Softball

This years softball Olympic team has a good amount of pitchers on it.  Monica Abbott a left handed pitcher that graduated last year from Tennessee.  She has had a number of accomplishments within the past few years. 

Then you have Jennie Finch, the all well known US Softball pitcher.  She graduated in 2002 from University of Arizona.  She already has one gold medal under her, and is planning to get another.  Last year she had an ERA of .26.  I look up to her for everything that she has done.  I have contacted her about my project and she was willing to donate some memorabilia to help me raise money. 

Lisa Fernandez is a right handed pitcher that graduated in 1995 from UCLA.  She already has 3 gold medals.  She is not known just for pitching, but third base and a phenomenal hitter. 

Alicia Hollowell graduated in 2006 from Arizona, as a right handed pitcher.  This will be her first Olympic appearance, but has enough experience to help her through it. 

Last but not least we have the left handed Cat Osterman, from University of Texas, that graduated in 2006.  She was on the Olympic team when she was a Sophomore/Junior in college, in 2004.  She has a huge heart for the sport and is extremely well at it. 

The team is created of 5 that graduated from UCLA, 4 from Arizona, 2 from Stanford and 1 from Tennessee, Fresno State, Pal beach C.C., Alabama, Texas, California, and Cal State Fullerton. 

This team has enough experience and rookies, that with the mix and the coaching will become a well bonded team, that will do great in the 2008 summer Olympics.  The other teams are going to be facing a battle trying to hit off any of these pitchers.

This is the last year softball will be in the Olympics.  The vote was 52-52 and they kicked it out.  They are hoping to debate and have it back in 2016, but who knows.  Men’s baseball Olympic time will be ending in 2012. 

The United States Womens Softball team have started off their tour to Beijing, undefeated, like always.  Ill be giving you updates on the games, and softball in general.  The group of women that are coached by Mike Candrea, have always been the best trained and perform the best.  These women go through training everyday with drills, back to back.  Some of the drills consist of hitting, not just any hitting though.  The ball has different colors on it and they must call out that color.  These girls work hard and shows it with all the titles behind them.  Are they dropping softball because the US dominates it? 

I personally have to thank Coach Candrea for his work that he has done with the softball teams.  He lost his wife before the last summer Olympics and he still went on to the Olympics knowing that he let down the girls that he had coached for so long.  He pushes these girls to do their best when times are close or hard, and he showed how committed he is to this team, even when times are hard.

I just cant believe that they are getting rid of a sport that so many young girls look up to.  Growing up I would always watch college teams play and the US team.  I think that we aren’t giving these young girls a chance to dream to become a good player like the US team.  

So I had a meeting today with the Town of Colonie and Latham Lassies.  The new commissioner thinks he is the best thing to walk this planet.  The way he talks down to me and some of the things just turn me off.  The whole meeting seemed worthless, my idea of fencing in one field basically is going no where.  The commissioner wanted to put a fence connecting the main two softball fields to try to stop people and then use the rest of my money for back stop for pitchers to throw into.  Since he is good friends with the one man in the town he talked to him before the meeting and had him do some research on how much it would cost to continue the fencing already there.  When thinking about this whole project I also have to take into consideration that a football team uses it when softball season is over, so I cant have anything that will interfere with them. 

I think its a good idea and that it still gets my point of safety, but I really liked my original idea.  I guess in the real world everything cant be about how you want something to go it has to be a compromise of everyone.  I’m still going to do the pancake breakfast, I just need to get enough volunteers and sell the rest of the tickets. 

I also asked if the Town could look into buying a new piece of property for the softball fields to go since, the fields we have now, are horrible, and overlap.  If anyone has traveled and saw softball fields and then came to our you would think our town deprived softball players.  Yet on the other side of town they have a brand new state of the art facility.  I guess I will have to make a compromise to get the fencing down so the girls are safer in the long run. 

I finally set the date for the fundraiser to get the last little amount of money that I need to get the fence put up.  I did this fundraiser last year and it did really well.  Its a pancake breakfast, for five dollars.  I need to sell 300 tickets and this will be the little bit to purchase the fence. 

I went to a Latham Lassies Board Meeting and with the new commissioner, he was against the fencing of the one field.  He wanted to take the money and use it for something else.  Fortunately he cant touch the money with out my permission.  As of now I think I will be having the fence go towards the 12 and under field, unlike my first thought about the 16 and under field.    This will all be set in stone, hopefully, on Friday Feb 22, when I meet the with Town Board.  This meeting should be interesting, with the board, Latham Lassies and me, all coming together to get this plan through. 

As for my personal softball life.  I have decided to join a softball team that plays on weekends for fun.  With that I have come to realize that I don’t need a personal trainer in throwing (whom I pay a lot of money), to teach me the basics that I know.  I have also decided to join a gym in my town and work on getting myself in shape for anything that I try to do in the future.  I think that if I work out at a gym, it will be there longer than I will be able to play softball.

So I went to my pitching coach on Monday to try and throw again.  The first thing we started off with was throwing overhand.  Something that came so easy to me before my surgery.  I used to throw overhand with a lot of power and distance, if need be.  Since I was a third baseman, I need the power, to make sure that I beat the runner to the bag with the ball.  

I never thought that trying to come back to a sport that I love would be so difficult.  I was getting so frustrated that I couldn’t throw overhand properly.  No matter if I threw the ball correct or wrong I could feel the pain in my shoulder.  At least I could feel the difference from when it was wrong or right. 

My coach started to notice that I was getting so frustrated that he stopped completely and had a talk with me.  Telling me that if I don’t throw properly right now, that if I go to play for a team again I will be having the same surgery over again in a couple of years.  That made me step back and realize that if I want to every play again I better start throwing properly.  Just something so simple as throwing overhand, was such a frustration, due to that playing for over 10 years, I’ve never had a problem with it before. 

Needless to say I didn’t get to pitch, he was more focused on trying to make me throw overhand correctly.  He even gave me homework; to stand in front of a mirror and pretend that I was throwing, in 3 steps.  I have to make sure that I do this since I want to play.  

Yesterday I was feeling some pain in my shoulder, but that’s from being out of a sport for so long that I will be sore.  Today I am fine!  Which makes me happy that I know I can throw without being in pain.

This is my introduction blog as well as my first post.  I am doing this for my English class in college.  I have never done anything like this before, so I am going to have my topic be about something that I love and enjoy, since I will be writing about this for a couple months.  So my topic is Softball!

I will have many updates regarding what is new going on in the softball world, as well as my own personal progress.  I have played since I was six years old but unfortunatly I recently had surgery on my shoulder so I am trying to get back into the swing of the sport.  I also am doing a project regarding the softball fields in my town.  The currently have no outfield fence, so I am trying to make sure the future girls will be able to play in a safe field. 

As of right now my current position on my personal progress is that I have been going to my personal instructor regarding my hitting.  Hitting came back to me like I never left the game in the first place, unfortunatly throwing didn’t.  I was in so much pain for the next two weeks for the little bit of throwing I did in a half and hour.

Per the project with the softball fields, I have raised almost enough money to buy one outfield fence.  I hit a lot of dead ends in regards to where to store the fence, and the odds and ends.  So right now I have another fundraiser for the project, and hopefully this will give me the little bit I need left to get the one field done.  All I need now is the towns approval.  They seem to understand where I am coming from right now, so hopefully I will be okay with the project. 

Thanks!  Have a nice weekend!