Results tagged ‘ NPF ’
My thoughts on how to improve softball’s popularity.
Baseball is great, softball is just as good as a sport too.
National Pro Fastpitch is the only women’s professional sports league in the Americas today. Right now only five teams are active, Chicago Badits, Rockford Thunder (both based in Illionis) The USSSA (Florida) Pride, the Akron Racers, and the Philadelphia Force. The teams play through a three month season, about half of the MLB season. Most of the games are available at profastpitch.com and there’s very little TV coverage in the regional sport networks the teams play in.
There are other teams that were a part of the NPF which are currently defunct.
New York Juggernauts
New England Riptide
Connecticut Brakettes
Arizona Heat
Michigan Ice
There are even talks about expanding the league so there would be more than just the five teams in the league.
Here’s how I think NPF can improve
1. The league needs some television contracts, from those like CBS, NBC, ESPN. I don’t think the computers aren’t as efficent as television sets
2. Advertisements are necessary, how else are you going to attract fans?
3. Promotions and giveaways would sure help the NPF afloat.
4. If Major League Baseball is affliated with National Pro Fastpitch in terms of development, they should do a better job helping their sister league fiancially too.
5. I think the venues needs to be a big bigger though, Akron and Philadelphia have some cool venues. A ballpark with a capacity of at least 10,000 would be a good start.
6. I’d say every MLB team get a sister softball team and help them out. Currently NPF teams don’t have any affilation with any MLB franchises.
Here are some photos of the players that make this league exciting!
Jennie Finch pitching for the Chicago Bandits. Her pitching is impressive,
Kristina Thorson for the Bandits
Monica Abbott pitching for the Florida Pride
Eileen Canney won this years NPF pitcher for the year. The New England Riptide the team she played for is now defunct and now she’s playing with the Bandits.
Tammy Willams playing for Northwestern University, won NPF rookie of the year playing with the Chicago Bandits.
I know I only posted photos of pitchers, because they all throw underhand, but they are just as fun to watch too.
There’s 2010 for the NPF, however with the things they are, they sure need some marketing and promoting improvements. It may be a fraction of what NCAA softball is right now, but hopefully in the long run, women can be on the same level as men in this bat and ball event.
I hope that softball can get as much popularity and focus as baseball does. I feel like the fanbases are just too weak to sustain themselves.
I know this is quite similar to what I posted two months ago, but I feel like this is an issue that needs to be checked upon. I believe that since softball is quite simiar to baseball, that fans will actually take a look into it and enjoy it just as much as baseball.
National Pro Fastpitch comes to an end…
In case you haven’t checked it out, the NPF tournament, the championship series (equivalent to the MLB World Series) has come to a close with the Rockford Thunder defeating the USSSA (Florida) Pride two games to one in the series. Cat Osterman was named the series MVP pitching in five games and only allowing two runs in the torunament. 
Here are the scores
Pride took the first game 4-0
Thunder takes game two 2-0
Thunder wins third game 2-0
Recaping the championship round: Cat Osterman throws two complete shutouts in this game, games 2 and 3. I know in baseball that’s too much, but in softball, most pitcher’s arms are still good to go. Only two baserunners were allowed in both games. Monica Abbott was good too, but she gave up two runs, including a solo home run to Chelsea Spencer.
In the semifinals, the Chicago Bandits took on the Florida Pride with the Pride winning the series two games to one.
Game one Bandits win 1-0
Game two Pride win 2-1
Game three Pride wins 2-0
The Rockford Thunder took on the Akron Racers (hosting this tourney) and defeated them two games to one.
Game one, Racers win 1-0
Game two Thunder wins 5-1
Game three Thunder wins 7-2
I’m not doing any MLB Baseball recaps for Sunday games because I just don’t have any thoughts about them, for now just click on my favorite bloggers’ links for more info. They cover the games with more detail.
If you didn’t see the games, go here:
profastpitch.com
The Tournaments games are not available at this posting, but most regular season games are available. This is why NPF softball should be on TV too!
Mets lineups and their games with the Braves
Since I have not talked about the Mets for a few days I might as well talk about how they did last few games. I’m not going back to the day with the San Francisco Giants, I’m going to talk about the first two games while hosting the Braves.
I’ll give short summaries for the first two.
Game one
Braves 4, Mets,9.
Oliver Perez beats Derek Lowe.
Matt Diaz hits a three run home run in the second inning, Adam LaRoche hits a solo blast in the third inning. The Mets would respond in the fourth inning by scoring 8 runs, 10 hits and effectively knocking off Derek Lowe out of the game. Gary Sheffield had two doubles in that inning also.
