WHAT’S NEXT FOR SOFTBALL?
2009-10-14

With the recent news of golf and rugby being added to the 2016 Summer Olympic programme, meaning that softball will not be there that year or in 2012, many are wondering (nervously) what there is for the sport at this point. And followers of and participants in the game who are in the northern hemisphere are figuring its time to pack up the bats, balls, and gloves anyway as the cold weather slowly begins its descent.

But the game, in fact, is anything but ‘closed for the season.’

There’s softball being played in Sydney, Australia, right now at the World Masters Games. In fact, of the 28 sports being contested there, softball is the second-largest, in terms of athlete participation.

And still to come in 2009 is the XXIV ISF Congress, beginning late next week in Venezuela. As October goes into November the 10th Association of South East Asia men’s softball championship will be played in Brunei Darussalam. Over those same dates the English-speaking Caribbean Men’s Softball Tournament will be held in the Bahamas. And on November 21 & 22 the 10th Asia Cup (men’s slow pitch softball championship) will take place in Chinese Taipei.

Regardless of the developments Olympic-wise, the International Softball Federation is (excitedly) working toward numerous longer-term goals.

For example, next year the sport will be on the programme of four different multi-sport Games: the 9th Central American Games, the IX South American Games, the XXI Central American & Caribbean Games, and the 16th Asian Games. Plus, the ISF XII Women’s World Championship will be held in the middle of 2010, followed soon thereafter by the III World University Softball Championship (both fast pitch). There’s also a Pan American Softball Championship for Men 13 months from now. And the year will end with a girls’ fast pitch tournament at the ISF’s world headquarters complex in Plant City, Florida.

Looking even further out into the future, the ISF already has an eye on the softball competition that will be played in 2011 at the Pan American Games in Mexico, plus the ISF IX Jr. Women’s World Championship (19-and-under, fast pitch) takes place that year in South Africa.

There’s an old expression about ‘miles to go before we sleep.’ In this case it would be ‘miles of base paths to run’ although softball shows there’s never a down time for the sport to rest.