Softball season is just around the corner!

The title says it all! We are just under a month away from the start of the 2012 college softball season! I'm so excited!! I think it's going to be a great season!! I laid awake for most of the night last night because I was wide awake. As I laid there I began to think about the upcoming softball season and decided it was time I do a blog and get my opinions out there. Going to do things a little different this season! But I hope you find it interesting!

Pac-12

I think the top 2 teams this season with Cal and ASU. Cal returns basically their whole team plus they get Valerie Arioto back. They are going to be hard to beat! ASU is going to be good but I don't know if they will be better than Cal. They of course will still have Dallas Escobedo but what won the WCWS in my opinion was not her. She struggled in the championship games and showed some weaknesses. The offense for ASU is what won the WCWS. It should be interesting how they do this year. I think next in line will be Oregon. They have a very strong roster this year and I think will have a great season. I think next will be Stanford. Then things get a little less clear. I think Washington, UCLA, and Arizona will be in this area but I'm not sure at this point what order. Washington is young, really young. There are alot of unknowns with this team. What is known? They bring back Kaitlin Inglesby. She had a wonderful freshman season both in the circle and even more so with her bat. She was a HUGE part of the powerful husky offense last season! I can only see things going up for her! Taylor Smith and Niki Williams both had back surgery last Spring/Summer. My hope is they both will be relieved of their pain and both be able to play all season and play better than they have in the past! Kimi Pohlman will be back and I expect she will have a huge senior season! I also look forward to seeing Victoria Hayward! She played with both the junior and senior Canadian teams over the last few months and has played very very well! I hope to see that all carry over to her season with the huskies! Hooch Fagaly will be back! Getting Fagaly back at first will be huge! Niki Williams did great but Hooch Fagaly is a much more natural first baseman than Niki is. Her bat will be huge as well! Arizona spent the offseason cleaning house. Time will only tell if the changes they made will be enough to fix their problems from last season. Everything I have heard has said Kenzie Fowler and Shelby Babcock are both 100% but that is what was said before last season as well and I personally don't think Kenzie Fowler was 100% at any point of last season. Her and Shelby both have to throw more strikes and walk less batters. Walks killed them last season! I'm not sure what to think about UCLA yet. We'll just have to wait and see! Sorry to all the Oregon State fans but I think it will be more of the same for them. I see no reason to think things will improve.

Big 12

This will be another close season for this conference. They've got some strong pitchers in this conference. OU brings back Keilani Ricketts(they also add another left handed pitcher from Australia that I think will be very good!). UT brings back Blair Luna. Mizzou brings back Chelsea Thomas. Baylor brings back Whitney Canion. Big 12 softball is definitely more about the pitching and less about offense. I think this conference finishes like this. I think OU, UT, Mizzou, Baylor, OSU, A&M, and Tech(seems like I'm missing somebody...hm lol). But really I think those first 4 could go in any order. Should be a good season for the Big 12 conference.

SEC

I think this will be a down year for the SEC teams. I look for Georgia to fall off the map atleast for this season. This will be a totally different team then we've seen the last 4 years. All the players that made Georgia softball well known are gone now. This a very young team and with the poor coaching they have in place at Georgia it's going to take awhile for them get back to where they were if they ever do. They had in my honest opinion the most talented team in the whole country last season. But again the coaching let them down. If you want further opinions from me on Georgia and their coaching just look back at previous blogs lol! Bama is in good hands with Jackie Traina. But I think it will take her a season to figure out this new role. They'll win a few games and do pretty well but this will not be the Bama team we are used to. I'm not sure what to think of Florida right now. They bring in a strong freshman class but we'll just have to see how that plays out. Tennessee is going to be at the top of this conference I believe. They bring back both Ivy and Ellen Renefroe and have a well established and experienced team. As for the other teams I think they will be about in the same place they were last year. But who knows one of them could surprise me!

There are some conferences that might throw out some good teams but those are the 3 main ones. I might come back to those later but right now I'm going to call this good!

What baseball can learn from softball!

                Hey guys! I’ve been thinking about my last blog a lot and decided I wanted to elaborate more on it! A lot of people look at softball as being the watered down girl version of baseball. I’ve actually had people tell me that! I can’t help but wonder if these people have ever actually sat down and watched softball lol! Softball and baseball are two different sports. They share some common grounds but they have several key differences. So I am going to discuss some of them and also some of the common things about them.

