What baseball can learn from softball!

                Hey guys! I’ve been thinking about my last blog a lot and decided I wanted to elaborate more on it! A lot of people look at softball as being the watered down girl version of baseball. I’ve actually had people tell me that! I can’t help but wonder if these people have ever actually sat down and watched softball lol! Softball and baseball are two different sports. They share some common grounds but they have several key differences. So I am going to discuss some of them and also some of the common things about them.

                I’ll start with the things they have in common. Obviously the object of both games is the same. Get on base and score runs by getting a hit, being walked, or hit by a pitch. The basic rules are the same. The number of people on the field and their titles are the same. That is pretty much the extent of the similarities lol.

                Now for the differences, first off for the obvious ones. The softball is much larger than the baseball. The way the ball is pitched is totally different. In baseball the ball is thrown over hand and goes from high to low. In softball the ball is thrown under hand and goes from low to high. It has been proven time and time again that despite popular belief hitting a softball is much harder than hitting a baseball because of the low to high movement and other things. As far as the pitching in baseball the pitcher is on a mound and in softball there is no mound it’s a circle. In softball, you have a pitching rubber and a pitching lane. You have to stay within the pitching lane or it’s an illegal pitch (I’ll discuss that more later). In baseball, they have just the pitching rubber. Softball bats are usually made out of composite or sometimes aluminum. Baseball bats are wooden (and break way too easily in my opinion lol).  In softball the distance between the pitching circle and home plate is 43 ft. In baseball, it’s 60ft 6inches. The distance between bases is shorter. Also in softball the whole infield is dirt. In baseball, only the pitching mount and the base paths are dirt. In softball, a runner who is on base can’t leave the base before the ball leaves the pitchers hand. In baseball, the runner can leave the base at any time. In softball, if the pitchers feet are both off the ground at the same time during their delivery it’s an illegal pitch. If you replant or crow hop it’s an illegal pitch. The closest thing to that in baseball is the balk. A balk the way I understand it (and forgive me if I don’t explain it right, I grew up watching softball not baseball lol) is when the pitcher stops after he has already started his pitching motion, most of the time to check on a runner.

                The bigger differences though are not about equipment, the field, the rules or anything like that. I was thinking earlier that I would love to have been able to watch baseball before the millions of dollars were in play. What I mean by that is, I would love to been able to see baseball played at its beginning when it was new and the passion and love was at its strongest. I’ll be honest I don’t much like to watch baseball.  I especially don’t like to watch professional baseball. I find baseball to be a game played not for the passion or love of the game but for money. The money the players make, the money the owners make, the money the coaches make, and the money the venders make. Honestly I find professional baseball to be boring. I watched the World Series and several of the games leading up to it but the only game that really caught my attention was of course game 6 in the World Series.  I saw more passion in that game then I have any baseball game I’ve ever watched. But even in that, I still didn’t feel like they were going all out. I was very confused by the fact that the Rangers had the World Series in their hands and at times flat didn’t seem to care. Twice they needed 1 strike to win it all and yet they couldn’t get it done. I watched as Nelson Cruz(anybody who knows me IRL knows I’m not a fan of his at all) made a halfhearted attempt at catching what was ultimately a game tying 2 run triple and I thought do they really want to win? It doesn’t much look like it. I knew that night the Rangers weren’t going to win this World Series and sure enough I was right. That game 7 made me sick. The Rangers never even looked like they were trying to win. They went through the motions, lost the game, and flew home to their expensive cars and million dollar homes. For them it’s just a job and another day at the office!

                For softball players there is no million dollar paycheck, in fact they don’t even make a 10^th of that. Most of them have other jobs during the offseason just to pay their bills. They coach, give lessons, do commentating, play in Japan and all kinds of things. For them it’s not just a job or another day in the office. It’s their love and passion! You’ll never see a game where they don’t go all out because that is their pay off. Their pay off is the feeling they have when they make that great catch, strike out that batter, or hit the game winning homerun. Their pay off is in knowing when they walk off the field they have done everything they can to help their team win. They play with a hunger! A hunger that is written all over every diving catch, strike out, double play, 2 out game winning double, and every tear they shed when despite their best efforts it is simply not enough! They run into walls, step in front of sprinting runners, take cleats to their legs, get hit with balls, they play with bruises, pulled muscles, stitches, broken bones, dislocated joints, and everything in-between. They also spend a great deal of time passing this game on and doing everything they can to help it grow. These women are all amazing roles models who spend a huge amount of time with their fans and teaching young girls the game! I think that is what makes this game so much more fun to watch for me. Because I know who those ladies are! I get to follow them on Facebook and Twitter and see the ups and downs of their lives (or at least parts of it). Softball is a game full of emotions! The games are loud and animated! The girls are always yelling and cheering each other on. They are always pumping each other up! You can always tell if the game is going well by the look on their faces! They shed a lot of tears both happy and sad! They respect the game! When they step on the field they aren’t just fighting to win that game, they are fighting for their sport (especially the NPF)! They are fighting to bring in crowds and get noticed! They truly play simply for the love of the game. It’s so pure and beautiful! When you watch a softball game you know you are watching humans, you are watching athletes!

                Baseball over the years as the paychecks have gone up has lost something I think. I love to watch the Little League World Series (wish they show more of the Little League Softball World Series but that is another blog lol). I think that is the purest form of baseball being played right now! They don’t play because they get large sums of money; they play because it is fun and they love the game.  They play with emotion and an extremely strong drive to win! But somewhere along the way that is lost. It’s buried under dollars signs, expensive cars, big houses, and fame! Baseball at the professional level in general in my opinion is an emotionless game. It’s like watching a bunch of robots play a game. As game 7 wrapped up that night I remember watch both teams and thinking what just happened? The Rangers players, coaches, and manager looked really indifferent about losing. The Cardinals did dog pile and show a little more emotion. But when they were interviewing Freese after they announced he was the MVP he seemed like it was more of a hassle than an honor. He just won the World Series, was named MVP, and given the keys to a brand new car and he barley even cracked a smile. He looked bored at times during the interview. I’m by no means saying all the players play with no emotion and don’t care if they win or lose. I’m also not saying softball is perfect! I’m just saying baseball could learn somethings from softball! Some of those big name baseball players, could really get a good lesson from the lesser known softball players like Caitlin Lowe(who would have totally ran into the wall and done everything she could have to catch that ball Nelly Cruz only half way tried to catch! Don’t believe me, search her name on Youtube and there is a video of her doing just that and breaking her nose. She came back and played the next day!), Jessica Mendoza(I’ve seen this woman take out outfield fences, 1^st basemen, and I saw her put a lick on a catcher that made my bones hurt!), Danielle Lawrie (In 2009, she carried her team at the University of Washington on her shoulders and took them on to win the Women’s College World Series. What nobody outside the team knew was she did all of that with a stress fracture in her wrist on her pitching arm that normally would have meant her sitting out the whole season!), Cat Osterman (During worlds in 2010 she went down with arm injury to her pitching arm. A lot of people thought she’d never pitch again. But she proved them all wrong and pitched in Japan for 3 months and for the Pride during the NPF season. Unfortunately her injury reappeared during the championship series at the end of the season and things are again up in the air for her. But if anybody can come back again it’s Cat!), and so many more! I could go on and on! These women don’t just want to win, they hunger for it!  I think baseball needs to get back to its’ roots. Maybe they all need to go watch the Little League World Series or go watch some softball because a lot of them seem to have forgotten what it feels like to truly hunger to win and be on fire for your sport!

                These ladies are truly some of the hardest working people I know! They take care of their bodies and keep in shape better than anybody I know! This game runs so deep for all of them and their passion and love for it, is always on display! But also when their playing days are done no matter how much they’ve done or how great their career was a part of them dies and it is emotional and hard. I remember watching 2008 Olympics and watching those women who were retiring laying their cleans down at homeplate and tears just streaming down my face because there was so much emotion in that one gesture! It was a moment in softball history that I don’t think any true softball fans will forget. It symbolized not just those players leaving the sport but the sport being pushed out the Olympics. It is funny to me though to look back at that and see how many of those women actually came out of retirement! It’s a hard sport to walk away from!

