No Last Hurrah

This past weekend was supposed to be my swan song in "competitive" slow pitch softball. I was to have played at the Minnesota USSSA Corporate State Championship with a collection of talented ballplayers, most of whom played on the multiple league championship-winning Eagan corporate team, The Militia, plus a few others, a couple of whom were teammates of mine on state and world championship-winning teams. Sort of a Dream Team if you don't mind my saying so.

But the tournament never happened. Rain out, you might guess. Nope. Lack of interest.
I don't know if it was an exaggeration, but I was told two teams signed up. For the State Championship.

I'm sure I will compete again some day, like when I'm 50, perhaps at the 40+ level (because of foolish pride, refusing to accept that I'm getting old, no doubt), and probably sub one ceremonious game per year with work colleagues until then, but I am officially retired (again, for real) from playing against the young punks. I will not pull another Brett Favre. (Yes, I know Mr. Bentsen, Brett Favre was a friend of yours and I am no Brett Favre, but I'm just talking about the un-retiring part...the comparison stops there.)

So the previous four weeks I spent actually working on my swing with a batting tee again, something I did religiously as recently as 2002, plus the workouts with the free weights to get my strength back up, went for naught.

This is very sad. I have in front of me the Minnesota USSSA annual Guidebooks from 1992, 2002, 2003, and 2008. Here are the number of teams entered in the Corporate Championships for the previous years per each Guidebook:

1991 - Class A: 11; Class B: 11, Class C: 43!
2001 - Class B: 7 (won by my team, The Norms; interest in Class A had dwindled to the point of no more Class A tournament starting in 2001); "Recreational" Class (No longer calling it "C"): 16
2002 - Class B: 5 (The Norms took 2nd that year, but went on to win Worlds in Panama City, FL); Recreational:12
2007 - Down to one class only; 7 teams

So now, two years later, only two teams signed up, and the tournament was therefore cancelled. I have multiple theories as to what has caused the drop in interest, and it probably cannot be pinned down to one or two reasons, although admittedly I've lost touch with the game in recent years, so it is largely unsupported conjecture on my part.

I think technology is still largely the culprit, plus any combination of factors, such as different lifestyles today, and just a general change in the landscape of "corporate" softball. Ironically, I like what they did with the technology aspect in Eagan league play, using lower compression balls, which my old single wall hit just about as hard as the new-fangled composites. But I also think the State and Local associations are to blame, and I don't like how the combination Sports Bar/Softball Complexes seem to have taken over, or at least become so prevalent.

It's extremely disappointing, and I'd like to comment further in future blog entries. But I'll end this one by commenting on an earlier statement, that I'd like to return to perhaps play 40+ softball someday again:

According to the 1992 Guidebook, the state 40+ tournament of 1991 had 20 teams competing. In 2001 and 2002, it was 12 for both. In 2007, only 7 competed.

I guess if I want to be part of another State championship-winning team someday, I can't get old quickly enough.