NOVEMBER 3 UPDATE

(extended into November 4)

COMMITMENTS

Julie Meyer, C,3^rd, WJ Witches/Team New Jersey , to California-Berkeley

Makenzie Smith, CA Stealth, to University of Illinois
Shannon Doepking, CA Stealth, to University of Tennessee
Jenny Belak, CA Stealth, to University of Maryland
Michelle Rehm, CA Stealth, to University of Pennsylvania
Kortney Bell, CA Stealth, to University of Tennessee
Shauna Johnson, CA Stealth, to Fresno State University

Britnee Barnett- AZ Hotshots P, SS  Commits to Wichita State University

Melissa Stuhr, C, NC Lady Blues, to Queens University of Charlotte

Emily Forbes, OF, NC Lady Blues, to UNC Charlotte

Alyssa Winslow,     P, 1B,  OC Batbusters ( Davis ), to  Long Island University

Brittany Murphy,     CF,      OC Batbusters (Haning), to Long Island University

Whitney Holstun - 3B/P San Diego Renegades Gold  - University of Virginia

Jamie Thompson, High Voltage Gold, Crowley , TX toTexas State University

Cathy Walters, AZ Heatwave Gold, 2B/Util - Ohio University

Emi Snow of Mililani , Hawaii (OF, C, 3B of American Pastime Gold) to BYU.

THE MAGAZINE

WOW!.  First day subscriptions were very encouraging.  Thank you.

With some help from people like Jay Creps, I now have a full complement of pictures from Nanjing to replace mine which were “lost” in processing, so I am finalizing Volume Five this week.  You may or may not agree with my editorial on why Japan won, or, why the United States lost, but, I have thought about these issues every day since returning from China, and they are based on my on-site observations as well as discussions with players and coaches.

In answer to a question: I do not have the capability with Pay Pal to insert check payments into the data base.  The other mechant banks I originally contracted with offered that service.  I have asked Pay Pal if they make exceptions.  Stay tuned.

RENEGADES: REVISED SUMMARY

The tournament webmaster has posted this update as of November 3.  Careful: the teams in bold face were the winners; scores are in the order the teams were listed.

America 's Finest City Showcase

San Diego , California

October 31 - November 2

2004 entry form @ www.sdrenegades.org

Saturday Scores

Sunday Scores

SPY also received other updates on this tournament:

AZ Heatwave Gold (4) vs SD Renegades Gold (3)
AZ Heatwave Gold (6) vs Minors Gold (0)
AZ Heatwave Gold (1) vs CA Thunder Gold (0)
AZ Heatwave Gold (13) vs Lady Hustle (0)
AZ Heatwave Gold (5) vs The Next Level (2) (Undefeated behind Farrell & Quinn)

Also on Saturday:

AZ Hotshots (N) 6 vs. SJ Sting 2.

Saturday, 9:35am So Cal Diamonds Gold 4 - Hotshots 0
                     Sunday, 8:00am Hotshots 3 - Cal Breeze (Mashburn) 2
                     Sunday, 11:10am Hotshots 3 - OC Batbusters ( Davis ) 3

Side Note:  Andy Anderson has resigned as president/manager of the San Diego Renegades.  He will form a new team called the CA Renegades and will continue to organize and manage this tournament – a very good job under trying circumstances.

ASA ANNUAL MEETING

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK --More than 1,000 people are expected to attend 72nd National Council Meeting of the Amateur Softball Association in Orlando, Fla., November 8-13. The meeting is going to be held at the Orlando Hyatt Regency-Airport and will bring together the decision makers in the sport of softball from throughout the country.

This marks the second time in the past eight years the Central Florida ASA Association has hosted the ASA Annual Meeting.

The Amateur Softball Association of America, a volunteer driven, not-for-profit organization based in Oklahoma City , Okla. , is the national governing body of softball in the United States . Founded in 1933, the ASA regulates competition in every state through a network of 93 local associations to insure fairness and equal opportunity to the millions of players who annually play the sport.

