The production company called Lou Gehrig was a thriving business in the late 1920's and throughout the 1930's. No man had more of impact for me of driving home runs than Lou. Production is what Lou was all about. He had seven years where his business surpassed 150 RBIs in that year. A record for most times knocking in 150 or more runs in a year. And his RBIs per game is still the highest percentage in major league history at .921. From 1930 to 1934 he knocked in 813 runs. Averaging 162 RBIs per season Lou averaged more than one run batted in per game, during this time of. An outstanding pace.

Whenever I look at Lou Gehrig's statistics I find something new about the man. Like the number of triples he hit. Or all the runs he scored. Thirteen consecutive years scoring at least 100 runs to go along with the same 13 consecutive years of driving in at least 100 runs. Eight years accumulating at least 200 hits. All these statistics and a lifetime batting average of 340 to boot. He is also 3rd in slugging per cent age and 3rd in on base and slugging per cent age (OPS) all time. These numbers represent career figures.

Lou Gehrig more than any other player I have studied has been the epitome of class, success and production. When I think of RBIs I always think of Columbia Lou. When I think of a great teammate or a champion my mind consistently recalls his name.

Being a Yankee fan as I was growing up, anything connected with the Yanks caught my eye. When I saw "Pride of The Yankees," with Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright I found another hero. Gary Cooper's portrayal of Lou Gehrig was that of a strong, focused and quiet man. I related I was very quiet as a kid. His success made me feel good. I was so proud that I liked the Yankees because Lou Gehrig was a part of my team. You did not get any better than Lou.

Lou Gehrig has been an inspiration for me. I look at what he has accomplished in his baseball life. I am amazed. I have seen film of Lou batting without a shirt on. As his muscles rip as he swings the bat I am reminded of his awesome power and strength.

As much as Lou is admired, I wonder if he would have been more of an icon had he not played in the shadow of Babe Ruth.

Feel free to pass this article on to baseball enthusiasts that you know.

Aron Wallad
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/mister-runs-batted-in-lou-gehrig-54245.html

The New York Yankees are on a mission and they have their sights set on gunning down the Tigers, thus making sure that all AL playoff teams must venture to the Bronx if they plan on playing in the Fall Classic!

While the pinstripers have been on a 7-3 pace the past 10 games, the Tigers have done the reverse going 3-7 and now must contend with the advancing Twins. Other competition is the defending World Series Champion, Chicago White Sox, who sit only 3 games back in the loss column for the wild card spot.

Ozzie Guillen's troops have the toughest road to travel and their playoff fortunes will be decided on a tough West Coast swing this week at Los Angeles and Oakland. The Yankees get Tampa Bay who has the worst road record in baseball with just 19 wins, and then the Red Sox who have no bullets left in the chamber.

In Minnesota, the Twins will need to refocus as the offensive machine known as the Oakland A's invades the Twin cities. The A's are led by former White Sox Frank Thomas, who is a lock for Comeback player of the year in the American League. The former tight end has swatted 35 homeruns to go along with 97 RBI's and a .299 batting average.

The Tigers will try and claw their way back to the best record in the AL with home sets against the Rangers and Orioles. Meanwhile, the Dodgers and Padres are going to slug it out to the final weekend to see who grabs division honors and the wild card spot.

San Diego has a very tough week as they must fly out east for three games against the Reds and then turn around and head to Chez Ravine for a crucial weekend set with the Dodgers. Los Angeles is at Wrigley Field where they cannot afford to slip up in this tight struggle.

The Cardinals have struggled all year in the very mediocre Central Division, but with a 4 ½ game lead over the inconsistent Reds and 5 over the Astros, they are headed for another division title.

While most of us on the East Coast only saw highlights of the memorable game played at Chez Ravine this past week between the Dodgers and Padres, even we have to admit that it was nothing short of amazing.

But guess what, folks? It only meant one game in the standings and the Philadelphia Phillies did not seem too impressed. For the first time this year, Ryan Howard and his mates have a share of the top spot in the wild card race, as they prepare for the Florida Marlins to hit town.

