Philly Force

Meet iSaac, RIP iAn

2009-06-27T03:50:00.007-05:00

Due to some mysterious water damage, my beloved iPhone, iAn passed away on June 7th, 2009. In case you're one of those odd PCs, let me just tell you that once you go Mac, you never go back! (Why isn't that a t-shirt?) So, with that said it was obvious that I was going to get another iPhone. After 36 phone-less hours of torture, I ventured to the Apple store here in Allentown to receive the diagnosis. A Genius finally told me that iAn could not be revived and that I needed to buy a replacement. But he also added that Apple announced the release of the NEW iPhone on July 26th. He suggested that I get a go-phone and spend $200 on the brand new iPhone rather than $250 on a replacement iPhone without all the cool new features. Genius. <-- ha! I didn't even plan that. What a fitting name. So for 17 torturous days I was the owner of a go-phone. I can't tell you how many times I tried to touch the screen, as if a $15 (nearly indestructible, says Radio Shack man) phone would function like iAn. Not a chance. Oh and my fingers were sore from texting... I had to PUSH buttons! Absurd. The morning of July 26th could not have come slower! The Apple Store was opening at 7am, so I got some coffee and headed there at 6:30am with my reservation for a black 16GB. Of course there were about 50 people ahead of me in line, geeks. After 2 hours of listening to other's chat about which phone they were getting, the new features, and how geeky their lives were, it was my turn. I marched in towards a Genuis and he proceeded to ask "What can I do for you?" Really? What the heck do you think I'm here for at this hour?! So I said "I'd like to buy an iPhone please." Genuis - "Do you have a reservation?" Yes. "Blah, blah, what color and size? are you do for an upgrade? blah, blah, blah. I can't sell you the phone." Whaaaaat?! He then tried to explain that because I was not the principal account holder, he wouldn't take MY $200 for the phone in my hands. Uggghhhh. He directed me to the AT&T store. "They can help you." Ten minutes after entering the AT&T store, I left with my new iPhone in hand. Frustration. Dumb Genius. Haha. When I returned to the dorms, Margo was still sleeping (as most of us are at 9am). So I quietly opened the new iPhone, iSaac's box, and plugged him into my Mac, Marvin. Marvin prompted me asking "do you want to restore to the last iPhone back-up?" Yes, please! 30ish minutes later iSaac was up and running and EVERYTHING from iAn's last back-up was restored. We're talking emails, pictures, text messages, notes, alarms... amazing. RIP iAn. And the go-phone could see some time again in the future for water events. I might be a professional athlete, but I cannot afford to replace iSaac any time soon.

.. not happy about being awake at 6am, hair wasn't happy either... the line

NPF Top Dog Contest!

2009-06-26T14:03:00.010-05:00

The NPF is having a Top Dog contest where players can enter their pets and anyone can vote for them! If you know me, you probably know that I am obsessed with animals, especially my own! The website only let me put up one picture of each of them but I wanted to post some more... so here are my top dogs!! :) (click on their names to vote for them!!)

Roxy - Roxy is a california girl at heart! She enjoys swimming in the backyard, laying out in the sun, trips to dog beach and walks every night with Dad!

Sammy - Sammy is a kind-hearted and loving pet! She uses her paws like hands; she actually thinks she\'s a human. When Dad gets home from work Sammy tells him all about her day! She likes to give hugs and kisses.

Murphy - Murphy is my baby! When I'm home he sleeps with me every night. He's a top dog because even though we have two actual dogs, Murphy runs the house! He has no problem swatting Sammy and Roxy if they are out of line. He's also about 17 pounds, so clearly he's the size of a dog! He has a sweet side too and he loves to cuddle.

Maxwell - Maxwell House Coffee (his full name) is the sweetest cat you will ever meet! He spends a lot of time outside and sometimes he gets multiple dinners because our neighbors feed him. His favorite hobbies are unraveling the paper towels and playing with feathers!

Misty - Misty is a top dog because of her stealth like skills! After we got her we didn't see her for 3 days!! She's pretty much afraid of everything including her own shadow but she has her friendly moments. I have to bribe her so she'll let me take pictures of her! The one posted was snapped right after I gave her a piece of turkey.

Photo Shoot

2009-06-18T21:47:00.003-05:00

We had team pictures the other day, courtesy of Dave Saffran, and we always do position pictures. So while we were waiting for Dave to set up his equipment, the seven of us did our own poses. Some of them serious, others were ridiculous! This one is my favorite:

To see all of our poses check out my facebook! Here.

Tory & the Claw Game

2009-06-18T20:15:00.002-05:00

Just watch it!

New York

2009-06-15T08:53:00.002-05:00

After an appearance I was supposed to do got cancelled, I made an impulse decision to go visit Kelly in New York. I texted Kelly at about 1am Saturday night and after confirming that her air mattress would be vacant, I told her I'd take the 6am bus the next morning. By the time I showered, charged my cameras, arranged for my truck to get picked up and packed it was 3am. So, I took a two hour nap and headed to the bus station at 5:30am. I stopped for gas and coffee and then hit every single red light down Hamilton St. I laughed to myself at the idea of jumping out to get cash at the ATM because the lights were SO long. But remembering there was an ATM at the bus station, I continued on. I arrived at 5:53am to see that the office was not open. I knew I didn't have enough cash for even a one-way ticket but I checked anyway. $17, crap. The bus driver suggested I go down Hamilton Street, "there are a few banks with ATMs." Right, the two I just passed. He kindly added that he could not wait due to his busy schedule. I booked it back down Hamilton! Red light. Not one single car or pedestrian, but THREE red lights. Not to mention, I had to drive around because it's a 1-way. I seriously considered running the red lights but then I figured a cop would appear out of nowhere and give me a ticket. So instead, I waited rather impatiently at each light, pulled over at the ATM and flew out of the car. I got my money and returned to the bus station at 6:03am. No bus. I drove towards Bethlehem (the next stop) thinking maybe I could catch it. It would have been nice if I had an iPhone perhaps to look up directions. I google-texted the address on my go-phone and stopped at a gas station to ask where the street was. A very nice many with a crazy eye did his best to direct me but I don't think he had a clue. I drove around for 15 minutes and then decided to just head back for the 7:15am bus.

I arrived in the city at 9:55am where I met Kelly and her friend Mo at Rockefeller Center. Mo was visiting from Missouri for the weekend. We went to Top of the Rock to get a view of the skyline. It was sort of cloudy but still an awesome view! To complete Mo's visit, we had falafel sandwiches for lunch and treats from the amazing pastry shop. Kelly and I took naps before heading out for $1 pizza at 2 Bros. After that Kelly, Danni and I joined the rest of New York for a Sunday night movie. After squeezing by the people in my aisle twice I apologized for being the worst person ever. Seriously, WHO is supposed to fit through there without stepping on someone or ending up in their lap when your butt hits the seat in front of you? Good times. The movie (The Hangover) was good, at least. I laughed the entire time!

After the movie Kelly and I went to 16 Handles for frozen yogurt. It was just like Yo Yum Yum! :)

This morning Kelly is at class and I'm sitting in my favorite NYC coffee shop, Think Coffee. She said there's a movie being filmed outside so I'm gonna go check it out!

Arena Football

2009-06-13T20:43:00.002-05:00

On Saturday Clare, Margo, Tory, Alex, Kiko, Jess, Dede, Savannah and I went to an arena football game in Reading, PA. Our athletic trainer's (Julie's) boyfriend (Chris) plays for the Reading Express. Chris is absolutely the biggest athlete I've ever met. The games are quick but entertaining because they score so much. We all had a good time! After the game we went down on to field to say hello to Chris and take pictures.

Chicago

2009-06-10T10:10:00.002-05:00

For our first series of the 2009 season, we traveled to Elgin, IL to take on the Chicago Bandits. I think we'd all agree that we would have liked to come home with more wins but we definitely had some positive efforts. The highlights to me are Dede's homerun off of Finch and overall our defense looked good! As a pitcher, it's definitely tough when every hitter you face in this league deserves respect at the plate. I'd say the main difference between college and the NPF is exactly that. In college each team you face has just a few of those hitters. In this league it's every single athlete. As it should be. It's not a pitcher's game. You might shut a team down one night and then next time you face them they're all over you. It's important to play each game in the present rather than worrying about the past. "Be here now," as our new mental coach Jen Croneberger says. And that's exactly what we're going to do in our series starting this week vs. Chicago. Be. Here. Now. Let's go Force!!!

We did have some fun(as you can see from the picture at the top):

I'd like to thank all my visitors at the Chicago series (in order of appearance):

Tina Kramos, Kendra DeRosa, Kelly Byrne, Alison Mayer, Melissa Slama, Katie Thoennes, Katie Guilbault, Timothy Jacobs, April Schermann, Brittany Mason, Erin Huddleston, Ariel Yeager, Katie Scroggins, Shelbi Frye, Lauren Cumbess, Sarah Waibel, Alex Pflieger, Ali Cleinmark, Jenn Murray, Lindsay Pickering, Jen Garcia and Racheal Heagney. :)

Phillies Game

2009-05-30T16:04:00.006-05:00

On Saturday we held a clinic at FDR park in Philadelphia. The clinic was set-up by the Phillies to celebrate the entire sport of softball. Over 200 kids attended the clinic to receive instruction on infield, outfield, hitting, baserunning and pitching. The Force players and coaching staff were split up into groups for instruction. Jess, Sam and I were in charge of pitching. We had two groups: 12 and under which was about 25 kids and then 13 and up which was 10 kids. At the end of the clinic we had a short Q&A and then we headed over to CitiBank Park to shower and change for the Phillies game. We chowed down on some sandwiches and headed out to the stadium to watch BP in Ashburn Alley. A few of us had our gloves with us so Margo, Jamie and Dede went down to center field to try to catch a ball. The Phillies threw balls to fans occasionally and Jami got one! We were all SO excited. Shortly after that Margo got one, followed by Dede, Lauren and Auriel. We were thinking maybe they knew who we were since we all had our jerseys on. Regardless, they were throwing them RIGHT to us!

