Weekend Blog of July 4-5-6, 2008

July 7, 2008

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Weekend Blog of July 4-5-6, 2008

One might say this was a quiet weekend for fastball, unless of course you were on one of the three teams playing in Saskatoon, SK, at the Three Nations Challenge. That is where most of the action took place. Most other major men’s tournaments were placed on hold as national team members from Canada and the USA reported for duty in Toontown.


Full details on the Three Nations Challenge at:
http://www.alsfastball.com/uploads/File/2008%20ISC%20Files/Saskatoon%203-nat-2008.htm


Some individual pieces on our News Page as well:
http://www.alsfastball.com/index.php?page=25


Late last week it did not look like we’re going to get much (or anything) out of Saskatoon as they had no web site and we had heard nothing from them but then Jon Equina and MARK LOEHNDORF sprang into action and started sending us results and lots of it. Mark was the media guy on the spot and he made sure we got his game updates and his “Challenge Chatter” news updates each day. Jon Equina sent us updates and he hooked up his lap top at the park and using Yahoo Messenger did live play by play of most of the games over the weekend, including the exciting 1-0 final for Canada over Japan. Well done guys!



It’s interesting that a strong fastball town like Saskatoon would spend almost $40,000 on local marketing of their tournament and yet forget to drop a FREE email to www.alsfastball.com where fastball fans world wide get their fastball news. To their credit when it was pointed out to them that anyone outside Saskatoon had no clue what was going on they did the right thing and Mark and Jon did a great job of supplying updates. One would hope that we will see similar cooperation when it comes to the Canadians in August and the ISF World’s in July 2009.


Thanks also to Softball Canada and the ASA for their timely game updates each day.


By all accounts Saskatoon ran a great tournament and hopefully whet the appetites of fastball fans worldwide for the action coming up August 2008 and July 2009.


Thanks always to those hard working people who send us reports of any kind. Let me assure you, it is appreciated. Family, friends, players, fans, from all over appreciate getting updates and that is our goal: to provide information on the men's game to all those who follow it.





Some other action this weekend included:
Lincoln, NE - Lincoln Tournament only limited results but many thanks to Steve Kooser for his report http://www.gremlinfastpitch.com


OASA Bantam Eliminations @ Owen Sound – great reports from Whitey and Fred Wallace. http://www.alsfastball.com/index.php?page=25

ISC Under 19 North American Championships – good reports from Scott Stasik over the weekend. http://www.alsfastball.com/index.php?page=25

Allentown, PA - Allentown Patriots Invitational - ISC and ISC II Qualifier it seems like the rain won this one.


Other tournaments over the weekend were played, we think, but we have no reports yet. See list:
http://www.alsfastball.com/index.php?page=146



Amongst the missing:
July 4-6, Tonache, ON - OASA Junior Men's Eliminations



Coming up next, Boys of Summer in Denmark, WI
http://www.alsfastball.com/index.php?page=146

July 11-13, 2008, Denmark, WI - Boys of Summer                                 SCHEDULE




As always, there are some short items on NEWS-2 http://fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball






2008 Season Plans for www.alsfastball.com
We plan to be in:
Kitchener May 30 – June 1 – Legends of Fastball
Niagara-on-the-Lake - June 6-8 - Snapper Shootout
Midland - June 13-15 - Explorer Tournament
Monkton – June 26-29 – World Fastball Invitational
Kimberly - August 10-16 – 2008 ISC World Tournament

Al's Fastball News
*Email: fastball(at)pmihrm.com
fastball@pmihrm.com
NEWS-1: http://www.AlsFastball.com/
NEWS-2: http://fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball