Black Sox Nation chase a record fourth consecutive world championships crown ... here

Marty Grant ... here

Second baseman and slugger Travis Wilson ... here

Black Sox Nation chase a record fourth consecutive world championships crown - by Tony Smith "The Press"
Black Sox coach Eddie Kohlhase has sobering news for his international softball opponents as his charges chase a record fourth consecutive world championships crown. 

``Our hitting depth is probably better than we had in 2004 [when the Black Sox blasted their rivals out of the Christchurch ballpark]. 
The legendary Mark Sorenson is gone after four gold medals at six world championships from 1984 and a grand slam retirement game home run in the 2004 final.
But Kohlhase still has a selection conundrum any other coach would envy. Does he bat former baseball pro Travis Wilson, skipper Jarrad Martin, Donny Hale, Thomas Makea, Brad Rona or Patrick Shannon in the crucial number three to number five middle order spots the roles reserved for power hitters who drive in the bulk of the Black Sox's runs. 

Pitching used to be New Zealand softball's strength. But the Black Sox's batting depth has swept them to their last three titles.
Kohlhase doesn't see that changing when the world championships kick off in Canada tomorrow. (Sat NZ Time). ``We've worked on our strength and that's our power game,'' he said. ``But we've also worked hard on developing a running game and a short game (bunting and contact hitting) as well.
``I believe we had the short game [at the last two world series] in 2000 and 2004, but really didn't need it because the guys fronted and hit the ball hard. I don't see that changing here.
``But we are very confident that if a pitcher can come out and shut [our power hitting] down that we have the ability to scratch out the runs we need to win.'' 

Kohlhase has had the luxury of fielding two traditional number three hitters the spot reserved for the side's most consistent and dangerous hitter lower down the order on the 15-match build-up tour. Travis Wilson has batted at five and Thomas Makea, at number eight.
Makea (14), Rona (13), Martin (11), Hale (9) and Shannon (7) dominated the RBIs (runs batted in) charts at the Christchurch world championships in 2004. 

The Black Sox have a veteran squad with many in their mid-30s. But Kohlhase believes they are still in their playing prime. He said Martin and Rona, two big men, were ``in outstanding shape'', catcher Pat Shannon was ready to step up after years understudying Sorenson and Wilson ``sets very high standards for his himself and his team-mates''.
``If our guys go out and get on a roll, they are very hard to stop... They are seasoned performers, who have been there and done that.''
No-one doubts the Black Sox will get bags of runs but a question mark remains over whether their pitching staff can stem the flow from Canadian, Japanese and Australian bats.
Kohlhase in his first campaign as head coach after two tournaments as Don Tricker's assistant is confident his three key throwers Marty Grant, Jeremy Manley and Heinie Shannon will be hitting their spots at the business end of the 10-day tournament. 

The New Zealanders now billed as the ``Black Sox Nation'' are overwhelming favourites for first place. But Kohlhase said ``the changing nature of men's fastpitch softball'' should make for a ``very tough tournament this time''.
``There are five of six sides capable of being there [for the medals round].''
Canada still smarting from their 9-5 defeat in the 2004 grand final have a squad as seasoned as the Black Sox's, Australia have a beautifully balanced, youthful pitching staff in right-hander Adam Folkard and leftie Andrew Kirkpatrick and Japan, the United States and the rapidly improving Argentina cannot be discounted.

Marty Grant - by Tony Smith "The Press"
It's not often a 43-year-old with three world championship gold medals has unfinished business on a pitching mound.  But Black Sox hurler Marty Grant does.

