Sign hanging over our bed says it all. Nearly 40 years later.

2013 Softball Tournaments

May 18^th & 19^th-SOP’s Memorial Classic: Fortuna. 3 game Guaranteed $250. Metal bat. (Note this is a 2 day tournament.) Contact Sam at 707-845-3064 or Toye 707-599-5928 for more information.

May 25^th-Doctor Bob and “Scatman” Memorial Tournament: Weaverville. 3 Game Guaranteed $200. Metal Bat. One Day. Contact Todd at 530-739-5681.

June 1^st & 2^nd-“Lewiston Bash” : Lewiston.$200. Metal Bat. Contact Jesse Para at 530-227-0541.

June 2^nd-“ 0-2 & Barbeque!”:  McKinleyville. $125. CO-ED Wood Bat. Contact 707-839-9003.  

June 15^th-SAC “First Chance” Invitational: Arcata. 3 Game Guaranteed. $199. USSSA Metal Bat. One day. Contact Richard Marks 707-445-3432.

June 22^nd NSA Invitational: BLD Redding.  Contact www.nsacal.net.

June 29^th & 30^th-“Firecracker” Invitational: Crescent City. 3 Game Guaranteed. $250. Metal Bat. Contact John Horner at 707-951-2397.

July 13^th & 14^th-3^rd Annual “Redwood Coast Grand Slam”: Eureka. 3 Game Guaranteed. Freaking only $125! ASA and USSSA metal bats! Contact Steve Enes at 707-441-4245.

July 6^th and 7^th-“Belated 4^th of July Invitational”: Arcata. (Tentative) 3 Game Guaranteed. $199. Metal or Wood Bat. Contact Richard Marks 707-445-3432

July 13^th &14^th-“Budwieser Shoot Out!”: Ukiah. 3 Game Guaranteed. $300. ASA. (Better bring your “A” game and team for this.) Contact 707-463-6714

July 20^th & 21^st-“Battle of the Border!” Invitational: Crescent City. 3 Game Guaranteed. $250. Metal Bat. Contact John Horner at 707-951-2397.

July 20^th & 21^st-“Mountain Bash”: Weaverville. 3 Game Guaranteed. $220. Metal Bat. Contact Jesse Para at 530-227-0541.

August 10^th & 11^th-“Del Norte Wood Bat Invitational”: Crescent City. 3 Game Guaranteed. $250. 11” ball in use. Contact John Horner 707-951-2397.

August 10^th & 11^th-“Samoa Athletic Club Invitational”: BLD Redding. 3 Game Guaranteed. $199. USSSA “E” & “D” Division. 1 home run per inning.  Contact Richard Marks at 707-445-3432.

August 17^th & 18^th-Humboldt Domestic Violence Services (HDVS) 3^rd annual “Heart of the Redwoods Invitational”: Arcata. 3 Game Guaranteed. $225. USSSA Metal Bat.

August 23^rd thru 25^th-“Coors Light Boneyard Bash”: Medford. 48 Hour Tournament. Metal Bat. Lots of teams! Jesse Horning 775-997-8000.

Sept 7^th & 8^th-“Tomaso’s Wood Bat Invitational”: Willow Creek. $250. Wood Bat. Contact Richard Marks at 707-445-3432. Can only handle 10 teams. Full each year. First 10 to pay up front.

Sept 7^th & 8^th-“SAC Valley Invitational”: BLD Redding. USSSA “E” & “D” Division. 3 Game Guaranteed. $199. Contact Richard Marks at 707-445-3432.

Sept 14^th-“TMS Softball Invitational”: BLD Redding. Metal Bat. Contact Mark Madrone at 530-941-8463 for more information.

Sept 21^st and 22^nd-“SAC Last Chance!” :Invitational: Arcata. 3 Game Guaranteed. $199. USSSA Metal Bat. Contact Richard Marks at 707-445-3432

I am sure I have missed some and I know that Medford and Redding will be hosting tournaments almost weekly in October thru December. If you want to play most of these, you have my number!

Mad River Softball Metal Bat Update.

