Pass on That

I was channel surfing yesterday afternoon when I came across a game on cable, a 16U fastpitch championship featuring a Chicago-area team.  I kept on going.

The team plays in a super elite circuit that Clare tells me didn’t exist when she was playing.  Thank heavens for that.  It would’ve been another thing we’d beat ourselves up over—I’m not good enough, we don’t have enough money…I almost feel sorry for the families involved.

I doubt the players have much of a life other than softball; ditto at least one of their parents.  And the tension must be brutal (to say nothing of the associated costs of team and travel).  The thought of college coaches being out there at any given time coupled with the possibility of not starting that day must make for one heck of a lot of upset stomachs, both adolescent and adult.

Remember this is 16U, with girls maybe as young as fourteen on a team.  I can’t imagine putting my daughter through three summers of that torture, using the twin carrots of a college scholarship and TV appearance to motivate her.  The good news for college coaches is that this is a perfect way to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Only the true lovers of softball will be on hand to watch.

That is, unless they just burned out.