OCTOBER 12 UPDATE

COMMITMENTS

Kristen Pocock, C, Batbusters Tyronne, to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Chelsea Cantillo  3B-2B, Batbusters Tyronne, to University of Georgia
Amber Peterson    C-OF, Batbusters Tyronne, toSoutheast Missouri State

Meredith Felts  Pitcher  Carolina Wildcats  James Madison University

Tiffany Wright, Teamsmith Gold, to UCSB

Benet Higgs, OF, Sorcerer Softball Gold, to Stephen F.Austin University. 

Georgia Fire Gold commitments

Lisa Norris  Pitcher    University of North Carolina
Maddie Gore  Pitcher    University of Virginia
Sammie Jo Bailey  1B    Mississippi State University
Brittany Rogers    OF    University of Alabama
Jamie Rao        C    Elon University
Christie Hamilton  P    University of South Carolina
Whitney Haller    P, 1B  Ga. Tech
Alexis Lynch    OF    Tennessee Tech

JESSICA VAN DER LINDEN BOULWARE

The 80,000 fans packed into the stands at last Saturday’s Florida State game gave recognition at half-time to the Seminoles’ outstanding All-American pitcher, Jessica van der Linden, who was joined on the field by  husband Michael Boulware, who plays safety for the Seattle Seahawks.  The couple, who wed July 7, also attended a softball scrimmage on Sunday.  For now, Jessica is focusing on being a wife in Seattle and giving back to the sport that offered her so much. "Seattle is gorgeous and I'm just enjoying living a low-key life and watching Michael's games. Right now I'm doing pitching instructions in Washington, but if the Olympic team called I definitely wouldn't mind volunteering. It took about three months for me to get the itch back (for softball after the season) but I got it back."

LPFA FINAL TRYOUT

Atlanta, GA---The Ladies Professional Fastpitch Association (LPFA) Tour will conduct the final tryout of 2004 to select the 50 best female fastpitch players in the world to complement a collection of 34 pre-selected professional, collegiate and international players.  The tryout will be held in conjunction with the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Convention in Las Vegas, NV.  The date for the one-day tryout has been set for Sunday, December 5th, 2004.  Those players selected will enter the draft for participation on one of 6 Teams.

Tryout date and location:

December 5-Sunday
Stephanie Lynn Craig Park
1725 Galleria Drive
Henderson, NV  89014

Player registration fee: $60

TUFF N TUFFER FALL SHOWCASE

The annual tournament will be held November 6-7 in Doylestown, PA.

 www.eteamz.com/sites/tntshowcase.

LEGALIZING SCREWBALLS

NFCA will consider, at its annual business meeting December 6 in Las Vegas, a proposal submitted to the NJCAA division recommending that NJCAA change its rules to allow pitchers to step outside the dimensions of the pitching rubber.  The rationale submitted to members argues that pitchers have to step outside this framework in order to throw the screwball effectively.  (SPY can verify that many pitchers do step off to the side when throwing the screwball.)  However, as written in the summary NFCA mailed to members the change would seem to apply to all pitches.  Readers should bear in mind that, at NFCA business meetings, only those members of the group which proposed the rule can vote on it (eg, D-1 coaches vote on D-1 issues) – unless the general membership votes to have a proposal considered by all groups.  More, NFCA is not a rule-making body.  NFCA can recommend actions to NCAA, ASA, NJCAA, NFHS etc. which are not obliged to enact or even consider the proposals.  Still, given the number of incidents caused by irregular enforcement of the rule, the debate and outcome will be notable.

As happens every year, there is a proposal asking NFHS to set a new pitching distance of 43 feet for highschools, the rationale is that pitchers would be better prepared for college – and they would be safer.  Among several problems, these girls would still pitch at 40 feet in travel ball, given that ASA is obliged as a governing body to pursue the standards set by ISF for international competition.

Remember the white sleeves controversy?  The argument was that pitchers wearing long white sleeves confused batters, the ball also being white.  Now that yellow balls are in widespread use, there is a proposal to NFHS to ban bright yellow undergarments for pitchers.  The proposal doesn’t say but we assume the reference is only to long-sleeved undergarments.

