By Dan Lyksett
Leader-Telegram staff

Tucked in a little room up in the pressbox behind home plate at Gelein Field sit two men who have one goal: Collect the statistics generated during ISC World Tournament Games, make sure they're correct and then get the word out.

Gary Baughman, left, the ISC's statistican, and Al Doran, ISC's Web site director, team up to provide accurate game results that make their way across the globe throughout the tournament's run. Staff photo by Steve Kinderman

And when Gary Baughman, ISC statistician, and Al Doran, ISC Web director, get the word out, they get the word OUT.

It's not just for the folks gathered at the park who read the stats they're posting. Through a carefully coordinated collaberation the two send out regular updates on game results via the Internet to fans across the world, often just minutes after the last out of the game.

Doran and Baughman will tell you it's a 20-hour a day labor of love.

"I love this game, and I love these people," said Baughman, 51, a pipe-fitter/welder from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"It's a pleasure to do this for the fastpitch community," said Doran, a 59-year-old consultant in human resources from Richmond Hill, Ontario.

While both played a fastpitch when they were younger, they gravited to their present involvement at the sport's elite level in the mid-1990s.

Baughman saw occasional turns as a scorekeeper and announcer eventually turn into an invitation to become the ISC's statistican in 1995.

"I was at my first world tourament in 1984, and the guy who was announcing had to go pick up his wife. But the game wasn't over, so I ended up finishing it for him," he said. "And evidently they liked what I did, and occasionally they'd ask me to do it again."

Finally in 1995 the ISC asked Baughman to become official statistican.

"I've had a hoot," he said. "I've met so many neat people from all over the world, and I've learned so many things."

Doran turned his attention to fastpitch when major league baseball players went out on strike.

"In 1994 I was so turned off by the baseball, and that's when I discovered this game again, and I've been with it ever since," he said. "But one thing I discovered right away was that the sport at this level didn't promote itself very well, and nobody in the sport really knew anything about the Internet. So I started collecting tournament dates, maps, directions to the ballparks, anything I could, and I'd put them on the Web to let people know what was going on."

Now, seven years after Doran started tracking fastpitch on the Web, he's the host with the sport's biggest following on the Web. More than 1,500 subscribers receive direct e-mail messages and updates from Doran. And thousands more tune in regularly to his message board where he posts and re-posts even more information. Doran also sends in regular updates for posting on the ISC's official Web site.

"It amazes me sometimes, the attention that people pay and the interest there is all over," Doran said.

Doran puts in long hours at the park working his laptop and later sends out more reports from his motel room.

If Doran is the quiet global guy, Baughman is the backyard boss.

"It ain't done until I say it's done, and it ain't right until I say it's right," is how he sums up his role as overseer of all things statistical. And few who've heard his booming voice fill a room with a stinging retort to a questionable roster change would doubt his credentials.

And like Doran he's very hands-on. Before the games begin each day he personally sets up the two computers that are the modern-day scorebooks at the two tournament fields. He personally downloads each game's results, transfers the information to his own computer and runs it through his record-keeping program.

While Baughman is checking the facts, Doran types information from a hand-written summary into his own laptop and posts them immediately on his list on the Web. When the full box score and play-by-play have checked out to Baughman's satisfaction, he hands Doran a disk with the information, which Doran then transmits to the list server.

The two work side-by-side like any well-drilled team, oblivious to the crowd distractions and focused on their computers and the task at hand. But they also maintain a steady repartee, and they don't suffer well any fools who would unnecessarily distract or delay them.

So in the end fastpitch fans from New Zealand to New Brunswick are able to track their favorite teams and players as the move through the tournament.

"We have a common goal: Get the right information out to the softball world," Baughman said. "The players are great guys, the people are terrific."

"I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it so much," Doran said. "The fans, the ballplayers, all these folk make it worthwhile."

Lyksett can be reached at 830-5926 or at dan.lyksett@ecpc.com.