Two Couch Potatoes

Clare is back home, graduated from Valpo and returned with her boyfriend from Syracuse.  Chris won’t return to the Orange for a second season because he’s been hired as the new offensive line coach at Elmhurst College.  Did I mention that?

Anyway, Clare and I watched game one of the college NCAA D-I softball finals, Auburn vs. Oklahoma.  If you can’t watch your daughter play, the two of you can always watch other peoples’ daughters, I say.  We mostly talked batting stances and strategy.  A lot of players seemed to be holding the bat way back behind their heads, which translates into time wasted getting it into the hitting zone, and the Auburn coach seemed to be channeling his inner Robin Ventura.  Who pinch hits a lefty to face a lefty with the tying run on third and one out?  Well, Robin probably would, and the Auburn coach sure did.  Final score, Oklahoma 3 Auburn  2.

There were nearly 8200 fans in the stands for the game.  Pro softball would kill for that kind of attendance.  The Chicago Bandits’ games I went to when Clare interned with the team didn’t draw anything close to a quarter of that, and they’re supposed to be one of the stronger franchises in the league.  What gives?

I’ll forgo the lecture on the inevitability of women playing baseball to suggest that they have to put teams where the fans are.  Right now, there are all of six teams in the league, when there should be upwards to thirty.  From what I can tell—it’s not like the websites want you to know too much—two teams are located in Texas; one in metro Chicago; one in Akron, Ohio; one in suburban Pittsburgh; and one in Kissimmee, Florida.  Considering how many of the top players come from the South and Southwest, that’s where I’d put new teams; hello, Oklahoma City and Orlando.  After that, I’d invoke Horace Greeley and go west.  California would seem to be a logical area to saturate.  But what do I know?  I’m just a couch potato.