At 6:00pm we walked down to parade around the warning track for the "softball celebration." We led the parade of a few thousand softball players. Jess may or may not have tripped on Savannah's foot and fallen in left field. Hahaha!

After the lap, we walked back out to the 3rd baseline where each of us were announced with our name on the jumbo-tron! Margo and Tory threw out the first pitch and then we were split up into two groups for autographs. We signed stuff for 3 innings and then headed to our seats. Savannah and I got to do a skit in the 5th inning with the Phanatic. The idea was that the Phanatic doesn't think any girl can strike him out. So he brought out 3 different bats and I struck him out! I was so nervous I'd over-throw a pitch but I didn't. Sav was concerned about squatting in her jeans, haha.

In the 7th inning, the entire team did the cupid shuffle on the 1st base dugout. Such a fun day!

Exhibition Game & Ten Stone

2009-05-29T22:10:00.003-05:00

Last Friday we scrimmaged the CIty 6 All-Stars at Drexel University in Philadelphia. It started raining right after the game started so we were delayed about an hour in the middle of the 1st inning. We didn't let the rain get us down though; we played hacky sack, zoo, pssh, and cowboy/indian/bear in the dugout. After the delay ended, we played 5 innings to beat the All-Stars 2-1.

After the game we did autographs and some of the players stayed for a clinic. The rest of us headed back to our hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. One of our owners, Annie, invited all of us to Ten Stone, her favorite bar/restaurant in Philly. The food and the company was amazing! Not to mention, Ten! :)

Meet The Box

2009-05-09T01:26:00.003-05:00

I'm sure you don't all read my "tweets" so I'm going to embellish on a recent one. As I said below, I have been training like crazy for this season. One of the workouts I have been doing is box jumps. I used to think running stairs was challenging, until I met the box. The box I jump on is 30" high and it isn't exactly new to me, but I have never experienced it at such a high volume. In the past, I would do sets of 5-8 jumps in some sort of circuit. So usually the most I'd do in a day is 32 jumps total. The workout I did on Wednesday was a total of 400 jumps. Let me tell you it is HARD! If you get lazy, you will pay! The box is not soft and it doesn't accept anything but 100% effort every time. The alternative is falling on your face when you miss! 9 days until spring training!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Pre-Spring Training-Training

2009-04-12T01:43:00.005-05:00

Now that there are only however many days that countdown says ------------> left until spring training, I have been working out quite a bit. I've always enjoyed working out but lately I've seriously appreciated it, for it has become a "break" in my day. As of right now, I have about 4 days to finish my thesis in order to complete my master's degree (not including the defense). So needless to say, I've spent many hours writing, re-writing, researching, formatting, etc. My breaks from working on my thesis, who I've named Terry, include working out and coaching when my regular work schedule allows it. Everything else has become a luxury... like sleeping and hanging out with friends. I have had a few breaks, but only when I'm waiting to receive feedback from a member of my committee. Aka, I finish writing a section and then wait for my committee to tear it apart and tell me to re-write it. Terry is pretty needy and very particular about how he's written. I thought maybe if I named him that we would get along better. It's not working out too well. Anyway, enough about him, this is supposed to be about working out. I guess I just wanted to share with everyone that I am getting pretty excited to play this season! It keeps me motivated when I'm working out and pushes me through every lunge, box jump and stair sprint I have to do. 37 days!!!!!! :)

Sho Time!

2009-03-21T01:17:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone! Less than two months til Spring Training! Woooo hoo!! I'm getting very excited, as you can see. For those of you who are familiar with the Force, I wanted to make a shout out for my former teammate Sharonda McDonald aka Sho. Sho is playing overseas in Italy and she started a blog. She'll be updating with her adventures over there so you should check out her blog!

Click Here. :)

Re-united with my Roo!

2009-03-03T09:09:00.004-06:00

My Roo, better known to you all as Margo Pruis, is my roommate and philly force teammate! Anyone who has seen Margo and I together would probably tell you that we act like ridiculous 10 year olds. They're just jealous. It's been six long months since we've seen each other but last weekend we were re-united! We currently live about 8 hours apart but we managed to meet up in Kentucky for a day! Our activities included: starbucks coffee and chatting, 2 minute massages and a photo shoot in the mall, pizza hut and more chatting, and heeling in walmart. It was a short visit but it was so good to see my roo! Here's a short video of Margo heeling:

She's new at the sport but has so much potential! Stay tuned for more heeling adventures this summer.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T00:39:00.006-06:00

Hey Force family and softball fans! Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas :) We have many Birk traditions but one of them is making Christmas cookies. Here's one I made :)

Off-Season

2008-10-15T16:06:00.008-05:00

The end of our season seems like a blur. Three months become pictures on my computer that I look back at now, wishing it were still summer time. I sure do miss Allentown and my summer family, the Force. It's weird how you grow so close to people but once you're separated it's like they hardly exist. I try keeping in touch with teammates but it just isn't the same as living in a dorm with all of them. Sho and I continued colored headband day for a few weeks... but the past few we've forgotten :( It just makes me sad; only getting to do what I love for 3 months out of the year while the other 9 are spent in the real world.
The dreaded nine month off-season is here. Well, it's been here since September but I've been so busy I haven't had time to blog about it. Sure, there's still a little time for fun like Tuesday Night Movie Nights, but for the most part it's all work and class. My "real life" right now consists of grad school, working as a grad assistant, writing a thesis, and training for the summer. I'm a grad assistant for Graphic Communications, which was my undergrad major and I'm getting my masters degree in Project Management. This semester I only attend one class but I also have an independent study and thesis credit hours. I work 20 hours a week and train five days a week. I'm pretty much always have something I should be working on. It's rather stressful but I am looking forward to next semester when I'll be helping coach softball for Normal West High School again. Not to mention, it will be closer to summer :) For now, the only taste of softball I get is the Alumni game we had a few weeks ago and slow-pitch one night a week, which I like to consider a separate sport entirely. I’ll be counting down the days until summer (6 months, 3 weeks, 5 days) and until then you can check out my other blog about my “real life” here.

Belle

2008-10-10T17:34:00.000-05:00

No one really guessed, but I'll tell ya anyway, Megan and I were in the Belle costumes :)

Kimberly

2008-09-01T22:10:00.000-05:00

me, tory, tat ___________ spence dancin'

playing at the mall - me, rocky, tory - me, rock

em and her little man - "emily marry me"

me and vanessa _________ team pic

Who's Belle?

2008-08-22T17:55:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Jodie and Shannon

2008-08-14T17:35:00.000-05:00

August 14th was Jodie’s and Shannon’s birthday! We went to Rookies and did karaoke, very entertaining!

Redbirds Reunited

2008-08-13T17:33:00.000-05:00

For our last home series we played the Akron Racers. For those of you who don’t know Shannon Nicholson, she was my teammate and other half at Illinois State. Shannon and I came into ISU together as freshmen and for the most part pitched as a duo throughout our career there. It wasn’t until our senior year when Shannon tore her ACL that the duo was temporarily split up. Shannon took a few weeks off to recover and with a knee brace was back in action! She did not play in the NPF last summer because she had surgery but we trained together all year long and she signed with Akron. We joked about pitching against each other but our NPF experiences have been quite different from college and neither of us saw the mound the entire series, cwap. Buuuuut we did take a picture together! Haha.

Rockford

2008-08-10T17:30:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we played a series vs. the Rockford Thunder. I got to start the third game of the series and my family came to watch! Here are some pictures of my cousin Isabelle and I at dinner after the game ☺

Move Out Day & Happy Birthday Clare!

2008-08-07T17:17:00.000-05:00

We moved out of the dorms right before we left for Rockford and it was almost sad. Although the Cedar Crest staff often gave us a hard time, that tiny little campus was our home for three months and leaving our twin-sized beds was nearly upsetting. We took down our Dunkin Donuts sign, packed up our stuff, played in our abandoned forts and then left for the Holiday Inn. What a bummer.

To celebrate Clare’s birthday we moved out of Cedar Crest and went to Olive Garden for dinner!

New York City

2008-08-05T16:49:00.000-05:00

After playing 16 games in 18 days, we had a few days off and a group of us went to New York City. We drove up one night, got all dressed up and went out to a club called Café Wha?. There was live music and we got to sit down at tables. It was really fun! Since dressing up is a special occasion we took lots of pics! The next day we went all over the city! Here’s what we saw:

Bame's visit & Happy Birthday Roo!

2008-07-26T16:34:00.009-05:00

My oldest sister Jamie came to visit me and she got to see me pitch yay!!! We took a picture after the game ☺

Happy birthday Roo! For Margo’s birthday, July 26th, we went to dinner at Red Lobster and then bowling. Here are some pics!

Locker Room Fun!

2008-07-11T16:18:00.000-05:00

During our pre-game warm up, we have a few breaks where we spend some time in the locker room. There’s usually some sort of entertainment whether it’s a photo shoot for colored headband night, goldfish toss, wall climbing, etc. Here are some pics of the fun times!

maui wowi! & pony sticks

colored headband night & dress up as belle

giant jersey

Maui Wowi & Pre-game Hacky

2008-07-10T16:10:00.000-05:00

Smoothies sold at our games, they’re soooo good!! Available in several flavors including strawberry banana, pina colada, lemon, and more! The fun part about them being sold at our games is yelling out "MAUI WOWI!" whenever possible.
Before every game a group of us partake in some serious hacky sack! Each of us have signature moves and the goal is for each person in the circle to touch the hacky without it hitting the ground. Once we accomplish that it’s called a “hack.” If we all touch it twice it’s a “hacky,” and three times is a “hacky sack!” It’s very rare that we get further than that, but it has happened. Since our hacky tryouts video, we have had several new additions to the team. Only by a monitored tryout, of course. They include: Amy Hudson, Megan Gibson, and Savannah Long. Our most recent walk-ons in training are Michelle Tatlock and Tory Yamaguchi. Michelle has shown her dedication to making the team by purchasing her own hacky sack to practice. Tory’s skills are developing quickly; today she did her first toe pop! We’re hoping to initiate them in Kimberly. And our honorary member, Belle, is always welcome to play ☺

Mama Schnack & 4th of July

2008-07-05T13:02:00.008-05:00

My mama came to visit for a week! We mostly just hung out in a-town but we did spend a day in Philly. Margo and I took mama to see all the historic stuff Philly has to offer. She got mad at me because I took random pictures on her camera and the battery died, oops. So here are some of the pictures I took on my phone for her ☺

betsy ross house & elfreth's alley

Tory, Tatlock and myself ventured to Philly for the 4th of July parade. We rode on a float along with representatives from the other Philadelphia sports teams. The Eagle’s band was also on our float and they played live music the entire time. It was fun but hearing the same three songs for a few hours got pretty annoying. By the end of the parade I knew all the words to the Eagles fight song, which I never knew existed. So at least I learned something new! ☺

our view from the float & the float itself

Arena Football & Road Trips

2008-07-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

Our athletic trainer (Julie’s) boyfriend plays arena football for the Reading Express. I think most of us had never been to an arena football game before, so it was pretty cool. It’s a lot faster than regular football which keeps it entertaining. The field looks so tiny though, especially with the bigger players like Julie’s boy who’s like 6’9”! After the game we got to go on the field and meet him.

