From the Camden Advertiser, Australia
Editor’s note: A not-to-be-missed feature story by Mark Long:
Mark Long is a former Australian softballer who pitched Australia’s first World Championship U/19 Gold medal win in 1997. He created and now manages Australia’s leading high school based health program Eat It Work It Move It.
The action, the crowds: 2000 ISC World Tournament which took place in St Joseph Missouri – USA. Picture supplied by Bob Otto
A decade ago, at 19 years of age, I was playing my second season in the US.
Turning up was a more accurate depiction, as unknowingly I was trying to pitch with John Miller’s Denmark Dukes (Wisconsin) with an undiagnosed bout of mono, known in Australia as glandular fever.
The US summer of 2000 was a great year.
The ISF’s were in South Africa, a movie about men’s fastpitch was released and subsequently saw Darren Zack throw down some pitches to Matt Lauer and Al Roker on NBC’s Today show.
The buzz around the movie was high, and I remember being part of a fastpitch fan filled theatre in St Joseph, Missouri during the ISC World Tournament.
As great as it was to see fastpitch on the silverscreen, the story arc was unfortunately morbid. The game was sick and dying.
Hardly the movie to take home to Australia or anywhere for that matter and show off to your friends how great this sport was.
I always appreciated Jeremy Spear’s re-edited promotional version – it was first class.
Ten years on, and having not picked up a ball for almost eight years, I’m about to head back to the US to watch a few days of this summer’s ISC in Midland, Michigan.
The push by one of the few remaining hot beds, ably led by Kyle Beane, to make this tournament ”an event” gives me hope there is a chance of turning this old game around.
If not, it will be great to at least see the site where my personal favourite Michael White, spun his wizardry to win the Kiwi’s the ’96 ISF title and finish the gold medal game with a perfect game.
Perhaps it is the induction of legends Mark Sorenson and Darren Zack among others into the ISC Hall of Fame that have also lead to what this series of articles is about: Why this great game, needs saving?
I stayed about mile down the road from the ISC Hall of Fame in Kimberly and would often stop to admire many special moments this great game has had.
The memorabilia including Peter Meredith and Peter Finn’s playing tops from the 1981 World Tournament, 34 inning duel are priceless.
Ten years on, the lessons of that movie would appear to have not been learnt.
This August is perhaps the best platform in recent memory to relaunch a concerted effort to put fastpitch back on the right track.
With a touch of magic from the past, a romantic narrative to create and sell a new story and product whilst using a canvas like Midland to plot a new path.
Who runs the game?
Well there is a loaded question.
The history of playing excellence that is the ISC, the proclaimed team orientated NAFA, the playing factory of Softball Canada, the National body and owner of the USA Softball trademark – ASA or the global ISF.
Which one is the key to fixing this?
It doesn’t matter.
What does matter is getting them all to the table and committing to work together because the clock is ticking.
Let’s take the Pepsi v Coke et al question out of this equation.
If it was the 70’s, there would be time, but there isn’t.
Think of fastpitch as a product and a highly marketable product with the benefit that many in the US and Canada lose sight of at times.
Your communities know about the product and many of them still love it, or at least have an affinity for it.
Hurry up though, because every summer, they are getting older.
Fastpitch softball is at a very interesting crossroad.
The women’s game is off the Olympic schedule and the impartial view would be that it is never, ever going back.
No Olympics equals a lot less money.
US college ball grew off the back of the Olympic inclusion and just perhaps, rugby, which will be played by both men and women may start to appear in the NCAA family – Google NCAA Rugby – they are already on the move.
Will it replace softball?
Your guess is as good as mine.
The other new Olympic inclusion, golf is already there.
Softball Australia proudly boasts using current world rankings to be the world’s number one softball nation.
To those in North America, please don’t, for a split second think that Australia will lead the renaissance of our sport with the same opportunities afforded to many Kiwis, Aussies and South Americans in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
Softball doesn’t cause a bleep on the radar down here.
Never really has, never really will.
So it brings me back to the pure and simple fact, fastpitch softball, both the men and women need a strong USA.
We need a strong Canada as well.
The women have some time to work out their new plan and the adjustment of ISF world championships to two years instead of four may be an option.
I have concerns about that, but I’ll leave that one for another day.
Sitting in my office in Sydney, after a visit from a former US team mate and his wife over Easter got me thinking.
He re-lit my unaligned fire for the game; to at least put down on paper some sort of plan about how we could get everyone around the same table to commit to agreeing to a plan to move forward.
It seems that in fantasy football, you try and find the team that can win the cash.
Perhaps fantasy fastpitch is about finding the team that isn’t in it to win it, but more importantly to save it.
Over the coming month, I’ll finish another three articles- published weekly.
I’ll cover the junior game, the international game and a proposal for the future.
I hope you get time to read them, pass them onto your current and former team mates and sponsors as well as fastpitch lovers.
More importantly, I hope you make some time to contribute to the discussion.
We’ve just rounded third base.