Talent Untapped

I was reading a piece in the Sun-Times yesterday about the Oklahoma women’s softball team, “the greatest team of all time, and maybe not just in softball,” according to columnist Steve Greenberg. Hmm. Better than any college team with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on it? Tom Seaver? Gale Sayers? There’s an apples-to-oranges challenge here that I’d shy away from that has nothing to do with gender. After all is said and done, each sport is unique onto itself. Except softball. No other American sport has two first cousins like softball and baseball. If Greenberg is right, or just mostly right, then I have to wonder why baseball continues to shy away from softball talent. Consider that OU senior Jocelyn Alo has had three thirty-homer seasons in her career. If that’s not worth a draft pick, why not a free-agent invitation? Sometimes, I just don’t get it.