NOVEMBER 18 UPDATE

 

COMMITMENTS

Brittany Glyn, OF, CT Tradition, to Notre Dame

Maura Lund, P, IL Windmills, signed with Seton Hall University .

Barbara Duran Colorado Stampede signed with Fort Lewis College in Colorado
Ashley McCaig Colorado Stampede signed with Fort Lewis College in Colorado

Olivia Henley P/1b Houston Power Gold Texas State University ( formerly Southwest Texas State )

Amanda Brown C Houston Power Gold University of Texas Arlington

Kari Quinn, P,OF, AZ Heatwave, to Morehead State

Heidi Weil, C, Long Beach City College to Cal State Hayward

Caitlin Tighe, 3B,OF, New York Legends to Monmouth University

Kaleigh Rafter, 3B/C, Guelph Gators ( ONTARIO CANADA ) to
University of Detroit Mercy
Jenna Campagnolo, OF, Guelph Gators ( ONTARIO CANADA ) to
Cornell University

Brooke Johnson, Team FLA Gold, to University of Florida
Lindsay Littlejohn, Team FLA Gold, to University of Florida
Tiffany Pagano, P, Batbusters Davis/OC Athletics, to Loyola Marymount

Ericka Hansen, CA Desperados 18G, committed to UC Davis

 

New Oregon Ducks

Lovena Chaput        IF/OF        Tualatin , OR         Sun Supply
Alicia Cook         P/IF        Noti, OR        Oregon Reign
Joanna Gail        IF/OF        Poway , CA         CA Thunder
Kristi Jorgensen    IF/OF        Tigard , OR         Sun Supply/Oregon Reign

.

 

READER OPINIONS SOUGHT

ASA will held a Junior Olympic workshop in February to consider amendments to its code and playing rules.  SPY intends to propose several amendments, and will be guided by reader opinions.

 

Given that ASA will require face masks in 2005 (the amendment originally read 2004 but ASA members concluded that face masks impose a financial burden on teams which should be deferred until 2005 – if it’s a safety issue, why the delay?), should ASA now delete the requirement for chin straps? 

Should Gold be exclusively held in Oklahoma City , or alternated?

 

Given so few Gold teams in Oklahoma , should ASA now delete the provision giving two Gold berths to host teams, starting in 2006, when Gold will be sited in Oklahoma City ?

 

At the just concluded annual Council meeting in Orlando , the Council defeated a proposal which would require that ties for 5th place in tournaments where berths to nationals are awarded be settled on the field – in playoff games.  Actually, that amendment carried 63% of the delegates, but 67% is required to adopt.  Should ASA reconsider the method for resolving ties where berths are at stake?

 

Should the winner of the 18A tournament be awarded an automatic Gold berth?

 

Should the four top finishers at Gold be given automatic berths for next year?

 

Any other opinions you have are also welcome.

 

ANOTHER OBSTRUCTION QUESTION

Another reader is asking questions about ASA interpretations of its new playing rule on obstruction.  I am forwarding these questions to ASA.

 

Situation:  Base runner on first, who takes a lead off with the pitch.

The defense runs a pick play and the defensive player blocks the bag, preventing the safe return of the runner.  Let's say with the new rule, obstruction is charged.

Is the runner awarded second base, or first base?  If the latter, I don't see any penalty on the defense for causing the obstruction. 

 
Isn't it obvious that the runner is awarded first and the penalty toward the defense is that the runner stays on the base and is not called out?  Otherwise you are awarding the defense an illegitimate out.

 

Colorado , Las Vegas and Hawaii Softball Tournaments.
(press release.  Contact: cobra@qwest.net


There is still time to enter the 4th Annual Christmas Break Tournament
in Las Vegas/Henderson Nevada         Dec. 12-14, 2004The 4th Annual
Xmas Break Tournament will be held in Henderson Nevada just 10 minutes
of the Las Vegas Strip. This is a USSSA Qualifier with the top four in
each age group qualifying for the 2004 USSSA world series. It is also a
Queen of Diamonds World Qualifier.

Ages:   10U, 12U, 14U, 16U, 18U

The tournament will feature a triple elimination minimum 4 game setting.
All games are tournament games; no pool games just to fill up space. 1st
through 3rd team awards as well as consolation champion. 

The registration cost is $375.

 

(The web site also has information on a tournament in Hawaii and Colorado )

 

 

DÉJÀ VU

The Los Angeles Times published a story this morning about the decision of health authorities in San Francisco to provide syringes full of naloxone to addicts so that they can help detoxify fellow heroin addicts who overdose.  Brought back memories, not all of them pleasant.

 

In the early 1970’s, I did double duty, rushing overseas on international assignments, then scurrying around the United States as the head of a national program to build drug abuse treatment capacity in response to a mushrooming (no pun) use of drugs – heroin but also various psychedelics, speed, cocaine, meth, barbs – the whole pharmacopeia.

 

In that capacity, I spent time in San Francisco ’s Tenderloin and Haight Ashbury districts, as well as New York ’s Harlem and Bed-Sty. To use the vernacular, this was a bad scene.  Teenagers of both sexes selling themselves on the street to get money for drugs.  I saw kids who shot up with heroin much too powerful for their bodies – who died without removing the needles from their arms.  I remember a pretty blonde coed, lying on a slab in the morgue, her parents screaming at the ME and me, questioning why we couldn’t prevent their daughter’s death.  I informed them that their innocent little girl had been selling her body on weekends in Harlem for two years to support her habit – and her pimp.  Where were you?  The parents had no answer.  The most effective ad of that time has relevance now:  Parents: where are your children?

 

 Treating heroin addicts with methadone was an expanding methodology, but many segments of the public, as well as lawmakers, preferred psychological counseling, given that methadone is also addictive (it was developed by the Germans as a synthetic narcotic analgesic in WWII to counter their lack of morphine).  Moreover, a third group of people which also included medical professionals as well as lawmakers, and the addicts, preferred methadone detox – which limited itself to getting the addict safely off his or her high without complications – but did not address the root causes of addiction.  Hence, many addicts returned to drugs.

 

This is the debate now in San Francisco – detoxify or attempt to cure?  Abstinence programs using therapeutic counseling and methadone treatment have each had their successes – and failures.  Detox alone of course has the highest relapse rate.

 

With heroin use increasing as it did in the 1970’s, I keep hearing George “Skip” Gay’s advice (he was one of the pioneers of drug treatment in the Haight): “it’s so good, don’t even try it once.”

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Mickey Mouse began life in 1928 as a cartoon strip, and Walt Disney showed him to the world in Steamboat Willie.

Johnny Mercer, born 1909, helped several thousand romances turn mellow with songs like Moon River , That Old Black Magic.

The patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, died in 1969.

Donald Meek, the diminutive whiskey drummer who took an arrow in the shoulder and lived in John Ford’s classic Stagecoach, with John Wayne, died in 1946.  Humility plus.

In 1307, William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head; I liked the Overture.

In 1954, one of baseball’s most momentous trades was announced:  Yanks trade Woodling, Byrd, McDonald, Triandos, Miranada & Smith to Orioles for Turley, Larsen & Hunter as part of an 18 player deal.

And, on this day in 1949, Jackie Robinson was named National League MVP.

 

End

 

Spy Softball Home Page