Link: {mikeoliver.org} » Blog Archive » Proud to be a Lord Jeff.

Amherst will be replacing the student loan portion of all students’ financial aid packages with a scholarship.

mmm...Chicken roll.

This campus always feels like home....

The New York Times featured an article about Fordham's plans for expansion at its Lincoln Center Campus--a plan that includes "a high-rise quadrangle for 10,600 students would be created on the Columbus Avenue end of the superblock between 60th and 62nd Streets, with seven new buildings around a 1.5-acre courtyard."  This plan is far from new, though.  In fact, the sketches that appeared in the article detailing what Fordham Lincoln Center might look like in the future actually appeared much earlier in The Ram--the University's student run newspaper in 2000.  (I'm pretty sure it was 2000, because I think it was related to Fordham in the new Millenium.  Anyway... I'm quite sure I've seen this before).
If I remember correctly, the plans also included moving the undergraduate business school to Lincoln Center as well.  As much as I hate to say it, this makes a lot of sense.  While I enjoyed my time at Rose Hill, if you are going to have a more competitive business program, it really needs to be in Manhatten.  That is not to say that you won't have students living at Rose Hill taking classes at the Lincoln Center business school.  Having the classes in the city gives the school better access to local businesses for internships, recruiting, and for having professionals contributing in the classroom with speaking engagements. 
Even if this wasn't in the Ram before, it doesn't take a lot of effort to realize how valuable Fordham's location on 60th and Columbus is, and how underutilized it is in terms of the numbers of students it serves. 
This is ambitious thinking and I hope it comes to fruition.  I have two hopes for the plan, though.  First, and most important, I hope the expansion is done in such a manner that it maintains all of Fordham's traditions--which include a very personal touch with small class sizes, accessable faculty, and a tight community of students.  This also includes maintaining the influence of the Jesuit philosophy.  I hope expansion of the student body doesn't dilute the amount of people interested in what this philosophy brings to bear.
Second, I hope that the alumni start opening their pockets when those little envelopes come in the mail when the school is headed in the right direction like this.  The percentage of alumni who donate, especially relative to the number of people who got some kind of scholarships or financial aid, is pathetic.  There's really no excuse for it.  I hate it when people say, "I gave them enough money."  Do you water a plant with a gallon of water the first day you get it and then forget about it?  These percentage giving rates count bigtime in college rankings and the school, which doesn't run off of its endowment like Harvard or Princeton, really needs the money as it ramps up to become a premier institution.  If the giving rates go up, then Fordham can actually see these ambitious plans through.  Then, all of the sudden, you got a degree from the premier Catholic college in the country.  What's that worth to you?  Is it worth $100 a year for the rest of your life?  Sounds like a lot?  $5000 over the next 50 years doesn't sound like a lot to me, especially if all of the sudden you went to the 25th ranked school in the country (That's where Georgetown is right now...  Fordham is 70th.)  Anyway... enough of my grandstanding.  This move is good for Fordham.  I just hope they do it right and that the alumni give the school the support it needs to get there.

GothamGal has a though provoking post up about the insanity of carefully crafting over acheivers and getting kids into college today.  She says that we should drop the current system and look for a new way to screen students...  fewer tests, less pressure.

I do think that what is going on is insane, but anytime there's insanity, you don't have to get caught up in it.

When I was in high school, the average graduating SAT score for my class was 1350.  Now I hear its up over 1400...   average...  1400!   I was lucky because we all seemed to take a pretty healthy approach to it, but one could go nuts trying to test prep your way to a score like that.

If you need to take two test prep courses and hire a private tutor to get your kid to score a 1520, then, well, sorry, that kid just isn't a 1520 student.  I remember this guy in my freshmen year of college who used to study in the lounge about 10 hours a day to get a 3.7 and I just remember heading out the door with my baseball glove to have a catch and enjoy a nice day while he was studying.  If that was what it took to get the really high grades, well then I just wasn't going to be a great student... simple as that.

It was that kind of approach that I had in high school.  In hindsight, I probably could have worked harder, I admit, but it was where my head was at the time.  Pushing me wouldn't have helped.. .I had to push myself... which I did, big time, when I got to Fordham.   Yeah, so I went to Fordham, which was a good school, but it wasn't Harvard or Yale or Princeton.  However, I wouldn't be where I am today at another school.   Being at Fordham, close to the city, enabled me to intern at the GM pension fund during school.  It also meant that another Fordham grad who was at GM sort of took me under his wing, rather than the Harvard intern we had, because he felt like this guy would get everything he wanted anyway.  That led directly to my job in the private equity group, which led to Union Square Ventures, which led to Oddcast.   