The good news in the City of Brotherly Love is also the fact that their ball team won't have to face the Marlins' ace pitcher, Dontrelle Willis, in their three game set beginning Friday. Willis hit two home runs and pitched into the ninth inning to lead the Marlins over the New York Mets 6-3 Wednesday night.

Willis (12-11) has won three straight starts for the first time this season. He allowed three runs and seven hits to improve to 3-1 against the Mets this season and 11-2 with a 2.02 ERA in his career. The left-hander is 5-1 with a no-decision in his last seven starts overall.

The big concern for the Phil's will be whether young Ryan Howard can keep up his torrid power numbers, or will he go into a funk that will see him strikeout a lot.

Howard has struck out 170 times in 548 at-bats, including 13 K's over his last 28 at-bats. However, he also leads the majors with 57 home runs and 140 RBIs and is batting .312. He's batting .283 against left-handed pitchers.

Chase Utley set a career high and a Phillies record for a second baseman when he hit his 29th home run in the sixth inning Wednesday night. Utley had 28 homers last season, matching Juan Samuel's previous mark for a Phillies second baseman, set in 1987.

The Phillies shuffled their starting rotation, pushing back LHP Randy Wolf to Monday night against the Astros. RHP Jon Lieber will pitch Saturday against the Marlins and LHP Jamie Moyer will start the series finale Sunday.

Mostly, the switch was made so that Lieber won't have to face the Marlins in Miami during the last weekend of the season. Lieber is 5-5 with a 5.86 ERA in 15 career starts in the South Florida heat.

The Phillies lead the NL with a .989 fielding percentage and they have experienced pitching with the addition of Jamie Moyer. They will win the wild card!

Babe Ruth's Early Life

On February 6th 1895, Babe Ruth was born George Herman Ruth, Jr., in a poor waterfront neighborhood. When Ruth was seven years old, his father gave him up to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, an orphanage. A priest at St. Mary's, Brother Matthias, recognized the wonderful talent that this child had, and worked with young George to improve his game. In 1914, Jack Dunn, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, observed Ruth pitch in a game, and immediately signed him to a contract. Because George was so young, he got the nickname "Jack's newest babe." This is how he got the name "Babe" Ruth.

Later in 1914, Ruth's contract was signed to the Boston Red Sox, who already had many excellent players. He appeared in five of the seasons games, only pitching in four. Ruth was able to get a spot on the teams starting rotation during the training season of 1915. Ruth's batting average for 1915 was .315, and hit four home runs as well. It appeared that the St. Mary's Brother Matthias and Jack Dunn alike had made a fair assessment of the young man.

New Home with the Yankees'

During his first year with the New York Yankees', Ruth batted a .376 and made 54 home runs. In the 1921 World Series, the Yankees matched the Giants on the field, where Ruth injured his elbow during game two of the series, and was unable to play the rest of the series. As a result, the Yankees lost the World Series. The Yankees finally won the World Series against the Giants on the third consecutive year they had played them in it. Ruth became sick during 1925, and did not play a very well season-in fact, the Yankees won only 69 of 85 games, and finished the season next to last in the American League.

In 1926, Babes' batting average was .372, he had 47 home runs, and 146 runs' batted in. With the AL title in their hands, they moved on to the World Series. Sadly, the Yankees were beaten by the St. Louis Cardinals, even though Ruth played well. Through the next few years, the Yankees saw great success, until 1928 when there were many injuries to the Yankees players. Over the next few years, he continued to pitch and hit well, but he played his last game in Yankee Stadium in 1934 to a crowd of only around 2,000.

The Boston Braves signed Babe Ruth to a contract, where he won his first game with his new team, defeating the New York Giants. The Boston Braves did not see much luck over the next few years, and on May 30th 1935, Ruth played his last major league game. This season did not go well for him, leaving him with a .181 batting average with six home runs. The Braves continued that year, only to receive the third worst record in the history of major league baseball. That year was his last in baseball, and in 1948 the Great Bambino died of cancer in New York.