For most of our road trips we drive cars, with the exception of Chicago and Rockford. My road trip buddies were my roomie, of course and Teague (aka Mom). The first and most essential stop in all road trips was for coffee. Mom couldn’t have said it better in her text message: “We are leaving at 6am sharp. We will make a stop at Dunkin as soon as we leave.” I can guarantee you our car was the most fun… I mean, who else had road trip hats?! Exactly.

YouTube

2008-06-30T15:45:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, I know it's been FOREVER since I've blogged... and I will get to that soon but for now check out our YouTube videos!! Enjoy :)

When I get paid...

2008-06-15T20:03:00.002-05:00

This was a big hit last year, so I thought I'd do it again. I put up a sign in the hallway a week ago and here are the contributions:
When I get paid....
I'm going to buy a new hub-cap for my car - Smitty
I'm gonna make Clare a poster for her door - Hall
I'm gonna save my money just in case... - Spencer & Em-Dizzle
I'm gonna go grocery shopping - Spence
Get a hair cut and wax the bushes above my eyes!! - Hall
Fill up my car with gas - Chippy
Go to the mall - Birk
Get my sixth guitar string - Margo
Pay my credit card bill - Margo
Pay my Dad for my last 3 phone bills - Birk
I'm getting eye black - Margo
I'm getting my car door handle fixed - Birk
Search for better colored headbands for colored headband night - Birk
Buying DVDs to watch in the lounge with Sho! Most likely Dawson's Creek.... season 1, 2, or 4 - Hall
I'm going to Dunkin!!! - The Force

we finally got paid, YAAAYYYY!!!!!! :) Now I pretty much will be sending my entire check to my Dad, shoot :(

80's Workout Video

2008-06-11T14:13:00.003-05:00

There's never a dull moment here at Cedar Crest... first it was hacky tryouts and then we made an 80s workout video. This is just a short preview but it's definitely entertaining. Enjoy!

When I get paid '08 coming soon....

Netherlands & Riptide

2008-06-01T13:18:00.002-05:00

LIVE STREAMING GAMES!!!
For the first time in NPF history, the Philadelphia Force will make
available a live video stream of every Force home game. Fans from anywhere
on earth with an internet connection now will be able to see the Force in
action, and more importantly they will get to see the greatest players in
the game! So visit the Force website for further details of how to
subscribe or click this link:
http://onyxweb.streamguys.com/subscribe/force_signup.html

Netherlands
Game 1 - W 6-4
Game 2 - W 5-2
Game 3 - W 5-3
Game 4 - W 5-4

Riptide
Game 1 - L 1-5
Game 2 - L 2-8
Game 3 - W 5-4
Game 4 - W 3-0

Da Vinci Science Center

2008-05-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

Smitty, Friedman and I did a two day appearance at the Da Vinci Science Center here on the Cedar Crest campus. We talked to junior high students about science concepts and how they relate to sports. We did exercises to measure velocity and distance; they tested their reaction time and how fast they could throw a ball. I know that Emily, Ashley and I had fun doing it and it seemed like the students enjoyed it too.

We even got to ride a GyroSphere! What is a GyroSphere, you ask? I don't really know how to describe it... just watch the video!

Jersey Number Revealed

2008-05-29T14:29:00.000-05:00

The fans voted and on opening day I was finally given my jersey number!!! Yay, I'm not ?? anymore :)

I LOVE sushi and Hacky try-outs

2008-05-20T20:20:00.004-05:00

I had Sushi for this first time and I liked it!! We went to this little place across the street from our dorm and it was really good. Margo and I got chicken teriyaki and we split the Shrimp something roll. Shoooot I already forgot what it was called. Tempura? Can't be sure. It was quite the experience though... the waitress brought out hot towels and gave one to Margo, who said "thanks" and put in on the table, then I just held mine and waited for someone else to get one, and finally Rocky got hers and wiped off her hands. Margo and I were like "ohhhh," haha. Then we wanted to practice using our chop sticks so we made up a game where one person drops a piece of straw wrapper and the other person tries to catch it with their sticks. At first it was just me and Margo playing (since we're kids) but the rest of em couldn't help to join the fun. And just imagine a bunch of athletes making a simple game soooo competitive, haha. You should have heard us yelling in disappointment when someone would juuust miss. It was hilarious.

Now, for the serious stuff. For those of you that don't know, one of our pre-game rituals for the Force is to play Hacky. Not everyone plays, just those who want to but we get pretty into it. Last year we had 6 members on Team Hack but we've lost a few of those players so we had to recruit for this year's team. A few nights ago we hosted round one of try-outs. Jenna Hall aka "Haller" and Ashley Smith aka "Smitty" were our first victims. Each try-out began with a verbal question and answer session followed by a physical skills test. Tune in to our youbtube video below to see the results...

Phillies Day

2008-05-17T17:22:00.015-05:00

On Saturday the Phillies held a free clinic for over 200 softball players. The Force along with some of the Phillies "ball girls" worked the clinic teaching hitting, defense and pitching. I can't speak for the other stations, but I know the pitching station went well. All the parents thanked us and said we did a good job and all the girls seemed to enjoy it as well.
After the clinic we headed over to the Phillies stadium (across the street), to get ready for the game. They fed us lunch and provided us with a locker room to shower and get changed. We watched a little bit of BP before we headed over to lead the parade of softball players ranging from tee ball to high school. Just walking into the tunnel and hearing all the girls scream when they saw us almost made me cry. Seeing the excitement on their faces and hearing them scream like we're celebrities just makes me love the game even more. Being an idol for those young girls and paving the way for the NPF to grow into what it should be is what we all play for. After we led the pack around the entire stadium, we returned to the 3rd base line where each of us were announced and Ruth Hartman, a hall of fame baseball player, was honored. Amy Harre and Ashley Smith threw the first pitch of the game but none of us got to see it :( After that they divided us into groups on the concourse to sign autographs through the 3rd inning. Amy, Margo, Ashley, Tory and myself (pitchers and catchers) were all together. After the 5th inning Rocky and I got to do a skit on the field with the Fanatic! We struck him out :) I'm not gonna lie, I was REALLY nervous that I was either going to hit him or over-throw it, but miraculously I didn't. I'm still trying to find a video of it, but I haven't had any luck yet. In the 7th inning our entire team danced on the 1st base dugout to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun with the Fanatic. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good day :)

Book Binders, TEN Stone & J.L. Sullivan's

2008-05-15T21:21:00.007-05:00

For our week in Philly we had several evening events and team dinners. Book Binders is probably the nicest restaurant I've ever been to! It's an up-scale seafood restaurant in the heart of Philadelphia that draws customers from all over. Tom treated all of us to dinner and it was sooooo good! I had steak and crab which also came with a giant baked potato and clam chowder. We had this appetizer that had shrimp, crab, lobster, scallops, and then these shots of tomato juice, vodka, and an oyster . Weird, but after Spence called Margo and I babies we tried it and it actually wasn't bad. The picture to the left is one of the hallways in Book Binders; it's full of pictures of past Presidents, actors, singers, athletes, entertainers, etc. that have been there. They didn't take our picture but we did leave them with a Force poster that they're supposed to put up.
Ten Stone was a sweet little bar on South Street that Annie, one of our owners frequents at. We mingled with people there and did a raffle and 50/50. We ended up making like $400 (I think) and the owner matched it! I think that was my favorite bar/restaurant we've been to, and not just because it's called TEN stone :)
J.J. Sullivan's is a new up-scale sports bar in Philly and we were there for the opening night! We even had our own little room to chill in, which was sweet! This blog has a post about the event and there's some pictures of us there! The fifth picture down is us chillin' in our VIP room, and the very last picture is us on the red carpet.

10 for a day!

2008-05-12T15:11:00.003-05:00

As you know, I don't get to find out my jersey number til opening day, but Ashley let me wear #10 for our Force events! I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was... don't worry, I took pictures.
On Monday morning we had physicals and then we took our first trip to Dunkin!!!! In case you don't know what the means, Dunkin Donuts is HUGE over here in the East and we LOVE it. Sooo, 9 months without it has been ridiculous and we were pretty excited for our first trip. Here's some pics:

In the afternoon we went to St. Luke's children's hospital to visit some of the children. We handed out Force shirts, bears, wristbands, hats and visors. All of the kids we visited were SO excited to see us :) It was really fun but sad at the same time. You could just tell by looking into their eyes how exhausted they were from whatever disease or illness they were going through. It was pretty cool to make them happy even if it was only for the few minutes we visited with them. The last boy we visited, John, was my favorite. We gave him a shirt and visor and he insisted on putting both of them on right away. Then when Belle, our mascott, came in his whole face lit up. It was a great experience and I'd love to do it again.
pictures: (1)quote from the hospital, (2)quote from the hospital, (3)team @ st. luke's, (4)margo and me, (5)john throwing his bear at Belle, (6)john reading to margo

Monday night we had an event at Philadelphia's most popular sports bar, Chickie and Pete's. We walked around and passed out schedules while the NPF draft video was playing on a few of the television screens. The food was great and we had fun, there just wasn't much of a crowd because the weather wasn't great.

