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Sports Illustrated’s Selena Roberts, when asked during an interview on the SI website about the future of softball as an Olympic competition on Thursday, added some liberal commentary into her prediction about the sport’s redemption: "One other wildcard for 2016 is the exit of the Bush administration. The undercurrent of anti-Americanism within the IOC, which some say has hurt the U.S. because of its softball dominance, may abate somewhat with a potential administration led by Barack Obama, a rock star in Europe."

SI.com: Give us your best guess: Will softball get reinstated for the 2016 Games? Roberts: I think there is great momentum right now to reinstate softball for 2016 due to a couple of important reasons: First, Asian countries have poured a lot of resources into women's softball. Japan is one example, and those countries have a lot of pull with the IOC. Second, I think America is doing the right thing in exporting its knowledge of the game by establishing clinics in Europe where there is more resistance toward the game of softball. One other wildcard for 2016 is the...

BEIJING - USA softball almost lost Wednesday. And this is what passes for exciting in this sport at the Olympics.Japan nearly scored an upset. How fun for them."That was softball at its best," U.S. coach Mike Candrea said. If that is truly the case, if a 4-1 victory in extra innings to extend Team USA's Olympic winning streak to 22 games is really the pinnacle, it is time for wrap-it-up sign. It has been fun, even entertaining at times, but it's time for softball to use this possibly permanent hiatus from The Game to fix what is obviously broken.A pitching...

BEIJING, China -- Already guaranteed a medal, but showing no signs of slowing down, the United States softball team cruised to a 9-0 rout of China on Monday. [...]The three U.S. pitchers -- Osterman, Finch and Monica Abbott -- have a 0.00 combined ERA in 39 innings pitched. The U.S. has outscored its opponents 53-1 in its seven games, with the only run allowed being an unearned tally by Canada last week.

Now no longer the center ring for the traveling Democratic presidential nomination circus, Pennsylvania's inventive political community has discovered a new favorite political parlor game to while away the brisk springtime evenings: will Chris Matthews, the irrepressible host of MSNBC's Hardball, step down from his pundits perch to run for the US Senate against Arlen Specter in 2010? To a remarkable degree, speculation abounds over this possibility in the Keystone State. The indications that Matthews will run are abundant. His MSNBC contract runs out next summer, and both he and the network show signs they might be ready for a...

Something remarkable happened in a college softball game Saturday in Ellensburg(Washington). At least, I am conditioned to think it was remarkable, since it involved an act of sportsmanship, with two players helping an injured opponent complete the home run she had just slugged.

Good story of a girl who hit a game winning home run, blew her knee out rounding first and the opposing team carries her around the bases.. If the link doesn't take you to the story, go to www.yahoo.com and on the top of the screen it will say "featured" "entertainment" "sports" "video"..click "sports".. http://www.yahoo.com/

With two runners on base and a strike against her, Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University uncorked her best swing and did something she had never done, in high school or college. Her first home run cleared the center-field fence. But it appeared to be the shortest of dreams come true when she missed first base, started back to tag it and collapsed with a knee injury.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Softball, drunken orgies and a prison system run like the mafia. That's what Florida's former prison secretary says he inherited when he took over one of the nation's largest prison systems two years ago. Excerpt: • Top prison officials admitting to kickbacks; • Guards importing and selling steroids in an effort to give them an edge on the softball field; • Taxpayer funds to pay for booze and women; • Guards who punished other guards who threatened to report them. "Corruption had gone to an extreme," McDonough said, saying it all began at the top. "They...

The Anchoress predicted this moment five days ago, but who could have guessed it would come on such a softball question? Hillary Clinton let go a couple of tears -- possibly -- not out of passion for her position, but out of pity for herself: "My question is very personal, how do you do it?" asked Marianne Pernold Young, a freelance photographer from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "How do you, how do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?" Clinton began responding, jokingly: "You know, I think, well luckily, on special days I do have help. If you see me every day...

MERIDIAN - A Centennial High School softball coach is charged with sexual battery of a minor. Ada County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Andrea Dearden confirms 22-year-old Lauren K. Palmer was arrested early Saturday morning in Eagle. Dearden says a sheriff’s deputy spotted a car in a local park after 1 a.m. - and witnessed what is described as “inappropriate touching” between Palmer and a female minor. The arrest report indicates the minor is aged 16 or 17 years old.

