By Brian Wilmer, Senior Staff Writer Take Me Out To The (Soft)ball Game Ahhh, Memorial Day weekend. Vacation time, picnics, and the bastion of Title IX that is the NCAA Women's College World Series. Being the avid (read: diehard) sports nut that I am, I decided to settle down this weekend and mix in some softball with my baseball viewing. The sport has potential. A quick five-minute viewing tells you that much. However, to get this sport the attention it desires, some changes have to be made. Here is the ContractBud.com Guide to Improving NCAA Softball, as published by yours truly. Eliminate shorts. I'm not sure why so many softball teams wear shorts...maybe it's for comfort, to save money, whatever. The point of the matter is that they need to go. They don't look good, and they don't serve the function pants do of protecting the legs while sliding. If you're trying to be seriously recognized as a women's sport and not something to get men's remotes to stop, you should wear pants like your baseball counterparts. And, while we're on the subject... Make the players wear hats. Visors are meant for Steve Spurrier and teenagers with saggy pants, and just going out there with nothing covering your head looks terrible. What's next, letting people go to the plate without helmets? Make the ball white. The yellow softball used in the NCAA looks like a holdover from the Charlie Finley days, and makes the game look more like a sideshow than a game. 40-year-old guys with guts in beer leagues play with a white ball — so can you. Eliminate cheers. The "swing that bat and bust that ball" stuff is cute when you're in sixth grade, but this is college. You don't hear college baseball guys saying "heeeeeeeey, batta batta, swing batta!" on every pitch. Rooting on your teammates is fine, but you don't have to choreograph a dance routine to do so. Make teams use more than one pitcher. LSU's Kristin Schmidt threw 355 pitches in 3 games on Sunday. Granted, it's easier in softball than in baseball, since the throwing motion is more natural, but making teams have multiple pitchers to get to a championship instead of riding one person until they drop is a more sound plan. Move the fences back. They have moved the mound back three feet to 43 feet instead of 40 this year, but they've left the fences at 190/220/190. If you are going to move the mound back to promote offense, move the fences back, as well. And finally... Ban the "slap hitter". In case you've not seen, the "slap hitter" is a softball hitter that runs up in the box and attempts to hit the ball while on the run. This allows certain hitters to utilize their speed, but the drawback is that the hitter often winds up completely out of the batter's box when making contact. This gives the batter an unfair advantage in getting down the line, and cheapens the game. This is looked at as some kind of skill by ESPN's announcers (including Jennie Finch, who offers absolutely nothing in the way of insight), but is, in reality, something that should result in an automatic out. Softball serves as living proof that Title IX is not an inherently horrible thing, but the NCAA needs to tweak the sport pretty dramatically to have anyone take it seriously. Here's to hoping they do. Give softball a try sometime — you just may like it, despite its flaws. File last modified May 15, 2011

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