Road Trip

2008-05-12T15:10:00.001-05:00

Our road trip from Illinois to Pennsylvania was supposed to take 13 hours, 31 minutes according to Mapquest. But throw in a 2 hour delay to road construction, pulling over to check the oil when the check gages light came on, oh yeah and constant rain and you'll get there in SEVENTEEN! Gooood times, let me tell you. Margo Pruis, my roomie and fellow Reteran (to be explained later) and I headed out of Normal at approxiamtely 7:00am. Only one hour after the planned departure time, not too bad. We got on 74 (my IL friends tell me I can't say 'the 74') with high energy and excitement, thinking we'd get into Philly at 7pm. Ha ha ha, not quite. We hit the half way point at about 2:00pm. And then we only drove 5 miles in the next 2 hours! I guess there was some road construction on a bridge, so they had all the cars merge, exit, and get right back on. And apparently that takes two hours! Wow. During all that sitting, my poor little truck was being a baby and thought it had an oil problem. But it didnt, it was just turning the "check gages" light on for fun. But we still got out to check the oil, regardless. That was pretty fun. We stuck the stick thingy in there and it was to the third dot. Now I don't know much about oil, but my dad taught me about the dots, don't you worry! Aaaand we did it three times just to be safe. After the oil scare we pulled back into the stand-still traffic. We put some tunes on and performed a little concert for the cars around us. We even got a few honks! Margo dared me to let the goats out of the trailer in front of us, but instead I took a picture! We played a round of Hey Cow and went 4-4! It's a pretty self-descriptive game. When you drive by cows you yell "Hey Cow!!" and then you count how many of them turn to look. It's fun :) We stopped a few times to keep us and the T-ruck energized. Oh and we played the game where you try to hold your breath through tunnels. Holy cow there are some LONG tunnels in Pennsylvania. We decided not to play that after we got light-headed from one. We finally arrived in Essington, PA at about 12:30pm. Wooo hooo!! Back to Philly :)

Training and Coaching

2008-03-28T05:44:00.003-05:00

Training
44 days until Spring Training,I am getting SO excited!!! My training has been going really well, Landon is kicking my butt! For the past three weeks we (shannon and I) have been doing a new workout that he tailored just for us :) It focuses a lot on improving our explosiveness off the mound. It was pretty funny, he actually had us pitching tennis balls in the weight room so he could videotape our pitching motion, analyze it, and then come up with a workout that would fully benefit us as pitchers. Right now we have five different workouts we're doing, one for each day of the week. It's a mixture of lifts, cardio on machines, stairs, sprints, core, and stretching. He has us wear heart rate monitors to track out heart rate during our conditioning workout, and then also when we are pitching. The point is to determine our target heart rate when giving our max effort (ex:pitching or sprinting); like at what rate are we getting fatigued at?, when are we the strongest?, etc. For example, he says that when pitching our heart rate shouldn't go over 170. So when we do stair sprints, we have to adjust our rest period to make sure our heart rate isn't going over 170. We do 5 second sprints with 30-45 seconds rest periods, to simulate pitching (max effort, rest, max effort, rest).
As far as pitching workouts go, I've been throwing to quite a mix of hitters. I'm helping coach a high school team so I throw to them pretty often, but it's usually about 60% effort. You know, can't hurt the kids! Haha. I've also thrown to ISU's team in scrimmage situations as well as just some BP. And then last week I threw to two guys who play on national fastpitch teams (one for US and one for Canada). I try to throw full out at least once a week, and I throw to my HS girls like 4 times a week. I actually find that to be pretty beneficial because it allows me to work on my spin and movement a lot.
Coaching
I am the pitching coach for Normal West's high school softball team and I love it! I've never really wanted to coach but I honestly love it. My two pitchers are Jenn and Erin and they are very talented athletes. So far we've played five games and we're 4-1. It's really cool to see pitching from a different perspective. I made a chart so I can track how my girls are doing throughout the game. I usually focus on whether or not they're getting ahead in the count, number or walks, and what pitches are being hit. I don't call the signals, but I usually talk to the catchers between innings if I notice something. I think I'm gonna come up with a key word system too. You know how coaches say things like "mix it up" for change up? Well mine is going to be better than that. I'm thinking like types of fruit or something. You know, nothing obvious. I'm actually missing a double header tomorrow so that's a bummer :( It's funny cuz when April asked me if I wanted to help, I said yes but I didn't anticipate that I'd get this attached. I miss a lot of practices because of work and I hate it! Our league games don't start until April 12th and then Regionals start the 19th. So I will miss all of our post season. Bummer. BUT, I am VERY excited for spring training! As of now we are planning on being in Philadelphia for a week. We will practice there, do a clinic, and be the guests of honor at a Phillies game! Sounds like SO much fun! :) I'm counting down the days...

Dynamic Duo No More

2008-02-08T16:24:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting here watching game tracker and listening to the live internet broadcast of the Illinois State game and I never thought I would miss it this much. A few minutes ago the announcer commented that Amber hadn't give up a hit since April and that she hasn't pitched much since then. He went on to explain that she did pitch here and there last season "but the dynamic duo Shannon Nicholson and Stacy Birk are now gone." Just hearing that hurt my heart. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to play for the Force, it's just hard right now because college season just started. My ex-teammates all get to travel for the next few weekends to Florida, Arizona, and Georgia, playing 4-5 games while I'm stuck here in the arctic. Even just seeing the pictures the girls are posting from the airport or the hotel makes me sad. I really miss it, and I didn't think it would get to me this much.
Shannon and I may not be the dynamic duo anymore, but we're still working out together and challenging each other. We lift and condition monday, wednesday, and friday, condition on tuesday and thursday and we do 25 minute abs everyday. Landon had us get heart rate monitors so we can keep track of our heart rate when we're pitching and then replicate that when we're conditioning. I'm excited to see what kind of workout he's going to come up with for us.
This morning I was supposed to pitch to Tony, one of the strength coaches, but he didn't show up. So I went in the locker room and got a tee and gathered up all 6 balls I could find. (The rest are with the team in Florida) I hit for a bit and then decided I'd try pitching without a catcher. I put a net behind the cage, thinking it was tight enough that the ball would bounce off of it, but I was wrong. So I ended up chasing every ball I pitched. It was interesting to say the least. But what do you do without a catcher?
Thanks to everyone who voted for my jersey number. Erin said she picked the winner before the poll was actually shut down so I don't even know what it is yet!

10 days left!

2008-01-21T23:02:00.000-06:00

In just TEN days the voting will be over and I'll have a new jersey number! But, you'll have to wait til opening day to find out what it is. So far there are over 20,000 votes!! And poor little 28 is still way behind. I haven't voted yet but I'm thinking I'll vote for #28 just to give it some more votes. If you haven't voted yet, or you want to vote again go to http://www.philadelphiaforce.com.

Winter Clinic

2008-01-20T18:20:00.001-06:00

"Hi, I'm Stacy Birk, I played with Jackie, we just graduated last year. I'm a graduate student studying project management and I'm working as a grad assistant. I'm a pitcher and today I'll be doing bunting."
That was my self-introduction today at Illinois State's annual winter clinic. Since you weren't there, you can't really get the full affect of my introduction, so I'll just add that I wasn't too happy about the bunting part. For the past four years, the clinic has been just another thing on our schedule. It's an 8 hour camp with about 100 participants from 4th-8th grade. It's long, tiring, and pretty much one of the least favorite things I've done as an ISU softball player. I was always assigned to batting exercises for half the camp, and then pitching the second half. Batting exercises weren't my favorite but I looked forward to going down to pitching after lunch.
When the coaches asked me last week if I could come help at the clinic, I said yes under the impression that I would actually get to help with pitching. So I arrived at the clinic at 8:30am this morning, got my camp shirt and my itinerary, and flipped to the pitching page. I didn't see my name there, so I'm thinking hmm, that's weird. So I flipped the page again and I saw "Bunting positioning - Stacy" and I'm thinking are you serious??? I've pitched in the program for four years, and I'm still getting shafted at the clinic?! Wow. So I spent my day repeating everything that was said when each group came to our rotation and got the bunting introduction. I'm not even sure why my station was needed; it's never been a station before and I was seriously told to repeat what had just been said in the intro. Sweet.
Anyway, I don't want to get too into it, but I was really looking forward to helping with the pitchers, so doing bunting was sort of a slap in the face. Hmm. Maybe next year I'll actually be allowed to work with the pitchers. Or maybe I just won't agree to help at all.

Daaaang!

2008-01-15T00:36:00.000-06:00

So I've been checking our Force website to see if people are voting and it's crazy! I was excited when 60 people had voted when the poll first went up and I just looked at it again and now it's up to 4,801, daaaang! It's funny because 21 and 24 keep switching places in who's ahead, and then there's poor little 28, all alone with it's 22 votes :( I'm not partial or anything though, I haven't even voted because every time I lean towards one of them I change my mind the next minute. So keep voting everyone, this is exciting! :)

Vote for my number!

2008-01-08T17:57:00.001-06:00

If you read my last post, you'll notice that I no longer have a number. The following will be posted on the Force website, along with a poll to vote:
If you ask an athlete about their jersey number, I can guarantee you it means more to them then just a number on their back. When I first started playing softball, jersey numbers were handed out according to size. So the smallest player on the team would get #1, the biggest player would get #15 and the rest would fill in accordingly. As we got older we were allowed to pick our numbers and we started forming favorites. When I was about eight years old I wanted to be like my sister Kelly, who's favorite number was 10. From then on, I stuck with #10 and it became part of me. When I was recruited to play at Illinois State, I remember going home and looking at their website to see who had #10. When I saw that Abbie Scott was graduating and #10 would be available, I knew I was meant to be a Redbird. When I was asked to play for the Force last year, I was given #11, or if you ask me I was #10+1 :) But this year I need to pick a new number, because I gave #11 to my roomie, Margo Pruis. I can't just pick any number though, because it has to mean something to me. This is where I need your help! Vote for what number you think I should be, and on opening day it will be revealed. I chose three numbers, each for a different reason. 21 because it's 10+11, 24 because it was my basketball number, and 28 because 2+8=10. I trust you all to pick my number and I can't wait to see you at opening day!
FLOTG,
Stacy Birk #??