It’s during this meeting where the 304 official council members will vote on 42 rule changes, 149 code changes and will award more than 90 national championships to cities across the country. Each will make a presentation to the council in hopes of winning their support for hosting a national championship.

Representatives from Colorado Spring , Colo. , Tucson , Ariz. , St. Petersburg , Fla. , Philadelphia , Penn. , and Dallas , Texas will be bidding to host the 2005 ASA Annual Council Meeting.

The Annual Trade Show will be held Sunday, November 9 and Monday, November 10 inside the Intercontinental Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Exhibit hours are Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Monday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Convention and Visitors Bureaus from throughout the country and softball equipment manufacturers highlight the two day show.

Also the ASA Council will elect its 35th President on Thursday, November 13 during the General Session. The ASA President is the highest ranking volunteer in the association and will serve a two-year term.

Reports from the ASA Annual Meeting will be posted on the ASA Communications Center on asasoftball.com each day.

ASA & RISING STARS

Presumably, at some point along the trail, the ASA Commissioners who award tournaments will allocate a national tournament to the Rising Stars, whose facility in Davie is as good as any in the country, and better than most.  The Convention begins November 8, but, unlike last year when I spent a week in Reno , SPY is waiting until Thursday when the actual voting takes place (if I go at all).  Given SPY commitments to the Worth Firecracker and Batbuster pre-Thanksgiving tournament on the two following weekends, SPY may have to rely on ASA communicators for convention news.

PASTIME TOURNAMENT

CA Lite has replaced AZ Hotshots.

SURFER BETHANY HAMILTON

Teen surfing champion Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm when attacked off the coast of Kauai , Hawaii by a 15-foot tiger shark. The 13-year old, considered a certain future star as an adult, was said to “represent a new generation of powerful young women who joyfully meet the challenge of taking on huge, barreling waves on a bit of foam and fiberglass.”  “ Kauai is known among die-hard surfers for the variety of its waves, including the fearsomTunnels and Canyons,” all of which Bethany surfed.  Recovering in an Hawaiian hospital, Bethany, who won competitive events in California this year, plans to resume surfing – and her doctors say she will recover 95% of her capacity.  Don’t know if Bethany ever played softball, but, having a daughter who lost an arm, I admire her pluck and courage – as a person and as an athlete.

THE SOONERS OF OKLAHOMA

I savored the sports column on AOL:  The Sooners should play in the NFL.  Several reporters noted that Notre Dame’s humiliation last Saturday was the second-worst defeat at home: I searched in vain for an acknowledgment that the worst defeat was at the hands of Oklahoma , 45-0.  Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly, who knows how to turn a phrase, wrote this past week that Mack Brown, the Texas coach, has an office so big you could U-turn a Greyhound bus in it, while Bob Stoops, the OU coach, has an office so small you have to step outside to sneeze.  Oklahoma of course pounded Texas .  Yes, it is so sweet, as Jackie Gleason used to say.  But, those of us who were at OU when Bud Wilkinson’s teams set that 47-0 record, are also old enough to remember the lean years.  As in all sports, you rejoice in the present; the future holds unknown challenges.

A TIME TO LIVE, A TIME TO DIE

The general who planned the assault discounted the intelligence reports on the enemy strength at the most critical assault point, because acknowledging that the 2^nd Panzer Corps had regrouped in strength around Arnheim would, in Browning’s opinion,  force Field Marshal Montgomery to acknowledge that his strategy and all of its supporting plans were fatally flawed.  A rigorous timetable allowed no margin for failure of any component mission, and no allowance at all for falling behind schedule.  Field commanders in Arnheim could not communicate because the wrong crystals were put into field radios back in England – and not tested.  The critical 2^nd Battalion of the British 1^st Airborne was dropped miles from the key bridge, and forced to die trying to hold it for a week beyond the timetable in the plan.  The Red Devils were outgunned from the start.  Reluctantly, Montgomery , whose ego qualified him for nothing more challenging than kitchen duty, agreed that the time had come to get General Urquart’s men out of Arnheim.  Coordination among the Allies was poor; American troops who might have relieved Arnheim were stopped by the British north of Einhoven.  Did the planners ever concede error?  No.  In his memoirs, General Browning concluded that perhaps, after all, they had simply gone a bridge too far.