Johnny Moon
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/babe-ruth-biography-126462.html

An Intentional F&I Manager does things with a purpose, and on purpose!
It's an exciting day in the F&I Department and many F&I Professionals are reaching record performance levels. As the economy struggles and the prices of everything from gas to groceries rises sharply, people are more watchful of their money. They will only buy things that have real value to them. That's exactly the kind of customers I want in front of me!
The "Intentional" F&I Manager does things with a purpose and on purpose! The F&I Professional has a well-developed belief in his products. He knows what they cover and how they benefit the customer.
Other, less "Intentional", F&I Managers complain how tough it is and make excuses for under-performing. When you ask these F&I Managers what went wrong last month, most are quick to point out that their failure was due to some external factor, which prevented them from achieving their goal. "Poor performance by Sales Managers, sales people and those darn local credit unions are killing us", is what you will hear. The only thing you can be guaranteed to achieve in F&I without purposeful effort is failure! Having visited dealerships around the country, there emerges a distinct difference between the successful F&I managers and the under-performers. The successful F&I Manager does a lot more things intentionally than their under-performing peers. Let's take a look at the path of an "Intentional F&I Manager".
Have an "Intentional Strategy" A professional football player that does not know the playbook and a professional baseball player that refuses to take batting practice have one thing in common. They are destined to fail! An F&I Professional must have an intentional strategy by setting goals, practicing his craft and working to consistently hone his skills or they are destined to fail as well!
The path to an intentional F&I products always begins with setting goals. Daily, weekly and monthly projections should be thoughtfully made to encourage growth and provide a target to shoot for. Goals must be shared with the dealer or GM to enable them to hold us accountable in our efforts to increase our production. Reviewing these on a daily basis will keep our month from going adrift and keep us on track. In my experience, I have found there to be three types of Goal setters: Risk-Takers, Care-Takers and Under-Takers!
The Risk-Taker is always searching for more product knowledge and will work consistently to improve his skills so he can provide a customer focused and value building presentation. These are the managers who are fun to work with, because they are always hungry for knowledge, and continuously strive to become better at their craft.
The Care-Taker wants nothing to do with the pressure to improve. If they can just keep the status quo and continue to stay at their current level of production they are happy. All of their energy is focused on making sure numbers don't go down, not on working to see them go up
The Under-Taker is the manager that troubles me the most. Their desire to learn and improve died a long time ago. Their primary motivation is to find an F&I position at a dealership where no one expects much. Minimal performance expectations, no pressure to improve, just complete the paperwork, and sell whatever the customer wants to buy. Whatever they sell is unintentional, because the customer wanted it.
It's time for these managers to find something else to do.
Examine your production over the last 90 days and determine how intentional your strategy has been and make a determination to become a Risk-Taker! Your chances for success increase in proportion to the time you spend training, planning and preparing for your next customer. You must become very intentional with regard to scheduling training activities as part of your daily routine.
Customers today demand knowledgeable professionals. They want someone who cares about their particular situation, and who has the expertise to help them make good decisions.Unless they find a professional in the F&I office, they will dismiss the experience as irrelevant, and a waste of their time. People will gladly pay for genuine expertise. It is your responsibility to give it to them!
Every week, you must spend time developing ways and improving your ability to effectively overcome customer objections through the use of visual aids and better needs-discovery questions. You need to role-play, videotape and review actual deliveries to gain insight on your presentation, or arrange an in-house consultation by your dealership's training provider in order to have your consultative sales techniques evaluated. You should schedule 20 minutes into every day to practice your craft. No Excuses!! You can't raise your income level any higher on the outside than you grow on the inside.