To answer some confusion: The proposed metal bat division will be held on Tuesday or Thursday nights. Yes, you or your teams can play in both wood bat and metal bat leagues. Doubleheaders can be arranged for Southern Humboldt or Crescent City teams. USSSA sanctioned bats with sticker are the legal metal bats. Seniors over 50 are allowed Mikan Ultra's. We will be using Dudley Thunder 44 core balls with .375 Compression tentatively. Home Run rule will most likely be 1 per inning or 5 per game and then equalizer. I will let managers decide the best fit.

Metal Bat Teams so far! Tentative of course. Meeting May 22nd at Arcata Community center.

1. Lets Play Ball!

2. Ofer's

3. SAC

4. Snow Leopards

5. SOP

6. Bear River

7. Monster

8. Batting Cages

9. Solo Sports

10. Les Schwab

Am I missing any team moving from wood bat to metal?

They are Back! Indian Island Egrets!

Their back! Driving across the Samoa Bridge I noticed a flock of Egrets in the Monterey Cypress trees on Indian Island. Summer must be around the corner! Every year they show back up to nest. There is some concern about how much longer that they can use the island, as the trees are not native and were planted in the 1860's. They might be closing in on their life span.

Best Foo Foo Burger places in Eureka.

This last weekend I was in a softball tournament in Redding. While there I had a chance to go to Five guys burgers and the next day go to In N Out burger. (Just what is in that In-N-Out special spread?!) I know we don't have these places but it made me wonder once again, what is the best places for a burger, besides the fast food places. Here is an updated list for best places in Eureka! (Not elsewhere in the county.)

10. Waterfront Cafe. Want blah foo foo? This is it. Needs something to perk it up.

 

9. Village Pantry. Can be really good, or really so so. Hit and miss.

8. Kristina's. This place is trying too hard to go classy. But they are consistent.

7. Fresh Freeze. Good sloppy burgers!

6. Stars. Funny how one bad experience can turn you off on a place. Many think this is the best though.

5. Mike Drive up. Love their fries. Burgers are up and down. They sure are grumpy there! Be sure to wear an Obama shirt to see their reaction!

4. Amy's Delight. Go there at lunch time and be shocked at how many burgers they sell! No frills but good old style burgers.

3. Double AA. Double good or what's with that? You just don't know what you will get each trip.

2. Surfside Burger Shack. I used to think this place was just all right. But the longer they have been open the better they get! Even though they serve grass fed beef.

1. Cafe Nooner. The King of the Eureka Foo Foo! You won't be disappointed. Way under my radar, but this place is classy and good!

Yes, there are others that deserve notice like Cafe Marina, Ingomar Club, Sizzler, Adels, Golden Harvest, Avalon, Lost Coast........but this is just one man's opinion. And we all know samoasoftball loves his food!

Batter up! Spring League starts May 5th!

The Mad River Softball Association is hosting an adult wood bat Sunday softball league starting May 5th at the Arcata Community Sports Complex. Teams play double headers starting no earlier than 12:30pm. Free agent players without teams will be placed on teams. Players must be at least 16 years or older. For more information contact (707) 445-3432 or email Samoafog@aol.com.

Are Our students too Drugged to learn? How do we fix the broken education system?

I don’t know what happened over the years to dummy down our educational system. Or did we drug it down?

When I went to school in the 60’s and 70’s the system seemed pretty straight forward. You came to school, you listened to the teachers, who were usually working alone and were graded A through F on your ability. Or by Grade point average which was 0-F, 1-D, 2-C, 3-B or 4-A. There were no above 4.0 point averages. You could not go over 100%! Whoever started this trend of giving scores higher that perfect have done a disservice to students. If kids were in need of special attention they were a small percentage and had their own class. Students were disciplined physically, (Spanked or swatted) and knew the repercussions of their actions.

