OCTOBER 29 2007 UPDATE
PITCHER NEEDED THIS SEASON
I was wondering if you could put the word out that Southern Oregon University in Ashland Oregon is in need of a transfer to pitch this season. Should anyone have players in mind please contact me at frittsk@sou.edu or 541-552-8285. Thank you for your help in advance.
Take Care,
Kim Fritts, Head Softball Coach
Southern Oregon University
frittsk@sou.edu, 541-552-8285
WANT TO PITCH AT RONALD MCDONALD?
Mr Hesse, My team is going to the Ronald McDonald. I have a spot for a outstanding pitcher for some great exposure . Seminole Gold will play the WEST JERSEY WITCHES ELITE,WICHITA MUSTANGS GOLD, TULSA ELITE GOLD, TEXAS GLORY GOLD,MC ELITE GOLD,TEXAS ROYAL GOLD,ROUND ROCK BLAZE, AND THE IMPACT GOLD.
Thank You, Rod Guy 954-274-1784
LADY SHARKS OFFER TO HELP SO CAL EVACUEES
Andy: I have a proposal for you. I am willing to bet that a number of local softball players have been evacuated and/or lost homes during the past week. I would like to make you the following offer -
Tournament entry fee - keep it and buy a bunch of gift cards (Target, ??) for players and families that may need items or help. My team will donate the fee to them. When you reschedule the tournament I will resend you a new check with the entry fee. You would know better than I what is needed in the area. My entire team wants to help out and I may, if you think it appropriate, collect donations (money) at our Sunday practice and send that to you or someone you designate.
As a retired Deputy Chief from the San Jose Fire Department (30 years) I know the devastating effect fire can have on families and communities. During my career, I was a strike team leader a number of times in southern California. I was also a member of a state overhead team where we managed fires of these sizes. I have great respect for our firefighters and would also like to support them in some way. I understand that some were burned but have not seen any news on that. I would like to also support them if possible.
I know you're busy so let me know if I can be of any help.
Rob
Piper
Lady Sharks Gold
casie96@aol.com
408-353-2223
ladysharksgold.com
CATCHER NEEDED FOR THANKSGIVING
I
writing this email in hopes that you might know of a catcher that
could use some additional exposure at the Thanksgiving tournament Nov
2-4. or if not perhaps you could post this opportunity on your site.
I have a couple of catchers out with injuries and could use a catcher
wanting good exposure to catch 4-5 games for the Wildcats. We are
scheduled to play 7 games, 2 on Friday, 2 on Sat and 3 on Sunday.
There will be a good turn out of coaches for our games. Best method
for an interested player to reach me is via cell phone because I will
traveling on business. Thanks for you assistance.
Best regards,
Dan
Dan Miller
Salinas Wildcats
Cell: (831) 206-4932
Email: danmiller@redshift.com
UPDATE ON THE VARSHOCK FAMILY
Andrew Pikop, who turns 24 next month, is one of four Cal Fire firefighters injured while trying to rescue a father and son who fought to save their Potrero home in the early hours of the Harris fire on Sunday morning. Unit Chief Henri Brachais, the lead investigator, said the firefighters were trying to save Thomas and Richard Varshock, whose home is off state Route 94 and Emery Lane in a remote part of San Diego County near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Thomas Varshock died. His 15-year-old son, whose hospital bed is down the hall from Pikop's, has burns to more than 50 percent of his body. On Wednesday, he was covered with a white blanket. His face was bandaged and he was hooked to a ventilator.
Brachais said the fire crew was stopped at the Varshock home when “a burn-over occurred.” “The fire went up the hill and flames went over the truck,” he said.
Ken Weimer reports:
The Valhalla High School Wrestling Team that Richard Varshock is on has come through big time for the Varshock Family so far. They have pooled together and rented and furnished an apartment near the UCSD Burn Center for Dianne Varshock so she can be close to the hospital and her son. Kim Babcock (Jodie's mom) was going over to the apartment this morning to help set it up and to find out what else we can do immediately and long term.
For the time being things that will probably help out the most are gift cards that can be used for food and clothes as well as some home-made prepared meals that she would be able to just heat up. She has relatives coming to help her get through this as well.
The support you guys have shown already is amazing with many of you forwarding on my original email to others who can and want to help out in anyway they can, including some local philanthropists who are eager to help. As soon as I know more as to what is needed I will let you all know.
