I apologize for the delay in getting this out. First off, let’s thank God for the beautiful three
days of weather we had for the 08’ version of the Classic Spring Training event. To my
knowledge, we had one injury when Paul from Maryland tore a bicep muscle swinging a bat. I
heard he was to under go surgery Tuesday but that was delayed until the swelling could go
down. Please keep him in your prayers as this is a serious injury that is tough to recover from.
Other than this injury, all I'm aware of are the typical bumps and bruises, pulled and sore
muscles, etc.
It was great seeing some old friends and meeting and making new friends. I'm already looking
forward to next year. I have received quite a bit of positive feedback on the event. I would
encourage you to e-mail any suggestions you may have that might improve the clinic next
year. I want to thank all of you for attending. It takes more than my pretty face to get this thing
done so I want to thank everyone that made this event possible.
My wife Debbie has put up with a lot of things not getting done around the house because of
the amount of time I spent on getting this event ready. Debbie also did quite a bit of errand
running for me and she is always willing to jump in and help with anything I need. I love you!
Happy Valentines Day!!!
We would have nothing without our sponsors. What can you say about the man……Mr. Rob
Harris, owner of WalkOff Sports. Rob has been sponsoring this event in the past and this year
he turned it up a notch by donating 12 top end Worth bats, not to mention three fielding
gloves, numerous pull overs and sweatshirts, bat warmers, stickums, etc etc. In addition,
those cool little beenie’s were supplied by Rob. Thanks Rob!! Please support Rob at Walkoff
Sports during the year when you need softball supplies.
I want to thank Combat for supplying the demo bats used on the fields. But even more
importantly, I want to thank Johnny McCraw and Mike Macenko for stepping up to the plate
and donating some give-aways for the event. These two guys have gone way beyond the call
of duty in assisting us during this event and I just can’t thank them enough. Thanks Mike and
Johnny!! If your needing Combat gear, please look these guys up this year. By the way Coop,
these two guys have put northeast Florida firmly in the Combat camp.
Obie Oberhelman, owner of the Ultimate Sports Company donated 15 of his bat bags for the
event. Obie's company only makes bat bags and thats all they have been doing for 17 years.
Their bags are made of the finest material with heavy duty zippers. Please check with Obie if
you need a bat bag during the 08’ season. Thanks again, Obie!
Pete Vinci, owner of Vinci Pro Sports, has been involved with this event since the first st that
was held in Lake City in 2002. Pete hasn’t made it down the past three years and we really miss
him because he is one of the true great guys and his love for the game comes shining
through. Pete, always sends down some giveaways for the raffle and we really appreciate his
support this year as well as in the past. Thanks again, Pete!
Kevin from Anaconda Sports gave us a great deal on the softballs again this year. As usual,
these balls are the best in the business and they were fly’in out of the park like crazy. So, drop
Kevin a line during 08’ for your softball needs. Thanks Kevin! Oh, by the way Kevin, Mike
could have sold a bunch of those senior Combats if he had them. I know me and my brother
would have bought a couple each and over 50% of the campers were senior players!
JR Wright brought a box of give-aways supplied by his Worth representative. I don’t have the
information on the representative by I do want to thank him for what he has done to make this
event more successful. Thanks JR for the hook-up! Mike from Team Image donated a logo
design for the raffle and it was actually won by someone needing a logo designed, Rob Harris
of Walkoff Sports! You don't think we rig this stuff do you?
I had a few helpers on the field and I need to start with Randy Parker, aka RP. Randy has been
helping me with the event for three years now and he knows the ropes. I paid him back this
year with some horrible pitches during the home run derby. Eh,…. sorry Rp.
The field bosses did a great job this year and for the most part things ran pretty decent on the
fields. A special thanks to Adrian Dameron, Chuck Sprinkle, Josh Foster, aka president of the
Midget Mafia, Bruce “The Bat” Fairchild, my Maryland boys, Kevin Crotts, Troy Yowell and
Mickey Kelly. You guys did a great job and I appreciate all of your efforts!
I had some other people that help me such as my daughter Shannon, my son Justin, Dave’s
wife Carey Allgood, Steve Adams help set the BP field up for Thursday night and he did the
Krispy Kreme dough nut run Friday morning. I wish I had remembered to tell ya’ll about the
dough nuts during our meeting Friday morning. Thanks Kyle Sexton for the banner work and
the tee shirt work. Thanks John Sexton for designing the logo, by the way, I have your xl shirt I
owe you. I want to thank those guys that brought the pitching screens and tees as they really
came in handy. I want to thank Len and Kathy Moser for doing an excellent job on the
sweatshirts this year. I know it was a real pain to keep up with all the changes. Thanks!
I want to say a special thanks to Johnny Teagle, you know John, he is the security guy that
stays in the home that Mitchell bombed for the past two years. Thanks for not kicking us out!
Thanks for the use of the golf cart, which was a life saver! Thanks again, John.
Thanks to District 14 Councilman Corrigan and my Councilman, Mr. Jack Webb for assisting in
making sure the maintenance was completed on the fields. A special thanks to the City of
Jacksonville Parks and Recreation Department for getting the fields ready. Thanks Jim-Ed
Williams for lining up an umpire for the scrimmage game. He got away before I could pay him
for his services so I need to get in touch with him.
OK, I sure I missed someone.........but I hope not. Now, the good, the bad, the ugly!
Lots of good out there this year. What else can you say…..Johnny McCraw, Mike Macenko,
Cecil Whitehead, Baer Chandler, Johnny Dykes and Derriel Cribbs all worked hard helping the
campers with their swings. J-Mac is an absolute beast and worked all day on Field #4. I can’t
tell you how many people told me Johnny worked with them on their swing. One even made
the comment, he was mad at Johnny because now he is using muscles he never used before
to swing and he is so sore the next day he didn’t think he could swing.
