SOFTBALL: Monrovia is clear No. 1, but Arcadia takes on Wildcats on Saturday at 11 a.m., in nonleague game of the year at Monrovia

So, Monrovia loses 2 out of last 3. That can't be good.

What does that have to do with softball?

In Pasadena, it seems as though everyone values their own opinion whether it unfounded or not. Generally, most of you bloggers are uninformed to the circumstances that surround anything of substance. All you proponents of tip sanders, should be aware that for all of his "greatness," I don't recall any of his players at Marshall in the "good" years or his current players at Blair graduating high school. In our over opinionated undereducated society "you" people only think you know what you are talking about. That would seem to explain why none of our student/athletes advance past Fair Oaks and Washington! All the while the only recruitment they experience is that of our local gang membership. It is very easy to call plays from the sideline as most of you do! Many of you foster the behavior of our young, because you dont want to work, you simply want to show up and play. unfortunately, in our current system that will never get it done. For all of you opposed to certain coaches, get off your butts and get the qualifications necessary to be call a coach or a teacher for that matter. Many of you expect for the teacher, coach, or police to do the job many of you have neglected to do, and that is simply raise a responsible person. You are the same people that have opinions but never vote to change what's going on... I applaud anyone who is willing to offer their time, energy, and effort to deal with many of malcontents that are being produced in today's society. If you can do better than any coach or teacher, stop talking about it and be about it. Lastly, all of you that hold other school districts (other than PUSD) in high regard, it's funny how when you send your child of color to other schools, they get a far below par education!! When will you learn, it's not about the school, it's about the involvement you put into it. Nothing can replace that. So, once all you "know it alls" get your act together then you can hold Coaches, Teachers, and Professionals more accountable.

In Pasadena, it seems as though everyone values their own opinion whether it unfounded or not. Generally, most of you bloggers are uninformed to the circumstances that surround anything of substance. All you proponents of tip sanders, should be aware that for all of his "greatness," I don't recall any of his players at Marshall in the "good" years or his current players at Blair graduating high school. In our over opinionated undereducated society "you" people only think you know what you are talking about. That would seem to explain why none of our student/athletes advance past Fair Oaks and Washington! All the while the only recruitment they experience is that of our local gang membership. It is very easy to call plays from the sideline as most of you do! Many of you foster the behavior of our young, because you dont want to work, you simply want to show up and play. unfortunately, in our current system that will never get it done. For all of you opposed to certain coaches, get off your butts and get the qualifications necessary to be call a coach or a teacher for that matter. Many of you expect for the teacher, coach, or police to do the job many of you have neglected to do, and that is simply raise a responsible person. You are the same people that have opinions but never vote to change what's going on... I applaud anyone who is willing to offer their time, energy, and effort to deal with many of malcontents that are being produced in today's society. If you can do better than any coach or teacher, stop talking about it and be about it. Lastly, all of you that hold other school districts (other than PUSD) in high regard, it's funny how when you send your child of color to other schools, they get a far below par education!! When will you learn, it's not about the school, it's about the involvement you put into it. Nothing can replace that. So, once all you "know it alls" get your act together then you can hold Coaches, Teachers, and Professionals more accountable.

First time I saw South Pas was against Poly - the number 1 pitcher who pitched second in the game and the catcher looked very strong and the first pitcher and the short stop who are younger look good too.

whats up with maranatha? didn't they have a ok team the past few years? they went to play off's 3 or 4 years in a row . Do they not have pitching, hitting or what? to bad i watched them play in 2005 at a tournament and they had a good team. a strong 1st base , 3rd basemen and a great center fielder. well better luck next year

SP beats Maranantha 11-0 in 5 innings.

Watching the Poly-South Pas game, I haven't seen a better catcher than the one on South Pas. Is she the one who is playing college ball?

Not sure anonymous, we might cover St. Francis baseball game against Crespi instead....We have to spread the coverage around...

I watched the Poly-South Pasadena softball game this weekend and Parada was outstanding. Considering there were several innings where there was as many as six freshmen on the field for Poly, their future looks bright.

Arcadia at Burbank tomorrow. Are you going Fred or are you sending Campa?

hit by pitch.

how did Poly get the runner on first base against SP's #1 pitcher who got pick off by the catcher - who has a great arm?

Thanks Fred for the Dusty Gibbs update.

Anonomyous--I don't know about Glendora. I think if arcadia had to play them again the game would be alot closer than 4 to 6. Arcadia seems like they are starting to gel.

FredJ,

They would definitely split ten games against each other, but both would probably lose all ten against Glendora.

Against Poly, Sp's #2 pitcher, Hertel, gave up all five runs (2 unearned) in 4 innings and Parada came in and didn't give up a hit. Yes, Hertel is a pretty good pitcher.

By the way, as far as the Monrovia-Arcadia debate, there is no debate. These teams are too close to call one better than the other. I think most who watched that game would agree these teams could play ten times and split five and five.
But I wonder what they're going to be like next year. Both have some very talented freshman and underclassmen, but are there any pitchers on the way to keep it going?