If I was coming out of Harvard in '01, it wouldn't have been enough for me to just go to Harvard... I would have had to beat out all my own classmates for jobs.  When you go to a top school, you almost have to be the best there, too, because there will already be 5 or 6 Harvard resumes in for a job, and they're not going to interview all of you.

You don't have to go to a top ten school and you don't have to be a Goldman Sachs investment banker to be successful either.   Teach your kids to follow their own way at their own pace.  Of course, give them all the tools and encouragement to be their best, but don't push them to be more than they're mentally ready to handle.  I wasn't ready to take the lead in high school and I would have burned out very early had I tried.  I'm lucky that my parents were just happy I was in a good school and supportive of whatever I did.  They let me come around on my own terms.

Oh, and I wound up doing better than that kid who studied ten hours a day...  and I really do owe it mostly to my mental health.  In college, I really believe its really not about how hard you work, but more about how smart you work and how you handle stress.   Oh, and networking, too.  You'll never make good contacts in your field, which can take you a lot further than your GPA, if you're a big ball of stress that seems mentally unstable.

I just heard that Ed Wahesh will now be running Fordham's peer education/support programs out of Student Activities.  I graduated with Ed in 2001.  He was always very dedicated to the school and I'm glad to see him back at FU after a hiatus at Scranton.  Welcome back to the big show, Ed.

Fordham's first game at Roosevelt Island's Copobianco Field felt like practice...   Actually, it was practice, because the ABA Stingers didn't show--not a one of them.  That means Fordham was able to post their first win of the season, which, of course, isn't the way this hungry team wants to win.

"This sucks.  I wanted to play," manager Charlie O'Donnell, known for his eloquence, told reporters after the game.

The nightcap didn't prove as successful, however.  It turns out that, unlike the first game, 90% of success isn't just showing up.  It turns out you have to hit and field, too--two little areas that Fordham has been struggling with as of late.  Monday's struggles resulted, unfortunately for this expansion franchise, in a 17-2 drubbing.

AIG took advantage of the cozy Copo confines early, scoring five in the first and six in the second--all off rookie starter and Jay Buhner impersonator Jason Gianetti.

Teammates tried to comfort Gianetti after his performance and the following exchange took place in the clubhouse:

"That ball wouldn't have been out of a lot of parks."

"Name one."

"Yellowstone."

Patti Dickerson took over in the fourth, providing one of the lone bright spots in the game.  Patti turned in a solid mop-up effort and will be likely to start the team's next game.

Fordham's only two runs came late in the game.  Kevin Rodricks lashed a double to left, tearing the stiches off the ball (which is amazing considering the Clincher softballs don't actually have stiches).  Charlie O'Donnell, coming off a shoe string catch in center the inning before, then followed up with a monster, albeit lonely, blast to the concrete in right center.  That would be it for the Fordham offence though.  Rumors have it that the team is considering letting go hitting coach Amanda Hickey. 

There were a couple of other bright spots for Fordham.  Ryan St. Germain threw out a runner at home from right field--the other end of which featured a nifty tag from catcher Nicole Horsford.  Chrissy Guerrero turned in a solid defensive effort at second base as well.

There were no photos from the game, however, due to the illness of team photographer and emerging offensive star Anntoinette Mirsberger.  She should be off the DL by the next game, marking a return to the photographic documentation of the team's hijinks and shananagans.

**Please read this entire post, think about it, and do something about it.  Either a) seriously consider what I have to say or b) please pass this on to all of the Fordham alumni you know.**

I got this note last week...

"Fordham University would like to thank the 1,166 young alumni (classes of
1995-2004) who have already made a gift this year.  We still need another
834 gifts to reach our young alumni goals of 2,000 donors and 17%
participation.

Every gift moves us closer to achieving our goals."

Here's my question:  What does 2,000 donors mean to me?  Answer: Nothing.

That's Fordham's reason for me to donate, but its not my reason.  No one is going to give back to Fordham so that we can reach some psychologically satisfying, evenly divisible number.  Why 2,000?  Why not 2,106?  Either way, it sucks that our goals are so low. 

What sucks even more is that my class, the Class of 2001, is one of the worst giving classes.  As of today, only 9.81% of my class donates back to the school.  The best class, the Class of 1947, gives at a 29.38% clip.  Overall, the whole school is sitting at 15.19%. 