                I’ll start with the things they have in common. Obviously the object of both games is the same. Get on base and score runs by getting a hit, being walked, or hit by a pitch. The basic rules are the same. The number of people on the field and their titles are the same. That is pretty much the extent of the similarities lol.

                Now for the differences, first off for the obvious ones. The softball is much larger than the baseball. The way the ball is pitched is totally different. In baseball the ball is thrown over hand and goes from high to low. In softball the ball is thrown under hand and goes from low to high. It has been proven time and time again that despite popular belief hitting a softball is much harder than hitting a baseball because of the low to high movement and other things. As far as the pitching in baseball the pitcher is on a mound and in softball there is no mound it’s a circle. In softball, you have a pitching rubber and a pitching lane. You have to stay within the pitching lane or it’s an illegal pitch (I’ll discuss that more later). In baseball, they have just the pitching rubber. Softball bats are usually made out of composite or sometimes aluminum. Baseball bats are wooden (and break way too easily in my opinion lol).  In softball the distance between the pitching circle and home plate is 43 ft. In baseball, it’s 60ft 6inches. The distance between bases is shorter. Also in softball the whole infield is dirt. In baseball, only the pitching mount and the base paths are dirt. In softball, a runner who is on base can’t leave the base before the ball leaves the pitchers hand. In baseball, the runner can leave the base at any time. In softball, if the pitchers feet are both off the ground at the same time during their delivery it’s an illegal pitch. If you replant or crow hop it’s an illegal pitch. The closest thing to that in baseball is the balk. A balk the way I understand it (and forgive me if I don’t explain it right, I grew up watching softball not baseball lol) is when the pitcher stops after he has already started his pitching motion, most of the time to check on a runner.

                The bigger differences though are not about equipment, the field, the rules or anything like that. I was thinking earlier that I would love to have been able to watch baseball before the millions of dollars were in play. What I mean by that is, I would love to been able to see baseball played at its beginning when it was new and the passion and love was at its strongest. I’ll be honest I don’t much like to watch baseball.  I especially don’t like to watch professional baseball. I find baseball to be a game played not for the passion or love of the game but for money. The money the players make, the money the owners make, the money the coaches make, and the money the venders make. Honestly I find professional baseball to be boring. I watched the World Series and several of the games leading up to it but the only game that really caught my attention was of course game 6 in the World Series.  I saw more passion in that game then I have any baseball game I’ve ever watched. But even in that, I still didn’t feel like they were going all out. I was very confused by the fact that the Rangers had the World Series in their hands and at times flat didn’t seem to care. Twice they needed 1 strike to win it all and yet they couldn’t get it done. I watched as Nelson Cruz(anybody who knows me IRL knows I’m not a fan of his at all) made a halfhearted attempt at catching what was ultimately a game tying 2 run triple and I thought do they really want to win? It doesn’t much look like it. I knew that night the Rangers weren’t going to win this World Series and sure enough I was right. That game 7 made me sick. The Rangers never even looked like they were trying to win. They went through the motions, lost the game, and flew home to their expensive cars and million dollar homes. For them it’s just a job and another day at the office!

                For softball players there is no million dollar paycheck, in fact they don’t even make a 10^th of that. Most of them have other jobs during the offseason just to pay their bills. They coach, give lessons, do commentating, play in Japan and all kinds of things. For them it’s not just a job or another day in the office. It’s their love and passion! You’ll never see a game where they don’t go all out because that is their pay off. Their pay off is the feeling they have when they make that great catch, strike out that batter, or hit the game winning homerun. Their pay off is in knowing when they walk off the field they have done everything they can to help their team win. They play with a hunger! A hunger that is written all over every diving catch, strike out, double play, 2 out game winning double, and every tear they shed when despite their best efforts it is simply not enough! They run into walls, step in front of sprinting runners, take cleats to their legs, get hit with balls, they play with bruises, pulled muscles, stitches, broken bones, dislocated joints, and everything in-between. They also spend a great deal of time passing this game on and doing everything they can to help it grow. These women are all amazing roles models who spend a huge amount of time with their fans and teaching young girls the game! I think that is what makes this game so much more fun to watch for me. Because I know who those ladies are! I get to follow them on Facebook and Twitter and see the ups and downs of their lives (or at least parts of it). Softball is a game full of emotions! The games are loud and animated! The girls are always yelling and cheering each other on. They are always pumping each other up! You can always tell if the game is going well by the look on their faces! They shed a lot of tears both happy and sad! They respect the game! When they step on the field they aren’t just fighting to win that game, they are fighting for their sport (especially the NPF)! They are fighting to bring in crowds and get noticed! They truly play simply for the love of the game. It’s so pure and beautiful! When you watch a softball game you know you are watching humans, you are watching athletes!

