About Chicago Metro ASA
The Chicago Metro Boundaries include Kankakee on the South, North to the Illinois-Wisconsin Border, as well as Lake Michigan as the Eastern Border, and West to the Rockford Area.
Tom O'Neill is the Commissioner, and has been for about 25 years. He lives in Tinley Park, IL. Besides serving the Softball Community, he is also one of the most revered NCAA Men's Basketball Officials. Tom also sponsors and is the chief instructor for many outstanding Referee's Clinics and Camps, attended by College and High School Officials from throughout the Country. He is also the Guest Speaker at many other Clinics. He can be reached at final497@sbcglobal.net.
The Junior Olympic (Youth Softball) Commissioner is Joe Pavone, who lives in Orland Park, IL. He has been the J.O. Commissioner for about about 10 years, after being appointed by Mr. O'Neill. Mr. Pavone is also an Attorney, admitted to Practice in 1980, with his Main Office in Lombard, IL. Since beginning his tenure with the ASA, Joe has been selected by the ASA President to become the
Vice-Chair: Northern Territory - of the National Junior Olympic Committee. He has also been the Speaker and Lecturer at many ASA National Events specifically reviewing ASA Code and Playing Rules, including the effect they have on new Forms and Documents at Junior Olympic Seminars. He has also been selected by the ASA President to be the ASA Representative at National Championships. Joe can be reached at ChicagoASAJOComm@aol.com.
About ASA
The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation’s largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 76 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 210,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit http://www.asasoftball.com/.
About USA Softball
USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won nine World Championship titles including the last seven consecutive as well as claimed four World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit http://www.usasoftball.com/.
|
TOURNAMENTS
April
May
June
7-10
16U Regional National Qualifier
Naperville, Entry Fee: $625.00, Contact: Mike Vacik
630-334-1467, Fulmetal@comcast.net
22-24
14U Regional National Qualifier
Elgin, Entry Fee: $600.00, Contact: Bill Judge
815-263-6302; BillJudge70@yahoo.com
July
5-8
16U National Qualifier
St. Charles, Entry Fee: $600.00, Contact: Bill Judge
815-263-6302; Elgin BillJudge70@yahoo.com
###############################################################################
New from the ASA: Hertz Car Rental Discount!
Please go to our Forms & Docs Link to the laft.
The Entry Form for the Chicago ASA Metro Championship Tournaments, in an editable format, as well as the Instructional PDF regarding registering with ASA, can be found at the Forms & Docs link to the left. Please review the PDF in full prior to registering. ALWAYS REMEMBER: You are part of the CHICAGO ASA ASSOCIATION, NOT the Illinois ASA.
If, for some reason, you have a problem downloading them, please send me an email to ChicagoASAJOComm@aol.com. Thanks.
*************************************************************************************************************************
TOURNAMENT DIRECTORS!!!!
Please note that the 2012 Tournament Sanctioning Form is now available at the "Forms& Docs" Link to the left. It must be completed and approved before your tournament will be sanctioned.
*********************************************************************************
|
Proposed Dates for the Hall of Fame Tournaments are below:
10 and under – May 18-20, 2012
(Friday - Sunday)
12 and under – June 8-10, 2012
(Friday – Sunday)
14 and under – June 15-17, 2011
(Friday – Sunday)
16 and under – June 21-23, 2011
(Thursday – Saturday)
18 and under – June 23-25, 2011
(Saturday – Monday)
************************************************************************************
********************************************************************************************
WOW! Price-Breaker on softballs!
WORTH DREAM SEAM BALLS,
only $47.95 per dozen. CallTom O'Neill
to place your order 708-906-0351.
*************************************************************************************************
WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE SPORTS AUTHORITY FOR THEIR RECENT and SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIP
WITH CHICAGO ASA. ALTHOUGH THEIR OFFERED DISCOUNTS ARE NOW OUTDATED, WE HOPE OUR
MEMBERS CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THEM, AS THEY HAVE SUPPORTED US.
Sports Authority: the Official Sporting Goods Retailer of ASA Metro Chicago
REGARDING REGISTERASA.COM:
There is a direct link to RegisterASA.com to the left (ASA Registration),
however, please review the Tutorials for Team and League
Registrations PRIOR to beginning your registration process.
