Performance Ads A Hit!
Notice those new square ads on the top and bottom of the blog? They are from Performancing Ads and make ad sharing very easy! I can run ads on other sites for as little as $5 each and I earn "trade" credits that I can use to run ads on other sites as well.
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Entrecard Releases ebook to Guide You
Entrecard is one of the best forums I use to drive traffic to my site. Entrecard is one of the most powerful ways to spread the word about your blog because of its unique format. Basically, you insert a small snippet of code onto your site, people advertise on it and pay w/ "entrecard credits" and you use those credits to purchase ads on other’s sites.
The kicker? You get 1 credit for each entrecard site that you "drop" your card onto. You can see mine over on the right hand sidebar. Where the word "drop" is, if you were an entrecard member, you would get one credit for clicking that button.
You can use your credits to buy advertising, sell them to others, buy services, or anything you want really.
They have created an ebook than can be found at
http://entrecard.com/static/entrecard_official_ebook.pdf
that explains how to use the service in detail.
Also, they now give you the ability to add multiple blogs to your account. So whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or veteran blogger, check out entrecard, you won’t be disappointed!
Thank You Little League Moms!
There are not enough kudos to send out to the Little League Mom. She sometimes works all day, runs home and gets dinner on the table, gets the kids to their games an hour early for batting practice and cheers as if she isn’t tired all night long.
Uniform coordination, coaching assistance, team mom, party organizer, domestic planner, they are often the unseen heroes, and sometimes on the front line. They tirelessly work concessions, console strike out victims, provide first aid for skinned knees and bruises, and offer encouragement in the face of discouragement.
A true Little League mom knows the difference between and injury and a little pain from getting beaned. "Get down there", "Get over it", is often heard from the stands, but the same voice consoles truly upset Little Leaguers.
I know at my house my Little League mom has 4 uniforms, 3 coaching shirts, and 3 practice shirts to keep track of. She has to make sure umpiring clothes and jock straps are laundered and ready to provide protection! Socks, belts, pants, underarmour, cleats, bat bags, hats, everything ready to go. Dinner ready at 5, coach in and out in five minutes at 5:15. It is a mad rush at our house every night. Snack bar duty, snack night for the kids, birthday parties to plan, attend and buy for, school events to keep track of, grades to keep up with, homework to manage, showers and in bed late every night, and up early the next morning to do it all over again!
Wow, I had a glimpse at her job today as I helped w/ everything I usually don’t attend too. An SHE CAN HAVE IT! I have no idea how she does it, I am only thankful she is so good at it!
Thank you to My Little League Wife and All of the Little League Moms and Wives around the world! You are the true driving force behind our success.
Anyone know a great Little League Mom? Give her props here!
Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo
Today I actually canceled softball practice and took a day off work to spend with my family! Amazing eh?
We spent the day at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo and a fun time was had by all!
The zoo was OK, but I have to admit, being a native Virginian, I am spoiled by the Washington National Zoo. This zoo was what you would expect, plus maybe a bit more. It seems every time you go to a zoo, the animals seem very lazy. I guess this is their nature, but I had hoped the Orangutans and Chimpanzees, my personal favorites, would have been more active.
The funniest part of the day was when they fed the Orangutans. They had a baby in there and the female was the baby’s aunt. They fed them in a snack box, just as you and I would have. Threw it right to them and they caught it! Better than some of my players I might add!
Anyway, the first box the aunt willingly shared w/ the baby. The second box though, she snuck off and took a piece of paper and put it over her head while she ate it! It was hilarious! Very much like the bird sticking their head in the sand, her whole body was still exposed! Needless to say, it didn’t take long for the baby to find her and she begrudgingly shared.
The zoo had seven areas including an Asian and African area, manatee areas and a children’s play zone. In one area you can actually feed sting rays! Felt like a sucking feeling when they took the food from you.
They had typical animals you would find in any zoo including sloths, pigs, white tigers, monkeys, frogs, snakes etc. They had a few shows but each of them included too much talking and not enough focus on the animals.
Is that the ugliest fish you have ever seen in your life????
