I am frequently asked if men's fastpitch has slap hitters. I bow my head and just sigh out loud. Yes, we have uniforms and everything!!
The guy who is practically credited with being the godfather of slapping was a man named Chad Corchran. He was originally from California somewhere and was an incredible shortstop. He played near flawless defense, the kind of player who you wondered "How did this guy not make it in MLB??" It goes to show you how good those players in MLB actually are, even on teams like Oakland. There's some guys who I just can't understand how they didn't make it to MLB. It goes to show you that skills in softball don't always translate to baseball, and vice versa.
Anyway, Corky was slapping as far back as the late 1970's, I wasn't even born until 1972. (I'm 51 for all of you doing the math at home!!!). Slapping took off in the '80's and while there's less of it today in the men's FP world, there's less of EVERYTHING in the men's FP world these days. Corky is the type of guy who probably wouldn't take credit for introducing slapping if he did create it. I'm not saying he did invent the artform, I'm just saying he's the guy that most recognize as the first of the kind.
A former opponent and teammate in Seattle named Bill Boyer was the biggest "triple threat" I've ever seen. You had no ide if he'd bunt (lightning fast), slap, or take you out of the yard with the long ball. Boyer is on almost everyone's Mt. Rushmore of all time greats.
Both Corky and Boyer are in nearly every Hall of Fame. And the ones they aren't in, they should be.
I'm so jealous of RAD, where she grew up, the teams, games, and players she'd have got to watch back then. California, particularly SO CAL, was once the country, possibly North America's, hotbed for men's FP softball back in the day. Today there's not a lot left there. The top team that remained in CA eventually merged teams and sponsorship with my old team from New York. Kind of a weird combo for sure but, it's worked as they've won 6 or 7 Nationals (I was on 3 of those teams luckily!) and 3 World championships (I didn't get any of those but finished 2nd place 3 separate times, ugh). Anyway, I bet RAD got to see Corky play there at some point.
When I was in Southern California, OTL (over the line) was huge.
Seemed pretty intense, with some great athletes and big tourneys. Wonder if that's where some of men's FP went...