                Baseball over the years as the paychecks have gone up has lost something I think. I love to watch the Little League World Series (wish they show more of the Little League Softball World Series but that is another blog lol). I think that is the purest form of baseball being played right now! They don’t play because they get large sums of money; they play because it is fun and they love the game.  They play with emotion and an extremely strong drive to win! But somewhere along the way that is lost. It’s buried under dollars signs, expensive cars, big houses, and fame! Baseball at the professional level in general in my opinion is an emotionless game. It’s like watching a bunch of robots play a game. As game 7 wrapped up that night I remember watch both teams and thinking what just happened? The Rangers players, coaches, and manager looked really indifferent about losing. The Cardinals did dog pile and show a little more emotion. But when they were interviewing Freese after they announced he was the MVP he seemed like it was more of a hassle than an honor. He just won the World Series, was named MVP, and given the keys to a brand new car and he barley even cracked a smile. He looked bored at times during the interview. I’m by no means saying all the players play with no emotion and don’t care if they win or lose. I’m also not saying softball is perfect! I’m just saying baseball could learn somethings from softball! Some of those big name baseball players, could really get a good lesson from the lesser known softball players like Caitlin Lowe(who would have totally ran into the wall and done everything she could have to catch that ball Nelly Cruz only half way tried to catch! Don’t believe me, search her name on Youtube and there is a video of her doing just that and breaking her nose. She came back and played the next day!), Jessica Mendoza(I’ve seen this woman take out outfield fences, 1^st basemen, and I saw her put a lick on a catcher that made my bones hurt!), Danielle Lawrie (In 2009, she carried her team at the University of Washington on her shoulders and took them on to win the Women’s College World Series. What nobody outside the team knew was she did all of that with a stress fracture in her wrist on her pitching arm that normally would have meant her sitting out the whole season!), Cat Osterman (During worlds in 2010 she went down with arm injury to her pitching arm. A lot of people thought she’d never pitch again. But she proved them all wrong and pitched in Japan for 3 months and for the Pride during the NPF season. Unfortunately her injury reappeared during the championship series at the end of the season and things are again up in the air for her. But if anybody can come back again it’s Cat!), and so many more! I could go on and on! These women don’t just want to win, they hunger for it!  I think baseball needs to get back to its’ roots. Maybe they all need to go watch the Little League World Series or go watch some softball because a lot of them seem to have forgotten what it feels like to truly hunger to win and be on fire for your sport!

                These ladies are truly some of the hardest working people I know! They take care of their bodies and keep in shape better than anybody I know! This game runs so deep for all of them and their passion and love for it, is always on display! But also when their playing days are done no matter how much they’ve done or how great their career was a part of them dies and it is emotional and hard. I remember watching 2008 Olympics and watching those women who were retiring laying their cleans down at homeplate and tears just streaming down my face because there was so much emotion in that one gesture! It was a moment in softball history that I don’t think any true softball fans will forget. It symbolized not just those players leaving the sport but the sport being pushed out the Olympics. It is funny to me though to look back at that and see how many of those women actually came out of retirement! It’s a hard sport to walk away from!

                The main difference in softball and baseball is softball is still fighting to be noticed and fighting to be given a chance. Baseball is established and loved by millions. But softball like every other women’s sport has to do 4 or 5 times as much as men’s sports to get the respect it deserves. I think baseball players need to open their eyes and look around and see how lucky they truly are! Because I know a group of women who work way harder, give up way more, and get back far less than they do! I know a group of women who would love for their sport to have half of what their sport does! If they don’t want to get out there and play game with 100% of their heart, they shouldn’t be out there at all! I think they need a lesson in hard work, passion, and hunger because the baseball I saw played this season was robotic. The baseball I saw in this season left me wondering if the game is so boring to those players why are they out there? Maybe the MLB needs to cut some salaries and bring these guys back to earth. I don’t know but what I saw this season was inexcusable! So to baseball players out there I say come on guys!! Get back to the heart of your sport and remember why you fell in love with it in the first place!