The Nelson stalwart could not take the diamond when the New Zealanders won their last crown in Christchurch in 2004.
Grant was set to be the Black Sox's ace for the second successive tournament after pitching a no-hitter in the 2000 final in South Africa.
The 2004 series was his chance to show the home fans he had taken his place in the pantheon of pitching greats alongside Bill Massey, Kevin Herlihy, Michael White, Owen Walford, Steve Jackson, Peter Meredith and Chubb Tangaroa.
But Grant tore a calf muscle just days before the first game and had to pull out. His dream was shattered.
Few fans in Christchurch will forget the sight of him hobbling as he led the Black Sox onto the diamond at the opening ceremony with tears rolling down his cheeks.

Grant feels now that he ``could have pitched'' towards the end of the 2004 tournament but the decision to replace him ``was one we had to make''. ``We had a couple of other guys carrying injuries and we needed some healthy bodies in the team. A selfish person may have said `I want to stay in'. But it was about the team and it always will be for me.''

Grant retired in 2004 but came back a year later. He hung up his glove again after the 2006 Pacific Cup tournament but couldn't shake the Black Sox out of his system. ``Every time I put on that black shirt, it brings out the best in me.''
That is why he is suiting up now in Saskatoon  nineteen years after his Black Sox debut and at an age when many men have long retired to the tournament beer tent.
``It's been a long time, five years waiting,'' he said this week. ``it's good that we're nearly there.''

It's been an emotional time off the diamond for the tall hurler . Grant's wife Abbie had breast cancer surgery earlier this year. ``She's recovered... [but] that was a real challenge [for the family],'' he said.
Grant is thrilled that Abbie will be at the ballpark in Saskatoon. ``Some friends and Nelson College, the school I coach at, helped out by getting her and my son Cooper [aged 5] tickets [to Canada]. They'll be there next weekend for the play-offs and I'm looking forward to playing in front of them.
``I'm grateful that I'm able to do it.''

Grant has ``no doubt the body will hold up'' to his last big assignment. ``And the mind still has that competitive desire.''
A former national pitching coach, Grant has a leadership role on the four-strong Black Sox pitching staff. His colleagues lefthander Heinie Shannon and potential ace Jeremy Manley are at their first world series with the Black Sox.
``We're all going well. We're driving each other because that's what it takes. We've got to fight for our starts. When I first came in I had to compete with Michael White,  [Peter] Meredith and [Chubb] Tangaroa to get some innings.''
Grant was in his prime in South Africa nine years ago, throwing bullets as he struck out 17 Japanese hitters in the final.

But the senior pitching pro may have a different role in Saskatoon as a reliever who takes over from the starting pitcher, or a late innings match closer.  ``We're trying to get everyone to be able to throw a complete [seven innings] game. That would be the perfect scenario. But in reality that may not happen. We have to be prepared to close as well. In our build-up tour, we had guys who aren't conventionally closers, having a go at it.
``I think I've got the mentality to do that. But I also think I'll get a start or two during [the round-robin week] because I need to keep my pitching up and make sure you I stay sharp.''

Grant says he will be better prepared for the relieving role than he was at his first world series in 1992 when he was thrown into the deep end in the final after Canada had fought back to 3-3 when the Black Sox blew a 3-0 lead. ``I had only had five innings up until that game. I didn't even expect to see the ball in the final. That was the first shock. I don't think I even knew what the score was when I came in.''
He nervously walked the first batter and was immediately replaced.
``But you learn from th at. Now I'm available, prepared and ready in any situation, whether it's to shut down an offense or get one hitter out. Over the last 19 years playing at this level of softball, I've learned to do that.''

Grant says all his last few months of training have been geared towards the world series play-offs weekend. ``I don't expect any rest to the end of the tournament. My body's prepared to do that. It's only 10 days then I can rest for the rest of my life.'' So he's hanging up his glove for good then? ``I hope so,'' he laughs. ``I hope that there's enough young talent coming through that a 47-year-old pitcher never comes into contention for this New Zealand team.''

