Popularity of Softball in your state, gaining or losing?

[riseball]

I am old enough to remember the Rene Richards fiasco, back in the 1970s. I even knew the scientist who did the hormone test on RR, saying RR was a biological female. Blah.

As if the East German "women" weren't bad enough.

Not too long afterwards, a male tennis player made the comment that any of the top 100 men could beat any woman in the world. A reporter asked Chris Everett, who was ranked #1 for women, her opinion on such sexist garbage. She replied that her brother, not even in the top 100 men, beat her every time they played.

Or, how about this? My son hadn't run track in years. He ran a 100m race recently at an open track meet, and came in dead last place. His time was better than some of the women who made the semifinals at the 2012 London Olympics. Also, he never played baseball, but can hit the soft ball MUCH farther than his sisters.

I remember a former girlfriend of mine had run track at her university. I never ran track in my life. I challenged her to a race, and smoked her. She was stunned.

Nothing against trans-gendered folks, but as soon as you allow biological men to play women's sports, the biological females don't stand a chance.

Very true. There are some things where both genders can perform equally, others not so much. Back in the day I met a some female F/A-18 and chopper pilots that I would be more than happy to call in for close air support. Conversely they are not as well suited to their male counterparts for activities requiring CAS.

 

[WARRIORMIKE]

I can open bottle of ketchup better than my dw......

 

[riseball]

I can open bottle of ketchup better than my dw......

That is surprising. I would think her smaller fingers would be better at pulling back the little foil thing under the plastic flip top.

 

[BobInMadison]

I can open bottle of ketchup better than my dw......

Maybe so, but if you have an argument, which one of you is right?

 

[WARRIORMIKE]

That is surprising. I would think her smaller fingers would be better at pulling back the little foil thing under the plastic flip top.

Secret it turn it around and hit it from bottom till air pops. Then twist cap.



Seldom on the arguments. Lol

 

[starsnuffer]

Secret it turn it around and hit it from bottom till air pops. Then twist cap.



Seldom on the arguments. Lol

Ok I just did this and first she was excited but there was no air pop so I kept going. Now she's calling the cops and threatening me with divorce. I told her the internet told me to do it but she's not having it. Gotta go.

-W

 

[ASAVipers]

As already mentioned here in Central FL TB Softball is BOOMIMG, but I see the same thing local REC leagues are suffering. Girls start playing TB and all of sudden they are "elite or to good" for REC. At the 8u,10u even first year 12u I see REC as still being good in the development of a Softball player. Second year 12u and up, I could see breaking away from REC. Our first year 10u(04) team had 1 girl play REC this Spring, without Pitchers and Catchers it's hard for REC league to keep developing players. My Oldest who is 18 now, didn't start till she was 10 and turned out to be well above average player. I'm worried now that 10 year old girl might have little chance today to really excel at Softball, because the good Pitchers and other "good" players to learn from and judge herself against are no longer playing REC. My 8 year old(06) plays TB, but will continue to play REC for a while.

 

[BobInMadison]

As already mentioned here in Central FL TB Softball is BOOMIMG, but I see the same thing local REC leagues are suffering. Girls start playing TB and all of sudden they are "elite or to good" for REC. At the 8u,10u even first year 12u I see REC as still being good in the development of a Softball player. Second year 12u and up, I could see breaking away from REC. Our first year 10u(04) team had 1 girl play REC this Spring, without Pitchers and Catchers it's hard for REC league to keep developing players. My Oldest who is 18 now, didn't start till she was 10 and turned out to be well above average player. I'm worried now that 10 year old girl might have little chance today to really excel at Softball, because the good Pitchers and other "good" players to learn from and judge herself against are no longer playing REC. My 8 year old(06) plays TB, but will continue to play REC for a while.

I can only speak of the local rec league where my DD #3 still plays.

As recently as 2 years ago, the 14u and even some 16u girls playing TB would still play rec league. My DD #1's U14 rec league team had a pitcher who had already pitched some varsity games. The girls got a chance to learn to hit off of good pitchers, steal bases off of good catchers, and the pitchers could pitch to good hitters. The league fielded strong all-star teams for 10u, 12u and 14u.

By last year, the 14u and 16u teams were pretty pathetic, with almost all of the TB girls gone. The league no longer fielded a 14u all-star team, although the 10u and 12u teams were still strong. DD #3 only played one of the 10u tournaments because of an injury, but they won that tournament. They came in 3rd in a much tougher tournament the next week, even without her.

This year, there was no 16u team. The 14u teams were really weak, with no (or almost no) TB girls playing. The 12u was the weakest it had ever been, with almost all of the second year TB players gone. Last year DD #3 played up in 12u, and batted against strong TB pitchers, and pitched against strong TB batters. This year, there were only a few good pitchers, and she was one of them.

The 10u program was a lot weaker, because so many of the good 10u girls played up to make up for the missing older 12u TB players. So, that weakened both the 12u and 10u programs. Last year DD #3 was one of only 2 10u girls to play up in 12u.

No 16u at all, no 14u all-star team. The 12u all-stars played two tournaments, and lost every game. The 10u all-stars were still quite good, partly because so many of them had played up in 12u rec league.

But, that is just one data point.

i see the rec leagues as the seed corn, in a way. If the girls abandon rec league when they get on TB teams, the rec leagues die out, and that eventually kills off the TB teams. OTOH, if the TB girls still play rec league, the quality of the rec league play improves, and more skilled girls go to the TB teams.

 

[moe]

When smaller areas keep adding little leagues, babe ruth, pony, dixie, cal ripken, etc, then not allow them to play each other it will happen. Then, because there are only 3-5 team in an entire pony regional area in that age group...people get bored and off to travel. There were only 3 12U teams in the national wold series pony EAST qualifier this year...the other 20 or so teams went to the Pony nationals scheduled the same weekend, in the same state.

Keep doing dumb stuff..dumb results you will get.

 

[BobInMadison]

I see what you mean.

The 14u girls at our rec league play most of their games against rec league teams from other parts of the county. This is great for the girls, partly because our rec league only has 2 14u teams this year, and it would get boring if they just played each other.

The 10u and 12u teams don't seem to do that anymore. Too bad. It was nice to play an occasional game at some of the other LL parks (which often had much better facilities, such as scoreboards, and stuff like that). Also, it was fun to play by the home rules of the other rec leagues. DD #3 was on cloud nine when she found out she was going to play a 10u game at a place where they allowed stolen bases. (In fact, she stole a base. She had stolen bases for 10u, 12u and 14u that year, but that is a different story).

Now, the 10u and 12u teams in the rec league just play against each other. At some point, the kids know every girl they ever play against, over and over and over again...

With a lot of local tournaments in this area, the TB girls will sometimes play against girls they know, but not ALL the time.