Back Then

Whenever the weather turns cold, gray and wet (like today), my thoughts turn to softball. April in the Midwest makes for the hardiest of athletes. Somehow, twelve years have gone by since I had a hand in any of it, sitting in a dugout to score varsity games; generating stats; and calling papers with the score. Once upon a time, Chicago dailies actually cared about spring sports, or at least softball. There was the occasional story to go with the daily line score and game summary. Her senior year, Clare was named one of the top 100 players in the Chicago area by the Sun-Times. I can’t even remember the last time the Times did that. Luckily, I can still remember the ten homeruns my daughter hit that typically cold and wet spring. Baseball would have you believe women are making great progress in the front office, but I wonder. High school softball receives virtually zero television coverage, ditto in the papers. NCAA D-I softball does better, thanks largely to cable. Too bad it doesn’t generate half the coverage the Munsters get in the offseason. Here’s just one example. Because Clare told me, I know that Northwestern is having a very good season, 24-6 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten, good enough to be ranked eighth in the nation. Good luck trying to find any coverage in the Chicago media. It’s simply not there. But I’m supposed to believe glass ceilings are shattering all across the national pastime? We’ll see.