One person to guide our game might seem very anti-democratic and borderline monarchical. Hear me out though. In the last 24 hours since the revelations of corruption, in-fighting, and other scandalous type behavior and actions brought to light by an Outside the Lines Investigation by ESPN; One independent and impartial voice is what the Sport of Softball needs. It’s become apparent the bureaucrats that currently dictate the direction of our game like USA Softball and NPF and the “Professional”/Travel Ball Franchise Scrap Yard Sports can’t be trusted to do what’s best for the game and the athletes in it. This isn’t just an issue on the Professional or National/Olympic Team levels either. It is now spanning down to the collegiate game as it has become a more popular and revenue producing sport, and even more distributing to the Travel/Summer/Rec. Ball Levels as the accountant/construction worker/dentist/Walmart Greeter look to make their first “Million” putting together dues paying “organizations” and the next 500 team “Showcase” Event.
The game has attracted individuals and groups wanting to turn softball into something resembling Corporate America more than the sport we all use to know. One individual to police organizations like USA Softball, NPF, NFCA, PGF, USSSA, the Showcase and Travel Ball Organizations, and the rest of the list of “Power Brokers” in the game too big to list, doesn’t sound as farfetched for these groups to have to answer to one individual independent and vested in what’s best for the game and not a particular group or their financial benefits.
At first it sounds crazy to lay that type of power in one persons hands; However, is it any less crazy to let it lay in hundreds of people’s hands only vested in what is best for them and their particular groups? Our sport yesterday joined (publicly anyway) the long line of sports that have had their eyes blackened not by the athletes that play the game, but those that run it and dictate policy for their own benefits will little thought of how it affects its participants. How far are we willing to let it go before we decide we can’t be trusted with what’s good for the game any longer?