quote:

Originally posted by mobettergame:

quote:

Originally posted by sportsdame:
This is to Laloosh, I notice that you have posted several times after me, and this is to let you know you are on ignore so I don't have to put up with your crap. I'm sure that whatever you typed was derogatory in some way, so please continue to show the masses what a total jack*** you are. Buzz off..

Laloosh - sometimes you just can't win ;-) these forum members are a tough crowd.

Woman has some issues.

I just want to congratulate the team for a well played season, they were good enough to win it all but that's the way it goes. Roll Tide Roll.

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Originally posted by bamammv:
I just want to congratulate the team for a well played season, they were good enough to win it all but that's the way it goes. Roll Tide Roll.

No, they weren't good enough to win it all. Florida is clearly the better team, consistently. I would be surprised if Florida didn't finish the season with just the 3 losses they have entering the championship series.

I personally think when all the dust settles the majority opinion within softball circles will be that Alabama was the only team in the nation that had a chance to stop the Gators.

What Alabama did this season was truly remarkable. A very prominent person in the national softball hierarchy pulled me aside and said this will be remembered as the year the Pac-10's dominance was ended -- not because of Florida, but because of the way Alabama disposed of Arizona and Arizona State on eliminaton Saturday.

I will have a story for Tuesday on the future of the program. Patrick Murphy is very optimistic.

For those of you who are down on Kelsi Dunne -- and I understand your frustration after a tough loss -- that ball is a fly out in most ballparks. ASA Hall of Fame Stadium is 190 feet down the lines, and it looked more like a long pop-up coming off the bat.

Dunne was a first-team All-American as voted on by the coaches. She's only a sophomore. Florida's ace, Stacey Nelson, wasn't as good two years ago as Dunne was this year, and that was coming off elbow surgery with no fall practice.

Think of it as starting a quarterback as a freshman in the SEC and the kind of growing pains that comes with it.

Kelsi Dunne would be the No. 1 ace at Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Oklahoma and a number of other schools considered softball powers. Mike Candrea of Arizona would have traded his whole staff and a couple of hitters to have her this season.

Like I said, I understand your feelings, but sometimes a little perspective is needed. Danielle Lawrie, the Canadian ace who has Washington in the title round, was shelled by Georgia today. She walked in the winning run in the first semifinal game with the Dawgs. I suspect most Alabama fans would call it a choke job if a UA pitcher did the same thing in the same situation, but that's the national Player of the Year.

Amazingly, nobody is perfect.

Thanks for all your coverage and insight throughout the year, Tommy. Because of you, I know a lot more about softball than I did before.

I wonder how Whitney Larsen would feel if she saw that picture on the front page.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy Deas:
I personally think when all the dust settles the majority opinion within softball circles will be that Alabama was the only team in the nation that had a chance to stop the Gators.

What Alabama did this season was truly remarkable. A very prominent person in the national softball hierarchy pulled me aside and said this will be remembered as the year the Pac-10's dominance was ended -- not because of Florida, but because of the way Alabama disposed of Arizona and Arizona State on eliminaton Saturday.

I will have a story for Tuesday on the future of the program. Patrick Murphy is very optimistic.

Blah - blah - Blah Tommy. Let's see - in your post yesterday - you were lecturing us about the Missouri coach using the field as an excuse -- and you were so glad Murphy didn't do that SO - today you act as a mouthpiece for Murphy and use the field as an excuse for him. Geeez - are you that blind? So the man was genius in his substitution yesterday - but today when he pitches to the homerun queen when the game at stake -- he is what???????

Oh - and what kind of a closing sentence is that? LMAO -- it's reassuring that Patrick Murphy is optimistic about the future. What else did you expect him to be??????

OK, I would have pulled Dunne after she walked the first batter in the bottom of the 7th on 4 straight pitches that were not even close to a strike. That said, Murphy is a good coach who has his work cut out for him trying to replace some of the best softball players in the country. The seniors on this team will not be easy to replace, and the attitude they had was outstanding. You have to give the coaches some credit for this. The pitching coach needs to work with Dunne on finishing a game, and hope she can have a little bit of talent behind her on the field and at the bat.
Congradulations to this Bama softball team for a great and exciting season. I know the loss was extremely hard on you, but looking back you can really be proud of being part of something that was very SPECIAL. RTR

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy Deas:
I personally think when all the dust settles the majority opinion within softball circles will be that Alabama was the only team in the nation that had a chance to stop the Gators.

