www.AlsFastball.com will be down Thursday and Friday, August 7-8, 2008 for the move to Kimberly Wisconsin and the 2008 ISC World Tournament.
Back up 6pm Friday.
I paid my first ever visit to Sunset Park in Kimberly early this evening and I must say that the park is everything they have said it is and a whole lot more.
The park is situated in a large nature park with lakes, hills, and lots of trees (shade), the main diamond is in a spectacular setting.
I am looking forward to Sunday noon when its time to 'PLAY BALL'
SATURDAY:
Team Registrations from 5:00pm to 7:pm at the Kimberly Hilton Garden Inn
Manager's Meeting at 7:00pm same location.
MAPS
SUNDAY:
HALL OF FAME BREAKFAST - SUNDAY - AUGUST 10 - 8:30AM
some pictures from the HoF breakfast and field introduction: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=142626&l=7c86d&id=868475614
ISC Streaming Schedule: http://tinyurl.com/57xrhe
Games started at 12 noon in Kimberly for World Tournament and at 10am in Appleton for ISC II ToC
ALL the action is on www.iscfastpitch.com
DAY 1 - SUNDAY
A full day with the Hall of Fame Breakfast at 8:30am and ISC WT ball starting at noon and ISC II ToC ball starting at 10am.
A few glitches on our first day in Kimberly with sporadic internet problems at the Sunset Park complex where the ISC WT is being held.
The problems were fairly serious and tracked back to their local Internet Service Provider.
By the end of the day the most serious problems were related to the lack of full internet service from the upper diamond.
We were getting messages on scores but no box scores were received all day. At midnight Gary went to the Upper Diamond
and picked up the files which will be given to me to add to the files on Monday morning.
DAY 2 - MONDAY
Another spectacular day in the ballyard in Kimberly!
Today so far our internet connection is running perfectly and we are able to post box scores from both diamonds right after each game ends.
(Yesterday we had problems all day getting files from Upper Diamond)
Bret Baughman is webcasting games most of the day today from the Upper Diamond including the upcoming Kitchener game vs Portland:
THIS GAME IS LIVE ON YAHOO CHAT VIA BRET BAUGHMAN ON THE UPPER DIAMOND:
on the web... I will broadcast this game. Add stats_4u to yahoo messenger and send a message asking to be aded to the broadcast.
DAY 3 - TUESDAY
Driving into this place first thing each morning takes your breath away. Its as exciting today as it was on Sunday, the weather is fantastic and the park setting is a great location for Sunset Park.
Things are running a lot smoother today than on Day 1, most of the internet problems have been dealt with, however I understand some fans are having difficulties with the streaming. That is unfortunate as I know how hard these guys work to bring a quality program to fans all over the world. I do not know if the problems are totally local or if the interest in the Olympics has affected the band width available. We do know that on Sunday, and part of Monday, there were times when the connection was actually down and other times it was slow. Today for the most part we were able to upload files very quickly. At other times they were a bit slow. Having the worst problems was Bret Baughman working on the Upper Diamond. He had hoped to webcast some games via Yahoo chat each day but with so many problems on Monday, he decided not to try it today. This has howver freed him up a bit to send me inning by inning updates from the upper diamond.
Since I work from the Lower Diamond, I am able to look out at the field and the score board and inning by inning updates are relatively easy. Those updates by the way are on the main ISC page, under "News Items" left side of the page about half way down on http://www.iscfastpitch.com/
Games are paired in two's, one each for the upper and lower diamonds. We give as much info as possible but when the game is over, within usually five minutes, we have the full box score and its added to the main results page. http://www.iscfastpitch.com/uploads/File/2008%20ISC%20Files/2008_Master_Schedule_A.htm
I get the box score from the guy sitting beside me, Gary Baughman, the ISC Statistician. He scores each game electronically and can hand it to me sometimes in under a minute, depending on how busy he is.
Box scores from the Upper Diamond are sent to Gary by his son Bret, the Assistant ISC Stats man. We usually have those box scores within 10 minutes of the end of a game.... as long as the internet between Bret up on the hill is working ok.
Its been a busy week so far for the ISC II Tournament of Champions. They have only one statistician, Hank de Wild. He sends me the box scores for all completed games. He has as many as four diamonds playing at a time so there is an obvious time gap between the end of a game, and when I get the html file from him. At the end of a day, sometimes its early the next moring that I get them. But the scores, along with WP and LP are posted on the ISC news section. I have been creating one news page a day to add all the scores and pitchers to. Once that info is up, the main results page is updated:
http://www.iscfastpitch.com/uploads/File/2008%20ISC%20II%20Files/2008%20ISCw%20II%20ToC%20MasterSchedule.htm
The quick game reports I am posting, SAMPLE , are sent to me by Jim Johnson, Hank de Wild, and Tony Schaff.
The ISC II ToC winds up tomorrow and we will do our best to post the results as fast as we get them.
DAY 4 - WEDNESDAY - ISC II Championships Today
Slightly overcast this morning but the temperatures are very comfortable.
The weather was steady all day, a bit overcast, but very comfortable, even into the evening.
Had a chance to sample some of the food items they offer in the park today, lots of choices at reasonable prices.
The ISC II's wrapped up today, and from all reports the tournament was a great success, with fantastic ball.
Sadly, second day yet for internet connection. Sunday was a disaster when we lost the connection but today was a challenge as it was extremely slow. I do know that the KRA people are working as hard as they can with their ISP to fix the problem.
Nice news that a hard core fastball fan from St. Thomas won the 50/50 draw tonight. The retired lad will take home a tidy wad of cash and knowing his background taxes should help him a lot.
DAY 5 - THURSDAY - The Day it Rained
Woke up to rain this morning. We have had a spectacular week of weather here so far so this should not have been a surprise.
Luckily the large group of grounds keepers, many of them volunteers, worked the diamonds into shape once the rain stopped. Two hours behind schedule when we started.
The Special Olympics game may be moved to the Youth Diamond next to the Upper Diamond. We were really looking forward to it here on the main diamond but due to the rain delays it was necessary to make this adjustment. Nice toch, Kyle Beane and his team mates were introduced on field here (lower diamond) with the special olympics team a half hour before they played their big game. A rousing ovation for the players.
See the great article on this special event. HERE
Thursday evening and the internet connection is dreadful. Very tough to keep updating each game with the length of time it takes for a simple upload. Thankfully, the speed picked up later into the evening, and was working quite well actually by the time the last game ended at 3am. Well at least we are all caught up now, on games but not sleep.
DAY 6 - FRIDAY - Only Two Days Left
Covering the last game on Thursday seemed like a good idea at the time, but 3 am game endings means a shortage of sleep at the other end. Oh well, I can sleep next week.
Excellent day of ball but some good teams going home.
Good news for the streaming guys, their internet connection has been superb this evening, for the first time. I do not know what the cable company did, but they have been working on it, they know they caused the problem.
Many people writing in this evening to say their reception has been excellent.
LINKS:
The schedule and Results link is at:
http://www.iscfastpitch.com/uploads/File/2008%20ISC%20Files/2008_Master_Schedule_A.htm
There is also a link for results for the ISC II ToC:
http://www.iscfastpitch.com/uploads/File/2008%20ISC%20II%20Files/2008%20ISC%20II%20ToC%20MasterSchedule.htm
Also follow the news items on http://www.iscfastpitch.com/
Middle left of page.
Al Doran
Fastball@pmihrm.com
www.AlsFastball.com