SD Union Tribune has run a story written by Tony Manolatos about the fire that engulfed the Varshock home and the firefighters who were trying to protect them. The link to the story is http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071027-9999-1n27fighters.html I have included the writer from the paper as well as Rayburn Hesse from Spy Softball who has also put a little snipet about what we are doing on his website http://spysoftball.com/october_26_2007_update.htm
As I said before this is definitely one of those instances that makes Legacy different then just a softball team...as mentioned in the story I would also like to look into what we can do for Firefighter Andrew Pikop and Fire Captain Raymond Rapue who were the firefighters who responded to the Varshock's home.
GLORY TRADES MARNITZ
AKRON, OH –
General Manager, Joey Arrietta dealt the Racers fourth round pick in the 2009
Draft to acquire Washington Glory shortstop, Brooke Marnitz. Marnitz will fill
the starting shortstop position vacated by the Racers four-year veteran
defensive specialist, Kristin Johnson. Johnson has entered St. Regis University
in Denver, CO to obtain her doctorate degree in physical therapy.
Marnitz batted .074 in just 27 at bats for Washington in 2007. The native of
Lexington, KY slugged the first home run in Glory history with a solo home run
off Jocelyn Forest of the New England Riptide in the season opener.
Marnitz, the University of Kentucky shortstop was a 2007 First Team South
All-Region and a Second Team All-Southeastern Conference selection. "What a
great honor for Brooke," said third-year head coach Eileen Schmidt. "She had a
phenomenal year and put up some staggering numbers in the toughest conference in
the country."
The Lexington native led UK and the SEC with 21 home runs this season. Marnitz
also led the SEC with 61 RBI, 137 total bases, and a .895 slugging percentage.
She led the nation in home runs per game throughout the majority of the season
and finished second to Maryland's Amber Jackson. Marnitz ranked second
nationally in home runs and fourth with 61 RBI.
The shortstop set UK single-season records for home runs, RBI, total bases, and
slugging percentage as a senior. She also took over as the all-time home run
leader at UK and was named as one of 25 finalists for the USA Softball College
Player of the Year. She was named SEC Player of the Week after she set the NCAA
mark for hits in consecutive at-bats with 12 straight. Marnitz reached base in
17 consecutive plate appearances with five walks included during the streak. She
had a pair of career-best eight-game hitting streaks this past season and drove
in a school-record six runs in the Cats' win over Southern Miss this season.
"I am excited to have Brooke join our team, commented Arrietta. She has great
lateral movement and has a rocket for an arm. We hope by moving into a starting
role with our team she will be able to put up the numbers, offensively, that she
did with playing with the Kentucky program."
BRIAN MCCALL LEAVES ASA/USA SOFTBALL
Brian sent this message to the media: I wanted to let everyone know that I will be leaving ASA/USA Softball effective November 1 to pursue other career opportunities. The things I have been able to experience while serving as the Director of Communications are truly remarkable. I have been blessed to work with some incredible people during my tenure here at ASA/USA Softball and wish only the best to each one of them. Thanks to all of the media members I have worked with since 1996. Your hard work and dedication made my job easy. I will miss working with each of your during the upcoming summer Olympics. If I can be of assistance to any of you in the future please do not hesitate to contact me. My new email address for now is bmccall2007@yahoo.com and I can be reached at 405-821-2284. It is time to start a new chapter in my life and I can only hope it will be half as good as these past 12 years.
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
French may be the language of gastronomes and romantics, but English, American style, is the universal lingua franca.
At the risk of sounding like a talk radio commentator, my patience with the people who serve the American public who cannot speak English, or only broken English, or English only with an undecipherable accent, has worn thin.
This past weekend, when the fires burned out the America’s Finest City tournament, I had to deal with a United Airlines agent in India, a US Air representative in Bangladesh, an American Air lines agent who sounded Malaysian, and a Travelocity agent, also in India. United has this unholy Alliance with US Air; eg, you book on United but have a flight flown by US Air, and vice versa. After two hours of trying, the only way I could save my original ticket was to wait in San Diego until today (Monday) and catch my original return. Frustrated, I voided that ticket by buying a wholly new ticket on US Air out of LAX, then a ticket from Dulles to Ft Lauderdale, in which the flights connected in Charlotte, United going down and coming back from Charlotte, US Air the connection to and from Ft Lauderdale. I used the computer. Alas, United lost my principal bag, for the sixth time this season. But, the lady at the United baggage claim who spoke little or no English said I was to blame for switching airlines; I didn’t switch, they did, and if I was to blame, how did my other bag make the connection. Got the bag back at midnight.
