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Bob's Wisconsin High School Fastpitch Bulletins for 2004-2005 School Year

Bob's Wisconsin High School Fastpitch Bulletins for 2005-2006 School Year


Commentary from our Readers
The commentary articles contained herein and written by the readers of The Fastpitch Chronicle website do not necessarily reflect the feelings, thoughts, ideas etc. of the publisher - they are simply the thoughts of our readers

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #3 - 2/25/05

It's a "seeing-eye" single!

Hello again. The Fastpitch Chronicle pitching clinic in Medford on Sunday begins at 11 am at the junior high school. There is plenty of room for everyone. The cost is just $10. It will last two hours.

I have some more information concerning that 8th grader issue. It's an interesting scenario to say the least. It seems that adn April 1st date and the other issues she has encountered were never mentioned during the dialogue process prior to the vote on the issue. I have plenty of thoughts on the issue but am not going to comment at this point in time.

The Fastpitch Chronicle website now has a forum board or message board where people in interested in Wisconsin High School fastpitch softball can engage in dialogue about any topics relevant to the game they want to. It's not a place to talk trash, smack or any other such descriptor. Of course I have the capability to delete any messages that aren't in the spirit of the purpose for the message boards. There are also other boards on the same page that cover the mens' game, women's game and the game in general. Check those out by going to The Fastpitch Chronicle home page at http://www.fastpitchchronicle.com/ and click on the click here message for the message boards.

Tony Schaaf, head softball coach at Brillion is a member of the Al Bauman Wrestling Hall of Fame at Mineral Point High School. The Poynette girls played there on Thursday night in a regional game and I was looking at the plaques in the cases and by golly there was a plaque commemorating Tony's participation in wrestling at Mineral Point, UW-Whitewater and more. It was pretty neat to see a fastpitch friend in somebody's Hall of Fame. Congratulations Tony! For those that didn't know it, Tony also manages a very good mens' fastpitch team in the summer months in Wisconsin and recently took a contingent of men to Disney World to play in the International Invitational there. Tony led his team to the tournament championship there. Check that out on the men's page of The Fastpitch Chronicle website.

I've chosen to take the Bulletins in a bit of a new direction this year. I will be publishing some technical articles that will accompany or be a part of the Bulletins. I think you'll find them interesting, educational and helpful. Look for the first one when Bulletin #4 comes out.

You should also be aware of the fact that all the Bulletins get published on the Commentary page of The Fastpitch Chronicle website. Just click on the commentary box when you get to the home page of the site. I will keep all the bulletins there until the first of February 2006.

Also - don't forget this year to turn in your umpire ranking forms. Let's get that return percentage much higher than the current 49%. Apparently football has the highest return percentage which is in the mid to high 80% range.

The Physics of Fastpitch Softball - That will be the main heading of many of the technical articles you get.

Have a great weekend. Two weeks before you can really get after it!

Watch out for the high chopper!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpich Bulletin #4 - March 6, 2005

Paint The Black!

Hello Again. One week and counting before everyone gets the chance to demonstrate their prowess at practicing an outdoor sport -- indoors.

After 25 years of planning early season practices, it's become commonplace for me to just think about the handful of years where we were actually outside, on the diamond on the first day of practice. I'm sure that my number of years of being able to do that is higher than some of my friends in the north in such places as Bruce, Superior, Hurley, Park Falls, Minong, Phelps and the rest of the schools with softball that lie north of Highway 10, or Highway 21 etc. Last spring my good friend Doug Schmitz in Bruce kept me abreast of the snow cover on their field as we were taking a full round of infield and conducting an scrimmage here in Poynette. I'm not sure I could coach this sport in their neck of the woods. I admire all the great people up there that have to cram the season into about three weeks less than those of us in the south have to.

That issue cuts right to the chase when people talk about getting more games on the schedule etc. Wisconsin is not a state conducive to great early spring fastpitch softball. Heck, if it was the men would be out there playing at the same time we are.

Here's hoping (and wishing) that the snow disappears this week statewide so everyone can get outside and teach.

I saw Dale Buvid of Monroe last night in Verona. My son, Eric and I were part of the overflow crowd watching the Jefferson vs Monroe girls' basketball game. It was just nice to see Dale, shake his hand and wish him well this spring. He told me that he appreciated the Bulletins that he has received so far.

I also saw Steve Schmikla, head coach at McFarland and his wife at that game in Verona. they didn't get there as early as Eric and I did and had to sit in the overflow area so I didn't get a chance to say hello to them. I waved and waved at Steve but to no avail. I guess he just wasn't looking for some great fastpitch conversation last night. His picture was in the program though, as he is the varsity assistant basketball coach at McFarland and their team had made it to the sectional.

Speaking of McFarland - on April 2nd, McFarland will once again host our four-team scrimmage but we only have three teams right now. McFarland, Poynette and Middleton will be there and we are looking for a fourth team that wants to face some great pitching, good hitting and solid defensive teams before your season gets underway. If you are interested, the fee is a meager 75 bucks for a days worth of great teaching and learning and Steve and his crew have the world's greatest hot dog stand right on the field. Turner has been getting together with us the past couple of years but can' t make it this year. We thought we had Medford lined up but Virgil then learned that it's Prom day in Medford on April 2nd. If you are interested in "joining up" get back to me or to Steve in McFarland - ( fishuntcoach@charter.net).

On another McFarland and Middleton note - coaches Steve Schmikla and Russ Schaub of Middleton will undoubtedly join the 400 win club or mark this season. Both are with easy reach of that milepost in their fastpitch softball coaching careers. They are both great guys with great programs and are both good friends. I'm pulling for you too guys!

Speaking of coaching mileposts. I watched with pride as several other good friends received their plaques for 100 and 200 career wins at the recent coaching clinic in Stevens Point. Tom Giachino of Luxemburg-Casco is now over 200 in his career.

For all you young coaches out there, a little history lesson is in order. We can now play 20 games (if you can beat the weather than many times) in Wisconsin. It hasn't always been that way. In the early days of the sport (the late 1970s and early 1980s) those of us who were coaching could only play 12, then 14 and then 16 games in the regular season. We were then able to get to 18 for a year or so before getting those two games to get you 20. So, when you think about Steve Schmikla and Russ Schaub both approaching 400 wins, think about the number of years they have been involved in the sport and also the number of great winning seasons they had to have to get that far. For a closer look at the coaches who have reached the 100, 200, 300, 350 win mileposts just go to The Fastpitch Chronicle website and look at the coaches honor roll I have posted there. That list includes everyone I know of no matter whether or not they are a member of the WFSCA or not. If you or a coach you know has reached one of those mileposts and is not listed - don't get upset with me - just e-mail me and give me the number of wins and the correct spelling and by the end of that very day I wil have added that coaches name to the list.

There is now a message board on The Fastpitch Chronicle website for high school fastpitch softball in Wisconsin. You can get to that message board by going to the home page and clicking on the "click here" for the message boards. Once you get to the message board page, just click on the one that says Wisconsin High School Fastpitch Softball. It's a forum page where you and other people can communicate on and about issues. It's not a place for trash talking or ripping on people or programs. I will delete any and all messages that do that.

The message board is a great place to talk about improvements in the game and about promoting it more and about making changes that will be good for all of us.

Keep in mind that face guards will be mandatory next year on all batter's hemets. I guess that means on all baserunner's helmets as well although the rule only talks about batter's helmets. I've never had a kid hit in the face while batting but have had one get hit in the face while sliding into third. I have had too many girls hyper-extend their knees, dislocate their patellas and tear anterior cruciate ligaments when slipping on rubber bases with rubber and plastic cleats. My calls and pleas to allow high school girls to do what their male counterparts in baseball are able to do have always fallen on deaf ears of the people who are in positions to execute those great changes. I paid close attention on the message board when somebody in Wisconsin typed a message that agrees with my thoughts. Check out their message on the message board.

I was at Dick's Sporting Goods on Saturday in between two basketball games I watched. I couldn't help but notice that the price of softball bats hasn't taperd off or gotten lower this year. Wow! $400 for a bat! I decided a few years ago that if my players want to use that kind of equipment they can buy their own bat. I also decided that I would work even harder with my pitchers to make sure your kids using $400 bats don't put the bat on the ball as often as they would like to! We've given up one tremendous blast (Bobby Sneethen of Marshall) since I made that choice. Fastpitch has always been a game dominated by great pitchers and it always will be. On the offensive side of the game, it's always been a bunt and run game when two great pitchers toe it up. I don't think it takes a $400 bat to get a bunt down. It takes a good bunter with any bat in their hands and I see lots of teams around the state that are getting some great instruction on bunting.

Have you ever heard of StatsandGo.com? It's an Iowa-based internet company that provides free stats services online at that internet address. I have been in communication with Al from StatsandGo the past couple of days and told him I would get the word out about their services. I also told him that there are coaches in Wisconsin that simply don't want other coaches seeing stats from their teams. At any rate, if you are interested in that possibility, go to statsandgo.com and get a free account set up for your team.

You're probably bored to death by now with this diatribe so I'll wait until the next Fastpitch Bulletin to type about Magnus Force and Coefficient of Restitution of balls and Coefficient of Restitution of bats.

Until then
Keep it hoppin!
Bob Tomlinson - The Fastpitch Chronicle

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The Fastpitch Bulletin - Number 5 - March 7, 2005

Get Up! Get Up! Get Outta Here!

Hello again fastpitch world - It's Monday night and since I live inside this little box at night I thought I'd bang out yet another Bulletin for everyone to peruse.

Before I get going on trivial matters I want to announce that Greendale has filled that fourth spot in the April 2nd scrimmage at McFarland along with Middleton and Poynette. I'm looking forward to a couple of those Schmikla hot dogs down there with plenty of mustard.

There are a lot of e-mails that get returned to me as undeliverable when I send out the bulk mailing. I really think that many of the would-be recipients run into filtering issues when my e-mail reaches your school network filters. I haven't figured out exactly how that works because some of you seem to get the e-mails and yet, at the same time, your e-mail address gets returned to me as "undeliverable." My suggestion is to check the commentary page of my website every day to see if I pieced together a Bulletin the night before. I always post them on the site. Just click around or browse around on that commentary page and you'll find them.

Seeding meeting hosts (we are one this year in Poynette) should have been busy last week getting the word out to regional pool teams to get their list of umpires in by last Friday. This week the hosts are supposed to be getting the list compiled back to the regional pool who are then, in turn, supposed to approve or disapprove the umpires on the list. The, the hosts are supposed to contact those umpires to see if they are available to work that regional. Hosts and schools were not to have contacted umpires prior to the schedule set up by the WIAA. I know for a fact that the process was circumvented in at last a few instances. Remember, the seeding hosts issue the contracts to the umpires for the entire regional.

In my humble opinion, there is a better way to assign umpires for the WIAA tournament series, but in order to get to that point, we all have to get those umpire ranking forms back to the WIAA at the conclusion of the season.

OK - enough on the administrative end of the game and on to the meat and potato's.

Tonight's Topic - C.O.R. = Coefficient of Restitution - and ball compression

In Wisconsin the WIAA has a licensing agreement with Dudley (now and for quite a few years, a division of H.G. Spalding and probably somebody else by this time). The WIAA has chosen to use a cork center ball with an optic yellow cover as the official tournament ball.

Most schools (coaches) choose to use the same ball during the regular season as the WIAA requires in the tournament series so that SB12LND-FP gets used in most of the games in the state of Wisconsin. Illinois, on the other hand, uses a Wilson ball with a polycore center.

Both the Dudley and the Wilson ball used in Illinois meet the .47 Coefficient of Restitution rule and the compression limits

So what is coefficient of restitution and what does ball compression mean you might ask?

Actually, there is more to Coeffecient of Restitution than most people realize. Here is what it is all about.

When bats and balls had no restrictions on their performance, the game got very, very scary. Balls were being manufactured that never softened up, never went out of round and were being named with tags such as Patriot (after the Patriot Missles that knocked SCUD missles out of the air during the first gulf war - so that takes us back to the early 1990s). The intention of the ball manufacturers in those days was to draw the buyers and users attention to the fact that their new softballs weren't soft at all and would leave the bat like missles (guided or unguided - it didn't matter). Then the bat manufacturers started experimenting with new aluminum and metal alloys that were stronger and stronger and would withstand the tremendous energy when bat and ball collision occurs. They had "trampoline effect" figure out very well. Lighter and lighter bats with thinner and thinner walls produced higher bat exit speeds due to that trampoline effect. Tennis players are really familiar with trampoline effect. They know that in order to hit a ball harder they have to loosen up the strings on their rackets rather than tighten them. The more trampoline effect they can get, the faster the ball leaves the racket.

When bat and ball collision occurs, it is extremely violent. Contact lasts for just 1ms or 1/1000 of a second. The faster the ball is going and the faster the bat is moving, the more violent the collision and the more trampoline effect occurs (there is no trampoline effect with a wooden bat). When bat and ball collision occurs the energy from the collision is absorbed by both the ball and the bat and much of it is dissipated and in a cork center ball the energy is dissipated more than in a polycore ball. The bat absorbs some of the energy in vibration but new bats are manufactured to take that up in more trampoline effect.

All balls are rated by COR and that is done in a testing lab where a ball is delivered from a pitching machine onto a solid wall. The speed of the ball is measured just before it strikes the wall and measured again as it leaves the wall. If the ball was going 60 mph on impact and is going 28.2 mph on the rebound, that ball is a .47 COR ball. Pretty easy eh?

Things change however when the ball collides with another moving object like a bat. In John Tschida's talk on hitting at the coaching clinic we heard him talk about using as heavy a bagt as you can and still swing it fast because a heavier bat creates higher exit speeds. John knows what he is talking about. he reads the same stuff I do and he measures bat speeds and exit speeds. If your players can handle a 25-26 ounce bat as quickly as they can a 22-23 ounce bat, they will hit the ball harder and farther.

When bat and ball collision occurs there are actually two separate coefficients of resitution - one for the ball and one for the bat and the higher the compression of the ball, the less dissipation there is. That's why we can't use balls with high compression levels. The exit speeds are too fast and too dangerous. (face masks on batter's helmets)

Cork center balls rarely test out at .47 in the labs but people wouldn't buy them if they were labeled less than that. The rule says that the ball can't exceed .47 and cork center balls don't exceed it, they just never get that high. They are usually about .44 out of the box. The issue with cork center balls in a game where pitching has something to be desired is that the COR of the ball decreases quickly when hit often. Don't believe me? Try hitting one of your once used game balls as far as you can a new cork center ball right out of the box. There's is a world of difference.

So why all this diatribe you ask? Remember those $400 bats I typed about yesterday? They are great performers, but if your kids can swing the same model bat that is 4-6 ounces heavier just as fast as they can the lighter ones, they will hit that cork center Dudley farther because their exit speeds will have increased.

Also keep in mind that the closer the balance point of the bat is to the sweet spot the more energy that will be delivered at collision. Of course, when you move the balance of the bat closer to the sweet spot, you give up something closer to your hands. When that girl who throws the pill about 60 mph saws your kid off on the inside corner, and your kid has a nest full of bees in her hands, on one of our cold Wisconsin spring days, your batter probably won't be as apt to swing it again and the pitcher has her way with your batter!

Hey - it's been fun! For more great reading on the Physics of Fastpitch Softball give me an e-mail and I will lead you to places where some of the world's greatest physicists who also happen to be ball fans write about their experiments on this stuff.

Have a great day!
Keep it hoppin!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin Number 6 for 3/9/05

One for a rise, two for a drop and three for a change!

Hello again everyone. I had lots of e-mails about The Bulletin from the other night. If you want to learn more about bat speed etc. just drop me an e-mail and I’ll give you some ideas on where you can get plenty of information on that topic.
Today’s scientific topic will surround Magnus effect etc. but first there a couple more important topics to cover.
1) Get your dues paid to WFSCA if you have not done so yet.
2) Get your umpire information back to your seeding host this week as they will be contracting umpires next week.
3) Somebody take the bull by the horns like coaches in the Cloverbelt East, Cloverbelt West, Trailways South, Northern Lakes, East Central Flyway Rivers, Lumberjack, South Central and Randolph have done and send in pre-season previews for your conference. To check out the ones that have been sent in just go to the 2005 Preview page of The Fastpitch Chronicle website.

Check out the forum page on The Fastpitch Chronicle website. You get there by simply clicking on the message board line on the home page of the site. If you have a topic you want to get dialogue going on, just type it in there and watch the replies as they come in.

I have had an inquiry from a Minnesota resident who is interested in getting a team into a couple of summer youth tournaments in Western Wisconsin – specifically in Star Prairie and in Birchwood. Anyone in that part of the state that can help me out so I can help the Minnesota fellow out just e-mail back to me with that contact information for those two summer tournaments.

Anyone out there have a used pitching machine for sale? I have a person looking for one of those. Let me know if you do, what brand it is, and how much you want for it. Maybe I need a classified section on The Fastpitch Chronicle website.

Ok – Magnus Force

When a softball leaves the pitcher’s hand and heads for the catcher it is usually spinning (unless it’s a knuckleball). We all know that the ball will usually move or break in the direction that the ball is spinning. If the pitcher is right handed and the ball is spinning very rapidly in a counter-clockwise direction and the velocity of the pitch is fast enough, the ball will break away from a right handed batter (thus a curve ball). If the ball is spinning over-the-top (from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock) the ball will drop faster than gravity would normally make it drop. If the ball is spinning backward from 6 o’clock to 12 o’clock and is moving at a high rate of speed and the spin is fast, the ball will go up suddenly (rise ball).

The reason those pitches move in those directions is caused by the Magnus Force. As the ball spins (and the faster it spins the more Magnus Force it creates) the pressure exerted on the ball is greater on the side of the ball where the spin originated than it is on the other side of the ball. A right handed pitcher throwing a curve ball would put that initial spin on the ball on the right side of the ball. Thus, as the ball spins in it’s counter-clock-wise rotation as it flies through the air towards the target, there is more pressure on the right side of the ball than there is the left side. The side with less pressure actually creates an “air-pocket” near the ball where the pressure is less than it is on the opposite side, and naturally the ball moves into the air-pocket. It keeps doing that until the ball’s velocity falls below a speed where there is no longer a Magnus Force or until it is strikes a bat, or another object (hopefully my catcher’s mitt). A drop ball has more pressure on the top of the ball than the bottom of the ball, thus a drop ball. A rise ball must be spinning very rapidly with the greater pressure on the underside of the ball rather than the top. I think you get the picture.

The faster a ball spins, the greater the Magnus Force. Even with tremendous spin, the ball must still reach velocities where Magnus Force can occur. Most people who study and teach us about the Physics of Baseball such as Yale University Sterling Professor of Physics, Robert Adair and the University of Illinois’ Alan Nathan tell us that due to it’s size and density, a baseball must go at least 55 mph to create any Magnus Force at all.

We throw balls that have a greater surface area than baseballs and therefore require less velocity to create Magnus Force and cause them to break. The faster they spin though, the greater the chances are of that pitch breaking.

Some pitches break more at lower velocities at the distances we pitch (40’ especially). Curve balls thrown at 60 mph do not break as far as curve balls thrown at 55 mph when each pitch has the same number of revolutions in the same elapsed time. They do break sharper, however, at 60 mph than they do at 55.

I have played fastpitch softball since 1964 and have played in the toughest tournaments in the world and faced some the greatest pitchers who have ever played the game. I have faced Ty Stofflet, Peter Meredith, Michael White, Jimmy Moore, Peter Finn, Peter Carlson to name just a few. I have also had the pleasure of watching others who are considered to be some of the greatest of all time like Darren Zack, Brad Underwood, Paul McGann, Steve Schultz and other makes and have watched some great females including many females such as Michelle Smith, Kathy Arendsen, Lisa Fernandez, Lori Harrigan, Cheri Kempf, Jenny Finch, and others.

In all those trips to the ball yards I have watched balls go up, balls go down, balls move to one side or the other as well as balls that just seem to float across the plate, but the craziest curve ball I have ever watched was thrown by a Class B pitcher from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin at about 60 mph. It broke so much that about all you could do was laugh as it sailed past the end of your bat. I wish I could tell you his name but I can’t.

Speed isn’t everything – ball movement is just as important and so is upsetting a batter’s timing! Knowing everything there is to know about making a ball move once it leaves the pitcher’s hand won’t do anyone a bit of good if that pitcher can’t put that pitch where it needs to be thrown, when it needs to be thrown.

Have a great day!
Keep it moving into that Magnus Factor.
Bob Tomlinson

 

 

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #7 for March, 15, 2005

Get after it!