Eddie Feigner, the hard-throwing softball showman who barnstormed for more than 50 years with "The King and His Court" four-man team, died Friday. He was 81. Feigner, the former Marine known for his trademark crewcut and bulging right arm, died in Huntsville, Ala., from a respiratory ailment related to dementia, wife Anne Marie Feigner said Friday night. With a fastball once clocked at 104 mph, The King threw 930 no-hitters, 238 perfect games and struck out 141,517 batters while playing more than 10,000 games. He was inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame in 2000. A stroke in...

Eddie Feigner, the hard-throwing softball showman who barnstormed for more than 50 years with his "The King and His Court" four-man team, died Friday. He was 81. Feigner, the former Marine known for his trademark crewcut and bulging right arm, died in Huntsville, Ala., from a respiratory ailment related to dementia, wife Anne Marie Feigner said Friday night. With a fastball once clocked at 104 mph, Feigner threw 930 no-hitters and 238 perfect games and struck out 141,517 batters while playing more than 10,000 games. He was inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame in 2000. A stroke...

I just signed my daugher and son up for next spings softball and baseball little league teams. Here in Orange County California it costs: 11 year old boy "AAA" - $160.00 9 year old girl "A" - $170.00 How do we compare with your local fees?

Larry King and Nine Harpies. Truly Frightening.

This morning, President Bush, accompanied by Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and Attorney-General Alberto Gonzalez, signed H.R. 972, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Later the President spoke to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their meeting in Washington, highlighting progress in fashioning democracy in Iraq, rebuilding the economy and training Iraqi forces. He then welcomed the 2005 Little League Softball World Series Champions, from McLean, Va, in the Oval Office. First Lady Laura Bush today delivered a speech at the National Conference on At-Risk Youth, opening the Coordinating Council...

11-02) 22:37 PST Temple City, Calif. (AP) -- A thief walked off with 16-year-old Melissa Huff's prosthetic leg, sidelining the high school softball player from the game she loves. Such a leg costs about $5,000 to $7,000, said Huff's father, David, but can't really be used by anyone else because it was custom made. "It's not something you can just sell on the street. Something like that, it's just cruel," Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Tim Phillips said of the theft. The leg was taken sometime Tuesday afternoon by a thief who cut a hole in a window screen, entered...

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - It was an ending straight out of "The Natural," except Sarah Kahn substituted for Roy Hobbs. Whoever wrote the script for Saturday's Big League Softball World Series championship game certainly included the happy ending for Antelope Valley District 51. The West region champions walked away with the world title for the first time since 1996, in a 3-2 victory over Charleston, W. Va. The win avenged Antelope Valley's only tournament loss, a 2-1 Charleston victory over in pool play on Wednesday. Saturday's championship game, held at Vanderberg Park, had all the makings of a suspenseful contest that...

Aging Baby Boomers Flocking to Play SoftballBy Don Babwin Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 8, 2005 ELGIN, Ill. (AP) - When pitcher Dave Shortz sticks his glove out and knocks a high chopper into the air, all second baseman Paul Dobkowski can do is wait for it to come down. When it finally does, it lands right in his brand new glove. And, luckily, the guy who hit it looks like he's running in sand. One out. Dobkowski, 50, who resumed playing softball this year after taking 15 years off, is part of a growing and graying group of men...

Last week, Fox anchor Neil Cavuto secured a White House interview with President Bush, and liberals were upset. It wasn’t tough enough. Washington Post correspondent Daniel Froomkin reported that Cavuto asked about Mrs. Bush, John Kerry’s grades, and media overcoverage of Michael Jackson, but sneered: "Who wants to talk about that messy war in Iraq, or the Downing Street Memo? Not Neil Cavuto, Fox News executive, anchor, commentator and Bush campaign contributor." Fox-defending blogger "Johnny Dollar" noted two problems with Froomkin. First, Bush was asked about Iraq and that memo at a press conference the day before, so would that...