                The main difference in softball and baseball is softball is still fighting to be noticed and fighting to be given a chance. Baseball is established and loved by millions. But softball like every other women’s sport has to do 4 or 5 times as much as men’s sports to get the respect it deserves. I think baseball players need to open their eyes and look around and see how lucky they truly are! Because I know a group of women who work way harder, give up way more, and get back far less than they do! I know a group of women who would love for their sport to have half of what their sport does! If they don’t want to get out there and play game with 100% of their heart, they shouldn’t be out there at all! I think they need a lesson in hard work, passion, and hunger because the baseball I saw played this season was robotic. The baseball I saw in this season left me wondering if the game is so boring to those players why are they out there? Maybe the MLB needs to cut some salaries and bring these guys back to earth. I don’t know but what I saw this season was inexcusable! So to baseball players out there I say come on guys!! Get back to the heart of your sport and remember why you fell in love with it in the first place!

                Alright I am done now lol! Sorry for getting on my soap box! I hope you enjoyed what I had to say! If you have any thoughts feel free to say something!

                I can’t wait for college ball to start in the Spring! OU beat the NPF All Stars last night and something tells me this is the start of something really good for them! Let’s go Dawgs, Boomer Sooner, and RTR Go Bama!!

Baseball just isn't softball!

Hey guys! Obviously I took a break from this blog. I started another blog for non-softball stuff and that has been priority lately! So it’s been almost  2 months since the NPF season ended and I have to be honest I am having major softball withdraws! I just watched the 3 game of the season between the Pride and Bandits from way back in June lol! The Pride lost that game but I enjoyed watching it none the less.

I was struck by a few things. Sarah Pauly pitched in this game for the Pride and Nikki Nemitz for the Bandits. The first time I watched the game Pauly’s performance seemed a lot worse than it did watching it this time. The truth is she pitched a great game. She had 1 inning that hurt her. Nemitz looked great! She is truly a talented pitcher! I know certain people are going to flip out about this next part but frankly I just don’t care lol! I loved watching Jenn Salling in this game and this season in general! I think you would be hard pressed to find a better short stop! She is fast, she thinks so quick on her feet, and she has a cannon for an arm. She (like most softball players) is not afraid to risk her body to try to make a play! She is a natural leader! She is so exciting to watch! I also enjoyed watching Melissa Roth catch Pauly in this game. She doesn’t get the attention that Megan Willis and Lauren Lappin do but she knows what she is doing! I was very impressed with the game she called and the leadership and passion she showed! I also enjoyed seeing Andrea Duran belt a triple! I forget that not only is she wicked 3^rd baseman and a very strong hitter; she can also fly around those bases! I was also reminded of how different softball and baseball truly are. Softball moves faster and is far more explosive than any baseball game! I think in general softball players are more passionate! They play strong all 21 outs and your rarely see them give up. I like baseball but I’d much rather watch a softball game! These ladies love this game so much and I’ve never watched a dull NPF game! Baseball is just not softball and I don’t enjoy it nearly as much!

I am missing me some softball lol! Fall ball is going on right now but there is little coverage of it. So I guess I am just waiting until February again lol! Huskies have been doing very well during their Fall ball season! Their freshmen are looking really good so far! They also have Bryanna Walker and maybe more importantly Hooch Fagaly and Taylor Smith back! I was heartbroken when I realized that Maggie Waggner is no longer on the team! I don’t know what happened but I know she will be very much missed! Wonderful girl, wonderful personality, and very talented!  The Huskies will be taking on the NPF All Star team this Saturday at get this…wait for it… Safeco baseball field! Don’t know how they scored that but I love that it’s the Huskies and Coach Tarr who did it! If you are going to be in Seattle Saturday get your butt over there and watch that game!! $10 at the door and the game starts at 3pm pacific time! I would KILL to be there! But no way I can, so get your butt out there and enjoy it for me lol J!!

The Pan Am games are underway right now. USA is undefeated so far with 1 game left in regular play. Canada is 4-2, with loses to Cuba and USA. Been very interesting but would be even more so if we could see these games lol!

Well that is all for now! I hope this finds all my readers doing well!

Another NPF season is done!

I really did mean to get this blog written and up long before now. But here I am a week later and it’s still not written. Life is insanely mixed up for me right now. I am at one of those points that I know something big is about to happen because I feel so lost and mixed up inside. I know that sounds crazy but think about it. Every time something big happened in your life what happened before it? Atleast for me it was a period of uncertainty. I find myself questioning everything about my life right now. It’s amazing how little things happening in your life can do that. Last week I was told after 2 years of college the only way I can go back is to get my GED. I graduated from a home school program and my transcript doesn’t meet their standards. It seems that is something they should have noticed before now but what do I know. I have a lot mixed feelings about this. Part of me is happy for the break. Frankly it will be nice to enjoy a Fall (my favorite time of the year!) without having to worry about homework and tests. I won’t know what to do if I’m not in school on my birthday! But in the long run I know this just pushes me further back. Part of me feels flat out angry because I earned my high school diploma but it wasn’t enough and now I have to go back and get a GED. Part of me is scared. I have horrible test anxiety. So what if I can’t pass this test? All this craziness and uncertainty has me looking at other parts of my life as well and asking some very hard questions. Right now I don’t know where life is taking me or what the plan is. But I know God is in control and he has big plans. It’s my job to figure out what they are. Anyway on to softball and the championship series!

I was hoping this too would be a happier blog but it wasn’t meant to be either. Pride fell to the Bandits 10-3. From the very beginning it wasn’t the game they wanted. They decided to start Jordan Taylor instead of Danielle Lawrie. I’ll be honest I think had they started Danielle things very well could have been different. The defense was awful. It was just not a good game. I think the things that happened the day before just ran over. A big congrats to the Bandits and Monica Abbott on an amazing championship series!! It was an amazing season for the Pride ladies though! These ladies have nothing to be ashamed of! I am proud of all of them! I’m sad to see the season end and the Pride going out on a losing note made it even harder. But I look back at this season and I can’t be disappointed. This team was definitely special and will always hold a special place in my heart! Danielle Lawrie had an amazing season. She showed again why she is one of the best in the world by bouncing back from a less than stellar rookie season to being the 3^rd best pitcher in the NPF with only Monica Abbott and Cat Osterman a head of her. Very proud and happy for that lady! She has worked her butt off and it’s paying off! Ashley Charters had an amazing season as well! She carried one of the highest batting averages in the NPF all season! Jenn Salling had an amazing rookie season and blew the socks off the commentators for both the Pride and the Bandits. I wish she could hear all the amazing things they say about her! She earned their praise though! She carried the highest fielding percentage of all the SS in the NPF, including her teammate and fellow great Natasha Watley! Cat Osterman continues to be a quiet pillar of strength and a beast on the field! So far there aren't many answers as far as her injury goes. She goes for another MRI tomorrow and hopefully they will get a better idea of what they are dealing with! I hope she knows she has been on the hearts and minds of all her fans since that night! I really fell in love with Kristina Thorson this summer! She doesn’t get much recognition but she is a heck of a pitcher and from what I’ve seen on Twitter(yeah, yeah I know lame LOL!) she is a heck of a teammate and person as well! I was sad to see Alisa Haber announce just a couple of days after the season ended that she is giving up softball. She is going to Japan to teach English to 3rd and 4th year medical students. It's a bitter sweet thing for me(and I am sure her too) as I have watched her play for a long time! She will always be one of my favorites to watch! So I am sad to see her go. Softball is losing one of the best. But I am happy for her! She worked very hard to get her masters degree and this is such an amazing oppurtunity for her! I wish her all the luck and all the best! It’s been a week and I still can’t believe the season is actually over! I am excited about the Back to School tour and thrilled to see they are making a couple stops at Washington!! One of the highlights of the season for me was when Coach Tarr and JT went to Florida at the end of July and watched Danielle, Ashley, and Jenn play. The support they showed for that team and for the NPF really made a mark on not just the Husky alumni but the other ladies on the team as well! It seemed to be an experience enjoyed by all. So to see the NPF go to Washington and give back to them as well makes me smile. After all that is what this is all about! I think that is what we need to see more of. We need to see more college coaches promoting and loving the NPF! I can’t believe Fall ball is just around the corner. It seems just like yesterday they were starting the 2011 Spring season!

