FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 2002

SLOW PITCH WORLD CUP MAKES ITS WAY
ONTO SOFTBALL LANDSCAPE

The Slow Pitch World Cup approaches its debut next week with its chin up and its chest thrown out. Like the competitiveness the coaches and teams involved will have, the tournament has an "attitude." It is, after all, the first of its kind. That, coupled with "World Cup" in its moniker, has it commanding some respect.

Unlike the International Softball Federation's (ISF) big fast pitch event this summer, the X Women's World Championship in Saskatoon, there's no deep history to look back on for slow pitch competition internationally. One of the two closest resemblances to the event that begins next Thursday, June 27, is an event held overseas. Host Great Britain, in a dramatic best-of-three final, won the first European Coed Slow Pitch Championship in 1998, an event four countries took part in. In 2000, five countries took part (in Ireland) and Great Britain won again, defeating the Czech Republic, as they had two years earlier. The event will continue this year in August (in the Czech Republic) and be comprised of six countries. The other reasonable facsimile is a Men's World Slow Pitch Championship that took place in Oklahoma City, but that was 15 years ago and that event's only occurrence. For the record, it was won by a U.S. team from Minnesota that defeated Canada.

Great Britain and the U.S. will again be represented in the event at Plant City Stadium, which lasts until June 30 and features both men's and coed slow pitch play. The Bahamas will also have teams playing. They and Great Britain will be meeting on the field for the first time in any format (slow pitch, fast pitch, modified pitch, men's, women's).

Volunteers are still needed for the event, which is free and open to the public. Media members are welcome and encouraged to attend all games during the World Cup.

The International Softball Federation, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2002, is the governing body of softball internationally as recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF). The ISF organizes and conducts world championship competition in women's and men's fast pitch, junior women's and men's fast pitch, women's, men's, and coed slow pitch, and women's and men's modified pitch. Softball (women's fast pitch) made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. There are 125 affiliated countries in the ISF and over 40 million participants in the sport worldwide.

For more information, please contact ISF Director of Communications Bruce Wawrzyniak at brucew@internationalsoftball.com or (813) 864-0100, ext. 229.