Column: Softball coach snaps the unwritten rules BY JEFF NELSON When written rules are broken, punishment follows. It's a basic tenet in sports, and one we see practiced nearly every day. What we don't often see, and frankly, what I can't ever recall seeing, is a punishment for breaking unwritten rules. But that appears to be what took place at Central Cabarrus High this past week. Softball coach Monte Sherrill was suspended by the school for two games after his team, which is ranked fourth in the nation by USA Today, beat West Charlotte, 55-0, on April 15. Go ahead...

Chris Matthews really needs to retire the name "Hardball" for his talk show on MSNBC. When it comes to liberal or radical guests, he ought to rename the show "Cuddles with Chris." When did this toothless trend become too obvious to ignore? It could have been with John Kerry about a year ago, when Matthews asked him "hardballs" like whether the Bush campaign was hoisting themselves "on their own petard by bringing up the issue of your service," and whether it was possible the Republicans were questioning Kerry's service because they realize "they can't beat you on the jobs issue,...

Many gay activists compare their current “civil rights” struggles with those faced by blacks in the segregated South in the 1950s. The comparison is deemed offensive by many blacks, given that the average black income is still much lower than the average white income in America. Blacks’ educational attainment still falls well below that of white Americans, even fifty years after the landmark Brown decision. By contrast, gay Americans are wealthier and more educated than their straight counterparts. Nonetheless, lesbian millionaire (and North Carolina Senator) Julia Boseman thinks they need a helping hand. That’s why her family started a special...

Heads up! (Or down as the case may be.) NBC's Dateline will be showing part one of a two part broadcast of an interview conducted by Today Show hostess Katie Couric at 7 p.m. EDT.Part two will be shown on Monday's Today Show.

Last night (Thursday, Oct. 14) on CNBC's low-rated show McEnroe, star softball pitcher Jennie Finch declared she's a conservative! The drop-dead gorgeous Olympic gold medalist was a guest on the show after Ann Coulter had talked about her new book, "How To Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)." The conservative Coulter had gotten into a heated debate with the liberal McEnroe and a previous guest, who was also liberal. After a commercial break, McEnroe implied that Coulter stormed off the set abruptly after her segments instead of staying for the remainder of the show, which is usually the custom....

HOW "like our Prez"..............this is from a home schooler mom...:O) love dem moms....... : My night with President Bush HAD TO SHARE THIS WITH ALL YOU'LLs Oh. My. Goodness. What a night! Regardless of whom you are voting for this November, please just indulge me for a few minutes to tell you what an incredible night we just had! Saturday night, I got a call from one of the people I've helped with the Bush campaign. He said there was going to be a special picnic with a special guest and invited my family to come, swearing us to secrecy...

Alright, we haven't finalized plans for this yet, but we're planning an impromptu protest outside of Chris Matthews' "Hardball" program tomorrow.It will be held around Herald Square and take place between three and four p.m. in the afternoon. These plans are tentative of course, and depend upon the level of support we receive. Protest Warrior has allowed us to use their signs, so don't worry about that aspect of this demonstration. If you are interested, or know of any other freepers, conventioneers, or likeminded Republicans who may be interested in refuting the lies spouted by that loutish, low-rent loudmouth, please...

Here is my captured closed captioning causing Kerry credibility concerns. Chrissy Matthews LOVES KERRY!!! He kept trying to get Mr. Thurlow to spin it fifty different ways... TV Channel 65 Thu Aug 19 18:03:29 2004 certainly. Let me ask but the quote that you have in this ad. It says, these are your words speaking in the advertisement. When the clips were down, you could not count on john kerry. Why do you say that? >> The main reason i say that is because it became apparent oriole that john kerry had a master plan that went far beyond the...

Greece beats Canada 2-0 for first Olympic softball win TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer Sunday, August 15, 2004 (08-15) 12:51 PDT ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- One night after setting an Olympic record for errors, Greece's softball team put something else in the books: its first victory. Sarah Farnworth pitched a shutout as a Greek team made up primarily of American-born players stunned Canada 2-0 Sunday.

Bush Sr. Throws First Olympic Pitch Sat Aug 14, 2004 12:15 PM ET By Jon Herskovitz Former President George Bush tosses out the first pitch before a softball game between Japan and Australia, at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, August 14, 2004. Photo by Pool/Reuters ATHENS (Reuters) - Former President Bush, father of the White House incumbent, tossed out the first pitch to open the Olympic softball competition in Athens on Saturday. Bush senior, who played baseball at Yale, is in Greece at the head of a presidential party. He was cheered by the crowd, though few came to...

