Tuesday March 26th, 2024
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2013 YOUR NAME HERE team!

As many of you know Westshore Pizza / Louisville Slugger was setting up to play Conference
'A' in 2013 with a returning core of players from their 2012 'B' team that finished 3rd at
worlds and came very close to making the championship game. Unfortunately their long time
sponsor Westshore Pizza has had to pull out of sponsoring for the 2013 season due to some
new business opportunities that came up unexpectedly.
 
There is still a chance that this team could stay together for the 2013 season as manager
Jeff "Whit" Whitman sorts through some recent sponsorship opportunities.
 
Also over on TheOldScout message board I started a "kickstarter project" to see if it was
possible that the softball community might be able to fund the team for the 2013 season.
 
The message board thread about this possibility is here:
http://members3.boardhost.com/TheOldScout/msg/1360031830.html
 
If you have not done so already, check out the poll and the different "tier" levels to see
if this is something you would support.  You can pledge as little as $10 to help the cause! 
 
For the bigger supporters you can even put your name on the team as a primary or associate
sponsor at the 10k and 5k tiers.
 
The results after just one day and the pledges totalling over $17,000 looks like a promising
start as the team needs about $40,000 to do things right and participate in a competitive
tournament schedule. 
 
Remember this entire idea is still in the discovery stage to see if a community supported
team is possible.  The team does have a full equipment sponsor in Louisville Slugger.  The
current team name would probably be something like SoftballCenter/Louisville Slugger unless a primary and
associate sponsors come on board to replace the SoftballCenter, which would be GREAT!
 
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The following is what I wrote for a magazine article recently.  This was written long before
the loss of their sponsor.  The #12 is what I had them ranked pre-season in the nation:
 
#12 Westshore Pizza / Louisville Slugger (A-FL)
 SS Branden Blake
 CF Davis Bilardello
 RF James Curtis
 C  Dan Dillingham
 P  Greg Neal
 OF Dan Kirkwood
 P  Tony Elrod
 Barry Billups
 IF Mike Wrenn
 Lamar Cherry
 Alejandro Castelon
 1B Blake King
 Manager – Jeff Whitman
 Sponsor – Bobby Vasaturo
 
Westshore Pizza returns past players to their roster in CF Davis Bilardello who spent a year
as a key part of Team Combat at the Major level and SS Branden Blake who starred for
Taylormade a year ago.  They return the big bats of Dan Dillingham and outfielder James
Curtis and add a backup pitcher in Tony Elrod from Demarini/Dirty to tag team with Greg "Shaggy" Neal.  They also picked up
entertaining Demarini first baseman Mike Wrenn, and free agent Barry Billups who last played
with Suncoast back in 2009. 
 
Outlook:  Westshore is looking to play 'A' this year after the core of this team finished
3rd and a near 2nd at the 'B' Worlds a year ago.  They have a talented team who should
perform well in the Florida tournaments and qualify for the Major World Series.  Westshore
has the pulse of the incredible Florida talent pool and should be able to make any roster
adjustments necessary to have a solid 2013 season and position themselves for the top of the
'A' division in 2014.

 This was last years team picture

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What if the softballcenter.com and oldscout community did a "kickstarter project" to see if it was possible to come up with the money necessary for this team to compete in the Conference as they had planned?

6-8 Conference events, A World, Conf Championships, B World, and Major World Series (if qualified). Most of the players if not all are from Florida.

Pledgers would get access to the team website, stats, player pages, pictures, team finance balance sheet, and all of the archived game video.

There would be pledge tiers:

Tier 1 $10: You pledge $10 just to see this team stay together.

Each tier gets the tier above its "perks".

Tier 2 $20: You get 2 "buy one get one free" Westshore Pizza coupons and entry into monthly raffles to win a TPS bat

Tier 3 $30: You get Tier 2 + entry into the new SoftballCenter Fantasy Softball league, details on the rules of the league to be determined.

Tier 4 $50: You get Tier 2-3 + you get to watch all of SBC/Westshores games live streamed on SoftballCenter.com's special SBC/Westshorte/TPS channel

Tier 5 $75: You get Tier 2-4 + you get to participate in weekly Wednesday night chat sessions with manager Jeff Whitman to discuss the team, lineup, defense and the past weekends tournament as well as the next tournament. And you get a team tshirt.

Tier 6 $125: You get Tier 2-5 + you get to take batting practice with the team at a conference event where you and the SBC/Westshore team is playing. A tryout/evaluation of sorts and a SoftballCenter player page. And you get a team hat.

Tier 7 $200: You get Tier 2-6 + you get to coach first base for at least one of SBC/Westshore's games during the season. And you get a team jersey with your name on it.

Tier 8 $300: You get Tier 2-7 + you get to hang with the team in the dugout at the Major World Series if they qualify or the Conference Championships or both.

Tier 9 $500: You get Tier 2-8 + (this ones for the ladies) you get to party with Branden Blake at the hottest night clubs in Orlando after they lose a given tournament…

Tier 10 $1,000: You get Tier 2-9 + you get to be a bench coach at any tournaments you can make it to.

Tier 11 $5,000: You get Tier 2-10 + you are minority sponsor involved in all aspects of the team and tournament weekends that you can make. Your company name is added to team name.

Tier 12 $10,000 and up: You get Tier 2-11 + you can vote on team decisions on roster moves, tournaments, everything… Your company name is added to the team name.

Obviously these tiers can be discussed and tweaked. New ideas or value can be added if anyone can think of anything good. The way a kickstarter works is either you get all of the money it takes to play a season pledged by the final date, say March 1st or the project doesn't happen and there is no team.

And it could be a situation where if the kickstarter funds successfully, half of the money would be due in March and half in June or July.

An interesting idea so answer the poll now. The hypothetical poll is just to see if it is a possible idea…

This team is too good to fold.


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