Hello Again Everyone,

The Fastpitch Chronicle website now offers a Wisconsin High School Message Board (it's a fastpitch forum) and there have been several coaches post requests for games as they are short on their schedule. Since the message boards are not getting the number of hits that they will get once people realize that it's a great place to carry on dialogue, ask question, pose situations and crazy plays that happen, I thought I'd include those game requests in a Bulletin. Here's the latest one from Arcadia High School. The contact name and e-mail address are at the end of the italicized message.

Arcadia is looking for 1 varsity game - we had a team back out of our non-conference schedule. We have one team lined up already, but they have done very poorly against us the last few years and would love to beef up our non-conference schedule. We would be willing to play a team from any division - school size is not an issue.

Contact me at rockypierzina@yahoo.com if you are interested.

The next one is from Michelle Biwer at Dodgeland High School. She has a top-notch program that will give anybody, in any division a run for their money. She can be reached at
biwer@dodgeland.k12.wi.us and she is looking for a varsity and JV game on May 16-17. Contact her at that e-mail address.

Madison Memorial is also looking for one varsity game. Contact Patrick Joyce at Memorial High School.

There is still room for a couple more teams in the Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree which is played on Friday and Saturday May 6-7 this year. Contact me for more information.

Don't forget to fax that sheet from the WIAA back to the WIAA that says that you received and read through the rules changes etc.

Everyone should be revisiting the Flex Player rule as well so as to make sure you understand it as well or better than the people in blue do when the games begin.

Everyone should also be visiting the score reporting area of the website and taking a close look at that game summary from the ficticious game between Hooterville and BugTussle. That method of reporting your scores to me really works slick. It doesn't take very long either. If everyone gets the hang of that method the daily score pages will be easy to do and easy to follow and will look like they ought to.

I wonder if any other seeding hosts have had as much trouble securing umpires to officiate those regionals as we have at Poynette. First, some teams in the regional failed to send us the names of any umpires. Then when we contacted the umpires, they'd already committed to other places. That's really beating the system since we followed the WIAA system to a T. Seems as though things got circumvented. We're still looking for sets of good umpires to officiate in what really is one of the toughest Division 3 regionals in the state.

Hey - have a great day and as always -------

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #8 for 3/16/05

Say Hey Willie and Put Me in Coach!

Hello again to everyone.

I keep getting about 130 good e-mails back in my returned mail box every time I send out a Bulletin. Ask your coaching friends if they are getting them and if they are not tell them to e-mail to me to 1) make sure I have the correct e-mail address and 2) to determine whether it's a firewall and filter issue at the school they teach at.

Two people have sent e-mails asking me to explain the DP/FLEX rule. They are both new coaches this year. Since last year was the first year for the rule and with an understanding that many coaches last year didn’t really understand the rule, or use it, I figured tonight would be a great night to use it as a Bulletin topic. Here is the rule as it appears in the rule book (Pages 32-33).

The DP/Flex Rule

Rule 3, Section 3, Article 6

Art. 6 . . . (F.P.) A team may use the DP/FLEX option provided it is made known prior to the start of the game.

a. The DP’s name is indicated on the lineup as one of the nine hitters in the batting order.

b. The name of the player for whom the DP is batting (FLEX) will be placed in the 10th position in the lineup.

c. The DP must remain in the same position in the batting order for the entire game. A starter and any substitute for a starter may not be in the game at the same time.

d. The DP may be substituted for at any time by a legal substitute or the FLEX may play offense for the DP. In either case, the DP will leave the game. If replaced by a substitute, the DP position remains in the lineup. A starting DP may re-enter one time, provided the DP returns to the original position in the batting order.

1. If replaced by the FLEX, this reduces the number of players from ten (10) to nine (9). The game may legally end with nine (9) players.

2. If the DP re-enters or a substitute enters as the DP and the FLEX was batting in the DP’s spot, the FLEX can: a) return to the number 10 position and play defense, or b) leave the game if the DP plays defense for the FLEX.

e. The DP may play defense at any position. Should the DP play defense for a player other than the FLEX, that player will continue to bat but not play defense, and is not considered to have left the game. The DP may go play defense for the FLEX and the FLEX is considered to have left the game, reducing the number of players from ten to nine.

f. The FLEX may be substituted for at any time by a legal substitute or the DP may play defense for the FLEX. In either case, the FLEX will leave the game. If replaced by a substitute, the FLEX position remains in the lineup. The FLEX may re-enter the game one time provided she returns to the tenth position in the lineup.

1. If replaced by the DP, this reduces the number of players from ten (10) to nine (9) players.

2. If the FLEX re-enters or a substitute enters as the FLEX and the DP was playing defense in the FLEX player’s spot, the DP can return to batting only, play defense for another player or leave the game if the FLEX plays offense for the DP.

g. Placing the FLEX into one of the first nine positions for someone other than the DP’s position is considered an illegal substitution. The illegal substitute shall be removed from the game and restricted to the dugout/bench. See Rule 2-57-2 for additional penalties.

OK you say, what’s that all mean? Here is an explanation using some names from our Hooterville vs Bug Tussle game on the website. To see that game summary example just click on this link: http://www.fastpitchchronicle.com/week 1.html and take a look.

Hooterville chooses to use the DP/FLEX rule in today’s game against Bug Tussle. The Hooterville manager, Sam Drucker, chooses to use Bobbi Jo as the FLEX player because she is not a very good hitter but is the greatest shortstop this side of Green Acres. He uses Billi Jo as the DP and bat her fourth because she can hit. Billi Jo’s name appears in the number 4 spot on the lineup card and Bobbi Jo’s name appears in the 10th spot on the lineup card.

In the third inning, Sam Drucker decides to get his other pitcher warmed up during their defensive half of the inning. His other pitcher is Betti Jo and she has been playing first base during the first two innings. Sam sends the DP, Billi Jo out to play first base and has Betti Jo begin warming up behind the dugout. The FLEX player, Bobbi Jo remains in the game at shortstop. This is not a substitution because the original 10 players are still in the game.

In the defensive half of the fourth inning, Sam Drucker puts Betti Jo back out on first base and brings the DP, Billi Jo back to the dugout. There still has not been a lineup change.

Later in the game Sam Drucker chooses to have the FLEX player, Bobbi Jo bat for the DP, Billi Jo. Now a lineup change has occurred because a new batter is involved. The FLEX player position has just been terminated unless a re-entry involving those two players takes place.

If all the Billi Jo, Bobbi Jo and Betty Jo stuff didn’t confuse you more, then you have the idea.

Here is another situation that gets people’s blood pressure to rise.

Number 25 was batting in the leadoff spot but Number 12 is found to be batting in that spot in the batting order. The coach of the team on defense appeals to the umpire that Number 25 should be the batter and not Number 12. That coach wants #12 declared out for failing to report or be reported.

Rule 3,6,12 covers that situation. Actually Rule 3, 6, 1 thru 12, all get one team warning before a penalty is involved. In the case I described above, #12 is considered to be an unreported substitute and is therefore not out. The next unreported substitute, however, is ejected from the game and restricted to the dugout/bench area for the remainder of the game. The coach is allowed to screw up one time per game when it comes to not reporting substitutes.

And just one more common occurrence that I can help clear up tonight.

Rule 3, Section 3, Article 1 … A player, who is not listed as an eligible substitute on the lineup card, shall not be prohibited from playing.

Knowledge of the rulebook by the coach is fundamental to being the coach. Not knowing the rulebook might put you in a situation where a mistake in administering the rules causes you to lose a game. Your kids deserve better than that. John Tschida talked about the importance of knowing the rules when he spoke at the WFSCA Clinic in February.

Know the rules and teach them to your players. Don’t expect your players to know them just because they’ve been playing ball since their t-ball days. Players who know the rules can make some interesting plays for you.

Back to that Hooterville vs Bug Tussle game summary. Click here http://www.fastpitchchronicle.com/week 1.html and take a look at that summary and if possible use that format to report your scores this year.

I'd like to be able to offer everyone a simple game reporting template that would automatically put your summary on my website with a simple click on your end but ---- that costs plenty of dough to get set up. As you look at my website you should quickly notice that there are no advertisements except on the message board pages and I get no money from those. This operation is funded out of my pocket so I'll continue to cut and paste your summaries. Please just take a moment to look at that summary and try it out.

Day #4 is tomorrow. My pitchers, like most of yours are ready to take on an opponent. They'll just have to be patient.

Have a great day and as always . . . .

Keep it Rising!

Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin Number 9 for March 17, 2005

That's Why I'm Out Here in Rightfield, Just watchin' the Dandelions Grow!

It's important to know how to catch -- to know how to throw!

Two great lines from a great Peter, Paul and Mary song.

It's another snowy night in South Central Wisconsin with perhaps a foot of snow expected in the central part of the state north to Highway 10 or so according to the news here. Ooooofffdah! I hate indoor practice.

I urge you to check out the Conference preview page on a daily basis. More people have submitted either complete conference previews or individual school previews. I received a great preview today from Greg Lampe, former Oak Creek coach, detailing the Southeast Conference. If you see that nothing is there for your conference (and there are plenty of conferences with nothing there) just get on the stick and get something in. Also check out the previews in the Big 8 Conference area from Madison East and Madison West. There is also a great preview from Columbus of the Capitol Conference. Scroll down through the entire list of conferences and take it all in.

Or perhaps you're one of those people who keep trying to hide from everybody. Those days are over friends. Word in the fastpitch world has always spread pretty darn quickly. An old friend of mine always said there were three ways to spread fastpitch news, gossip and ballyard chatter - 1) the telephone 2) the telegram and 3) tell another fastpitch person.

In this day and age number 3 is really fast because you can tell that to them in an e-mail message and with just a quick click that e-mail can be spread globablly in seconds. So tell another fastpitch person really moves the communication system along quickly. You may try to hide but we'll find your team.

I got a great e-mail from Virgil Berndt in Medford today in response to last night's Bulletin about the rules I covered and he made me feel pretty good when he reported that it was snowing again in Medford and that I had not been the cause of it. Thanks Virgil.

The message boards are starting to get some action. The latest topic or one of them centers around the new rule going in for next season whereby all batter's helmets must have face masks attached to them. As expected some are in favor and others are not.

It's getting late (11:15 PM) so until the next Bulletin finds its way to your mailbox -

Keep it Rising!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #10 for March 21, 2005

The Fastpitch BulletinI looked up and a ball fell into my glove!

Hello Again Everyone!

Wow! The number of people who respond to the Bulletins is incredible and thanks for the kind words.

The Bulletins are always published on the Commentary Page of my website so you can tell your friends they can read them there or you can send me their good e-mail addresses and I will add them to the list.

Here is an additional point to go along with the explanation of the DP/FLEX rule I did last week. Thanks to my good friend John Peterson of Madison, we have this additional bit of information (which is really important to know). Also thanks to Jim Wickert for pointing out the same information.

Here it is:
Bob, good play situation on the DP/Flex. One correction. You said, "The FLEX player position has just been terminated unless a re-entry involving those two players takes place." That isn't completely accurate.
When flex plays offense the team is reduced from 10 to 9 players temporarily. The coach can return to 10 players (with Flex) by (1) reentering the substitute for the starting DP and returning Flex to 10th spot and (3) entering substitutes for both the DP and Flex and returning to 10 players.

John Peterson

I got news today from Amy up in Superior that she is taking this season off and for good reason - she is expecting in three weeks. Congratulations Amy!

I have added quite a few more conference previews and also some individual school previews to that page of the website. Check those out. If your conference or your school isn't represented therein, then you can rectify that very easily - just type up a preview and zip it off to me via e-mail to faspich1@aol.com and I will add it to the page. Rankers are anxiously awaiting that information.

Also keep in mind that statsandgo.com offfers free stat hosting on their website at http://www.statsandgo.com/ so if you have not checked that out give it a look see this week. Contact Al Miller at statsandgo for more information. He's a fastpitch player from the Fort Dodge, Iowa area himself.

We're off school this week at Poynette but softball practice keeps me around. I gave the kids and the coaches today and tomorrow off and today found my wife and I in Beaver Dam and Columbus doing the antique mall and antique store thing. Those of you who know me well know that I am a sucker for old softball and baseball equipment. Today was a good day for my museum but a bad one for my checkbook. I found an early 1900s catcher's mask in Beaver Dam as well as a very old Louisville Slugger wooden softball bat. They'll both fit in nicely in the museum here.

Here's an update on the Whiffle Ball Stadium in my back yard. Last summer a huge wind storm blew down a very, very old oak tree. It crashed through the Big Green Monster I have in right field of the stadium and took down all 16 feet of outfield wall. The tree is still there and will soon be a stack of firewood. I hope to have the stadium up to snuff by the end of the summer when my grandson turns three. He's the reason I started the project four or five years ago. If you are in the Poynette area and want to have a great game of Whiffle Ball, stop in and use the stadium. It's completely enclosed with plywood, has dugouts, astro turf infield from Rich Stadium in Buffalo (OJ ran on it), will have an in-ground sprinkler system, sound system and more. It also has a party deck in left-center field where you can just sit in the shade and watch.

Hey, it's been great!
Have a great day of practice.

Check out the message boards on the website. There are some very interesting thoughts posted there.

Keep it Rising!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #11 - 3/27/05

Batter Up!

It's week #1 of the competitive season here in Wisconsin. There are quite a few games scheduled this week and if your team is one of them and you play, remember to e-mail your scores and game summaries to me. If you don't think you can find the time to do so, find somebody else to get the job done.

Go to Week #1 and read the Hooterville vs Bug Tussle game summary again and bone up on the most crisp way to send a summary. I'll take anything you send but that format really works quickly for me on this end.

I'll have another bulletin out tomorrow night.

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #12 for March 28, 2005

Let's Play two!

Ernie Banks coined that phrase way back in the 50s and today was a great day to use it (if you had lights).

At Poynette we got on our diamond with full infield and outfield and no water and no damp spots either. I left practice to my assistant coaches because I have been suffering from fastpitch withdrawal so bad I needed to get a fix just by watching a game.

I went to Waunakee and watched the Warriors take on the River Valley Blackhawks. The weather was superb, the Waunakee diamond was in pretty good shape. It was soft and ground balls slowed down very quickly but they were playing anyway.

It was a game filled with misplayed chances in the infield but heck, it was probably the first time either team had really been on a diamond. Some mistakes are to be expected and afterall it's tough to get better if you don't make a few mistakes to learn from.

I don't know if there were any other games today - not one game has been sent in (including the Waunakee game). I typed a short blurb about the game on the Week 1 results so you can read that there.

There are more team and conference profiles posted on the preview page.

You might also note that I've added a counter to some of the pages to get an idea of how many separate IP addresses click in to the website. This project isn't a free one from my end so maybe an ad or two will appear here and there if we get enough hits to show that there might be some benefit to placing a cheap, small add herein.

As the season gets underway - perhaps a short session herein on scoring would be in order. Remember, when a player reaches base safely it is not necessarily a single, double, triple or home run. There are many ways to reach base safely and not get credited with a hit. At the end of the year, if you turn in inflated batting averages and other inflated offensive statistics, don't think you are fooling anyone.

Get somebody on your scorebook who knows what they are doing. The media for years looked upon our sport as nothing but an extension of the community's recreation program. It has taken a lot of work to get high school fastpitch any ink in those newspapers and some conferences still only get their score printed while others get a line score and some even get written game sumamaries with box scores.

Here are some facts to keep in mind when tallying your statistics.

There is a total of 29 statistics that can be kept for each offensive player. They are: games played; at bats; plate appearances; runs scored, singles, doubles, triples, home runs, runs batted in, game winning rbi, total bases, stolen bases, stolen bases attempted, stolen base percentage, caught stealing, sacrifice bunt, sacrifice fly, base on balls, intentional base on balls, hit by pitch, strikeout, interference, left on base, flyout, groundout, batting average, on base percentage and sacrifice attempts

Don't credit a sacfrice bunt when a runner moved on the bunt would have been put out, but a good throw was dropped. It does count as a sacrifice attempted though.

Figuring Stats in Fastpitch Softball
Winning percentage = Games won divided by total games played
Batting average = total safe hits divided by official at bats (unofficial at bats include: base on balls/walks, hit by pitch, sacrifice fly, sacrifice bunt, catcher interference)
Slugging Percentage = total bases divided by official at bats
On Base Percentage = BB+HBP+Safe hits divided by Sac flies+Sac bunts+BB=HBP+official at bats
Stolen Base Percentage = Successful Stolen Bases divided by attempts
Fielding Percentage - Putouts+ assists divided by putouts, assists and errors
Earned Run Average = Earned Runs allowed divided by innings pitched X 7
Total Bases = HRX4+Triplesx3+Doublesx2+singles

If you check the official scoring manuals you will learn that with runners on first and third base and there is no play on the runner who goes to second base, that runner is not credited with a stolen base.

Remember this too: Bases loaded and no outs. Batter hits into a double play at second and first, the batter is not credited with an RBI for the run that scored.

On another topic - there are to be no team huddles before or after half innings on the field of play. Those are to take place beyond the out of play boundaries.

Umpire Ranking forms have been mailed out. Get them from your Athletic Director and keep them where you know their whereabouts and at the end of the season get them filled in and returned to your AD. We need to get the return percentage higher than the current 49%.

Face masks are not required on batting and baserunning helmets until 2006.

Much, Much more coming in tomorrow night's Bulletin.

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!
And may the sun melt the snow in the north!

Bob

#13 The Fastpitch Bulletin - March 29, 2005
There is nothing soft about it!

Hello again everyone.

It's kind of late so this diatribe might not be very verbose but I do have a plethora of topics to type about in the coming nights.

Last night I typed about scoring issues. Today I read through the scoring portion of the National Federation rule book and discovered that if you want to credit a base runner with a stolen base when she goes to second with a runner at first and no play is made on her you can. It's your choice!

People tell me I'm nuts because I constantly read and re-read that rulebook and the case book, and the situations in the WIAA bulletin and the test questions. I have always figured that I'd better know the rulebook and the proper interpretations better than anybody at the ball yard on a day that I am coaching a team or umpiring. To make sure that nobody knows the book better than me (except for John Peterson) I read a at least one complete rule in the book everyday during the season. I figure I owe it to my program not to get cheated out of a victory due to rule that gets mis-interpreted or enforced. Afterall, just read the little box on the front page of the rules interpretation meeting (even though there was not such meeting this year) that can be printed out from the School Center page of the WIAA website. That little box says this: Coaches and/or officials alone or in combination have NO authority to set aside any National Federation or WIAA rules/guidelines.

They also have no authority to enforce rules that are not in that rulebook!

Tonight I have a special feature that is very interesting! It's from Tim Husted who runs the summer Eau Claire Danes program. I think you'll enjoy it too.

WI High School Notes from the Danes Travel Ball Team

The Danes are a group of WI and MN players who travel the midwest playing 18U and 16U summer softball. In the past few years they have developed many players that are now playing NCAA ball both in and outside Wisconsin teams. Here is a summary of details from the Danes General Manager about players from their organization as well as who he is seeing on the road in their summer, fall and winter seasons.

Amanda McKellips (Sr. Mosinee C) was 1/2 of our catching position last summer and spent the summer mostly catching for lefty thrower Amy Flock (Brookwood Senior) on our 18U team. Both players are going to play ball in college, McKellips will play at UW-Stout while Flock will play at Briar Cliff in Iowa. Flock really improved over the summer and fall and was our #2 within the 2nd weekend of ball last summer behind current UWEC Standout Mallory McKinney. Flock should be a top-tier pitcher in the state. McKellips is an amazing athlete, super strong arm and was able to hit the top 18U pitching we saw with success. Although catching is her first love, she proved to be a strong IF playing some 2B and SS as well as finishing games defensively in the OF.

LaCrosse Aquinas hosted a Danes clinic this winter and they have a nice program. Ainsley Klar is their SS (our starting 3B) and was one of our strongest players, even compared to those who came back from college or are playing college ball now. Klar is still looking at schools but has some strong programs on her list.

Rachel Haines is one of the top players the Danes have ever had and obviously has gotten the recognition in HS ball but I think her VERY small stature still deceives opponents and coaches. For a kid with elite speed, she has a small strike zone which allows her to swing aggressive and hit with power -- She started all last year for our 18's and this fall/winter dominated the top competition we saw in the Twin Cities leagues and regional tournaments in Iowa and Illinois. We also had Kacie Moline from Pepin play with us in fall ball, she is another small kid who can really play and although we played her more in the OF we did have her catch a few games with a lot of success. The past few years we have scrimmaged against Pepin's summer team to get ready for our season and each year Kelsey Church controls our lineup, she can dominate hitters and those she can't she can control with placement and change of speeds. Their players learn great fundamentals from Coach Haines, a great teacher and coach in this sport.