The Tutorials are available in the Link to the left entitled
"Forms & Docs". Also, available at the "Forms & Docs" Link,
are the 2011 Entry Forms for the Chicago Metro Championship
Tournaments, as well as Tournament Directors
Registration Form, for Sanctioning a Tournament.
If you, for some reason, are unable to upload them, please email me and I will forward them to you.
Please also note that the Tutorials are available as Power Point Presentations.
Joe Pavone, your ASA Junior Olympic Commissioner
|
WELCOME
THE REGISTERASA.COM SITE IS NOW PREPARED FOR A.C.E.
REGISTRATION AND COMPLETION, AS WELL AS THE
MANDATORY COACHES' BACKGROUND CHECKS.
Please note that the ASA Code now REQUIRES:
Individual Registration and Insurance from Bollinger
insurance, A.C.E. Certification for at least one coach on the field
or in the dugout, as well as background checks for all coaches,
through the REGISTERASA.com site.
Camps/Clinics
Below is /are emails or other information I received from several Universities/Teaching Academies and want to share with all softball enthusiasts.
I do this as a service to Chicago ASA players,
and have no pecuniary interest therein.
As you may know,I generally make no recommendation, whether it be positive or otherwise, as to camps and clinics.
Just putting the information out there.
Thanks,
Joe Pavone
Chicago ASA
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
**********************************************************************************
JOSEPH A. PAVONE
Attorney at Law
1920 S. Highland Avenue
Suite 203
Lombard, IL 60148
Tel. (630) 261-1177
Fax (630) 261-1176
|
Thanks, Joe Pavone, Junior Olympic Commissioner
|
You may now find downloadable forms in our "Forms and Docs" Section.
|
On behalf of the Amateur Softball Association, we would like to welcome you.
Chicago Metro ASA is proud to announce our partnership with Clubspaces, who will be helping us manage our website with many new features. As new information becomes available, we will update this Chicago Metro webpage.
Thanks,
Tom O'Neill, Chicago Metro ASA Commissioner, and
Joe Pavone, Junior Olympic Commissioner, Chicago Metro ASA
|
|
2012 Metro
Championship Tournaments:
10U "A&B"
Joliet/Romeoville/Lockport
July 5-8
12U "A"
Joliet/Romeoville/Lockport
July 5-8
14U "A"
Joliet/Lemont/Lockport
July 5-8
16U "A"
Lemont
July 12-15
18U "A"
St. Charles
July 12-15
12U "B"
St. Charles
July 12-15
14U "B"
St. Charles
July 12-15
16U "B"
Lemont
July 12-15
18U "B"
St. Charles
July 12-15
Please note: depending upon the number of teams entered, the Metro Tournaments MAY begin on Thursday.
ASA and Bollinger Insurance, through the Individual Registration Program, have increased the Liability Coverage to $5,000.000, from $2,000,000 with NO additional cost to subscribers/members.
To register your team with ASA and Chicago Metro, and obtain Insurance, please go to our 'Forms & Docs' Link, and download the Tutorial, then go to: www.RegisterASA.com, and follow the simple instructions.
Also, remember that all teams that register and purchase their insurance through www.RegisterASA.com, have their Annual Registration fee waived.
Congratulations to Junior Olympic Commissioner, Joe Pavone, for his appointment by the ASA President as the Northern Territory Vice-Chairman for the National Junior Olympic Committee.
|
History of Softball and the ASA
|
|
Softball was invented inside the Farragut Boat Club on a blustery, winter day in November, 1887, in Chicago, IL. A bunch of Yale and Harvard alumni anxiously awaited the results of the Harvard-Yale football game, and when the news came that Yale had defeated Harvard, 17-8, one Yale supporter, overcome with enthusiasm, picked up an old boxing glove and threw it at a nearby Harvard alumni, who promptly tried to hit it back with a stick. This gave George Hancock, a reporter for the Chicago Board of Trade, an idea. He suggested a game of indoor baseball. Naturally, Hancock's friends thought he was talking about playing a game outdoors, not indoors.