I have read some horrible things about the NPF from “fans” since the championship series. I read and hear a lot of people griping about the NPF but not much action to back that up. We all know the NPF is far from perfect. We all know in order for it to grow and be successful changes have to happen. But we have stay realistic too. Changes are going to be slow and at times it’s going to seem like nothing is changing at all.  If you want changes and want to see this thing grow, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Send an email to the NPF with some of your ideas, donate to the 20 for 20, but most importantly support ALL of these women. All of the women on all 4 of these teams have given up so much for this sport and for this league. We can’t forget that. It’s their time, their bodies, and their families that are sacrificed for this sport and this league. You have to look at this league and see the good. The people in charge are working their butts off to figure out how to make this thing grow but there is no manual.  If you don’t like the NPF that is fine but don’t set around bad mouthing them because this is the future for our little girls who want to play beyond college. The Olympics are out until at least 2020 but softball can and will survive. The NPF is here and now and we need to make sure it stays that way. So either get behind the NPF, their leaders, their players, and their coaches or feel free to stand in front of them so they can smack you with a softball or hit you with a bat! If you aren’t going to do anything to try to help, then by all means feel free to shut your mouth!

Well I guess that is all I have for now! I made a video for the amazing Cat Osterman that I would like to share with you guys! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcuMyuJGUhQ. I also made one for Jenn Salling before the college season ended that I never shared! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KahuxSFC7M Let me know what you guys think!

I’ll leave you with a couple of my favorite quotes!

“Life isn’t about waiting until the storm passes, but about learning to dance in the rain!”

“Our greatest achievement comes not from never falling but in rising EVERY time we fall!”

Go Dawgs, Boomer Sooner, RTR Go Bama, Go Pride, and adding for the upcoming football season Go Colts lol!

Scary night! Not the game the Pride wanted!

            Well I hoped to write a much happier blog tonight but it wasn’t meant to be. First off let me start off with the game. Pride took an early 2 run lead off an error by Monica Abbott (one of her only mistakes of the game). They looked good and I was feeling good about the game. Cat Osterman came out and looked good as well! However Monica seemed to get mad after that inning began pitching like there was a chip on her shoulder. She totally shut down the Pride bats. But Cat continued to pitch well and the defense was making great plays to back her up. However in the 5^th inning the wheels came off so to speak. The inning started off with Vicky Galindo getting a single (she had quite game going 3 for 3 and eventually scoring the winning run). Cat came back and struck out Caitlin Lever. Stacy May-Johnson and Amber Patton both come up with singles to load the bases. Cat is able to strike out the powerful Alisa Goler for the 2^nd out of the inning.  Megan Wiggins comes up and knocks a base clearing double to give the Bandits the lead. It seemed a little odd that Cat had all of sudden gone from dominating to not so fast but I didn’t really think much of it. Jamee Juarez comes up to bat and Cat quickly goes up 0-2 on her. However after she throws the 2^nd pitch she goes down holding her arm. My heart dropped. I was watching last summer during the championship game at worlds in Venezuela when this almost same identical thing happened. This time it seemed worse. She seemed to be in more pain and even more scared. I think everyone watching was scared. I’ll talk more about that later but for now back to the game. They brought in Sarah Pauly who threw a beautiful pitch for strike 3 to end the inning. But by this time you can look at the pride players and see that seeing Cat go down like that has sucked something out of them. The score remained the same until the bottom half of the 7^th when with 2 outs and down to her last strike Andrea Duran hit a solo HR to send the game to extra innings. Top of the 8^th inning Sarah Pauly gave up a hit to Vicky Galindo. Caitlin Lever sacrifice bunted her over. Then the Pride decided they are going to walk Stacy May-Johson (I didn’t fully understand this to begin with but I’m not the one making the calls lol). During the intentional walk they call Sarah Pauly for an illegal pitch. I have to be honest here they showed the replay several times and I saw nothing illegal about her pitch. They have been calling them on Monica Abbott the whole championship series (I believe she is now up to 5 after not having any in who knows how long. Sounds fishy to me) and none of them that I saw looked illegal either. I think these umps are putting a little too much attention on themselves, which in my book means they aren’t doing a good job. But anyway the illegal pitch of course moved Vicky Galindo to 3^rd which ended up pretty much costing the Pride the game. The next batter hit a single and Vicky came around to score what would be the winning run. They won 4-3. Monica Abbott after that inning where she had the error that cost the Bandits 2 runs pitched a gem of a game! She is scary good when she gets going and what happened tonight is exactly what I was worried would happen. But tomorrow is a new day and 2 games to be played! The Pride are coming back , I feel it! Don’t forget tomorrow’s game at 1 will be on ESPN2! The if necessary game will be at shortly after and it will be on ESPN3.com and tape delayed on Monday evening! Let’s go Pride!

                Back to Cat they said during the game that she said her bi-cep popped like it did last summer. She was in so much pain! It was so scary to watch! She tweeted earlier that it is her bi-cep but they don’t know yet exactly what is wrong with it. I find myself wondering if this will be it for her and if not how much longer her arm can hold up. It’s sad to think of softball without Cat Osterman in it. She was the first pitcher I ever really loved. The passion she has for this game is so strong! Like all of these other women she eats, sleeps, and breaths softball! She is one of the best to ever play the game and such a strong leader. We softball fans love to watch these women compete and they love to compete. But I don’t think we always appreciate the toll this sport has on their bodies. Playing this game at this high a level for so long doesn’t come without consequences. But these ladies wouldn’t have it any other way! It’s their passion and the sport they love! It’s an amazing sport that I have fall more and more in love with every time I watch it! I can’t even tell you what it is about this sport that makes it so amazing but it truly is! These ladies don't make millions of dollars, they just play for the love the game. They go all out and give 110% everytime they step on the field. They risk their bodies to try to make every play they can! They give up time with their families and travel so much that they have to remind their families where they are. As I said before they wouldn't have it any other way. But we should be thankful for the sacrafices they make! Without them this game wouldn't be what it is today! They do so much and give back so much when they aren't on the field as well! They are truly some of the best more amazing people I know and Cat's is up at the top of that list!  When Cat’s career does end she can leave knowing she has had an amazing career and accomplished more than most people could ever hope to! She has inspired many others to be the best they can be not just on the softball field but in life as well! When that day comes we can all rest assured we haven’t seen the last of Cat Osterman but simply the beginning! She is in my thoughts and prayers tonight! I am praying for as quick and painless recovery as possible!

                I will update tomorrow with the results and final thoughts on the season!

NPF!

Hey everyone! Life has been so crazy and I have been neglecting this thing! Here we are just 2(possibly 3) more games and this NPF season is over! Pride and the Bandits will play a best of 3 series to determine the championship starting with game 1 7pm CT tomorrow (Saturday) and then 2^nd game will be Sunday at 1pm CT and this game will be on ESPN2!! Please tune in! Even if you don’t watch the NPF please watch. This is big for the sport as a whole and this is the only way it will grow! The if necessary game will played sometime after that if needed and reaired on ESPN2 on Monday.