The only real downside of the zoo was the absolutely rude and horrible service we received when purchasing ice cream from the Grub and Grog restaurant found in the children’s portion of the zoo. Also, I wonder what they are trying to achieve? They are way to close to Orlando and right next to Busch Gardens to compete on the ride level, yet they have a water play area, a small banana ride, a carousel, and an air ride. In addition, they are building a flume ride.
I wonder if they want to be a zoo or an amusement park? I think they may not know themselves.
We dropped about $86 for tickets and every ride cost us even more in tokens! All in all, I would say we left about $200 behind so it was a bit pricey for what we got, but the kids had fun, I got to spend time w/ the family and everyone left with smiles on their faces! And isn’t that all that really matters?
Do you have a favorite Zoo story? Please share it! I will give a free month’s ad to anyone that tells me the trick taught to the Ape in the National Zoo by the bad people. Do you know what it is?
Other articles that might interest you:
Guess all the Secretaries are Rich Today
What Does it Mean to Volunteer as a Manager
Smart Money Magazine Interview
Variation of the Around the Horn Drill
New Pitching Drill
SmartMoney Magazine Interview
Yesterday I had my SmartMoney Magazine interview! It went very well! The interview was conducted by the author of the piece, Anne Kadet. She was very friendly and very interested in how the youth baseball programs functioned. The article will publish in the July issue which will be released in June. (Don’t ask me, I just report, you decide)
Uniquely Qualified
I, of course, was uniquely qualified to provide her all the information she needed! My 18 years experience w/ Little League and brief experience w/ travel ball and its effect on Little League was what interested her. She delved deeply to gain a true understanding of how each program worked and how they worked together. She was also interested in where they created conflicts.
Will Your Child Fall Behind?
The point she was most interested in was “do you feel your child will fall behind if he does not participate in the travel programs”? What a great question! She asked, she said, because a hockey parent she had interviewed the day before had stated that they felt their child had no shot at a high school team unless they participated in the travel leagues. I had to agree that those that play in travel leagues definitely have advanced skills.
Quality of Play
She then asked, “Do you feel the quality of play in the ‘elite’ travel leagues is coming down since anyone can start a team and there are more teams available now”? Another whopper of a question! I had to admit that yes, as the numbers increase, it was inevitable that travel teams quality of play decline. I also pointed out that travel ball is for play, not for gaining fundamentals, nothing can replace Little League for that.
This is an interesting concept though. Many of you know that I used to be a hardcore metal head in my younger days. I used to complain to my super-cool boss at the time (he tolerated my late nights and frequent early afternoon departures as well as my unique travel schedule) that radio stations never played the kind of music I liked. He used to say, “if the radio stations played it, then it wouldn’t be cool to listen to it any more”. I didn’t agree then, but wisdom has taught me what he meant.
I think this might be a decent analogy to travel ball. If everyone is playing, is it really an elite travel league any more? Or is it simply a league of the same kids playing Little League circumventing the draft process?
What does the Future Hold?
Of course everyone doesn’t play travel ball, and Little League provides a home for EVERYONE. But I have to wonder what the face of travel ball will look like in 10 years? They certainly do not have the money that Little League has, nor the corporate sponsorship or media coverage. ESPN’s multi-million deal to cover every division of Little League’s World Series on TV will certainly boost participation.
This will be an interesting topic that I will visit often over the next few years.
What effect do you feel that travel ball is having on Little League? Is it positive or negative? What would you change about the current situation? Post a comment below and let us know about it.
Check out some prior posts that may interest you:
Variation of the Around the Horn Drill
New Pitching Drill
Blowout, Pitching Questions, Resume for Article
SmartMoney Magazine Interview
It’s All About the Fundamentals
Blowout, Pitching Questions, Resume for Article
Tonight I spent most of the night preparing my resume for submission to the SmartMoney Magazine reporter to help her understand my qualifications for the interview she is doing the story on me about. This is after we got back from a 19-5 trouncing of one our our softball competitors. Not that we are that great, just the way the game worked out.
I preach and preach about how pitching is the most important part of the game, and without a doubt, it definitely is. But, unfortunately, we have very little of it. Well, that is not entirely true. We have quite a few girls that can throw plenty of strikes, we just have no dominant pitcher. This is causing us to develop quite a few.