Hancock wasn't kidding, however. Using what was available, he tied together the laces of the boxing glove for a ball. Using a piece of chalk, Hancock marked off a home plate, bases and a pitcher's box inside the Farragut Boat Club gym, with the two groups divided into teams. The final score of the game was 41-40, but what was significant was that Hancock and his friends had invented a sport that would continue to grow in popularity to where today more than 40 million people enjoy playing it each summer, making softball the No. 1 team participant sport in the United States. Hancock's invention eventually caught on in Chicago with the Farragut team challenging other gyms to games. In the spring, Hancock took his game outdoors and played it on fields not large enough for baseball. It was called indoor-outdoor and Hancock emerged as the recognized authority in the 19th century.
Hancock appended 19 special rules to adapt the outdoor game to the indoor game, and the rules were officially adopted by the Mid Winter Indoor Baseball League of Chicago in 1889. Hancock's game gradually spread throughout the country and ultimately flourished in Minneapolis, thanks to the efforts and ingenuity of Lewis Rober, a Minneapolis Fire Department lieutenant, who wanted a game to keep his firemen fit during their idle time. Using a vacant lot adjacent to the firehouse, Rober laid out bases with a pitching distance of 35 feet. His ball was a small sized medicine ball with the bat two inches in diameter. The game became popular overnight and other fire companies began to play. In 1895, Rober transferred to another fire company and organized a team he called the Kittens. George Kehoe, captain of Truck Company No. 1, named Rober's version of softball "Kitten League Ball" in the summer of 1900. It was later shortened to "Kitten Ball."
Rober's game was known as Kitten Ball until 1925, when the Minneapolis Park Board changed it to Diamond Ball, one of a half dozen names used during this time for softball. The name softball didn't come about until 1926 when Walter Hakanson, a Denver YMCA official and a former ASA president and commissioner, suggested it to the International Joint Rules Committee. Hakanson had come up with the name in 1926, but the committee didn't include the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) until 1934. Efforts to organize softball on a national basis didn't materialize until 1933, when Leo Fischer and Michael J. Pauley, a Chicago Sporting goods salesman, conceived the idea of organizing thousands of local softball teams in America into cohesive state organizations, and state organizations into a national organization.
To bring the teams together, Fischer and Pauley invited them to participate in a tournament in conjunction with the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. With the backing of the Chicago American newspaper, Pauley and Fischer invited 55 teams to participate in the tournament. Teams were divided into three classes - fastballers, slow pitch and women. A 14-inch ball was used during the single-elimination event.
During the 1934 National Recreation Congress, membership on the Joint Rules Committee was expanded to add the Amateur Softball Association (ASA). Until the formation of the ASA, softball was in a state of confusion, especially in the rules area where the length of the bases and pitcher's box were constantly being changed.
The formation of the ASA gave softball the solidarity and foundation it needed to grow and develop throughout the U.S. under the network of associations proposed by Fischer and Pauley. Pauley and Fischer visited many of the states, inviting teams to participate in the tournament. Fischer and his sports promotion director, Harry Wilson, sold the Century of Progress Exposition on the idea of sponsoring the tournament and providing a field inside the Fair Grounds. The American's sports pages promoted the tournament daily and Chicago businessmen raised $500 to finance the event.
On the opening day of the 1933 tournament, the Chicago American said, "it is the largest and most comprehensive tournament ever held in the sport which has swept the country like wildfire." With admission free, 70,000 people saw the first round of play. Chicago teams won the three divisions of play with Softball Hall of Famer Harry (Coon) Rosen leading the J.L. Friedman Boosters to the men's title, one-hitting Briggs Beautyware of Detroit, MI, in the finals. It was the first loss of the season for Briggs after 41 consecutive wins.
It was evident that softball finally had a foundation from which to grow, and, in 1935, the Playground Association Softball Guide, wrote: "the years of persistent effort, constant promotion and unchanging faith of believers in softball proved to have not been in vain, for in 1934 softball came into its own. All over America hundreds of leagues and thousands of players enthusiastically accepted this major team game.
"The promotional activities of the ASA played an important part in stimulating the interest that has been developing for many years. The battle for recognition of this splendid game is over. Softball has won a place among America's foremost sports."
|
|