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Tinkers to Evers to Chance!



Oh, that s right, that s baseball, a different game all together. Aha, but there are only a few that really know that secret!



Hello Again Everyone – Hey, we played a game in Poynette tonight. We even played the JV game on that diamond. Pioneer Westfield came down and we got both regularly scheduled non-conference tilts in on our fields. It was good to get some strange hitters against our pitchers and I m sure the Pioneers felt the same way. We had been outside just once and that was last night and we stayed off the diamond as the frost was coming out. We raked the really soft spots and they dried up and there was actually dust on those spots before we left practice at 5 PM. Our diamonds are just one reason why many teams come back to the Jamboree every year. It s really tough to rain us out here.



The game was a pretty typical first game for two young teams. We had three errors and they had five. The final was 12-2. It was the 400th win for Poynette since I have been the coach. The kids didn t know anything about that issue prior to the game as we never mentioned it last year or during the first week of practice this year.



Our team is very inexperienced as we had some screwy things take place since last year s state tournament. Our first team all state third baseman chose to graduate early in January. Our three-time all state and first team all state outfielder in 2006 chose to go out for our soccer team as did our first team all conference second baseman. Our projected senior leftfielder then decided to get a job to try to make some cash for college. That was 4/9 of our starting lineup. We have some eager learners, however who are willing to risk failure early on in order to get better as we go.



Tonight, our sophomore shortstop laced a two-out, three-run double to get us into the lead. That was pretty neat in itself but here is the rest of the story. That kid s mother played for me as a freshman in 1981 and graduated as an all conference outfielder for us in 1985. She was a fantastic player and if there had been all state players in those early days, Debbie would have certainly been on the list. She remains one of the top players in the history of our program. To have the chance to write her daughter s name into the fifth spot in our batting order was a treat. After the current kid got back to second base on the double I told her that I thought her mom would have gotten to third on that shot to rightcenter. She just smiled at me. I m not sure if the current sophomore really has a clue as to just how great her mom was.



That s just one of the joys that happens when you stick things out over a long period of time. People keep asking me how long I m going to keep at coaching softball. My answer is always, "as long as they keep coming to practice looking to improve and learn new techniques, I m interested in sticking with them." My biggest issues are the physical part of the job. Raking infields takes its toll on a 56 year-old body. So does pitching batting practice to them. Thank heavens I invented Tomlinson s Ultimate Fungo years ago. With that racket I can hit four or five times as many fly balls, pop ups, ground balls as you can with your bats and with a lot less effort. I don t have to bend over to pick up balls and then toss them into the air, swing a bat and then do it all over again.



OK – so the game summary for tonight s game appears in the Week 1 summary. Be sure to read the fictional game summary between Hooterville and Bug Tussel so you can figure out the best way to e-mail me your game summaries once you start playing.



I don t have as much time to post stuff as I have had the past few years. I m pretty busy but I ll get to the stuff. I don t retype stuff for anyone but I do a little editing and proofing for you.



Don t forget to join the coaches association and every conference ought to have a conference rep for the WFSCA. I am not a WFSCA official. I m just a member like most of you. The Board names are posted on the wfsca.org website so you can get that information there. April 14th is the new deadline to join so get it taken care of.



Rankings are in the process of being compiled for all divisions of play but they are tough to start with because not many people have forwarded preseason previews for the website. I m sure there are coaches out there who still try to keep as much as they can a secret from the rest of the fastpitch world. Remember folks, in this day and age, you can t hide from us. There are three lines of communication when it comes to fastpitch softball – 1) telephone 2) telegraph and 3) tell another fastpitch person.



As I ve said before, the one alarming statistic that always jumps out at me is the high number of coaching changes year-in-and-year-out in softball. There aren t many of us who have been at it 20+ years. It seems like 10 is the cutoff with five being the next number that seems to be prevalent. Coaches last 5 or 10 years and they stop.



Another part of the game that always bothers me is the fact that we don t report injuries like some sports do. It has always amazed me that nobody seems to be interested in the types of injuries softball players incur but yet we have all these safety rules that get shoved down our throats. I for one, know there are lots of knee injuries occurring when players slip on hard rubber bases and home plates with rubber or plastic cleats because when it happens the coaches e-mail me. They do so because they know I m pretty passionate about allowing the use of metal cleats. Until surveys are done by somebody on the types and frequency of injuries nothing will change in that regard. Changes occur when a kid gets hurt and somebody files a suit. For instance, New York City is passing a ruling whereby metal bats will be banned from high school baseball games. High school softball games will be right behind.



A number of years ago, we went to the double first base. From my viewpoint, the biggest issue with injuries around first base is the second sacker coming over there and standing right in the baseline on the outfield side of first base. Collision after collision occur there and there are so many near-collisions that it really is amazing that more kids don t lose kidneys etc. there. Just watch closely and you ll be saying, He s right."



Why is that happening. The second sacker is going over there to back up the throw to first on balls thrown from all over the infield including shortstop and third base. Just watch! You ll see that to be the truth. The problem is, so many back the throw up about six to eight feet beyond the base right in the path of runners going over the bag at full speed. Second sackers don t belong there. They don t belong there!! If the runner collides with that second sacker and then tries to get to second base, I think that would be obstruction. Correct? Most of them can t head for second though, because they just got injured.



So, keep e-mailing those stories of crazy plays and ones that cause injuries. I m genuinely interested in all of them.



Have a great day and as always,

Keep it Rising!

Bob