                Alright I am done now lol! Sorry for getting on my soap box! I hope you enjoyed what I had to say! If you have any thoughts feel free to say something!

                I can’t wait for college ball to start in the Spring! OU beat the NPF All Stars last night and something tells me this is the start of something really good for them! Let’s go Dawgs, Boomer Sooner, and RTR Go Bama!!

Baseball just isn't softball!

Hey guys! Obviously I took a break from this blog. I started another blog for non-softball stuff and that has been priority lately! So it’s been almost  2 months since the NPF season ended and I have to be honest I am having major softball withdraws! I just watched the 3 game of the season between the Pride and Bandits from way back in June lol! The Pride lost that game but I enjoyed watching it none the less.

I was struck by a few things. Sarah Pauly pitched in this game for the Pride and Nikki Nemitz for the Bandits. The first time I watched the game Pauly’s performance seemed a lot worse than it did watching it this time. The truth is she pitched a great game. She had 1 inning that hurt her. Nemitz looked great! She is truly a talented pitcher! I know certain people are going to flip out about this next part but frankly I just don’t care lol! I loved watching Jenn Salling in this game and this season in general! I think you would be hard pressed to find a better short stop! She is fast, she thinks so quick on her feet, and she has a cannon for an arm. She (like most softball players) is not afraid to risk her body to try to make a play! She is a natural leader! She is so exciting to watch! I also enjoyed watching Melissa Roth catch Pauly in this game. She doesn’t get the attention that Megan Willis and Lauren Lappin do but she knows what she is doing! I was very impressed with the game she called and the leadership and passion she showed! I also enjoyed seeing Andrea Duran belt a triple! I forget that not only is she wicked 3^rd baseman and a very strong hitter; she can also fly around those bases! I was also reminded of how different softball and baseball truly are. Softball moves faster and is far more explosive than any baseball game! I think in general softball players are more passionate! They play strong all 21 outs and your rarely see them give up. I like baseball but I’d much rather watch a softball game! These ladies love this game so much and I’ve never watched a dull NPF game! Baseball is just not softball and I don’t enjoy it nearly as much!

I am missing me some softball lol! Fall ball is going on right now but there is little coverage of it. So I guess I am just waiting until February again lol! Huskies have been doing very well during their Fall ball season! Their freshmen are looking really good so far! They also have Bryanna Walker and maybe more importantly Hooch Fagaly and Taylor Smith back! I was heartbroken when I realized that Maggie Waggner is no longer on the team! I don’t know what happened but I know she will be very much missed! Wonderful girl, wonderful personality, and very talented!  The Huskies will be taking on the NPF All Star team this Saturday at get this…wait for it… Safeco baseball field! Don’t know how they scored that but I love that it’s the Huskies and Coach Tarr who did it! If you are going to be in Seattle Saturday get your butt over there and watch that game!! $10 at the door and the game starts at 3pm pacific time! I would KILL to be there! But no way I can, so get your butt out there and enjoy it for me lol J!!

The Pan Am games are underway right now. USA is undefeated so far with 1 game left in regular play. Canada is 4-2, with loses to Cuba and USA. Been very interesting but would be even more so if we could see these games lol!

Well that is all for now! I hope this finds all my readers doing well!

Another NPF season is done!