Hudson has a group of kids coming that can win in that conference. Best of bunch is a freshman pitcher named Brit Krieg who is ready to dominate, has held her own at 18U in the Dome Leagues and was the top 14U arm in the summer last year. She works with the former U of M pitching coach Jenny Bauer and will stay with the Danes for next summer at 16U. This fall we had her throw some innings at 18U and she faced the Beverly Bandits and did fine (1 run in 5 IP -- facing all D1 athletes). She has a great rise ball and change and the confidence and make up of a future stud. Hudson also has a SS who grew up playing ball out west until she moved to Hudson a few years ago named Sarah Stalker. She is a soph, gonna play for our 16U next year and played dome ball for us this winter. She can flat out hit -- name to watch. Hudson also have a quick CF named Sarah Hanson, a 1B who can hit named Ashley Boumeester (we had her play for one weekend in fall ball and I'm sure in HS ball she hits a ton). Hudson has really benefited from summer softball and a strong youth program that is starting to feed well prepared players to the HS program.

Brittany Schmitt from Colby has really started to bring it all together since joining the Danes. She spent the summer working with Stacie Reichert (Dane Alum throwing at D1 Gardner-Webb in NC) while throwing for our 16U team. Schmitt is a lefty throwing 58+ and dominating with a great drop ball.

Although Loyal will be without Blair Weyer for a period of time due to back surgery, her sister Rachel "Rosie" Weyer is a strong catcher who can hold down the fort for Big Sis. She has just as good an arm and is a super quick lefty hitter. Both kids played fall ball for the Danes and had success.

We did a clinic at Neillsville and Buns (Coach Bruce Vandeberg) has a good group coming back led by Liz Perkl on the mound. They also have some depth with another Perkl sister throwing as well. Neillsville has some hitters and Buns gets the most from his kids. Neillsville is an interesting case, in the past few years they lost their team share with Granton then last year got sent on the world's worst road trip for tournament play some hard luck -- but they will be ready to go.

DC Everest has a Pitcher/Catcher combo that has been hitting the clinics hardcore, Catcher is Emily Delong. Delong is a great athlete, big tall kid with super strong arm and can hit the snot out of the ball; clearly has 200 foot power. I am not sure if the pitcher will get the #1 innings but she will be ready to win if she gets innings. They also have a kid we are gonna have for our 16U next year named Ashley Hammerbeck who can play SS but hurt her arm in hoops so not sure how she will be ready for HS ball. Hammer has some good IF skills and a great arm that can make up for a bobble without much issue.

Jenny Janke threw for the Danes the past fall and could eventually be a better arm than big sis Jill was. We did a clinic at Black River Falls and although they lost some key players (including both stud pitchers and super-hitter Jill Janke) they are not totally bare.

Menomonie's new coach is Katie Hamilton who has coached our Danes 16U for the past few years -- she has a great freshman named Amanda Ryder. Ryder has started for our 16U since she was 11 years old in CF and this past year at SS. Ryder is a college ready hitter with 200 foot power and sub 3.0 Home to First Speed. Although she plays for our Danes program, I'd pay $3 to watch this kid play ball anyday -- just does things we don't see in HS or travel ball. She got a ton of attention this past year when she would fill in with our 18U from college coaches not knowing her age. Menomonie also has Mindy Rudiger (Senior Pitcher) who will be playing ball at UW-River Falls and can be tough on any team at any time. They also have 2 other pitchers, Jenna Johnson and Sophie Dahl who are underclassman but are travel ball tested and can win Big Rivers games. Johnson played with the WWBG's last summer while Dahl played 14U ball last summer and 18U fall with the Danes. Big Rivers ball is always tough with so many programs that are consistently good but Menomonie could be in for some top level success and when it comes down to win or go home time -- could surprise some teams.

Another kid I'd pay $3 to watch is Amanda Wilhelm at LaCrosse Central. She learned a ton from Coach Kevin Colburn but has the instincts that even a great coach like Kevin can't teach. By the end of summer last year she was our best hitter at 18U and was making one amazing play each game at SS. She has a great vert (hoops player) which takes away line drive doubles.

We got to see Bob Meixner's West Wisconsin Bat Girls this summer in Chippewa; he has a catcher from up North named Jessica Lundgren who can certainly play. I think she is a St. Croix Falls HS player.

We see the Chippewa Falls Flash play a few times and we played in their fall league -- Chi High doesn't rebuild they reload and this year will be another example -- they have tons of talent up in that area and the parents and coaches do a tremendous job of getting their kids summer, fall and winter playing opportunities that allow them to take advantage of their talent. It would not be fair to try to name all the kids who deserve it but Hayes is a big time hitter and we were impressed with Nelson in the circle.

This winter I also got to see Kacy Frank from Chippewa Falls McDonnell and Aurora Albrecht from Cadott throw and both impressed me with their ability in the circle.

Hope this helps and brings some attention to some strong players -- keep doing what you are doing -- I know that the players love to see their success celebrated and the recognition that Fastpitch Chronicle provides. I'm sure I missed some people I saw etc; please know it was not on purpose or for ill will.

Tim Husted

There are a couple of things in Tim's essay that I think he picked up from me. I cringe when people talk about our pitchers being on the mound. No mound makes us different, very different from baseball. A pitcher should not be on a mound. They are in the circle! Tim uses that terminology several times in his essay. When I do broadcasts of fastpitch games on the internet a pitcher is never on the mound but instead is in the circle.

Like always, at Poynette we are again really working hard on the hardest thing I have ever found to teach high school girls' fastpitch softball players -- tagging up! I think we're getting a little better. How about you?

I received three game reports today. Check them out on the Week 1 results page of the website. Janesville Craig reported their score vs Waunakee, Barneveld reported their score with Brodhead and Portage reported their score with Waupun. Last night's River Valley at Waunakee score was reported by Mary in Dodgeville (I think that's where Mary is located).

If you don't have time or can't find time to type a result to this e-mail address, find somebody within or close to your program who will. Your kids deserve it!

More tomorrow night!

Keep it between the lines!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #14 - March 30, 2005
Chokin' and Pokin'

Rule 11, Section 1, Article 1

Promoting the Game/Promoting your players
Art. 1 - The Fastpitch Chronicle website is a great place to get scores published for every game played in the state of Wisconsin.

Art. 2 - Bob Tomlinson will not glean your scores from newspapers. He doesn't have time to read all those small point sizes and then type in all that information. As much as it seems he might, he does not live inside his computer. He does spend an average of about 3 hours per night working on that website but that includes all the daily news on all those pages.

Art. 3 - If you want people to read your scores and you want some publicity for your team/program or perhaps have your team ranked in the statewide Fastpitch Chronicle Rankings - it would behoove you to do something about it.

Art. 4 - If you don't have the time, don't have a computer, can't turn on the computer you do have, - ask somebody else to do it. A player, a manager, a parent,

Art. 5 - How long can it possibly take to type this - My Team 4, Other team 3? Turn the computer on and get it done.

Hello Again Everyone - Tomorrow Night I'll add Rule 12 to the softball rule book. Rule 11 is as important to this game as the 10 rules and points of emphasis in the rule book.

Over the years, one of the problems with getting fastpitch softball any publicity has been the fact that there is a huge turnover in head coaches statewide. In many schools, they have to beg people to get on board.

I can't even begin to tell you how many e-mails I have received during the five years that I have been publishing these Bulletins that very emphatically state "Remove me from your maiking list. I am no longer coaching softball!" There are have been quite a few of those this year!

To those of you who demonstrate a passion for learning the game, teaching the game and following the game, this issue of The Fastpitch Bulletin is a tribute to you! I'd love to meet every one of you and just hang out and chat about fastpitch softball.

I believe the real passionate coaches thirst for any information they can get. They thirst to learn anything new or different that may make coaching something easier, better and make their teams more competitive. There is no success unless somebody at the top has a vision for what the future might hold for a school's program.

Having a vision is not enough, however. It takes a well conceived plan to get going on fulfilling that vision. It takes somebody who is willing to stick a great deal of extra time into doing grunt work to get people better and allow them to realize success. It takes someone who understand the importance of surrounding themself with people who share their passion for all the things here-to-fore mentioned!

I love watching my friends get awards for 200 wins and more. It takes a while to reach that milepost, even nowdays when we can play 20 regular season games a year. It takes at least 10 years of sticking with a program to get that far if you can win 20 a year.

100 wins? - that's a milepost - 200 wins? 10 years or more! 300 wins? How many times do you think those people have dragged a diamond or chalked a foul line? How many unhappy parents do you think they've had to deal with? 400 wins? Check out the Coaches Honor Roll Page on my website for that very small list of passionate coaches.

I have had quite a few scoring questions. I'll try to answer every one of them personally or I might get in touch with John Peterson for you. You can get a lot of that stuff in the rulebook as well.

Here is a situation for you to ponder.
Runner at first base. Number of outs doesn't matter. Batter hits a slow roller to shortstop. No play at second so the throw goes to first. Close play but the first baseman loses the ball out the end of her glove right in front of her. Runner is safe and finishes running well out into the outfield, and down the rigthfield foul line. Runner from first went to third on the dropped throw. Batter-runner starts walking back to first base. The first baseman, in the meantime, had picked up the ball and quickly threw it, in disgust that she had dropped it, to the pitcher who is standing with both feet in the 16" circle. Pitcher turns and looks at the girl going into third base and makes no play. Batter-runner is then told by first base coach to go to second base because nobody is near the base. Batter-run does because she surprised everyone by taking the extra base.Nobody there to cover.

You make the call!

Answer tomorrow night!

Have a great night! Urge every coach in your conference to report scores to faspich1@aol.com

I'm chokin' and pokin'
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #15 - March 31. 2005

Happy Birthday Mary Larsen!

She's my longtime JV and assistant coach at Poynette (since 1982).

Hello Again Everyone.

Whew! There were lots of replies to last night's Bulletin. Thanks for all the kind words and support.

Here is the ruling on last night's situation. The batter-runner should have been called out since she was committed to first base after turning right and having the ball in the circle. Great job to those who sent in an e-mail with their answer.

There were lots of other rules issues that kind of stick in people's craws that I found interesting including:
1) batters who strike out, are nearly in the dugout when they realize it was a dropped third strike and then head toward first base and make it safely when the ball gets overthrown. Those people tend to think the batter should be out when she gives up on the play initially.

For tonight here is

Rule 12, Section 1, Article 1

a. Including team records with game reports
b. gettting those previews in so our rankers have some clues as to who people have back
c. getting those game summaries in to the Fastpitch Chronicle website

I received a mailing from the coaches association earlier this week. If you are a member of the WFSCA you probably got the same mailing that included a letter about the all star games and a nomination form for senior players from your team to be nominated. Be sure to read that letter and don't whine and pout when after you have forgotten to mail it in you want to still nominate your player and they don't accept your form. Get r done!

Make sure you have paid your coaches assocation dues on time so your players are eligible for post season awards. Git after it!

The rankings, one way or another are going to be posted Sunday night. If you are a ranker, get those turned in to me soon. If you sent them already, send them again. I'll tally them all and get them posted.

I might, if I can steal some time from other projects devise a tabulating form and publish that as well.

Be sure to print out a copy of the ASA approved bat list and highlight the bats that you have in your bag. They are apt to slap you on the back of the hand if you don't have a copy of those with you.

I need to buy a briefcase to take all the paper work with me to games now-a-days.

Have a great day and a great weekend.

Take a look at the hit counters on the website and start watching them begin to roll like the numbers on a slot machine.

Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin for 4/4/05 Number 16

Take Me Out To The Park!

Hello Again Everyone!

Last year in an early Fastpitch Bulletin I forewarned the Big 8 conference coaches that Madison East had not be taken lightly. They proved my prognostication to be right on as they tied for the Big 8 title.

This year the team the Big 8 schools had ought not take lightly is Madison Memorial. This year's team is not their sister's team. Their pitching (Hannah Wydeven) is very good. She moves it around, up and down, in and out and has a nifty change up that will keep the best of your hitters off balance. They go up to the plate and get some good cuts in as well.

I've been watching them improve the past two summers and in the fall league as they play in the Super Senior Summer league in the Madison area. They have a good defense. Have an eye for the strike zone and like I said, they get their rips in.

The Wisconsin State Journal apparently really had things screwed up on Sunday morning. The Monroe Tourney was actually the Watertown Tourney and Watertown beat Waunakee 9-2 in the third place game instead of the other way around as the WSJ had it. Thanks to Gerri in Marshall for correcting me. It's correct on the webpage now.

It was a great day for softball today. It's hard for me to believe that there were so few games played. There weren't very many results in my inbox here tonight after that NCAA basketball game was over.

Not much else to report tonight. Much more tomorrow night.

Keep it Rising!

Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin for April 5, 2005 - Number 17

Hanging Gooseggs on the board!

Hello Everyone - Whew, there were a mess of scores and reports to dump onto the week 2 results tonight. I just finished up nearly 3 hours of work getting all that stuff on the site.

Last night I mentioned how Madison Memorial is a much improved program. They broke a 43-game losing streak this afternoon, less than 24-hours after the warning.

Here is an e-mail I got from a person I consider an expert when it comes to fastpitch softball. Who that person is really doesn't matter but it was not from Jeff Agnew at Fort Atkinson.

Hi Bob,

I watched a little bit of Fort Atkinson vs. Janesville Craig on Saturday. Fort is a very good team. In the sectional they play in don't be surprised to see them at the state tournament. When you do your voting for all-region or all-state or whatever I would highly recommend Fort's shortstop. She is all-state by my criteria. My criteria is simply this: "Could she play on
any team in the state and hit in the top 5 of the lineup?" The answer is definitely yes. She has a tremendous arm, swings the bat exceptionally well and plays a great glove. So keep her in mind at the end of the season.

That criteria is the exact same one that I use when considering post season awards. As a matter of fact the fan that watched that game and I, along with several other experts all agree with the criteria.

I stand corrected on part of my Bulletin last night. I stated that Madison East shared the Big 8 title last year after I had forewarned the coaches in that conference about the Purgolders. They won the Big 8 title outright. Tonight's 3-2 win for Sun Prairie over Madison LaFollette sends a message to the Big 8 as well.

I took in a game in Westfield this afternoon. The beauty of having the same coaching staff with me for so long is that I now just leave them with the program after about an hour on some days and just take off to watch/scout a game. Today's South Central Conference game in Wesfield against Wisconsin Dells was a good 4-1 final. It was 2-1 heading into the top of the 7th when a throwing error on a safety squeeze sailed into left field and opened the gates for another run to score. Good pitching on both sides too.

As I placed scores on the site tonight, I read every one. Trust me, I really did. I corrected spelling errors, placed punctuation where it was needed etc. In one article I read about both teams being good in the circle. Yes, people actually must be reading these diatribes.

On the same vein, read this excerpt from the University of Wisconsin-Madison press conference. A Bulletin reader forwarded this message to me today. I chuckled when I read it - I think you will too.
Bob,

Not to be too critical, but having been indoctrinated with your lessons of proper softball language, I was surprised to see this error being made by a Big Ten softball coach. Stealing a line from the Music Man, I would like to tell Coach Gallagher – “Watch your phraseology!”

John

Gallagher Addresses Media Monday

MADISON, Wis. - UW softball head coach Karen Gallagher addressed the media Monday afternoon at Camp Randall Stadium as her team prepares to face UIC, No. 1 Michigan and No. 20 Northwestern this week.

Coach, when we had talked to you last week, you had mentioned you wanted to get at least three of the four games, and obviously mission accomplished. Do you feel like the mentality of the players, kind of what you were talking about earlier, has changed now, knowing that this is really more of an indication of what your team can do?

I definitely agree with that. I think we played very confidently, and I think just with the three wins. And how we won the game, we came back to win three of the, obviously the four games. And, you know, to have that type of potential, I think it keeps the pressure on the opponent. But, yeah, huge confidence builder. I think our kids felt really good how they played.

You know, still our complete games aren’t there. We still have to, I think, work harder on playing better defense behind our pitching staff, and, you know, we have some work to do on the mound as well. But overall, I thought we came out aggressively. And they just, they had the mindset that they’re capable of doing it and I really was pleased that they came out in a very aggressive, attacking type of mode.

Keep the scores coming in. Check the Week 1 results for that ficticious Bug Tussle vs Hooterville game for a great way to type up your summaries. I try to keep each posting time to under a minute. Highlighting, copying and paste is the way I do it. Then I edit if I get the time. If I don't read them all, I wouldn't be a very good ranker would I?

Have a great day!
Keep it moving!
Up! Down! All Around!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #18 for 4/06/05

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!

Wow! There were plenty of scores to post again tonight but not every score that should be e-mailed in. Once again I will remind everyone that I will not be gleaning scores from newspapers.

To those of you who use the Hooterville vs Bug Tussle format, thanks as that works superb.

Here is the explanation on how to do that and save me posting time.

1) Type the score of the game : Eastman 10, Star Prairie 4

2) Do the line score with visitor on top and home team on the bottom like this
Eastman ..................550 000 0 10 9 1
Star Prairie ...............310 000 0 4 4 1
WP - Glencoe
LP - Greene
Leading Hitters: Jones (E) 2x3, Turner (E) 2x3, Jackson (SP) 3x4
any extra base hits go here

When typing in the line score use the period key to move your score by innings to the right so they line up above and below each other Don't use R H E or inning numbers above them as it won't line up here for me.

I'll take anything though and work hard to make it look good on the site.

Have great day!

Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #19 for April 7, 2005

“Just about the time you think you’ve seen it all – you realize you haven’t!”

“I just don’t understand why you have to go to the ballpark all the time.”

Hey -- Ever had anybody say that to you?

My pat answer to that statement is the first line of tonight’s Bulletin! It’s really the truth. It really is. The more often I go to the ball-yard, the greater chance there is of me seeing something happen that I have never seen happen before.

At a recent game I saw the winning run score on a wild pitch in the bottom of the last inning.

Ya, ya, I know, you’re all saying, “So what, I’ve seen that happen lots of times.”

But, how many times have you seen that wild pitch go over the backstop directly from the pitcher? Truthfully now, how many times have you seen that?

I really had a lot of empathy for the young pitcher who let one get away from her. There really wasn’t any cheering to speak of from the winning team because those girls had never encountered that before and truthfully, had to be told that the run was going to score and the game was going to be over. They had no clue what the call was in that situation.

That reminded me of a game I once played in. That particular game provided one of my “forever memories” in fastpitch softball and in my life.

When a person has spent as much time at ball yards as I have in my lifetime and played as many men’s fastpitch games as I have played (41 years) your apt to have quite a few of those “forever memories.”

In 1980 the team I played on from Portage, Wisconsin was playing in the ASA state tournament in Eau Claire on Gelein Field. There were 47 teams in that state Class A tournament that year. We were playing a team from Eastman with a pretty good pitcher. It was at about that time that the ASA instituted the alternating ball rule. You know, the same one we have in the WIAA rule book. Anyway, there was one ball in that game that the Eastman pitcher absolutely did not like. He complained throughout the entire game about having to pitch with that ball. It was so funny, that the guys on our team were trying to hit the other one foul so would have to throw the one he was getting ticked off about. Anyway, late in the game I was on first base and our batter hit a foul ball. Sure enough, the bad ball got tossed out to the Eastman pitcher. He just started festering as soon as he looked at it in his glove. He wanted the other ball back but the umpire was “playing by all the rules.” The umpire yelled at the Eastman pitcher, “You are throwing that one until it goes out of play!”

LaVerne promptly threw the next pitch over the backstop on Gelein Field and headed for the dugout at the same time. Before the umpire could toss him, he was headed for the hills. I was busting my gut all the way to second base. To this day, when I walk into Gelein Field at Carson Park, I think about LaVerne and the one that sailed over the backstop and over the press box.

Here is one more “forever memory” from fastpitch for tonight. This one happened a number of years ago at the Poynette Jamboree. Our two main fastpitch diamonds are situated right along a very busy U.S. Highway 51. There is a lot of north and south traffic going by. With that many games taking place something crazy is always possible on the highway.

On the particular morning I’m writing about, I was watching an early morning game during the Jamboree. A girl from Waukesha North was at the plate and she fouled off a pitch that went high and deep but straight back behind the backstop. It went over the backstop, over the bleachers, over the security fence and was headed for the center of the highway. Suddenly a car appeared in the picture and instead of slowing down to let the foul ball bounce on the highway and out of his way, the guy just kept increasing his speed ( the speed limit changes from 35 mph to 55 mph right behind home plate.

