Softball Center Chat Session Highlites from 02/15/2011

Lots of banter about Rick Baker, Doerflinger, Sonny's etc.  Remember if you aren't in the chat room when its open, then you are being talked about.

SoftballCenter.com "First Chat of the Year"
Tuesday, February 15, 2011

– It was determined that the 2011 Team Combat Laser Vision team is almost the same team that won the 2008 Major except:
  – They are 3 years older
  – Rick "Spike" Baker is in CF instead of Scott Kirby
  – Billy "Softball Man" Messina is the main pitcher instead of Scott "Scooter" Nastally.
  – Bryson Baker plays for Resmondo now and Dennis Rulli is with Team Combat Laser Vision
  – Scott Brown and Brett Helmer are going to pitch Friday night and Saturday morning games with Billy finishing the weekend.
  – Random posts about Team Combat being "overrated and hurt", "Old and over the hill", "having fun playing together"

– Resmondo
  – Experience means alot
  – Resmondo isn't getting any younger either 
  – Resmondo's luck is due to run out
  – Lost Dennis Rulli
  – "Until they are beaten, Resmondo IS the team to beat…"

– DW was first to discover that Pfeffer was actually posting as TM50+

– Link to the 2011 Roster updates:
  https://www.softballcenter.com/teams/2011-teams/562-2011-team-rosters.html

– The ASA Restricted Player List is almost 100 names now, that is a huge jump and there are some "unhappy campers".

– Who are the best remaining free agents?

   Denny Crine (you know the Long Haul masher)

   Doug Shanyfelt Jr is looking for a team (IF/OF last year with Sinister)

   Mike Kalinowski – pitched Angle Inn to the 'B' World runner up in 2008.  Good conference experience and hitter.  steelhomeplate@yahoo.com

– Random comment from the Northwest felt "GTL has the best infield in the game"

– Was noted that Major Pitcher Scott Nastally may be retired.  He may pick up with someone late in the year.

– Nick Sansone (formerly with Famous) may be out for the year with needed shoulder surgery.  Good luck to Nick as he is only 24.

– Sinister SS is a kid named Jeff Peyton…"he's real good with the glove."

– Sinister is playing 'A'

– Softballcenter.com has two TPS bats to sell.  Made to order (model, weight and choose balanced or end load)

– Lots of positive talk about the Demarini Stadium bat

– DW will be in Houston "Space City" Classic first weekend in June.

  – Needs to book a flight into Hobby this time.  (FYI: there are two major airports in Houston)
  – All 'A' and 'B' teams (that can play in a little heat) should book this tournament.  In my opinion.  If all the 'B' teams did they could make for a nice points weekend.  48 Teams last year in this event.
  – Ken Scobee is putting together a Steele's Alumni team to play in Space City. Macenko is supposed to play.

  – "DW, at your suggestion we are going to make HR's clear the entire wall this year." – Awesome.  Some are saying there will be a lot of easy doubles though.  We'll see.
  – Also, old carpet pulled out and brand new Field Turf installed last month … including the batter's boxes.

  – Funniest one liner of the 2010 season. Chris Wilson (Albicocco) dives head first into homeplate in Houston where the batters boxes have some rather course dirt. He gets up wincing and rubbing his nipples (which were probably rubbed clean off). "I guess I won't be using these tonight".
    – "Won't happen this year. He will slide past the plate and into the dugout like he is on a slip 'n slide."  (because of the new batter's boxes)

– Ed Cagles nickname is "Fast Eddie"

– Jamie Gordon is back with Shoppe, doing great…"smashing it right now".  (in bp)

– Rusty Bumgarnder is getting better, the game is better with him in it

– One of Don Cooper's nickname is "Coopy Seal"?

– Everyone unanimously thinks the Sonnys team is legit and will be a factor in the 'B' division
  – "Sonnys also has the 2 best hitters off of Desert Falls" (I guess the poster means Charles Cunningham and Tyson Steele?)
  – "Sonnys can play small ball"

– GTL is opening the season in Las Vegas.