Ron Reahard
http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/the-intentional-fi-managerpart-1-529236.html

Every day I will be looking over the performances & trends from previous baseball games to help you make educated decisions about your fantasy baseball roster. Here are a few players from yesterday’s action:

Jacobs putting last year’s April behind him. Last year, Mike Jacobs had a putrid April, hitting only .192 & almost lost his job at first base. This year, Jacobs is enjoying his April thus far, batting .412 with 3 extra base hits in 17 AB’s. At the age of 26, this may be his breakout year, but of course there are some red flags. Jacobs has the tendency to strikeout more than we’d like, which will affect his batting average & HR production. Last year he started taking more walks, which is a positive step towards plate discipline. So far, he only has 2 strikeouts this year, which is a very encouraging sign. The power is for real, but can he take that final step? Looks good so far, but if you roster him, you must monitor his strikeouts, which will be the key to his breakout. If he can strikeout less than 18% of the time, he’ll be a solid fantasy player.

Iwamura making a solid transition from Japan. While Dice-K may be getting a majority of the press (and rightfully so), another Japanese player making head way is Akinori Iwamura. Iwamura was 4 for 4 last night, including a solo homerun, his first in the big leagues & currently sports a .636 average. So how much upside does Iwamura have? During his last 3 years in Japan, he hit 30 or more HR & batted .300 or better. It’ll be interesting to see how his batting average transfers over, because he struck out quite a bit in Japan but walks a lot as well, showing both good & poor plate discipline. So far he has 0 strikeouts & 2 walks. You can probably expect around 20 HR this year, but you’ll have to monitor his plate discipline, which will be the key to his transition. Stash him on your bench if you can.

Oliver Perez looking to regain that 2004 form. Oliver Perez looked to be a young stud on the rise after his 2004 year, but completely fell apart the last two years. Perez took his first positive step last night, going 7 innings, striking out 6, while allowing only 5 hits, 1 run & a very impressive ZERO walks. Extremely high walk & homerun totals are what have doomed him in the past but his strikeout rate has still stayed excellent. The one run he gave up last night was a homerun, so he’s still having problems there, but not allowing a free pass is a HUGE step in the right direction. He’s most likely available on many waiver wires, so should you take the risk? Arggh….the choice is up to you. You know the risk as well as the reward. One outing doesn’t change the last 2 years, but it’s hard to ignore how good that 2004 season would look for your team this year. I’m a risk taker, so I’m going to grab him. Keep your fingers crossed.

Moseley pitches well in place of injured Weaver. With Jared Weaver still rehabbing his injury, Dustin Moseley got the start and pitched well. Moseley went 6 innings, only giving up 5 hits, 1 run & no walks while striking out 4. Is he worth a spot on your roster? The answer is an emphatic no…at least for now. Since 2004, Moseley has posted an ERA north of 4.60 in all his AAA campaigns. There are some positive signs though. Since 2004, Moseley has lowered his walk rate while upping his strikeout rate, finally reaching that all important 2 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio last year. It took him 2 years to figure out AA, so maybe it’s the same case for AAA. In either case, he’ll likely have only one more start before being sent down for Weaver. Avoid at this time until we see more consistency at both levels.

Kaz Matsui showing signs of life. After his lackluster performance in New York, Kaz Matsui, a star Japanese import, was considered a bust by many. When he got traded to Colorado & spent some time in the minors, he was called up late last year and played well, hitting .345 & slugging .504 with 8 stolen bags in only 113 AB’s. His success has carried over early this year, with Matsui going 3 for 4 last night, raising his average to .462 on the year (slugging is at .615), while swiping 2 bags as well. While he doesn’t walk as much as we’d like to see in a base stealer, he does make solid contact, which is essential for anyone with speed. He also qualifies at a shallow 2B position. He certainly deserves your full attention at this point & may quite well be this year’s version of Brandon Phillips. If you have a need at second base or if you need some speed, he’s most likely the best option on the waiver wire & worth the risk. There’s upside here.

http://www.starfantasysports.com

Alex The Great
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/starfantasysportscom-472007-a-look-at-japanese-players-not-named-dicek-128174.html

I was sitting around today thinking back to years ago when I was involved in a multilevel marketing business. You know the business where you invite your friends over for dinner and then bring out the old white board in the hopes that you can get them, and then their friends, to join too?

