From thecalifornian.com
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BY RYAN WALLACE
wallacer@thecalifornian.com
Last summer, it was a Salinas woman competing on softball’s biggest stage the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games.
This summer, it’s a Salinas man taking part in North America’s largest fastpitch softball tournament.
While 39-year-old Ron Guzman doesn’t hold the distinction of being one of the world’s fastest softball pitchers like Monica Abbott does, he does carry that same passion for the sport.
For the past 16 years, Guzman has taken long weekend trips around the state and country to play competitive softball.
“It takes a lot out of you,” he said.
But playing in tournaments such as the International Softball Congress Men’s Fastball Tournament, Aug. 14-22, in Moline, Ill., makes it all worthwhile, he said.
Guzman and the Taylor Farms California Athletics are one of 24 teams to qualify for the ISC tournament.
The tournament includes players from across the United States, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Czech Republic, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Denmark and the Philippines will be competing. More than 1,200 players and 4,000 fans daily are expected to take part in the event.
Guzman, who works for Taylor Farms, said the company has been the majority sponsor of the men’s fastpitch softball team since 2001.
Guzman said three-fourths of the team used to consist of players from Salinas. But after winning a national championship in 2002, the tournaments got tougher and a new caliber of players was needed.
The 2009 Taylor Farms team is primarily made up of Northern and Central California players ranging in age from 22 to 39. Some of those players came over after other softball organizations folded. Guzman, the team’s manager and first baseman, said about half of this year’s roster helped Taylor Farms win the ISC World Tournament of Champions in Appleton, Wisc., last year. That win automatically qualified the team for this year’s world tournament.
Taylor Farms opens the tournament on Aug. 15 against the Midland Explorers of Midland, Mich.