Game two
Braves 15, Mets 2
Biggest part of the game was the 8 run second inning, with Brian McCann’s three run home run. Adam LaRoche and Matt Diaz also homered later in the game. Jair Jurrjens beats Bobby Parnell in the pitching matchup.
What are the Mets to do now?
Here was their Opening day lineup
Jose Reyes SS
Daniel Murphy LF
David Wright 3b
Carlos Delgado 1b
Carlos Beltran CF
Ryan Church RF
Brian Schnieder C
Luis Castillo 2b
Johan Santana p
Here was their lineup in their last game, at the time of this posting
Angel Pagan CF
Luis Castillo 2b
Gary Sheffield LF
Daniel Murphy 1b
Jeff Francoeur RF
Fernando Tatis 3b
Omir Santos C
Anderson Hernandez SS
Bobby Parnell P
I’ll note some differences here.
1. Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Delgado, and Carlos Beltran are not playing because they are injured.
2. Johan Santana and Brian Schnieder were not scheduled to play.
3. Because Carlos Delgado is out, Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis have to plantoon at 1st base, when they are usually outfielders.
4. Anderson Hernandez was with the Nationals on opening day, Jeff Francoeur was with the Braves as well. Both ended up with the Mets with Hernandez coming out of waivers from the Nationals, while Francoeur was acquired by trade with Ryan Church. Gary Sheffield started the season as a Free Agent.
5. Angel Pagan and Omir Santos weren’t with the Mets on opening day, they were called upon subsequently to replace the injured players, Carlos Beltran, and when Brian Schnieder were on the DL.
6. Luis Castillo is the only player playing the same position in both lineups.
I am refusing to give up on the Mets until the season is finally over. After that we’ll see whtch team I’ll be rooting for depending on who goes there.
In other news:
The Yankees beat the Athletics 3 to 2, benefiting from Mark Teixiera’s two run home run. Mariano Rivera collects his 36th save. Chad Gaudin didn’t qualify for the win because he only pitched 4 and one thirds innings. I think Joe Giradi should have left him out there to qualify for the win.
Phillies beat the Diamondbacks 8 to 1. Cliff Lee pitches a complete game and Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jayson Werth each homered. Good offense and great pitching sure wins games in this case.
Later tonight is the start of the NPF (softball) championships. Four teams vie for the Championship title in Akron Ohio.
The teams competing are
1. Chicago Bandits
2. Akron Racers (host team for the event)
3. Rockford Thunder (Illionis)
4. USSSA (Florida) Pride
Seeds 1 and 4 play in a best of three series while 2 and 3 play in another best of three series. The winners of each series face each other in the final round. I believe it’s a best of three series with the winner taking the title. The Bandits are the defending champions and are looking to repeat while the Racers, Thunder, and Pride look to dethrone them.
Go to profastpitch.com for live games and schedule of the events. Unfortunately there’s no TV schedule for this tourney.
Thanks for reading today.
Baseball and Softball do not need an Olympic stage.
If you have not heard or read the news, baseball and
softball are not going to be contested in 2016 and any future summer Olympiads
(pending the status of the other Olympic sports contested in the future). They
have been removed from the 2012 games in London
because they were voted off back in 2005 in Singapore.
This vote was reaffirmed in 2006. 2008 was the last summer Olympic Games where
baseball and softball were contested. Today I am going to discuss how these two
sports may have been saved from elimination from the Olympic Program.
Baseball and Softball won’t be contested in the near future.
These are my reasons.
1. Major League Baseball and other professional baseball
leagues (minors also) should have at least a three week hiatus for the duration
of the Summer Olympic games to allow players to play for their respective
nations. If necessary, the All Star Game would not be contested in the year of
the Olympics if the Olympic Games conflict with the All Star game. This would
allow the players to play in the Olympics and not miss any part of their
professional baseball season. I say the same thing for the professional
softball leagues too. The pro leagues should’ve tried to minimize extra events
so that the baseball players would not have to do too much over the course of
the season, if the Olympics were going on that season. This idea wouldn’t fit
well with fans, MLB owners, and the MLB commissioner himself. One of the
reasons they may not like that is because the hiatus due to the Olympics might
disrupt the Pennant race.
2. Major League Baseball, in my honest opinion should have
had a stricter anti-doping policy before 2005. Steroids unfortunately have
“tainted” the value of baseball and we are hearing or reading big named players
labeled as “cheaters.” Had MLB and other pro leagues adopted a regular
drug-screening test like the Olympics have over the years, the International
Olympic Committee would not have to pull out baseball for the concern that
baseball players are dopers. Other sports in these Olympic Games such as
canoeing and wrestling are battling performance enhancing drug issues.