Trust me. It’s a hard business in which to succeed. It takes the long-term dedication that most cannot survive. I was a distributor for Nu-Skin International for about four years and never made more than a couple thousand dollars per month on my best months.

One day, I was out on the town “prospecting” (walking up to complete strangers asking them if they would come to a meeting to learn how they can make a fortune). I truly believed I could help these people make money. I was convinced if I could get them to do what I was doing, they would be rich and so would I!

(I know this message is long but stay with me here...you will see how this can make your eBay business skyrocket in just a few short days.)

Back to what I was saying.

One day, I was prospecting with a friend and we were talking about our sponsors and how much money they were making doing the same thing we were. I was trained by Mark Yarnell on how to market and sponsor people. Mark was a brilliant man, one I could see myself modeling. He was making about $300,000 per month doing the exact same thing he taught me to do. I know he was doing exactly what I was from working with him and talking with him on an almost daily basis.

My friend and I could not resolve the problem as to why he was making so much money and we were making so little. So we decided to sit down and put all the numbers together in the hopes we could figure out the reasoning.

There were a couple of factors that were the same when I compared my numbers with Marks. I was talking to (prospecting) almost as many people as he was per day. I was having almost as many people show up to our meetings. So, what was the difference?

This is when I figured out the missing element that made him rich and me poor. It was 1%!

He was doing about 1% better at getting people to the meeting and 1% better at getting them to sign up and duplicate what he was doing.

It doesn’t seem like a lot, does it? I mean it’s only 1%...

It’s not a lot on a day-to-day basis, but over time it’s HUGE!

Look at it this way. Every day he was doing 1% better at getting people there and 1% better at signing people up. When you add that up over one year, it comes out that he was doing 730% better than I was!

That, in turn, means he would be making hundreds of thousands of dollars over and above what I was making simply by being 1% better.

The 1% factor applies in many areas of life, besides business.

Let’s look at baseball: Did you know that the average baseball player only gets a hit once every four at bats (a 0.250 batting average)? The batting champion each year has an average slightly better than one hit per three time at bats (0.333). A career average of more than 0.300 will likely get you in the Hall of Fame. Finally, only one player in the last 60 years has hit more than 0.400 (4 hits per 10 at bats) in a single season (Ted Williams, who died this summer).

As you can see––even in baseball––if you’re only a tiny percent better, it will get you into the Hall of Fame and literally make you millions of dollars more per year. It’s really a simple concept to understand and, once you understand it and work to improve your business 1%, you will change your life.

Now, let’s look at how this applies to your eBay business:

Think for a minute how much more you would make if you could...

Sell your items for 1% more

Get 1% more people to buy from you again

Get 1% more people to buy more than one product from you at a time

Cut down your operating expenses associated with running your eBay business by 1%

I could go on and on, but I think you’re starting to get the idea.

I would love to take the time to give you dozens of examples for each of the bullet points above but, if I did, this email would be HUGE! So let’s try and keep it simple. Let’s look at one idea for each. This will at least get your brain working and make you start thinking.

Number 1: Sell your item for 1% more

A great way to achieve this goal is to do a little research on your product market. An easy way to do this is to research past auctions of the same exact product using the software located at www.auctionmarketwatch.com (this same research can be done without the software, it just takes a little longer). Look for the listings that sold for more than yours did. Study what the seller did differently than you.

Did they start the auction at a different price?

Did they list different benefits?

Did they make the perceived value of the product appear to be more than yours, even though it was exactly the same?

How did the overall look of their auction differ from yours?

Get out a pen and paper and go through each auction that sold for a higher price than yours did. I know sometimes its just luck of the draw, but don’t be so sure of that. Many times, it’s the little things that make a big difference. Write down EVERY difference you can find. The key to using this research to increase your sale price is to test the changes. You don’t want to go and change your entire auction. Because what you’re already doing is working (and you’re just trying to improve), you can make small changes each time and see the difference.