I got a lot of compliments after the event on Johnny McCraw. Here is a portion of a typical
letter, with the writer's name removed.
"We were especially impressed with Johnny Mac. He spent quite a bit of time with Devon
and I during BP and was able to spot some flaws in our mechanics and offer great suggestions
on how to correct them. He also gave us several drills to work on as well. Subsequently, we
are both hitting further and more consistently than before the clinic. I wanted you to know that
I believe John is a first class ambassador of the sport and a top notch gentleman. He spent a
great deal of time with everyone and always had time for questions and stories. I was happy to
meet him but honored to get to know him.
Again, thank you for a top notch program that I will look forward to attending again."
The “Big Cat” Mike Macenko is just a blast to hang around. If you left before Sunday
afternoon, you missed Mike standing out on the berm beyond the fence on Field #3 (The home
run derby field) with a large pine log in his hand. Mike was beating the end of the log into the
ground saying “Let my people go”, truly a memorable moment is CST history. Later, Mike was
driving me around in the golf cart and we were retrieving home run balls and Mike tells me
this story about driving a golf cart by himself one day and he leaned out of the cart to pick up
a golf club and flipped the cart on top of himself. Right after telling me that story he drops me
off behind the bleachers on Field #3 and he does a 180 in the cart to go the other way, I swear
I saw that cart go up on two wheels! I got a lot of mail telling me about the great job Mike
Macenko did and how great a guy he is. I didn't need the letters to know this but I really
appreciate you guys taking the time to send them to me. I know it means a lot to Mike. Thanks
Mike!!!
I also want to thank a couple of my teammates, Cecil Whitehead and Baer Chandler. I really
appreciate you guys helping me during the clinic. If you followed the CST tread on
Softballfans you probably know about Chad 's Cecil Cecil Cecil comment. Well, during the
exhibition game, Cecil came to the plate looking for "His little Internet Buddy" who happened
to be playing left center field. Cecil hit a ball directly over Chad's head, this ball landed at the
edge of the woods on Field #3, which is 400' feet away. Chad, next time, don't pick on the "Hall
of Famer".
I want to thank Johnny Dykes who did a great job running the pitching clinic. I didn't know
Johnny was coming to the event but I was happy to see him there. I love it when a plan comes
together!
The home run derby was won by Danny Norquist of Las Vegas, Nevada. If you didn't see this
exhibition you really missed a great display of hitting. Danny got into the final round and easily
won the event when he went first and hit an amazing 10 home runs on 10 pitches. Brett
Kreuger, Darren Till, Chad Teague, Mitchell Ellison and Chad Jenning were also in the finals.
The senior division of the home run derby was won by Jack McNaulty out of Newportville,
Pennsylvania hitting 4 of 10. Randy Parker, Gary Garcia, Bruce Fairchild and Steve Stone were
in the senior finals.
Chris "The Flash" Fairchild won the base running event in the young division with a blazing
time of 12.10. James "Hauling" Hall out of Denver, North Carolina won the senior division with
a time of 13.50. Good job guys!
I want to thank the guys from the Hollis Appraisal team that stopped in to play the exhibition
game. From the 50 Major Plus team were Baer Chandler, Cecil Whitehead, Caleb Rebanold and
Horace Jefferson. From the 55 Major Plus team was my brother Audie Hollis, Mike Walker and
Ed Rose. From our Florida Half Century team was Ron Green. Also, Jack McNualty, JR Wright
and Brett Kreuger helped us fill out the squad. Thanks Guys!
As mentioned earlier, I've received many thank you notes from people who enjoyed the event
and I heard from a lot of people that had their swings improved. So, the good news is I'll plan
on doing the event again next year.
The bad - Probably the worst thing I saw was Paul's injury which was just a freak thing as he
did it swinging a bat. I did see a pitcher get nailed because he didn't get behind the screen.
This left a nasty little bruise! The fields got pretty bad when they dried out but I was just
pleased to have them available for our use. Thanks Councilman Corrigan and Webb. We lost
75 softballs, some of these were picked up by the scavengers that hawk the woods even
while we are still on the fields. Then there was the guy out there early Saturday morning with
waders on and two dogs collecting balls. I think Kreug got the old lady in the house that sits
way behind Field #3 upset Sunday when a ball he hit dinged her house which had to be 500'
away. Sorry Mam! Ok, enough of this.
Now the ugly. Nothing upsets me more than to have local guys sneak into this event. I have a
real problem when these guys are out here taking up valuable time my campers have paid for.
This year I caught four of them. When confronted, all admitted to sneaking in except one. He
told me he signed up and paid for the event. After I rounded up my copy of the roster and
confronted him again he admitted he had lied to me. Most of these guys said they got a call
from some friends in the event telling them to come out. I hope this isn't true. This issue will
be addressed next year.
Overall, I think the event turned out decent. Areas I want to improve next year include
security for the event, maybe a sign in list on each field for the batting order during bp
sessions and I want to make Thursday an official day for the early arrivers by having a
sponsor's/swap meet from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at a site away from city property, like the
banquet room we had last year. Our sponsors can setup tables and sell products before the
event so you can use your new bat or equipment during the event. I also want to incorporate
a swap meet so individuals can trade or sell their equipment. Maybe we can do hamburgers
and hot dogs during the swap meet and then head to a field for some BP.
I'm sure there is plenty I forgot to mention like I would like to have as many of this year's
group back next year as possible because you have been absolutely great. OK,.......that's a rap
on the 08' event.
curt hollis