10 for a day!

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

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

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

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!

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

"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!

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!

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

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

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

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