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In 1991, I was a high school freshman in the small town of Redding, Conn. My brother was a senior, and his prom date was one of our neighbors down the street, a junior, Pearl Aday. Pearl would drive me home from softball practice when her father, our coach, was unable to. I preferred Pearl, as her dad drove a red sports car, pushing it to its capabilities through our small, winding roads … like a bat out of hell. His name was Marvin Lee Aday, but he was better known to the world as Meat Loaf. To the scrappy group of girls he was trying to mold into softball players, he was Coach Meat. More »
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With the gay marriage bill being passed in New York, and Pride celebrations taking place across the country, we revisit the question still vexing the world of gay softball: how many straight players are too many? More »
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Finch, who is now retired but was once at the pinnacle of American softball, whatever that means, gave birth Sunday to eight-pound-two-ounce Diesel Dean Daigle. His older brother is named Ace Shane Daigle. Unconscionable. More »
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A high school softball player hits .571 (which was not, by the way, the best average on her team) with nine homers and 46 RBI, and she doesn't make the all-state team. Tough shit, homegirl, most would say. We've all had our disappointments, especially in high school. But our fathers never sued. More »
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If you're at a corporate softball outing with alcohol, it's best not to get totally smashed in front of all your co-workers, especially if you have work the next day. If you get totally smashed and have work the next day, it's best to call it a night. If you don't call it a night, it's best to avoid doing anything illegal. If you do something illegal, it's best to avoid emailing the entire office about it the next morning. And if you do email the entire office, it's best not to put the crime you committed in all caps. More »
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As summer comes on, co-ed rec leagues across the country are forced to deal with power-hungry coaches who've memorized the inspirational speeches from Miracle and Any Given Sunday. Today's coach has a novel form of encouragement: enforcing a fine for any outs made. Our forwarder notes that this is "an extremely casual league." Keep that in mind. More »
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There's something called the Congressional Softball League in D.C. Among the teams in that league is one representing the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They go by the name Czardinals. Well, there's another team comprised of people from drug-policy reform organizations who "support ending the 'war on drugs.'" They're called the Capitol Hemp One Hitters. More »
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Although it isn't kickball and isn't bitchy in the least bit, this next overwrought email is a beauty. This one hails from the Rocky Mountains, where one 35-year-old man part-time subbed in for his his girlfriend's intramural softball team. He always took the games more seriously than most but after one-too-many obnoxious comments to his teammates and run-ins with the umpire, his fed up girlfriend walked out on him during the game. So he felt compelled to type up this heartbreakingly earnest apology for his embarrassing display to her and the entire team. Prepare to cringe. More »
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She's calling it quits at age 29, even though softball is designed for 50-year-olds. Oh no! Without Finch as a draw, how will we — well, continue not paying attention to professional softball? [AP] More »
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Dedicated as we are to covering the sport, we'd be remiss in not sending you to the story of one man who loves his gay softball team almost as much as he loves kissing ladies. [Good Men Project] More »
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Chances are you'll be playing some softball this weekend. Back in 2007, Leitch stumbled upon the finest college softball media guide the world has ever known. More »
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Byrnes has slipped nicely into the cleanup spot for his beer league softball team, going 2-for-3 with two home runs in his second game last night. And unlike his last gig in Seattle, napping during games is encouraged. [PRO Rumors] More »
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In sports, everyone is a winner - some people just win better than others. Like a California beer league softball team, which will have the services of the former major leaguer, without having to pick up that $11m contract. More »
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Earlier we wrote about three bisexual men suing the Gay World Series for excluding them because they "weren't gay enough." Let's examine the lengths organizers will go to to keep the sport gay, and how teams get around the rules. More »
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Three bisexual men are suing the organizers of the Gay World Series for excluding them, because they occasionally like to have sex with women. More »
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A Cincinnati-area softball coach proposed to the coach of his rival team before their game Wednesday. Somehow, I don't think their players will be following suit (not in Ohio, anyway). [Enquirer] More »
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You can't sue the sun itself, and Amun-Ra has no standing in court. So a 53-year-old slow-pitch softball player who got busted in the face is suing the owner of the diamond. More »