Off-Season

2008-01-08T16:50:00.000-06:00

For the past eight years throughout high school and college, I've never really had an off season. Even when I got to Illinois State, where softball was the only sport I played, our "off-season" was just as busy as our playing season. The only time I would take a break from softball would be for a week or two between the college season and summer ball. Now that I'm a college graduate and I'm playing in the NPF, I've gotten a new understanding for the term off-season. The off-season is so long that at times I don't know what to do with myself. It's tough for NPF athletes to train during the off-season because we live all over the country. It's not like we can just get together and have a practice. Since I'm in grad school at Illinois State, I still have access to the facilities for training, so I've managed to stay on top of my training. The strength and conditioning coach for ISU softball, Landon, makes workouts for me to do in the weight room and puts up with my musical taste when I'm in there :) For pitching, I threw at ISU's practices in the Fall and then to Tony, who also works in the weight room. For the last few weeks of the Fall semester, Shannon Nicholson, a fellow Redbird pitcher and I threw to each other. And let me tell you, us catching each other in full gear is quite a sight to see. Shannon just signed to play with Akron this season, so we'll both be pitching to the ISU softball team this spring to stay in shape. Only 4 months and 4 days until Spring Training begins, I can't wait!!

FLOTG,
Stacy Birk #??

Force trades Thorson for three Bandits

2007-11-07T22:41:00.000-06:00

My team recently announced the trade of our number one pitcher Kristina Thorson to the Chicago Bandits for Amy Harre, Autumn Champion and Peaches James. For those of you that don't know, Amy Harre pitched at Southern Illinois University, who is in the same conference as Illinois State. So that's pretty cool, between me, Margo, and Amy we'll be reppin' the Missouri Valley! Haha. She is really good too... throws like 70mph. Autumn is a really really fast outfielder from the University of Arizona and I've never played with her, but my sister has. Peaches is a pitcher from the University of Nebraska and is also really good. It was also announced today that there's another new addition to our team, Jackie Wong, who previously played for Rockford. Click here to read the official news release.

For Love of the Game

2007-08-25T19:34:00.000-05:00

I don't think anyone would have guessed that our season would end the way that it did. We fought til the very end, playing an extra inning four hour game that resulted in the Riptide winning. It was a true battle, as the score went back and fourth and then finally ended at Force 2, Riptide 3. Although we were tied for fourth place with Rockford, it went to our record vs. the number one team, the Glory. We beat them once and Rockford beat them twice so they made playoffs and we didn't.

The Riptide definitely became our rivals as we played them sixteen times throughout the season. And the way they played the final game really made me lose a lot of respect for them. Running out on the field to celebrate an overturned call and waving goodbye to our team as the final out was made is just rude and completely unnecessary. I'm glad to be part of a team that has a lot more class and sportsmanship than that. It's disappointing that our season ended so abruptly, but I still think it was a success. We started off with a 1-6 record and no one in the league really expected much from us. We fought our way back up all season long and I believe that we had as good a chance as any team to win the whole thing.

The emotion in the locker room after the game was all over the place. We have several veterans on our team who don't really know if they will be returning next season. So to them, that could be the final game of their career. A few players spoke as well as the coaches, and nearly all of us were in tears. It truly was heartbreaking as every girl on our team plays for the love of the game.

It's hard to sum up my summer in the pros because I enjoyed every minute of it. I think my favorite softball experience was playing Team China. Learning about their culture and what softball means to them made me appreciate things a lot more. Outside of softball I would have to say that going to New York City was my favorite. I just wished we could have stayed longer. I will never forget the friends I made this summer and I am definitely playing again next summer! I hope everyone else comes back as well. Life in the bigs was amazing and I am especially going to miss Rookie Car.

Until then I will be starting my masters degree studying Project Management at Illinois State as well as working as a Graduate Assistant for Graphic Communications. I will continue to write emails and update my blog, so please let me know if you would still like to receive my updates. There is an article on my schools website about our season if you are interested.

FLOTG,
Stacy Birk #10+1

New York City

2007-08-18T17:23:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday I went to New York City with Sharonda, Tara, and the Aggies: Jamie L., Jamie H., Amanda, Lisa, and Megan. We left Cedar Crest at 8am and headed to Edison, NJ. We parked there and took the NJ Transit into NYC. We arrived in the city at about 1130am and then purchased tickets to ride the subway. We too a train to our first stop at Yankee Stadium. The 12:00 tour was already sold out so we hung around for the 1:00pm tour. The tour was pretty cool, we got to walk around the stadium, sit in the dugout and see the locker room. We too a ton of pictures, except for in the locker room where they weren't allowed. The tour guide talked a lot about the Yankees history, which was cool, and about their present team as well. Derek Jeter has not one but TWO lockers because he gets so much fan mail, haha. I thought that was funny.

After the tour we hopped back on the Subway and got off at Times Square. Once we got outside I really felt like I was in New York. Everything was exactly as I imagined from what I have seen on tv and in movies. All the shops had big bright signs and there were huge billboards and advertisements everywhere. We stopped and ate pizza for lunch at a place called Ray's. We walked around and went in a few shops and naturally I took a TON of pictures. We saw Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and MTV studios to name a few.

We got back on the Subway and went downtown to Canal Street for some shopping. It was funny because I've heard stories about all the tiny hidden rooms with fake designer purses, but I didn't really understand until I saw it. We barely made it onto Canal street before a man approached us asking if we were interested in real designer purses. My first instinct was to say no thank you and walk on, but then I remembered that was actually the reason we were there. So, the 8 of us agreed to follow this man 2 blocks down the street, down a hallway and into a closet-sized room full of 100% ''real'' purses. About twenty minutes later we all left there with something; I got a brown Prada purse.

After Canal Street we took the NJ Transit back to our hotel to get ready for take two of the big city. Wilk, Clare, Trena, and Dustin joined us for the evening. We got all dressed up and rode the train back into the city and then took our first cab ride. For dinner we had hot dogs from a street vendor which I thought was very appropriate in our club attire, haha. The club we went to is owned by Jay Z and its called 40/40. Since it was a Sunday night there weren't too many people there, but it was still fun. We were true VIPs with a private room that had couches, a big screen tv and a pool table. At about 3am we finally left the club and went to a place called New Venus Diner for breakfast. We caught the first train back to New Jersey at 4:54 am and it was pretty obvious that we were all exhausted.

Needless to say, I LOVED our trip to New York City, I only wish we could have stayed longer. But then there's always next year...

Today Tom took the rookies to lunch at Brewworks, he loves us :) Right now we are in the middle of our series vs. the Riptide. They won the first game 10-2 and we came back and won game two 2-1. To make the playoffs we have to win 1 of the next 2 games. Lets hope we can get all the wondering over with tonight! I will be posting this on my blog as well, where you can see pictures from NYC.

FLTOG,
Stacy Birk #10 +1

Mini Golf, Starters & Heelys

2007-08-12T01:32:00.000-05:00

Mini Golf
Today Friedman asked me if I wanted to go get ice cream with her and a family that comes to our games. I said yes and they picked us up outside our dorms around 3pm. When we got in their minivan they asked if we wanted to go play mini golf, so we said ok even though that wasn't what we had in mind. I forget the parents names but they had three daughters, ages 14, 12 and 10. The girls seemed to have a really good time with us, so I didn't mind being there even though I was sweating profusely. After mini golf they took us to lunch at this hot dog place called Yoccos and then finally to ice cream at Rita's. On our way to Rita's, Dana (the 12yr old) showed us her catalog for the soap business she and her friend just started. It was really cute, she was telling us all about it so Friedman ordered some soap from her. They finally brought us back to Cedar Crest at 7:30pm, with just enough time for us to get ready for Starters.

Starters Riverport
Starters is one of our sponsors and tonight they had a Force pep rally for us...in other words we got free food. Its a two story sports bar and when we arrived upstairs we found out we were being moved to another area because the Philadelphia Eagles were going to be there. So we headed downstairs for dinner and watched as the Eagles players came in upstairs. We were told that we would be allowed to hang out with them, so after we ate we headed up to their section. After we got through security, I went over and hung out with this big guy named Jon. He was showing me a bunch of tricks with straws and then one with a beer bottle and quarters. He made me try one of em and was impressed when I got it on my first try. Donovan Mcnabb was there, all surrounded by security, but I made it over to him and introduced myself. I ended up standing next to him for like 10 minutes and I asked him if he liked softball. He said he did and that he would try to come to one of our games, yeah right. I told him Id strike him out and he said I was right, haha. When I left I said "bye, it was nice meeting you" and he said "good luck in your games." It was soooo cool, he was actually really nice!

Heelys Training Camp
When we got back from Starters Jodie was in the hallway trying to learn how to use Macs heelys. So I got mine out to show her how to do it and we ended up having a Heelys training camp in the bathroom. Jodie, Margo and Wilk all put in an effort to try and learn how to do it but Margo definitely earned Rookie of the Night. She figured it out that she could successfully heel from one end of the bathroom to the other by opening all the bathroom stall doors and using them to push herself along. It was hilarious and I recorded it on my camera, which you can see here.

We depart for NYC tomorrow morning at 730am and I cant wait! Oh yeah, and tonight we found out we are now tied for 3rd place!

FLOTG,
Stacy Birk #10+1

Ice, Headbands & Brew Works

2007-08-11T02:55:00.001-05:00

Michigan Ice
Game 1 - W 1-0
Game 2 - W 7-1
Game 3 - W 6-4
Game 4 - W 6-1

Tonight we completed our four game SWEEP vs. Michigan Ice! We are now in 3rd place with a record of 23-17. Trailing closely behind us are the Akron Racers and the New England Riptide, both with a 21-16 record. Although we are ahead nothing is secured yet for playoffs because we still have four more games against the Riptide. The good thing though, is that its in our hands rather than us relying on other teams to win or lose. Its going to be a battle, as every game vs. New England has been, but we are very capable of making it to the playoffs.

