Summer began Monday, and summer means softball in U.S. Forces Europe sports.

Actually, however, it doesn't. Summer in Europe means "slow-pitch," an outgrowth of
summer picnics that has replaced the skill and elegance of softball on the
sports calendar.

Slow-pitch is not softball.

Many years ago, I had the privilege of covering the last fast-pitch European
softball championships and was rewarded with tightly pitched and tightly played
games of skill, which usually ended with 2-1 and 1-0 scores. Hits were hard to
come by, and defensive excellence was the norm. Strategy and intelligent play
usually made the difference.

Last summer, I covered the USFE "slow-pitch" championships and the difference could
not have been more stark. Outs, not hits, were hard to come by. Pitchers,
instead of breaking curveballs off under the hands of batters in the dignified
way of their fast-pitch predecessors, were reduced to retreating as far as
possible after letting the ball go, so as to lessen their chances of being
decapitated by line shots off the metal bats of pumped-up batters.

Strategy essentially became a case of when to use one of the allotted home runs. And so
numerous were the home runs and the foul balls that cleared the field's 30-foot
fences it took a footlocker-sized box of balls to get through the title game.

In short, the games were nothing less than a live-action video game.

Is that what military athletes want?

High school girls play fast-pitch, why not grown-up soldiers, sailors, airmen and
Marines?

If you're a slow-pitch player, let us know why your game's better.

I need convincing.