– Jean Shoppe is opening season at the Hall of Fame Classic

– It sounds like Team USA is going to have 3 exhibition weekends prior to Border Battle III

– The 'A' division is pretty loaded again this year

– Does anyone know who is on Team 454/Worth?
  – Don Rodgers
  – John Dutch
  – Bubba Mack
  – Rick Sills
  – Rich Gulash
  – Randall Boone?
  – Todd Joerling?
  – Tim Mattox?
  – Dennis Turner? (doubt it)
  – Randall Poplin? (might be retired)
  – Kris Ohara? (might be retired)

– Consensus that Greg Connell will lead Conference in homeruns
  – Resmondo two hitter gets the most at bats and free swinging situations.  —- Plus he is just that good.

 
  – Was said that Tim Cocco could lead in HR's if he played more tourney's.
  – Coop thinks Johnny McCraw has a shot at the HR title
  – "Hear Cocco is hitting in the Bombers tour…if so, that should make things interesting. Watching Cocco in bp last year was unreal…he's the only guy that gets bent out of shape after hitting one 400 feet."  Cocco is hitting for TPS.  His bat comes out in May and was recommended by Milky to be called the "TPS Bicep".  Or the TPS "Buddy, I mean Buddy!"
  – "Cocco gonna take 15 bats to the plate on Bomber tour?  Break one on every swing."

– DW is headed to Seattle over July 4th weekend!

  – Tournament begins Friday starting at noon ending Sunday at 4pm

– 2010 Final Conference USSSA HR Frequency leaders
  – Tim Cocco    2.49
  – Adam Rockoff 2.89
  – Geno Buck    3.11
  – Dennis Shrum 3.14
  – Greg Connell 3.18

– Dual event in Kissimmee starts on Thursday, April 16th

– Anheuser Busch should buy a banner on the softballcenter.com website

– DW's 2011 schedule?  "I would like to cover Vegas, HOF, Phoenix, Indy, Music City, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Dudley, Seattle, Smoky, Cincy, Colorado, Michigan, A, Conf, B, Major but I don't yet have a ticket for any of them…"

– DW will be in Cincinnati for the Major at Mid America Ballyard.

– Snowman8 "DW, I still have that free room waiting for you at Corky's Early Bird May 6-8!"
  – DW thanks you VERY much, unfortunately I'm taking that weekend off for mother's day.  My dad passed away a couple weeks ago and I just don't want to miss that day this year.  Thanks though.  Someday I want to do Corky's, McQuade, PIF, and the Firemans.

– Host hotels in Vegas are "By the fields … Nice place … Close to the jail also"

– Someone asked if Rick "Spike" Baker had any fielding videos?
  – Coop suggested video title: "How to get out of the fence by Spike Baker"
  – "Rick Baker can control games with his glove and arm. Best player in the game. Video links?"
  – "Whoever has Rick Baker will win worlds"
  – "Rick Baker should be on the LHB tour. Dude kills it."
  – "Water covers 2/3 of the earth, Spike Baker covers the rest."

– Brian Wegman and Brett Helmer WILL still swing Easton eventhough they are playing for Team Combat.
  – Coop said wegs is not allowed to play Bash 4 Cash (recovering from shoulder surgery)
  – Hatfield: "Wegs didnt have surgery… He just told his shoulder to heal and it did.  He's that good!"

– Rumor about Midwest Swing.  Heard they picked up a pretty good pitcher from mn?

– Rumor that Famous put in a request to play B…

– Coop love's the travelocity gnome

– Blitz/Watanabe pitcher Bob Noeth left to play for his son's team

– Rumor – Wayne Habermehl going to play more for Midwest Swing this year??

– Shane Hatfields nickname is "Tackleberry"

– Hector Pagen is working on getting back in the game.  I can recommend a few teams that could use a quality sponsor.

– DW is predicting a long year for Victory/Demarini.  I like the team a lot but wins may be hard to come by.

– Unanimous that KTI should be in the Conference

– Noted that P.R.I will only make it to their first game in the worlds if they buy a GPS

– Noted that the Northeast actually has 'B' teams Magic, Allstate, Manhattan Beer

– Combat Pharmapar has crazy power and I think it's a good move to always have 12 home runs … They have a long term plan.  Going A only gets you one tourney . But cost you 4 home runs most of the year

– Doerflinger/Combat Schedule
  – Vegas, Orlando Double, Concord, Seattle Double, Denver
  – "DW don't sleep on dorflinger … I think they will qualify for the major"

– King Of The NorthWest Tournament April 8-10 has 57 teams right now.  Unlimited homer's and most of the big teams from the NW will be there.
  – The KOTNW tournament deserves to be a Conference event.

