Happy New Year

Milty wonders about 2006

Last year at this time, I was speculating that the game of fastpitch may have bottomed out and maybe... ready to begin a long slow journey back from the brink of extinction, especially the men's game.

Well...despite some persistant problems like the arguing over the pitching rule, an acute shortage of umpires, and a lingering lack of fans and sponsors - the game has shown some promising signs.

I had the pleasure of witnessing a lot of memorable moments in 2006 that made me wonder. Some things made me wonder if my speculation had any merit, while other things make me wonder about coaching philosophy or the future direction of this site. In no particular order, my most wonderous moments were:

Photographing the Canada Cup and witnessing a thrilling final game where Australia came from behind to defeat Team Canada.

I wonder why thousands come out to watch women play softball but so few are interested in the men's game.

Watching hundreds of softball games during '06 and not witnessing a single "illegal pitch" call. Have we finally turned the corner on this rediculous issue? Hopefully the whole world will someday abide by the same pitching rule and their will be peace on earth - finally.

I wonder if it's even conceivable that everyone could agree on one rule?

Photographing and watching the Swing West Men's tournament in Abbotsford on one of the hottest weekends of the year causing home plate umpire Bill Watson to keel over from heat exhaustion. The scores were almost as high as the heat, and I wonder why pitching no longer dominates hitting.

Attending the International Softball Symposium sponsored by Softball Canada and Softball BC where Cindy Bristow of Florida explained that in 65% of all softball games, the winning team scores more runs in one inning than the losing team does during the entire game.

My instinct tells me that this is also true for men's softball but I doubt the same could be said for the game of baseball. I wonder why that is?

Watching home runs fly out of Spruce City stadium like popcorn during the Cdn Men's Open tourney and wondering why most coaches were still choosing to sacrifice bunt in order to advance runners to 2nd base.

Playing and helping organize the Squamish Logger's annual tournament featuring both a men's and women's side, which fostered the best community atmosphere of the year. Local Squamish teams won both sides (Wizards on the men's and Mayhem on the ladies) and the beer gardens and fan support was as good as it gets with many people competing, coaching, or cheering for teams on both sides.

I wonder why more tournaments don't combine men's and women's play?

Watching young female pitchers beginning to use a slight hop to maximize their power. I wonder if the women's game is about to face years of debate about the pitching rule as the men's game has or if umpires will simply let it go.

Watching tic photographer Bryan Sikora continue shooting in the pouring rain at the Men's Icebreaker and then in July, as Trevi Spronk marched on through unbearable heat at the Holden Squirt girls tournament so tic could display a photo gallery.

I wonder why more people don't buy photographs so we could afford to have a photographer at every event?

Reading and learning about the 1% rule which states that only 1% of visitors to a website will contribute material or begin a new topic, 10% will participate in discussions, while the remaining 89% will only read and will never participate. That's a sad dose of reality that signals how difficult it will be for this site to expand and cover more leagues and tournaments, especially as Milty is spending more time coaching.

However, as this site has a couple hundred regular visitors, I wonder who the one or two people are who might help me write stories?

Happy New Year everyone, and see you soon at the ballpark.