                It’s been a crazy ride getting here! The Pride although they started out a little shaky came back strong and went on an 18 game winning streak and finished the season 30-9! They were the regular season champions and so deserved it! This group of women is a very special group! They have such wonderful chemistry on and off the field. They are all so talented and have worked their butts off all season! I’m excited for them and I so hope they win it all!

                The Bandits season was a little rougher. They ended up finishing up 3^rd behind the Racers(who they knocked out tonight in a very close 9 inning game!). There is a lot of talent on this team but at times they seemed to lack in chemistry and leadership. But I am not coming anywhere near counting this team out and in reality they are scarier to me than the other two combined. They have the powerful left arm of Monica Abbott who has carried this team this season. She is pitching better than she ever has before and was named co-NPF pitcher of the year with Cat Osterman. I have to be honest she scares me! Their offense is very good and can be deadly but their real strength lies in the arm of Monica Abbott and the leadership she brings!

                The Racers had a really great season! They were led in the circle by a combination of Kristina Thorson and Lisa Norris. I’ve always been a fan of Lisa Norris but I grew to really like Kristina Thorson this season. She is different then you average pitcher, not just in her pitching style but her personality! I can’t explain but just look at her picture and you’ll see lol! She is a great woman and pitcher! I’ve also grown to really like Kelley Montalvo! She may only be 5ft but she plays softball like is a 6ft! So much passion for the game! Don’t let her size fool you, dynamite comes in small packages!

                The Diamonds had a rough season. It seemed everything that could go wrong for them went wrong. Kelsi Dunne went down with an injury very early on in the season leaving their pitching staff short. They traded the Pride for Danielle Spaulding who turned out to be great addition for me but they lost Morgan Melloh a few weeks later when she was hit in the face by a line drive. This is a very young inexperienced team! Give them a few years to grow these women and get them some experience and you better watch out!

                Anyway I will post more when the championship series is over and a champion is crowned! Hope this finds everyone well!

The future of softball

                Hey everyone! My vacation was fun and I am looking forward to my next vacation! There have some things the last few weeks that have inspired to me to write a blog. The first part won’t be about softball but I will tie it into softball! Trust me! I’ve spent a good week and half mulling this over in my head!

                I like watching soccer but I never considered myself a big a fan. But I’ve always watched the World Cup. I love international sports. I love the pride of playing for one’s country. I love seeing the differences in styles and personality from team to team. I love how all of those teams are forever united and linked by one thing a love for the sport they play. There is just something special and unique about international sports. So World Cup 2011 was no different. I watched all the games USA was in and many of the others. It delighted me to see these women playing the sport they love for the country they love. I watched as something special began to happen with a very special USA team. They won us over. Their sparkling personalities, their fighting spirits, the love and passion for their sport and their country, and their never give up attitude’s won us over! There was just something about watching Abby Wambach heading the ball into the goal to send the game into penalty kicks during Brazil game. There was something about watching Hope Solo (A former Husky!  *woof woof*) blocking that penalty kick and the joy and passion excitement in her eyes! They gained so many fans that day and even more when they beat France to advance to finals. I wondered if all these fans were bandwagon fans and if they lost in the finals they would jump off and maybe even turn on them. The final game was crazy a up and down and up and down. In the end they lost but to my surprise a big big part of those fans stayed. Thousands of people came out to welcome them home when they landed in NYC on Monday! They’ve been on show after show! They all received so many emails, text, tweets, and facebook messages and comments! But I think bigger than that for the sport they loved they sold out the next WPS (Women’s Professional Soccer) that occurred the next Saturday! 15, 000 fans showed up for the game! I’ll be the first one to tell you I didn’t know anything about the WPS until now! But I will be following and supporting it now! So I am sure by now you are thinking I thought you said you would tie this into softball so where is it? Here it is! As I watched this going on I couldn’t help but think why can’t this happen for softball??  I remember when the US softball team beat Japan and took gold at worlds last summer that the hope we all had was that the great showing at worlds not just by the US team but by all the teams would  help this sport grow. Not just grow internationally but here at home with the NPF as well. But that didn’t happen.  ASAUSA softball decided to say the players couldn’t play for both the NPF and Team USA. So now instead of being a united front working together to grow the sport  we love like soccer is we are full of divides, walls, breaks, bitterness, and hard feelings. You see the reason the World Cup win helped the WPS was because they are all united as one. The WPS supports the National Team and the National Team supports the WPS. There is no our players and your players. There is no fighting and hard feelings (well I’m sure there is somewhere in there but you get the picture). There is only soccer and love of the game and the drive to push it on and watch it grow. I really felt like softball had reached a new high last summer after Worlds. There were so many wonderful teams there that played such good softball. But now I feel like softball has officially hit a new low. Softball at the next level can’t grow the way it is now. It just can’t. When this first happened the blame was put on whomever (at first we didn’t know if it was USA softball or the NPF. We now know it was USA softball) had made the demands. But somewhere along the way I’ve seen the blame shift and I’ve seen a group of women who have devoted their whole careers to furthering this sport thrown under the bus. People are now saying they did for the money. I’ve seen them called selfish, money hungry, and other things. It breaks my heart! These women didn’t want this and they certainly didn’t do it for the money! Their dream was always to play for the red, white, and blue! That was taken away from them and it’s not their fault and it’s not right. Put the blame where it belongs! If you think what USA softball did was wrong then let them know it. I’m not saying you have to be rude but let them know you support the girls who were forced to make that hard decision and that you think them forcing them to make that decision was wrong. I’m trying hard to support the women who are playing for Team USA. They are all amazing athletes and softball players. But my heart is still broken and my feelings forever changed about this team and the people who run it. Not because of something these girls did but because of what the people running the program did. I worry for these girls playing now. It feels like a dream come true and very amazing for them now but will Team USA turn on them too? If they can throw women who have played their hearts out for them for some of them as long a decade or more under the bus what’s to stop them from doing that to these young girls? Nothing! I think the truth of what happened is not that the ladies were money hungry or selfish or anything like that. But that USA softball was power hungry. They wanted all the power and they didn’t want the NPF to have any. The funny thing to me is, these ladies every summer were spending huge parts of their NPF seasons with the national team. USA softball already had the power not in the money but in the hearts and dreams of those ladies. They weren’t going anywhere until USA softball decided to try for more power. Because just like the ladies playing now this was ALWAYS their dream! So in trying to gain all the power in my eyes they lost the power they did have!

                I’ve been watching the World Cup of course and I have been struck by how small the crowds have been! I realized tonight this decision by USA softball didn’t just hurt the former players who had to make the decision but also the current members. They don’t have the support they deserve. The fans are angry and no longer support USA softball. Funny thing is the Racers and Diamonds came last night in Round Rock had almost 4000 people!  I don’t even know what to do about this now. I’m totally at a loss and I fear softball as we know it is a thing of the past. I hope we can find some way to use USA soccer and the WPS as an example of how great things can be! I hope people begin to open their eyes and demand change. I guess we will see what the next few years hold for softball. Hopefully good and positive things!

                I would like to say thank you to the USA soccer team and the excellant job they did in Germany at the World Cup.  At a time when sports new is filled with nothing but lock outs, players doing stupid things, and the millions of dollars they makes it’s nice to see a sport where money doesn’t matter. It was refreshing  to see a sport where the players aren’t making millions of dollars and where they play for the love of the game get so much attention! I can’t wait until the Olympics next year in London! They are going to be amazing! It’s nice to see a sport with positive news. Maybe the NFL and NBA should take lessons!

                Well that is all for now! Go Huskies! RTR Go Bama! Boomer Sooner! Go pride!! And my newest addition go Magic Jack(the professional team  Abby Wambach and Hope Solo play for!)!   

NPF and other things!