What Alabama did this season was truly remarkable. A very prominent person in the national softball hierarchy pulled me aside and said this will be remembered as the year the Pac-10's dominance was ended -- not because of Florida, but because of the way Alabama disposed of Arizona and Arizona State on eliminaton Saturday.

I will have a story for Tuesday on the future of the program. Patrick Murphy is very optimistic.

Tommy, Thanks for all you do, while I do think that Kelsi might have to work on her mental game after that, she was distraught, I do think that you can look at the two dominant pitchers today and see that they all go through this, Nelson as a sophmore and Lawrie two years ago, were not the same pitchers they are today. After UW's marathon at UMass, Lawrie even admitted that two years ago she might not have had the mental strength to complete that game, For all those that down this program, because they can't take that next step, focus on the programs that aren't making it to the final four consistantly. These girls represent the program with such class they deserve nothing but praise and support.

quote:

Originally posted by mobettergame:

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy Deas:
I personally think when all the dust settles the majority opinion within softball circles will be that Alabama was the only team in the nation that had a chance to stop the Gators.

What Alabama did this season was truly remarkable. A very prominent person in the national softball hierarchy pulled me aside and said this will be remembered as the year the Pac-10's dominance was ended -- not because of Florida, but because of the way Alabama disposed of Arizona and Arizona State on eliminaton Saturday.

I will have a story for Tuesday on the future of the program. Patrick Murphy is very optimistic.

Blah - blah - Blah Tommy. Let's see - in your post yesterday - you were lecturing us about the Missouri coach using the field as an excuse -- and you were so glad Murphy didn't do that SO - today you act as a mouthpiece for Murphy and use the field as an excuse for him. Geeez - are you that blind? So the man was genius in his substitution yesterday - but today when he pitches to the homerun queen when the game at stake -- he is what???????

Oh - and what kind of a closing sentence is that? LMAO -- it's reassuring that Patrick Murphy is optimistic about the future. What else did you expect him to be??????

On the last point, I was just telling you what the article for tomorrow is about -- wouldn't you be optimistic if you just signed three of the top 25 prospects in the country?

As for Murphy's comments on the field, you have to put it in context. Ehren Earlywhine, the Missouri coach, blamed the field, in part, for his team's loss in his opening comments.

Murphy was asked by an Oklahoma City newspaper columnist on the trend of rising scores and what Murphy thinks could be done to make the tournament better.

At no point in his comments did Murphy say anything about the field having anything to do with Alabama's loss. The Missouri coach did. Big difference.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy Deas:
Like I said, I understand your feelings, but sometimes a little perspective is needed. Danielle Lawrie, the Canadian ace who has Washington in the title round, was shelled by Georgia today. She walked in the winning run in the first semifinal game with the Dawgs. I suspect most Alabama fans would call it a choke job if a UA pitcher did the same thing in the same situation, but that's the national Player of the Year.
Amazingly, nobody is perfect.

I was one of the people who was down on Dunne after the loss last night. I don't think she's perfect, but I don't deny that she's a very good pitcher - when she's good. She's inconsistent, though, which is understandable since she IS junior a sophomore - and I agree, she's better than most sophmores.

The problem I had with the pitching in the WCWS for Bama was two-fold. In the first loss, Dunne was unable to get into rhythm due to the umpire being unable to tell the difference between a ball and a strike. Murphy was right, Dunne needed to just get over it, but she didn't in that game. In the Florida game, I had absolutely ZERO complaints with Dunne's pitching through 6 innings. Entering the bottom of the 7th, she was clearly spent (I started to type "done"). The coaches should have pulled her and put Charlotte Morgan in to finish the game, just as Florida pulled their ace because they expected to need her in a second game. If Alabama HAD held on to win the first game, Morgan would have pitched in the second game (if Bama had any desire to win it, that is), but as it was, that didn't matter because they lost the first one.