Get up! Get Up! Get out of Here! GONE!
I am always on the hunt for firsts. They just seem to interest me.
Things such as fishing in a boat in January in Wisconsin or fishing for perch in open water in January in Wisconsin are a couple of examples. I did fish in a boat in January in Wisconsin on January 25th of 2018. I fished in open water below the Fox River Dam in Montello this past January.
Today,St. Patrick’s Day, on our varsity softball diamond in Poynette I actually bailed water with as shovel and six gallon bucket. I’d never taken water off a ball field with shovel and bucket when snow surrounded the field. Today I did that. This morning my assistant coach Ron and I removed the ice from the puddle that had formed the past few days when the frost was coming out of our infield. We had it and the one on our JV field cleaned off by 10:00 am. Late this afternoon, my son-in-law and I drove into town after watching the NCAA Selection show to see if there was any water on the infield.
There was so after dropping him off back at my home so he and is family could return to Baraboo I went back into town with a shovel and bucket and removed about 35-40 gallons of sheet water out of that puddle. The infield was really soft and I sunk in to my ankles while in the puddle. It was all done to get onto the infield as quickly as possible for practice this week.
Two fathers of Poynette players donated their time and bucket vehicles on March 6-7 and removed nearly all the snow from both or our softball fields. The piles of snow on the outside of our outfield fences and along the both sides of the chain-link fence that separates the U.S. highway 51 right-of-way and school property were nearly 12 feet tall. Today those snowbanks were down to about 9 feet but the outfields are playable. Now we just need a day or two of sunshine and we could be good to have great practices and allow schools wishing to get some dirt work in to use our fields. I will keep you posted.
I have not received any team pre-season previews in about five days or so. We are at about 12% of all the coaches in Wisconsin having returned a preview. I published a world-wide fastpitch softball newspaper from 1988 through 2004. We sent out many free copies of that paper to generate more subscribers. We averaged about a 10% return on our investment in printing and postage with those sample copies. I’ve learned that any such request for information from Wisconsin high school coaches has always resulted in the kind of results we have received with our latest project.
I usually try to remind coaches statewide about WFSCA deadlines in an attempt to get deserving players statewide at least a chance to be recognized for their efforts. I do it with notes like this one. At this time I am reminding you to check out the WFSCA website for a deadline to nominate senior players for the WFSCA All Star series. There are no excuses for missing the deadline. If you miss it means your player will not be considered. Begging the leaders of the WFSCA will not work. Pay attention to the deadlines. The same thing goes for all the WFSCA awards available. Deadlines mean just that – there are no extensions.
I had thought about trying to conduct a statewide survey on the number of illegal pitch calls made during the upcoming season. The NFHS changed the penalty for illegal pitches by removing the requirement of advancing all runners when an illegal pitch is called in addition to awarding a ball on the batter if said batter does not do something that her coach would choose instead of getting the ball and advancing the runners. I chose not to try to conduct the survey because only 10% of the coaches involved in a game where an illegal pitch gets called would let us know about it.
When writing about illegal pitches and the penalties it reminds me of a few games I have watched where illegal pitches amazingly got called but the umpires didn’t know the penalties. They awarded balls to the batters but did not advance the runners. In all those cases the coaches of the offended team (team at bat) didn’t know the penalties either because none of them insisted that the unknowing umpires advance the runners. It happened in a key game I was scouting last spring.
Here is a reminder of the new rule. If an illegal pitch is called. The coach of the team at bat has a choice of taking the result of any play that occurs after the pitch is delivered and called or having a ball awarded to the batter. Thus, if an umpire yells out illegal pitch he/she must also use the delayed dead ball signal and wait to see the result of the pitch. The coach should take the best result of the situation.
At the WFSCA coaching clinic the WIAA representative covering rules and situations told a story about a coach who once held up a game and insisted that the baserunners for the opposing team be advanced when the umpires failed to know the penalties for such a call. That was an interesting story. Think about that - the coach of the team in the field insisted that the runners from the opposing team be advanced before another pitch got called.
Have a great second week of the season.
Keep it Rising!
Bob
