In last month’s issue of Softball West, I spoke about the issue of the new ASA President E.T. Colvin, and his desire to implement an East/West National Championship program for Girls "A" fast pitch. I discussed briefly the history and reasoning behind his crusade during his two-year term in office. I also spoke of the opposition to such a plan, and the fact that proposed Code amendments submitted to the ASA Council for the past four years have been defeated.

If the concept of an East/West national is going to be adopted by ASA, a new approach or method to sell it to the ASA Council members would have to be developed and communicated to the voters prior to this fall’s Council meeting. This timing is especially important in light of the fact that such a dramatic change in the National Championship structure would most likely be implemented two years after adoption, to insure participation levels anticipated by those who have already been awarded nationals for the next two seasons.

Therefore, it came as no surprise when Commissioners and Junior Olympic Commissioners were provided a new plan for the East/West Nationals for review prior to the bi-annual ASA Junior Olympic Commissioner workshop conducted in February. But the surprise was the approach taken in the proposal, one that would accomplish the desired goal, while at the same time satisfying those in opposition. The discussed proposal included establishing a Gold Classification in all age divisions and an East/West National Program for the "A" division. This proposal, if actually introduced at the next Council meeting, would deal with problems encountered with previously submitted proposals. First, it gives those in support of the split nationals what they want, an East/West National and secondly, it gives those in opposition what they want, more berths to the larger regions where most of the competitive teams play (i.e. Pacific Coast Region, Texas, etc.) It also continues one of the traditions that many in opposition desired, representation from the entire country, making it a true National.

History has shown us that this second issue may not be realized. We only have to look at the ASA’s 18U gold program to see the inherent problems that this may create. For several years after the formation of the Gold program for 18U, participation in this national was appalling. While today the allure of college scholarships has created a situation where teams are being turned away from this national, there are still many areas of the country where there are no gold teams. What is going to happen if all age divisions have a "gold" division? Most likely these nationals will be small in size, and become nothing more than a California, Texas and a couple of other states' "national." This will frustrate the more competitive teams, and once again raise the issue often expressed by California teams: why do they have to travel across the country to play their neighbor? If this new proposal is to work, something needs to be included in the proposal to insure participation at the new gold.

Some time ago, when the issue of the lack of 18U gold participation was being discussed, one method to deal with the situation was to force at least one team from each region to play gold. My idea was that if a region fails to send at least one team to the "gold" national, then they would not be permitted to send any teams to the "A" national. While this sounds pretty good in theory, the fact is, some areas of the country that want the split care only about the benefits to their local association, and not the ASA as a whole. Currently the ASA girls fast pitch program is the goose laying the golden egg. Any changes need to insure that it doesn’t become goose poop.

Writer’s Block - For you long time readers, I’m sure you have asked yourselves, "How does he keep coming up with these ideas for his column?" Well, it’s not easy coming up with 10 columns a year on youth softball without rehashing the same issues over and over again, although I have done that from time to time. Some of you are probably aware of some of my methods for finding story lines, as I have used several Top 10 Lists, and bits stolen from television shows, and luckily for me, I haven’t been sued yet. It is easy to figure that some issues I write about pertain to developing issues in the sport, rule changes, code changes and topical items, such as trends in the game. But even those can be unreliable over the course of a year. So, here are a few methods I use for developing ideas for stories. One of the tools I use is Internet research. I will sometimes spend hours searching the web, looking at lots of different sites to see what is going on in the world. After about 10 straight hours of doing this, my mind turns to mush, and I start typing. Another favorite method involves attending a softball tournament. I will take my chair, sit in the outfield, and watch softball games from eight in the morning until they turn the lights out. This usually reminds me that I have a column due, and requires me to rush home and type out a column before the deadline at 8:00 AM the next morning. This is where those columns come from that appear to be philosophical, caring and insightful.

And then you have stories like this one, the type that appears to be providing the reader with information on life, or the inter-workings of a journalist performing his job. These are the most difficult to write, as they require a great deal of talent. They require that the story holds the readers attention, and appears to be making a point; the type of story that may be humorous, but may ultimately be headed to a revelation. This is a story to help me reach my 1,000-word column limit.

As always you contact me at softballfloyd@hotmail.com_and so the ball rolls.