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A softball coach is out of a job because her sex offender husband has been volunteer coaching the team. His criminal record: molesting the coach, when she was a high school student 25 years his junior. More »
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Low production values, amazing beards...also, it's a fricking softball instructional video. More »
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Do you know how bad the Mets are? The Mets are so bad that a team from Long Island is filming an instructional video to help, even if they play slow-pitch softball and they're sponsored by an assisted living company. More »
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"Officers were called around 8:25 p.m. on a report of two baseball teams fighting....up to 30 people, some armed with bats, fighting....The combatants were members of the Cheyenne Mountain and Wasson High School girls softball teams." [Denver Post] More »
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A good portion of Americans join softball leagues this time of the year. Many do it for the social aspect alone, which leaves many teams stockpiled with players who are ridiculously awfu More »
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A good portion of Americans join softball leagues this time of the year. Many do it for the social aspect alone, which leaves many teams stockpiled with players who are ridiculously awful. More »
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Got an image you'd like to see in here first thing in the morning? Send it to tips@deadspin.com. Subject: Morning crap. More »
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A good portion of Americans join softball leagues this time of the year. Many do it for the social aspect alone, which leaves many teams stockpiled with players who are ridiculously awful. More »
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It's one thing to be a stickler for the rules, it's another to be a stickler who protests a perfectly legit home run because of an obscure, pointless rule—and doesn't even read the rule right. More »
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I remember a time when you couldn't find a hotel pool in Florida that wasn't full of naked high school softball players during spring break. But now, apparently, it's called "hazing." More »
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No collection of videos featuring fans catching balls would be complete without potential baby droppage. [Home Run Derby] More »
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Out here in the West, the third and final part of the Bob Costas-Jacques Rogge tête-à-tête has just wrapped up on NBC. In this section (loosely labeled "Etcetera"), Costas asked Rogge what killed softball and baseball for the 2012 Games. Rogge eventually mentioned the domination of both sports by a few countries (*cough cough* America *cough*), which Maggie Hendricks of Fourth Place Medal tore down yesterday. Before he did, though, he was sure to pick a proper villain. According to the head of the IOC, Barry Bonds killed softball. More »
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Important doings in the Olympics which you slept through again ... More »
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Highlights from Beijing, where today's weather forecast is dark and sneezy, with a chance of afternoon soot ... More »
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So, has Jennie Finch completely transformed softball from a sport once overtaken by rampant lesbianism to one more appealing to bubbly straight girls ? It depends. You can talk to one person and they'll tell you about how half the people they knew on their college and high school softball team wore their K.D. Lang haircuts with pride and always smelled like they just stepped out of the Vulva factory. (Link not safe for non-Vulva factory workers.) More »
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This occurred Saturday, but women's softball news tends to travel slowly, if at all. In an amazing display of sportsmanship, some Central Washington University players helped a Western Oregon opponent round the bases to complete a home run after the batter had injured her knee. This also once happened to me in college, by the way. But that story is a lot less heartwarming due to my drunken demands to also be carried to a Jack-In-The-Box drive-thru. More »
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One of the women in this photo — we're not sure which one, and we're not gonna go try and find out, lest their father hunt us down and call us out in the pages of a national newspaper — is Katie Osburn, a pitcher for Allen Park Cabrini high school in Michigan. Well, we say "a" pitcher, but we really mean "the" pitcher; Osburn has started every inning of every game this season and given up exactly one run. Her team just won the state title. Guess who pitched? More »
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Last night — in ESPN programming we were not watching — the Arizona Wildcats softball team beat Tennessee 5-0 to win the NCAA Championship. One of the fun aspects of NCAA softball is that, if you have one good pitcher, she can just pitch every game. Tarnye Mowatt pitched all 60 innings for the Wildcats, which might have helped. You know what else might have helped? The MySpace message her sister left for her, pregame. More »
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This, friends, is the College of Southern Idaho softball team and their VERY clever slogan this year. CSI — wee! — is a tiny junior college with an incredibly innovative way of promoting its players. They ask them if they're "shaven or unshaven." More »
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So here's something we'd never seen before: The Oregon softball team cancelled an appearance in a tournament this weekend because ... they were out of pitchers. More »
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