So, I'm throwing down the gauntlet.  Why can't my class be the top class?  For once, why doesn't Fordham pick a ridiculous goal and go after it.  So I did the math.  To get up to a 30%, our class needs 276 more givers by June 30th.   That's about 6 people a day.  So, screw 9%.  If you read this post, especially if you're in the Class of 2001, and you decide to give back, please comment at the bottom.  How cool would it be to actually get 276 people commenting and changing their mind about making a financial contribution?

How?  Well, you just can't spam people with "Go Fordham!" e-mails and expect people to open their wallets.  Nor does the "reaching 2,000 givers" thing really work either.  People need to want to give back.  They can't be convinced to.  If you didn't enjoy your Fordham experience and don't believe in the school, there's nothing anyone can say or do to make you want to give.  But, I know that at least 30% of the people I went to school with had a really positive experience (obviously more than 30%) so, somewhere there's a disconnect.  So, to help promote the idea of giving back, I'm going to put up a few of my own reasons why to help people rethink the whole giving thing.

1. Other people gave to me so that I could attend Fordham.   My parents were semi-retired when I graduated high school.  We weren't sure what we were going to be able to afford, and had I not gotten the scholarship and financial aid I got from Fordham, I would have gone to a state school.  Nothing against state schools, but the ONLY reason I went to Fordham was because other people that came before me donated enough to provide scholarship and financial aid funds.  Most of the people I knew at Fordham got financial aid--enough that it enabled them to go to Fordham to begin with.  This is my number one reason for giving back.  I am attempting, and I hope I get there, to try and give half of the money I got from Fordham back over the next 20 years.  It just seems only fair to me, because that money came from people who sacrificed to give before me.  Do the math for yourself.  Compare that with a $25 or even a $50 donation.

2.  Don't complain if you don't vote.  I'll say it here: If you just sit around and complain that you don't like something about the school, and you don't try to help the school with ideas and support, you're not helping.  If you decide to give back... Don't give online.  Don't send a check.  Send a handwritten note directly to Fr. McShane with your check enclosed and ramble off a list of things you'd like him to do with your money and everyone else's money.  Tell him if you don't see positive things coming from the school on the things that are important to you, you'll disappear into the woodwork again.  A threat?  Sure.  But why not?  Its your hard earned money.  The school should listen to you and by sending a donation, you remind them that you're out there and that you'll support the school when you see it going in a positive direction.  My friend Brian sent them a check when he read about all the expansion plans at Lincoln Center to show his support.

3. Fordham's ranking sucks because people don't give back.  You've heard it all before, but its really true.  National rankings for colleges weigh the percent of alumni that support the school very heavily.  With a small investment every year, and a little more convincing your friends to do the same, you can actually make your degree worth more by bumping up that number.   Don't let all these special giving levels deter you.  ANY giving amount is enough.  The people who want to give more will do that, but the really valuable giving means raising that number across the board.  Think about it.  Two years from now, if that giving number crosses 25%, its going to be all over the news and it will generate a lot of positive publicity for the school.... and for you and your degree.

4. Because it keeps you interested, like going to the gym because you're paying for it.  Silly reason?  Maybe not.  I guarantee you that if you send Fordham a check every year, you're going to be happier when their incoming SATs go up, and more pissed when things go wrong.  It just like making the decision to get your ass out of bed early each morning to go to the gym, if only because you don't want to waste the money you already paid on it.  Financially contributing keeps you interested and you know what?  You should be interested, active and involved.  You have a lasting relationship with your school because the name of your degree will stay with you for the rest of your life.  You should foster that relationship by staying in the loop on what's going on, offering your feedback, and keeping Fordham in mind when you hire people, recommend schools, etc.

5. And finally...  because you'll blow that $25 on something stupid anyway.  Why not contribute to something bigger than yourself?  What do you spend your most wasted $25 on all year?  You know what $25 is?  Its, once every othera month, buying a girl a drink who is clearly not interested in you.  Its taking, every other month, one wasteful cab-ride that you really should have walked, but you're always in a damned rush.  Walk somewhere for once.  Watch the people's faces as they walk by.  Look up at the buildings.  Think about where your life is going.  That's more Jesuit than a cab ride.  What is $25?  For me, its 25 ill-conceived Fantasy Baseball player pickups.  I will not pickup Mark Grudzielanek.  I will hold on to Kevin Brown if it kills me.  $25 is 5 coffee mocha latte thingys at Starbucks.  Just get a green tea.  Its healthy.  It has anti-oxidents.  Its cheaper.  Save yourself.  Support Fordham.  Two birds.  One stone.  Thanks for your time.