Colored Headband Night
Every series the rookies have a colored headband night... meaning we all wear matching, but different colored headbands. I initiated this a few weeks ago after I bought a 6pk or headbands in Washington and since then we've kept the tradition going. I think I started it mostly because of my hostility towards the rules we had at ISU. The first two years I was there we were allowed a little freedom...we could wear non-school color accessories like socks, headbands, and ribbons. But THEN, my Junior year Melinda started the red/white/grey/black rule; meaning my extensive collection of under armor, headbands, and ribbons was completely useless and out of commission. So, now that we are professionals and can do whatever we want, you better believe I'm going to wear a pink headband! On colored headband night, you can refer to us as: Pink Birk, Purple Sho, Green Lo, Yellow Henny, Orange Mac, & Blue Margo. Just add that to my list of why I love being a pro... I can wear whatever color headband I want!

Brew Works
Allentown Brew Works is our new post game restaurant/bar and it is uh-maze-ing! It's three stories and it's classy but chill at the same time. They food is really good and they treat us really well. We have our own section upstairs for dinner and then we usually hit up the Silk Lounge afterwards. I forgot to mention in my last email that David Wright was at our game last week watching Cat and he came to Brew Works afterwards too! I didn't meet him but he was right there, sitting in a booth eating the same stuff I ate...weird.

We have three days off before our next series and a bunch of us are going to New York on Sunday. I think what we are planning on doing is a tour of Yankee Stadium, Statue of Liberty, and Times Square. And then there's talk of going to some VIP club owned by Jay-Z. I guess Julio, Lo's boyfriend, can get us all in...so we will see.

I don't know if anyone has looked at my blog, but I added some new links... game photos and force fans message board. I am also wondering if my pictures link is accessible, so test it out and let me know.

FLOTG,
Stacy Birk #10+1

Akron & Rockford

2007-08-08T14:38:00.000-05:00

Akron
I have not yet been to Rockford or Chicago, but from what I have seen Akron has the nicest facilities. Their stadium was beautiful; the field, the locker room, everything. Other than our stadium, its the only place we've been that has provided a locker room for both teams, which I believe is very nice to have. Maybe its just because I'm the sweaty kid, but having an air conditioned room to go to during warm up is completely necessary. Not to mention, this is professional. The result of the series was:

Game 1 - W 5-0
Game 2 - W 3-1
Game 3 - L 3-16 not my best game, or anyone else's
for that matter.
Game 4 - W 2-0

The Akron series went really well for us. We took 3 out of 4 games from them, improving our record to 17-19. Also, while we were in Akron we were credited with two more wins from our series with New England. They had utilized a player in two wins against us who was on the inactive roster, and therefore they became automatic wins for us and losses for New England. So our record improved to 19-17.

Washington Glory	31	9	.775
Rockford Thunder	24	16	.600
Chicago Bandits	19	15	.559
Akron Racers	19	15	.559
Philadelphia Force	19	17	.528
New England Riptide	19	17	.528

As the standings show, no place is secured, so really anyone has a chance at making playoffs. The top 4 teams go and its hosted in Kimberly, WI.

Rockford
Game 1 L 3-5
Game 2 L 4-6

We just played a two game series against Rockford, but they were exhibition games so they do not count towards our record. For those of you that don't know, Cat Osterman is on Rockford's team. When they arrived on Sunday night, a bunch of them met up with our team at Brew works, our new post-game restaurant/bar. Kellie is friends with Cat so she was introducing her to everyone. She came over to me and said this is Cat. I said, oh really it is? Haha. That was about it as far as my conversating with her but she seemed very nice. Cassidy Scoggins, who went to Southern Illinois, is also on the team and after I met her I felt bad for hating her the past few years. She was pretty cool.

Cat pitched against us in game one bringing in the biggest crowd we have had all season. Normally we get about 200-300 people at our games, but with Cat there we had over 1000. It was cool. Also, due to the last email I sent out about rookie car and livin in the bigs, the rookies were honored. Two little girls baked us a HUGE basket of cookies for the dugout and Tom and Judy made a rookie page with our pictures and part of my email and added them to the programs for the night. We also got framed copies of the rookie page in our lockers, it was really cute :)

Best in show
All summer long our team has given out a best in show award to the individual most deserving on any given night. The Best in Show award usually follows extreme action or entertainment following ones consumption of beverages. Best in Show is appointed by the team and is followed up by a poster on the door of the reigning individual which stays there until someone else earns the crown. The records in the hall state that this summers Best in Show individuals are:
Trena Peel - 7/6
Megan McAllister - 7/8
Dacey & Hall - 7/11
Chelsea Spencer - 7/12
Robin - 7/9
and.....
Stacy Birk 8/5
my best in show highlights include
- a photo shoot in the car on the way home from Brew Works
- a not-very-nice comment to the Mc Donalds drive thru employee followed by his refusing us service
- and wearing the Dunkin Donuts box as a hat

I've taken all the emails I've sent this summer and made them into a blog. I've also added a link for pictures. I'm still working on it, but you all can see it at http://www.phillyforce.blogspot.com

Tonight we start our series vs. the Michigan Ice, a semi-pro team, but the games do count towards our record.

Stacy Birk #10+1

Rookies and Livin in the Bigs

2007-08-02T01:46:00.000-05:00

Rookie Car
Technically we have 7 rookies on our team this year. They include Margo Pruis, Megan MacAllister, Sharonda McDonald, Loren Anguiano, Meagan Hennessy, Kristina Thorson, and myself. But since Thor and Henney have pages in the media guide, like the rest of the veterans, we (the rookies) don't consider them part of our group. Rookie car is what we usually refer to ourselves as because the five of us pile into Lo's truck whenever we go somewhere as a team. It's a tight squeeze in her little truck, but with the windows down we can all fit our football-player shoulders in the back seat. Lo is our driver, since its her car, but the rest of the seats are fair game and can only be called when the car is in sight. The front seat is referred to as the suicide seat because you're at the highest risk when Lo decides to pull out her crazy driver card using excuses like, I have poor depth perception. Then there's window seats and of course the middle seat, or bitch. Whoever ends up in the bitch seat gets pointed and laughed at by the rest of rookie car and I'm thinking we should implement some sort of song or something that she would have to sing.
(I originally wrote this a few weeks ago, and since then we have implemented the song rule. On the way home from practice on Tuesday, Margo sang Happy Birthday to us. The rule stands that you can sing whatever song you like, but if you can 't pick one you have to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.)

Livin in The Bigs
Henney couldn't have put it any better when she said, in college all i wanted to do was play softball and hang out and now I can. So basically I've been waiting my whole life to do this. Let me tell you, playing pro is all I've dreamed of and more. Since I've been here I've realized a lot of differences in pro and college softball, most of them positive. But it wasn't until yesterday that I discovered this is my calling. We had cookies in the dugout. Yes, you read that correctly, COOKIES IN THE DUGOUT! Holy hell, what more could I ask for?! What a perfect combination; playing the game that I love while eating the best food ever made. Clearly this is the coolest perk I've discovered so far about playing pro, but there are many others.
When traveling:
1. I can wear sandals
2. I can wear a hat or a visor
3. I can wear any shirt I want to and i don't have to tuck it in
4. When we stop to eat I can bring my cell phone in and I don't have to hide it under the table to text
5. There are no bed checks or team meetings
6. I can sleep in as long as I like
7. We can eat and drink whatever we want, whenever we want
8. Theres no study bus or study hotel

It's great and I love it :) That's all for now... next update will be on the Akron series. (We beat them 5-0 tonight in Game 1)

<3>

Riptide x2, Brakettes, Glory, and more Riptide

2007-07-28T17:16:00.000-05:00

Riptide Series @ New England - June 27- June 30
L L L W
After we got home from that series things got pretty interesting. Both of our head coaches, John Byrne and Ashley Moore left the team, leaving us with one coach, Jennifer Teague. Byrne wanted to spend more time with his family and Moore got a job offer that required her to leave us early. Teague became our head coach and hired Robin Santiago as an assistant, and Geoff Deen who was our BP catcher, became an assistant coach as well.

Visitor
Margo and I drove to Philly to pick Katie up from the airport on June 2nd. On our drive back from the airport a semi decided to swerve into my lane as I was passing him, so I slammed on the brakes and our car skidded on the wall a bit, and then we went back into our lane. Other than nearly having a heart attack, no one got hurt. We looked at the car when we got back too and there wasn't even a scratch! Crazy. Katie stayed for a week, til the 10th, so she was here for the second Riptide series. I think she had fun, but we really didn't do much other than go to practice and the games followed by late night dinners at Bennigans. Its hard not having a car here, and for some reason we didn't do anything as a team either.

Riptide Series @ Home - July 4- July 7
W W W L
For the past few weeks we've been competing with New England for a chance at the playoffs. Its only appropriate that we play them 16 times, haha. They won the first series, beating us 3/4 times, but we fought right back winning the second one 3/4 games as well.

Brakettes Series @ Home - July 10 - July 13
W W L W
We handed the Brakettes their first loss of the season, as well as their second and third, winning the series 3-1. The Brakettes are not an NPF team, although they were last year, but our series against them still counts for our record.

Beach Party
On the weekend after the Brakettes series, one of our owners threw a beach party for us. We left Cedar Crest in three cars, heading towards Ocean City, NJ where their house was. About 20 minutes after we left, Ashley said to me, I feel like the car is shaking, and just as I answered, yeah, one of her back tires blew out and we began fish-tailing across the Interstate. A few seconds later we landed facing backwards in the grass on the side of the road. We missed a ditch and guardrail by about 100ft and the rest of our caravan stopped right behind us. Everyone was fine, and once a tow truck came we transfered all of our stuff as well as ourselves into the other cars and headed on to Ocean City.

