor and Sarah Pauly playing for West Australia
Barnhill for Victoria
Jailyn Ford for South Australia
And a bunch of others... You can see a lot of games streaming/recorded on the Softball Australia youtube channel.
http://www.softball.org.au/gilleys-to-feature-international-stars/
And the level of stupidity and delusion continues to rise season after season
Old tryout translator thread for laughs:
https://www.discussfastpitch.com/threads/tryout-notice-translator.24898/
Old bad tryout notice thread for laughs...
After a long, tense wait for admissions acceptance, DD committed to play in college!
This was her #1 choice of school - she has turned down a lot of other offers and a lot of other interest from schools in all 3 NCAA divisions and NAIA schools to go to the school she wanted to be educated at...
Known Nursing Friendly Softball College Programs:
Fairfield U (CT) - D1
St Francis (PA) Red Flash - D1
Liberty (VA) - D1
South Alabama (AL) - D1
Alabama (AL) - D1
Dominican College (NY) - D2
Concordia - Portland (OR) - D2
Holy Names (CA) - D2
Willliam Jewell (MO) - D2
University of Charleston...
So leaving after the end of our tournament this weekend and I thought "I never have to come to this crappy town ever again"
Because this is the last year DD will play travel before college and according to our schedule, we will never have to play at that complex again. I can't think of any...
Australia makes the Olympic field!!!
Sad to see China and Chinese Taipai not have the chance. Both deserving of the opportunity. But rather them than the team I support.
We returned everyone this season.
We played great last season, the coaches are great, all the families were great and everyone wanted to come back and do it again.
Now 18U high level A/Gold team.
I have seen it all - once saw a girl bunt a ball into her nose and bleed everywhere. Not only did they leave that in, you could see the blood on her shirt for the rest of the video. Also saw a video where the girl was just wearing a sports bra and volleyball shorts while her mother yelled...
Been an interesting few weeks... after working a lot of HS, some college and some HS travel, I helped out locally on on some 10U/12/14U games the last couple of weekends.
So... first, piece of advice for those younger catchers. Get with the https://www.catchingcamp.com or similar to learn to...
So last weekend. we are playing a HS tournament out of town. Those in Florida know which one I am talking about...
We are playing a highly ranked team we have never seen before from the other end of the state.
DD decides it will be funny to throw ALL her warm up pitches on the rubber as...