This post was written by David Murphy.  He was our shortstop and won our last two games on walkoff hits.  He was also a part of several championship Fordham intramural teams.  They even made a Geocities page about it.

Here's Dave:

The Rams Alumni softball team brought a successful finish to a dismal season last Monday night.  For the second time in as many games, the sons and daughters of Mother Fordham battled back in the final frames to finish the year on a victorious note with a 8-7 win over the vaunted Mizuno machine. 

“Regardless of the final win-loss record, I’m proud of this team,” manager Charlie O’Donnell said after the game.  “I don’t think we’ll ever be accused of having the most talent in the league, but there’s no question that, as a team, we have the heart of a champion.”

Fordham struggled throughout the season with spotty defense and a lack of timely hitting.  It wasn’t until the final stages of the season that Fordham seemed to find their groove.  All told Fordham went 5-8 missing a playoff birth by a significant margin.  Even still, O’Donnell saw seedlings of hope develop in the expansion franchise.

“When we came into the season we didn’t know what to expect,” O’Donnell said.  “There was a big learning curve with this club but I think we definitely came into our own.  You could see that, on both sides of the ball, we definitely began to gel as a unit throughout the last few games.”

Both of the final two contests in 2005 proved dramatic for the Rams.  After a thrilling walk-off home run victory in the previous game, Fordham showed no sign of a let down in the last game of the season.  Fordham went up by three going into the last inning when the same shoddy defense that had haunted them all season began to rear its ugly head.  Pitcher Patty Dickerson, the indisputable team co-MVP after logging countless innings on the mound, saw misplay after misplay result in four unearned runs for Mizhuno. 

That led to one final chance for a comeback by the Jesuit educated bunch. In the bottom of the fifth, the always selective Ron Zapata led off with a single.  He moved into scoring position on a hit by Jason Gianitti.  Two batters later, Pawtucket’s own Ryan St. Germain singled in the tying run and moved the winning run into scoring position for shortstop Dave Murphy.  Murphy, also a Pawtucket native, doubled home the game winner with a line drive to right ending Fordham’s inaugural season on a high note.

“I just got the pitch I was looking for,” Murphy said after the game.  “We’ve battled back before, and the guys just did a great job of getting on base and I was fortunate enough to get a pitch I could handle.”  Murphy’s six hits in his final six at bats for Fordham this season were a big change from his hitherto lack luster performance.  Many Rams’ observers lay the blame of Fordham’s largely unsuccessful campaign squarely on his shoulders.  The captain of two Fordham University intramural softball championships with Team Shame, struggled mightily throughout 2005.  Many believed he simply could not adjust to playing without the teammates that surrounded him from 2000-2004 at Fordham, capturing those two titles. 

For Fordham, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times in 2005.  Although the team chemistry seemed to mix well, particularly by the end of the season, a series of people moving to go along with inconsistent play on both offense and defense resulted in a sub-par performance. 

Second baseman Trevor Freeman seemed to sum up the season best when packing up his locker in the Fordham clubhouse saying, “Maybe it’s because I’m an Oakland fan, but my mentality is, hey – wait till next year!”

And that is just what Fordham plans to do. 

I am mentoring a Fordham freshman and she just started a blog to keep track of her career development and organize her thoughts.  I think its a great experiment and I, for one, am very excited to see where this leads.  I'd appreciate if you could pop over and leave a word or two of encouragement or advice for Christina--either about blogging or about finding her niche in the business world in general.

Link: University identifies peer, aspirant institutions in Stragetic Plan - Fordham Observer - News.

"Intellectual hub":

-Fordham will be a "hub" for intellectual exchange and discussion in the metropolitan area

hmm...   Sounds like blogging to me.

This is a really good article, and more proof that the newspaper of Fordham's Lincoln Center campus is eating the lunch of the University's oldest paper, the Ram, up at Rose Hill.  I think they clearly recognize that the future of the school hinges on what gets built at Fordham's Manhattan campus over the next 20 years, and given that, they're already establishing a platform to handle that shift in focus.  They've got a really clean looking, functional website and good articles.  The Ram, on the other hand, isn't even available on line.  (If they are, I can't find it.... what year is this??)

I like that the University is being so transparent about its goals, even identifying the schools it wants to be like....  very college 2.0.  However, the one thing they could use a little work on is the peer production aspect of College 2.0.  They need to find ways to get wider participation of the alumni and create an outward message that is promoted by more of the students.  Ideally, I'd love to see a school blog with posts from the University President all the way down to a freshman on his first day... athletes, coaches, etc.   A blogging alum can dream...

