slow pitch rant

[MTR]

Most states have never offered slow pitch for girls.

Having seen how dangerous, to the pitchers, that slow pitch is, I wouldn't recommend it for girls.

I don't believe that is true. When I was in HS, that is all that was offered. For that matter, I believe FL still had SP in some of their schools as recently as a decade or so ago.

Also, the SP adult game is dying, just as is adult FP in many, if not most, areas. Just not enough young ladies want to play.

 

[Lozza]

I would love to play fast pitch again, but maybe it's not an "old folks" game I guess?

Its played over here in Aus exclusivly. Slow pitch is starting to catch on, but most people who grew up in the sport don't really play it. (or if they do its in addition to their fast-pitch) The lower divisions might not be that fast, but its fast-pitch they're playing.

 

[sluggers]

To put this in some context, girls sports only existed at a few HS and colleges during the 1980s. When Title IX was enacted, state HS athletic organizations started adding sports.

The west coast, the midwest and the northeast have a tradition of fastpitch softball dating back to the 1930s. So, the HS organizations in those areas adopted fastpitch softball.

Southern states went with slow pitch. Southern states generally were very opposed to the concept of girls played fast pitch. (Remember, the SEC was forced at gunpoint into having fastpich softball.)

There were regional differences at the HS level as to which sport was played. In Arkansas and a few other southern states, slow pitch was played in HS rather than fastpitch. In the upper midwest, the North East and west coast, fastpitch was played in HS.

 

[Hollyrockartist]

Not sure what you mean about the ESPN thing.

My dd has been playing for years. We did not (in our rural area) know much about softball in general (first year she played rec was the first year the high school offered it). So I guess that is what I meant - we weren't familiar with it at all (hadn't seen it on the tele), she just signed up and played. Does that make sense?

 

[MTR]

To put this in some context, girls sports only existed at a few HS and colleges during the 1980s. When Title IX was enacted, state HS athletic organizations started adding sports.

The west coast, the midwest and the northeast have a tradition of fastpitch softball dating back to the 1930s. So, the HS organizations in those areas adopted fastpitch softball..

Not in my area of the Northeast. In the '60s, the girls in high school played SP. Toward the end of the decade, they dropped softball because it was, and I quote, "unladylike". So they replaced it with.........ready for this......lacrosse.

 

[SnocatzDad]

They had a write up in our local paper about the history of women's sports in the state(MN). It talked about the fact that there were over 400 travelling women's youth basketball teams in the 1930's and 40's and most High Schools had active girls sports programs, that over the next 20 years they were basically shut down because of social pressures to take girls out of these high risk unladylike pursuits. They said that it took almost 25 years after title IX to get girls participation in HS athletics back to the level it was at it's peak in the 40's.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

We didn't have sports while I was in HS. We had GAA and traveled to various schools to play basketball and volleyball. We were split into teams, made up of girls from other schools.

ASA was around since 1934 (I read). In the 60s and 70s every little town in IL. had an ASA team. We stayed together and didn't change teams very much.

 

[SBDadSanDiego]

I love it when someones initial post is troll flavored.
I look forward to the wealth of information, you will no doubt share with us in the future.