I guess in the long run this will be better. We shall see. We had three home runs, a triple, and two doubles today, so hitting is not an issue. We can post runs, and we are starting to gain confidence. Our fielding is great and we can really whip the ball around the field for outs, hopefully our pitching will be “just enough” to get us by. We shall see.
How do you work your pitchers if know you have no studs? Post a comment below and let us know about it.
Recent Posts that may interest you:
SmartMoney Magazine Interview
It’s All About the Fundamentals
A Typical Long Saturday
Lock Was Kicking My Butt
What a Game!
SmartMoney Magazine Interview
Friday I was contacted by Anne Kadet of SmartMoney magazine to interview me for a piece she is doing on the professionalism of youth sports. Specifically she wants me to comment on the effect this has had on local parks and recreation leagues and Little League Programs. I am very honored to be selected for comment on this issue and hope that my input helps Ms. Kadet with her research.
My interview is scheduled for Thursday at 10AM and I will post Thursday night how I felt it went.
Do you have a great story to share? Post a comment below and let us know about it.
Recent Articles of Interest:
It’s All About the Fundamentals
A Typical Long Saturday
Lock Was Kicking My Butt
What a Game!
Briggs and Stratton Diamond in the Rough Contest
Lock Was Kicking my Butt!
Worlds Greatest Equipment Manager
We have the best equipment manager on the planet! He has worked thanklessly and tirelessly (ok maybe he got tired, he looked it anyway) to make sure that every player had the proper size uniform and each team had enough equipment to play. Another thing he is; a master of The Bargain!
The Budget
We budgeted $800 to get one lock upgrade at our snack bar. We needed a way to track who was coming and going and decided a great idea would be a lock w/ a code that we can download information from. We chose the Trilogy 2800 because he got 2 for less than our budget!!!! Great idea right????
ummmmmm……If you had asked me four hours ago I may have said no, but now??? Sure it was fabulous!
The Set Up
OK, so programming a basic code into the locks was a piece of cake! Simple entry similar to what you would do on any device. But, this lock comes w/ a sophisticated software that allows you to program all kinds of neat stuff! The software? Piece of cake! I had every team programmed w/ a different code and ready to upload to the lock in no time. I was even able to restrict entry to the teams to the hours of 5:30-9:30 so they can’t get in during the day when nobody is around.
Sounds simple right?…SURE!!!!
The Trouble
The software comes w/ a D9-2 pin connector that communicates w/ the lock. You are simply supposed to plug it in, click the button and boom! About a week ago we plugged it in, clicked the button and…………………….waited………………….waited……………..waited………………….ut oh.
OK, guess we will have the actually read the manual! I hate manuals! Checked the manual…nothing. hmmmmmmmm…..
OK, let’s check one of the 5 bulletins that came w/ it since the manual was printed. On the 5th one I found a clause that said that some modern laptops are not truly RS232 compliant on their D9 serial adapters and don’t provide the proper voltage needed for this lock! In addition, you can run a loopback test to see if your laptop is compliant. (This is where I say 2 hours in, if we had read the thing in the first place we wouldn’t have been two hours in…but I will ignore that part for humor’s sake!)
What do we do? We run a loopback test……fail….fail….fail…..fail…..fail. hmmm….I guess we have one of those non-compliant serial connections. Why would they build it this way? I have no clue. So what do we need? A “proprietary” cable of course!…I go home and search for it online. How much???? $150!!!!! HOLY COW!!!!
OK, this can’t be. Our equipment manager, who also happens to be a very handy guy, he installed the locks, new PA speakers, and much much more, mentioned that he didn’t think that cable was anything special. It was simply a cable to convert a USB port to a serial port. Why do I need this if I already have a d9 connection? That is a question for Dell I guess. The more I thought about this, the more I agreed. So I headed out to Office Depot for a cable….no longer stocked. Oh, no problem, Radio Shack will have it of course..wrong!