You know how you hit those fly balls to the right and left of your outfielders with that Tomlinson’s Ultimate Fungo and you just sort of focus between the ball and the outfielder to see if she is going to cut it off and catch it before it hits the ground? Well, that’s what I was doing with my focus on that foul ball –watching the gap between the ball’s decent and the car’s acceleration.

You’ve probably guessed the outcome already! Right! That guy ran right into that ball at about 50 mph and the ball was probably going about 45. It smashed that windshield so perfectly that even a kaleidoscope couldn’t have done it better. Truthfully, it could have been a pretty dangerous situation but there were no cars coming from the other direction and he got the car stopped about 50 yards down the highway.

He turned around, came over to the ball field and asked somebody who was in charge of the tournament. I didn’t know whether I should stop laughing and run and hide or approach the guy.

I chose valor and approached the guy. You can only imagine how hot he was. “Who in their right mind would build a ball diamond next to a highway?” was his question.

He wanted my insurance company’s name, the school’s and anybody who was at the game I think.

I just told him he could call the high school principal on Monday try to take care of it.

Roger Schliewe sent this e-mail to me tonight. I promised him I would include it with the Bulletin. Here is fulfillment of my promise.

By the way- I need some players for my Wisconsin Bandit teams this summer. We need a good catcher for my 18 U Team and 1 or 2 good position players. 1 of them can be a pitcher but I do have 2 good ones now. My 16 U team needs about 4 players . I do not need pitching at this level. 4 position players
Can you put it out on your website for me
I would appreciate it.
thanks-Roger

I thought there was something else to include tonight but it's really late and my brain isn't functioning (perhaps that is normal). Hey, it’s been great. Let’s do it again tomorrow night?

From my ballyard to yours
Keep it Rising!

Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin for 4/11/05 Number 20

I don't care if I ever get back!

Hello Again Everyone,

Runner at three, wild pitch, pitcher races in and plants her feet in front of runner coming to the plate. Runner slides in and stops when she hits the feet of the pitcher. Pitcher catches ball and tags runner.

You make the call!

No rules meeting and some umpires haven't read the new rule.

Runner at one. She heads for second on a steal. Catcher's throw draws shortstop across bag to first base side where a quick collision occurs when the runner slides into the feet of the shortstop who is about to catch the ball. Runner rolls over and is off bag. Shortstop quickly tags runner who is off the base.

You make the call!

Runner at third and one out. Fly ball to left field. Runners tags and heads for plate. Catcher steps out on third base side of plate and stands there awaiting throw. Runner slides and hits catcher's shin guards and stops right there. Catcher catches ball and tags runner.

You make the call!

I have seen all three of those plays in games I have watched in the past week (not games my team has played).

That's it for tonight folks other than to say thanks for the scores and thanks for formatting better than ever before.

By the way Statsandgo stuff works but it is no the best way for me to post to the site. I will only do score by innings off Statsandgo submissions. It is great stuff though. It just takes too long to cut and paste on this end. Unless Al can help me out with that process.

Have a great softball day.

And like they say at Thomas More High School in Milwaukee.

More Softball
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #21 -- April 12, 2005

She's Up - She's on deck and she's in the hold!

Hello Everyone!

I wasn't going to take the time this late at night tonight to type a Bulletin but after thinking about a couple of e-mails I received earlier in the day I chose to type one anyway.

Here is a funny story told to me by Al Miller from statsandgo.com. My friend Jeff from Williams Bay e-mailed me today and informed me of two glitches in the stat program. I quickly sent Jeff's e-mail off to Al so he was aware of a potential problem.

Al, of course, being Al on the spot, got right back to me. He said they'd had the same glitch in the baseball program. Here is the twist that is humorous. The computer whiz that StatsandGo has working for them lives in Ames, Iowa but he is a native of Pakistan. If you know about Pakistan you know they play Cricket there and not baseball or softball. Seems that the Pakistani computer whiz has trouble with baseball and softball mathematics. Really folks - getting three hits in ten at bats does not give you a batting average of .300, it's really .30 or 30% so getting the averages to come out right was a tough one for Al's Pakistani whiz to get.

Al further went on to tell me another glitch the Pakistani whiz struggled with. After finally understanding the .300 hitter he attacked the StatsandGo football program. The first thing he did was to figure the stats for a receiver who caught 2 passes for 10 yards. He used the same logic from baseball and had the kid averaging 500 yards/catch. That one was a bit easier to straighten out.

Thanks Al for a few moments of chuckling to myself during the school day today.

Here is a response to last night's scenarios and I think you will enjoy reading this as well. Where it came from matters not. Thanks to the good friend who passed it along to me.

Hey Bob,
Great scenarios! And what was the ruling administered for each – I can only imagine the different interpretations that could, and maybe did, occur.

My question is to what constitutes blocking the plate/bag without the ball. Having the catcher or SS straddling the plate/bag while waiting for the ball doesn’t seem like blocking the base – the runner has access between the defensive player’s legs. Standing in front of half of the base while waiting the ball doesn’t either. The runner has access to the back side of the base. Not to knock umpires, but I know that these variations could be and probably would be ruled differently by different umpires. Where is the consistency going to be???

I know in past years, I’ve had problems with umpire interpretations on things I thought were crystal clear. One stands out in particular. We were playing town A at their ballpark late in the season. Conference title hopes were at stake. We had a runner on second with one out. My batter swung (for strike three) at a low pitch that bounced just behind the plate and into the catcher’s glove. My batter took off to first base since ball hit the dirt. They overthrew first base, sending the runner at second to third and the batter-runner all the way to second. The other team said that the batter should have been out because the catcher caught the ball. They (the opposing team and the plate umpire) admitted that it hit the ground but that the catcher fielded cleanly on the hop, thereby constituting a “caught” third strike. I argued that the ball simply hitting the dirt nullified it as a “caught” third strike. The umpires talked with one another and then said they were going to consult a rule book since it was such an important game. I didn’t think that they should be looking up rules during a game but since I knew that the definition of a caught pitch and caught ball would be found, I didn’t argue them looking. I even told them to look up those specific definitions. It delayed the game for about 10 minutes while they looked. They came back to and much to my dismay, ruled that it was a caught third strike. The called the batter out and even made the other runner return to second base. I was too shocked to even realize that my runner had returned to second to protest that. So instead of having runners at 2 and 3 with one out, I had a runner at 2 with 2 outs.

After getting on the bus and looking at my rule book – for all of about 1 minute – and found what I was looking for right in the very place I told them to look! I still can’t believe that they made the call they did. I did send them a copy of the page in the rule book and highlighted the definition for them. It wasn’t going to change what happened but I didn’t want them to continue on making incorrect calls such as that. It’s tough when you teach the kids the rules of the game and then have some of those that are responsible for enforcing/applying the rules don’t know them well enough to make the correct calls.

Like you said –every time you go to a ball park, you have the chance to see something that you’ve never seen before.

Have a Great Day!

Keep it Rising!

Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #22 for April 13, 2005

It's a twilight doubleheader!

Hello Again Everyone!

There are several things on the docket for tonight. Some scoring questions have been e-mailed to me and a scoring situation from a Major League baseball game as well that is interesting and seldom happens.

First scoring question. Runners on first and second and less than two outs. Batter bunts with every intention for that bunt to be a sacrifice. First baseman fields the ball and chooses to play on the batter-runner. The ball beats the batter-runner to first but the second baseman mishandles the play and all runners are safe. The question was: How do I score that.

Answer: Batter is credited with a sacrifice bunt and the second baseman is charged with an error. Not an official at bat and does not affect batting average but does affect second baseman's fielding percentage.

Next scoring question: Runners on first and second and less than two outs. Batter bunts with every intention for that bunt to be a sacrifice. First baseman fields ball and chooses to throw to third base for the force out but could have retired the batter-runner easily. The runner from second to third beats the throw and is called safe. The question was: How do I score that? Score it fielder's choice because the fielder chose to try to get the lead runner out when the batter-runner could have been forced out at first base. If the bunt had been so perfectly placed that no play could have been made on the batter-runner or any runner for an out - score a safe hit for the batter.

Here is the Major league play from last night. Thanks to Steve Krupke (2004 Division 2 State Championship coach from Brodhead) for sending it in.

Bob
I was watching baseball last night and there was a play that was not that strange, but it was interesting to score. Bases loaded, 1 out. Batter hits a deep, but routine, fly ball to right. The RF drops the ball but still has time to force the runner going to 2nd, all other runners advance. The official scoring was E9, Fielders Choice and RBI. How often do you see that happen??
One can never run out of crazy situations that some people view as a simple game!
Steve

Ah Yes, a simple game!

Poynette Jamboree participants can expect some information in tomorrow night's Bulletin. We are very close to doing the schedule. We have to wait for a couple of teams to play a couple more games to gain an idea of competitiveness of all participants.

Have a great day and may all your days, like mine, be fastpitch days!

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #23

It's a "Frozen Rope" and not a "seeing eye single."

Del Schneeberger of Johnson Creek reached the 300 win milepost tonight with a win. Del joins a short list of coaches who in the history of high school girls' fastpitch softball have reached that milepost. Congratulations Del - you're special!

With one more win Cedarburg coach Rod Wilterdink will reach The Fastpitch Chronicle milepost of 350 wins. Rod is another special person. Without cheering against his next opponent, I wish him the best and know that he will be at that milepost very soon.

OKAY - I type too late at night. Actually my typing is nearly perfect, it's my proofing that sucks. Last night' second scoring scenario was not what was going through my mind. In the scenario I typed the batter would be awarded a sacrifice.

Here is the reply I got from umpire John Peterson in response to my obstruction observations the other night. Thanks to John for intrepreting them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
Bob, as you know I can never resist a "you make the call" question.

New obstruction rule is found in 2-31, page 23.
"Obstruction is the act of the defensive team member that hinders or impedes...the progress of a runner or batter-runner who is legally running bases, unless the fielder is in possession of the ball or is fielding a batted ball."

First Play:
"Runner at three, wild pitch, pitcher races in and plants her feet in front of runner coming to the plate. Runner slides in and stops when she hits the feet of the pitcher. Pitcher catches ball and tags runner."
This is obstruction because runner contacts or is prevented from contacting home plate by a fielder who does not have possession of the ball.
Second play:
"Runner at one. She heads for second on a steal. Catcher's throw draws shortstop across bag to first base side where a quick collision occurs when the runner slides into the feet of the shortstop who is about to catch the ball. Runner rolls over and is off bag. Shortstop quickly tags runner who is off the base."
This is obstruction because runner contacts or is prevented from contacting second base by a fielder who does not have possession of the ball. This play involves more judgment due to timing of contact and catch. However, since there was contact, it should be ruled obstruction since fielder did not have the ball. If fielder had the ball before contact and fielder; prior to catching the ball did not hinder or impede runner, then the runner could be called out if not in contact with the base.
Third play:
"Runner at third and one out. Fly ball to left field. Runners tags and heads for plate. Catcher steps out on third base side of plate and stands there awaiting throw. Runner slides and hits catcher's shin guards and stops right there. Catcher catches ball and tags runner."
There isn't enough information in this play description for me to give an answer. If fielder is in the basepath it would be obstruction. If fielder is not in basepath so the runner has unobstructed path to the base, then this play is an out. The runner cannot "seek out the fielder" in order to get obstruction. If the fielder's leg that is contacted by the runner is in the basepath, then this play would be obstruction.

The case book on page 15 covers obstruction by fielder (firstbase) who gets in way of batter-runner who rounds first base on a hit. This is also obstruction and should be called, even if in the umpire's judgement the batter-runner would not have reached second base.

The words in the rule say "hinder or impede" so obstruction can be called even if there is no contact. If fielder (without the ball) is standing in the base path and that causes runner to have to deviate from her path to the base, this is also obstruction. So, if second base fielder is in base path without the ball and runner has to go around her to second and shortstop is there to tag her out, obstruction can be called.
Bob, hope this helps. As you can see I sent to Marci so she can be aware of plays and rulings.

John Peterson

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Poynette Jamboree Update!!! Read closely if you are involved!

There are now 33 schools competing in the Jamboree in 2005. One team needed to drop out and I think that has put me in a quandry as I would need a team that is looking for two games to play on Saturday or two teams that need one game or even a team that wants to play a third game on Saturday.

Here is a list of teams that I have contracts from or have promised a spot to. If I promised you a spot and you are not on this list - get back to me immediately as my word is my bond and I think I need a team or two as mentioned here-to-fore.

Adams-Friendship - 2 games on Friday
Bonduel - 2 games on Friday
Dodgeland - 1 game Friday (and perhaps a second one Michelle?)
Johnson Creek - 2 games on Friday
Lomira - 1 game on Friday
Madison East 1 game Friday and 2 games Saturday
Thomas More - 3 games whenever I can schedule them (might be under lights on Friday)
Waterloo - 1 game on Friday and 2 games on Saturday
Waupaun - 1 game on Friday
Prescott - 1 Game on Friday night under the lights and 2 on Saturday or 3 on Saturday
Pardeeville - 2 games any way that I need to fit them into my scheduling
Baraboo - 2 games Saturday (Prom Day for them - back-to-back games needed)
Hortonville -2 games Saturday (Prom day for them - back-to-back games needed)
Black River Falls - 2 games Saturday
Cambridge - 2 games Saturday
Columbus - 2 games Saturday
Madison Edgewood - 2 Games Saturday
G-E-T -- 2 games Saturday
Lodi - 2 games Saturday
Marshall - 2 games Saturday and perhaps a 3rd game
Pacelli - 2 games Saturday
Portage - 2 games Saturday
Randolph - 2 games Saturday
Ripon - 2 games Saturday
Stoughton - 2 games Saturday
Hamilton - 2 games Saturday
Waukesha North - 2 games Saturday
Wausaukee - 2 games Saturday
Westfield - 2 games Saturday
Winneconne - 2 games Saturday
Poynette - 2 games Saturday or 3 Saturday or 1 Friday and 2 Saturday or 2 Friday and 1 Saturday
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------

OK - Who did I miss? Get back to me immediately if there is confusion or this is not correct!

There will be 3 fields at the school, 2 fields at the park and 2 fields in Arlington

We can't handle many back-to-back games for many schools. That really makes scheduling a nightmare. My son, Eric, does the scheduling with input from me on competitiveness of participants. Those of you who have e-mailed your feelings on your team's competitiveness, thanks for that help.

Hey - it's been fun - it's late again
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #24 - April 16, 2005

Put me in coach, I'm ready to play -- today! Look at me, I can play --- Centerfield!

A great John Fogerty song eh?

It was a beautiful Saturday and on a day when I probably should have been installing my new in-ground sprinkler system on the varsity softball diamond at Poynette or installing the new extension on the backstops or working on my Wiffleball stadium in my back yard or gone out fishing ------ the call of the ballyard was too strong for me to resist. So - I awoke very early (5:15 am) and fired up the little electrical apparatus here called a computer, posted scores and headed for a game.

This week it was a trip to Horicon where I got a chance to see my good friend Bob LeCaptain and his purple and gray Green Bay West club. Of course it also gave me a chance to see, for the second Saturday in a row, my friends from Horicon. Not to mention umpires Jerry Holmes and David Gove.

Good games too (see summaries).

From there (we left in the 4th inning of game 2) we headed for Titan Stadium in Oshkosh to take in some of the WIAC combine. I saw and talked to my friend Roger Plachata from UW-Superior. He certainly is a worry-wart. What a tremendous guy he is. You see, Roger and I go way back to our young days playing men's fastpitch.

Also got a chance to see and talk to Tim Husted of the Eau Claire Danes. He is always fun to chat with.

I enjoy just hanging around and chatting with the people I do know and I also listening to the ball yard chatter from other people who have no clue as to who I am and could care less (I like it that way).

Also got to chat with my good friend Rich Thompson from Denmark, Wisconsin who now lives and works in Oshkosh. I've been watching Rich improve in the men's game since coming out of high school a number of years back.

I forgot to ask when and where the next WIAC combine will be. Anyone know? Help Me Roger because I know you are reading this.

Have a great day!
As always - Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #25 for April 18, 2005

It's deep! It's going, going, going - it's Gone! - A Home run!

Or is it?

I receive a large number of scoring questions, records questions and other such topics and quite honestly I enjoy reading the questions and answering them as best I can and I enjoy contacting my contacts worldwide for their thoughts on such things.

I have scored thousands of baseball and softball games in my years at the ball yards including games for the International Softball Congress World Tournament, the ASA Major Men's National Tournaments, Class A Tournaments and so on. Still, some situations really do require some thought and sometimes some concurrence with other scorers.

Last week in a high school game in the state a players launched one over the fence with two runners aboard. In the ensuing celebration around home plate the batter failed to touch the plate. The opposing coach noted the missed touch and after the player was in the dugout he appealed the play to the umpire who called the batter-runner out for missing the plate.

The issue at hand was whether or not the player is credited with a home run. I quickly said no because she never touched the plate and was never safe there so it is a triple with two RBI. An official of sorts apparently was at the game and told them that it was still a home run but only two RBI would count because her score wasn't a score.

All the scorers I checked with (three) concur with my scoring. If you haven't scored, you haven't scored. Score it a triple with two RBI.

In the 1996 Olympic Games a U.S. player nailed one over the fence in Columbia, Georgia and failed to touch home plate. Instead of winning on that dramatic blast, it became the most dramatic triple in the history of international fastpitch softball. The Australians went on to beat the US in the only Olympic Game the lost and I think has ever lost.

Here is another question I got over the weekend and a good one too. I had to pass this one on to Marcy Thurwachter at the WIAA and this morning in my e-mail inbox she had the answer right out of the WIAA softball season regulations manual.

Two teams played a game in late March that was tied when it was called due to darkness. They can't find a date to finish the game so one team was inquring as to whether it is a tie or not. Here is Marcy's response.

Hi Bob!
Refer to page 29 of the Softball Season Regs, National Federation Allowed Adaptations, b) "A game called for any reason where a winner cannot be determined will be treated as a suspended game. If the score is tied and both schools agree not to complete the game, it should be counted as one-half win and one-half loss for each team (Rule 4-2-5)."

Have a great week!
Marcy

It looks like one team now has a record of 6.5 and .5 on the year and I'm not sure of the other team's record. The team with 6.5 wins is a ranked team in the Fastpitch Chronicle rankings.

Once again - What five plate appearances do not count as a time at bat? One of the five answers won a steak dinner for me at the 1995 ISC World Tournament when a very prominent Iowa sports editor bet me that steak dinner that I was wrong when it came to scoring that.

1) Base on balls 2) sacrifice bunt 3) sacrifice fly ball 4) hit by pitch and the steak dinner winner - 5) catcher interference.

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!

Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #26 for April 19, 2005

It's a broken bat single!

I guess there aren't many broken bat singles in softball anymore are there? I'm really dating myself. Actually I date myself every night at practice and before every game when I throw on some kid's glove and start throwing batting practice. I really need to find a young kid who knows how to throw great batting practice. I hate soft toss and I don't have a young kid to throw BP so I've reverted back to doing that myself and that word back is what is ailing me this week.

Sometimes things happen and about all a person can say to themself is - "OK, what now?"

That's where I am with this website thing right now. Somewhere, somehow, I lost all of the past Saturday scores off Week 3. I didn't even have the week 3 file open on the server last night or today and all the scores I spent hours working on are gone. They won't be back! It fits into that area of my life that I call - "It's just the way it is, so what's next?"

I also lost a mess of Monday scores that I put on the week 4 page this morning. I have no clue what the deal was but I need to find out so I don't do whatever it was to lose them.

To those of you whose scores flew my coup - sorry. Keep sending them in.

A couple more scoring questions today and one was really funny to read. It went like this. Batter hits pop up on right side of infield near the first base foul line. Pitcher and first sacker converge on the ball but the batter keeps moving in the running shoot. The two fielders reach up to catch ball at same time, apparently a small bump takes place and the ball hits off both their gloves and bounced off the batter-runner's helmet. This all took place on the foul side of the chalk line.

As I read Sue's description I knew that the play sure fits into our new "If you spend enough time at the ball yard, you're sure to see something crazy" category at The Fastpitch Chronicle.

Here's my take on the play. The running shoot has nothing to do with this play. It's for plays that are on throws down the foul line. The batter-runner and all runners must give up real estate to a player for players that are attempting to field a batting ball. In the case that Sue sent me - I'd call the batter-runner out for interference and return all other runners, if there were any, to the base they occupied at the time of the pitch.

I was corrected by Karen in the Rapids today on my Olympic history. The US has lost several round robin games in pool play but has never lost a medal game.

That's about it for tonight. It's only 10:47 so I'm about a half hour ahead of normal schedule here.

Oh yah, if any of you are interested in the batting practice pitcher position I have open, let me know. There is no pay but the experience would be a great one! I'd keep you laughing anyway!