Hey guys been awhile since I did an entry and I decided I would do one tonight! I’ve got a pretty sore finger from burning it on an electric burner on my sisters stove lol! So if there are some typos or if this is shorter than usual that is why! I’m getting ready to go on my first vacation of the summer next week(I get 2 vacations this year! I am blessed and thankful lol!) and I can’t wait! I really need this time to get away from everyday life and clear my head!  I am going to Red River, New Mexico with my boyfriends family and it should be a blast! Enough about me, let’s get to some softball news!

            The NPF season is in full swing! They have completed 3 weekends of games! So far it’s been a really weird and unpredictable season but I guess that is what happens when you fill 4 teams with the very best players. I don’t really see a clear cut number 1 team right now. Bandits have looked great but split their series with the Racers last weekend. Diamonds started off strong but have struggled a little since then. Racers had a rough start but have bounced back very nicely! Pride has been up and down, but looked really good last weekend taking 3 of 4 games from the Diamonds.  I just love this league and all of these women! The thing I like the most is the great friendship between all of them. I follow several of them on Twitter and Facebook and see some of the off the field behind the scenes stuff and it’s great. They are all so close! There are no rivals or anything like that. You would probably never see a fight or even an argument. There is just so much love and respect for each other. This day age that type of thing is rare! They also love their fans and spending large amounts of time talking to them signing autographs, and taking pictures with them. After one of the games in Chicago a couple of weeks ago the Pride girls and the Bandits stood out signing autographs for several hours for thousands of fans and they enjoyed it! If you get the chance to go see them in person DO IT! Go support the future of this great sport! If you can’t, try and catch a game online on the live stream! It’s not always perfect but it’s fun to watch! Pride took the first game of this series against the Racers 2-0! Danielle Lawrie looked great in the circle and has all season! She, along with Jenn Salling and Ashley Charters are making us Husky fans very proud! Tonight they lost 2-1 with Cat Osterman on the mound. It was a good game for her but it didn’t end the way we all wanted! They will be back in action tomorrow at 7:05! Watch it! You won’t regret it!

http://www.profastpitch.com/pagebank/index.html?id=961

All good things must come to an end!

                Well we have come to the end of another amazing college softball season! Congratulations to ASU on their national championship! They looked great all season and were the complete team in the post season. I’m very happy for them! But I am sad to see the season end! It’ seems like just a couple of weeks ago I was excitedly awaiting the opening pitch and now it’s over!

                OU unfortunately never got their feet under them in WCWS and went 2 out. They had an amazing season and having nothing to be ashamed of! I can’t wait to see what Coach Gasso will do with this team over the next few seasons!

                Bama started off GREAT! Kelsi Dunne looked unbeatable as did Jackie Traina! But they ran into a brick wall called the Florida Gators in the semi’s. They dropped both games and were eliminated. The hardest part of their last game was watching Kelsi Dunne put on an obviously fake smile and hand the ball to Jackie Traina. She whispered a few words to her and went to the dugout stepping off the field and leaving her AMAZING college career forever.  

                That is the hardest part of the season ending in my opinion. It’s hard watching so many amazing careers end and most them leave so many unfulfilled dreams behind. It made me paticurally sad to watch Rhea Taylor. I know this was not the senior season she wanted and I know she didn’t have the WCWS she wanted.  She was so upset and as I watched her embracing her teammates with tears streaming down her face I found myself wanting to cry with her. Maybe I’m just a sensitive person but watching these great careers end just breaks my heart. I just want to say first off congrats to all the seniors but also thank you for all the blood, sweat, tears, time, energy and everything else you put into this game over your career! Good luck you to you all in whatever you do from here!

                With the end of the season comes awards. Some of them have made me smile and happy. Others made me sad and downright unhappy. UW faired very well in the All-Pac-10 awards. They were led once again by one of the best SS to ever play the game, Jenn Salling. She was named Pac-10 Defensive player of the year!  She along with Kimi Pohlman and Niki Williams were named to the  1^st team All-Pac-10 team(UW had more players than any other team on the 1^st team)!  Kaitlin Inglesby was named to the 2^nd team All-Pac-10 team as well as the freshman All-Pac-10 team. Victoria Hayward was also named to the Freshman team. Even though she missed almost half of the season Taylor Smith was received an honorable mention as did Morgan Stuart! I had hoped being Defensive player of the year and on the  1^st team All-Pac-10 team Jenn Salling would have a good chance at being a 1^st Team All-American. But when the All-American stuff was announced Jenn was named a  2^nd team At large bid! This just broke my heart! I thought then and I still believe she deserved more than that! She atleast deserved to be 2^nd team SS! Niki Williams was also named to the 2^nd Team All-American team.  No other Huskies were named to any of the All-American teams which also upset me.  As I already figured Jenn didn’t win the Lowe’s Senior Class award but I thought she would be a sure 1^st team Lowe’s Senior Class All-American….guess again! She again was placed on the 2^nd team(there are only 2 team)! I’ll be honest right now when I read that the other morning, I lost it! I cried and I am not afraid to admit it. It just seems so cruel! She has worked so hard, performed so well, and did so much for this team and gets little recognition for it! She deserved that 1^st team as much if not more than anybody on that list! I can’t remember what if any awards are left but at this pointing I don’t know if I can make it through another disappointment! She was named UW female athlete of the year and Kaitlin Inglesby  was named newcomer of the year! I still don’t think it’s really set in for me that the season is over and I will never again see Jenn Salling play in the purp and gold! It’s sad for me! But as the silver lining to the sadness I am so excited to watch her play with Danielle Lawrie and Ashley Charters with the USSSA Pride! She is going do amazing things in this new chapter of her life!  

                Speaking of the USSSA Pride and the NPF this weekend is opening weekend! First game for the Pride is Friday against the Bandits (I believe you can watch this game on MLB.com for free but I’m not sure). They will play on ESPN on Saturday, so  don’t forget to watch!

                Well I think that is all for now! This has been another emotional blog for me! There is a lot of happiness for ASU and their seniors but so much sadness for the rest of the teams and their seniors, Florida especially! They had an amazing senior class and team but it just wasn’t enough!  I leave you with one of my favorite quotes tonight!

                “Don’t’ cry because it’s over, smile because it happened!”

Go Huskies, RTR Go bama, Boomer Sooner, and go USSSA Pride!!

And just like that..it's over.

Well I am here with a heavy heart today! UW ended up hosting Regionals and won on 3 amazing games to face Mizzou in Super-Regionals. They played 2 nice games but it wasn’t enough and UW’s season is over. I still can’t believe it’s over. I still can’t believe the careers of 3 amazing seniors are over! My heart breaks for them! I know this is a rough night for them!  This senior class is special to me! I’m not sure why but for some reason they are!

                I remember watching Morgan Stuart and Ashley Tuiasosopo as freshman. It’s crazy to see how far they have come.  It’s hard to believe they are same people! I greatly admire Tui! She is truly a Husky through and through!  I know I’ve discussed this before but she didn’t have to stay! She could have left or just quit playing. But she held tough and she had a really great senior season!  I will miss her passion and leadership the most I think. There is just nothing better than seeing Morgan on the bases with that huge grin! She plays with such passion and joy no matter what is going on. I know these last 2 seasons were not the seasons she wanted but you’d never know it by her face or her attitude! She is such an amazing athlete but she is more than that! She is an amazing leader! All 3 of these seniors have leadership skills that most coaches would like to bottle and sell! Nope watching UW will not be the same without Morgan and Tui! I wish them so much luck in whatever they do from here and I know they will be so successful in whatever that is!

                I’ll never forget the first time I watched Jenn Salling play. It actually wasn’t for UW. It was for Team Canada! I watched her do it all, great defense, crazy throws, and she got it done with her bat too! I remember thinking that girl is something else! Well 4 years later I am even surer that girl is something else!  I didn’t realize what I was watching then or that that girl would become an (as the UCLA softball announcer said) All American everything! But I did know she was confident and that she LOVED what she was doing. A lot has changed about Jenn Salling but the one thing that hasn’t and never will is her love and passion for the game! I admire her so much! She was an amazingly talented athlete and softball at Oregon. But when she transferred to Washington something changed and she became a happy talented athlete and softball player! The transfer to Washington helped her blossom into an amazing leader, person, and even more gifted athlete! I look forward to watching her with the Pride and I believe she will have an amazing career! But one of these days she is going to make one heck of a coach!

