My thoughts on the things that happened today

With the announcement of so many of our vertern and star softball players leaving the USA National team to devote all their time to the NPF I felt the need to write a blog. This is a big deal in the softball world and for many of us a huge defeat, heartbreak, and a great loss. But on the other hand it is a huge step forward and a good thing for the NPF as well.

            First off let me say that I love the NPF. It’s a great organization that offers a chance to softball players that has never really been there before! I am thrilled that so many women want to help push this league further. This is a league with so much to offer and so many amazing athletes and coaches.

            But without the awareness of the sport that the national team brought none of this would be possible! My first thoughts when I found out I will honestly say were not happy thoughts. My heart is broken at this news. So many softball teams around the world depend on Team USA to guide the path and keep pushing forward to keep the sport growing internationally and to get their beloved sport back in the Olympics. This is where the biggest loss of today’s events will be felt. I know there will still be a Team USA and it will still hold many big names from the college level. But to me it’s more the message being sent to these other countries. I can’t imagine how these other countries are feeling as they ,as well as us, watch what we all thought was the strongest softball team in the whole world fall apart. These other teams have less support and less money then Team USA has ever had! I know they must be thinking well if Team USA can’t withstand this how are we are going to? I know they must be thinking that because I am! I am so sad that ASA/USA and the NPF couldn’t work out away for these wonderful women to promote the sport both at home and abroad! What makes this sport great is not just what is here in this country but the teams and players in so many other countries as well! I look back at Worlds in Venezuela and I thought this wonderful sport was growing and it was going to show the IOC how wrong they are. But with the developments over the last 24 hours it appears we are showing them and all these other countries that they were indeed right! I worry what this means for this sport. I worry that this could be the end of this great sport as we know it. I wonder who are the little girls who play softball each spring/summer supposed to look up to when the players they have watched for so long are no longer in a place where they can watch them. Because let’s face it the vast majority of us at this point are too far away to see these NPF games and I can’t speak for anybody else but I can not afford to pay to watch them online. I hope and pray the NPF is able to grow and become big and strong because if they can’t it very well could take down this sport in a way that we have never seen before!

            I have the utmost in respect for these women! After all they are the ones who started this fire and love in my heart so many years for this sport! I don’t blame them for the choice they made and I will support them wherever they are!

            My point is not that we shouldn’t support the NPF! My point isn’t that the NPF is not a great organization with so many good things a head of it. My point is we can’t forget softball at the international level! We can’t forget about the hard battle being fought to get this sport back into the Olympics. We can’t forget about these other countries and their softball teams! Because if we do we are forgetting where the game came from and what made it the great game it is today! I am completely heartbroken that instead of coming together to fight for this sport we are once again separating and trying to do this separately! In order for this to work all of these organizations have to work together! The developments today show me this sport has a LONG way to go! We owe it to the little girls who dream about playing in the Olympics and playing professionally to do what we can to bring this sport together as one and fight as one! As long as we are fighting separately we will fail! You can’t cut a horse in half and expect to win a race! He needs his whole body and all of his muscles to do so! Just like that horse this sport needs all of its levels and organizations to come together as one!

            Please do what you can to support the NPF! Because it seems we are putting all of the pressure of furthering this great sport on the back of this organization! I just hope we can get enough support for them to be successful!