...When All is Said and Dunn

The title of this article came from a t-shirt I saw a couple of weeks ago when my daughter Rachel’s Major League Softball Manager, Mark Ferrari, took his undefeated team to the UCLA vs. Washington University Softball Game. Thanks again, Mark and Shelly! Some of us parents tagged along for the ride, having never been to a college softball game before. It was not only entertaining, it was eye opening.

After the game was over (in case you’re wondering, UCLA was victorious 4-0), I began to wonder what happens to all of these marvelous players after they leave college. My immediate thought was that a select few, very few, may go on to the Olympic softball team. Not being sure, I began asking around. I asked Mark and my daughter’s excellent pitching coach Jack Arenas, but neither could really give me a definitive answer. So I decided to educate myself and where better to do that than the Internet.

I hit a number of sites for the USA Softball and ASA (amateur) Softball but both of those focused on the end result being the Olympics. Before I go any further, let me say that there is nothing wrong with the Olympics. I love the Olympics, the Olympics are great! So please, those of you out there who suffer from selective reading disorder, don’t send letters to the editor saying, “What does Dunn have against the Olympics?” I don’t, I think it’s wonderful, I want to be clear on that point and save you the ink, paper, and postage.

That was not the reason for my search. My question is why aren’t there professional teams out there in all the major markets in the United States? Why aren’t these women athletes allowed the same chance to make a living playing ball like their male counterparts?

It may be something that is on the near horizon if the Woman’s Professional Softball League (WPSL) has anything to say about it. This organization, which started in 1997 as the Woman’s Pro Fast Pitch League, has showed steady growth since it’s inception and has what appears to be a viable plan for continued growth over the next three years.

As it stands right now, the league is comprised of four teams, all in the East: The Akron Racers, Ohio Pride, Florida Yahoos and Tampa Bay FireStix. 2001 is a transitional year for the league. It has its eye on expanding the league to six teams by 2002 and twelve by 2004, so things will be a little different than it has been in the last 4 seasons.

This season, the WPSL will be featuring a nationwide “Tour of the Fast Pitch Champions.” It is scheduled to kick off this summer and will feature two special teams: The WPSL Gold Team featuring the 2000 Sydney Olympians from the US and international teams, and a WPSL All-Star team comprised of a selection of WPSL league wide talent.

They are scheduled to play two games here in Los Angeles on June 17 at Easton Field at UCLA. If you can’t get tickets to see it in person, the games are tentatively scheduled to be aired on ESPN & ESPN 2, as will many of the games throughout the tour. If you have never watched one of these games and you are a baseball fan you should definitely watch at least one. These women are not only warriors, they are much easier on the eyes than the guys are, at least from my standpoint.

I really hope that this league is a tremendous success, because this little experiment has been tried before. Back in 1976 tennis star Billie Jean King and golf pro Janie Blaylock attempted to put together what was called The International Woman’s Professional Softball Association (IWPSA). After four seasons it went the way of the dinosaurs due to lack of funds, high travel costs, and inadequate facilities. This time around it sounds as though it may just happen. With the extensive studies they have been doing, and the input from existing softball organizations like the ASA and the USA Leagues, it should fare much better.

If what I witnessed at the UCLA game was any indication, this new league could end up being quite lucrative for its investors who get in on the ground floor. The crowd at the UCLA game was standing room only; people were actually sitting in the aisles. The make up of the audience was not just team families, students, and alumni. Just like our team, a number of other girls’ softball teams from all over the Southland were there as well, and all paying customers. By the way, this was on the Saturday before Easter Sunday, a day I would have thought would not have even come close to selling out. Shelly Ferrari and I thought most people would have been preparing for the holiday the next day. Go figure.

After the game was over there was a mob scene at the entrance to the UCLA dugout. Throngs of young girls in their team jerseys waiting to get autographs of the players as they came out.

The adulation was there, and to be honest I don’t think that most of the young fans had ever seen the players before, only heard of them by word of mouth and reputation. Once they had seen them in action, they became instant fans.

So if there are any high rollers out there who love this game as much as I have come to love it, here’s your chance, because they are looking for investors and sponsors. Yes, you could be the owner of an expansion team. All you need to do is stop by their web site at www.prosoftball.com/ownteam/index.shtml and see if you fit the bill. You would be investing in the future of a sport that more folks are playing out there than baseball.

A couple of things to think about: when a company has a picnic or starts a league, 9 times out of 10 it’s softball, not baseball. That means more people can relate to it. Second, in the little town I live in, Temple City, there are over 200 girls playing it currently and that number grows every year. What must the numbers be in other areas with larger populations?

If Los Angeles is lucky enough to be one of the expansion teams’ first cities, let’s get behind them and make it into a place our daughters can move to in the future. Let them see that there could be a future in a sport that so many of them enjoy playing.

And if you are one of those evolutionarily backward Neanderthals that think that women’s sports are less aggressive and less competitive than men’s sports, you obviously haven’t seen one of these games. Remember what it says at the top, there is nothing soft about it.

The Shrub Speaks: “Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican.” Declining to answer reporters’ questions at the Summit of the Americas, Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001