NOVEMBER 30 UPDATE
COMMITMENTS
Allison Collins, Sarah Hamilton, Kristie McConn and Ashley Stager HAVE SIGNED WITH Florida State. Collins (Niceville, Fla.) can play a number of positions, including catcher, and is the younger sister of current Seminole Kayla Collins (Niceville, Fla.). Hamilton (Tallahassee, Fla.), a product of Chiles High School, will toe the rubber in the circle, while McConn (Broken Arrow, Okla.) and Stager (Trinity, Fla.) will vie for the starting infield spots vacated next season senior NFCA All-Region selections Veronica Wootson (Fontana, Calif.) and Yuruby Alicart (Maracay, Venezuela).
Taylor Cunningham - 2007 - SS/3B - Fire & Ice Gold committed to RADFORD University
Kenzie Roark, from Old Hickory, Tenn., is a right-handed pitcher who attends Mt. Juliet High and plays her travel ball with the Tennessee Explosion and High Intensity Gold has signed a National Letter of Intent to enroll at Virginia Tech in Fall 2007.
TEAM CANADA
Baltimore-UMBC senior first baseman Melanie Denischuk has been invited to the Canadian Senior Women’s National Team Selection Camp in Las Vegas on Jan. 2-7, 2007, where she will compete against 32 girls for one of 24 spots on Team Canada’s roster.
Three teams will be named from the selection camp, and players may be asked to participate on more than one. The National Team will represent Canada at four events during the summer of 2007. Competitions will include the Canada Cup, the U.S. World Cup, the Pan-Am Games and an event still to be scheduled. The Elite Team will represent Canada at the Canada Cup only, while the World University Games team will represent Canada at the World University Games in Thailand and will likely consist of players from the National Team and the Elite Team.
All three rosters will be announced in part or in their entirety on or before Feb. 9, 2007.
BATBUSTER FRIDAY NIGHT CLINIC
The Batbusters sponsored an exposure clinic on the Friday night before the pre-Thanksgiving tournament.
An important caveat: with so many players demonstrating their skills at four different fields, SPY could not watch every player. More, SPY only watched the first time period – and observed 35 pitchers and an equal number of catchers. Also, not every player at the tournament participated in the clinic. So, this is a very segmented appraisal.
As a general observation, the college coaches and I sitting together (SPY is not a pitching coach so we conferred with coaches who are) shared a disappointment that so many pitchers had reached the level of an 18U tournament with so many correctable mechanical problems. Admittedly, this first group included some very young pitchers and catchers, but their bio sheets indicated several years of competition. SPY left concerned about the state of coaching.
Relative age was not the determining factor; the Batbuster coach and I agreed afterward the most promising pitcher was a 2010.
The catchers prompted a similar disappointment – failing to block down; poor positioning for the throw-down, rainbow and off-target throws etc.
That said, we saw several players at the clinic who can play at the Division 1 level. It is not SPY’s purpose to offer negative assessments of players. Instead, we offer the following comments on 10 (of 70) whom we thought were clinic standouts. (SPY has published comments earlier about players seen in games.)
Kristen Martinez, TX Impact Tanel. A 2010 graduate, this lefty impressed us at booth the clinic and in games Friday with her drop and drop-curve and overall location. Pitches high 50’s, low 60’s. Needs to work on the rise.
Kristin Shreve, WA Acers. A 2008 graduate, with a very good drop and low rise. Liked her straightforward stride over the mound. Has a habit of taking ball behind her head, winding up for the screw ball; a batter motion will increase her speed.
Ryan Crowe, Riptide. A 2008 graduate, this tall right-hander has a great drop. Throws a variety of pitches in the low 60’s.
Nichole Parada, OC Impact. Impressive control; excellent location on all pitches. Small, with average speed, but control will win games..
Jessica Rakonze, Bellevue Blast. A 2008 graduate, good size (5’8”, 160), control and good form pay off in speed (low to mod 60’s).
Tanya Holguin, All American Sports Academy. A 2009 graduate who throws every pitch well -- curve, drop, fast ball, low rise. Average speed but size will enable her to pick up more velocity.
This was a tournament in which we liked several young catchers we saw in games – TX Impact Gold has two 2009 catchers including Sydney Shannon and slugger Meagan May; the Grapettes Kristen Deanda, Team New Jersey’s heavy hitter Courtney Liddle, Danielle Yudin, Corona Angels, and the Firecrackers 2009 catcher Jessica Shults who will succeed Junior World catcher Ashley Hansen when she enrolls in Arizona. At the clinic, we liked:
Kylee Bishop, WA Acers. A 2008 graduate, perhaps the best we saw at the clinic. Very good footwork; good positioning on Shreve’s pitches; excellent throwdown.
Ellen Bogardus, Eastside Elite. Left 2009 graduate, with sharp snap throw to 2nd, even a low TD from her knees.
