The First Pitch

January 2003, By Irv Porter

The State of Illinois Softball Report - on line

It's been one year since Illinois Softball Report (I.S.R.) went on line and I have to admit that even though I.S.R. to not meet all of its first year's goals, this first year has been a huge success.
One new addition will be my monthly article, (starting with this one) The First Pitch. This is something that I let slide the past year as I used my time to work with other aspect of this web page. Hopefully you the reader will find these articles and my thoughts on softball worthwhile to read around the 10th of each month.
The number one goal when this site was started, were total hits (connections) to this site each month. Starting from scratch (116 hits in December 2001) your softball web site grew to average over six thousand hits each month during the summer season. For the year this site averaged over four thousand (12 months X 4000+ hits on average per month = over 48,000 total hits to the I.S.R. web site in 2002) hits per month. The I.S.R. Message Board has been very active the last couple of months as it seems to be catching on with the Illinois player as a way to communicate their thoughts and ideas on softball.
In 2002 the bracket board feature did not work as planned, but it has been retooled and will be offered again in 2003. The plan is simple. Anyone who is hosting a tournament needs only to e-mail I.S.R. with the number of teams that they are going to be giving at their event. I.S.R. will e-mail them back a bracket that the tournament host can fill in team names game times field number, payouts, etc. and return via e-mail to I.S.R.
The filled in bracket will than be posted on this web site for all to see. With a bracket posted on the web it should save the tournament director many phone calls trying to reach teams. Every team will be able to printout a complete bracket with game times who they play, when they play again, etc. The tournament host can even update the bracket at the end of the first day and I.S.R. will replace the original bracket on the web site with the updated one for all to see.
I.S.R. ask one thing in return for this service, that the tournament director complete the bracket with the results and e-mail it back to I.S.R. so that a story may be written for all the readers of I.S.R. to read on how a particular team achieved their tournament championship and or runner-up and where every team finished in that tournament.
Dr. James Claussen, D.C. has a number of articles relating to softball injuries and treatment of them, which can be found in the Feature Writers section on the left hand side of the web site's home page. He will be adding more articles on suffice injuries as the year goes on.
The 2003 tournament listings are growing at an almost unbelievable rate. It's only January and already the total number of tournament listed to be played in the state of Illinois is approaching seven hundred. I.S.R. had between six hundred and six hundred fifty tournament listed the past two seasons so more and more people are finding out about another of the services I.S.R. offers to its readers, the softball players, managers umpires and fans in the state of Illinois.
2003 softball season starts off in January with various snowball tournaments and the Chicago 16" Hall Of Fame Seventh Annual Dinner on January 18th in the Gold Cup Room at Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero. I.S.R. will be on hand to take photos and report on the night's activities. Tickets are $50.00 per person and available from Gary Thorsen. Send your check to Gary Thorsen, 169 Cardinal Drive, Bloomingdale, IL 60108. Please specify which individual that you are coming to honor. All I.S.R. photo's taken that evening will appear in the I.S.R. photo album.

Continue:

I.S.R. Home Page