Poynette Jamboree schools - be looking for a schedule very soon. We have a very good feel for the level of competitiveness from all teams entered. We will now proceed with pairing the schedule to meet the competitiveness.

Have a great day!
Keep it moving!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #27 for April 21, 2005

Holy Smokes! Holy Cow!

Hello Again Everyone! I missed a night with a bulletin but it was actually a reprieve last night with hardly any scores to post and some other things in life to get done.

It was back to the grind tonight as there are quite a few scores on the site now.

There are still a lot of schools we don't hear from and conferences who get little publicity. Maybe because there is a large turnover of coaches from year to year or maybe it's because they are too tired to send in even a score after a game.

I am also the head girls' basketball coach at Poynette. After a game there I have to call in scores to three newspapers, four TV stations, two radio stations and a phone call to the AP which answers way out in Seattle, Washington.

There are two important announcements tonight. Rod Wilterdink picked up his 350th career win at Cedarburg on Tuesday night and I have boosted his name from the 300 win club to the 350 win club. Of course we lost a 350 club member earlier this week when McFarland's Steve Schmikla won his 400th game and joined that club along with Phil Adam and Darrell Lashen. I guess Steve probably became the Secretary/Treasurer in that club while Phil and Darrell share the presidency and vice presidency.

Anyway at 30 Rod does such a great job for the WFSCA we've chosen him to become the new President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer of the 350 club. We know he can handle it so congratulations Rod.

Scott Garthwaite picked up his 100th career win at Mineral Piont tonight when his Pointers beat Richland Center. Congratulations Scott.

A couple of big games were played tonight around the state. Wisconsin Rapids bumped Stevens Point from the unbeaten ranks tonight with a 4-2 win and Greendale nipped New Berlin Eisenhower 1-0 to remain unbeaten. Greendale is looking awfully tough in Division 2.
Tuesday night in Division 3 Horicon remained unbeaten by nipping Oakfield in Horicon.

Here is a scoring question for you from an umpire who I know very well. Baserunner does not go directly back to the base she occupied at the time of the pitch when the ball gets returned to the pitcher in the circle. She is called out - who do you give the putout to? Let me know how you do it because quite honestly I have no clue. I would think that the pitcher might get it because she had the ball in her possession when the runner was called out. It's not that big a deal but the game recap should balance out with the correct number of putouts when it's over.

Poynette Jamboree Update: Schedule should be completed in the next few days. I believe we are now set with the number of teams. We will be utilizing 7 fields for the event this year. That is the most we have ever used. We could still play two more games on Saturday for a total of 28 on that day but we are two teams short of that. Friday will see us stage more games on the Friday of the event than at any other time in the history of the Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree.

Be looking for the schedule soon and when it is done I will be posting it to the website.

I read a couple more newspaper articles this week about pitchers being on the mound. Old cliches are tough to change I guess.

Speaking of being in the circle. Way back in the dark ages of fastpitch softball, there was not a circle around the pitcher's plate. That rule changed in the 1970s and I happen to know the umpires who wrote the 16' circle rule and know him very, very well (Les Novak of St. Louis Park, MN). In those days a runner could lead off when the ball was released on a pitch and if the pitcher did not turn and look the runner back to the base, the runner didn't have to go back and could actually be leading off on the next pitch. You can imagine the bruha ha that occurred all the time when the pitcher claimed he did look the runner back and an umpire claimed he failed to look him back. In about 1970 I was playing in a huge men's tournament in Oxford, Wisconsin. There were big time teams there and lots of money involved in prizes. We were playing team from Ripon called Moxie's Supper Club. As you can probably guess, I was a runner at second in that game when the pitcher failed to look me back to the bag. I had about a 10' lead on the next pitch and stole third. An argument ensued and Moxie's manager got tossed. I just stood at third base smiling.

I drove through Ripon on my way back home from the WIAC Cluster (that's the official name of those events I guess) and went past what used to be Moxie's Supper Club on Highway 23. It hasn't been Moxie's for quite a few years. Now it's called Knucklehead's.

Ah yes, Forever Memories!

Have a great day!

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #28 April 23, 2005

Happy Holidays! Happy Holidays!

Oh, that's right it's April and not December of January. The day sure seemed like winter though with wind chills in the 20s statewide and softball games where a person really had to question whether or not anybody was really having a great time. Not every day is a softball day even when games are being played.

Doug Mock of Oakfield reached the 200 win level today in a twinbill win over Mayville. Congratulations Doug and the Oakfield program (players and coaches).

Dave Mills of Portage and his assistant Amy Zeihen did a great job of keeping things moving and organized on a blistery, cold day there. It was nice having the third base dugout in the first game but that first base dugout would have been brutal in game two if it had not been for some ingenuity on the part of the Poynette coaching staff. After 26 years of doing this a person gets a little wiser.

There were some upsets this week around the state so rankers should read back through the scores in your respective divisions of play vvery closely.

My fingers haven't thawed out since the afternoon so I will end this diatribe but before I do, here is a play situation for you to make the call on.

Runner on second base, ball hit sharply at third sacker. Ball hits her glove and then hits the runner heading to third base. What is the call (if there even is a call)?

Here is another one for you. Bases loaded and one out. Ball hit to the gap in leftcenter. Both outfielders are convering on the ball and the runners are running without tagging. Leftfielder gets to the ball in the air and gets a glove on it. Ball bounces into the air and the centerfielder picks it off before it strikes the ground. Centerfielder throws ball to second base where the second sacker steps on the bag as the runner at second hadn't made it back to the bag yet. You make a call!

Have a great call. We'll wait for John Peterson's interpretations on the two calls and publish them as soon as he gets them to us. I know he can't resist our You make the Call plays.

Hey, call for some warm weather again!
And in the meantime -
Keep it Rising!

Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #29 for April 25, 2005

And a Ball Fell Into My Glove!

Peter, Paul and Mary song - rightfield.

It's important you know, you gotta know how to catch, ya gotta know how to throw!

A couple of hilarious plays have been sent to me to read and perhaps comment back to the writer on but I wanted to share a couple of them with all of you just to give you a chuckle.

I have never seen the two situations I am about to describe to you happen and I have seen a ton of crazy stuff in my years on and around the dirt.

#1 - Batter hits a pop up down the first baseline and takes off for first, having no clue as to where it is at. You know, one of those deals from being coached in the summer by people who tell the young girls, "don't watch the ball, just run and listen to me!"

Batter does exactly that, but the ball hits her on top of the helmet as she goes toward first base in foul territory.

I told the writer that if I were the umpire and thought a fielder had a chance to retire that batter that I would call interference and retire the runner and return all other runners to the base they occupied at the time of the pitch. I can picture that happening though. Boink! Right on the melon.

#2 - This one came in tonight from a lower level coach - here it is in his words.

Hey Bob - I am the freshman/8th grade softball coach, and I witnessed a situation tonight that I'll probably never see again if I live to be 200.

My 9th batter is up and swings at the first pitch (3 feet over her head). I then call her name and tell her to lay off that particular pitch. When she hears me call her name, she turns towards me at the same time that the pitcher starts her windup. The pitcher sees this and hesitates for an instant, but then restarts her motion. The home plate umpire calls "time" at the same instant that the field umpire calls "illegal pitch", but the players continue like nobody said a word. My player hits a slow roller down the first base line, pitcher fields and makes a throw to first, but the ball pops out of her glove. The two umpires discussed it for a few minutes, and ruled her "safe at first.

The whole sequence from windup to "hit" lasted about 3 seconds. Neither myself or the opposing coach said a word. My scorekeeper eventually decided to score an E3,

My question: in a situation like this where there are 2 simultaneous calls, which one, if any, takes precedence? My feeling is that the "time" call was invalid because the pitcher had started her motion, and that an illegal pitch should have been called when she hesitated.

Thanks for any input

This one is also too funny for me to rule on. John Peterson's expertise is needed on this one but he's probably laughing too hard as well.

I was perusing the coaches association website earlier today and looking closely at the list of schools in each division of play whose coach is not a member of the association.

When looking at Division 4, it's sure easy to see why we don't need four Division 4 All Star teams picked. Less than half of the Division 4 coaches in the state are members.

Take a look at that list. It's too late to join now and still be considered for WFSCA post season accolades for the coach or the athletes at those schools. Coaches could still join, however.

Be sure to get those All Star nomination forms postmarked no later than Wednesday and in the mail to Steve Ryan in Waunakee. There will be no exceptions for late postmarks. Get after it!

Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree teams should look on The Fastpitch Chronicl website for the schedule which is now posted. Go to the Wisconsin Girls' page and click on 2005 Poynette Jamboreee. There are 36 schools and 36 games will be played in all. That's the most ever.

We might have a couple of JV games as well. Weyauwega is looking to bring their JV team on Friday. If there is a Friday team that is interested in that, we can send you to our Arlington Fields and play a couple of JV games there. The two schools would have to cover the cost of the umpires and provide game balls for the games.

We have no diamond space available for JV games on Saturday. There are only two time slots open on Diamond #7 (9 am and 3 PM) and I doubt if we will fill those slots.

All coaches should be checking the Jamboree page regularly for the schedule and keep in mind that in case of inclement weather, I will be posting the news and information about the event on the web page as making 35 phone calls would be stupid.

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #30 for April 26, 2005

Get outta here!

Those three words have had me in stitches since last night when Craig Otto e-mailed me his story that involved the phrase.

Here is Craig’s story that I believe will have most of you in stitches too. Especially when you think about all the trouble so many of us have in getting kids to tag up and take off on time after first touching.

Bob:
Tonight’s stories remind of a story from a baseball game I was coaching about eight years ago now. We had a runner at third with one out late in the game as the road team. A kid hits long fly ball right down the left-field line. I’m in the third-base coaching box and I tell the runner at third to tag as soon as the ball is in the air. He does so, so I turn my attention to the ball. As a reaction, I yell “get outta here” to the ball. Well, you guessed it, the runner hears “get outta here” so he takes off for home. As the ball it caught just in front of the fence, needless to say I’m a little surprised when I turn and see my runner about 50 feet down the line. I yell even louder “hey, get back here.” He does and tells me he was just following my instructions. We lost the game, but won the second game of the doubleheader. The kid turned out to be a pretty good athlete, too, he’s playing hockey at UW-Eau Claire. But boy was I mad at him at the time. Craig

For the rest of my life, I can guarantee you, every time I say or hear that phrase I will think of Craig Otto – it’s a forever memory.

Our great umpire friend and rules interpreter, John Peterson is a traveling man but got back and read his Bulletins and quickly responded with answers to the questions for the You Make the Call topics in the Bulletins. Thanks to John for being so timely and so correct.

Here are John’s replies to the situations I’ve typed up in a few recent Bulletins.

#1 - Batter hits a pop up down the first baseline and takes off for first, having no clue as to where it is at. You know, one of those deals from being coached in the summer by people who tell the young girls, "don't watch the ball, just run and listen to me!"

Batter does exactly that, but the ball hits her on top of the helmet as she goes toward first base in foul territory.

Bob you are correct. If it could be caught it is interference, if not, it is a foul ball. Rule 8-2-6 page 60.

#2 - This one came in tonight from a lower level coach - here it is in his words.

Hey Bob - I am the freshman/8th grade softball coach, and I witnessed a situation tonight that I'll probably never see again if I live to be 200.

My 9th batter is up and swings at the first pitch (3 feet over her head). I then call her name and tell her to lay off that particular pitch. When she hears me call her name, she turns towards me at the same time that the pitcher starts her windup. The pitcher sees this and hesitates for an instant, but then restarts her motion. The home plate umpire calls "time" at the same instant that the field umpire calls "illegal pitch", but the players continue like nobody said a word. My player hits a slow roller down the first base line, pitcher fields and makes a throw to first, but the ball pops out of her glove. The two umpires discussed it for a few minutes, and ruled her "safe at first.

The whole sequence from windup to "hit" lasted about 3 seconds. Neither myself or the opposing coach said a word. My scorekeeper eventually decided to score an E3,

My question: in a situation like this where there are 2 simultaneous calls, which one, if any, takes precedence? My feeling is that the "time" call was invalid because the pitcher had started her motion, and that an illegal pitch should have been called when she hesitated.

Thanks for any input

By rule this would be a dead ball - No Pitch since batter's action caused pitcher to hesitate. Rule 7-3-1 page 55 Effect #2.

John Peterson

I was at Northwestern Friday to Sunday and New York City Monday and today or I would have answered sooner.

#1. Runner on second base, ball hit sharply at third sacker. Ball hits her glove and then hits the runner heading to third base. What is the call (if there even is a call)?
This is a live ball with no call by the umpire unless: (a) the umpire another fielder had a change co make an out and (b) the runner intentionally contacts the ball. Then it is dead ball runner is out. Rule 8-1-2 page 58 and Rule 8-8-6 page 69.

#2. Here is another one for you. Bases loaded and one out. Ball hit to the gap in leftcenter. Both outfielders are converging on the ball and the runners are running without tagging. Leftfielder gets to the ball in the air and gets a glove on it. Ball bounces into the air and the centerfielder picks it off before it strikes the ground. Centerfielder throws ball to second base where the second sacker steps on the bag as the runner at second hadn't made it back to the bag yet. You make a call!
Runners are released when ball first contacts fielder. Since it was caught before hitting the ground, wall, runner or umpire, it is a catch and any runners who left early and do not return before a fielder touches the base they left early before runner returns is out on the live ball appeal. Rule 8-6-6 page 65.

Thanks for the plays.
John Peterson

So there are your answers to those plays that you sent in. Keep the plays streaming in here as John truly does like reading and responding to them.

Have a great day and as always -----
Keep it rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #31 - April 27, 2005

It's a humpback liner! Not a frozen rope!

Hello again to everyone. Last night I accidently hit send on a blank e-mail screen and one third of you got the blank. Wow, the responses I got from any of you were amazing. I had no idea that The Bulletin has become an important part of so many people's day. Seems as though a few people go through a sort of withdrawal without it. Golly, that puts some pressure on me to come up with some sort of diatribe on a regular basis so as to keep everyone in a good mental frame of mind.

Perhaps some ideas from some of the readers as to what topics you'd like to read about would be in order.

I received an e-mail message yesterday from a long-time friend and former men's fastpitch teammate. It was good to hear from Dave and read his message. He sent me another one today and told a few stories from yesteryear. They were great reading.

I was talking to my high school principal earlier today and told him Craig Otto's story that we entitled "Get Outta Here!". He laughed and then told me about a play he was involved in in his younger days. He said he was involved in a triple play that really wasn't a triple play but got recorded as one some way or another. Here is how it took place. He was playing rightfield with a runner at second base. There was a deep fly ball hit to him and he got the ball back into the cutoff as fast as he could. The runner hadn't tagged up and was really on the go and all he saw was a guy trying to score. He threw to the plate, hit the cutoff and they got the base runner out at the plate for the second out and then somebody hollered to throw the ball to second because the runner there hadn't tagged up. The base ump called the runner who had just been tagged out a the plate out for not tagging up and the team ran into the dugout and the other team took the field - unaware of the fact that the same runner had been tagged out for the second out of the inning and then was called out for not tagging up.

If you go to the ballyard often enough, you're bound to see some crazy things take place.

Hey, Poynette Jamboree teams playing on Friday. If any of you are interested in bringing your JV team, we can send them to Arlington and they can take on the Weyauwega-Fremont JV team. Tom wants to bring his kids down. It would cost you $35 per game for one of the umpires. I'm a nice guy and Poynette is filled with great people, but our budget is pretty tight so you have to pay for the umpires just like the varsity teams do.We'd probably have time for a twinbill in Arlington.

I was going to give you an update on the number of members in the coaches association from each division but my Adobe Acrobat is taking a vacation on me here tonight. That will have to wait until another night I guess.

Have a great day on Thursday.
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #32 - April 28, 2005

So It's Say Hey Willie and Joe Dimaggio!

John Fogerty's Centerfield -

I hate Proms. It's not the Proms I hate but the week that leads up to them and the three or four days that follow them. In 26 years of coaching girls' fastpitch I have never won a game on the Monday following the Prom in Poynette. At one time, when the prom date was set, I'd look at my schedule and quickly try to reschedule that game for earlier or later in the year and I never failed to reschedule with any coach asking me to do the same thing.

Take a team full of juniors and add the prom to the mix and you have a quick recipe for la good batch of lack of focus. I've always told my underclassmen that for two weeks of the year, they have to play like upperclassmen better than at any other time of the year. The week of Prom and the week of Graduation. Juniors are gaga during Prom week and seniors are gonners during graduation week.

I wonder how volleyball coaches and basketball coaches would fare if the Prom or graduation took place right in the middle or worse yet, during the WIAA tournament series during their seasons. I coach girls' basketball here as well and I wouldn't like those distractions any more than I do this time of the year.

The Prom, where I teach and coach is this weekend. We have one more game yet before that takes place - see ya there tomorrow Bob Buss. I'm playing only freshman, sophomores and seniors -------- (just kidding).

Did you remember to get your all star nominations in? If you didn't - it's too late.

How about coaches association membership?

Many of you, and I mean dozens reply to the Bulletins on a daily basis. I chuckle at some of the responses and it's the chuckling that plays a huge part in my sitting in front of this little box every night.

Here is a message from the other night when I accidently sent out a blank one "Hey, I look forward to the Bulletins every day - mine is blank, please send the real one."

And another one - "My Bulletin is blank - what do I do know for my fastpitch fix for the day?"

Others simply write and say they like the stories and the situations and the You make the call stuff.

Here's a true story for tonight. In the mid 1980s I played on a very excellent Men's Class A fastpitch team based out of Portage. We were an excellent team - good enough to win the 1986 ASA Class A state tournament when there were more than 40 teams entered in it.

That year we were playing in the Eau Claire Classic. Our pitcher was "Humm, Wayne Humm (Tempe) of Rockford, Illinois. Wayne was at the tail end of his career but was still a very capable Class A level pitcher. We were on Hobbs Field at Carson Park taking on All Car of Green Bay. Wayne was pitching a dandy and holding an excellent All Car club down. Dino Amundson stepped into the box to get a whack at Humm, Wayne Humm. For those that know or knew Dino - let's just suffice it to say that the guy could flat out hit.

Wayne tried to sneak a riser past Dino but the big Eau Claire native would have none of it. I was stationed at first base, yelling my head off to keep Humm Wayne Humm pumped up. He always seemed to respond to that. Humm Wayne Humm let go of that rise ball at about 73-74 mph and Dino met it with an aluminum bat of some kind and the bat exit speed had to have exceeded any modern day bat performance standards. That ball struck "Humm Wayne Humm" right on the forehead, bounced into the air about 30 feet high and then started on it's downward track where it settled into my first baseman's mitt right next to the sideline fence out in short rightfiel for an out. The runner at second had taken off on the crack of the bat, saw the ball nail Humm Wayne Humm and just kept going. See, everyone but me was looking at Humm Wayne Humm laying on the ground in the pitcher's circle. I screamed at our shortstop, who ran to the bag at second and we doubled the runner off. About that time, Humm Wayne Humm sat up and asked, "What the hell hit me?" He pitched the rest of the game - we got beat but I don't remember the score because the Forever Memory had taken place earlier.

Have a great day!
Best of luck to all of you and may all of your games
be tight ones.
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #33 - May 2, 2005

Fever Pitch!

It would be nice if the weather were to get a fever and heat up the world a bit eh? Today was as Steve Schmikla in McFarland put it ...... Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

Last week Roger Schliewe of Horicon won is 250th game so I added Roger's name to the Fastpitch Chronicle's coaches honor roll page in the 250 win category. Congratulations Roger. Your success along with your commitment and service to the game and the young players is noted here tonight. I have had several e-mails from people who thank you for what you have done to promote the game, the players and the state on a nationwide basis.

I also added Greg Lampe's name to the 250 win category as Greg wound up with 280 wins in his career. He still is active in the game as he stayed on as awards chairman for the WFSCA and also sends me all those Milwaukee area scores every day.

Hard to believe there are just 2 and half weeks left in the regular season. Divisions 2-3-4 start regional action two weeks from Thursday.

More stories and bizarre situations coming in Bulletins this week.

Keep them rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #34 - May 3, 2005

I'm bringing the heat! High and tight!

Music -- and it's a little chin music at that!

Hello Again everyone for the 34th time this year.

First things first and most important things even before that -- Congratulations to Dave Koeller of Bonduel who picked up his 250th career coaching victory tonight in a win over Amherst. I'll be seeing Bonduel this weekend at the Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree where 35 teams will gather to play 35 games in two days on seven fields in Poynette and Arlington. There are 10 games on Friday afternoon and There will be free treats during that game - Give me some peanuts and Cracker Jack ! The schedule for the Jamboree can be viewed at http://www.fastpitchchronicle.com/jamboree05.htm so give it a look.

