NOVEMBER 4 UPDATE

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE OF JENNIE FINCH

 Some years ago, Jennie’s grandmother sat beside me at a tournament; while we watched Jennie pitch, I heard a number of warm, loving stories, which concluded with an admonition that I should never forget that, at her core, Jennie is a “good Christian girl.”

Obviously, the glamorous Miss Finch is no longer a girl.  An increasingly poised public persona, Olympic star, celebrity, reluctant sex symbol, role model for thousands of pony-tailed girls who play softball – and, while all those characterizations apply, you can’t perceive the complete Jennie unless you also realize that her Christian faith remains very much a driving force in her life.

That aspect of Jennie is very evident in the 10-minute tape I just watched of Jennie appearing on a Christian ministry program.  Jennie is very composed in that setting, with Casey and her parents in the audience.  You gain insights to Jennie (you even learn why she wears #27).

http://www.hourofpower.org/video/video.cfm

COMMITMENTS

Brittany Puzey OF/P California Cruisers, to the University of Nevada-Reno. 

Jessie Granger, P, Compuware, to Wright State

Amanda Genovese, C, Ct tradition/ NJ Outlaws, to Manhattan College

Lorin Leatherwood, c/ut, Cy-Fair Intruders, to Houston Baptist University.

Courtney Hoogeveen, IF, NE Echoes Renegades to University of Illinois
Bailey Dawson, 3rd/C,  NE Echoes Renegades to Creighton University
Kelly Cantrell, C, NE Echoes Renegades to North Dakota State University

Laura Moore, P/OF, Chattanooga Yankettes Gold, to Middle Tennessee State University

Elisa Van Kirk, C, CT Charmers verbal to George Washington University.

FERVENT BELIEVER – OR?

CNN carried a story about a man who sneaked into the lions’ den at a zoo.  Badly injured, but the keepers saved him from death.  Asked why, he said he wanted to convert them to Christianity.  No, his name was not Daniel.

RISING STARS ADDITIONS & CORRECTION

Riviera Beach Spirit vs Fl Ultimate Gold was a 1-1 tie; time ran out with RB due up in bottom of 7th (61/2 innings played) game reverts back to previous inning, 1-1 tie.

Washington Ladyhawks results

PRACTICE GAMES:
Ladyhawks 4 - Vienna Stars (VA) 4
Ladyhawks 0 - Team New Jersey 1
Ladyhawks 0 - Texas Magic Gold 0
Ladyhawks 6 - Gainesville Gold (FL) 0
POOL PLAY:
Ladyhawks 3 - Banshees (PA) 2
Ladyhawks 1 - SoCal Vipers Gold 2
Ladyhawks 1 - Kentucky Monarchs 0

Ladyhawks 4 - Stacey's Stars Gold (FL) 0
Ladyhawks 7 - Tropic Wave 2

So Cal Vipers 2 - Fl Dusters 1
So Cal Vipers 3 - KC Extreme 3
So Cal Vipers 6 - Pa Banshee 0
So Cal Vipers 2 - Ky Monarchs 3
So Cal Vipers 8 - Fl Tropic Gold 0
So Cal Vipers 4 - Wa LadyHawks 1
So Cal Vipers 4 - Fl Stars Gold 0

Washington Sidewinder Gold: 16 - South Florida Contenders: 5
Washington Sidewinder Gold: 10 - Illinois Outburst Gold: 1
Washington Sidewinder Gold: 4 - Team Arizona: 0
Washington Sidewinder Gold: 4 - Florida Lady Gators Gold: 2
Washington Sidewinder Gold: 8 - Virginia Lady Eagles: 1

Kelly Betts, an '05 uncommitted Tampa Mustangs-White,

pitched a 7-inning no hitter and had the game-winning RBI

in a 2-0 victory vs. South Carolina Bandits Sunday morning.