The next time you run an auction for the same product, or a different product, make sure to include the points that you wrote down in the description. There is a very good chance you will uncover your problem and you will make more money on your next item.

Number 2: Get 1% more people to buy from you again

If you’re not contacting past customers on a regular basis, now is a good time to start. If you choose to do nothing else with your eBay business, make sure that this is the one that you do.

You will always have much more success getting your past customers to buy from you than you will have trying to sell to a new customer.

Why? They trust you. They know how you do business.

You have removed the skepticism factor that lives in all of us. It’s true; we are all very skeptical and we choose wisely on who we will trust and spend our hard earned dollars with. After you remove the skepticism and someone knows how easy it is to do business with you, they will come back.

Contacting past customers can be as easy as sending them an email once a month to notify them of new items you have listed. If it’s someone that has proven to buy more than the average customer, you might want to step it up a little. Contact them on a weekly basis, but always offer them something in return. You will be surprised at how happy people are when you email them letting them know you have new items listed for sale and that you’re giving them a special discount for being such a loyal customer.

People email me every day thanking me for emailing and keeping in touch. Many times I won’t hear from someone for a couple of months and I starting thinking maybe I’m wasting my time. Then, out of the blue, they will email to thank me for all of the emails and for keeping them informed.

It is difficult to understand why someone will come out of the dark and purchase from you, but I can guarantee they will if you just take a few minutes a week to email your customers. This will take you very little time and definitely increase your return business by 1% (if not more).

(In a later issue, we will talk about the lifetime value of a customer and why it is so important to keep a customer once you’ve earned one.)

Number 3: Get 1% more people to buy more than one product from you at a time

It’s called an upsell. You see it everyday. Have you ever been to the movies and they ask you if you would like a large coke for only a quarter more? Consider McDonalds––they ask you if you would like a hot apple pie with your meal. They do this because a huge percentage of people will purchase something extra if you try to upsell.

An easy way to upsell with your eBay business is to do so in the auction text. It is best to include some sort of upsell text at the end of your item description.

For example, you’re selling a pair of Nike shoes and include the following text:

“Winning bidder on these Nike shoes can receive FREE shipping on any other Nike item in my other running auctions.”

There are several ways you can upsell a customer and they will be happy you did. People buy from their emotions and, if you can make them feel like they are getting a good deal on an upsell product, they will be happy to buy.

Number 4: Cut down your operating expenses associated with running your eBay business by 1%

Most eBay sellers think they are backed into a corner with many of the associated eBay fees. However, this isn’t the case! There are several ways you can save money on your listing fees, such as adjusting the list price, cutting down on extra features, and choosing the right auction management software for your volume. A lot of these factors will depend on each seller individually. But, as an example, I’m going to use someone who is selling lower-end fishing poles.

Someone purchases their fishing poles using my techniques for $6.00 per pole. His goal is to make a $4.00 gross profit per pole. So, he lists the pole at $10.00 and, of course, hopes it gets bid higher. The pole gets bid up to $13.50 and the auction ends successfully. Now, the seller made more of a profit than he had hoped for with the eBay list fee being $0.60, the final value fee being $0.71, and the cost of the product $6.00, his profit on the sale was $6.19.

Let’s take the same scenario, but, this time, the seller takes a little more time evaluating the costs for listing and realizes something significant. The cost for listing an item at $10.00 is $0.60, and the cost for listing an item at $9.99 is only $0.35. So, if he lists the pole at a $0.01 decrease from his goal gross profit, he will actually be making an extra $0.25 per pole.

Now, $0.25 may not seem like a lot to most people. However, if your business is selling on eBay and you’re doing high volumes of listings to generate a significant income, this would seem like a lot. If you take these same poles and say he lists 500 of them per month, this is an extra $125.00 per month, for absolutely NO extra work.