                I have enjoyed watching these 3 play in the purple and gold and they will be so missed! They may be leaving but they leave behind a legacy in the hearts of the girls younger than them! The lessons they taught will live on!

                I’m so proud of the Huskies! Most people didn’t think they would make it this far! There were times everyone gave up on them (honestly there was  a few times I gave up on them!) but they never gave up! They fought until the very end! Kaitlin Inglesby was gain clutch! I seriously can’t wait to see what she will do the next 3 seasons! She is something special! I can’t wait until next year but it will not be the same without Jenn, Morgan, and Tui!

                My mind also turns to Coach Tarr. She invests a great deal of time in getting to know and forming strong bonds with her players and does such a great job! But I know from watching the press conference from after yesterday’s game there was something special to her about this group. You could just see it in her eyes! She has done an amazing job with those 3 young ladies and should be proud of the job her and her coaching staff have done with them!

                OU beat Arizona in 2 games to get into the WCWS! Keilani Ricketts was lights out both in the circle and with her bat! I can’t wait to see what they do from here!!

                It took Bama 3 games but they beat Stanford to advance to the WCWS! The first game of the series really worried me. Kelsi Dunne didn’t look right and honest I was worried there was something physically wrong with her. The defense couldn’t get the job done and the offense just never really got going! But they pulled it together to take the next 2 games!

                It’s taken me several hours on two days to write this because it’s just such an emotional thing for me! I’m not sure why but it is! I still can’t believe it’s over. I still can’t believe I will never see Jenn Salling, Morgan Stuart or Ashley Tuiasosopo play in the purple and gold! Congrats ladies! All 3 of you are amazing young ladies and we will miss you guys so much! You will always be Huskies in our eyes!!

                I will write later to discuss all the awards our girls got this year(and there are a bunch) but for now I’m ending by telling to enjoy every minute because life goes by so fast!!

                Go Huskies, Boomer Sooner, and RTR Go Bama!!

What a long week!

Have you ever had a week where it seemed everything that could go wrong went wrong? A week that feels like one long crappy day?? That pretty much sums up my week in a nut shell and today is Friday the 13^th. I’m scared lol! It’s been one crap fest after another and frankly I’m done with it! I’m really beginning to think it would be easier and a lot less trouble to tell college to screw off, drop out, and get a job! But enough of my belly aching on to some softball news!

Last weekend was the last regular season home series for UW and Sunday was senior day! I think we all hoped they would pull out one win against ASU. But it wasn’t meant to be. They dropped all 3 games! However they had a beautiful ceremony to honor the seniors after the game Sunday! I’ll admit it, I cried through it lol! They had a banquet that evening as well! The seniors seemed to have a really great senior day even though they lost! I think I need to follow their attitudes they always seem upbeat even when they are losing and things just aren’t going their way. On that note, voting for the Lowe’s Senior Class award wrapped up Tuesday. Unfortunately in another cruel “joke” after making several hard pushes at number 1, Jenn Salling finished in 2^nd! She could still win it if she got enough votes from the coaches and media. We’ll just have to wait and see I guess. I was really hoping she would finish 1^st. But it occurred to me last night that in the grand scheme of things it’s not a big deal. I know she doesn’t view it as a big deal. Sure she would love to win it. But that isn’t why she does what she does day in and day out. Her main goal is to help her team get better! She has done a great job of that this season and the lessons she passed on will remain in the hearts of those girls left behind. That is a much bigger deal and that is why she will always be number 1 in my eyes! In another sick blow neither Jenn Salling nor Niki Williams made the top ten final list for player of the year! I can’t speak for anybody else but it seems this week was filled with sick twisted blows for UW. However they’ve started off this weekend’s series on a high note with a 6-1 win over OSU! It’s the last series of the regular season and at least 2 wins would go a long way! No matter what happens from here on out the girls have had a great season! This freshman class has been incredible! Inglesby has shut the mouth of all her doubters! This senior class has done an amazing job being the leaders and players they need to be! The sophomores continue to shine as do the juniors! I can’t wait to see what happens the rest of the season! But maybe bigger than that I can’t wait to see what next season holds! Here are a couple of videos about the UW the seniors and on senior day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8BC80qigZ0&feature=feedu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm--_g8v3x8&feature=relmfu

Bama had a nice come from behind win tonight against Mississippi State in the SEC tournament! Kelsi Dunne started off a little slow but ended up pitching a very solid game! They will play Georgia tomorrow!

The selection show is Sunday! This where who is going where for regionals is announced! Should be interesting to see where each of my teams falls!

I don’t know anything else! So Go Dawgs! RTR Go Bama! Boomer Sooner!!

PS. Seems my streak of crappy luck continues! Went to post this and Blogspot is down! I hope I remember to update and post this tomorrow lol! UGH!

All good things must come to an end!

Hey everyone! Well the regular season is very quickly coming to an end I can’t believe it! This season has gone by so fast! I know I keep saying that but it really has!

          UW will play their last regular season home games this weekend against the number one team in the country the Arizona State Sun Devils! I hope for the seniors UW can come away with at least 1 win! Arizona State has been playing very well though and it’s not going to be easy! UW has been struggling a bit as of late. They dropped the first 2 games against UCLA. Both were close games and the girls did their best but it was rough! The last game of the series without a doubt was my favorite game and moment of the whole season! The girls played an amazing game and hung tight with UCLA the whole game. Kaitlin Inglesby had an amazing game. The game went into 9 innings and the Huskies came away with a huge 4-3 win with the winning run coming off a homerun by ,as the UCLA announcer said, the All-American everything senior Jenn Salling! She had a great game and really led the team but the player of that game without a doubt in my opinion was Kaitlin Inglesby! She showed what it truly means to be a husky that night! She held tough and pitched a very strong game and also had a homerun and 2 other hits! That girl is something special and I am so proud to have her as Husky! The game ended on a double play by Salling and Williams and I’ll be honest when it was over I shed a few tears! That was truly an emotional and much needed win for UW! I was very proud! Last weekend they were on the road again to play Stanford. They dropped a close game the first night but turned around to win Saturday night 7-1! We all hoped they would win Sunday and take the series but it wasn’t meant to be. I continue to see a lot improvement from everyone and they make me proud every time they step on the field. It will great for the girls to play at home this weekend! I’ve heard that all 3 games have been sold out since Tuesday! Win or lose this weekend will be special as we honor 3 wonderful women and the things they’ve done for this team! All 3 will be very much missed! I am particularly fond of Jenn Salling! She is a great athlete, a great competitor, a great leader, and a great woman! I made this video for her and would like to share it! I hope you guys enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KahuxSFC7M

          OU split their series with Texas and really looked like the team I thought they would all season! I hope this is a big turning point for them and their season!

          Bama didn’t play this weekend because of the tornados! They spent some time helping people out and will return to action this weekend!

          Well I can’t think of anything else! So for now Let’s go Dawgs, RTR Let’s go Bama, and Boomer Sooner!!

P.S. Don’t forget to keep voting for Jenn Salling until May 10^th!!

Another week, another series!

Hey everyone! Can you believe I’m back 6 days later? Yeah me either lol! I’ve kind of got a slow place as far as school work right now and I know it’s the quiet before the storm so to speak so I decided to write! I like to write! It’s very relaxing! I hope you guys enjoy reading what I write as much as I enjoy writing it!

