May 30, 2010
Hi my name is Mike and I enjoy watching the Woman's Softball College WS
For those of you that read this blog regularly know I like watching a ton of different sports and the WCWS is no exception. As sad as it is I can remember when I started watching it. It was the Spring of 2003 and our baseball team had just been upset in sectionals my junior year. Bored and depressed I was watching TV with my dad and I turned on the channel to ESPN to discover the softball world series being played. I had seen some fast pitch softball played before but never at a level this high.
It's tough to explain, but for any baseball fan despite the rules being the same it was a completely different game. Small ball ruled I was amazed at how close the corner infielders played. Furthermore shocked at how little reaction time this girls really have to make up their mind and many of them can still turn on good fastballs. Also, the rise ball still fascinates me and I'd actually like to try and hit against one as I've never seen a pitch do that before since it's impossible throwing overhand.
As time went on I continued to watch every year with my father. Typically we don't root for anyone in particular however by the end you generally have a rooting interest in someone. First let me say that the games are very entertaining. Just today in Super Regionals Hawaii walked off with a 2 out 2 run homer upsetting Alabama who was the #1 overall seed in Alabama. Generally since the pitching is very good within the elite teams the games are close and move fast. I also remember in 2003 or 04 UCLA, down 1-0 to Texas scoring 2 runs in the 7th to beat their ace Cat Osterman I was hooked after that.
Also over the past seven years its been interesting to see the transition from small ball to girls dropping bombs. There is no automatic sacrifice bunt anymore. When I first started watching there used to be 2 maybe 3 girls that could hit homers in each line-up. Now there are routinely 5 or 6 that have home run power. It's sort of like College Softball instead of gradually going through the sabermetric stage and gradually moving into OBP and SLG just took the crash course on it and now it's popular opinion. There are still slap hitters and bunts but not nearly as many as there used to be (That's an opinion, could be way off). However it's still an exciting brand of softball. It's not something I could follow over a long period of time, but for 2-3 weeks in the early summer it keeps my attention.
Super Regionals ends tonight and the CWS is next week in Oklahoma City. Honestly I'm not sure how appealing the sport is for people that don't at least know the rules of baseball/softball but for those bored and looking for something to watch, I'd give it a shot.
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Success
is sweet: the sweeter if long delayed and
attained through
manifold struggles and defeats.
A. Branson Alcott
2 Comments:
fopah posted on May 31, 2010 at 21:20 PM
why do they only play 7 innings? isn't that sexist?
TripleB Boston posted on June 02, 2010 at 01:25 AM
Since Jennie Finch graduated, it is -ev. She still is smoking hot btw.
I like the chants...
http://pyleoflist.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/jennie_finch.jpg
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