By the way, I was flipping through the channels last night and caught a few minutes of the Lakers game...   they had a nice interview with Laker fan and Fordham Grad Denzel Washington, who was excited about the emergence of Fordham's own Smush Parker, who is playing for LA.  Go FU!

On Thursday, we had an open softball practice for our Fordham team and conveniently enough, it was the 3rd Thursday of the month, so we followed it up with a Young Alumni Happy Hour as well.  (If you haven't been to one yet, its a lot of fun.  Make sure you go to the Fordham website to update your contact info if you haven't already done so to get on the mailing list.  We're working on an RSS feed for event news, but that's down the line.)   We practiced with some people from the GM team and played an exhibition team.  The all-Fordham team won 9-6 versus a mix of GM and Fordham players.  Kevin and Larry both went yard.  Antoinette grounded out, which is major progress! There are lots more pictures online at my Flickr site.  Here are pics from Third Thursday and here is the growing collection of Fordham Softball '05 pics.  If you're using Flickr and you have softball or Third Thursday pictures, tag them "FUSoftball05" and "ThirdThursday" respectively. 

Losing 17-11 to the STV Scrappers wasn't exactly the way the Fordham Young Alumni softball team wanted to open their season, but the guys and gals in maroon made enough of a showing to give fans something to look forward to this season.

Crafty pitching from Brian "Strikes" Cuthbert (FCLC '01) and solid defense kept Fordham in the game through the first three frames.  Alexis "The Cannon" Kramer (FCRH '01) led the glovework, getting four of the team's first six outs in the field, including an unassisted double play in the second.  The outfield of Jason "Wheels" Giannitti (FCRH '02), Kevin "I'm not a small" Rodricks (FCRH '99, GSAS '04) and Larry "Young at Heart" Porco (GSAS '80) turned in some key plays to keep things close.  STV lead after three 3-0.

David "I live on the same block as Charlie" Murphy (FCRH '04) finally put Fordham on the board with a bases loaded two run single, scoring Christine "Nickname to be named later" Schildknecht (CBA '99) and Giannitti.  Charlie "Its my blog, so I make the nicknames" O'Donnell (CBA '01) singled home another run to knot it at three. Kramer than followed with a laser over the left fielder for a two run homer that put Fordham ahead 5-3.

After STV got one back, Fordham tacked on even more runs in the next frame.   The team had eight consecutive hits in the fifth, plating six more runs.  Fordham's females set things up in the inning with Christine "Christine" Guerrero (FCRH '99), Sofia "Steamroller" Won (CBA '03), and Schildknecht all reaching base and scoring.  Jim "The Wright Stuff" Gallagher (CBA '99) drove in a run with his second hit and also scored a run.  Murphy, O'Donnell, and Cuthbert all took part in the barrage, each hitting run scoring singles. 

All the hitting seemed to wear down the Fordham team, though, as the wheels came off the train in the sixth and seventh.  Despite flashy glovework from Nicole "Full Coverage"* Horsford (FCRH '99) at first, the defense didn't keep up, leaving opportunities open for STV to climb back and take a sizable lead with some timely hitting.  When it was finally over, STV would score five in the six and a painful eight in the seventh--13 unanswered runs.  Still, Fordham left the field in good spirits, looking forward to its April 21st practice and next game on Friday the 29th. 

All Fordham alumni are welcome to join us at our practice and afterwards at our regular "Third Thursday" Happy Hour.  T. G. Whitney's on 53rd between 2nd and 3rd.  Practice first, drink after.  Players will be signing autographs at the bar.

* See, the "Full Coverage" nickname is funny only if you know that Nicole works for HIP, the health plan.  She works for a health plan and she plays a great first base.  Clever, no?

We have a blog going for my 5 year Fordham reunion.   (Yeah, yeah, the template looks suspiciously similar...   I've been busy and didn't have time to do a new template.)

People have been updating the class with stories about what they've been up to.  One guy wrote about what it was like to be the Fordham Mascot.  That was pretty good, but I think it might just been topped by the best wedding story I've ever heard...

Link: Fordham University Welcomes Class of 2009.

“You will be challenged and nurtured to overcome limitations that you wrongly think you have,” Father McShane told a standing room-only crowd in the Leonard Theatre at Fordham Preparatory School on the Rose Hill campus. “Never be satisfied with mediocrity—be hungry for knowledge and bothered by injustice.”