I really did mean to get this blog written and up long before now. But here I am a week later and it’s still not written. Life is insanely mixed up for me right now. I am at one of those points that I know something big is about to happen because I feel so lost and mixed up inside. I know that sounds crazy but think about it. Every time something big happened in your life what happened before it? Atleast for me it was a period of uncertainty. I find myself questioning everything about my life right now. It’s amazing how little things happening in your life can do that. Last week I was told after 2 years of college the only way I can go back is to get my GED. I graduated from a home school program and my transcript doesn’t meet their standards. It seems that is something they should have noticed before now but what do I know. I have a lot mixed feelings about this. Part of me is happy for the break. Frankly it will be nice to enjoy a Fall (my favorite time of the year!) without having to worry about homework and tests. I won’t know what to do if I’m not in school on my birthday! But in the long run I know this just pushes me further back. Part of me feels flat out angry because I earned my high school diploma but it wasn’t enough and now I have to go back and get a GED. Part of me is scared. I have horrible test anxiety. So what if I can’t pass this test? All this craziness and uncertainty has me looking at other parts of my life as well and asking some very hard questions. Right now I don’t know where life is taking me or what the plan is. But I know God is in control and he has big plans. It’s my job to figure out what they are. Anyway on to softball and the championship series!

I was hoping this too would be a happier blog but it wasn’t meant to be either. Pride fell to the Bandits 10-3. From the very beginning it wasn’t the game they wanted. They decided to start Jordan Taylor instead of Danielle Lawrie. I’ll be honest I think had they started Danielle things very well could have been different. The defense was awful. It was just not a good game. I think the things that happened the day before just ran over. A big congrats to the Bandits and Monica Abbott on an amazing championship series!! It was an amazing season for the Pride ladies though! These ladies have nothing to be ashamed of! I am proud of all of them! I’m sad to see the season end and the Pride going out on a losing note made it even harder. But I look back at this season and I can’t be disappointed. This team was definitely special and will always hold a special place in my heart! Danielle Lawrie had an amazing season. She showed again why she is one of the best in the world by bouncing back from a less than stellar rookie season to being the 3^rd best pitcher in the NPF with only Monica Abbott and Cat Osterman a head of her. Very proud and happy for that lady! She has worked her butt off and it’s paying off! Ashley Charters had an amazing season as well! She carried one of the highest batting averages in the NPF all season! Jenn Salling had an amazing rookie season and blew the socks off the commentators for both the Pride and the Bandits. I wish she could hear all the amazing things they say about her! She earned their praise though! She carried the highest fielding percentage of all the SS in the NPF, including her teammate and fellow great Natasha Watley! Cat Osterman continues to be a quiet pillar of strength and a beast on the field! So far there aren't many answers as far as her injury goes. She goes for another MRI tomorrow and hopefully they will get a better idea of what they are dealing with! I hope she knows she has been on the hearts and minds of all her fans since that night! I really fell in love with Kristina Thorson this summer! She doesn’t get much recognition but she is a heck of a pitcher and from what I’ve seen on Twitter(yeah, yeah I know lame LOL!) she is a heck of a teammate and person as well! I was sad to see Alisa Haber announce just a couple of days after the season ended that she is giving up softball. She is going to Japan to teach English to 3rd and 4th year medical students. It's a bitter sweet thing for me(and I am sure her too) as I have watched her play for a long time! She will always be one of my favorites to watch! So I am sad to see her go. Softball is losing one of the best. But I am happy for her! She worked very hard to get her masters degree and this is such an amazing oppurtunity for her! I wish her all the luck and all the best! It’s been a week and I still can’t believe the season is actually over! I am excited about the Back to School tour and thrilled to see they are making a couple stops at Washington!! One of the highlights of the season for me was when Coach Tarr and JT went to Florida at the end of July and watched Danielle, Ashley, and Jenn play. The support they showed for that team and for the NPF really made a mark on not just the Husky alumni but the other ladies on the team as well! It seemed to be an experience enjoyed by all. So to see the NPF go to Washington and give back to them as well makes me smile. After all that is what this is all about! I think that is what we need to see more of. We need to see more college coaches promoting and loving the NPF! I can’t believe Fall ball is just around the corner. It seems just like yesterday they were starting the 2011 Spring season!

I have read some horrible things about the NPF from “fans” since the championship series. I read and hear a lot of people griping about the NPF but not much action to back that up. We all know the NPF is far from perfect. We all know in order for it to grow and be successful changes have to happen. But we have stay realistic too. Changes are going to be slow and at times it’s going to seem like nothing is changing at all.  If you want changes and want to see this thing grow, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Send an email to the NPF with some of your ideas, donate to the 20 for 20, but most importantly support ALL of these women. All of the women on all 4 of these teams have given up so much for this sport and for this league. We can’t forget that. It’s their time, their bodies, and their families that are sacrificed for this sport and this league. You have to look at this league and see the good. The people in charge are working their butts off to figure out how to make this thing grow but there is no manual.  If you don’t like the NPF that is fine but don’t set around bad mouthing them because this is the future for our little girls who want to play beyond college. The Olympics are out until at least 2020 but softball can and will survive. The NPF is here and now and we need to make sure it stays that way. So either get behind the NPF, their leaders, their players, and their coaches or feel free to stand in front of them so they can smack you with a softball or hit you with a bat! If you aren’t going to do anything to try to help, then by all means feel free to shut your mouth!