Please keep in mind this is only one example of how you can cut auction costs with eBay. You should evaluate every aspect of your business for small changes such as this. If you could find just four areas of your business in which you could make a small change to, such as the one in this example , you would make an additional $500.00 per month. Now, that’s big deal!

sebastian foss
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/improve-your-ebay-business-1-and-watch-the-cash-come-in-97694.html

The winter thaw was in full bloom. All I thought about from the fall of 1963 to the winter of 1964 was playing baseball. Weequahic High School's baseball season started in the middle of March. Sometime around March 15, 1964 could not arrive fast enough. Even if tryouts started outside in the snow, I would have been there. But they started in the gym, because it was so cold outside. Hey that makes sense.

I remember walking through the halls of school on that first day of tryouts in a baseball daze. I was like a baseball zombie. I kept thinking about how I was going to do. Would I hit? How would I look? Would I trip over my uniform? Hello. I did not want to embarrass myself. After school was where the phase of the daze turned into the hits and the mitts.

"Okay start throwing the ball around." I heard Mr Ginsburg say, as he strolled out of his office. The coach had spoken. It was time to get moving. My time to show em all what I had.

So I started playing catch. I was so excited to have a glove on and playing ball. The winter is always too long when you yearn to be playing baseball.

After tossing the pill around for a while it was time to hit. We had no pitching machine so we improvised. Now get this. The gym at Weequahic High had a regular sized basketball court. On both sides of the court there were two more basketball baskets. From each basket a rope was tied that hung to a height of my stomach. Attached to the end of the rope was a baseball. The rope went through the middle of the ball and out the other side of the ball. It was my job to hit the baseball into the mat that was positioned up against the wall, under the basket. The ball hung about two feet from the mat.

I was nervous as I heard the coach tell us what to do. So simple a concept. Hit a ball into a mat. What if I messed up? Would I be cut in less than an hour of tryouts?

Batting was it for me. If I couldn't hit this somewhat stationary ball I should rest my bat in the bat rack for good. Fat chance. I hit the ball so hard the sound it made hitting the mat had everyone in the gym looking at me. Boom. I can still hear the echoes in the gym. My buddies patted me on the back. I was relieved. I passed my first test.

Please pass this on to your friends.

Aron Wallad
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/my-high-school-tryout-68516.html

Finally, Spring is here and with it comes the beginning of Fastpitch Softball season for hundreds of thousands of little girls. Along with the start of Softball season also comes the recruitment of parents to become volunteer coaches. The FEAR, the anxiety, the hope that you don't lead your daughter's team to a winless season. Here’s the good news, like just about anything else, if the new coach will find a successful mentor the coach can quickly learn what skills and strategies need to be utilized to win. However, the large majority of new fastpitch coaches are dads that think since they played baseball 20 years ago they can easily transfer that knowledge to their team and be successful. After all, it's just a bunch of 7 & 8 year old girls, right? Wrong. To be successful the new coach not only has to coach his team, he must also out coach all of the other dad-coaches.

If you think coaching doesn’t make that big of a difference, then please explain how a coach went 93-4-2 over a 5 year period in 8U fastpitch softball while coaching his daughters. That’s a very impressive record no matter what age you are coaching. And don’t think for a moment that it was talent that led to that record. I’m talking about a team that every year lost half of it’s players to promotion to the older age group and had to pick up 6 or 7 brand new players…typically girls that had never played the game. So how could this one coach pile up 5 straight 1st place finishes and compile a winning percentage of .960%?

It boils down to knowing what strategies and skills are most effective at different ages. That’s the only possible answer. For example, the three most important positions in 8U Softball are First Base, Pitcher and Second Base. As players get older it’s certainly true that talent can make a difference. But talent still has to be coached. An athletic player under a poor coach will never achieve her full potential. However, average talent can achieve superior levels under the guidance of a great coach.

