2003 Season Preview
The boys of summer will kick off the “2003 Big Time Softball” season this coming weekend, the Far West Classic, a Class A USSSA event in Las Vegas. Also there’s an ISA Class AA, A event in Houston, Texas. These two events should have some very good teams entered. March 28, 29 & 30th is the opener for the first Super Tournament of 2003 being held at the Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium in Sanford, Fla. This is an ASA Qualifier and there’s a good field of teams entered. John Daniels and Fox Sport Net have reached an agreement to air eight weeks of WSL events from last season. The first show was on this past Saturday and the same show will air next weekend, which I’ll be posting the times later this week. The eight shows that will be aired are all the NSA/WSL events that were played last year and also the NSA, ASA, WSL World tournaments. I can tell you these shows were produced well and you won’t want to miss any of them. I also want to say to the critics who always have something to say about why the shows are so late and other derogatory comments that have been made on the message board, to keep those selfish uncalled for opinions to yourself. I personally have been involved in them along with John Daniels, Mike Woodly and a host of other hard working people putting these shows together. I looked at over 100 tapes to pick out material to use for these shows and I know Mike and John have done the same. It took at least one hundred hours of hard work to put eight shows together, and also many more hours in the studio taping these shows. The longest time was getting Fox to find air time so that the schedule could be put together. Also, we never once stated a definite time that these shows would be aired. We had hoped we could of got the work done and Fox could find the time earlier, but that didn’t work out. John worked very hard on trying to get sponsors to pay the very expensive costs of putting these shows on TV. There’s been nobody who has given more to promote our great game like John Daniels has. John has given a lot of his time of which is very valuable when you run a business like John does, and has also put his money into this program to try and make this game what it’s deserved, and that is TV and to promote our associations, sponsors, players and most of all our fans. I will tell you now, I will not let anybody bash or say anything bad about the TV shows on my website and if anybody does I will have you banned from the board forever. If you don’t have anything good to say about them, then go somewhere else on somebody else’s board. I will be posting the times of the future shows as soon as we get them on the message board. I will be posting all the tournaments from all the associations on the front page of the website as I have in the past each week. I will also be reporting from the tournaments each week that I attend. There will be some weekends I won’t be there and I would appreciate if you don’t see scores being posted, that somebody would post for me or leave a phone # that I can reach to get the scores. If anybody from any of the teams who are playing in tournaments when I’m not there who would like to write the information from the tournament and get it to me, I will post in my Softball Report. All you have to do is email me what you have. I will post my Top 15 and Honorable Mentions each week, remember it’s only My Opinion. I don’t need all the crap about the rankings on the message board. I will post the power rankings as I get them. I will post the On Base, Homerun and Homerun Frequency each week when I receive them. Teams who want to post their stats each week after the tournaments feel free to put them on the message board. I think that is great, because a lot of the fans and other teams like to see them before the official stats come out. I hope this season turns out to be like last year, where on 28 occasions throughout the season the big three were upset by AA or A teams. Also in 5 Super World Series’ we had five different winners. I’m here to tell you this game has gone to the next level playing on baseball fields and stadiums with longer bases. It has definitely made for a more competitive game of softball, and that’s the way it should be. I would like to welcome the Class B, C, D and women’s teams to the WSL 2003 season. There will be plenty of qualifying tournaments for your teams this season. You can find the schedule for these tournaments both on this site and the WSL site. The WSL and Fox Sport Net will be filming some of these tournaments during the season along with your World Tournament in Panama City Beach, Fla. in September. In my opinion it is about time that the B,C & D and the Women’s teams get some recognition too. It’s a long time coming, and John Daniels has made it happen. Make your plans to attend some of these tournaments, with the first one being in Valdosta, Georgia at the Jason Kendrick Tournament April 11-13th. I want to wish every team a healthy and successful season, and remember “to play a sport is to be a sport”. Good Luck everybody.