Well I guess that is all I have for now! I made a video for the amazing Cat Osterman that I would like to share with you guys! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcuMyuJGUhQ. I also made one for Jenn Salling before the college season ended that I never shared! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KahuxSFC7M Let me know what you guys think!

I’ll leave you with a couple of my favorite quotes!

“Life isn’t about waiting until the storm passes, but about learning to dance in the rain!”

“Our greatest achievement comes not from never falling but in rising EVERY time we fall!”

Go Dawgs, Boomer Sooner, RTR Go Bama, Go Pride, and adding for the upcoming football season Go Colts lol!

Scary night! Not the game the Pride wanted!

            Well I hoped to write a much happier blog tonight but it wasn’t meant to be. First off let me start off with the game. Pride took an early 2 run lead off an error by Monica Abbott (one of her only mistakes of the game). They looked good and I was feeling good about the game. Cat Osterman came out and looked good as well! However Monica seemed to get mad after that inning began pitching like there was a chip on her shoulder. She totally shut down the Pride bats. But Cat continued to pitch well and the defense was making great plays to back her up. However in the 5^th inning the wheels came off so to speak. The inning started off with Vicky Galindo getting a single (she had quite game going 3 for 3 and eventually scoring the winning run). Cat came back and struck out Caitlin Lever. Stacy May-Johnson and Amber Patton both come up with singles to load the bases. Cat is able to strike out the powerful Alisa Goler for the 2^nd out of the inning.  Megan Wiggins comes up and knocks a base clearing double to give the Bandits the lead. It seemed a little odd that Cat had all of sudden gone from dominating to not so fast but I didn’t really think much of it. Jamee Juarez comes up to bat and Cat quickly goes up 0-2 on her. However after she throws the 2^nd pitch she goes down holding her arm. My heart dropped. I was watching last summer during the championship game at worlds in Venezuela when this almost same identical thing happened. This time it seemed worse. She seemed to be in more pain and even more scared. I think everyone watching was scared. I’ll talk more about that later but for now back to the game. They brought in Sarah Pauly who threw a beautiful pitch for strike 3 to end the inning. But by this time you can look at the pride players and see that seeing Cat go down like that has sucked something out of them. The score remained the same until the bottom half of the 7^th when with 2 outs and down to her last strike Andrea Duran hit a solo HR to send the game to extra innings. Top of the 8^th inning Sarah Pauly gave up a hit to Vicky Galindo. Caitlin Lever sacrifice bunted her over. Then the Pride decided they are going to walk Stacy May-Johson (I didn’t fully understand this to begin with but I’m not the one making the calls lol). During the intentional walk they call Sarah Pauly for an illegal pitch. I have to be honest here they showed the replay several times and I saw nothing illegal about her pitch. They have been calling them on Monica Abbott the whole championship series (I believe she is now up to 5 after not having any in who knows how long. Sounds fishy to me) and none of them that I saw looked illegal either. I think these umps are putting a little too much attention on themselves, which in my book means they aren’t doing a good job. But anyway the illegal pitch of course moved Vicky Galindo to 3^rd which ended up pretty much costing the Pride the game. The next batter hit a single and Vicky came around to score what would be the winning run. They won 4-3. Monica Abbott after that inning where she had the error that cost the Bandits 2 runs pitched a gem of a game! She is scary good when she gets going and what happened tonight is exactly what I was worried would happen. But tomorrow is a new day and 2 games to be played! The Pride are coming back , I feel it! Don’t forget tomorrow’s game at 1 will be on ESPN2! The if necessary game will be at shortly after and it will be on ESPN3.com and tape delayed on Monday evening! Let’s go Pride!