Regarding offense, most new coaches tend to build a batting order similar to how professional baseball teams put together a batting order. That's a sure way to lose games in 8U softball. The best advice is to stagger the strong hitters with weaker hitters mixed in. That way your team is able to bat further into the lineup, allowing for a couple of outs, yet scoring the maximum number of runs allowed. Many new coaches also forget to teach the girls how to bunt the ball. The younger the team is the more important it is teach girls to bunt as it helps to build hand-eye coordination while allowing the player to contribute to the success of the team.

Finally, most new coaches don't know what training tools would be of greatest benefit to their team. Typically the league will issue a sack of softball gear that might include a couple of bats, a dozen balls, a few batting helmets, and some catcher's gear and the new coach never gives it a second thought. However, regardless of age every coach needs to have a sack of plastic poly balls and a hitting tee just to name a couple of training aides. In the younger age groups a coach might want to have two or more hitting tees so his team gets plenty of practice time swinging a bat. As for the poly balls, not only are they perfect for batting practice, but they are also perfect for learning how to catch pop flys in order to prevent injuries.

Good Luck to all of the new softball coaches. Don't assume you know it all, find a mentor, do some research, teach skills that are age appropriate, and have fun. It's going to be a great season of softball and one that your daughter will never forget since her dad was the coach.

Jim Moyer
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/tips-for-the-new-softball-coach-dad-134608.html

There are two types of questions: more obvious sports trivia questions and obscure sports trivia questions.

For example, an obscure sports trivia question would be something like: Who finished second in the Master's Golf Tournament in 2001? The answer is Ernie Els. Only diehard golf fans or sports trivia buffs would know this answer.

A more obvious question would be something like: Who is the NFL's all-time leading rusher? The answer is Emmitt Smith. Most NFL fans would know the answer to this question.

There are thousands and possibly millions of obscure questions but not nearly as many obvious questions. So let's take a look at some of the obvious questions for the major sports: football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. For all of these sports the records can be broken down by game records, season records and career records.

The major records for NFL football are passing, rushing, and receiving records. Here are three examples of the major ones:

Who holds the record for most touchdown passes in a career? Dan Marino, 420

Who holds the record for most passing yards in a career? Dan Marino, 61,361

Who holds the record for most touchdowns caught in a career? Jerry Rice, 197

The major records for basketball are points scored and rebounds. Here are two major records:

Who holds the record for most points in a season? Wilt Chamberlain, 4029

Who holds the record for most rebounds in a game? Wilt Chamberlain, 2,149

The major records for baseball generally deal with batting and pitching. The major categories for batting are batting average, hits, RBI, and homeruns. Here are two examples of major batting records:

Who holds the record for most hits in a season? Ichiro Suzuki, 262

Who holds the record for most homeruns in a career? Hank Aaron, 755

Generally the biggest pitching records deal with wins, saves, strikeouts, and earned run average (ERA). Here are two examples of major pitching records:

Who holds the record for most strikeouts in a game? Tom Cheney, 21 (16 innings pitched in an extra inning game)

Who holds the record for most wins in a season? Old Hoss Radbourn, 59

For hockey the major records revolve around goals scored, points, assists, and saves. Here are a couple examples:

Who holds the record for goals in a season? Wayne Gretzky, 92

Who holds the record for most shutouts in a career? Terry Sawchuk, 103

There are also many records for teams in all sports. However, most sports trivia questions are based on individual records.

Some records won't last for long, while other records may fall very soon.

We just saw the record for most touchdowns in a season fall when LaDanian Tomlinson shattered the old record. We also saw Peyton Manning set the record for most touchdown passes in a season. This coming season Brett Favre may set a new record for touchdown passes in a career.

In baseball Barry Bonds is closing in on Hank Aaron's homerun record. However, the record for most wins in a season will probably never be broken.

There are all types of sports trivia questions that can be asked and there are many more sports that can be included. To know many of the answers a person would have to be a sports fan and a bit of a history buff.

anonymous
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/sports-trivia-breakdown-122940.html