The event that starts this weekend is the VIII Pan American Men’s Softball Championship, which will take place in the South American city of Medellin. The nine-day fast pitch tournament will be contested by Argentina, Bahamas, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. The defending Pan American men’s champion is Venezuela, who defeated Canada in an extra inning in the gold medal game of the last edition of this tournament, which had taken place in Mexico.
Next month (from October 25-28), the 9th Asian Men’s Softball Championship will be held in Niimi City, Japan. The host team will be looking to successfully defend their Asian men’s softball title, which they’d won when they defeated the Philippines at the last edition of this tournament. Like the Pan American Championship, the Asian event is a qualifier for the ISF XIII Men’s World Championship, which will take place in March in New Zealand.
First, though, the ISF IX Jr. Men’s World Championship (19-and-under) will take place. That tournament will be held from November 1-10 in Paraná, Argentina. Fifteen teams – a record number of entries for this fast pitch tournament – are expected to compete in the venue that hosted the 1995 Pan American Games softball competition, albeit with recent upgrades. Australia is the current titleholder, having defeated Canada in eight innings in the gold medal game of the VIII Jr. Men’s World Championship.
The next two events will happen on back-to-back weekends – both in Florida – and are currently welcoming teams that wish to participate.
An International Men’s Fastpitch Tournament is being planned for January 17-20. The annual event will be played in 2013 in Altamonte Springs (near Orlando). Those interested can contact Alex Linares at intlsportsgroup@hotmail.com for more information and to enter. What started in 2000 with eight teams has swelled to 48 last year, when a club team from Canada won the title. For the January 2013 edition, more than 30 teams are already entered, coming from the Bahamas, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Venezuela, plus the USA men’s national team will play as well. ISF Director of Umpires Bob Stanton will be on-hand as an umpire certification seminar will be held in conjunction with this tournament.
As mentioned above, the attention for men’s softball will not only swing to New Zealand in March, but heighten, what with the ten-day, marquee international fast pitch tournament taking place. The ISF expects the full complement of 16 teams – the maximum allowed – for the 13th edition of the world championship that was first played in 1966 in Mexico. Australia will be seeking to defend their first-ever men’s world championship title, which they claimed with a victory over New Zealand in 2009.
The worldwide softball community will then get some time to catch its breath before an under-21 men’s event is held over six days in July in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Softball Canada is in the process of confirming international teams and is planning to eventually launch a webpage for the event.
A footnote on additional men’s play that would actually – combined with all those listed above – bring the total number of tournaments to nine, are two multi-sport Games that softball is on the programme of. Next month in Sydney, Australia, the 12th World Firefighters Games will take place over ten days, and softball again is one of the sports that will be contested. With that particular event, men’s slow pitch is the discipline that gets played. And, next March, the 10th Central American Games will be held in Costa Rica. Men’s (and women’s) fast pitch is regularly a part of that event.
Where is the USA team? Also at the next Pa Am
games in Toronto is Men”s softball part of the games?