The beach party was ridiculous. The house Bud and Judy lived in literally backed up to the beach, and get this - its just their summer house. They had tons of food and drinks to snack on when we got there, and dinner was catered. The house was gorgeous; every room had an ocean view and their closet was bigger than our dorm rooms! We told em we would come back anytime they wanted some company, haha. They could easily house our entire team.
Glory Series @ Fairfax - July 18 - 21
L L L L
Yeah, we lost all four games of the series and it was ugly.

My parents arrived at the last game of the Glory series and they have been here since then. Margo and I stayed with them last weekend when the team headed back to Allentown. We did sightseeing in DC, went to a Nationals game, the Harley Davidson factory tour, Intercourse, PA to see the Amish, and then headed back home. A hometown friend of mine, Erin Clancy, is living in DC right now so she gave us a personal tour of the Vietnam War memorial, the Washington monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. Ive been to DC once before but it was really cool to see everything again. My favorite was seeing the Washington monument at sunset, it was beautiful!

Riptide Series @ New England July 25-July 28
Right now we are playing our third series against them and we are up 2-1. Tonight is the final game and its vital to both teams to stay in contention for the playoffs. Im sitting in our hotel lobby and its just about time to leave for the game, so I gotta go.

Sorry it took me so long to update!

- Stacy Birk #10+1

Team China Series

2007-06-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

Team China

Last Wednesday night we had a press conference and dinner with team China. Cedar Crest hosted it in one of their buildings on campus and in attendance were both teams and coaches, as well as some of the Cedar Crest staff. The press conference was short; Team China was welcomed and introduced by position and then we headed into dinner. I sat at a table with only one of my teammates, Ashley Smith, her dad, and then some Cedar Crest employees including the softball coach. Once we finished eating dinner, someone suggested that some of the players from the Force and Team China switch seats so we could talk to each other. I moved to a table that a few of the China girls were sitting at as well as their two American coaches, Michael Bastian and Howard (I forgot his last name). I talked to Michael about softball and asked him questions about his team. He told me about how different softball is for them and how for most of them its merely a job and not something they love.
(here is an article about the event)

This is his second year with Team China and he said if it weren't for the girls on the team he wouldn't be coaching them any longer. He said Communism is often reflected in the Chinese coaches actions and decisions. Up until he got there, practicing for 10 hours a day was the standard, and even now they're still practicing about 6 hours a day. The head coach is known to slap her players when they do not perform to her expectations. Just a few weeks ago, when they played a series against the Washington Glory, she made them run home from the field because they lost.

Hearing these things shocked me because this team was filled with the kindest group of girls I have ever met. They are selfless and it wasn't until our last game of the series that I saw any fight in them at all. I was pitching and my ball control wasn't great, resulting in my hitting three different batters. After I nailed the third one, I was walking towards the plate to get the ball and I heard someone yell from their dugout, ''that's three times!'' I looked up and the batter took a few steps toward me with this ::I want to hurt you:: look on her face. She backed off and ran to first base, but it was nice to actually see some aggression. After the game she and the team's interpreter approached me, and she apologized. She said that she could not control herself. I laughed and told her that I was not mad, but that I was glad she got angry and showed it. The interpreter told me that he told their pitcher to hit me in my next at bat, but she chickened out and couldn't do it. It was funny though, because they did call time out when I came up to bat, so I thought I was going to get nailed for sure.

Playing against Team China was a great experience, my favorite so far this summer. It was really interesting to learn a little about their culture as well as softball in their country. They stayed in our dorms, and other than the stench of their dirty uniforms + milk they left in the hallways, it was really cool. I made a friend on the team with one of the girls that spoke English. Her name is Xuah Yi, pronounced Joe Yee, and she said to call her Joe. After our dinner with them the first night, I was asking her what kind of music she listens to and she got all excited and told me to follow her. She showed me her computer and played some songs, most of them were actually in English. So she saved them to her camera and I loaded them on my computer and then replaced them with some of my music.

For the rest of the week we played a six game series against them, with only four of the games counting towards our record. We won 5 out of 6, losing one of the exhibition games. The results were as follows:
Game 1 - W - recap
Game 2 - W 6-5 - recap
Game 3 - W 5-3 - recap
Game 4 - W 7-0 - recap
Game 5 - L 0-4 - recap
Game 6 - W 5-4 - recap
(my scores are guesses... the recaps are horrible, they don't even put the score)

Other than playing, we also visited Philadelphia to meet the mayor and to see the Liberty Bell. And we attended a minor league baseball game, the Reading Phillies vs. some other team. But because the Chinese coach is so strict, only the non-starters were allowed to attend the events with our team, and all the starters had to stay back and practice before the games. I thought that was crazy... who practices for three hours on a game day?! Nooo thank you!

Tuesday was our last night with Team China and a bunch of us traded Force shirts for China shirts. I made chocolate chip cookies and made them try some... most of them had never had one! Not cool. From them, I learned that I would not survive in China. No cookies and getting slapped in the face by my coach would not go down with me. Great girls though, it was quite an experience.

Right now were in Lowell, Massachusetts playing a series against the New England Riptide. So far we're 0-2. Two more to go though, hopefully well go .500 with em. More on this series later...

Stacy Birk #10+1

Akron Racer and Philly

2007-06-20T17:14:00.000-05:00

Game 1, 2, & 3
I don't really remember specifics of these games...maybe its because we lost all three. We didn't just lose either, we got killed and it was pretty embarrassing. Game 1 was like 15-3 or something...ahhhh! It got a little better the next two games, the scores were 7-0 and 6-2. Click the links for more details. Oh, and there's a wonderful picture of me on the game 3 link, I look huge...enjoy.

Game 4

We finally beat them, giving them their first loss of the season. Yaaay! The highlights that I remember were Sho scoring on a pop fly in the third base foul territory cuz no one was covering home, Halls solo home run to tie it up, and Spencer's in the park home run to win it.
I went to the library the other day (friday, i think). It's right across the grassy field from Curtis Hall, our dorm. It's pretty small, just like this campus, but they let us print stuff for free so I'm down. I also received something in the mail on Friday, and let me tell you it was the talk of the team. Remember our list for When I get paid? Yeah, well some pretty cool Scorpions coach sent me 3 posters of it printed out with our team's logo and everything! Its sooo cool, everyone loved it. Thanks JJ :) And yesterday I received another package... two towels that aren't smaller than me! Haha, thanks Auntie P, I love them :)

Sunday and Monday were both days off so a bunch of us decided to do some sight seeing in Philly. Ashley Moore aka Moose, one of my coaches, lives about 45 minutes from Allentown which is half way between here and Philly. On Sunday morning a few of the rookies, Mac, Margo, Sho, and myself drove up to Ashley's to meet up with her, Wilk, Clare, and Friedman. Moose wanted to get a couch so we met them at Ikea. It was my first trip to Ikea and let me tell you, I am in love! I remember going once a loooong time ago with my mom and my sisters but I was too young to enjoy it so I was bored out of my mind. Since then I've always had a negative attitude about Ikea, until Sunday that is. They have freakin EVERYTHING and its so much fun!! Sho and I had a chair race and we all tested out the beds. We decided that Ikea would be fun for a date... who doesn't like chair races and testing mattresses? Anyway, we finally caught up with the others and Moose got her couch. We dropped it off at her apt and then headed to Philly.

It was about 2pm when we got there and everyone was hungry, so we parked on South Street and ate at a restaurant called Joe's. Apparently its where one of the three stooges used to live... so I'm not sure why it was called Joe's. Whatever, it was good. After that we walked around on South Street for another hour or so. There's a ton of shops there with everything you can imagine. Moose ended up getting a tattoo there and then we walked down to Penn's Landing and from there we began our sightseeing. We saw the Korean War Memorial, the Marketplace Exchange, the First Bank of the United States, Carpenters Hall, the first United States Post Office, Betsy Ross's house, Elfreth's Alley, and the Irish Memorial.

After walking around for about an hour and a half we were all dead so we headed back to Ashley's apt. Somehow, 8 of us managed to sleep in here tiny studio apartment. Monday morning we had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, which is freakin everywhere by the way! The rest of the day Moose, Wilk, Clare, Friedman, and Mac hung out at the pool but Margo, Sho and I stayed in the apt and relaxed cuz we didn't wanna pay the $5 entrance fee.

We got back in Allentown at about 7pm on Monday and Margo and I went running. We found this trail that's right next to our campus, so we ran that. Its really pretty, there's a bunch of ponds, and trees and stuff, and its 1.3 miles around. It's so humid here, so even though it was like 7:30pm I was drenched with sweat when we finished...you know me.

The Chinese National team is here and our series against them starts tomorrow. I have a lot to say about that but I'll save it for my next novel cuz you're probably sick of reading this already. Last thing, Margo and I did the Force Forum this morning. It's a tv show about our team where they interview two players every week and it's broad casted on local TV here. We were both nervous but we did fine.

Miss and love you all,
Stacy

Phillies and Philly Cheese Steaks

2007-06-12T17:12:00.000-05:00

Tonight about ten of us went to our first Phillies game with Scott Money. Hes a bank owner in Philadelphia who is a fan of the Force. His last name isn't actually Money, but I couldn't remember what it was so that's what I started calling him cuz hes rich. He bought all of our tickets and gave us $140 to spend on food. It was flippin sweet! Our seats were on the second level along the left field foul line. The Phillies beat the White Sox. I forget what the score was but they hit three home runs. And the food was gooood, as ballpark food always is.

On our way outta the parking lot I started handing out our pocket schedules. The lines to get out were ridiculous and we were barely moving so I was delivering them to cars on foot as well as handing them out the window to whoever showed any interest at all. Which wasn't very many people actually, and it sort of made me mad. Baseball is SO big... it's ''Americas favorite pastime,'' and these pro teams have so many fans and so much support. Then there's softball that is definitely growing and gaining more of a crowd but when compared to baseball it's pathetic. I've always dreamed of going pro and now that I'm here its almost upsetting seeing how unaware our public is of the league's existence. All I was doing was asking people if they liked softball or if they were interested in coming to a game and so many of them either completely ignored me or rudely said no. It's not like I was asking for their money... I was just handing out schedules. Anyway, sorry for the rant, it just really got to me. It's just if we got even a tenth of the support and fans MLB has, it would be FAR more than what we have now.

