SLOW PITCH SOFTBALL is a great sport and a forgiving sport BUT... IF you can't hit a ball coming in at 3 MPH you are officially a NON-ATHLETE. This is further complicated in men's softball where they are a collection of 18 year old egos trapped in 35-55 year old bodies!

Ok, I admit the above summary does over simplify a game that is a near perfect way to spend a summer evening with friends and family. For the athletes, athlete wannabes, softball groupies, and those people like my wife who like to socialize in the stands in the warm sun with the backdrop of softball .. it don't get no better than this.

SLOW PITCH SOFTBALL is a simple game made up of Players, Coaches, Teams where the church body concept holds true too as One Team, has ManyPlayers, and just like a church typically does not want the custodian preaching on sunday mornings neither do you want the klutzy chubby guy with the weenie arm playing short stop. 

In SOFTBALL Pitchers try to find the zone with a the well intentioned pitch. InBASEBALL there is the illintentioned spitball. In both sports fielders stretch for the ball, and at the plate you fine that perfect combination of power & grace... at least in the self-affirming eye of the batter..(THANK GOD FOR NO INSTANT REPLAY). Ultimately it is a team game which requires a player from time to time to take one for the team. 

To sum it all up the SLOW PITCH SOFTBALL experience is PRICELESS! .. even in April in MinneSNOWta!

Another significant variation on this simple game of balls & strikes is FAST PITCH SOFTBALL where the ball is pitched underhand but with the pace and movement found in baseball. It is a sport primarily played by girls and dominated by good pitching .

Then there is the OPPONENT the ENEMY.. no not the other team, I am talking about the UMPIRE.
These are the authority figures paid to add order to a game of simple, balls and strikes. What I am trying to be very clear about is.. THESE ARE THE GUYS YOU BLAME when you lose. It is not the fact that you could not hit a pitched ball moving at 3 MPH past the pitchers mound, it is in reality the fault of the bleepin-blessed umpire he has it in for you.. HE CHEATS!

To be fair, and to no one's surprise just like their are bad athletes, there are bad umpires. Those who are unapproachable, indecisive with their calls that make calls that sound like.. SAA-OUT, their strike zones are either too tolerant or simply they would not know a ball from a strike if it hit them on top of the head.

Then there is Baseball, the older cousin of softball where the balls move faster, the players are younger, but the umpires can still be as OLD as dirt! No matter their age, they are still the authorities BEHIND THE IRON MASKS.. and when you are out they have no problem telling you that you are so VERY OUT. 

Make no mistake about it umpires are in control and we will not be late for dinner no matter if the pitcher can't throw the ball in the ocean from the shore! Just like the Love of God has no limits, neither does an umpire's strike zone when he is hungry! so get used to it, assimilate to the zone, or prepared to be OUT!

and just like the MAILMAN.. neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night.. nor 100 DEGREE TEMPS with 80% HUMIDITY will keep umpires from their appointed games.