I had to go to the local Bad Boys Computer store, and they had it. The good thing about this was I was able to ask the technogeek working there if he thought it would work or if I would need their $150 cable! He was fairly certain, as we were, that there would be nothing special about it. I came to learn that the d9/usb adapter actually came w/ software and a driver. Pretty cool, and pretty sure it would work.
Tonight’s Adventure
So what do I do? I trudge on over there tonight, determined NOT to be defeated by a lock! I install the cable, install the driver perfect, no problems. Hook up to the lock, run the loopback test..fail..fail…fail….hmmmmm.
OK, what is up w/ that? I really have no idea and almost am willing to surrender to the $150 cable! (this cable cost $29.99 at the computer store btw) But what kind of example would I be setting for my kids if I simply gave up? The game wasn’t over yet!
What did I do? I checked the com ports under the devices settings in the my computer properties. The device was set up as com 16, I needed it on one of com1-com4. After some manipulation I was able to get a successful loopback test! Yippee! I had the polarity wrong and also had to reset the port to com2 but I was able to get the thing to work!!! WOOHOO I WIN I WIN the Little League Coach WINS!!!!!!
Great Features
The locks are actually great. They have features that allow us to limit access and track who is coming and going. I suspect that cases of hamburgers will no longer be walking out of the snack bar any more. Here are the features we chose to use:
1. Restricted entry times for team parents – This allows them to enter only when other’s are around
2. Individual tracking codes for each team – We know who is coming and going
3. Full access 24/7 for board members
4. Special code for the city to get in
When all is said and done, these will be a great addition to the league. I think we will probably install one on the equipment room as well and then maybe gloves and balls will stop walking out.
Have you faced a technical challenge as a volunteer? Post a comment below and let us know about it.
What a Game!
Briggs and Stratton Diamond in the Rough Contest
Pitching is King
Also on the Board
Opening Day a Huge Success
Briggs and Stratton Diamonds in the Rough Contest
What it is
Kelly Nichols contacted me today about a great program endorsed by one of my all time favorites! Tino Marinez and sponsored by Briggs and Stratton. The premise of the Briggs and Stratton Diamonds in the Rough Contest is to make sure every kid has a top notch facility to play ball on. This is obviously a very worthy cause that I am happy to support!
Their site describes the contest like this:
“Kids face challenges everywhere. At school, at home, from friends and even teammates. To overcome
these challenges, they need the tools and support to build confidence and make good decisions. Playing
baseball helps kids build the determination and leadership needed to get things done and allows them to
realize what they’re made of. We call this The Power Within.”
How it Works
It is very simple. They are requesting that kids ages 7-14 answer the following simple questions:
- How has playing baseball given you The Power Within to overcome a challenge on or off the field?
- What was the challenge?
- How would you use the money to help your baseball team?
The questions can be answered in the following ways:
- Up to a 300-word written response
- Video no longer than two minutes
- Photo collage no larger than 11” by 17”
Why Wouldn’t You Submit?
I have to wonder why anyone wouldn’t submit to this contest. It is so easy! Only 300 words or a two minute video?
When it is Due
The entry phase is only open until March 23rd, so hurry!
I support just about anything that is good for the kids. Most leagues struggle to buy equipment, much less maintain facilities. This is a great opportunity to make capital improvements to their facilities. Please make sure to enter the contest and good luck! I will post the winners when Kelly gets them to me.
Do you have any great sports related charity events to share? Post a comment below and let us know about it.
Other articles that might interest you:
Pitching is King
Also on the Board
Opening Day a Huge Success
I Love Vista Print
Opening Day Tomorrow
I Love Vista Print
I have used Vista Print for many years. They are a great service that provides online internet printing and design. Their system is intuitive and easy to use. It is amazing how fast you can create post cards, custom post-it notes, elaborate stationary, magnets, calendars, car door magnets, and much more. There is not much you need that you can’t find there!
Have a custom design? They will take care of it, they really do it all and at a price cheaper than anyone else I have found.
Do you have a great free service to tell us about? Post a comment below and let us know about it.
Other Articles that may interest you:
Opening Day Tomorrow
Rough Night
Help Feed the Needy for Easter
Pitching Practices
Flames are Very Strong
What our Readers are Saying