Here is a substitution question for everyone to figure out and we'll wait for our expert rules interpreter John Peterson to get back to me quickly.

I have a situation about the DP. If the DP comes in to pitch and the original pitcher stays in the batting line-up and a courtesy runner was used for the original pitcher in an earlier inning, can that courtesy runner be used for the new pitcher? Can the courtesy runner still be used for the first pitcher even though she is not pitching, just hitting.
Jeff Setz - New Berlin Eisenhower

Here is a scoring question for you! From Jeff Bowe in Cadott

Hi Bob,
Jeff Bowe from Cadott. I have a question about how to score an incident in my book. A girl on third. The batter bunts towards thepitcher. Pitcher fields the ball and looks to third and then proceeds to throw to first. Runner from third goes home. Pitcher realizes she is going home, turns around and throws it home, but the runner is safe at home. I scored it a fielder's choice. Talking to other people they think that it is a hit, because no out was recorded. What is the correct scoring?
Thanks Jeff Bowe, Cadott High School

I think most scorers will agree with me when I say that it is a fielder's choice.

Here is another note about rubber/plastic cleats vs metal cleats in girl's fastpitch softball. I think everyone knows where I stand on this issue. We need to get more supporters to initiate a change (in my humble opinion).

Hi Bob:
Sun showing this morning ... don't remember what it looked like. Just another note on the rock hard, slippery home plate especially on cold weather being a major health concern. My sophomore shortstop who is my #3 hitter and a very nice player went down in a heap last night after she stepped/ran on top of home scoring a run last night. My first thought was a torn acl but seems now to be probably a slight strain but sure didn't sleep very well last night wondering how it would be today! When we played a fall creek trnmt last sat I noticed their home plate was a softer type of material that "gave" or was a type of cushioned home plate when you stepped on it. Do you know anything about it? I will be checking into it for sure for our fields. Also, wondered if you've noticed any difference in how umps are calling the obstruction rule that was supposed to have been institued this year for blocking the plate/bag without the ball? So far, I haven't it seen called once as it should be ... matter of fact, it hasn't changed a thing yet!!! Still old thing of umps telling me they were catching the ball at the same time as the runner was sliding. It doesn't matter I tell them ... they have to have possession of the ball not be in the act of catching it but it doesn't matter. Really jerks my chain as we like to run and halfway through the season and I still see rules that have been a major emphasis this year and they still don't get it. Wow.

There is no excuse for an umpire telling anyone that a player was about to catch a thrown ball. The new rule is very explicit.

Last week after a game the umpires hung around and chatted with me and my family a little bit. During the course of the conversation I learned about an interesting situation that occurred the previous week. It doesn't matter what the situation was, the interesting thing to me was that the umpire told me that during the discussion a coach asked him to look it up in his rule book. The umpire told me that he told the coach that umpires do not and are not supposed to take their rulebooks to the game. He also told me that he told that coach if that he (the coach) came out of the dugout with his copy of the rulebook that he (the coach again) was going to get run out of the game.

Hmmmmm - why are there rulebooks and what purpose do they serve? If a rule is administered wrongly, what recourse does a coach have if an umpire or a set of umpires don't have a rulebook along or refuses to look at a copy a coach might have? There are no provisions for protesting a game. Seems to me that correct rulings ought to be made on the spot with the aid of a rulebook. It seems to me that if it can be made right, then it ought to be made right.

If I'm wrong on this one, then I'll be the first coach in the state to burn my rulebook and stop reading the darn thing. John Peterson, help me out on this one.

OK John - I'm keeping you busy with this Bulletin - take it away on the following e-mail I received.

Hello Bob,

I have enjoyed your postings. Thanks for all your hard work. I have an equipment question for you. I use the Worth Dream Seam ball for all of my home games. One opposing coach claimed he found it in the rule book that a visiting team could use their own balls if they so chose while they were on defense if the ball met all the specifications. I can't find that rule in any book. Could you give me some assistance on the rule number. Thanks.

Heather

Here is another example of the kinds of e-mails that I get. This one is worth publishing just because it is.

Head coach Roger Schliewe of Horicon won his 250th game last night. Horicon beat Lomira by a score of 7-1. I know Roger personally and he not only does a great job of coaching, teaching, and creating a lot of fun for his players, but he also takes time out to help kids from the surrounding communities near Horicon. Its because of people like Roger, why girls' fast pitch is so popular not only in Wisconsin but across our country.

OK - It's late

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #35 - May 4, 2005

Well, beat the drum and hold the phone - the sun came out today!
We’re born again, there’s new grass on the field.
A-roundin’ third, and headed for home, it’s a brown-eyed ,dark-haired girl;
Anyone can understand the way I feel.

Hello Everyone.

I received an e-mail from Marcy Thurwachter today regarding the use of approved balls in answer to last night's question from one of you. Here it is:

Hi John & Bob!

I just answered a question regarding teams being able to use their own balls for another coach. The regulation can be found in the WIAA Softball Season Regulations, page 29, State Assoc. Regulations, b. "In the absence of a conference approved ball, teams are allowed to provide and use their own game ball in regular season play provided it meets NFHS specifications, and is optic yellow."

Marcy

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Here are John Peterson's responses to our questions from last Night's Bulletin. Thanks to John for taking the time to answer them.

I have a situation about the DP. If the DP comes in to pitch and the original pitcher stays in the batting line-up and a courtesy runner was used for the original pitcher in an earlier inning, can that courtesy runner be used for the new pitcher? Can the courtesy runner still be used for the first pitcher even though she is not pitching, just hitting.
Jeff Setz - New Berlin Eisenhower

A courtesy runner may be used for the pitcher Rule 8-9, page 70, "In the top of the first inning only, the pitcher and catcher are identified as those players listed on the lineup as the pitcher and catcher, Thereafter, the pitcher and catcher are identified as the last players who physically played that position on defense. The pitcher and catcher must bat and reach base legally (or earn their way on base) in order to be eligible for a courtesy runner."

John Peterson

I am going ask Marcy Thurwachter about your other situations since they are not covered in rule book.
Specifically:
There is no rule or directive I am aware of that prohibits an umpire from bringing out a rule book. I would agree with the statement that as an umpire I am not going to allow a coach to bring out a rule book and delay a game arguing over an application of the rule. That is handled as a protest although I am not sure Wisconsin permits protests.
The rule book says the "home team shall provide enough new balls to permit game to proceed" Rule 1-3-7, page 13. Wisconsin used to allow a defense to use balls they furnished in their half of the inning during tournament play. I don't know if that is still allowed. See Marcy's Answer above
I have heard a lot about umpires not calling obstruction rule as written. I have no response other than to urge WIAA to remind tournament umpires to call the rule as written. As I have said before I saw this rule change as most problematic of the changes.
John
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As for the rulebook issue - I did ask that question two years ago and Marcy had a copy of that bulletin. The long and short of it is -- I'm not burning my rule book and will continue to take it to every game. Here's why.

Runners at first and second, one out - line drive hit to shortstop who catches it. Runner at first had gotten too far off without tagging and the shortstop rifles a throw in that direction in an attempt to double off that runner and end the inning. Ball goes over first sacker's head and out of play. What is the correct base awards?

The correct number of bases awarded would be two bases from the time of the catch - Rule 5-1-1-G and #15 in page 44 of rulebook. Thanks to John Peterson for once again getting that one for us.

I like Wednesday's during softball season. A great practice day where we get a chance to work on some important situations and Fun-Da-Mentals and not many scores to post so I get a bit of reprieve mid-week.

I like Mondays, Tuesday, Thursday's, Fridays and Saturday's too -- many games and exciting e-mails to read from all of you.

Got a beat-up glove, an aluminum bat, and brand-new pair of shoes;
You know I think it’s time to give this game a ride.
Just to hit the ball and touch ’em all - a moment in the sun;
(pop) it’s gone and you can tell that one goodbye!

Keep it Rising!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #36 - 05/05/05

Well I Spent some time in the Mudville nine, watchin' it from the bench;
You know I took some lumps when the Mighty Casey struck out.
So Say Hey Wille, tell Ty Cobb and Joe Dimaggio;
Don't say it ain't so, you know the time is now.

Hello Again Everyone and thanks for the kind e-mails today to those of you who sent them. I'm just happy that you enjoy the diatribe that goes out from here. Dawn Larsen, I really enjoyed your line drive off the third baseman's head story. I'll print it in the next Bulletin so everyone can laugh.

Here is a special treat for everyone tonight from Tim Husted of the Danes Fastpitch. It's a preview of the upcoming WIAC fastpitch tournament. Many of you have former players that are playing and playing well in the WIAC. Enjoy Tim's preview because I sure did.

WIAC Conference Tournament to determine NCAA Bid

by Tim Husted, Danes Fastpitch Softball Association President/Head Coach 18U

Whitewater, WI -- UW-Whitewater will host the 2005 WIAC Conference Tournament at Martha van Steenderen Field on campus this Friday and Saturday. The winner will be the WIAC Automatic Qualifier for the D3 NCAA College World Series. With the current NCAA qualification system, it is highly likely that only the winner of this weekend's tournament will get into the field of 64.

Tickets for this event are $6 daily or a 2 day pass for $10 and at any given time early in the event, both fields will be playing ball but can be viewed from common seating areas. An opportunity to see almost nonstop exciting D3 softball.

As a 9 team format usually dictates for a double elimination event, there is a play in game for the final 8th seed which will pit the two teams with the lowest regular season conference records. This year, that game will pit host team UW-Whitewater against UW-Platteville at 9:00 am on Friday.

Whitewater (4-12 in WIAC, 17-22 Overall) has been led by a combination of speed and power. The speed, Senior SS Colleen Boilini (Highland Park, IL) has hit .391 this year with 20 successful stolen bases in 23 attempts. The power is Sophomore C Kyley Shramek (Taylor) who is 2nd in the WIAC with 9 HR's and 69 total bases. The Warhawks feature two Seniors in the circle, Dana Jakoubek (Brookfield, IL) or Katie Brunner (Hubertus). Jakoubek has thrown 115 1/3 innings with opponents batting .220 against and having 99 K's with a 2.55 ERA. Brunner has thrown 105 1/3 innings with a 2.59 ERA and an opponent BA of .265.

UW-Platteville (4-12 in WIAC, 15-20 Overall) has been led by Junior Ashley Strnad (Priaire du Chien -- .356 BA) and Senior Wendi Siedschlag (Monroe -- .301 BA). In the circle will be one of two Juniors, Alexis Thoms (Lakeville, MN) or Katie Larson (South Wayne). Thoms had success in her freshman year and when on can win games against any lineup.

The winner of the play in game will face UW-Eau Claire who successfully defending last year's regular season conference championship with a WIAC best 13-3 record and #1 seed again in 2005. Eau Claire (30-9 Overall) has spent most of the season in the NFCA Top 25 and currently is ranked #16 in that poll. Eau Claire's team is amazingly deep with every rostered position player starting at least 1 conference game.

The Blugolds have been led by a consistent pitching staff featuring reigning WIAC Pitcher of the Year, Sophomore Mallory McKinney (Brooklyn Park, MN) and Junior Andrea Neuville (Green Bay). McKinney has thrown 129 innings for a 0.92 ERA with a 13-4 record and 104 K's while Neuville has thrown 99 innings with a 0.99 ERA and a 15-3 record. The Blugold offensive attack has 3 hitters over.300 and timely hitting from many others. Freshman 1B Jill Janke (Black River Falls, WI) is leading the 'Golds with a .369 Batting Average and has 5 home runs (2 Slams) and 30 RBI. McKinney was a 2nd Team All American last year and although streaky at times ended up with a .327 batting average. The top of the 'Golds order is Freshman SS Casey Leisgang (Seymour) whose .310 batting average and .430 OB% had led to 35 runs. Leisgang also added 6 doubles, 2 triples and a team high 8 HR's but most impressively a .954 Fielding Percentage in 152 chances, a high for any WIAC shortstop. Also supporting Coach Leslie Huntington's squad is Senior Captain Molly Blakewell who has played a strong 3B down the stretch for the 'Golds and does many little things well with the bat.

Although UWEC looks strong, historically this conference has seen many #1 seeds upset in their first round game including the 'Golds last year. The 'Golds will face the winner of Game 1 at 1:00 PM on Friday.

In the top side of the bracket UW-Eau Claire and the Play In Game Winner are joined by UW-Superior and UW-Stevens Point in a first round game which will be a classic offensive v. defensive matchup scheduled for 1:00 PM on Friday.

The 4th seeded Yellowjackets of Superior (9-7 in WIAC, 12-14 overall) feature All-American Senior C Sarah Tarasewicz (Hurley) who lead the WIAC with a .454 BA, 1.019 Slugging %, .535 On Base Percentage, 39 runs scored, 7 triples, 13 home runs and 110 total bases. Throw in a conference second best 30 RBI, 49 Hits, 17 Walks and you have the most dominating player in the WIAC conference. Her 13 home runs are 3rd Best in Division III while her 1.019 Slugging Percentage is the national high for NCAA D3. Superior however is not a one hitter show, supporting Tarasewicz is Junior Jamie Bang (Hermantown, MN) whose .431 BA is second in the WIAC and a trio of Sophomores in WIAC RBI leader Erin Kegley (Inver Grove Heights, MN -- .357 BA with 36 RBI), Jamie Lovstad (Esko, MN -- .361 BA) and super fast Kathleen Duffy (Superior -- 378 BA with 13 stolen bases). Kegley has only struck out 2 times in 112 at bats while Junior teammate Courtney Pulsifer (Minnetonka, MN) has only 2 K's in her 110 at bats.

UW-Stevens Point (9-7 in WIAC, 23-13 Overall) has the 5th seed and features a lefty/righty pitching staff that has dominated lineups all year. The rightly option is Freshman Kelly Jablonski (Stevens Point) whose 11-5 record and WIAC Low 0.55 ERA in 102 innings pitched. Jablonski has started 15 games with 14 complete and 7 shutouts in 2005. The lefty option is Junior Steph Anderson (Milwaukee) whom has an equally impressive 0.82 ERA with a 8-6 record in 94 IP and 90 K's. Anderson has played 1B in games she does not pitch and led the Pointers in hitting with a .380 BA with 4 HR and 19 RBI. Adding to the offensive attack is Freshman Laura Zierler (Kaukauna) with a .378 BA, Junior Rebekah Bauer (Stevens Point) with a .355 BA, and Junior Jenny Feidt (Kimberly) with a .330 BA.

The bottom of the bracket is headlined by 2nd Seed UW-Oshkosh and their Freshman pitcher Ronessa Stampfli (Brodhead). Stampfli has a WIAC third-best 0.79 ERA and has held opponents to a .174 Batting Average (WIAC best) with 167 K's (WIAC best) in 123 2/ 3 IP (3rd highest in WIAC). Another Freshman, SS Whitney Tyriver (Oshkosh) has been the leading Titan hitters with a .381 batting average. Tyriver has been supported by infield-mate, Senior 3B Anne Stanislawski (Amherst) who has hit .348. First year coach Cindy Suess has brought an intense and aggressive style of play to UW-Oshkosh and up until the last day of the season, the Titans were challenging UWEC for the Conference Championship.

Oshkosh will face the 7th seed UW-LaCrosse in their first game (11:00 am on Friday). UW-LaCrosse (6-10 in WIAC, 16-19 Overall) has a trio of .300 hitters, Senior Carley Anderson (Pepin) is hitting .343 while Junior Barb Evers (Appleton) is hitting .307 and Senior Mindy Sinclair (Eagan, MN) is hitting .301. UW-LaCrosse has used 4 pitchers this year in almost equal time/appearances including Freshman Cassie Huettl (Mankato, MN -- 0.72 ERA in 38 2/3 IP), Freshman Jess Iwanski (Grafton -- 2.28 ERA in 58 1/3 IP), Sophomore Shelly Monahan (Rochester, MN -- 1.77 ERA in 71 1/3 IP) and Sophomore Ali Romoran (New Berlin -- 3.07 ERA in 54 IP).

The final first round match up will face 3rd Seed UW-Stout (9-7 in WIAC, 20-18 Overall) against UW-River Falls (8-8 in WIAC, 17-21 Overall) in another 11:00 am game on Friday.

UW-Stout is led by a group of Senior power hitters in Kaela Wold (.300 BA with 8 doubles and 5 HR's) and Erin O'Connell (.312 with 7 doubles and 6 RBI). Also adding to the offensive output is freshman C/OF Beth Lloyd (.301 BA). Recently added to the lineup, freshman Jackie Juan (LaCrosse) has hit 2 HR's with 11 RBI in 35 official at bats. In the circle for Stout should be workhorse Megan Donley who has thrown a WIAC high 129 Innings with a 2.44 ERA which is inflated due to many spring trip games against NCAA D2 opponents. Her in-conference only ERA is a more reasonable 1.80. She is supported in the circle by Freshman Ande Schraeder who was 11-7 with 73K's in 110 IP and a 3.50 ERA.

UW-River Falls features freshman Amanda Wojnowiak (Big Lake, MN) whose WIAC 3rd High .408 batting average and 11 doubles leads the Falcons offensive game plan. Senior 3B Emily Evans (White Bear Lake, MN) leads off and is batting .375 while Senior 1B Emily Stahl (St. Paul, MN -- .311 BA) and Leah Vanderploeg (Drummond -- .300 BA) round out the .300 hitters. Also adding to the offensive attack is freshman Brittany Rathbun (Rochester, MN) who has batted .458 in a limited 24 AB's and 7 RBI. Vanderploeg and Rathbun also make up two thirds of the River Falls pitching staff with Freshman Ashley Bertrand's (St. Paul, MN) 2.09 ERA and 100 IP leading the group. Rathbun has closed many games with success, leading to a 2.45 ERA with a conference high 4 saves and 80 IP in 28 relief appearances. Vanderploeg is the Senior of the group and has a 3.42 ERA in 77 2/3 IP.

The double-elimination tournament will continue with only the final 6 making it past Friday. Two more consultation games will start at 9:00 am on Saturday leading to the Final 4 facing off at 11:00 am. The Consolation Final game is scheduled at 12:30 PM leading to a 2:00 Championship game which may require a 2nd Game if both teams have 1 loss after the first game.

Tim's Ten Players You Need to See Play

Sarah Tarasewicz (UW-Superior) -- If teams pitcher to her, a HUGE "if"; she is worth every cent. A pure power hitter with speed on the bases; one of the strongest players I have seen at any Division of play this year.

Amanda Wojnowiak (UW-River Falls) -- Even AB's when she is not at 100% due to nagging ankle injury are impressive, last week was 15/30 w/ 6 doubles so she is hitting well at a key time.

Mallory McKinney (UW-Eau Claire) -- Pitches best in tough spots, works the plate well and helps her team in the middle of the order, a overall strong softball player who should be at her best in big games.

Andrea Neville (UW-Eau Claire) -- Super movement and a change-up which freezes or embarrasses even the strongest hitters.

Ronessa Stampfli (UW-Oshkosh) -- Throws hard up and down with super tight spin on each pitch, super focused player shows almost no emotion and seems to never be distracted.

Erin Kegley (UW-Superior) -- When you share the spotlight with a hitter like Sarah T, you can be underrated -- this player would be the best hitter on any other team in this conference.

Casey Leisgang (UW-Eau Claire) -- Tremendous athlete who has power, speed and can dominate offensively or defensively -- great range and ability to make the hard play look easy at SS.

Jill Janke (UW-Eau Claire) -- Loves to hit with runners on base, can hit HR's but what is impressive is the distance in which she hits the HR's.

Kelly Jablonski (UW-Stevens Point) -- Power pitcher throws hard in and out of the strike zone with success.

Stephanie Anderson (UW-Stevens Point) -- Lefty is able to keep hitters off balance with speed and movement and location and with the bat she can help her own cause OR the teams' when Jablonski throws.
So there you have it from Where Tim Sees it. Thanks Tim.

The Poynette Jamboree is also this weekend and coaches should make sure you have printed out the Jamboree page off my website. Del Schneeberger, this message is for you especially.

Players selected to the WFSCA all star teams should have received that information in the past couple of days and so should the coaches whose players were selected.

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

The Fastpitch Bulletin #37 - May 11, 2005

Whose on First?

Where has Bob been for the past six days?

Hello Everyone. Thanks for the e-mails indicating that you miss the nightly diatribe. I haven't been ill. Meetings and other important stuff got in my schedule.