                Last weekend was a tough one for UW! They started off the weekend with a big 3-0 win against Arizona. Kaitlin Inglesby pitched a great game and hit a homerun! Jenn Salling also had quite the game as well! Unfortunately success was short lived and they lost the next two games! They played very hard and really competed very well! It just wasn’t enough! I was very proud of all of them all weekend! This next weekend they play UCLA!  It will be another tough weekend but I believe in the girls and that they will play their very best!  It’s hard to believe how fast this season is going! It’s been a really good season for UW and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds for them!

                It was also a rough weekend for OU! They dropped 2 games to Mizzou! I see some improvement and things seem to be slowly getting better! I still believe they can do this!

                Bama continues to roll! They are looking very good and tough right now! I look for them to only look better in the last stretch of the season! They play Florida this weekend and it will be on ESPN and ESPN2!  I can’t wait to watch!!

                The NPF started a new campaign to help raise money today called 20 for 20! It seems to be going very well and that makes me happy! Anything that helps softball makes me happy! It’s really cool to see all the people who are giving and why. I was particularly touched by the gift Coach Tarr made in honor of Danielle Lawrie, Ashley Charters, and Jenn Salling! I was going to write my blog on coaches and how great of an influence they can be but I think that right there pretty much sums up what I wanted to say about coaches. They are selfless; they work hard, and they give so much of themselves. They give so much of themselves that they can’t get back and wouldn’t want back! There were a lot of these that made me smile but seeing that gift from Coach Tarr for whatever reason really made me happy! On the other side of the coin this is kind of hard for me. As a college student I don’t have much money. I babysit to make extra money but I use a lot of that to help my parents with bills and buy food! I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me because I don’t mind helping and wouldn’t have it any other way! They’ve done so much for me I feel like I owe it to them to help out. I just wish there was enough to help my parents out and give a little to the NPF! Hopefully after I pick up two more kids next week I’ll be able too! But if you can give something please do it!

                Hope you all have a great Easter weekend! There will plenty of softball to watch on TV so don’t forget to tune in to watch at least a game or two if you a chance! Don’t forget to continue to vote for Jenn Salling in the Lowe’s Senior Class Award! She has made up a ton of ground this week and moved back into second place! Let’s do this for her! She so deserves it!

                I can’t think of anything else tonight! Let’s go Dawgs! RTR! Let’s go Bama! Boomer Sooner!

Two more week gone!

Hello everyone! It’s been awhile yet again since I wrote lol! Summer is coming up so hopefully I will have more time to write! However college ball will be over so I guess I will have to write about the NPF lol!

The UW/Oregon series was a good one! UW took 2 of 3! The wins were really good performances and the one loss was a big loss! Last weekend they played Cal! They were run ruled the first game of the series but bounced back with a walk off win on Saturday off a homerun by Niki Williams! Sunday they looked great! They run ruled Cal 9-1 in 6 innings! The last 3 runs coming off a bomb by Kaitlin Inglesby! She had a great day in the circle and with the bat! She only gave up 2 hits, 1 run, and had 5 strike outs! With her bat she was 3 for 4 with 1 run and 5 RBIs! That girl is something special and is handling the pressure so well! UW plays Arizona this next weekend! I don’t know what will happen but I do know no matter what I am proud of these girls! I know I say it in almost every entry but this is a special group of girls!

It was a crazy weekend in the Pac-10 and SEC both! There really seems to be no number so far! It’s shaping up to be a crazy end of the season! UCLA dropped 2 of 3 to Stanford, Bama was swept by LSU, Arizona dropped one to Oregon State, and there were several more crazy things that happened! You just never know what is going to happen from week to week!

            I have noticed a trend this season that I’m not a big fan of. I’ve seen several girls purposely doing things that put others on the field in danger. Things like pitchers purposely hitting batters and runners sliding into bases in a way that endangers the defender. I keep hearing that this is just part of the game and I hate hearing that! It shouldn’t be part of the game! This game is supposed to be about discipline and respect! These actions show neither! These ladies are role models to all the little softballers and when they do things like that they are setting a very bad example! They need to step back and remember it’s just a game! I think what’s worse than the players actions is that there are coaches who condone them and let these things go on!  I’ve always heard it said respect the game and it will respect you! That is what I would like to see coaches and players alike doing! Respect the game, respect the players and coaches on the other team, respect the umpires, respect the fans, and respect your team and coaches! Softball is won by how many runs you score not by how many people you injure in the process!

            Two players who very much know about respecting the game are Niki Williams and Jenn Salling! Both were named to the 25 finalist for the USA player of the year award! So proud of those two! Don’t forget voting is still open for the Lowe’s Senior Class award and Jenn Salling still needs our votes!! Remember you can vote once a day per computer through May 10^th! Here is a video she made for this! http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=570422392236&oid=46364349899&comments

            That is all I have for now! Let’s go Dawgs, Roll Tide, and Boomer Sooner!!

Some random thoughts for ya lol!

Hey everyone! I’m back again and in less than a week this time lol! That has to be a record me for me! I can’t believe how fast the season is going! There is about 7 weeks left in regular season play! Seems like just yesterday I was excitedly awaiting the start of the season! As most of you know Pac-10 play kicked off today for all the teams but UW. The UW/Oregon game was rained out today. They are supposed to play a double header tomorrow but there is like an 80% chance of rain tomorrow too so I guess we will see! About this time of the season I find myself feeling a little sad to go along with my excitement! I feel sad because I find myself thinking about all the seniors. I can’t imagine the range of emotions going through them right now. You know they try not to even think about it but it’s there. The thoughts of this thing they’ve dedicated at least 4 years to being over and wondering how it will end. Some of them wondering what they will do now and some of them already know! My mind of course turns to Jenn Salling, Morgan Stuart, and Ashley Tuiasosopo especially. Jenn is a 6^th year senior! She has been around along time and experienced almost all of it! She has worked very hard and seen a lot of success and happiness! She has experienced her fair share of failures and sadness as well! But Jenn loves the game of softball and is 100% committed to it and her team! She has stepped in and taken over as one of the big leaders of this team! She has always been a leader but it was covered up by Danielle Lawrie and Jenn didn’t mind it! She let Danielle do what Danielle did best! But this has been Jenn’s season to shine and she has done an amazing job! You can just tell how much the freshman look up to her and adore her! It will be sad for me to watch her go but she has done her job and done it well! She will be missed but she will leave behind the lessons she taught and the sprit she bring. She will be playing for the Pride this summer and I fully believe she will do great things for them! I’m happy for her but I know leaving UW and the Huskies will be very hard on her. Morgan is a quiet strength. She has been a great leader on and off the field. She made a big splash from the day she came to UW! Morgan is known for her key plays! She is the type of person who can strike out 3 times in a game and then come back the 4^th time when the game is on the line and the pressure is on and jack a game winning homerun! That is just Morgan! In fact, she knocked in the go ahead run in the second game of the National Championship in 09! I don’t know what Morgan has planned after graduation but she’ll be successful in whatever she does! I will miss her big grin when she does something good! She tends to be pretty quiet I think but there are times in the game if you watch for them that she shows you how much passion and emotion she has for the game! I’ve enjoyed watching her play and I will miss her! Ashley didn’t get to play much the first 3 years of her career. There were just so many great outfielders those years that she didn’t get much chance. I was reading an article earlier (which I will post a link to later on in the blog) about her and it just confirmed what I thought about her. I also read in that article that Coach Tarr wanted her to redshirt her freshman year but they already had too many who were already red shirting and so she couldn’t. But you would never find her complaining! She’s played much more this year and has done a wonderful job! I admire her a lot! I admire that she never gave up. Some people would have changed schools or just quit the team. But not Ashley, she stayed! She stayed and she fought! She will always have a special place in my heart and serve as reminder to me that no matter how little everyone has a part to play and your little part can make a big difference!

          While on the subject of seniors UW fans Jenn Salling is a finalist for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award! You can vote for her once a day per computer! She started off in the lead but has fallen off sharply! Please go vote for her! Let’s give Jenn one more sign of how much we love her, appreciate her, and how glad we are she battled through that long journey to come to play for UW! She has had an amazing 6 years and she deserves this award!!

