Hey everyone! My vacation was fun and I am looking forward to my next vacation! There have some things the last few weeks that have inspired to me to write a blog. The first part won’t be about softball but I will tie it into softball! Trust me! I’ve spent a good week and half mulling this over in my head!
I like watching soccer but I never considered myself a big a fan. But I’ve always watched the World Cup. I love international sports. I love the pride of playing for one’s country. I love seeing the differences in styles and personality from team to team. I love how all of those teams are forever united and linked by one thing a love for the sport they play. There is just something special and unique about international sports. So World Cup 2011 was no different. I watched all the games USA was in and many of the others. It delighted me to see these women playing the sport they love for the country they love. I watched as something special began to happen with a very special USA team. They won us over. Their sparkling personalities, their fighting spirits, the love and passion for their sport and their country, and their never give up attitude’s won us over! There was just something about watching Abby Wambach heading the ball into the goal to send the game into penalty kicks during Brazil game. There was something about watching Hope Solo (A former Husky! *woof woof*) blocking that penalty kick and the joy and passion excitement in her eyes! They gained so many fans that day and even more when they beat France to advance to finals. I wondered if all these fans were bandwagon fans and if they lost in the finals they would jump off and maybe even turn on them. The final game was crazy a up and down and up and down. In the end they lost but to my surprise a big big part of those fans stayed. Thousands of people came out to welcome them home when they landed in NYC on Monday! They’ve been on show after show! They all received so many emails, text, tweets, and facebook messages and comments! But I think bigger than that for the sport they loved they sold out the next WPS (Women’s Professional Soccer) that occurred the next Saturday! 15, 000 fans showed up for the game! I’ll be the first one to tell you I didn’t know anything about the WPS until now! But I will be following and supporting it now! So I am sure by now you are thinking I thought you said you would tie this into softball so where is it? Here it is! As I watched this going on I couldn’t help but think why can’t this happen for softball?? I remember when the US softball team beat Japan and took gold at worlds last summer that the hope we all had was that the great showing at worlds not just by the US team but by all the teams would help this sport grow. Not just grow internationally but here at home with the NPF as well. But that didn’t happen. ASAUSA softball decided to say the players couldn’t play for both the NPF and Team USA. So now instead of being a united front working together to grow the sport we love like soccer is we are full of divides, walls, breaks, bitterness, and hard feelings. You see the reason the World Cup win helped the WPS was because they are all united as one. The WPS supports the National Team and the National Team supports the WPS. There is no our players and your players. There is no fighting and hard feelings (well I’m sure there is somewhere in there but you get the picture). There is only soccer and love of the game and the drive to push it on and watch it grow. I really felt like softball had reached a new high last summer after Worlds. There were so many wonderful teams there that played such good softball. But now I feel like softball has officially hit a new low. Softball at the next level can’t grow the way it is now. It just can’t. When this first happened the blame was put on whomever (at first we didn’t know if it was USA softball or the NPF. We now know it was USA softball) had made the demands. But somewhere along the way I’ve seen the blame shift and I’ve seen a group of women who have devoted their whole careers to furthering this sport thrown under the bus. People are now saying they did for the money. I’ve seen them called selfish, money hungry, and other things. It breaks my heart! These women didn’t want this and they certainly didn’t do it for the money! Their dream was always to play for the red, white, and blue! That was taken away from them and it’s not their fault and it’s not right. Put the blame where it belongs! If you think what USA softball did was wrong then let them know it. I’m not saying you have to be rude but let them know you support the girls who were forced to make that hard decision and that you think them forcing them to make that decision was wrong. I’m trying hard to support the women who are playing for Team USA. They are all amazing athletes and softball players. But my heart is still broken and my feelings forever changed about this team and the people who run it. Not because of something these girls did but because of what the people running the program did. I worry for these girls playing now. It feels like a dream come true and very amazing for them now but will Team USA turn on them too? If they can throw women who have played their hearts out for them for some of them as long a decade or more under the bus what’s to stop them from doing that to these young girls? Nothing! I think the truth of what happened is not that the ladies were money hungry or selfish or anything like that. But that USA softball was power hungry. They wanted all the power and they didn’t want the NPF to have any. The funny thing to me is, these ladies every summer were spending huge parts of their NPF seasons with the national team. USA softball already had the power not in the money but in the hearts and dreams of those ladies. They weren’t going anywhere until USA softball decided to try for more power. Because just like the ladies playing now this was ALWAYS their dream! So in trying to gain all the power in my eyes they lost the power they did have!
I’ve been watching the World Cup of course and I have been struck by how small the crowds have been! I realized tonight this decision by USA softball didn’t just hurt the former players who had to make the decision but also the current members. They don’t have the support they deserve. The fans are angry and no longer support USA softball. Funny thing is the Racers and Diamonds came last night in Round Rock had almost 4000 people! I don’t even know what to do about this now. I’m totally at a loss and I fear softball as we know it is a thing of the past. I hope we can find some way to use USA soccer and the WPS as an example of how great things can be! I hope people begin to open their eyes and demand change. I guess we will see what the next few years hold for softball. Hopefully good and positive things!
I would like to say thank you to the USA soccer team and the excellant job they did in Germany at the World Cup. At a time when sports new is filled with nothing but lock outs, players doing stupid things, and the millions of dollars they makes it’s nice to see a sport where money doesn’t matter. It was refreshing to see a sport where the players aren’t making millions of dollars and where they play for the love of the game get so much attention! I can’t wait until the Olympics next year in London! They are going to be amazing! It’s nice to see a sport with positive news. Maybe the NFL and NBA should take lessons!
Well that is all for now! Go Huskies! RTR Go Bama! Boomer Sooner! Go pride!! And my newest addition go Magic Jack(the professional team Abby Wambach and Hope Solo play for!)!