                Back to Cat they said during the game that she said her bi-cep popped like it did last summer. She was in so much pain! It was so scary to watch! She tweeted earlier that it is her bi-cep but they don’t know yet exactly what is wrong with it. I find myself wondering if this will be it for her and if not how much longer her arm can hold up. It’s sad to think of softball without Cat Osterman in it. She was the first pitcher I ever really loved. The passion she has for this game is so strong! Like all of these other women she eats, sleeps, and breaths softball! She is one of the best to ever play the game and such a strong leader. We softball fans love to watch these women compete and they love to compete. But I don’t think we always appreciate the toll this sport has on their bodies. Playing this game at this high a level for so long doesn’t come without consequences. But these ladies wouldn’t have it any other way! It’s their passion and the sport they love! It’s an amazing sport that I have fall more and more in love with every time I watch it! I can’t even tell you what it is about this sport that makes it so amazing but it truly is! These ladies don't make millions of dollars, they just play for the love the game. They go all out and give 110% everytime they step on the field. They risk their bodies to try to make every play they can! They give up time with their families and travel so much that they have to remind their families where they are. As I said before they wouldn't have it any other way. But we should be thankful for the sacrafices they make! Without them this game wouldn't be what it is today! They do so much and give back so much when they aren't on the field as well! They are truly some of the best more amazing people I know and Cat's is up at the top of that list!  When Cat’s career does end she can leave knowing she has had an amazing career and accomplished more than most people could ever hope to! She has inspired many others to be the best they can be not just on the softball field but in life as well! When that day comes we can all rest assured we haven’t seen the last of Cat Osterman but simply the beginning! She is in my thoughts and prayers tonight! I am praying for as quick and painless recovery as possible!

                I will update tomorrow with the results and final thoughts on the season!

NPF!

Hey everyone! Life has been so crazy and I have been neglecting this thing! Here we are just 2(possibly 3) more games and this NPF season is over! Pride and the Bandits will play a best of 3 series to determine the championship starting with game 1 7pm CT tomorrow (Saturday) and then 2^nd game will be Sunday at 1pm CT and this game will be on ESPN2!! Please tune in! Even if you don’t watch the NPF please watch. This is big for the sport as a whole and this is the only way it will grow! The if necessary game will played sometime after that if needed and reaired on ESPN2 on Monday.

                It’s been a crazy ride getting here! The Pride although they started out a little shaky came back strong and went on an 18 game winning streak and finished the season 30-9! They were the regular season champions and so deserved it! This group of women is a very special group! They have such wonderful chemistry on and off the field. They are all so talented and have worked their butts off all season! I’m excited for them and I so hope they win it all!

                The Bandits season was a little rougher. They ended up finishing up 3^rd behind the Racers(who they knocked out tonight in a very close 9 inning game!). There is a lot of talent on this team but at times they seemed to lack in chemistry and leadership. But I am not coming anywhere near counting this team out and in reality they are scarier to me than the other two combined. They have the powerful left arm of Monica Abbott who has carried this team this season. She is pitching better than she ever has before and was named co-NPF pitcher of the year with Cat Osterman. I have to be honest she scares me! Their offense is very good and can be deadly but their real strength lies in the arm of Monica Abbott and the leadership she brings!

                The Racers had a really great season! They were led in the circle by a combination of Kristina Thorson and Lisa Norris. I’ve always been a fan of Lisa Norris but I grew to really like Kristina Thorson this season. She is different then you average pitcher, not just in her pitching style but her personality! I can’t explain but just look at her picture and you’ll see lol! She is a great woman and pitcher! I’ve also grown to really like Kelley Montalvo! She may only be 5ft but she plays softball like is a 6ft! So much passion for the game! Don’t let her size fool you, dynamite comes in small packages!

                The Diamonds had a rough season. It seemed everything that could go wrong for them went wrong. Kelsi Dunne went down with an injury very early on in the season leaving their pitching staff short. They traded the Pride for Danielle Spaulding who turned out to be great addition for me but they lost Morgan Melloh a few weeks later when she was hit in the face by a line drive. This is a very young inexperienced team! Give them a few years to grow these women and get them some experience and you better watch out!

                Anyway I will post more when the championship series is over and a champion is crowned! Hope this finds everyone well!

The future of softball

                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!)!