Now, the United States is engaged in another type of war – a war of attrition against an enemy we have difficulty locating, increasingly isolated by our putative Allies, and poor communications are taking a toll.  Do we need a different strategy for victory – or for an exit strategy?

The United States military knows how to fight a conventional, set-piece war – and they won that kind of war early on in Iraq .  We’ve never excelled at unconventional warfare, notably guerilla attacks – and that’s the kind of war in which we are now engaged in Iraq . Americans are dying in a war so frustrating that a Catholic chaplain concluded Mass by urging the troops to “kill them all.”

We cannot, in the infamous words of a former New England Senator, simply declare that we’ve won and go home.  We are the world’s superpower; however flawed our initial strategy seems in hindsight, whether or not war was fully justified on the grounds we cited, the challenge in Iraq goes beyond day to day repression of hostiles, but is a fundamental milestone in our war against terrorism.

I remember the words of General Norman Cota that first morning on Omaha Beach , as he sought to energize his Army to take the overlying cliffs, despite withering German fire.  “There are only two kinds of people on this beach; those who are dead and those who are going to die.”  Like General Cota, we have a frightening hill to climb, and we will surely continue to pay the price, but, somehow, we have to gain the upper hand.  Unfortunately, that means putting a world of hurt on other people – with or without the help of the reorganized Iraqi police and military.

Recently, I revisited Ground Zero.  We were bloodied – at home.  Middle East terrorists of many nationalities declared war on the United States .  That war started at the twin towers, it continues in Iraq , Afghanistan , Israel , Iran and elsewhere.  We must fight it.

I wish with all my heart that this was not so.  I wish that when our armies liberated the WWII death camps that we had put an end to genocide.  It was once said that war is diplomacy by other means.  Not true.  War is a failure of diplomacy.  We are reaping the bitter harvest of failed diplomatic efforts – conferences in 1910 and 1919 at which the greed of the European powers, notably France and Britain , laid the foundation for much of the Middle East unrest in succeeding years.

Unfortunately, the United Nations, which other than its humanitarian aid activities, has been a forum for bashing the United States , has turned tail and run.  France and Germany are not being attacked by terrorists; they are content to stand on the sidelines – but France screamed for help when it was besieged by rebels from North Africa who set off bombs in Paris , and again when it was being massacred in Vietnam – another world political decision that was flawed before the ink was dry.

A former spy who survived bothWorld War II, the Anschluss and the Holocaust, once told me there would be no more wars if the politicians and diplomats who set the stage for war with their failed peace agreements had to fight and risk death in the field. Richard le Couer sent princes and commoners to die in the Crusades – but he led them in battle.

I hope that someone in the US chain of command tells those 19-year olds they send out to die that the consequences of failure are that Iraq would descend into civil war among the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites; tell them that seeds of this war were sown just before and after the first World War when misguided diplomats welded various tribal factions together, against their will, and created states in their own image which had never existed; tell them that these factions only want a new Iraqi government that they can control; tell them that they are fighting alone because France was not ceded the territorial imperatives (oil) which they had negotiated with Saddam Hussein – the same France we liberated in 1944 and bailed out when they demanded a post WWII mandate over French Indochina and let it disintegrate into civil war – which ultimately cost more than 50,000 American lives; tell them that the various factions in Iraq were at war with each other before Saddam, a tribal war they want to renew if they can get us to leave.  Finally, they should be told that this war has been a hundred years in the making, and we are now asking them to take the stand that has long been needed in that part of the world – a stand against tribal, ethnic, religious and political strife.

These are bad wars; nevertheless, they must be won militarily – and stabilization would be an acceptable military milestone – and lead diplomatically to a sustainable peace in the Middle East .  Iraq is unfortunately the linch pin to a lasting Middle East peace.

In the days, weeks and months to come, I pray that the leaders of all affected nations will be in mind one of the few truisms which has survived the centuries of conflict: no one wins a war; some people just lose less than others.

End

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