For World Softball Day, Slovenia was organizing a memorial tournament in honor of the national governing body's former president, Janko Pucnik, shown above in Prague for the 2005 ESF Congress. (Photo courtesy of Slovenian Softball Association)

COUNTRIES CELEBRATE “WORLD SOFTBALL DAY” IN OWN UNIQUE WAYS
2007-06-13

On April 25, 2005, International Softball Federation (ISF) President Don Porter had declared that just under two months later (on June 13) would be the first “World Softball Day,” to coincide with the date (in 1991) when the announcement was made that (women’s) softball was being added to the program of the Olympic Games (effective with the 1996 Games in Atlanta). At the time of the proclamation, the ISF President noted that, “Throughout 2005 we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first-ever world softball championship, which makes this the right time to celebrate the day that our sport became a part of the Olympic program.”

Today, on the third World Softball Day, the occasion is again being marked all over the world.

Slovenia is organizing a memorial slow pitch softball tournament in honor of the passing of Janko Pucnik, former president of the Slovenian Softball Association. The coed tournament will be played Saturday and will include teams from Ireland, Croatia, and the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, along with five teams from Slovenia.

Great Britain ’s national governing body is also organizing a tournament in order to promote and celebrate the sport of softball. The evening of games will be played in Regents Park, central London, where the Olympic Softball competition would have been played in 2012. The slow pitch mini-tournament will involve teams from the U.S. Embassy, Sport England (the sports funding agency), the American School, and the British Softball Federation itself.

Elsewhere around the world, Cameroon was considering using World Softball Day to send players out into the streets (in uniform) to conduct an opinion survey on softball.

In Nicaragua, the national softball federation was expecting to have today’s occasion announced on the radio. In addition, men’s and women’s (fast pitch) competition will take place this coming Saturday and Sunday in Esteli, Leon, Managua and Granada in conjunction with World Softball Day.

Softball South Africa feels that World Softball Day will be, “a very successful day for the ISF,” according to their Secretary General, Denise Paulsen. They plan to celebrate the occasion by holding a level I course for coaches and teachers for the 2007 softball season in Pretoria, along with a rule discussion about the game of softball. The discussion will be aided by a practical show demonstrating rules on the field.

As mentioned in the May 23 ISF "UPDATE" newsletter, Pakistan had plans to again celebrate this year's World Softball Day too.