USA softball vs. Racers game

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Firstly: I realize I am fortunate to have witnessed the greatest fastpitch team ever assembled. Truly awesome.

However, I bought my tickets 4 months ago (before they even offered "lawn" seats) and I got to Firestone at 5:45 for a 7:00 game. No seats available. I ended up in the grass about 350' from home plate.

Great game. But "live and learn" when it comes to the seating arrangement...

 

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Got there at 5:30 and ended up in the lawn, but, GREAT experience.

 

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First and for most I just want to say it was a great game, great environment and a great place for our DD to see how softball can be played. Having said that and knowing how the game should be played, I think that the Racers gave them that game >. Why would you pull your best pitcher after 3 when she was doing great and had struck out 5 so far! ( Abbott only had 10k's after 7). And what was that in the 7th? . I have been to all most every Racer's home game this year and I have never seen that many Racer's swinging at pitches at their heads. As far as the seating goes, why did Joey chance from assigned seating this year to general admission for this game :'( If she would have stuck to that, people would not have to show at 3 for a 7 game! JMHO :

 

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Who pitched for the Racers? Tincher?

 

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Looks like Tincher started, but left in the third inning with a 2-1 lead...

http://www.usasoftball.com/info.asp?uid=4131

 

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Shamblin in the 4th
McHugh in the 6th
Juarez in the 7th

 

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bohica, makes you wonder, doesn't it. Now I thought it was a great chance to see the olympic team and really enjoyed being upclose to the players, but, I was not very happy when they pulled Tincher. This is the first chance I had to see the Racers and I was very impressed.

 

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Tincher was doing GREAT . Abbott got 3 of her 10K's in the 7th . Now Abbott was pitching well but to strike out the side in the 7th when everyone(but Barnes) had seen her : I don't think so!! It was a great game. I wish they would have done the autograph session different. Lots of people in Cat's,Abbott's and Finche's lines that didn't get anything but sore feet! Simple thing to do was to set the players behind a table and single file through the line. You might have had even put 2 tables with the most popular player's at one. This, from what a heard was a better venue then Ashland!

 

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I wasn't there ?:'(---but I wonder if the Racers had prearranged for switching up the pitchers so that each could have the privilege/pleasure/challenge of taking on Team USA?

Anyone notice if they switched around other fielders, too, so that all could get into the game? ?:-?

Someone said the Racers gave them the game, but is it possible that this one time the coach decided giving all the players a chance to participate in a once in a lifetime opportunity was more important than actually winning. ?What do ya think?---am I way off on this?

?

 

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I thought I only saw pitchers switching. Did run for Butler and I had some pinch hitters in the 7th (which all went down swinging)but that's it. I know this game wasn't on the list when the schedule was set and Joey pulled some strings to get them here. With only 2 games before Beijing, a loss would have set things in motion for the rest of the world. On a brighter note: this was the first time in over a month that the USA teams was scored on ;D GO Butler!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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I think you're right. I wish the USA team would have pitched Finch & Osterman to give us a once in a life time experience to see them. :-[

 

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Yes, why only Abbott :-[ I saw Hollowell (sp) setting behind home with a radar gun and a pencil! :-?

 

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I don't know. Maybe the coach was providing an opportunity. Other substitutions were made. I might expect that gesture at a lower level of play. However, considering that softball has been voted out of the Olympics, maybe the coaches did give them that chance in case it doesn't get back in.

Along with the pitching substitutions were:
5th
Hamilton to cf for Doepking
Mexicano to ss for Toochek
7th
Butler to c for Williams

Barnes pinch hit for Ogden
Nicholson pinch hit for Hamilton

 

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When Jenny was warming up I was standing next to her and she said that she wouldn't be pitching. She said that they had a scrimage today. It was awesome to be able to stand within two feet of the catchers and see the pitches from that close.

 

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Firstly: ?I realize I am fortunate to have witnessed the greatest fastpitch team ever assembled. ?Truly awesome.

However, I bought my tickets 4 months ago (before they even offered "lawn" seats) and I got to Firestone at 5:45 for a 7:00 game. ?No seats available. ?I ended up in the grass about 350' from home plate.

Great game. ?But "live and learn" when it comes to the seating arrangement...

Agreed. Bought tickets months ago as well and at 4:45 when I dropped DD and her firiend off, there was not a seat in the place and the hill was filling up. Think it definitley should have been handled differently.

That said, when I got back to pick up DD and her friend, it did bother them a bit. They were so geeked after watching that game and getting autographs, they wanted to go practice!!

 

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Tickets stated "gates open at 4:30." We got there at 3:30 and the line was down the street already as I had figured. I had no doubt people would be there hours before 4:30. However, we got right in and got our seats on the 1st base side, then the 7 of us took took turns in 2's to go get food and pictures and souveniers. We had great seats.

Lots of cutting in line for autographs for Jennie Finch, and she was getting noticeably upset about it :-? They asked several times for a single line, but I wish the event staff would have roped off for each player's line and kept a better watch on who cuted in the lines. My daughter hardly moved for the first 45 minutes (I think Jennie signed for an hour). Then at the end they started moving people through faster, less time for pictures, but she still had to cut off signing just a couple people after my DD got her signature (whew!). Some of the other lines moved faster (DD's friend got 3 or 4 signatures) but DD wanted Jennie Finch only.

What a once in a lifetime experience for the girls!

 

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bohica, makes you wonder, doesn't it. Now I thought it was a great chance to see the olympic team and really enjoyed being upclose to the players, but, I was not very happy when they pulled Tincher. This is the first chance I had to see the Racers and I was very impressed.

Team USA had already lost to Tincher once this year. :

 

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We attended this game with 5 girls from our softball team and boy was they star struck. We arrived at the stadium about 4 o'clock, they opened the gates at about 4:30 and there was no stadium sitting left when we entered the park about 4:45. There was a very nice older gentleman though that told us if we waited till Team USA got in there dugout then they was opening the seating at the third base line. We ended up sitting second row from the bottom in the bleachers which was great seating till the start of the game. When the game started a bunch of people came for the lawn seating and started standing on the fence right in front of us. Needless to say our girls who where sitting there since 5:00 could not see the game. The security tried to do theiejob and make them all sit down but as soon as they would walk away they would all stand up again. There was one team there called the Hurricanes that have got to be the rudest people I have ever met. Their girls would stand up and then when security when come and tell them to set down they would but once the security was gone their coaches would tell them to stand right back up. When we said something to the coaches about it the one told my husband to shut the f up. Their coaches were all drinking and diffently would not be anyone i would ever want my daughter playing for. Very rude people to say the least.

I do have to say though that before the game got started our girls got to talk with most of the players and they were all very nice and really took them time to listen to the girls and talk to them about softball. My daughter is only 9 and she said that Tuesday was the best day of her life so far. she said the only thing that could have made it better was if Bustos would of hit one out.

 

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We went to the game after Pony Nationals as a last minute plan. We had lawn seats. We sat directly behind the catcher in the bullpen....perfect!! Not only could we see the game nicely, we were able to see the pitchers warm up. As a matter of fact, some of our friends that had general admission tickets were so jammed packed in the seats, that they came and sat with us in the lawn.

 

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My DD went to work at Firestone Stadium at 10:00 AM on game day and there was a line of people a block long at that time. We arrived at 5:00 PM and covered stands were full. We sat in bleachers on RF line and had a great view. Beautiful perspective of the pitchers.

The crowd was the same in 1996 when Team USA visited Firestone Stadium. Awesome support of SB in this area.

As far as Joey running this game, it was an ASA game, so Joey's hands were tied on quite a few issues that wre mentioned here.