– The new Demarini Cartel bat is not on the market yet…should be available mid to late April.

– Todd Pease is done with Bass and will be with Sinister

– Oregon State and Texas Tech are are the flagship College teams using Combat equipment

– Aubreys is not sponsoring Taylormade this year.

– When asking for some good questions for Mike Macenko's interview I was told to "Ask him about his butt problem when we (Cooper) were roommates… Bad memory"
– Huch: "No questions needed for Macenko.  Just turn your recorder on and say "Hello" then try to keep up!"

– Combat on the Long Haul Bomber Tour banter:
  Coop, whats up with getting a combat team on the LHB tour?  How about combat? Rusty and JMac
    – dp: Combat = Howerton and Brownie (sorry about that)
    – DW: Brown and Rusty
    – GTL18: I agree, Combat should have a presence on the LHB tour, after all they won it the first two years!
    – Coop:  Did it twice … Won it twice … No competition….. Lol…..
    – GTL18: Jmac winning it on the last ball in SF was priceless.

– Suncoast Roster
  – Losson White
  – Dan Bean
  – Travis Lane
  – Lee Trotter
  – Adam Rockoff
  – Dustin Roberts
  – Hank Garris
  – Marty Malloy
  – Nick Robertson

– Rumor – Conference bat testing will remain the same

– DW is still working on a bunch of softball history stuff, just don't have enough time to do everything

– DP has got something brewing on his site to handle historic player awards.

– For a good time just watch Johnny McCraw's hall of fame speech at the banquet

– We still need interviews with Don D, Millette, Gordie, Macenko, who else? Umpires are off limits.

– Tim Millette and Don used to be fishing buddies

– Corny is a lurker.
– Rumor corny is a registered lurker
– First rule in any negotiation or business transaction is knowlegde is power….so you never want to be the first to give away what you have.
– Corny is registered as a lot of things……..lurker would be the most harmless.

EWS Banter:
– Scott Kirby is with EWS
– EWS will be pretty solid…. in talking with Eric he said he was going to have Sammy play 3rd, Salas in the middle and Thiede at first
– Sammy Lopez is 3rd base. They even talked about him playing 2nd
– Rumors on OldScout that they were possibly talking at moving McCollum to the OF?

– Cooper likes apple shots for his birthday

– Former major leaguer Cory Snyder who played with Dan Smith in major softball "was a great guy but more hype than real… At softball…"
– In 1996 he hit .674 for Dan Smith

– Coop and Don: Do you think the conf is getting better, worse, or staying about the same?
  – Coop:  I think without it there would be no major or A.
  – GTL18: Well all I remember is in 2005 first year of Team Combat, we were traveling to play in 11 or 12 team tournaments……that included the local -D/C teams coming to play.
  – GTL18: The major this year was a huge let down for a lot of teams….

– DP: I love the comment about you taking pictures of men playing softball. HAHA
  – DW: taking pics of guys playing softball is gay.  But it does get me to the tournaments

– Consensus (except for Kal) that Long Haul had a chance to win the 2009 Major World Series before "Bat Gate" and deciding to forfeit the rest of their games.
Long Haul roster in 2009: Robo, Buck, Genter, Hall, Hartwick, IZ, Matt King, McCollum, Messina, Phelps, Rhines, Robbins, Striebel, Thiede was Long Haul 2009

– Jeff Hall is spending a lot of time playing in SE Asia believe it or not…. he has found a budding market over there and they treat him like royalty.  He has been over there several times already pushing the Bass line and it has become quite lucrative.

Unlikely rumor's (but you never know)

– Rumor that Magic is talking to Canseco
– Someone saw a guy that works for UPS swinging milky's cartel bats last night
– Jeff Hall and Jose Canseco are possible Long Haul Bomber Tour reps for Bass
– Tyson Steele on Sonnys could do well on the Long Haul tour
– John Hickey hit the longest ball ever in Cincinnati
– Mighty Mike Macenko was named to team USA
– Rumor that Chente Granados wins conference Defensive Player of the year before season starts
– Former major leaguers Jose Canseco and Eric Byrnes are joining bass
– TM50+ is writing up some new by-laws for senior to chew on
– Coop: "I think millette and dp are the same person never seen them together…..hmmmm" – True statement