What has changed? The over active or “hyper” kid of my time has been diagnosed as “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. Now here is something to blow you away, around 20% of students in the US have been diagnosed with ADHD. Add the 2% Autistic Autistic children and 1.3% with Mental Retardation and other physical special needs and you have almost 25% of the students in the US designated as “Special Needs!” 11% of these kids are on the drug Methylphenidate (Ritalin) and others are on other drugs! Each school district is mandated under law to have 1 on 1 teacher aids to help with education. And with a 22% of the general population of students coming from impoverished families, doesn’t this put poor school districts at a disadvantage in teaching the public?  

Even with such help, our students lag way behind other industrial nations in education. Is it drugs? Why do our students use 5 times the amount of Ritalin compared to other countries? Why has the drug use of Ritalin risen 700% over the last 10 years? Wrong diagnosis? Push by Pharmaceutical companies?

What are the solutions? I don’t know if our education system is too broke to fix. Help me out here.

Happy Easter and City of Eureka votes to apply for funding for East/West Railroad Feasability Study.

 

Went to todays “Special Meeting” of the Eureka City Council about sending a resolution to Cal Trans and apply for a grant in the amount of $295,000 for an east/west rail feasibility study. City of Eureka Consultant David Hull gave a presentation to the Council and said they were under a time crunch and needed to file the necessary paperwork by a April 2^nd deadline. City staff was contributing $17,500 as a cash support or “match” for their time provided. Newly formed Organization Land Bridge Alliance would be kicking in $35,000 as a matchinf fund themselves. David felt a “Privately” financed only would fail with garnering permits in the future and that is why “Public” funding was being solicited.

Councilperson Linda Atkins wanted to know why there was such an emergency for this funding and felt it was inappropriate to call a special meeting on “Good Friday.” She felt there was a need for more public input and pointed out the funding would not be available until 2014 anyways.

The Public was invited to speak after other councilmembers spoke briefly of their support to the resolution:

Loraine Parnell- Why the special meeting? Was the Consultant to blame for short notice?

Pete Oringer- Member of the Timber Heritage Association and Land Bridge Alliance felt it was proper to apply for Public Grants to “augment” and “foster” the process and that it would give the project an advantage with environmental issues.

Jessica Hall- Baykeeper’s representative had some concerns about the concept. She was questioning what Eureka’s role in the project and what the ramifications the city may face.

Susana Munzell- Member of the Land Bridge Alliance and Chair of the Humboldt Bay Harbor Working Group spoke in favor of the study.

Debbie Provolt- Pointed out the constraints of transportation, and the “Freight in, freight out” disadvantage that drives goods prices up for Humboldt. Felt this was a great step forward.

John Grobey- Former HSU Economics Professor pointed out that he was assigned in the 80’s to look into this for the Army Corp of Engineers and came to the conclusion that linkages between the Port and Land made no sense without each other. His observation of the North/South after the closure of rail service led him to believe that continuing rail service in the that direction make no sense. Supports the East/West concept.

Sid Berg- Said it was long shot, but we needed to do something to keep workers local.

Dave Schneider- Dock owner. Pointed out the loss of hundreds of jobs around the bay. Blamed some of problem on regulation and some on transportation structure and bad goods movement.  

Back to Council for deliberation:

Linda Atkins- Had problem with using Public funds for this project and felt the decision should be put off to a further date.

Marian Brady- Felt our weaknesses with “In and out” transportation halts prosperity and would support the project.

Melinda Ciarabellini- Was supporting resolution and didn’t want a “Missed Opportunity. “

Lance Madsen- (By remote) Wanted to see further harbor development. Supported Resolution.

Mike Newman- Eureka Mayor Pro Tem. “Baykeepers don’t want Harbor Development or more business! We need wages and jobs!” He pointed out that the short notice was not that important to him and said getting the “Rail Connect” committee together was a hard to do even once a month because of their geographic issues.

Linda Atkins- Closed council discussion by saying she had problems with the calling for a “Special Meeting” and felt there was no emergency. She said she was all for business, but this project would be something for her Grandchildren or their grandkids to enjoy. She publically said she was not against the rail or the project, but felt it should be privately funded and if they were going to use public funds there should be more time to discuss since the council never had discussed in the past “Using $300,000!”

The Resolution passed 4-1 Linda Atkins dissenting.