Seeding meetings for Divisions 2--3--4 were tonight. It will be interesting to look at the match-ups around the state. It's interesting to look at the seeding groups. There are some very, very weak groupings and there are some very, very tough ones. It is just the way things are.

Here are few questions for John Peterson to handle for us.

1) A runner runs through first and beats it out safe. A runner is at third. The runner at first continues past first and rounds to the right (foul territory) running hard. Runner at first returns to first, the ball is now in the pitchers circle but the runner at first has
never stopped moving. Can she now continue to second base?

2) Runner at first, fielders' choice hit to second ,she throws to first and batter/runner is out. Runner at second is safe. The coach calls time and the runner at second returns to first base. Before the next pitch or time has been called the coach calls time again and sends the runner back to second. The defense throws the ball to the second baseman who tags the runner. Time is still out. What happens to the runner? Does she have
to stay at first, got to second, or is she out?

3) Runner at second. Batter hits looping single over shortstop. Batter drops bat and it rolls down third baseline stopping dead center of the baseline. Runner from second is heading home. The umpire nor catcher move the bat. The on deck batter from the third base side steps up to get the bat out of the way of the play that is impending. If there is a collision is it interference or obstruction depending on what players could come in contact. ie on deck and runner or on deck and catcher.

Here is a play that happened in a varsity softball game in Wisconsin last week. The umpire told me about the play. Read this one carefully because the umpys got it right.

Runner at first base and less than two outs. Batter hits a pop up that is going to come down right on or very near first base. First sacker settles in under the ball. Batter-runner is not running hard to first base. First base coach screams at batter-runner "Run it out hard!" She does but crashes into her own teammate who is standing on the bag where she ought to be on this particular play. Before the ball settles into the first sacker's mitt, the collision with her own teammate causes the runner at first to get knocked off the bag. The first sacker catches the ball after the runner had been dislodged and tags the runner. They called her out!

Now think about that. What are the chances of that happening in a varsity softball game? The chances are good enough to keep me going back to the ball yards of the country.

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #38 - May 12, 2005

"Paraskevidekatriaphobics"

Or take two and hit to right.

It’s a seeing eye single!

Hello again everyone!

Congratulations to Russ Schuab of Middleton!

Tonight Russ notched his 400th fastpitch softball coaching victory to join Darrell Laschen of Loyal, Phil Adam of Ashwaubenon and Steve Schmikla of McFarland on the 400 win list of The Fastpitch Chronicle Coaches Honor Roll. I’ve known Russ for a long time and I am really happy for him and proud of his accomplishments. I know he’ll tell us all that it is because he has had good players down through the years. It takes great leadership to guide good players to 400 wins. Keep in mind, young coaches, we haven’t been able to play 20 games per year for very long. As a matter of fact, for the first few years of high school girls’ fastpitch, we could only play 12. Then it went to 14, 16, 18 and now 20. To get that many victories is a monumental accomplishment. Russ, Congratulations from everyone who reads this Bulletin!
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I have updated the Coaches Honor Roll page on The Fastpitch Chronicle website and have added Russ’ name to the 400 win list. I also updated a few other things on that page. Check it out!
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In case you are in a struggling with that big word at the top of tonight’s Fastpitch Bulletin – here’s a little clue for you. Think about a baker’s dozen and you’ll get it. Still struggling? There are pools whereby you get a major league team and pay so much per week to stay in the pool and if your team scores a baker’s dozen before anyone’s else’s major league team scores that number of runs you win.

Still struggling? It is people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th.

That day happens tomorrow (if you are reading this late night on Thursday) or it’s today.

One coaching friend of mine told me he gave his kids the day off tomorrow due to Friday the 13th. I told my junior pitcher, who wears number 13 that it’s her day to shine.
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Division 2-3 and 4 seedings are on the WIAA website. I took a look at them and it was easy to see that more coaches need to take just a little more time and report scores to the only statewide source for posting those scores.

Why?

Because there are teams with #1 seeds that flew under the radar all season and suddenly pop up as the #1 seed. Others are seeded 2 and 3 and have never reported a score to this website. Where have those scores been throughout the season?

It just goes to show that no matter how hard we try to get every score from the state, unless every program or every winning team e-mails them in, we won’t get them. I also coach basketball and coaches in that sport call an AP number to report every game. Even in basketball, there are many coaches who error in the publicity department.

In the Poynette Division 2 sectional there are several high seeds that we never hear from. Mishicot is the #1 seed in Regional A. We never hear from Mishicot. Manitowoc Lutheran is the #3 seed in Regional B. We never hear from Manitowoc Lutheran. Howard’s Grove is the #3 seed in Regional B. We never hear from Howard’s Grove. Martin Luther is the #2 seed in Regional D and the only time I have heard from Martin Luther is when one of their fans sent me a terse e-mail about their team not being included in the rankings. Hmmmmm? Every sectional in every division of play has the same story.

I don’t have enough time to e-mail or call the schools who fail to report scores. Publicity for the sport depends on the people who coach it. It’s as simple as that! Everyone would like more ink – look in the mirror and you’ll have the answer to the question of, Who can do the most to get us more? Not doing more is settling for less!

It’s late. You’ve been great – especially those of you who report scores.

Have a great day!

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #39 - May 16, 2005

Hey, Look at me, I can play Centerfield!

Ah yes, it happened again this year.

Twice in the last week I have received very terse e-mails from people who take exception to The Fastpitch Chronicle rankings because their team just doesn't seem to get any respect of recognition in the rankings.

Ah yes, same old story. Those coaches, teams and even conferences failed to take the time to type a season preview and furthermore, never submit a single game summary throughout the season.

I'll be the first person to admit that The Fastpitch Chronicle rankings are not foolproof. Heck, no rankings are perfect. I will also be the first to say, and I have on many occasions and in many of these nightly diatribes that unless somebody from a given school/program does something to promote their team, they will struggle to get recognition. The rankers I have gathered do an excellent job of not only ranking teams but forwarding comments and notes about teams in all divisions of play in their areas. I have rankers from every corner of the state. They stay in constant contact and yes, they are asked to compare the strength of schedules and strengths of conferences and do it as objectively as possible so as to enable the other rankers to get a feel for the entire state. They do that without knowing who each other is. I don't publish or announce the names of the rankers because I don't want them receiving complaining e-mails and I want them to be able to go to the ball yards and just watch and enjoy games and not get into heated discussions with fans, coaches etc, about the rankings.

That's it in a nutshell. We may have missed a team or two during the season but over the long haul (the last five years) we've improved our statewide coverage and our rankings are probably the most objective that they have ever been.

I return e-mails to those writers. Tonight I pointed out that the conference their favorite team plays in failed to send a season preview and not one team from that conference submitted a season preview on their club. Taking it one step farther I pointed out that the head coach of their favorite team is not a member of the WFSCA. That means no post season awards for any of those players beyond all conference awards.

One of the inherent problems with fastpitch softball, as I have stated many times, is that high turnover of coaches in the state from one year to the next. Continuity is an issue and with that lack of continuity goes a lack of communication and publicity.

Ken Clinton at Brookwood won his 100th game today. Congratulations Ken. I have added his name to the Coaches Honor Roll 100 Wins list.

I receive hundreds of e-mails from hundreds of different people every week that ask questions, point out my mistakes, tell me stories and talk about memories. I enjoy every single one of them and I try valiantly to respond to each and every one of those. Tonight, I received a really special one. The writer asked me not to share the words she shared with me but I can tell you that fastpitch softball, the friendships and the memories the game provides continues to play a huge role in the lives of many. I will indeed be mentioning parts of tonight's e-mail in upcoming bulletins but I need to secure permission first and then do it my way. The writer spoke about her father, whom I know and have known for a long time and the importance of fastpitch in his life and in that of his daughter.

This is the final week of the regular season. Some teams are even playing makeup games after the regional tournaments begin. Division 1 seeding meetings are Wednesday night. Divisions 2-3-4 get things going on Thursday of this week. By this time Thursday night, half of the state's schools will be looking at packing up the bats, balls, uniforms etc. for another year. Gosh, it seems like I just started typing Bulletin #1 yesterday -- but this is #39.

On a side note: The NCAA Division 1 Regional is being played Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Goodman Diamond in Madison. Wisconsin, DePaul, Green Bay and Oregon State will vie for a spot in the next level of competition - a Super Regional I guess they care calling it. Games begin at 5 PM Friday at the Goodman Diamond. See ya there!

Keep it Rising!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin- May 17, 2005

It's a looping liner but looks like a frozen rope in the book!

Hello Again Everyone - Things are winding down in the regular season. I'd like to start posting final conference standings on that separate page of the website and once All Conference teams are named it would be great to get those posted as well.

I have been mulling over some thoughts surrounding a Fastpitch Chronicle Wisconsin Yearbook of sorts where the conference standings, all conference teams and season highlights would be available in hard print. But, my experience with hard copies of anything in the realm of fastpitch softball are so vast that I know the book would never break even. Why would anybody buy a Yearbook when they can get the information online? When I published the old Fastpitch Chronicle newspaper I learned first hand that most fastpitch players, coaches etc. are really only interested in their own teams etc. and don't really care about anything else, any other teams, conferences, leagues etc. It's just the way it is.

Of course that's not the same deal for the 1200 of you that get these nightly Bulletins, right? You are all gung ho fastpitch fanatics who get up in the morning and sometimes in the middle of the night to see if Bob is still awake inside his little computer here in Poynette, posting scores or typing Fastpitch Bulletins. You'd all buy one of those Yearbooks and especially if it contained pictures, feature stories, coaching records, state records, reviews and previews.

I doubt if there will be a yearbook! Just some meadering thoughts from a fastpitch softball junkie.

I saw a very good Division 4 team in action tonight. Teams in that division of play ought not look past Barneveld. It should be an interesting Division 4 sectional down there in the southwestern part of the state where the sectional will take place in Evansville.

Aquinas is making big waves in the west central part of the state and is a team to be watched in Division 3 after winning the Mississippi Valley Conference title. They've been under the Division 3 ranker's radar until this week.

Here are some answers from John Peterson to the questions last week :

Bob, just got back from trip to Washington DC and the NCAA Great Lakes Division II Regional at Northern Kentucky. They are still undefeated. NKU pitcher is very good plus they hit the ball very well.

A runner runs through first and beats it out safe. A runner is at third. The runner at first continues past first and rounds to the right (foul territory) running hard. Runner at first returns to first, the ball is now in the pitchers circle but the runner at first has never stopped moving. Can she now continue to second base?
Answer is NO. Rule 8-7-3 page 68 covers batter-runner overrunning 1st base. Once pitcher has ball in circle and assuming there is no play by pitcher:
If she overruns and rounds to right she can only return to 1st
If she overruns and rounds to left there are several possibilities:
If she rounds, turns left and stops, she can go either to first or second, no liability to be tagged out.
If she rounds, turns left and moves toward 2nd she is committed to second and is liable to be tagged out.
If she rounds, turns left and moves back toward the infield in any direction except toward 2nd she is committed to first without liability to be tagged out.
If the batter-runner violates any of these options, such as turning right and then breaking toward second it is a dead ball, runner is out; just the same as if she left 1st base before the release of the pitch.

2) Runner at first, fielders' choice hit to second ,she throws to first and batter/runner is out. Runner at second is safe. The coach calls time and the runner at second returns to first base. Before the next pitch or time has been called the coach calls time again and sends the runner back to second. The defense throws the ball to the second baseman who tags the runner. Time is still out. What happens to the runner? Does she have to stay at first, got to second, or is she out?

Once time has been granted by an umpire, this baserunner cannot be put out. Umpires would not allow coach to return baserunner to first. Runner would be placed at second before ball is put into play. However, if runner leaves second before time is called to return to first, umpires must know if she left legally (before pitcher had ball in circle) and if so, the runner is liable to be tagged out. Umpires wouldn't grant time if play is in progress.

3) Runner at second. Batter hits looping single over shortstop. Batter drops bat and it rolls down third baseline stopping dead center of the baseline. Runner from second is heading home. The umpire nor catcher move the bat. The on deck batter from the third base side steps up to get the bat out of the way of the play that is impending. If there is a collision is it interference or obstruction depending on what players could come in contact. ie on deck and runner or on deck and catcher.

This on deck batter could only cause interference if she interfered with catcher. If she collides with runner, too bad, play goes on. The on deck batter could not cause obstruction.

Here is a play that happened in a varsity softball game in Wisconsin last week. The umpire told me about the play. Read this one carefully because the umpys got it right.

Runner at first base and less than two outs. Batter hits a pop up that is going to come down right on or very near first base. First sacker settles in under the ball. Batter-runner is not running hard to first base. First base coach screams at batter-runner "Run it out hard!" She does but crashes into her own teammate who is standing on the bag where she ought to be on this particular play. Before the ball settles into the first sacker's mitt, the collision with her own teammate causes the runner at first to get knocked off the bag. The first sacker catches the ball after the runner had been dislodged and tags the runner. They called her out!

Correct call.

I saw John Peterson tonight in Poynette as he worked the bases in our game vs Barneveld.
He really enjoys the questions and the situations so keep them coming in. I know there are more crazy plays and situations that take place every day in Wisconsin.

Another reminder about the NCAA Division 1 regional Friday through Sunday at the Goodman Diamond in Madison. Two games on Friday night beginning at 5 PM. I got a note from Tammy, the assistant at Wisconsin about the event. Wisconsin, Green Bay, DePaul and Oregon State are the four regional teams. Oregon State is the favorite in the regional.

Hey, it's been great- you've been tremendous.

Keep things hoppin' and droppin' and if you can --
Keep it Rising!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #41 May 19, 2005

Neither rain, snow, hail or sleet ------

Hail it did at my house today at about 3:30 or 4:00. When I got home from watching the Mauston at Lodi Division 2 regional game and talking to Roger Plachta of UW-Superior, I found huge piles, more like drifts, of hail the size of miniature marshmallows surrounding my house. It was the most hail in one place I have ever seen.

The weather raised havoc with many regional quarter-final games statewide but many games also got played. You can check out the games played on the WIAA website or on my Fastpitch Chronicle website. Keep in mind that at the WIAA site you'll get the scores only while on the FPC site you will see line scores and articles about many of the games.

Yesterday, I'm saddened to inform you, Wisconsin High School Fastpitch Softball lost a great ambassador. Longtime Middleton assistant coach Jerry Haugen passed away after valiantly battling cancer.

Jerry was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of guy. He was a guy that nobody could dislike. He was always full of energy and would always say hello and go out of his way to tell you how much he liked watching your team play or how much he enjoyed watching particular players on other teams play the game. He especially liked watching his beloved Middleton Cardinal players battle it out against other teams.

I reported last week that Middleton's Russ Schaub reached the 400 win milestone in his fastpitch softball coaching career. Russ, being the great guy that he is, took the 400th victory game ball to Jerrry last week and gave it to his longtime assistant coach. I can't think of a better tribute for Jerry who shared those hundreds of victories with Russ and the Cardinal players down through the years.

As a tribute and Memorial to Jerry Haugen, I have chosen to dedicate the Coaches Honor Roll page on The Fastpitch Chronicle website to Jerry Haugen. It's already done on the site. Take a look. I'm hoping that his daughter, Mary at St. Mary Springs will get me a picture to add to the page.

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #42 for May 30, 2005

It's a "hump back liner" with "seeing eyes!"

Hello Everyone. It's Memorial Day so I hope you are enjoying the weekend and the day.

Sectionals are on tap for tomorrow across the state in all four divisions of play and there are some surprises mixed in with some expected results.

Check out the WIAA website for the sites and times for all the sectionals or you can probably find that information in the local daily papers as well. The Wisconsin State Journal has one mistake in their schedule of teams, however. At the Wisconsin Dells sectional it will be Portage taking on Waupun and not Wisconsin Dells. The WSJ ran information two days in a row that it would be the Dells and Waupun when in reality, Portage is the team that will be there. They got there by nipping Lodi in 9 innings with sophomore pitcher Katie Stilwell fanning 18 in a one-hitter and allowing just three base runners during the entire game.

The weather forecast appears to be one whereby all 20 sectional will go off as scheduled and then the 20 winners have either 9 or 10 days before they play again. The Division 1 quarter finals will be played on June 9, while the Division 2-3&4 semi-finals will be played on the 10th along with the D-1 semi-finals. All four finals are set for the 11th.

Coaches and fans should be aware of the seating crunch at Goodman Diamond that began occuring in 2003 (the second year at the facility). The crowd outgrew the stadium in just one year.

I'm trying to put together a 2005 Season in Review section on The Fastpitch Chronicle website so somebody from each conference in the state should send in your final conferences standings and your all-conference lists and please include honorable mention players with that. Also, if your conference chooses a Player of the Year or a Coach of the Year, send that as well. In a few of the conferences that do not officially choose a Coach of the Year, The Fastpitch Chronicle officially will do that - for instance, in the South Central Conference, Lodi's Joel Betsinger has been named Coach of the Year.

There are far too many players in the state that will not get any post season recognition beyond their all conference spots. That is due totally to the fact that the coach at their school failed to join the Wisconsin Fastpitch Coaches Association. The WFSCA maintains an up to the date list of schools whose coaches have or have not joined the association. You an look on the coaches association website at wfsca.org for that information. No doubt, I will be getting a couple dozen e-mails from upset softball parents when they see the press release with the all state teams on them. It happens every year. When it does, I just refer them to that page of the association website.

A couple of coaching milestones took place recently. I was informed that Dale Gray of Wisconsin Dells should have his name added to the 200 win list on the coaches honor roll page (I'm trying valiantly to get Dale's total). Steve Ryan has coached his final game at Waunakee after a long tenure there. According to information in the Wisconsin State Journal, Steve wound up with 297 career wins in heading the Warrior program. We had some pretty good battles over the years with Waunakee. Congratulations to both coaches for those milestones.

Karen Scarseth, Wisconsin Fastpitch Coaches Association Co-President, was recently named the Coach of the Year in the Wisconsin Valley Conference. Michelle Holberg, Wisconsin Rapids' pitcher was named Player of the Year.

In the Rock Valley Conference Amy Gahl, pitcher for Orfordville Parkview was named Player of the Year while Parkview coach Kathy Demrow was named Coach of the Year. You can check those things out and the all conference teams from those two conferences on the website. The Middle Border All Conference teams and standings are posted there as well.

Recently I had a situation question about a team getting four outs in an inning and not having it discovered until that team's next at bat. Here is our rules interpreter, John Peterson on that topic.

Bob,
I had a "four" out inning a few years ago. I was working bases and had 3 outs, but no one else thought there were 3 outs so I assumed I was wrong. Next batter grounded out and then someone spoke up. We corrected as follows:

The home plate umpire has the authority to correct a situation not covered in the rules (rule 10, page 80).

Correct procedure in this case would have been to erase the 4th out in the preceding inning since a team can only have 3 outs in an inning (rule 2-31, page 23). This could get complicated, but from the description it seems 4th out was last batter, so the last batter should bat again in the next inning. Complicated because if runs scored as a result of improper 4th out batter, the runs would have to be erased as well. Basically you end inning with 3rd out. This corrects the situation with correct batter coming up in the next inning having had a "practice" at bat.

I isn't relevant who discovers the problem since it isn't an appeal play (page 81).

John Peterson

Here is a summer tournament announcement from John Pigeon over in Sheboygan.

Hi everyone,

Due to the modern marvels of the internet, the 14u team from Kimberly recinded their registration at Active.com, where on-line registration was made available. Apparently, I was'nt notified of the cancelation, and at this point, obviously am short 1 team in 14u. Rather than redo all the matchups and brackets....etc....it would be wonderful if one of you might be able to provide a 14u team to fill the slot.......HELP!!!! We've got some time at least to try and get this taken care of. Any help would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks. Contact me either via e-mail.....although at this point...maybe you'd better just call....Home (920)-208-0270....Cel (920)-889-0959.

That's about it for today. I'll be continuing to send out Bulletins but not quite as often as they go out during the season.

Summer results from Tournaments will now be possible as I will fire up a results and announcements page for that.

Keep it Rising!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #43 June 1, 2005

Hello Everyone!

The state tournament field is set. The schedule is set. The rosters and team information is on the WIAA website already. It promises to be an exciting time for everyone from players, coaches and fans.

I have a few things to include in tonight's bulletin. First and foremost, a message from Marcy Thurwachter at the WIAA about the parking situation at Goodman Diamond on the UW-Campus. Please pass the information along to anyone you know of that is going to the state tournament.

