From the Quad City Times:
(click link for original news story at Quad City Times)
By Doug Green

Quad-Cities pitcher Al Rebling delivers a pitch (Maddy Flanagan/ Contributed photo)

When the International Softball Congress World Fastball tournament returns to the Quad-Cities this week, it brings a rich history and tradition.

The Quad-Cities hosted the tournament from 1961 to 1969 and also in 1973. During those summers Rock Island’s Douglas Park was the center of the softball world.

Legendary Quad-City Times sports editor John O’Donnell wrote: “From Pennsylvania to California they came to visit this community and to compete for the top prize in the softball world.”

While what they are competing for is still the same, where they come from clearly is not. When the 24 teams head to Moline’s Greenvalley Complex on Friday, they will come not only from all over the country but all over the world. This year’s tournament will feature teams from the Dominican Republic and Canada and players from Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

Then and now

In 1963, fans could listen to Ed Zack’s play-by-play of the semifinals and finals on WOC radio. For the last three years, the ISC has been streaming the tournament live online, with a team of a dozen play-by-play announcers and color analysts to describe the action. This year there will be a video stream of 15-20 games of the world tournament and an audio stream of 20-25 games for the ISC II tournament.

But at its core, it is the same game O’Donnell wrote about more than 40 years ago.
The game still centers around pitching and the ability to hit a sphere traveling 80 to 90 mph from only 40 feet away.

During the ’60s, the pitchers had the advantage. That gap has narrowed today.
The hitters have caught up to the pitchers because they see so many quality teams, thanks to round-robin play every weekend, Pat Sullivan said.

Sullivan has spent the past 45 years as part of the ISC. He was named an All-American catcher in 1969 and currently is the regional commissioner out of Dubuque.

Expectations

The players from yesteryear wonder how the tournament will be received now.
“You need local participation,” said Gary Dobereiner, who played for the locally-based Harrelson Motors team that won the world title in 1967. “Actually, softball in this area has gone down from the ’60s. Back in the ’60s we had six to eight teams in a metro league that were competitive.”

Games during that period consistently drew 3,000-4,000 people. A 10-day tournament easily eclipsed 30,000. The record for single day attendance at the world tournament in the Quad-Cities was 6,020, set in 1963.

But that was then and this is now. No one can predict what kind of reception the ISC will receive. That unknown is the main reason the Quad-Cities turned down its option to host the tournament again in 2011.

“For them to pick it up, they would had to make a decision before they knew how well 2009 was going to go,” ISC executive director Ken Hackmeister said.

Whether the Quad-Cities would choose to bid on a future tournament depends on how 2009 fares, Hackmeister said.

This year

When the world tournament kicks off on Friday, only two local team will be in the bracket – the Davenport-based Quad-City Sox and the Thomson (Ill.) Merchants.

The ISC II tournament will begin a week from Tuesday at Rock Island’s Campbell Complex. ISC II softball can be described as the triple-A to the world tournament’s major leagues. Three local teams – Walcott’s Lampliter Inn, Davenport’s Pizza Shack and Bettendorf’s Q-C Titans – will be among the 40 teams competing.

Way back when Champions of the ISC World tournament when it is was held at Rock Island’s Douglas Park:

1961 – Dautrich Realty, El Paso, Texas
1962 – Dautrich Realty, El Paso, Texas
1963 – Gardena Merchants, Gardena, Calif.
1964 – Paramount Chevrolet Impalas, Downey, Calif.
1965 – Ponoma Bombers, Ponoma, Calif.
1966 – Gardena Merchants, Gardena, Calif.
1967 – Harrelson Motors, Moline, Ill.
1968 – Long Beach Nitehawks, Long Beach, Calif.
1969 – Sal’s Lunch, Philadelphia, Pa.
1973 – Lakewood Jets, Lakewood, Calif.

TICKETS

Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for anyone 60 and over. Anyone under 16 is free.
A nine-day tournament pass is available for $35, $25 for 60-plus.

Those who played in the tournament during its last time in the Quad-Cities can get a 9-day pass for $19.60

Circle Tap tournament goes on without Circle Tap team

Andrew Pekarek
Press-Gazette correspondent

DENMARK — It’s going to be a bittersweet weekend for Darren Derricks.

The owner of the Circle Tap bar in Denmark this weekend is hosting the 10th annual Boys of Summer open fastpitch softball tournament, which features 12 teams made up of some the best players from around the world.

But Circle Tap won’t be one of them.

The local squad isn’t playing anywhere this summer, dismantling because of high costs to field a team and limited interest by younger players to join it.

Circle Tap’s biggest rival, Townline of Green Bay, also isn’t playing this season.

“The sport is definitely declining,” Derricks said. “But hopefully, somehow it turns around.”

Besides being the team’s main sponsor, Derricks, 37, also played 13 years for Circle Tap. He plans on bringing the team back next year, but this season, he’s just a spectator.

“This will be the tough one because it’s our home tournament,” he said.

Circle Tap began playing in 1994, quickly going from a local team to a world power and winning the American Softball Association national championship in 2006.

“When we started, it was completely local,” said Dean Kane, who was a player and coach. “When we finally finished, we were probably half local and half out of the area, which at the elite level is actually a pretty local team.”

Kane, 34, began playing fastpitch softball when he was 14 for lower-level teams in Denmark, but said there aren’t many teams or leagues like that in the area anymore to develop younger players.

“A lot of them are just going to play slowpitch and coed (softball) because it’s just a lot easier game,” Kane said.

Chris DeLarwelle, 41, who played for Circle Tap since 2002 and will be playing for The Farm of Madison at this weekend’s tournament, doesn’t see a lot of younger baseball players adapting to fast-pitch, either.

“Our sport’s dying because too many people find it too difficult and they quit,” DeLarwelle said. “That’s why guys my age can still play, because no one’s pushing us out of the game.

“It’s a good sport for a lot of kids who are midlevel baseball players to come over to fastpitch and refine their skills there and become very good, but I don’t know if kids are willing to put the time in anymore.”

Bryan Hansen, 25, was the second youngest player on Circle Tap’s roster the last two seasons and one of the few who is sticking with the sport after playing baseball at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Hansen will be playing this weekend for The Bar of Green Bay, which along with The Bar of Appleton, give the tournament some local flavor.

“A lot of guys that make the transition from baseball to fastpitch are not really prepared to strike out as much,” Hansen said. “It’s a faster game, and you’re playing against people from Canada, New Zealand, Argentina, Australia, that grow up playing the sport.

“The U.S. is just so far behind developing pitchers and players because we start so late.”

Fans will get a taste of the international style of play because the Argentina national team will be at the tournament again this year.

The team was a big draw last year, according to Derricks, and features pitcher Juan Pottoluccio, who played for Circle Tap.

The tournament also will feature elite squads from six states and one from Canada.

Those squads also need a sponsor that is willing to pay for travel and other expenses, which is hard to come by with the current economy.

“You may see guys staying closer to home and playing on lower-level teams,” Kane said about the effects of elite teams possibly folding. “It could revive the game at the local level, not only here, but everywhere.”

“It’s a double-edge sword,” said DeLarwelle, who will also play for the U.S. national team next week at the International Softball Federation World Championship in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. “If you don’t have people willing to spend the money, you’re not going to get the best competition.”

Additional Facts

Boys of Summer kicks off tonight

The Boys of Summer men’s fastpitch softball tournament starts at 6 p.m. today, and the championship game will be at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Games will be played at Circle Tap and Denmark Memorial Park.