PLAY BALL !
2009-07-06

Two days ago the 16th Canada Cup began in Surrey, British Columbia. Tomorrow an under-19 international men’s softball tournament will get underway (coincidentally, also in Canada). A week from tomorrow the 18th Maccabiah Games start in Israel, with both men’s and women’s softball on the programme. Four days later (on July 16) both the World Games (in Taiwan, including women’s fast pitch softball) and the USA Cup (in Oklahoma City, USA) begin. And then the next day the ISF XII Men’s World Championship starts.

As the saying goes, 'but wait, there’s more.'

Before July ends, four other international softball tournaments will have gotten underway. The 6th Japan Cup begins on July 31, which is the same day that the VII Pan American Softball Championship for Women starts in Venezuela. Two other regional events will have begun by then. The XVI European Championship Women “A” (in Spain) and the VIII European Championship Women “B” (in Belgium) both start playing on July 27.

Two days ago play began at the Canada Cup with 2008 Olympic participants Venezuela and Canada squaring off in a tense duel that ended in the eighth inning when the host team was unable to answer the visitors having scored their runner permitted under the international tiebreaker rule. The other international teams in action were Australia, the Netherlands, and Team USA, with the Americans posting 7-0 victories over each of the other two. The trio represented three more of the participants from last August’s Olympic softball competition.

The event beginning tomorrow, the Under-19 International Men’s Softball Championship, will take place in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the province that hosted the ISF VII Jr. Men’s World Championship in 2005. Running through and including July 12, the tournament will feature eleven Canadian provincial teams, one from New Zealand, and one from the USA.

The World Games will see six countries represented in the softball competition: Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Russia, Singapore, and South Korea.

The Cup event in Oklahoma City, an invitational event that is sanctioned by the ISF and in 2009 is in its fourth edition, will include the host team, plus Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands.

The Men’s World Championship, with New Zealand looking to defend their crown, will feature the full complement of 16 national teams – the most allowed under ISF Code.

To see a list of the other international softball events that will take place this year (and what has been scheduled so far for 2010), click here.