Pennsbury Gems

> Pennsbury Gems    1 Minnesota Irish Gold    0
> Rachel Crossin commited to UConn pitched a scoreless first four innings with 10 K and no hits; Angel Bunner a lefty pitcher 07 finished the shutout pitching the last 3 innings
>
> Louisana VooDoo Gold    0
> Pennsbury Gems    4
>
> JUCU Lake City Junior College    0
> Pennsbury Gems        4
>
> FL West Orange Lady Hawks    3
> Pennsbury Gems        3
>
> JUCO Indian River Junior College        0
> Pennsbury Gems            3
> Again the combination of Crossin and Bunner pitched the shutout
>
> FL High Intensity Gold        0
> Pennsbury Gems        9
>

FINEST CITY RESULTS

The Tulsa Eagles won three, lost two, and tied one in the tournament with Morgan Hudsonpillar (2005), who verbally committed to the University of Oklahoma last November picking up all three wins.  Morgan beat the San Diego Renegades (Mena) 3-0, Gordon's Panthers 2-1, and California Cruisers 1-0.  Each of the three games concluded at the end of 6 innings.  Morgan threw 18 innings in the tournament giving up only one run on six hits and issuing one walk.  She finished the tournament with 27 strikeouts and also contributed the game winning RBI against the Renegades.

Other game information concerning the Eagles was the 0-0 tie against the San Diego Breakers (Misty Flesher pitched for the Eagles).  Flesher was also the losing pitcher in a 3-0 loss to the Worth Firecrackers, and Autumn Foley was the losing pitcher in a 3-0 loss to the Corona Angels. 

THE ELECTION

A very wise man (my father) advised me to conclude any difficult situation, win or lose, by leaving on a grace note.  John Kerry did just that.  Every news story and commentary includes words like “gracious” “warm” “compassionate” etc.  Not just a few had the same reaction I did: this was his most engaging speech of the campaign – a side of Kerry he didn’t show enough of during the campaign.

Losing the presidency has no counterpart for pain and disappointment, short of losing a loved one.  Yet, as I contemplated Kerry during his concession speech, I thought fleetingly of the ordeal of the girls who played for the Gordon’s Panthers and CA Cruisers in the two Gold tournaments in Marietta.  Both had to struggle through the intense physical and mental ordeal of the losers’ bracket, eliminating competitors, but falling short at the end.  Kerry’s struggles were even more poignant.  Two years ago, he was the presumptive nominee.  A year ago, as his party flirted with other candidates, Kerry was the choice of 1% of the Democrats polled.  But, he won in the primaries.  In the end, Kerry received more popular votes than any previous losing candidate, but, George Bush received the most votes in history – and for the first time since his father won in 1988, GWB won a majority of the popular vote and the electoral college.

My daughters, fervently anti-war, cried, as I suspect a goodly number of their generation did.  Indeed, anti-war sentiment drove many people to the Kerry banner.  However, while 16 million new voters were registered, and there was widely-held expectation that the young might well put Kerry in the White House, election records show that only one in ten of that 18-24 group actually voted – the same percentage as in 2000.

In a sense, the election was not really about Kerry.  It was Bush’s election to win or lose.

Bush incited passionate hatred among Democrats, but equally passionate support among his loyalists.  Bush galvanized Democrats but they failed to assess how broadly his moral values message was received.  Kerry’s task was to win over enough of the undecided, and ensure that his party’s base came out to vote.  To do that, he had to deliver a message; he had to convince his base and the undecided that he was not only capable but electable. Kerry won the debates, and, throughout the campaign, he had the best sound bites – especially after some former Clinton hands came on board.  (Curiously, I did not hear Kerry thank Bill Clinton or Ted Kennedy; he owed both big time.)  However, to win, stripped of all the rhetoric, he had to take states away from Bush.  It’s a numbers game. 

In a minimalist sense, if Bush kept every state he won in 2000, he would win enough votes in the electoral college to stay at 1600.  He only lost New Hampshire.  The Kerry camp knew precisely how many votes Bush got in Ohio in 2000, and worked hard to beat that number (and did).  The Bush people, knowing that the great majority of Democrats were so intent on defeating him, had a get out the vote effort which was targeted on an even higher number – and they succeeded – in Ohio and all the other “red” states.  (I remain disappointed in California; only 38% of the population of voting age came to the polls.  To be sure, the state was safely in the Kerry column, and a larger total would not affect the electoral college.  Still!)

The Future.  Some conservative pundits were complaining today that the major media were too focused on declaring that the election left a divided country.  They should listen to GWB, who has been very forthright yesterday and today in acknowledging the need to heal the wounds of this campaign, to forge a higher level of national unity. Given his personality, and his majority, the President will not abandon or even moderate his principles – nor should he just for political convenience -- but he must do more to reach out to all citizens. There was a message in the election results, and the President today let everyone know that economic health has a high priority.  As one of the former hardline Georgetown Mafia at State, I agree we should never give any country a veto over our foreign policy.  But, it is an undeniable fact that, Iraq aside, to retain our economic leadership, we have to improve our foreign relations.  It’s simply good business.

