1ST ANNUAL CHP CHOIR BOYS SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT Although it was called their 1st annual tourney, it ran more like their 25th. Combining great fields, free water and Gatorade drinks in the dugouts, and their well-known hospitality, the Choir Boys put on a spectacular first tournament. As smoothly as everything ran, you would have been hard-pressed to believe that they were still scrambling (because of teams dropping out at the last minute) to finalize balanced brackets and convenient game times for all teams. By Saturday morning however, everything was perfectly prepared and some great softball was ready to be played.

The Hall of Fame nomination period ended May 1st and now the nominees names will go to a committee to be considered for the 2008 Class of the Police Softball Hall of Fame. To see a list of all the nominees and a snapshot of their accomplishments, please go to the Hall of Fame nomination section on PoliceSoftball.com. Over the next week, we are asking everyone who has thoughts on the Hall of Fame to contact one or more of the committee members and voice their opinions. Once input has been received, the committee members will vote on the 2008 class of the Police Softball Hall of Fame.

CONCORD SOFTBALL, NEWLY SPONSORED BY PRESIDENT GLENN DAGGS AND OSS ( OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES) INTERNATIONAL CAME OUT ON APRIL 19TH IN TULARE,CA AND AVERAGED NEARLY 30 RUNS A GAME OVERALL TO POWER THEIR WAY TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP WIN OVER STANISLAUS. LEADING THE WAY WERE CO-MVP'S BOBBY "BOO-SHAY" UNDERWOOD WHO BATTED .727 WITH 4HR'S AND AL "BIG WHIT" WHITTEN WHO HIT .696 WITH 2 HR'S AND WHOM BOTH BROUGHT THEIR WIVES AND NEWBORN CHILDREN TO THE TOURNEY SO THEY COULD PLAY. tHAT ALONE PER MANAGER HOLLYWOOD GASKINS MADE THEM MVP'S IN HIS EYES. BIG PROPS TO THE WIVES OF THESE TWO MEN AND CONGRATULATIONS ON BEHALF OF THE POLICESOFTBALL NATION ON THE NEW ADDITIONS TO YOUR FAMILIES AND TO CONCORD SOFTBALL FOR GAINING A NEW SPONSOR IN PRESIDENT DAGGS AND OSS INTERNATIONAL. ON WITH THE TOURNEY AND HOW IT PANNED OUT:

The first annual Easton "Bring Ur Real Skilz" tournament was held this past weekend and it was unquestionably a huge success. Earlier this year Armando Acosta contacted Policesoftball.Com and presented the idea of a provided bat tournament. Armando offered to supply all the bats for the tournament and provide the most lucrative prize package on the cop softball circuit. Some team would go home with a dozen brand new 2009 model Easton Helmer bats. It didn’t end there. Armando also inked Easton major players Brett Helmer and Brian Wegman to come out and be part of the event. Policesoftball.Com jumped at the opportunity and sealed the deal. The venue was the brand new Big League Dreams facility in West Covina (Los Angeles area). The fields were in mint condition and boasted replicas of Dodger, Angel, Tiger, Wrigley, Fenway and Yankee stadiums. The format was simple. Every field would have a 26, 27 & 28 oz Easton Stealth+ bat provided and those were the only bats allowed. These were all stock bats supplied by Armando Acosta and Easton Sports. On this weekend there would be no complaining about juiced, loaded or “special” bats. Teams would have to literally bring their real skills to the table. Many people anticipated what affect the stock bats would have on certain teams and players. In the end, the same teams that always do well did well.

Vegas Bacon officially kicked off the police softball circuit this year with 24 very good teams coming together in the desert to see who would grab that first tourney win of the year. The tourney was set up in 6 brackets of four teams each. Bracket play seeded into double elimination which guaranteed every team 5 games. After pool play was finished, only three teams were undefeated which we think is a sign that parity is almost upon us. NY Metro rolled through their bracket with the biggest margin of victory. Hard-Cor looked impressive as usual and the Alliance was the third team to round out the undefeated trio. All the other 21 teams had at least one loss after pool play was finished. Double elimination started on Saturday and when the dust settled, the four still undefeated teams were NY Metro, California Quake, A-1 Towing/Hard-Cor and the Alliance/KME/Easton team. NY Metro stayed hot and took down the Quake. The Alliance and Hard-Cor battled back and forth but in the end the Alliance came out on top. This set up a match between two ends of the country with SoCal and NY going at it.

Here is a little PoliceSoftball.com preview of West Covina. Have some fun with it and take it for what it is, nothing more than fodder for discussion.Bracket A: The Quake are the class of any bracket they are in and their finish in Vegas shows this team is still among the elite in the west coast. The Dirty Dirty showed last weekend they can play with the best. Direct Impact is a team on the rise and a team no one wants to see. They beat the Quake in Vegas and at the World Series which shows this team can roll with anyone. Santa Cruz Combo showed in the shortened DEA tourney this year that they plan on making some noise this year.

In 2006, PoliceSoftball.com gave some long overdue recognition to our sport by creating the first ever Police Softball Hall of Fame. 34 individuals were inducted in our inaugural year and they were all very deserving of this honor. In 2007 PoliceSoftball.com inducted 21 individuals into our Hall of Fame ranks to bring our HOF total to 55 members. We are now asking for nominations for the 2008 PoliceSoftball.com Hall of Fame class. To nominate someone, please go to the Hall of Fame section from our home page and there you will find the nomination form. This form will require you to write out a summary of the nominee’s qualifications.

Team spots for the 2008 World Series will be done a little differently this year. Due to demand and field constraints, PoliceSoftball.com decided to change the way teams are granted spots for the 2008 World Series. Once again the cap will be 45 teams with a split of 23 East and 22 West. There will be 26 reserved spots providing these teams pay for the World Series by May 1st, 2008 (See Upcoming Tournament Section for details on how to pay for the World Series) As always, teams who do not pay by that date will relinquish their reserved spot. These 26 reserved spots were awarded for many reasons but the biggest factors were distance needed to travel to the World Series, team history, and support/involvement with PoliceSoftball.com. (Since travel considerations were given so much weight to this decision, most of the 26 reserved teams are from the East/Central United States)

PoliceSoftball.com has selected the 2008 Tournaments that will be part of the 2008 Boombah Points Chase. Every team attending these tournaments will earn points towards the Boombah Points Chase title. Once the 2008 World Series is over, the highest East and West ranked teams will be named Champion of their respective region and the Boombah Points Chase title will be awarded to the team that finished highest at the World Series between those two teams. The Boombah Points Chase winner will receive 15 sets of Boombah Uniforms and be known as the 2008 PoliceSoftball.com/Boombah National Champion.

Today our little hero Shevy Wright was laid to rest. Shevy's body will no longer be with us but his spirit will last for years to come. Shevy showed us the power of laughter, love and hope and he embodied the values we look for in the PoliceSoftball.com Sportsman of the Year Award. Because Shevy typified the ideals of being a good sportsman, the award will forever be known as the “Shevy Wright Sportsman of the Year Award”.