Bob,
I've attached information about the shuttle bus service for fans at the state softball tournament. Did you read about our problem in the latest WIAA Bulletin? They are building a parking deck next to Goodman so on Thursday & Friday there will be extremely limited parking for fans. The attachment explains the shuttle service from Middleton H.S. Could you please send this to the folks on you email list? Trying to get the word out as best we can. I'll also send it to all ADs and all umpires on our email list.
Marcy

Due to the construction of a new parking deck adjacent to Goodman Diamond, fans planning on attending the 2005 WIAA softball tournament should be advised that parking on Thursday June 9, and Friday June 10th during the day, will be extremely limited.

In response to this situation free parking and free shuttle busses will run from Middleton High School, 2100 Bristol Street. Fans should park in the stadium lot located on the north side of the Middleton High School swimming pool. Shuttle bus service will run from 7:45 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on June 9 and 10. Sufficient parking ($5.00) will be available in Lot 60 at Goodman Diamond on Saturday, June 11, therefore, there will not be any shuttle bus service available on Saturday.

Check the latest WIAA Bulletin for a map of the area

The Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree is May 6-7 in 2006. We have had an increase in interest from many new areas of the state and have mailed contracts to most of the new interest. We will be mailing out contracts to teams that were in the 2005 Jamboree very soon. Be advised that there are quite a few (too many) schools that have not paid the entry fees for the 2005 Jamboree. That will surely affect the chances of getting a contract mailed to you for next year.

We will probably add a fifth time slot to the day and make it a real day of fastpitch softball in Poynette.

Here are a few tid bits of information that tie the Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree and the sectionals and state tournament berth teams together. In Division 1 Hortonville qualified for the state tournament - they play in the Jamboree. In Division 2, Portage won the Wisconsin Dells Sectional and they play in the Jamboree They beat another Jamboree team at the sectional, that being Waupun. In Division 3 you will find Poynette, Waterloo, Bonduel all in the sectionals. Randolph was in the Division 4 sectional final and plays in the Jamboree.

That's no less than seven Jamboree teams that made it to the sectional level in their respective division of play.

Contact me if you are interested in the 2006 Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree.

Have a great day and may all your days be Fastpitch Days!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #45 June 4, 2005

"We made too many wrong mistakes."

Hello Everyone - If you know Yogi then you will recognize one of my all time favorite Yogi Berra statements in the heading of this Bulletin.

I want to cover a few items of protocol with the website in this Bulletin tonight.

1) The Coaches Honor Roll Page -- I don't research information for the page. If a coach reaches one of the mileposts I have set up on the page, that coach or somebody has to contact me and I will add or update names. If somebody challenges the totals, that challenge will not involve me or the website. Don't write terse e-mails to me telling me that I'm missing somebody that should be on the list -- instead write an informational e-mail telling me that you'd like me to add a coach to the Honor Roll list. Simple stuff eh?

3) Conference Standings and All Conference Teams -- There are more conference standings now than before as well as all conference teams. If possible, please submit conference records and overall season records. On the all conference teams please try to include the year in school of each player. That will make writing 2006 season previews easier and the rankers will be able to look at the all conference lists on that page in late winter to do the pre-season rankings.

4) I am working with an expert on a game summary reporting form that you will be able to click on, fill out the line score and summary and then click a submit button that automatically sends it to my website so I don't have to spend quite so much time posting scores for 10 weeks next season. If I don't have to post so many scores by hand, I'll have much more time to write more Bulletins and include more information in them.

This isn't protocol, just some information - as of Tuesday I will be offering customized Fastpitch Chronicle caps (fitted or one size fits all) and Fastpitch Chronicle T-shirts. Check the web page for information on ordering them. The caps can be ordered in your team colors or any combination of colors that you would like. The logo can be found right on the Wisconsin High School Girls page of the website. Take a look!

I will be out and around this summer conducting some fastpitch softball pitching camps. If you are interested in setting one up in your area, send me an e-mail. Tentative sites right now include the Spooner/Minong area -- the Phillips/Prentice area -- the northeastern part of the state.

I'll have some brochures with me when I am at Goodman Diamond this weekend. I'll be there on Thursday to chat and watch the Division 1 quarterfinal games and will return that evening for the sem-final games.

My best Brian friend and my son joined me last night for a trip to Kimberly where we watched some pretty good mens' fastpitch and saw some pretty amazing plays, towering homer runs, line shot home runs, some terrible calls by the umpires, and enjoyed great conversation with longtime friends such as Dean Oscar, the legendary Michael White, Rod Peterson, Dan Wall (head coach at Tomah), Larry Flannery (head coach at Elcho), Bird and Priscilla Mulry, Gene Fauerbach, Pearly and more. It was a great night - we got back home at about 2:45 am this morning. We stayed until the last out was recorded on the lower diamond. We saw pitches that ranged in speed from 59 mph (changeups) to drop balls that were going 80 mph. Many, many pitches at 77-79 mph.

Today marked another birthday for me - I enjoyed it by sharing time with people at a couple of graduation parties here in Poynette but especially with my family. My 34 month old grandson and I spent some time in his wiffle ball stadium here at my house and hitting wiffle balls around.

"Is Yoo-Hoo hyphenated?" a woman asked Yogi once.
"No mam, it isn't even carbonated," he answered!

Have a great day and ....
Keep it Rising!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #46 June 6, 2005

"Don't get me right, I'm just asking!"

Hello Everyone - It's the final week of the high school fastpitch season in Wisconsin but the summer teams are off and playing already.

I've been enjoying the NCAA Division 1 Women's College World Series for the past few days. I'm sure many of you are doing the same. I'd like to see Michigan win it just because it's high time somebody other than west coast teams takes home that trophy.

I've had a lot of replies to my Bulletin the other day when I wrote about the 10-day lull between the sectional softball tournaments and the state tournament. Many of you have ideas on how you think things should be handled. I haven't answered any of them directly as there are so many.

I know this though -- it takes dialogue to make changes in any system. I firmly believe that softball coaches need to communicate with each other in several ways. One way is this website and the Bulletins and commentary page and even more often on those message boards on my web site. I also believe that the coaches who sit on the WIAA Coaches Advisory Committee for softball need to communicate with all of us on the issues that come before them. Surveys to all of us with items for dialogue will go a long way to improving the game in this state. If you have ideas you want to see initiated then you should feel obligated to communicate directly with the coaches on that committee. They are there to represent all of us.

The coaches association officers and Board of Directors is another avenue for change. If you have something that you'd like to see changed within the sport, the way it is administered etc. then you need to contact those people or even go further than that and run for one of the offices so you can get in on the decision making process.

I'll offer my website for your use all the time -- go to the message board and you will see that there is a separate message board just for Wisconsin High School fastpitch.

I know for sure that without dialogue - nobody knows what you are thinking or wishing for. If you don't say or ask - you'll never get. Doing anything less is settling for less.

When it comes to the time span in between the sectional and state tournament, I understand the issues the administrators face. My previous Bulletin was not about changing the number of days but changing what can take place in that 9-10 day span. I will continue my efforts on that front. If you are a coaches advisory committee member or a WFSCA officer or Board of Director, know that many people are agreeing with those thoughts and ideas on a scrimmage being allowed in that time span. Many have other thoughts and ideas that need to be heard and considered. We'll continue to chat, continue to pose ideas and push for action. The days of suddenly finding out that a rule has been added need to end. More communication is the key. We have a great leader in charge of fastpitch at the WIAA. She listens and pays attention to detail.

In my 26 years of coaching high school fastpitch I've been a part of taking the sport from what was considered a recreational "minor" sport to one that outgrew a state of the art facility in just one year. Many of us pushed and pushed for a venue change for the state tournament and predicted that we'd outgrow the seating capacity of the stadium. I've watched state tournament games where pitchers who were not pitchers were pitching in the championship games because of a ludicrous pitching limit on innings pitched. We pushed and pushed for reform and finally got it. I watched state tournament home runs die in outfielder's gloves and doubles turn into inside-the-park home runs. I watched games being played on grass infields when hardly a team in the tournament had ever played a game on such a facility. I watched people stand in line for three to four innings just to purchase a cup of lemonade and now I watch people get served in a state of the art facility. I see home runs land on the other side of a fastpitch distance fence and what used to be inside-the-park home runs become doubles or maybe triples.

The Pioneers have brought this game a long, long way - we'll get even farther if we all continue to work together - veterans and newcomers, coaches, fans and administrators.

Here is an announcement about a summer tournament I promised I'd include in tonight's Bulletin.

The Fort Atkinson Girls Softball Club is sponsoring a tournament for U12, U14, and U16 teams on July 9 and 10. The U16 bracket is full, but we still have a few openings in the U12 and U14 divisions. We are keeping the entry fee low to make it attractive for local teams. The registration form is attached if you are interested.

Paul Kotz pkotz@5alarm.com

Have a great week -- see at Goodman Diamond on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Keep it Rising!
Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #47 June 8, 2005

Michigan!

Finally, somebody from this neck of the woods won the NCAA Division 1 National Softball Championship. What a championship game it was.

I really enjoyed the bottom of the 9th inning when the two coaches played some chess against each other. I relished the way Michigan worked their way through that tight jam and got out of it. That 1-1 pitch with two runners aboard caught UCLA off guard. The Bruins were figuring it was going to be an intentional walk but instead Ritter lays a beautiful change up on the outside corner for a called strike two and suddenly, so suddenly the entire half inning changed. Instead of being really tight Michigan had a little breathing room and had the Bruins wondering. It's now 1-2, will she try to take me down or will she intentionally walk me was the question going through the UCLA player's mind and Ritter had her right where she needed her. She was in her mind! Then the dramatic three-run shot to win it on a pitch that either got away from Jelly or she just simply was told to throw the wrong pitch. Findlay struggled with the outside corner pitches throughout the tournament but that home run pitch was right on the inside corner, navel high and whammo!

Now the drama in Wisconsin can and will switch to Madison where 20 fine clubs will vie for four state titles. There will be plenty of great pitches, some timely hitting and plenty of cat and mouse being played.

This game has always been dominated by great pitchers - this year's tournament will be no different. It's always been a bunt and run game and always will be.

The crowds will be overflowing at Goodman Diamond. People will be treated to three great days of fastpitch action that those of us who have been coaching high school fastpitch in this state since the early days of the program only dreamed of back then. We've brought this game to a new level in Wisconsin but it's not even close to where it's going! Hang on and enjoy the ride!

Here is an annoucement from Bob Meixner of the West Wisconsin Batgirls in the Northwest part of the state.
Bob , I need help, we have a tournament every weekend and I just received word that Katie Lauff hurt her knee and will be out or severely limited, I have 3 other pitchers and 1 stopper but I need another stopper , I realize it will be very hard at this late date to find someone to commit every weekend but I need more help at some tournaments more than others , any ideas????? Thanx bob

If you are interested get in touch with Bob at bmeixner@nelson-tel.net

See you tomorrow at Goodman Diamond! I'll be wearing one of our new Fastpitch Chronicle T-shirts and caps. Stop me so we can chat.

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #48 - June 13, 2005

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!

Hello Everyone - This will be a short Bulletin as I need to head out for Stevens Point and the WFSCA all star days.

I have a few thoughts about high school girls' fastpitch in Wisconsin and the state tournament at Goodman Diamond.

1) I think it's time the trophy manufacturer starts updating their figurines on those things. For heaven's sake, that female batter looks like Bertha Tickey. Starting next year, if I were in Marcy Thurwachter's position, I'd demand that the manufacturer put a female fastpitch player on there in a modern uniform complete with a helmet with attached face mask!

2) The price of a bottle of water went from $3.50 down to around $2.50. The bottles got smaller however. Three and half bucks for a bottle of water any size is tough to swallow though. Water was a necessity down there as it was hot.

3) The wind tunnel effect that gets created under the press box there is awesome, they need to figure a way out, however, to channel that breeze into the seating areas. Of course the facility was designed for cold, springtime softball games. The lights were added in order to coax the WIAA tournament down there.

4) The storms on Friday afternoon were powerful. My son Eric nearly got hit by a road closed sign trying to make a getaway on the street next to the diamond. He dodged the sign but got wet (at least on the upwind side of his body).

5) I empathize with the Greendale team and their fans. They were the only team not to get to step foot on the playing facility at Goodman Diamond. However, everyone knows ahead of time that the possibility exists that some teams may not play there. The Division 1 teams took the hit for three years and it was simply timing in this year's tournament.

In the next Bulletin, I'm going to write some things about many of the people I saw and talked to down there and some observations I and others made while we were there. I think you will enjoy that diatribe.

If you are hosting or playing in summer tournaments around the state and country and want people to read about that, be aware of the fact that I am firing up some pages on the website for summer action.

Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastptich Bulletin #49 - June 18, 2005

Let er Rip!

Hello Everyone - My son came home from Madison today and told me that the WFSCA all state lists are posted on the association website. I'd been checking that all week but hadn't been online all day. When I did get on I discovered a "new-look" Home page on the site.

I found the all state lists interesting and then browsed around some other pages on the wfsca.org website and found some things I didn't even know existed.

1) Player of the Year awards in each of the WIAA divisions of play. I had no clue there was such and award.

2) I see that Amy Gradecki is the chairperson for the WFSCA Wall of Fame. I didn't know that existed either. There is not a link to any information about a Wall of Fame, however.

3) There is not a listing for the 2005 Wisconsin Tri-State Challenge team yet. I would imagine that the list of girls playing on that team will be posted soon. That game is in Stevens Poin this year and according to the WFSCA website the dates are August 8-9. The coaches are Jane Briehl of River Valley and Amy Gradecki of Wilmot.

4) I noticed that Greg Lampe needs your Academic All State forms by June 27th. If you have seniors who had a 3.5 GPA or higher you can nominate them for Academic All State. Just a nomination from their coach gets them on the list and they get a certificate.

5) Greg also needs coaching award forms turned into him by June 27th so if you are a WFSCA member and have reached a milepost in your coaching career you have to get that form to Greg soon. Get r done!

The All star games were bitter-sweet for me personally. Our Poynette pitcher Courtney Jordak was injured during the Monday practice and could not participate. As a matter of fact she had to get back home and to the specialist in Madison. I felt bad for Courtney as more people could have had a chance to see one of the state's premier pitchers in action there along with some of the other fine hurlers.

The team that Tom Cullen of Weyauwega-Fremont and I had was a fun bunch of kids. We, like most teams I would guess, had an abundance of shortstops so the kids were forced to move around and play other positions. They did a nice job of filling into positions that some had never played in their lives.

At the banquet and in the all star program, the list of schools represented is much smaller than a person would think it should be. Coaches need to start taking more ownership of the all star games etc. Get the forms in on time so your kids have a chance to participate in games such as that.

The grounds crews and the Board of Directors of the WFSCA did a great job of getting the games in. It was touch and go for a while but they did a great job and the weather finally broke so games could get played.

I enjoyed watching Anne Mamerow of Horicon play her final two games of high school level competition. There might have been as good a lead-off hitter and base runner in the state and if there was I'd like to watch that kid play too. I'm certain that there was not a better one. Anne Mamerow is the finest leadoff hitter I have watched in a long, long time.

It was great talking to coaches I have known and competed against for many years but it was equally as great to meet a few coaches I had never had the opportunity to meet and chat with.

Have a great day!
Keep it Rising!
Bob

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The Fastpitch Bulletin #50 June 23, 2005

It's been an interesting period of time since the last pitch was thrown in the Division 1 championship game at Goodman Diamond.

The all star games were played in Stevens Point and the WFSCA all district and all state teams have been published and released. As usual those lists brought some interesting communication to my "in-box" here at The Fastpitch Chronicle. I read them all with interest and have not responded to any of them yet (and I may not respond at all) .

Keep in mind that the WFSCA all state teams are not all-inclusive. That means that a girl who plays for a school whose coach is not a WFSCA member is not eligible for any WFSCA post season awards. That's the way it ought to be to be named a WFSCA all district or all state player. The WFSCA foots the bill for the entire process. Dues are pretty cheap!

But -- there are some awfully good players in the state who get no recognition due to that fact.

So - since The Fastpitch Chronicle website is the state's largest and most active fastpitch site, proven by the number of visitors daily and the amount of information contained therein - we figured it is time for us to get involved in choosing an all-inclusive post season list of outstanding players. Call it The Fastpitch Chronicle All State list if you wish.

Here's an example - the player of the year in one of the state's largest conferences (in terms of school size) was not eligible for WFSCA consideration but must certainly be considered in an all-inclusive list of outstanding players. I think you'd have to agree with that.

We've started compiling our list based on position played in the field. Each position requires a distintive set of skills and techinque so our lists will be by position - pitchers, pitchers who are also great hitters, catchers, first base, second base, third base, shortstop and outfield.

We've placed players on the list already based upon those that we've seen play and some that have been nominated.

Here is your chance to get involved -- send your nominations in - include school, year in school, position,, batting average, fielding average, slugging percentage, and anything else you think we'd need to see. Also include your name and connection to the player - ie coach, assistant coach, opposing coach, newspaper reporter, broadcaster, and heck yes - parent

The statewide media doesn't name an all state team but this is their chance to do some nominating.

I expect the list to be placed on the website within two weeks.

Here is the kicker - don't include any comments, stats etc. from previous seasons, those mean absolutely nothing when compiling a list of outstanding players in 2005.

Have at it!

Keep it Rising!

Bob Tomlinson

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The Fastptich Bulletin #51-- June 25, 2005

Back To TopA new era will begin!

And I'm not talking about baseball caps (New Era).

Karen Gallagher is now the former University of Wisconsin head softball coach. It was reported on Friday and in the Saturday papers that Gallagher resigned her position after learning that her contract would not be renewed.

It seems like it was a quick deal as the article in the Wisconsin State Journal indicated that her returning players and six recruits had not been told ahead of time.

Gallagher is the only coach in the 10-year history of the program. She compiled a record of 271-268-2 in that span.

So, it will be interesting to see who lines up for that job.

Here are several things I know

1) The Wisconsin football program relies heavily on in-state recruits and has been highly successful with that approach

2) The Wisconsin men's basketball program now relies heavily on the state's top recruits and actively tries to get those players in a Badger uniform.

3) The Wisconsin women's basketball program has relied heavily on in state recruits and appears to really be active in that area.

4) The Wisconsin softball program has not recruited heavily among the top in state recruits.

In the Wisconsin State Journal report written by Andy Baggot the following paragraph is noted: "A source confirmed UW athletic director/football coach Barry Alvarez had met with Gallagher and told her the school was looking to go in another direction with the softball program. A national search for Gallagher's replacement will begin immediately."

Here's hoping (on my part) that the different direction Alvarez means is not necessarily compass driven. I think the program can save money on recruiting trips to distant parts of the country (mostly in a Westerly direction) by driving a UW-vehicle to the recruit's games and homes rather than having to fly. You don't have to fly to the Driftless Area, the Fox Valley, the Wisconsin Valley, Mississippi Valley, Indianhead, or Thumb regions of this state to see top notch softball players. Furthermore, you could ride motorcycle to many of the sites where some of Wisconsin's finest ply their skills.

I'm certainly not saying that a Badger team should be completely made up of WIAA groomed athletes. I am saying, however, that midwest Division 1 universities can compete and win national titles by drawing their belts in tight and not letting the top prospects get away from them.

I'm sure there are people who will read this that will chuckle and say that I have no real clue here. That attitude, however, has produced a 10-year program record of just three games over .500. In my estimation, three games over .500 indicates an average result.

I also hope that the nationwide search for a new head coach, to begin immediately , includes a close look at least one coaching combo within the state of Wisconsin. If that is their passion, I hope they get a great shot at the position. I have no clue as to whether there is even interest on their part but I'd support that approach in a heartbeat! I urge them to take interest in the opening. If you have any inclination as to who "they" are - tell them about my urging and tell them they have my steadfast support.

I'd also support a friend of mine just to the west - as a matter of fact I just spent about 45 minutes last night in Eau Claire chatting with him. He's the real deal as well.

I urge the UW administration to seek out a coaching prospect who knows the state well, has a proven track record as a head coach (at any level), who can communicate with the state's high school coaches and who will bring a demonstration of passion that the fans will instantly recognize, enjoy and support. I want to be able to talk to the coaching staff and be listened to. I want to see tremendous improvement in the skill levels of the players and the overall program from one year to the next. That's what I want my tax money, admission fee money to go towards and my program support money as well. I want to get my money's worth. To get that I need to be able to walk into that stadium and be entertained by great players and coaches who are passionate about winning, putting on a great show and allowing me to see the results of their hard work (coaching and practicing). I want all of us to be a part of the "new" direction in the program.

I don't think that's too much to ask. If those things don't happen - I, like many of you, won't go to the stadium except for three days at the end of the second week of June.

On Wisconsin!
Forward!
Keep it Rising!

Bob Tomlinson
The Fastpitch Chronicle

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