For most people, watching softball means beer, popcorn and hot afternoons in the stands, cheering on your favourite team.
Some fans of the World Men’s Softball Championship, which started July 17 in Saskatoon, are getting their fix in a different way – glued to their laptops.
It’s thanks to Ontario’s Al Doran, who is writing play-by-play from almost every game of the 10-day tournament.
At Wednesday afternoon’s Argentina versus Indonesia game, Doran sat hunched at his laptop computer in a green, caged-off press booth behind home plate, typing out the results from every batter’s visit to the plate.
He also included some casual observations: “It is a bright, sunny, and hot day with light breeze, great day for a suntan in the stands,” Doran wrote early in the game.
Baseball strike spurred interest
Doran’s interest in writing play-by-play came during the Major League Baseball strike in 1994. Unable to watch baseball on TV, he travelled to a softball tournament in Prince Edward Island.
“I was surprised and disappointed [to] get back to Toronto and nobody knew that the Toronto Gators had come number two in the world. It wasn’t in any of the media,” Doran told CBC News.
Softball fan Al Doran does live play-by-play from his laptop at an international tournament in Saskatoon. (Kathy Fitzpatrick/CBC)Doran, who lives in Brampton, Ont., travels to tournaments and posts his commentary and play-by-play to his website, simply for the love of the game, and to provide a service no one else is.
He updates his website with plays twice every inning.
Doran has received emails from people who follow his website in some far-flung places, including a Canadian, Rick Warford, who is working on a research ship in the South China Sea.
“There’s four [Newfoundlanders] on the Canadian team so I like following them as well,” Warford told CBC News by telephone from the waters near Singapore.
Softball federation catching up
Organizers of the tournament in Saskatoon are reaching out to softball fans through their own website.
For the first time, fans can watch live video of all 72 games, for about $60.
“When you put on a big softball tournament, it’s almost expected in some ways that you’re able to show some sort of live broadcast out there through the web,” International Softball Federation organizer Mark Loehndorf told CBC News.
There are 16 teams from five continents playing in the tournament in Saskatoon, including the United States, the Philippines, South Africa and host Canada, which was undefeated after six games as of Wednesday.
The ISF World Men’s Championship wraps up Sunday, with the gold medal game at 3 p.m. CT.