After the game, Kat (a new intern) directed us to Jim's Steaks, the best philly cheese steaks in town in her opinion. It was my first one, but they were pretty darn good! Jim's is located on South St. in Philly which is a pretty cool shopping area. Most of the places were closed when we got there but we all decided we want to go back. When we get paid, that is.

That's actually become a joke around here, because about every five minutes someone says ''When I get paid I'm going to...'' So last night we started making a list of them, here are some:
When I get paid...
I'm going to the strip club - Lo
I'm buying food - Lo
I'm going to Atlantic City... then ''the city'' - Mac
I'll make everyone cookies - Me
We're going to Outback - everyone
I'm going shopping - Lo
I'm gonna buy a new car - Smitty
I'm going to Disney world - Rocky
I'm buying a towel that's not smaller than me - Me
I'll put gas in my car - Lo
I'm getting a BBQ grill - Rocky
I'm getting sheets - Me
I'm doing my laundry - Me
I'm buying alcohol - Mac
I'm gonna pay my parking ticket - Lo
I'm making dinner for everyone - Lo
I'm painting the beer pong table - Mac
and the latest...
We're going to South Street - everyone

The original plan was to write all of these on a big poster and put it up in our hall, but we cant afford that. So maybe we'll do that when we get paid :) 4 days, yessss!!

Tomorrow - practice at 3:30pm
Wednesday - game 1 vs. Akron Racers

Goodnight,
Stacy

Games 3 & 4 vs. Washington Glory

2007-06-10T17:12:00.000-05:00

Game 3 vs. Washington Glory (click the link for official game notes)

Baaaaad -- 0-8. I played left field and missed one of the two balls hit to me. It was hit deep, basically right at the fence...it tipped of my glove and hit the fence. I should have caught it. I didn't get any hits either :(

Game 4
Better but we lost again -- 1-4. I started the game pitching and did well other than two pitches resulting in a two-run homer and a solo home run. Hennessy came in for me in the 5th (?) and I moved to left field where I didn't get a single ball. I got one hit and grounded out twice.

So we lost the series and our record stands at 1-3. Tomorrow is our day off and a bunch of us are going to a Phillies game. Tuesday we might have a media day where a tv station comes and films our practice, but were not sure yet. Wednesday we begin our series vs. the undefeated Akron Racers.

Let the games begin.

2007-06-08T17:11:00.000-05:00

Tonight was our home opener vs. the Washington Glory. Thor started for us and they started to hit her in I think the second inning... so I went and warmed up and ended up going in in the 4th. I did well my first two innings, and then the third one didn't go so well. They started off hitting in the holes between first and second and short and third, which scored them a run. And then I gave up a home run with two runners on :( And still no outs... so I got yanked. Welcome to the pros. Thor came back in and gave up a run before she got out of the inning and then Henney finished off the last inning (and also gave up a run). We also had three errors.

Offensively we got nine hits but only scored 4 runs. Wilk smashed a home run in the first inning which led to a 15 minute time out because the Glory coach protested her bat. Wilk is the one sponsored by Nike and she has this brand new bat they're designing for her that just got validated a week ago... so the one she has right now is all black with no certification or anything on it. So what I was told is that even though they ended up beating us 13-4, the game is still under protest and if it goes through then it does not count and we will have to play that game over. Sweet! So I'm just going to erase it from my mind...

First game tomorrow against the Washington Glory and I am starting. Goodnight.

<3>

(game notes will be here...but they're not up yet)

Summer in Allentown

2007-06-07T17:05:00.000-05:00

I landed in Philadelphia, PA last Thursday and Erin Stratmore picked me up from the airport. The drive from Philly to Allentown was a little over an hour and we went straight to ECTB Stadium for practice. It was pretty overwhelming when I first got there, everyone introduced themselves and I was nervous, so I was sweating of course. Matt showed me my locker which had a bat bag, some practice clothes, and a subway sandwich in it cuz I hadn't eaten yet. (were driving to the field and Erin calls and asks Matt to go get me a sandwich...weird) So I sat down in my chair (we have chairs!) and ate my sandwich while Matt gave me the lowdown on laundry and everything. Then Erin's sitting there asking me what kind of glove, cleats, and batting gloves I want. I'm thinking she means sizes, but no, she wanted to know what brand I wanted. Ahhh, this is so cool! So I tried some stuff on, then suited up for practice and headed out to the field. Most of the girls were hitting off of tees when I got out there, except for the pitchers and catchers of course...chillin in the BP. So I headed down there and met Jennifer Teague, Kristina Thorson, Meagan Hennessey, Rocky Spencer, and Ashley Smith. Thor and Hennessey were already pitching so I talked to Teague and John Byrne for a bit while I waited to throw. Once Hennesey was finished I threw to Rocky. Teague said just a typical day before the game workout (so like ten minutes or less for me). After that I joined the hitters for some front toss and that was it, practice over (weird).

After practice I rode back to the dorms with Megan McAllister, Loren Anguiano, and Trena Peel. We stay at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, PA. Ive been told its an all girls school. Its pretty small and the campus is nice, I like it. Mac and Lo took me to get checked in with housing to get my key and sign some forms. Right now were the only ones living in our building and its very safe (Mom). We have Corbys that let us into our hall as well as keys for each of our rooms. We have a lounge with a tv and a kitchen. A community bathroom, and we live two to a room. Its just an average dorm room...nothing special. Two beds, two desks, two dressers, two closets. And its air conditioned :) Security people randomly come in and walk down our hall... I guess to check things out.

The first night I was here I stayed with Kellie Wilkerson but Clare Burnum, her GF, is coming in a few days... so yesterday I moved to the room next door where Margo Pruis will join me today (Sunday).

I went to get my physical a few days ago and it was interesting...the whole thing took about 20 minutes. Ten minutes filling out paper work, eight minutes waiting in the exam room and a two minute physical. Seriously. The girls on the team say hes kind of a jerk...I don't know.

Ive been told pay day is the 15th, so until then my main food groups will be turkey and peanut butter and jelly with some chips and cookies on the side. But some people do actually cook here, so that's good since we all no I don't. Henney made baked ziti for everyone the other night, it was gooood! Everyone's scraping for cash though, well at least all of us rookies are.

There's a cafe open for us here on campus, its pretty good and cheap. Its only open for breakfast and lunch though, so that's sucky. Miguel's pretty cool too (the cook)... he makes omelets and stuff to order.

On Friday we were supposed to have an exhibition game but it got rained out :( We got to the stadium, started our hitting and then the rain started and came down for quite a while. We don't even have a tarp, weird. And theeen there was lightning so we were on a 30 min delay and it started raining again so they just called it.

During the warm-up my locker got switched because apparently they had given me the drippy locker and all my stuff was soaked! Sooo... now my locker is right next to Wilk - the Nike pro. For real, she has a personal contract with Nike and gets sooooo much stuff!! I'm so jealous and I want to be her friend. Haha. Shes really cool though, she gave out a bunch of stuff -- socks and batting gloves.

Margo got here a few days ago and shes really nice. Were reppin the Valley here in room 321. I made a pretty sign with the Valley logo for our door but fricken Mac kept turning it upside down so I moved it to the inside where its safer. Shes just bitter cuz she went to Georgia and we beat them, hahaha :)

I got a new glove and its preeeetty! Its white and navy blue and I love it! I do feel a little bad though, cheating on poor G-love. He didn't even know it was coming to him. One day hes still my glove, next day - career over. Poor thing.

So I'm still getting used to this whole pro thing. Its just so different. Like the first night I was here we went out and Teague came with us, and its allowed! Sooo weird. It was fun though. We went to a local bar called Rookies and watched the world series.

Saturday morning we went to a diner down the street, I forget what its called. The food was good, but not the point of the story. When we were leaving I gave Spence 50 cents and told her to win me a toy from the drop-claw thingy (yes, I am 12). Anyway, it took her three tries but she was successful and now we have a traveling mascot - Bert the Bee. Hes the ugliest thing Ive ever seen but I love him.

- Show quoted text -

Saturday was our day off, so after we went to the diner me, Wilk, Mac, Trena, Spence, Teague and Jess decided to go to Atlantic City. It took us awhile to get there with traffic...so we didn't get there til 5pm. The original plan was to go to the beach but it was too late by the time we got there. So we ended up gambling at the Hilton the whole time. Well Teague, Spence and Trena did and the rest of us were their support system. We even got free drinks just for standing there watching the whole time. Atlantic City was pretty cool...its like mini Vegas + the beach! We walked down the board walk and ate dinner at Hooters in another Casino. Teague treated with her winnings from black jack. She bought me an Atlantic City sweatshirt too cuz I'm broke and I was dressed for the beach and it got pretty freakin cold at night.

On Monday morning we had spin class and let me tell you it was the hardest thing I have ever done! And I do not with to ever do it again. Its basically an hour of intense bike riding to music while the 40 year old instructor kicks your ass. It wouldn't have been bad if there wasn't so much standing up and sitting down... my back is still hurting from doing it :( After spin a bunch of us stayed to lift weights on our own. We don't really have a weight lifting program but I guess were allowed to go to the gym any time we want and work out on our own.

We've been practicing at Moravian a lot lately... there's an indoor facility in case it rains (which it has been) and we have full access since Byrne is the head softball coach/AD there. Ive been practicing in the outfield the past few days and they said Ill probably play some left field along with pitching and hitting! Yay!

Tonight we had a cocktail party at a Hotel in downtown Allentown. Other than the players and coaching staff, there were the owners along with sponsors and donors of the team. We all had to dress up and we got free cocktails and finger foods. Margo and I were interviewed on camera since were the newbies.

Tomorrow is our home opener against the Washington Glory at 7:05pm. Thor is starting but they told me I'm gonna go in to pitch in the 4th inning :) I'm not sure if there will be any sort of live stats but you can check the website at http://www.philadelphiaforce.com. I know it's televised locally, but otherwise there isn't any coverage that I know of.

We get a lot of free time so if you reply to this I will definitely get back to you. Talk to you all later!

Love,

Stacy Birk #11 <--------still not ok with that :(