From the Camden Advertiser:

Fourth in a series by Australia’s Mark Long:

Mark Long is a former Australian softballer who pitched Australia’s first World Championship U/19 Gold medal win in 1997. He created and now manages Australia’s leading high school based health program Eat It Work It Move It.

Fifty thousand spectators walked through the gates in Saskatoon for the ISFs last summer.

Not bad for a sport supposedly in palliative care for at least the last decade.

Why did they come?

Because there is nothing like top line fastpitch softball.

It’s fast, it’s explosive and it has a rich history.

This series of articles started with a reflection piece on the Aussie Steelers transformation from rookie to gold medallist.

But the role the international game has to play in the rebirthing is bigger than any one country, one organisation or even one event.

The landscape has changed since last summer.

The International Softball Federation (ISF) has moved all of their World Championships from a four-year to a two-year cycle.

The next under 19 boys event will be in 2012 (Argentina) with the men travelling to New Zealand in 2013.

The pressures that this will place are yet to be seen.

The regional qualification process which was implemented after the 1996 event in Midland, has capped current ISF World Championships to 16 teams and was designed primarily to stop the blowout of substandard teams entering the world’s leading event, while tightening up the qualification process for the Olympics.

The idea of events similar to Saskatoon’s highly successful version taking place every other summer is a mouth watering prospect.

The money required in this post Olympic era, though, to get 16 teams from around the world, is a concern.

Attracting host cites presents another potential concern, as tradition has it that the hosts cover the accommodation and meal costs of all participants- players and officials.

This formula delivered some challenging financial issues for the hosts in 2001 when Sydney hosted the under 19 boys event.

Most observers, including some insiders, would safely predict that the world’s number one softball nation (using current rankings), will steer clear of any hosting opportunities for a long time to come.

Participation at the recent Women’s ISF event required some innovative ideas including the Great Britain team winning their airline tickets in a competition.

Challenging times for the normally better-funded women’s national team programs leaves some to wonder how the men’s programs will cope.

If the biennial approach fails financially, an eight-team series featuring the top four placegetters from the preceding ISFs with the next top team from Asia, Africa, Europe and South America would sustain visibility and the tighter competition would be an easier sell to fans, sponsors and potential corporate partners.

Enough of the doom and gloom though – unlike many new products, the history book of the 44-year-old ISFs reads like a who’s who of the game Stofflett, Herlihy, White, Walford, Zack, Meredith and Sorenson.

The list goes on.

Arguably every well known player can be linked to the world’s premier event and it is the legends that give the event its stature.

Let’s not muck about here – if you could take a softball novice or potential investor to only one event, it would be the men’s ISF.

The sheer power and speed are unparalleled, while the patriotism of international play feeds the electric atmosphere.

Previously, I’ve written about both versions being at a crossroad; the post Olympic path for the women and the obvious need for reinvigoration with the men.

The prospect of Jennie Finch, until her retirement, last week facing off against Australia’s women and Adam Folkard going head-to-head with Team USA’s men in a double header at Oklahoma City was something to set the pulses racing.

The format ticks so many boxes from a marketing standpoint the best available product; a top line venue and a well known brand, credit to Finch and her team mates on the US national team.

They have marketed themselves better than anything the men have ever done bar the King and His Court four-man team.

Three hours, two international games, capacity crowd and the creation of a product that can be packaged and once established, sold to broadcasters across multiple territories.

What it does highlight is that both versions of the game bring more than a little to the table.

There is unquestionably no better time to unify the brilliance and skills of both sides of the game to ensure it survival.

Whatever the brand ASA, ISC or NAFA advocating across a cluttered sports market with one voice is a critical aspect.

Some will roll their eyes and see a landscape littered with problems.

Who gets top billing and plays second, the men or women?

Easy, rotate it.

The pitching plates at different distances.

Just interchange them.

Home run fences.

Depending on the venue, use portables or meet in the middle.

The potential is far more exciting than the triviality of the problems.

In 1999 at the Pan Am games, both the men and women featured.

Reportedly, the US men and women spent a reasonable amount of time talking about how they could pick each others pitches and the similarities of the game.

