NEWSLINE STORY

published May-June 2016

 

HSMaster a Wonderful Option for League Play

by Jerry Smith, 3rd Vice President and Sanction League Director, Junior Scholarships

 

This story will eventually have a happy ending but please don’t skip to the end and miss all of the good stuff in between.  Let’s start with a small fowl up that I made in a “Top Ten” calculation and the evolution that took place to fix the problem and the series of actions that lead to that solution.  Let’s start at the beginning.

 

A very nice young lady named Denise Daly from the great state of Illinois has had a terrific year of horseshoe pitching winning the Junior Girl’s World Championship in Topeka followed by being on the winning team in the 2015 Sanctioned League Team Tournament in Wentzville.  She also pitched very well in two sanctioned leagues in Springfield, Illinois.  Lee Watkins, the league director of said leagues, submitted the Final Stats for the leagues using standard “Final Stats” forms.  Lee did not use our (NHPA) wonderful software, HSMaster (created by Kurt Whaley), to submit the data.  The form that he used can be found on the NHPA website, was updated by me, and suggested by me for use in submitting “Final Stats”, yet is NOT the method of submission I prefer league directors to use. 

 

Why, you ask?  When league directors submit (via email) the “Final Stats” using the “ASCII Export Final Stats” file created by HSMaster, I can drop the data into my Sanctioned League software with a minimum of manual input.  Which leads me back to Denise and to the happy ending, but I digress.  When I entered Denise’s stats from the summer league, I inadvertently entered her high game as 72.5%.  I used the figure from the adjacent column, which was her previous high game from the spring league.  This fine game which was actually an 80% game, turned out to be the “high game of the year” for Junior Girls.

 

I ordered the “Top Ten” plaques and shipped out the over 160 award packages for the 300 recipients, which brings us back to Lee Watkins.  Lee calls and informs me of my error on Denise’s plaque.  I thought about it and told Lee that I would fix the “Top Ten” posting on the web page and that her plaque, which had her listed as number one in the category but had the wrong percent listed, would not be fixed.  I reasoned that it was a hassle to fix and that she was the only one that would know the mistake.

 

Now the story begins.  I got off of the phone and my wonderful wife (Diane) of almost 50 years (September 3rd) who had heard most of the conversation with Lee, mumbled something about me being a “cheap sucker”.  Diane had kept score for Denise in Wentzville and if you know Diane at all, you would know that after meeting her for a few minutes, you’ll be friends and talking up a storm.  Regardless of whether Denise remembers Diane or not, over the next two days, Diane, being subtle (not), reminded me that this nice young lady would have this plaque hanging in a prominent place with a piece of duct tape over the 72.5% inked over with the correct 80% written in felt pen. 

 

I finally came to my senses and called Lee back to make arrangements to correct the plaque, which should be completed before Denise even knows what happened. What then is the happy ending you ask?  Well let me tell you, it’s happy on at least two levels:  First, I got a wonderful chance to promote the use of HSMaster in league play and hope that league directors will look into using it if they are not at this time.  Secondly, and more importantly, I got another dose of reality as to why I have been fortunate to be with the same woman for the best part of 50 years.  The question you may ask is this, why has she put up with me all this while, inquiring minds want to know.

 

If you are considering switching to HSMaster for league play, feel free to give me a call and I will help you get started.  That also applies for the formation of new leagues or any other matters regarding the Sanctioned League Program, the more the merrier.