The Exit polls.  Once again, they’re taking a beating.  The problem is that they are misused.  Historically, the population which votes from 6am until noon does not look like the electorate at large – and the pollsters tell this to the candidates and the media.  Yet, the early returns were released ostensibly showing a Kerry surge and, at one gathering of Democrats in Manhattan, there was serious discussion among power brokers as to who would be in a Kerry cabinet.  Ironically, given their widespread use of the exit polls, the networks stopped calling states when Bush’s total got to 269 – afraid to declare a winner.  All had reasons the next day for their hesitation.

There was a time when editors shied away from such predictions.  In 1964, traveling through New York State as a reporter with LBJ and Bobby Kennedy, together on one memorable trip, I sensed the unease among Republicans about Barry Goldwater.  Some of us had already written about a directive from Nelson Rockefeller that GOP candidates should run apart from the national ticket.  So, I paid out of pocket for a sampling in three rock-hard Republican Congressional districts, working with Marist College.  The sampling indicated that LBJ would sweep the state because the Republicans were going to lose three veteran lawmakers in deeply entrenched strongholds – and that Bobby would defeat Ken Keating.  My editors refused to run my projections; finally, on election eve, the story ran, buried deeper than the Titanic.  Of course, when I was proven accurate, the paper ran a story about our acumen in predicting the landslide.

Responding to readers.  Why did I write that I was not very fond of either candidate?  To be sure, I had some disagreements on Iraq, but my comment had less to do with the pro or con of either candidate than it did with a particular orientation to Washington.  The capital has several kinds of people who make up our government (forgetting for the nonce all the lawyers, lobbyists etc).  There are the elected officials; the appointed officials which includes the judiciary; there are the appointed staff in the White House, on the Hill, and in the agencies.  Then, there are the bureaucrats, the functionaries who carry out the same tasks day after day, Administration after Administration.  Separate from the bureaucracy in general, there are the senior civil servants – the professionals.  They not only help carry out policy, their rank and especially their expertise gives them a voice in shaping policy.  They too serve successive administrations but they can be removed, although not easily moved aside.  At the State Department, they are the bane of Foreign Service officers and political appointees; every White House tries to seize a number of those senior positions and convert them to Schedule C or politically appointed positions.  (There is already a mad scramble underway as the faithful jockey for key appointments at every level – and the Plum Book doesn’t come out for several weeks.  That’s the list of every political appointment a President can make.)

While the political appointees will use every means to ensure that the professionals give them sound advice and make them look good, they are never hesitant to let the professionals take the heat.  I remember one deteriorating situation which prompted the Secretary of State to call for a principals meeting, but the Assistant Secretary declined after I advised him the likely outcome would be a “wet” decision.  When I went instead, the Under Secretary took note, commenting that my leader was “protecting his resume” in case the action we planned backfired.

The professionals in town don’t get too excited about who wins. Over time, all policy decisions tend toward the centrist position.  Of even greater import to the professionals: who will the politicians bring to town?  We make book on the appointees.  My cynicism, dear readers, was shaped over 30 years as a professional who was good at his work.

Humor past 80

Contributed by Jay Miller, Mississippi State

THAT BLOODY AWFUL SWING

I assumed that readers would correctly infer from the way I wrote about Kristie Fox’s swing, which distracted the Taipei catcher and allowed the runner to steal 3^rd – and eventually score on Kristie’s hit – was an intentional, planned action.  In case you didn’t catch on, it was deliberate, which was why Coach Jay Miller congratulated her after the swing.

RUNS IN THE FAMILY

Everyday Hero: Robin B. Thomas Jr., age 8
Tucson Citizen


 

The third-grader at Lyons Elementary is a forward for the Blazers 10-under soccer team and a pitcher-first baseman for the Scorpions Little League.

Robin won the local pitch, hit and throw championship, sponsored by Tucson Parks & Recreation, this year at Santa Rosa Center.

He has seven goals for the Blazers this season after scoring 19 for the Green Dragons 8-under team last year.

Robin, a twin, has two brothers and five sisters, including former Bethune-Cookman College softball player Chloe Thomas and current B-C player Andrea Thomas.

end

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