- Feb 22, 2013
- 206
- 18
I spent every summer until I graduated high school following the softball fields throughout Utah, California and the Pacific Norhtwest watching my dad pitch softball. My dad would tell me stories about pitching with Larry H. Miller, before Larry had money. I remember watching ball games at Howarth park in Santa Rosa, California when he threw for the Guanella Brothers. I remember spending the summer in Sunnyvale when he threw for LeBlancs Barons. He threw in the Pacific Northwest for the remainder of his days except for one year when he returned to pitch for Guanella/LeBlancs when the players walked away in pursuit of more money right before the softball season began. I used to watch monster pitching battles when he threw against Seattle Peterbuilt and Seattle Pay'n'Pak. Lake Oswego in Portland had a strong team as well as Yakima Pepsi, Olympia and others.
Men's softball was king back then. The sponsors were good and winning sponsor's received a lot of press on the sports pages of the newspapers. There were a lot of very good teams. Competition was fierce. If you didn't have a strong pitcher, you didn't stand a chance. Men's fastpitch was so prevalent that you didn't have to go very far to find 32 team double elimination tournaments.
I watched the New Zealander's throw for some Canadien teams and they changed the game men's fastpitch forever. I remember being at a tournament and watching a New Zealand pitcher dominate a game after crow hopping and releasing the ball from about 40'. All of the other men's pitchers started crow hopping and making it so deliberate that the umpires started calling illegal pitches on every pitcher. The men (from every team) continued to throw from about 40' for the rest of the tournament, because if the umps would have called a crow hop, the tournament would have been cancelled. Men played to win and many times it is easier to throw illegal pitches than it is to throw legal pitches.
Sponsoring of teams became more and more expensive as the better teams would recruit better talent and offer trips to major tournaments across the USA and Canada. The Salt Lake City tournament drew teams from all across the country. British Columbia Canada would draw national attention over the years.
The game changed somewhere during the late 80's or early 90's. The game went from double elimination tournaments to 3 or 4 game guarantees with single or double elimination tournaments. I remember sitting at a ball park in the early 90's where my dad's team came through the loser's bracket and won the first game of the chanpionship series. After the game, the team from Seattle said that they didn't want to play again so they called the teams co-tourament champions. My dad would have stayed out there and pitched until his arm fell off. I asked him what he thought about it and he just looked at me and said America is changing. The game of men's fastpitch softball was no longer about winning and losing, mediocrity was becoming acceptable in the sports world.
I read an article that Coach Candrea wrote several years ago. The jist of the article was similar to the last paragraph. Candrea wrote that the girls fastpitch athletes that are reaching college these days are worse that those from the previous decade(s). Girls fastpitch Travel Ball doesn't teach girls the urgency to compete and win. Whereas the game started out in the double elimination tournament format and it was win or go home. The new game is the travel ball game, with time limits, 4 game guarantees and tournaments every weekend. An hour and a half time limit 5 inning game isn't a complete game of softball because there is so much that can happen in those last two innings. The travel ball game is about tournaments making money, every kid playing, padding your stats and maybe getting a college scholarship. If a girl doesn't win the tournament, she is content that she got in 30 to 45 innings in on the weekend and got a good work out. At the end of the day a girl playing in 120 games during a travel ball season may have got in 70 to 80 complete 7 inning games or that many game equivilencies. Is Candrea right?
I know my dad never forgot the day when the men's fastpitch softball changed forever. Maybe the guy who came up with the saying, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game," changed the way sports are played throughout the US. I'm willing to bet that A) he didn't play the game or B) he didn't put in the time to become very skilled at the game.
So, when your out watching girls fastpitch softball in the Pacific Northwest and the old grey haired umpire behind the plate is moving slow, please don't yell at him, but thank him because he is giving back to the game he loves.
Men's softball was king back then. The sponsors were good and winning sponsor's received a lot of press on the sports pages of the newspapers. There were a lot of very good teams. Competition was fierce. If you didn't have a strong pitcher, you didn't stand a chance. Men's fastpitch was so prevalent that you didn't have to go very far to find 32 team double elimination tournaments.
I watched the New Zealander's throw for some Canadien teams and they changed the game men's fastpitch forever. I remember being at a tournament and watching a New Zealand pitcher dominate a game after crow hopping and releasing the ball from about 40'. All of the other men's pitchers started crow hopping and making it so deliberate that the umpires started calling illegal pitches on every pitcher. The men (from every team) continued to throw from about 40' for the rest of the tournament, because if the umps would have called a crow hop, the tournament would have been cancelled. Men played to win and many times it is easier to throw illegal pitches than it is to throw legal pitches.
Sponsoring of teams became more and more expensive as the better teams would recruit better talent and offer trips to major tournaments across the USA and Canada. The Salt Lake City tournament drew teams from all across the country. British Columbia Canada would draw national attention over the years.
The game changed somewhere during the late 80's or early 90's. The game went from double elimination tournaments to 3 or 4 game guarantees with single or double elimination tournaments. I remember sitting at a ball park in the early 90's where my dad's team came through the loser's bracket and won the first game of the chanpionship series. After the game, the team from Seattle said that they didn't want to play again so they called the teams co-tourament champions. My dad would have stayed out there and pitched until his arm fell off. I asked him what he thought about it and he just looked at me and said America is changing. The game of men's fastpitch softball was no longer about winning and losing, mediocrity was becoming acceptable in the sports world.
I read an article that Coach Candrea wrote several years ago. The jist of the article was similar to the last paragraph. Candrea wrote that the girls fastpitch athletes that are reaching college these days are worse that those from the previous decade(s). Girls fastpitch Travel Ball doesn't teach girls the urgency to compete and win. Whereas the game started out in the double elimination tournament format and it was win or go home. The new game is the travel ball game, with time limits, 4 game guarantees and tournaments every weekend. An hour and a half time limit 5 inning game isn't a complete game of softball because there is so much that can happen in those last two innings. The travel ball game is about tournaments making money, every kid playing, padding your stats and maybe getting a college scholarship. If a girl doesn't win the tournament, she is content that she got in 30 to 45 innings in on the weekend and got a good work out. At the end of the day a girl playing in 120 games during a travel ball season may have got in 70 to 80 complete 7 inning games or that many game equivilencies. Is Candrea right?
I know my dad never forgot the day when the men's fastpitch softball changed forever. Maybe the guy who came up with the saying, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game," changed the way sports are played throughout the US. I'm willing to bet that A) he didn't play the game or B) he didn't put in the time to become very skilled at the game.
So, when your out watching girls fastpitch softball in the Pacific Northwest and the old grey haired umpire behind the plate is moving slow, please don't yell at him, but thank him because he is giving back to the game he loves.