Re-Boot "Used to be My Playground - "It's supposed to be hard. The hard is what makes it great".

"And before you know You're feeling old

And your heart is breaking Don't hold on to the past

Well that's too much to ask .....

Live and learn

Well the years they flew

And we never knew

We were foolish then

We would never tire

And that little fire

Is still alive in me

It will never go away....

Well then there's hope yet"

Madonna.. This Used to be My PlayGround.. Movie A League of Their Own

The Classic Blog League of Their Own  details my love for my favorite baseball movie.



The film captures so many things about baseball to perfection: 

• how precious time is 
• history
• family
• heart break
• underdogs

I never get tired of it. 

My favorite part of the movie is when Geena Davis tells Tom Hanks that she is quitting "because its too hard". he replies "it's supposed to be hard. The hard is what makes it great". 

Lately Softball has been hard, but not for the right reasons like:

• Competition
• Challenge
• Performance
• Overcoming Injury
• Adjusting to Failure
• Redemption
• Perseverance

"It's been too hard/difficult" for the wrong reasons

• Weather

• Bad league decisions - money, field conditions, scheduling, bye weeks, recruiting,  rules.
• Forfeits - These are the worst. Even when you win by forfeit you lose. You lose precious softball time. You lose spirit. You lose the love. You lose your softball soul.
• League Participation - Leagues mirror society, and are driven by an economic schism of haves and the have nots. Money drives everything now. Powerhouse teams with a sugar daddy or sponsor have emerged. The softball middle class does not exist anymore. Show me a team that is self funded and chances are they suck or are average at best. I don't know of a top elite team where everyone pays.
• Player Entitlement - Managers have to beg players to show up. In baseball and softball you are entitled to nothing. You have to earn everything.
• Whiners - Just play ball bitch.
• Greed  - Motherfuckers chasing small money
• Costs - parking tolls, umps, league fees - It's expensive
• Selfishness - Player performance is key, but what ever happened to "The Needs of the Many outweigh the Needs of the One". 
• Ego - see Selfishness
• Game of Thrones type power struggles - winning on the field almost isn't enough. People want to control everything, everyone, every rule. Personal Vendettas > On Field Accomplishments. Power and not the 300+ foot type is craved.

My Seven Signs of a Softball Apocalypse blog from a few months ago foretold of the end of softball as we know it. Hate to be negative but softball things have gotten no better since. The "its too hard/difficult"reasons listed above unfortunately prove that they have gotten worse.

A Softball war is here. It is the was for survival. Is it a War that can be won? I

t should have never come to War, but it has. 

Softball should have remained our playground.

My playground

like the song goes....

"And before you know

You're feeling old

And your heart is breaking

Don't hold on to the past

Well that's too much to ask .....

Live and learn

Well the years they flew

And we never knew

We were foolish then

We would never tire

And that little fire

Is still alive in me

It will never go away"

Hopefully, softball will get hard again for the right reasons in the 2nd half. For all our sake's

"Well then there's hope yet"