The First Pitch
by Irv Porter

I imagine that many of you are questioning why this issue of Illinois Softball Report is rather small. The truth is I had a falling out with my partner, Bill Dwyer and changes had to be made.
Bill's excellent work on the layout of Illinois Softball Report is something that I cannot match by myself.
I have known since June that Bill would be leaving at the end of the year. I have searched without any success to find a competent layout editor for Illinois Softball Report.
Faced with the reality of having Illinois Softball Report making a backward slide in it's look and quality I made a decision to change the format of Illinois Softball Report to a web based magazine.
Starting with this issue Illinois Softball Report will be available on the World Wide Web to anyone who has access to a computer and a modem.
Illinois Softball Report will now be placed on 8 1/2" X 11" sheets that can be printed out on a regular sheet of paper if anyone so desires to do so. The smaller sized sheet will make it easier for me to achieve a level of quality that the readers expect.
The web brings many new and exciting changes to the pages of Illinois Softball Report. Now I will be able to bring you the results as soon as I receive them instead of having the readers wait until after the paper was laid out, sent to the printer, printed, mailing labels attached, sorted into US Mail sacks, mailed and finally deliver to the subscriber.
Illinois Softball report has stayed away from league results because of limited space available. With the web league results can and will be posted.
Team profiles were a once a year item before. Now they will be available all year long and photos can be added to them. Managers will be able to update their team profile if their roster changes during the season.
Illinois Softball Report will leave a story on its site for approximate thirty days after the completion of a tournament. Than that story will be moved into an archive file to keep only recent softball related stories in front of the reader. If a reader wants to excess an older story they will be able to do so by going into the archive and retrieving the story that they wish to reread.
Another new feature will be a tournament bracket posting on the web site. All a tournament director has to do is e-mail Illinois Softball Report with the number of teams that they have participating in their tournament. Illinois Softball Report will e-mail them back the correct bracket and the tournament director will only have to fill in the team names, filed number and game times before e-mail the finished bracket back to I.S.R. The completed bracket will be posted on the web site saving the tournament director countless phone calls. And you the player will be able to not only check out the entire bracket of your tournament for the upcoming weekend but you will also be able to check out the other brackets of all different tournaments being played that weekend at the same time. The softball fan can see when the top teams are due to meet and get out to the yard and see the big game in person.
Illinois Softball Report has been and will continue to be your source for tournaments and the results. So turn on your computer and go www.ilsoftballreport.com and be sure to save it as one of your favorite sites.
It is with a heavy heart that I have to say goodbye to a number of loyal readers who do not have access to a computer. I wish there was another way but I cannot see it at this time. I to thank those readers who I'll be losing in making this move for their support and at times criticism of this venture over the last five years. I will deeply miss all of you.
To all the new on-line readers of Illinois Softball Report welcome.! Your thoughts and comments(both good and bad) are always appreciated. Sends those thoughts to Illinois Softball Report using the e-mail us button on the web page.
Illinois Softball Report is also making this one time only offer. If 9for any reason) your teams tournament success was not reported in the pages of Illinois Softball Report during the 2001 season, just e-mail those results to I.S.R. and we will post them for two reasons. One, softball tournament results are few and far between this time of the year and two, I need the practice of learning how to lay out a web page.
So just send in those results (and team photos if you have them) to I.S.R. via e-mail and look to see your formally overlooked team on the web page for everyone to read about.
So sit down, relax, and let see where this ride takes us.

Your friend in softball,
Irv