When I checked in with United at Dulles on Friday, I was told I would get a boarding pass only to Charlotte; I had to walk to the other end of Dulles to get the second boarding pass from US Air. The process reversed at Ft Lauderdale, where I had to stand in line twice, then go through Security with hundreds leaving the Boat Show. (SPY note: Rising Stars had no choice, thanks to that dumb-headed NFCA/NCAA recruiting window, but to be on the same weekend as the Boat Show. The rental car companies showed their public spirit by doubling their prices. Worse, the Sunday games were also cancelled.)
The guy next to me at Ft Lauderdale was screaming at some idiot in India who couldn’t find his reservation to confirm his flight home. When the counter agent said she thought the phone link was to India, the man gave up and bought a new ticket. This man really vented over “outsourcing” and said he wished they would “outsource Hillary”(actually it was her husband who championed outsourcing; my recollection is that Hillary is now against it.)
Bad enough that the local MacDonald’s got rid of a very nice lady from Sri Lanka; we reminisced over old Ceylon and the tea plantations. She couldn’t speak Spanish.
AND NOT SO BEAUTIFUL
Arsonists. Fire investigators have determined that at least one of the conflagrations in Southern California was deliberately set – the Santiago blaze which burned 27,600 acres and consumed 14 houses. Newsweek has an absorbing story on the motivations which compel arsonists, some of them firefighters, to ignite such destruction. Arnold has offered a reward of $285,000 to whomever turns in the perpetrators, and promises they will be found. Several arsonists are serving long-term prison sentences. If life with the possibility of parole a sufficient deterrent? Regrettably, we are a civilized society. The Turks, never a compassionate people, used to tie a guilty person to four horses, them send them at a gallop in different directions. For the truly wicked, there was the stake – the guilty were poised on tip-toe above the point of the sharpened stake, and when their legs gave out, impaled themselves. Odds were given on how long a man could hold out. Yet, like the electric chair, the stake did not stop crime – because most criminals, and arsonists are a well-studied cadre, do not believe they will be caught.
Next time she will use a GPS. A Long Island soccer mom has been charged with hitting her daughter’s soccer coach with a folding chair because he gave her bad directions to a game. She was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment. (SPY note: after years of wandering in the softball wilderness, I bought the new Motorla/Verizon phone with a GPS navigator. To the great surprise of my children, I programmed it myself – and wound my way from Westwood Village to Venice using backstreets to avoid the 405. Why did I wait so long? Of course, all the furniture in my house was bought in a single afternoon in 1984 after leaving the divorce court, and I still use a perfectly good clothes hamper I bought during my bachelor days. Too much change is not good for the psyche.)
Don Corleone set the example. A deep-seated rivalry? A girls highschool volley ball team from Comfort High School Whitetail Deer returned to their bus after a game against Blanco HS to find a bloody deer carcass on their bus.
Rudy, the Yankees will never forgive you. Rudy Giulani, long-thought to be the nee plus ultra of Yankee fans, announced he was rooting for the Red Sox. Was Rudy pandering for votes in Beantown? Back in the day, my father and friends would take the train to St Louis for a long Browns’ home-stay against his beloved Yankees, and in my years in New York, we spent many afternoons in the Bronx, fair weather and foul, cheering for great and not-so great Yankee teams. A great Bosox team but I wanted Cleveland to win; Cleveland hasn’t had much to cheer about since Otto Graham threw his last touchdown pass and Herb Score got knocked off the mound.
Boston has the Patriots, who may be the best in the NFL until they meet my main man, Peyton; sadly, a super team and every story about their achievements includes mention of Belichik’s cheating, yes, ol’ run-up-the-score Belichik. Some types of opprobrium are inescapable; just ask Larry Craig.
Incredible. Newsweek reports that Texas judge Sharon Keller refused to keep her court open an extra 20 minutes so lawyers could fix a computer glitch and filed a death-row appeal. Hours later, the inmate was executed.
Woodstock. As all of us of a certain age know from being there, Woodstock, the music festival, was not held in the quaint upstate village of that name but on Max Yazgur’s farm outside Ellenville. Now, Senator Hillary Clinton, who had less to do with Woodstock than the Russian cosmonaut now in the space station, wants a memorial erected. Woodstock was not her scene, but I venture that “slick Willie” would have been the undisputed champion of the mosh pit.