Second baseman and slugger Travis Wilson - by Tony Smith "The Press"
Second baseman and slugger Travis Wilson says playing for the world softball title is a great consolation prize for missing a Major League Baseball berth.
The Black Sox infielder  and recent Black Caps cricket fielding coach  says ``it's great to be back playing the sport I love''. But he isn't slighting softball when he says suiting up for the Black Sox in Saskatoon ``isn't Option A''.
``Option A would still be playing baseball [in the Major Leagues] said the Cantabrian who spent eight years in professional baseball with the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Red organisations.
Wilson went to baseball as a 19-year-old world champion. He was the rookie on the 1996 team which won in Midland, Michigan  the first of three consecutive crowns for the Black Sox.
Had he stayed in softball, the 32-year-old Papanui club stalwart would now have a record to rival Mark Sorenson as New Zealand's greatest ever player.
But Wilson was in the Braves farm system at the time of the  Black Sox's 2000 defence in South Africa. He was an expert television commentator for three-peat in Christchurch in 2004.
But he has ``no regrets at all'' when he looks down at his hand and sees one world series ring there instead of three. ``I always knew if things didn't work out in baseball I'd fall straight back into the mould here.''
Wilson, who made it to triple-A level  one grade below the major leagues  and played in spring training games for the Atlanta Braves top team, returned to international softball in 2005, hitting five home runs in a series against Samoa.
He missed the Black Sox tours to Argentina last year and the Pacific Cup tournament in Samoa last February through cricket coaching commitments. But he was one of the first names inked in by coach Eddie Kohlhase and his selectors for the world series.
Wilson left Christchurch in March for Chattanooga in Tennessee, his last baseball stop. He married his longtime girlfriend Jill there in May and, while his Black Sox buddies, were practising indoors, he blew off the batting rust for his American club, the Mid-West Stampede.
``I had two tournaments, about 35 at-bats in me, before I got here [to Canada]. I'm probably a little further ahead than the other guys coming out of the dead of winter.
``I'm hitting the ball as well as ever right now. I had a stretch [on the Black Sox's 15-game build-up tour of Ontario] where I [hit] eight from eight with four home runs.
``I'm feeling pretty good... I just hope I'm not peaking too soon.''
Wilson was the rookie on the 1996 team   he turned 19 at the tournament and admits he simply went out ``and thought about who we were playing on the day and [focused on] hitting the ball if the pitcher threw it over the plate''.
He didn't appreciate then ``what it takes for the coaches and management to build a championship team''.
Wilson was, in cricketing parlance, a tail-end batter in 1996. ``I batted eight [out of nine]. But I've got a bigger role to play on this team. I'm going to find myself in the middle of the lineup. There's going to be more expectations of me, offensively. I can't hide at the bottom of the order and whack away without pitchers and teams knowing who I am and what I can do.''
He batted at five on the build-up tour but ``would love to move into the three or four slot and take up even more responsibility''.
There is competition for places in those clean-up hitting roles with Wilson, skipper Jarrad Martin, Donny Hale, Brad Rona and Thomas Makea all ranked among the most devastating hitters in the world.
Wilson says the Black Sox bid for a record fourth consecutive title will ``live and die on the long ball, home runs.''
``If we throw out our best nine hitters, every single one has the potential to hit the long ball at any time. I don't think that's been the case with every other team that's gone away... We also have two or three guys on the bench capable of coming in and hitting home runs.''
Wilson's life on the road with the Black Sox is a far cry from the opulence he enjoyed on New Zealand cricket duty.  He's gone from ``having a hotel suite to myself'' to ``sharing a dormitory at a university and living close to my team-mates''.
But he's not complaining about the culture change. The two gigs are ``chalk and cheese'', he says. ``You go from a professional team with all the funding and no expense spared to an amateur team on the other side of the financial spectrum. Sometimes you look at what they've got in New Zealand cricket and wonder what that would do for us if it was given to the New Zealand softball team.
``For the cricket player, it's their job. This is our passion. It's something we love to do. At the end of the day, if you win that last game of the tournament, you know it's all been worthwhile.''
THE PRESS