Notes: Sass Air, Business as Usual

Flights to Nice Resume Activity
By Beth Sass / hereforthesass.blogspot.com

SEATTLE -- Just as Co-Owner Beth Sass was returning from Nice with the Sass notes, Sass pitcher Jason Jennings finally admitted that he was having some problems with his right elbow, which was diagnosed with tendonitis.

"It had felt sore since my last start," Jason said to the press, "Finally we had to look into it, and see if we could find the problem."

It was decided, through a phone conference with the doctors at Sass Stadium, traveling doctors, the doctors in Nice, Sass Front Office, Sass Team Management, and Grant Balfour that it would be best for Jason to rest, and report to Nice.

Beth briefly met Jason at the Nice airport, as she returned to Minneapolis.

Chad Gaudin was called up from the Vancouver Sarcastics to take Jason's spot in the rotation.

Traveling with the team: Neither manager is with the team in Seattle for the brief roadtrip.

"It's not that I have anything against Seattle," said Dawn, "But next weekend is a big trip with family and my boyfriend to Kansas City, and I really want to get ready for that."

Returning from the DL, Beth decided not to join the team on their road trip to Seattle, but will also be traveling with the team to their next destination in Kansas City, Missouri. Joining Beth will be the Annual Kansas City Trip group--a trip that started with two people three years ago, and has expanded to four people this year.

"No one can quite resist the allure of Kansas City," said Beth, "It's just one of those towns you have to visit."

Jackie Robinson Day a success: MLB, as well as BFB, celebrated Jackie Robinson Day on April 15th. Jackie Robinson was the first non-white player to play in major league baseball.

"It was a tremendous occasion," said Co-owner Dawn. "Segregation and prejudice sucks."

In honor of the occasion, MLB allowed select players to wear the now-league-retired number 42. The initial intent was for one African-American player on every team to wear the number, however the Dodgers--Jackie's team--and the Astros--with no players of African descent--had all players wearing the number. The Sassians also all wore the number 42, simply because when Dawn and Beth were asked to give a list of African players on their team, they looked blankly at officials.

"Um, honestly I don't know," Beth said. "I've never really paid attention to what the players look like."

However, to help people keep score, each Sassians number was in a different color and a different font.

"Color isn't good enough," Beth said, "Because some people are colorblind, so we went with changing fonts, too. We wanted people to at least have a hope of keeping score."

Coming up: Tonight, the Sass will have no pitchers on the mound, and will find themselves handcuffed with limited players per MLB rules. Friday will have both Braden Looper and Tim Hudson on the mound, and Sunday will have Chad Gaudin make his BFB debut. Saturday and Monday will see various fans try their hand at pitching.