3. Baseball isn’t a “global” sport just yet, as many nations
around Europe, Africa, and the Middle
East call cricket, football, and rugby their national pastime
sports. Had baseball promoters gone to those nations and promoted the sport and
the interest of it there, they would have been into that sport right now, and
same goes with softball. It’s usually popular around East Asia,
and the Americas.
Fan base isn’t really that big around the world in terms for the support of
baseball and softball. I think baseball
and softball should make their case to the IOC again, just in case they decide
to drop another sport from the Olympic Program, which I don’t see it happening
anytime soon.
What would be a problem with sending big league players to
the Olympics?
1. Let’s say that Major League Baseball decided not to have
a three week hiatus during the duration of the Summer Olympic Games. MLB would
still allow all-star players go to the Olympic Games. There would be tons of
minor-league players called up to play in Major League Baseball, the top
prospects who have not played in the Majors all of a sudden get called up
because their best (and usually the productive players) go to the Olympic
Games. MLB would be robbed of the star power and the appeal to it because most
of their MLB teams would consist of many minor league players who usually don’t
have a lot of big league experience. MLB teams would be worried about ticket
sales going down because many fans that would root for their favorite player(s)
would not be too happy because they are playing the Olympics. TV ratings,
ticket sales, and fan interest would go down. I’m not trying to offend minor
league fans here.
2. Is winning a gold medal worth more than winning a World
Series trophy?
A gold medal a player can obtain every four years, while a
World Series trophy can be grabbed annually. I would like to say that winning a
gold medal is more worth it than a World Series trophy, but in reality, the
thought of winning a World Series is more popular than taking a gold medal
because fans generally respect teams who win “the ultimate prize in baseball.”
Sorry to say this, but winning a gold medal isn’t the “ultimate prize here”
There are three teams taking a prize, bronze, silver, and gold, whereas one
team takes the World Series trophy.
3. Keep in mind that Olympic baseball is not professional
baseball. This applies with softball and other sports in the Olympic Games. The
Olympics are considered amateur competition. Not everyone that plays in the
Olympics has professional experience in their respective sports. You are not signing a contract to play every
four years for representing one nation; you are selected via contests and
tournaments. Your professional careers in these sports are not going to be
affected one way or the other, and the only prizes you’ll receive are the gold
medal for being number one in rank, silver medal, for number two in rank, and
bronze medal for number three in rank.
How do we cope with baseball and softball not in the Olympic
program?
1. There’s Major League Baseball, Minor League baseball,
National Pro Fastpitch (profastpitch.com). There are various baseball leagues
such as winter Caribbean baseball and Nippon
Professional Baseball in Japan.
2. For international competition, there’s the World Baseball
Classic for baseball players, (next one to start in 2013). For softball,
there’s the International Softball Federation (ISF) Women’s world championship,
held every four years (next one is 2010 in Oklahoma City).
It’s quite similar to the World Baseball Classic.
3. If you’re still looking for other Olympic sports, check
out these sports.
·
Archery
·
Badminton
·
Basketball
·
Boxing
·
Beach volleyball
·
Canoeing
·
Cycling
·
Diving
·
Fencing
·
Field Hockey
·
Handball
·
Judo
·
Pentathlon
·
Rowing
·
Sailing
·
Shooting
·
Swimming
·
Synchronized swimming (women only)
·
Table Tennis
·
Tennis
·
Taekwondo
·
Triathlon
·
Volleyball
·
Water Polo
·
Wrestling
To end this discussion, this is our world as we know it. I say we move on and forget Olympic baseball/softball for now and enjoy the other international competition that is offered. This year’s World Baseball Classic was successful and the ISF Women s’ softball championship is coming up next year. I see exciting moments coming ahead. This year’s MLB World Series should be fun too.
The World Baseball Classic
Major League Baseball’s World Series logo for 2009. Who will win it?
I believe there’s a NPF softball championship tournament going on too later this month.
It’s taking place in Akron, Ohio, from August 19-23. If you can’t make it, then watch the games at profastpitch.com The Chicago Bandits are the defending champions so they’re looking to repeat, but the Rockford Thunder (Illinois) Akron Racers, and the USSSA Pride (from the Tampa Bay Area, Florida) are competeing here too.
That’s it for this topic. I wish you a happy and safe weekend.
mlblogsmatt7
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