SP pitched their #1 pitcher for 3 innings - by the way SP's #2 pitcher is pretty good too. Poly is a young team with 8 freshman a sophmore starting pitcher, a freshman back up pitcher - both pitched an almost equal amount against SP. With Poly's youth they are going to have unexplanable games like the one against Prep. Heck that even happens to experiened teams looks at the losses the number 1 and 2 softball teams (monrovia and arcadia) have had this year to lessor teams - also on the boys side - SF lost to Pasadena - explanin that to me. Against SP, Poly made many mental mistakes against SP that cost them that game. On the other hand Poly has a good young team that will be able to play with anyone in the years to come - just like the Poly boys baseball team this year and Poly girls softball teams in the past - including the rio hondo league.

Dusty injured her ankle at practice, and had it wrapped up. She hopes to be back after a week or so. But she still has to see a doctor to make sure it's not serious.

What happen to Dusty Gibbs? The article said she was injured. Is it serious? Arcadia has good depth.

Please take a look at the quality of opponents that Temple City has played vs FSH's opponents and it doesn't compare, plus the fact that they have beaten FSH? It is pretty clear, and I am not even a TC supporter. The upper RHL teams have scheduled some very tough non-league games and done well, probably the toughest in the area. However, Jessica Ferri for FSH, is an excellent pitcher.

Poly also recently lost to a terrible Flintridge Prep team. Kind of surprising to see that South Pas didn't beat Poly more convincingly. I bet South Pas was not pitching their #1 pitcher (at least it's nice to see that South Pas can occassionaly score runs).

To rank any Prep League teams with the top 10 in the same list of top teams from other leagues is crazy.

Rankings are established by looking cummulatively at an entire season year-to-date. The Temple City game with Sacred Heart was a 1-0 game and that one run was unearned. Not a terribly strong case to lower Sacred Hearts ranking.

How does Flintridge Sacred Heart rank above Temple City when Temple City beat them head to head? I assume that will change now. They are a good team along with South Pas, but Monrovia is still #1 in RHL unless they get beaten twice by either TC or SP.

Arcadia beat Monrovia 3-1 in 17 innings.

SP beat Poly 7-5 - good bye top 10 for Poly

arcadia and monrovia tied in the 16th inning

The two photos of the Temple City player are outstanding, particularly the top one. The photographer should get special recognition for the terrific quality of this work.

Arcadia at Monrovia? No. 1 vs. No. 2. Who's going to win Saturday's game at 11 a.m.....

Anonymous 4/11 2:02,

I think it is a pretty fair statement to say that if you "take away" any team's pitcher and catcher that "they would be no where near competetive."

TC and SP are even in their league series 1-1. They have one more game against each other at SP.

That may be true about the Mission League, but Flintridge Sacred Heart is the only team in that group of teams that you named that this paper and blog covers.

You may be right about Monrovia, South Pas, and Temple City, but every time those teams play each other, the games can go either way, and there is a lot of season left.

Temple City's two-out rally in the seventh inning pushed them past visiting South Pasadena, 2-1 and into second place in the RHL.

The only Rio Hondo "team" worth fussing about is Monrovia. They are a multi-player team which excels in all areas: pitching, fielding, and hitting. You take away either the S Pas pitcher or catcher, their team would be no where near competitive. Temple City is a very good fielding team, with pitching and hitting as weaknesses ... you take away their very good coach and that team would have no way near the same result. When La Canada or San Marino play anyone that is the least bit competitive, they are not good teams. The La Canada victory over S Pas was an example of what happens to S Pas when their very good pitcher has an off day.

The Mission League has 4 extremely competetive teams: Alemany, Chaminade, Flintridge Sacred Heart, and Harvard-Westlake. Alemany and Chaminade in particular have made it to Div. 4 semi-finals in CIF the last several years and Chaminade was the CIF champs last year. Any one of these 4 Mission League teams would be more competitive with Monrovia than any other Rio Hondo team.

The good part about the RHL is that each team plays each other three times so you have a clear winner of each series.

Anonymous, I'm covering the TCity-South pas game today for sole poss. of second place

That is because the Rio Hondo League has the most to talk about. All of the other leagues pretty much have one team that dominates their league. The Rio Hondo League is a dog fight to the end every year. You should go to a RHL game and see what all of the fuss is about. The quality of play is high.

By the way, Fred, you should not be suprised by Temple City. They have several players that have put a lot of time into the game of softball in the off seasons.

We hear so much discussion about the S Pas (especially S Pas), Monrovia, and La Canada softball teams and their players on this blog. It would be nice to hear about some other softball teams and players ... what are some other notable teams and players?

I think it is probably a good idea to take it one game at a time and see where we are at around CIF time.

South pas is a lot better than they are showing - they will get it going by the playoffs. They have lost a bunch of close game to good teams - they will win all their regular season games forward except maybe Monrovia.

thats rude

South Pasadena is a team of cream puffs, leaving out gogreve and parada

The loss to La Canada was certainly an oddity, but South Pas has played a very tough tournament schedule, two Orange County tournaments, and was .500 in them, losing to D3 powerhouse Laguna Hills and D1 powerhouse Orange Lutheran 3-2. There has not been one cream puff on the schedule. It should pay off in the end, but we will see, they certainly have to prove it.