Jillian Stanley, Riptide. 2008. Short, solid build with one of the better TD’s we saw.
Nicole Spangler, WA Ladyhawks. 2009. Very good throw down.
ASA RULES AND CODE CHANGES
We try to be quick to commend the ASA Council when changes are made which, in our humble opinion, benefit the game – eg, lengthening Gold pitching distance to 43 feet; eliminating the ban on foreign players in ASA competition; eliminating the automatic returning berth. But code change 513 L 02 makes no sense; it allows Junior Olympic teams which have qualified for a national championship final to compete in other national qualifiers. Should that team win another qualifier, the highest finishing team without a berth will qualify. The code change which prohibited qualified teams from entering other qualifiers was based on experience; too often, a qualified team put a contender down in the loser’s bracket early. This happened not just with the four teams having automatic berths (now eliminated). The rationale offered by ASA is that the change allows teams to participate in more tournaments. At whose expense? There are more than enough exposure tournaments and “friendlies” – all competitive – that no qualified team should need to enter another qualifier just to get games. Frankly, given that ASA President Steve Monson knows the history of Region 14, we would have thought he would quash this change. If the truly elite teams took advantage of this rule, they could winnow out the competition they might meet later. At minimum, the Council should have exempted Gold from this change.
WHAT NEXT?
Giant rats, killer whales attacking trainers, and alligators trying to swallow a crackhead – all in the land of hanging chads.
HOW TO REALLY HURT A DICTATOR
I read this story and thought of an old Jerry Lewis skit where he fends off a bully with a feather duster.
After failing to persuade North Korea’s pint-sized dictator to halt tests of a nuclear bomb, the UN Security Council and member nations decided to play hardball.
Kim Jong II is not only denied weapons and nuclear technology, but he will have to do without fur, jewelry, jet skis, crystal, Segways, champagne, Cadillacs, fine cognac (consumed daily at a cost of $1 million a year), Stratocasters, Marlboros, Harleys and Ski-doos. The US list of 60 items also includes yachts, water scooters, race cars, station wagons, DVD players (he has 20,000 titles in his private library) and no TV’s larger than 29 inches. Japan is banning caviar, camcorders and wristwatches. The little man, who also favors sushi, Iranian caviar and sharkfin soup, will also be denied silk scarves, designer fountain pens, leather luggage, etc.
The bans also apply to his leading supporters.
Somehow, one doubts that such cravings matter to a man who snubbed the world powers without hesitation.
Subject:The Scots, English
and Irish
After having dug to a depth of 1000 meters last year, Scottish
scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1000 years and
came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone
network more than 1000 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the Scots, in the weeks that followed,
English scientists dug to a depth of 2000 meters and shortly after
headlines in the UK newspapers read: "English archaeologists have
found traces of 2000 year old fibre-optic cable and have concluded
that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech digital
communications network a thousand years earlier than the Scots."
One week later, Irish newspapers reported the following: "After
digging as deep as 5000 meters in a County Mayo bog, Irish scientists
have found absolutely nothing. They, therefore, have concluded that
5000 years ago, Ireland's inhabitants were already using wireless
technology." (thank you to fellow Irishman Frank Bolton)
IF YOU BELIEVED ALL THAT SPAM
A note from a frustrated recipient of endless unsolicited emails\
To all my
Friends,
As the holidays approach, my heartfelt appreciation goes out to all of
you who have taken the time and trouble to send me "forwards" over the past
12 months. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed, and wealthy.
Extra thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat crap in the glue on
envelopes 'cause I now have to go get a wet towel every time I need to
seal an envelope.
Also, I scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.
Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can
remove toilet stains.
I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper since the people who make these
products are atheists who refuse to put "Under God" on their cans.
I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.
I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be
pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.
I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a
water buffalo on a hot day.
I no longer go to shopping malls because someone might drug me with a
perfume sample and rob me.
I no longer receive packages from nor send packages by UPS or FedEx
since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.
I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a
number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda ,
Singapore ,and Uzbekistan .
I no longer eat KFC because their "chickens" are actually horrible
mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.
I no longer have any sneakers -- but that will change once I receive my
free replacement pair from Nike.
I no longer have to buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now
have their recipe.
I no longer worry about my soul because at last count I have 363,214
angels looking out for me.
Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I
forward an E-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five
minutes.
I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl who is
about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time)
I no longer have any money at all - but that will change once I receive
the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their
special email program.
Yes, I want to thank you so much for looking out for me that I will now
return the favor!
If you don't send this E-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 7
minutes, a large pigeon with a wicked case of diarrhea will land on your
head at 5:00 PM (CDT) this afternoon. I know this will occur because it
actually happened to a friend of my next-door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's
second husband's cousin's beautician.
Happy Holidays in Advance!!