I just got a very nice email from Robin Barber, Nicole's mom. She was able to see a homestand here a few weeks ago, and she said she agreed with the "one big happy family" comments. Nicole has not played in the NPF before, but during her visit Robin talked to some ladies who have played for other NPF teams. And all of them had the same types of very positive comments about our team/family in comparison to some others. Although I certainly like the fact that this gives us a competitive edge over the other teams, I would be nice if it also served as an example to the rest of the league of how to treat the players.

If there are any other relatives of Glory players reading this, please let me know. (You can email me at jim@glorytickets.com.) This way I can try to mention things about those players that I might otherwise gloss over. For instance, the top of the 5th last night was just another 1-2-3 inning, but it did include a nice defensive play that I didn't mention in the midst of all our offense. Remember, we had a 9-0 lead at this point. This is a big lead in slow pitch, but it's huge in fast pitch. (And it's insurmountable against our pitchers. I mean please, the Force had scored 4 runs against us in the previous 25 innings combined.) After one out, the Force's Clare Burnum hit a sinking liner near the right field line. With such a huge lead, no one would have been surprised if Nicole Barber had played it safe and let it bounce in front of her, just making sure it didn't get past her for an extra-base hit. But she ran full speed and made a nice running catch for the second out of the inning. She played just as hard as she does with a 0-0 score, which is good to see.