SPY SURGERY

Batting .500 at Johns Hopkins this week.  Colonoscopy Monday; removed three more polyps, indication benign.  But, failed today’s tests on hands and arms; neuropathy has not lessened in intensity.  Ergo, six fingers are not only useless but painful.  Decision: ulna nerve transposition on December 9.  Translated: surgeons cut a half-moon incision on either side of the elbow; detach the muscles; stretch the ulna nerve; reattach the muscles wrap the arm in a hard cast from the elbow down – the posture much like Karnak in the old mummy movies.  Barring infection, which has a higher probability among we diabetics, the hard cast is removed after two weeks, and rehab begins.  If the surgery is successful, the right arm and hand should be fully functional by the end of January.  The surgery on the left arm is tentatively scheduled for mid-February.

The time frame is deliberate.  SPY has little to report after the Batbuster pre-Thanksgiving tournament and the NFCA convention which ends December 5.  Will probably have to miss national team tryouts in early January and the winter Worth freeze-ball in Menefee (but will make a certain wedding).  The reason for doing the right arm first is that I am so predominantly right-handed.  Will try to publish left-handed.

The Batbuster is too important as an exposure tournament.

Can’t miss the NFCA.  Like a college family reunion.  Have to be ready to speak for or against whatever Linda Wells, Jacquie Joseph, and Kirk Walker propose.  Besides, Jennifer Sewell always comes to the annual dinner as a fashion plate;  what will Jen wear now that she has left the trendy confines of Princeton for the plebian fields of Kansas? (I’m related to about half of the Prussians in St Mary’s, Kansas.  Old Conrad doffed his spiked helmet and officer’s cloak to migrate to the USA; outlived three wives and left clusters of kids in Louisiana, Wisconsin and Kansas.)

ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ

1 — Which nation is the only Grand Duchy in the world?
2 — What is the upper age limit for jury service?
3 — What are buchts on a Scottish farm?
4 — What were flappers in the 1920s?
5 — Mizaru, Mikazaru and Mazaru are better known as what?
6 — Pick the odd one out — Rock Of The Westies, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player, A Night At The Opera, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
7 — What are the Christian names of The Alexander Brothers?
8 — Which London railway station begins with a girl’s name?
9 — Lift a boulder in your garden and the chances are you’ll find slaters. What’s their alternative name? 
10 — Is paper measuring 594 mm by 841 mm A1, A3 or A4?
11 — Born in Milan, what nationality was the inventor and physicist Thomas Alva Edison?
12 — Why is FE used as the symbol for iron?
13 — In which sport do they play for the Camanachd Cup?
14 — What geographical feature draws tourists to Morar?
15 — Solve these “Mor” words — a) variety of cherry, b) served in a cheese-flavoured white sauce, c) poetically next day, d) signalling code. 
16 — What percentage of the world’s population lives in China?
17 — Rearrange GO DRY SHARE to reveal a TV chef. 
18 — Many people grow fragaria virginiana in their gardens. Are they pansies, petunias, blackcurrant bushes or strawberry plants?
19 — If something is described as diptych what does it tell you?
20 — Which geographic feature in Florida sounds as if it could open doors?

Name the famous man of peace, first name Theresa.

1 — Luxembourg. Ruled by Grand Duke Henri. 
2 — 65 in Scotland, 70 in the rest of the UK.
3 — Sheep pens.
4 — Trendy young women with unconventionally short bobbed hair, although originally flappers had long flapping hair.
5 — The Three Wise Monkeys. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
6 — A Night At The Opera, an album by Queen. Others are by Elton John.
7 — Tom and Jack.
8 — Marylebone Station.
9 — Woodlice.
10 — A1.
11 — American. He was born in Milan, Ohio. 
12 — FE represents ferrum, an alternative name for iron. 
13 — Shinty.
14 — The white sands.
15 — a) Morello, b) mornay, c) morrow, d) Morse.
16 — Around 20 per cent.
17 — Gary Rhodes. 
18 — Strawberry plants.
19 — It is folded or hinged in two.
20 — The Florida Keys. 

Theresa Macri Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948

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