          I don’t know how much sense this entry will make. I know it was a lot of weird ramblings but it’s what on my heart right now! Sorry it was so long!

Here are some links for ya!

http://www.seniorclassaward.com/vote/ This is to vote for Jenn! Remember vote everyday up to May 10^th!

http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/040111aaa.html This is the article about Ashley!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK_FphAteRw I realized that I had not shared this on here yet and wanted to do so! I started working on this the night UW was knocked out of the WCWS last year! I made several other videos that you can see on my profile on youtube but this is my favorite! I hope you enjoy it!! I own nothing in any of my vidoes! I just do them for fun!

          That’s all for now! Go Dawgs, Roll Tide, and Boomer Sooner (they could some love right now! It’s been a rough up and down season so far!)

Finally back again!

                I’ve not been very good at keeping this thing updated lately and for that I am sorry! I’ve been looking at things and I see I haven’t been giving 100% to a lot of things lately. I’m struggling with some inner demons and letting them have way too much control of my life and the way I view myself. I’m going to have to dig deeper and find some strength somewhere! This semester in school has been a total nightmare! I tried to cram too much into this semester and I have totally overwhelmed myself! But it’s over half way over and there are only about 6 weeks left! I guess I’m going to chalk this up to lessons learned lol!  One thing that has stuck me over the last couple of days is I have been blessed with some really great people in my life! Enough about me on to some softball news!

                Last weekend was kind of a rough one for UW! They went 6 and 2 on the weekend (counting the games on Tuesday). They started off the weekend with a nice performance against Fresno State where they won 10-0 in 6 innings. They received their first loss of the season against UT and Blair Luna. Blair Luna was on fire all weekend and she totally shut down UW’s offense! In fact, she pitched her first perfect game of her college career! On the flip side the pitching for UW couldn’t hold up against the bats of UT. The final score was 12-0 in 5 innings. It was not the way I wanted to see UW handed their first loss and seemed to knock them down pretty good.  This was maybe the first time all season I really questioned the UW coaching staff. Instead of putting their best (Ingelsby) in the circle they started Bryanna Walker. Don’t get me wrong here, I like Bryanna Walker! In every other game she had pitched she looked good! But up until that game she had only pitched 8 innings because of an injury. I felt they threw her to the lions to be devoured. Jenna Clifton and Whitney Jones also pitched but neither had any better luck Walker did. But being the team they are they bounced back the next day with a big 7-4 win over Notre Dame. In this game the Husky bats came alive and they hit 5 HRs! Jenn Salling, Kaitlin Ingelsby , and Taylor Smith all had one HR and Niki Williams had 2! It was a nice way to bounce back and get a little of the confidence lost the night before back. However success was short lived! On Saturday UW faced another Big 12 school in OU! OU as you well know is another one of my teams! So I wasn’t so fond of this game lol! OU took this game in a heartbreaking 7-6 8 inning game! UW fought hard and performed well against one of the best pitchers in the game right now in Ricketts! But the pitching and defense again struggled to get it done! I was proud of the way they battled but it sort of takes your breath away to go from being undefeated to having 2 loses in 48 hours! UW bounced back with 2 wins on Sunday though! The first game was a close one with Illinois. UW seemed a little deflated to me in this game. They won 3-2 in 9 innings though! A little bit later they took on Boise State. They seemed a little better in this game and won 4-1! I think everyone was ready to see this weekend end. After the games on Sunday the team took some much needed down time to do something fun! They went to see a movie and from what I read on Twitter they sounded like they had a lot fun. Also on the way to Bakersfield they stopped at a mall and got mani’s and pedi’s! I know it doesn’t have much to do with softball but I was glad to hear they were doing something fun to unwind and relax. This team (coaches and players alike) is very close! Tuesday they played a double header against Cal State Bakersfield. They won both games the first was 8-0 in 6 innings and the second was 9-0 in 5 innings! I didn’t talk about the Husky Classic and will do that next blog! One good thing that did come out of this crazy up and down weekend was Kaitlin Ingelsby was named Pac-10 pitcher of the week! I was very surprised but happy to hear this! It made a rough weekend a little easier to swallow! The Huskies are off this weekend for Spring break! Most of them have gone to spend it with their families and I wish them a restful, fun, and safe weekend! They will be back in action next weekend to start Pac-10 play against Oregon! I think it’s going to be a pretty rough rest of the season. I’m not saying they can win a lot of these Pac-10 games because I fully believe they can. But the pitching other than Ingelsby is struggling and the defense is not always offering a lot of support! I think it should be interesting to see who will step up and how this will all play out! No matter what happens I will be proud of this group of girls! If I could use 1 word to describe this season it would be ADVERSITY! They lost 2 players before the season even started (Felicia Harris and Amanda Fitzsimmons). Hooch Fagaly went down with a knee injury in Fall ball and at this point it’s not looking like she will be back this season! This team especially the pitching staff is young and inexperienced. I guess really the adversity for this team started long before the freshman even signed and even before the 09 National Championship when Aleah Macon left UW and went to UCLA. I guess we really   don’t know how that would have gone as Macon has pitched very little this season because of injury. Either way this team has many reasons they should be struggling and all doom and gloom. But they aren’t! They continue to fight and be tough! That is just the kind of teams Coach Tarr makes! They don’t give up and they don’t give in! So who knows what these girls will do!

                OU has continued to struggle. They look hot and really good one game and then look pure awful the next! There is no doubt in my mind the talent is there! They have a great coaching staff! But something is still missing! I don’t know what it is but there is something definitely missing! I hope they find whatever is before it’s too late!

                Bama looked great this weekend! I was so super proud of that team! The swept the number 1 Georgia Bulldogs! I’ve made it no secret that I am not a bull dog fan! So to see my team sweep them when they are ranked number 1 was incredible! Although the weekend was great they had to be back to the grin when they faced Tennessee on Monday for a double header. They took the first game and dropped the second! But overall Bama looked fantastic and I can’t wait to see how great they look come June!

                My last topic of this blog is the NPF draft! I was thrilled to see Kelsi Dunne go first! She totally deserves it and I wish her all the best! But because she was drafted to the Diamonds it’s going to be hard to root for her lol! But I bet I’ll find away lol! My other girl Jenn Salling much to my surprise and pure delight was drafted 3^rd and to the Pride!! I was so excited to see her drafted high up and to the Pride! I was sweating bullets trying to figure out how I was going to decide who to root for if she went to one of the other teams. But I didn’t have to make that decision with her going to the Pride to play again with Danielle Lawrie and Ashley Charters! Now if only we can get the Pride to draft Niki Williams and/or Kimi Pohlman next year and we can have a huge UW reunion! Seriously though it’s going to be a great summer with those 3 all playing for the Pride! I personally can’t wait! There were some things about the draft that didn’t thrill me! There were many girls who I thought should have been drafted who weren’t! One of the names I threw out in my last blog was Stacy Chambers! She was one I really felt should have been drafted! I don’t know if she didn’t want to play in the NPF or what but I was sad to see her not drafted. Rhea Taylor was another I wanted to see drafted who wasn’t! Overall though I thought it was a great draft and it only increased my excitement for the summer!!

                As a final note I wanted to let you guys know that one of our former UW Huskies has been invited and is going to play in Italy!! Bailey Stenson has accepted an invitation to play softball in Italy! I’m so excited for her! She will do great! No doubt in my mind! Bailey has such a great story! She is a great woman and a great softball player! I wish her much luck in this new adventure!

                Here is a video made my UWTV about the 2009 National Championship team! It’s about 30 minutes long but it’s worth it! It’s a great video and has won some awards!

http://uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.aspx?rID=31197

                That is all I have for now! If you have any suggestions or topics you want me to talk about don’t be afraid to ask!! Go Dawgs, Roll Tide, and Boomer Sooner!!