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. -- Police in Boynton Beach are questioning whether one person is responsible for planting more than one pipe bomb on the streets of the city. A park on Fifth Avenue had to be cleared out as the bomb squad moved in Wednesday. This is not the first time explosives have been found in this corner of Boynton Beach. A seniors softball game was called off, the park was evacuated, and the bomb squad was called in after one of the players found a bomb in the outfield. "It was a piece of PVC capped on both ends,...

In Loving Memory of... Bossier Parish students raise money for family of deceased track coach Rachel Hayes Press-Tribune Bossier High School was bustling with activity Monday as faculty and students worked a fund-raiser to raise money for a very special family. All the proceeds of the fund-raiser will to directly to the family of Coach Shannon Babineaux who died several weeks ago after being hit in the head with a softball during a slow-pitch softball game. Babineaux left behind a wife and infant son. What started out as a small fund-raiser soon turned into a major undertaking as people all...

John Kerry to the right of MSNBC's Chris Matthews? On Tuesday's Hardball, after asking Senator Kerry if he thinks President Bush would be interviewed by the 9/11 Commission alongside Dick Cheney because "he's afraid that his testimony won't jive with the Vice President's?", Matthews proposed to Kerry: "You were a prosecutor....If you had two witnesses, two material witnesses, you had two, even defendants, and they said, and they were accused of operating together in some sort of theft or whatever, and they said, 'Can we, can we testify together?' What would you have said as a prosecutor?" But Matthews had...

AFTER TRAIN WRECKS on Meet the Press and Good Morning America, John Kerry took his tattered credibility to the friendly confines of Hardball, where a sympathetic and compliant Chris Matthews did his very best to help Kerry make it through at least one interview without wandering into bizarre asides, prolix dependent clauses, and baffling hedges. Chris Matthews failed. On the bizarre side of the ledger, Kerry ended the interview by bringing up the fact that Karen Hughes had been born in Paris. Matthews was confused by this sudden turn of events and first indicated the interest that accompanies the revelation...

Check out this question the hard probing interviewer Chris Matthews asked John Kerry last night on his show ;'Hard Ball with Chris Matthews': MATTHEWS: Do you think this administration and its political handlers like Karl Rove are capable of realizing they can‘t beat you on the jobs issue, they can‘t beat you on foreign policy, so they are going to drop this nonsensical stuff? Don Evans, the secretary of commerce and the president‘s good friend, said you look French the other day. Are they going to after Teresa because she was born in Mozambique? Are they going to try to...

Given the last few days he has had with his medals (or is it ribbons?) controversy, John Kerry needed a break. He got one last night on Chris Matthews' program, Hardball. Doing everything he could to not live up to the program's famous name, Matthews lobbed one meaty pitch after another at the presumptive Democratic nominee. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that Matthews, for some reason, has an affinity for Massachusetts politicians. A portent of what was to come occurred in the lead-in. A taped congratulatory note from Senator John McCain on Hardball's 7th Anniversary prompted Matthews...

Often on the losing end of inter-agency policy battles, the US State Department Monday announced a rare victory, proudly reporting its triumph in the government's annual softball tournament. "We're number one!" Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) exclaimed to reporters outside the the State Department. The State Department team was ranked only eighth going into the weekend playoffs but bested the number-five seeded Labor Department (news - web sites), the number-three seeded Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) and the second-seeded Justice Department (news - web sites) to win the championship, deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said....

In an effort to be inclusive, this thread is for nonmetrosexual males (and likeminded women) to advise queer guys on their outfits, decor, vehicles, hairstyles, homes and hobbies. I've outfitted the thread with keywords toward this end.Enjoy.

Clinton to talk with NPR's Smiley Paige AlbiniakBroadcasting & Cable5/8/2002 5:36:00 PMPerhaps former U.S. President Bill Clinton will offer some insight into what he thinks about hosting his own television talk show when he becomes a guest on National Public Radio talker The Tavis Smiley Show Friday, May 10. Smiley is syndicated and available on NPR outlets in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta and 14 other markets. An Internet transcript of the show will be available at www.npr.org/programs/tavis after 8 a.m. EST Friday.