DECEMBER 29 UPDATE
COMMITMENTS
Ohio Maddogs
The Maddog Signees are:
1) Whitney Spangler (catcher) University of Maine
2) Autumn Grove (2nd base) Youngstown State University
3) Shannon Battison (Short Stop, catcher) Indiana University of Pennsylvania
4) Kristin Bair (Rt field, 1st base) Kent State University
TRAINING AT ISF SITE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (ISF) December 28, 2005
Two countries are sending their women’s national softball team to Plant City for training next week. Both Canada and Great Britain will work out at the International Softball Federation’s (ISF) world headquarters complex, which includes Plant City Stadium and the Randy L. Larson Softball Fourplex.
“We have a terrific facility here,” said ISF President Don Porter. “It’s a great resource for us to be able to offer to our member federations. The complex in Plant City really is a model for regional training centers that we hope to be able to establish in other parts of the world too. We’re optimistic that the softball stadium that was used for our competition at the 2004 Olympics in Athens will be one of those.”
The Canadian team – which features ten athletes that played in the 2004 Olympic Softball competition and two more who were alternates – arrives in town on Monday, January 2, and will practice from the 3rd through and including the 7th. They leave on the 8th.
The Great Britain contingent has arrivals on both the 2nd and 3rd. They will practice from the 4th to the 7th with a morning session on the 8th as well before departing later that day.
Team Canada Head Coach Lori Sippel, who played in the first-ever Olympic Softball competition (1996 in Atlanta), said, “The first step was to qualify (for the 2006 Women’s World Championship), which we did earlier this month. Holding a camp in January gives us an early start on our preparation for 2006.”
Last year the Great Britain women’s team won the Olympic Test Event, which was the first event played in the new softball stadium in Athens. More recently, they finished fourth at the 10-team European Championship in August in the Czech Republic.
1000 PARDONS
Spy IS WELL BEHIND AGAIN ON Updates. Left leg became infected (where tumor was removed) and finally got stitches out of my eyes on Tuesday afternoon; eyesight returning to normal. Thanks for your patience.
SPY MAGAZINE
The webmaster says he solved all the log-on problems (cost almost $400). If that is not the case, let me know.
Year-end edition: stories on Michigan and Shamrocks (How they Became Champions). Also,The SPY Game: old myths and new realities. Guide for Expectant Fathers. Notable Deaths in 2005. The Underclass.
POTPOURRI
Nailing your Father. A bank robber was sentenced this week for armed robbery. His three sons recognized him from a bank photo and identified him for police. AOL posed question: would you inform on your father? More than 60% said yes. Back in college days, I had the role of the prosecutor in a moot court case based on Sicilian law; son informed on his Mafioso father who then killed him; question whether the Mafia code of omerta justified homicide. In real life, the father was acquitted by the court in Palermo; in college, I could not win on first degree murder but we had a dramatic debate on the parameters of homicide, and the judge agreed to a charge of manslaughter.
Heating Woes. Washington Gas, as expected, raised its prices for natural gas. The top of the spiral was staggering. Wednesday night, the area television stations interviewed people in Maryland, DC and Virginia, including some of the poor in Southeast who are cutting back on the basics in trying to deal with sticker shock – a 300% increase. So, I opened my mail today with trepidation: the bill escalated from $56 for November to $179 for December – and our coldest months are yet to come.
Home Alone. One possible New Year’s companion is out of town. The other is wishing I would get trapped on an ice floe with a polar bear. We had talked a bit about New Year’s, so I decided to seal the deal by sending her a birthday card and invitation in mid-December. Yikes. I overstated her age. The email response was so chilly I had to wrap my monitor with a blanket.
Cold on the Range. Jay Leno commenting on the deep freeze in several states, said it was so cold in Wyoming that even the straight cowboys were hugging. Really, really cold? Moscow in January or February. One winter evening, I finally found an empty taxi. When it stopped, I walked back 50 feet and offered a ride to the KGB guy who was tailing me. Numbed by the blowing snow, he accepted. Napoleon and Hitler were damned fools for attempting a winter siege.
Wizards. Daughter Allison scored two tickets for the Lakers game as a Christmas present. Last time I saw the Wizards, they were the Bullets and they were playing some guys named Michael and Scotty at the old Capital Centre. Despite Kobe, the Wizards won on great shooting by Gilbert Arenas and forcing someone other than Kobe to take the last shot. Good day all around. ESPN Classics showed a Celtics-Lakers game of yore, with Bird, McHale and Parrish beating guys like Kareem and Worthy. The game had class back then, because it had classy performers – unlike some of today’s thugs who wear heavy metal around their necks and carry heavy metal in their pockets.
End of Year Lists. On Sunday, we’ll get a plethora of lists – who’s in, who’s out; who caught the bus; memorable events like Katrina, etc. A list of famous quotes is already out. Heading the list: President Bush’s exclamation, “Brownie, You’re doing a heckuva job” – days before relieving him. Others: Palmiero’s denial of steroid use; Trent Lott’s gaffe about J. Strom Thurmond; Howard Dean’s statement that the GOP is “pretty much a white Christian party. I winced this week when Warrick Dunn, asked to comment after he turned 30 and the Falcons missed the playoffs bout his future, said that, despite being 30, he still thought of himself as young. Warrick, that’s still on the lean side of prime!
On the He/She Front. Richmond Times Dispatch asks does the cop get two collars? Transexual prostitute Monica Reese Champion was picked up by police after arrest warrants for indecent exposure had been issued against her as a male on the city’s South side, and as a female on the city’s North side.
Munich. Will see that film this weekend. I was a member of the US delegation attending a conference in Amsterdam – and we had made arrangements to attend the Olympics the next day -- when the Israeli athletes were killed. The shock waves rippled throughout Europe and we were instructed to stay in Amsterdam. On later stops in Berlin, Copenhagen, and London, the murder of the Israelis was topic #1. THERE WAS LITTLE DOUBT THAT Israel would even the score. Blood debts have to be settled, eg, the CIA finally nabbing Kamsi in Pakistan, after he killed two agency employees literally at the front gate to CIA headquarters in Langley.