Imagine the master class for an observer as Michael White spoke about pitching with Lisa Fernandez and Dot Richardson talked hitting with Shawn Rychcik.

At a junior level, the prestige linked with the excitement of representing your nation is best captured in Disney’s 1994 hockey themed movie, The Mighty Ducks 2.

The pride in the USA stencilled across the chest inspires the same emotion as the maple leaf or silver fern for Canadian and Kiwi boys and girls.

It’s the beginning of the international pathway to the top of the tree.

Ryan Brand, Tyron McKinney, Rhys Casley, Andrew Kirkpatrick, Adam Folkard and Tyson Barkman are just some of those who have plied their wares at the Junior ISFs.

Interestingly, the first and second edition of the Junior ISFs in 1981 and 1985 featured both male and female play – side by side.

The key point of difference for the international game is that it does capture the attention of some of the less avid softball fans around the world and at times places the sport in the view of non softball followers.

The importance of ensuring that every time the best in the game meet, a deliberate effort to package the showdown as an event is paramount.

To play international matches in front of no more than a handful of fans is a wasted opportunity and one of the very few unforgivable acts the game’s administrators can commit.

Unforgivably it still happens too often.

Whatever it takes – the game must go to the people, before the people will come to the game.

Instead of playing the waiting game to see how the new international calendar looks, now is the perfect time to think long term and create another angle to market the highest standard of play to keep the game moving along.

Whether it is the male and female double header at ASA headquarters in Oklahoma or a Canada v USA series in the fabled ballparks of Kimberly, Midland, Saskatoon or Kitchener; well co-ordinated and promoted with high standards, the possibilities are endless.

It will take time and it will look different to how it looked in the “golden age” but that’s fine we live in different times.

An annual mini World Cup-styled event featuring the USA, Canada, Australia, NZ possibly Japan and a South American team during the northern hemisphere summer when many of the world’s leading players are already there would minimise costs.

In the right location, locked in for three years it would grow and attract large crowds.

Packaged correctly, it wouldn’t be out of place on ESPN and it could one day bankroll some of the other initiatives needed to restore the game to its former glory.

Provided they stand as one, 50,000 fans last summer can’t be wrong.

Third in a series by Australia’s Mark Long:

Mark Long is a former Australian softballer who pitched Australia’s first World Championship U/19 Gold medal win in 1997. He created and now manages Australia’s leading high school based health program Eat It Work It Move It.

“Girls play fast pitch, boys play baseball”.

A quote heard at a lot ball parks across the US when the issue of junior boys or lack thereof pops up. Another favourite is, “It’s not like Australia or New Zealand where boys play”.

Just focussing on Australia The plain and simple truth is that boys don’t play softball en masse.

In summer, many play cricket, Australia’s national summer pastime.

In winter it is often one of four of the versions of football.

Of course there are many other sports played by kids across the country, but boy’s fastpitch softball doesn’t break into the top 20.

In a country with 21 million people, compared to the USA’s 300+ million, Softball Australia reported that 2034 boys played T- ball (10 and under), 2283 played across a variety of age groups up to 19 and under and 4510 male adults took the to diamond in 2009.

A grand total of 8827 male fastpitch players from the country that has won the last four junior world titles (1997, 2001, 2005 and 2008) and last year, the Men’s ISF crown in Saskatoon, Canada.

No doubt about it, Australia’s success comes down to quality, not quantity.

There is no question, in the age of sporting superstars that sign huge contracts with US pro teams and endorsement deals spinning out to seven or eight figure sums, it is easy to think “who would want to play fastpitch?”

Fastpitch practice: Jacob Lewis batting in the US last summer

Junior boys in action: Craig Lewis pitching in the US last summer.

Loving the sport: A young player at the NYSP camp in Quincy, Illinios 2002. This player was among those coached by Mark Long.

Thankfully, kids are pretty straight forward when it comes down to their interests.

Firstly, they will play what their mates play.

They want to be good enough to compete and not embarrassed and, like any human being, they will go where they feel like they belong.

And it is belonging, which is the core value of Generation Y.

Gazing into the future of USA fastpitch, a focus, and a serious focus on juniors is needed.

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