I'm fully intent on going to this...  who's in?

Link: Ram News.

Bronx, NY - (June 27, 2005) – The Fordham University men’s basketball Rams will open the 2005-06 season in paradise. The Paradise Jam, that is. Six Division I men’s basketball teams are gearing up for a trip to paradise at the sixth annual Paradise Jam Basketball Tournament hosted by the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas.

Sounds like they should just set up a blog and get alumni and students blogging on it.  I mean, why hire just one personto "invent" their own version of Fordham's identity versus just setting up a blog and letting the community broadcast its own message on what Fordham is to them in a very honest and sincere way.  It would be a lot cheaper, too.

Link: The New York Times Job Market: Marketing - New York, NY.

ADVANCEMENT COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST A rare and rewarding challenge: play a central role in the transformation of an excellent university into a world-class university. The right person for this job will be able to understand and communicate what makes Fordham University so special and-crucially-be able to make others understand as well. In this role you will liaise with marketing, communications and advancement leaders to incorporate our institutional identity into every aspect of our advancement communications across print and online media, from collateral for the Office of Development to copy for University publications. You'll be able to do so in the voice appropriate to the varied audiences addressed. Finally, you'll need to be able to manage internal client and vendor relations to ensure a finished product on time, within budget and on target. You should have significant, direct experience as a strategic writer in advancement communications in an academic, marketing or non-profit environment. And you should be as strong and creative a thinker

This was a game of destiny.  Fordham had been showing signs of greatness all year--for an inning here an inning there.  In their 15-10 loss last game, it felt like they were one or two plays from turning the tables.  It felt like this was a team ready to put it all together.

So, when Dave Murphy told Charlie O'Donnell, "I'm going to hit today," the manager should have realized it meant a lot more.  Murphy's season had been an up and down one, and while he's always put the bat on the ball, the lack of output in the boxscores had sunk him to lower depths of the lineup.  Still, his intensity and enthusiasm had been unmatched, it was only a matter of time before he'd have a day like this one--going three for three with a game ending solo shot in the bottom of the final frame. 

In fact, Murphy was playing so well, that the Fordham manager turned to his firstbaseman Cuthbert and said, "Wouldn't it be great if Dave just f*#%ing ended it right here?"  One pitch later, the game was over.  In addition, he turned in a perfect 6-3 double play with men on 2nd and 3rd in the top of the final inning to preserve the tie to go with a leaping catch of a soft liner earlier in the game.

Fordham did much of their damage with two outs.  O'Donnell singled in the first and advanced to third on Jason Giannitti single.  When Giannitti tried to advance on the throw to third, O'Donnell took off for home, plating Fordham's first run and cutting Mizuho's lead in half.  Firstbaseman Brian Cuthbert knotted it up with another single which scored Gianitti.

Once again, Patty Dickerson turned in a solid effort on the mound, shutting down Mizuho for the final three innings for the team's 3rd win.  The defense played solidly as well, with Larry Porco catching a couple of long drives in the outfield in front of the capacity crowd of three.

The team plays its final game on August 8th at North Meadow.  Spectators are always welcome.

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Cool...  Lara was one of the friendliest faces on campus and is going to make a great contribution to the team. 

Link: Ram News.

Just two weeks ago, Fordham played a perfect defensive game on the field. 

On Wednesday night, they gave up 15 runs to a team that hit the ball out of the infield just a handful of  times, dropping their record to 2-5.  Clearly, this went awry in the field.  After the game, Fordham fired fielding coach Bill Buckner.

"I taught them everything I knew, and apparently it just wasn't good enough," Buckner told the press.

The bad fielding crushed an otherwise solid effort on the mound by Patty Dickerson, who proved to be quite durable, throwing 243 pitches in the losing effort. 

The team may have been feeling a bit pressured to turn in highlight film plays in the field, because the offence has been non existent.  The team has only averaged 4.57 runs a game, second worst in their division. 

Still, you have to give the team credit for having heart.  After the game, most of the players stayed for an extra 45 minutes of practice, in addition to the extra inning they played after the mercy rule kicked in. 

Also hurting the team were the departures of Alexis Kramer to Chicago and Kevin Rodricks to Boston.  Both players were traded for future considerations in cost cutting moves forced by the movement of University funding to scholarship students. 

"Apparently, academics, and not alumni softball, is the priority for this school," commented Manager Charlie O'Donnell after the game.  "You have to wonder whether or not the University is really thinking about the future if they're going to have these kinds of lopsided priorities."