In an exceptionally close vote, Dave Fortier (51%) was chosen to fill the spot on the D1 board vacated by Hank Culley's resignation. He assumes the remainder of Hank's term, which expires at the end of 2027.
I want to thank Dave Sanders (47%) and Chris Schubert for running. It may sound like a cliche, but the truth is this league cannot run without volunteers, and Mr. Sanders and Mr. Schubert do a lot for our league, with managing, umpiring and working with new players at evals as they come into our league.
This was a special election, but we will have the regular annual election in the fall. 3 spots are at stake, currently held by Dan Shelley, Jan Held and Mike Ford.
Thanks to Dave, Dave and Chris and thank you to the voters. We had a very high voter turnout. 93% of the eligible voters cast a vote.
How fast is a slo-pitch pitch?
Mark Kelly and I were discussing the idea of a poor-man's Hawk-Eye system - something that could tell whether a pitch falls within the legal 6-to-12-foot arc. The math behind that is outside my purview, so I asked AI. I won't bore you with the whole answer, but one question I asked is, how fast, or slow, can you actually throw a softball and still land it on the strike mat?
Here's the answer: The slowest legal pitch reaches 12 feet and lands on the very front of the plate, crossing at about 27 mph and giving the batter roughly 1.65 seconds to track it.
The fastest stays flat at a 6-foot arc and hits the back of the mat at about 33 mph, leaving the batter 1.1 seconds.
For comparison, a big-league fastball reaches the plate in about 0.4 seconds - so even our hardest pitch gives a hitter nearly three times as long to watch it come in.
Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | 10 | 3 | .769 |
| Lightning Strikes | 9 | 5 | .643 |
| Xtreme | 7 | 6 | .538 |
| Bad News Bears | 7 | 7 | .500 |
| Thunder | 7 | 7 | .500 |
| Raptors | 6 | 8 | .429 |
| Shorebirds | 5 | 9 | .357 |
| Rebels | 4 | 10 | .286 |