It’s 2009, and ESPN, for the first time since the very first Gold National in 1989, is televising the championship game. Vin Scully and Joe Morgan, long past their prime, have been assigned the job of announcing the game. Neither has ever seen a girls fast pitch game, except for a tape of the Olympic Team game against UCLA in 2004, where the eventual NCAA Champion was destroyed by our Silver medal winner, and highlights from earlier tournament games, so they could become familiar with some of the players and the game.

Just as in 1989, the tournament format was altered to provide for a winner-takes-all one game championship. Perennial Gold favorite Batbrakers are in the finals, in a year when long-time manager Gary Maning announced he was retiring from the sport, as the Gold’s all time leader in Gold national wins and National Championships. Facing Maning in the final is long rival Larry Hays’ G. Gordon Panthers. We go now to the booth as Vin Scully (VS) and Joe Morgan (JM) begin to call the start of the game.

VS: "Good evening everyone, and welcome to a beautiful evening here at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Irvine, California. Boy, tonight we have a dandy, a game between last year’s Gold Champion G. Gordon Panthers, and the winner of 6 of the last 7 nationals, Batbreakers. Joining me tonight to call play-by-play is Major League Hall of Famer, Joe Morgan. Tell us Joe, what can we expect in tonight’s McDonald’s ASA 18U Gold National Championship game sponsored by Hooters and Max Factor?"

JM: "Well Vinny, if earlier games in this modified double-elimination tournament are any indication, I think we can expect a low scoring contest, as neither of these teams has scored more than 4 runs in any game so far. Fortunately for both teams, they have received good pitching, decent defense, some luck, and some very poor hitting by their opponents to make it this far. I’ll be talking about the hitting of some of these players during the game, because several of the players who made it to the finals, have some of the same problems in their hitting mechanics as many of the players in this event. But first, let’s help our viewers understand exactly what is meant by the ‘Gold’ in the title of this event. For this we go down to our field announcer, past ex-assistant for the ASA deputy district vice commissioner, Floyd Lewis. Floyd, exactly what is meant by the term ‘Gold’?

FL: "Joe, Vinny, the ASA 18U Gold national championship includes the very best female softball players in the country that are 18 years of age or younger. In the ASA girl’s fast pitch 18 and under age classes there are several different ‘classifications’ as recently adopted by the ASA National Council at the annual meeting in the Bahamas. These classifications do not necessarily correlate to ability or skill, with the possible exception of this ‘Gold’ classification. ASA classifications for the current year for 18U, in somewhat of an ability order, are Gold, A, B, C and D. Some of the classifications have specific criteria, such as in the D classification; players must have legal residence on a farm or other remote living accommodations whereby no more than two girls of the same age level may live within .72 miles of each other. But at the Gold level, you can expect to see the top 18U softball players in the country, except for those who have played Division I college softball for a school that did not finish in the top 97 teams in the previous year’s NACC RPI ranking, and is not transferring to another NCAA Division I school in the upcoming fall. These players have been declared illegal by the ASA. I hope this explains it. Back to you Vinny."

VS: "Thanks Floyd for that memorable explanation. As you saw during the Kirkland Pre-Game Show presented by Easton, the Batbreakers won the Frito-Lay coin toss and elected to be home team. Alix Collowell has completed her warm-up tosses and readies for the first pitch. Leading off for the Panthers will be their fine center fielder Katielyn Highe. Collowell paws at the rubber; takes her sign; and here comes the first pitch; a swing and miss, strike one."

JM: "Vinny, that is exactly one of the things I was seeing with a lot of the Gold softball players, a lack of strike zone recognition. That pitch was well over her head and yet she chased it, just a lack of discipline."

VS: "Collowell toes the rubber again; begins the windup; and delivers a breaking pitch inside for ball one."

JM: "You can see another problem that a lot of these left-handers here have in common. Let’s watch the replay on Katielyn’s swing. Look here on the Oil of Olay replay. Katielyn starts out in a good hitting position, but once the pitcher begins her windup, Katielyn’s feet become very busy; with that much movement in her stance she’s lucky that she can even get the bat on the ball."

VS: "Katielyn is batting .652 for the tournament. She takes her place in the box, Collowell winds and delivers. Highe swings and hits a hit bouncer towards shortstop; Lode Jagaspi charges; short hop’s it; throws to first and Katielyn beats it out for an infield hit."
JM: "Vinny, that’s why she’s hitting .652. She’s been very lucky that she has miss-hit the ball so badly that it results in high bouncers, and she is able to beat them out with her tremendous speed."

Viewer: "I think I’ve seen enough of this, I think I’ll go watch it on GametrackerIII."

FOUL TIPS
I didn’t really get my proper allotment of youth softball this past month, and I’m starting to feel the effects. The motor home is loaded, and I’m on the road for a while. I received an email from Sgt. O’Leary this past month. Regular readers may remember the story I wrote about him being shipped to Iraq before the start of his daughter’s first high school softball season. He is doing well, and has received the issues of Softball West that contained the mention of him, and the follow-up story in our last issue. As always you can contact me at softballfloyd@hotmail.com. And so the ball rolls.