This is the time of year Clare
loses herself in a sea of softball, if that’s what you can call the NCAA
Women’s College World Series. It excites
and yet frustrates her at the same time.
The frustration has nothing to do
with the young women trying to win a championship in 12-inch softball. No, it comes from the inability of
professional softball to tap into a fraction of the excitement the D-I college
game generates. “Why would I want to
spend my money watching the Bandits?” she asked rhetorically during a phone conversation
we had today. Where’s the beef, went an
ad tagline from long ago. With pro
softball, where’s the sizzle?
The season’s too short, and the
venues are too bland, for openers. I’d
also go so far as to say softball is morphing into 12-inch version of baseball,
it’s either strikeouts or homeruns. Once
you get down to it, fans would rather watch players swing at baseballs. As a society, it’s what we’ve been
conditioned to do.
I also think softball is hurting
itself by holding onto the same dimensions, 43 feet from the rubber to the plate,
60 feet from base to base. Softball
players are hitting homers because they’re bigger and stronger; ditto the
pitchers with strikeouts. So, why not
move everything back by ten feet or some variation thereof?
Somehow, the NCAA has found a
supply of fairy dust it sprinkles on sports like lacrosse and softball, making
them popular at least during the televised playoffs; but it disappears the
second the players graduate. If pro
softball wants to survive, it should consider applying a measuring tape to the
field of play.
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