Ice, Headbands & Brew Works

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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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 :(