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These Happy Days are yours and mine!



Hello Everyone – It was a great day and I hope your day was as great as mine.



I m sure that most of you have taken a look at the 2007 WFSCA All State teams that are posted on the WFSCA website. If you have not just remember that you can get there a couple of ways including just going to the Wisconsin High School Girls Fastpitch News page on my website – www.fastpitchchronicle.com/wisconsin.htm and click on that line. Otherwise you can also just go directly to the WFSCA website and look at them.



The official state tournament photography company (Visual Image Photography) has now posted their pictures as well. You can view them and purchase them from that company right on line. If interested just go to The Fastpitch Chronicle website at the same address above (the Wisconsin page) and click on the line that says State Tourney pictures. That will take you to the correct place and you can click around on your own once you get there.



Weekend Events that I am aware of include a great tournament in Horicon and another great event in Baraboo. You can keep checking the Summer Tournament Directory page for upcoming tournaments. If you are hosting one and it isn t listed on The Fastpitch Chronicle online just e-mail your information and I will add it to the site – free of charge. Of course, I d like you to follow it up with a tournament summary report as well which is also free.



I updated some information today on the Coaches Honor Roll Page. I added another state tournament appearance for Don Bjelland of Grantsburg (he now has three) and also for Heather Spetz of Sevastopol (she has two). I also updated some other stuff on there so please go to that page and look things over. If there is a mistake or there is a coach that should be on a list or is on the wrong list, just get me the correct information and I will change it.



At the state tournament I took a mess of notes that I can refer back to when continuing to work on my book of essays about fastpitch softball. I ve written a few for the book but it will take a while. Jim Turner of Altoona, Earl Gunderson of Spring Valley (two good friends of mine) and I stood at the bar in the lounge of the hotel Monday night before the All Star games and talked about the book a little. One story I will be writing for sure is the saga of the strikeout, turned rbi single caused when an umpire was sweeping off first base when a pitch was thrown. That happened at the state tournament and I had never seen anything quite like it before in my thousands of trips to hundreds of ball yards across the continent.



The conversation at the bar on Monday night was more like a three-way coaching clinic with all three of us sharing our thoughts on the game, situations, coaching ideas, technique etc. It was really tough to just say that it was time to turn in but Earl had the most intestinal fortitude and finally told us that it was time for him to turn in. I really enjoyed that clinic.



I also enjoyed the chat with the guys from Chippewa Falls. They were as funny as ever and interesting to listen to and chat with. I also got a chance to chat with my great friend Virgil Berndt of Medford (and it wasn t snowing).



While talking to Virgil a pair of ladies came over and said hello. Back in the 80s and 90s I played against and with a lot of guys on fastpitch diamonds across the state, Midwest and North America. One of those guys was Al Lundberg of Pigeon Falls. His wife Sue and their daughter were coaching the Division 3 Red All Star team and they came over and we had a great chat about fastpitch, old times and times still to come.



While sitting on the bleachers watching the first Division 3 All Star game I wound up in a conversation with a lady from Aracadia whose daughter was catching. Her last name is Flury and that is a men s fastpitch name as well. We started chatting and she was surprised that I knew so many names (including nicknames) of people from that part of the state. I learned that a longtime fastpitch friend is now running an establishment in Arcadia called Up Chuck s. I will be traveling up there this summer to say hello to Chuck Timm at his establishment. While making the trip I ll look for old friends named "Bone Rack," "Buck", "Grizz", "Pounder", "Rastis", "Koos," "Kirby", "Sporty", "Higgins", "Becks", and more.



I guess there is a big youth tournament in Middleton this weekend as well. I knew nothing about that one until Pat from Greendale sent me an instant message earlier this evening informing me of that.



There are probably tournaments this weekend all over the state but I don t know about them. Pass the word along because there might be people reading these bulletins that would be interested in going to a venue to watch a game or two and buy a brat and beverage.



It was great to see and talk to all the people at the State Tournament. I had a great time! Thanks to all of you that stopped to chat, yelled hello from up in the bleachers, or just waved.



Have another great day and as always

Keep it Rising!

Bob