After I make my method to Traverse Metropolis, I often profit from it.
Not a lot on the highschool sports activities schedule forces me outdoors of Otsego County, however each now and again, I wish to make the journey to Northern Michigan’s “huge metropolis” and go to Traverse Metropolis after I get a possibility.
After I do make the journey, I’m generally joined by considered one of my good associates, a former opponent on baseball fields throughout southeast Michigan and now a resident of TC who enjoys a highschool sporting occasion right here and there. So, as Gaylord baseball and softball made their method to TC Central’s Athletic Complicated on Wednesday, Might 8, we made plans to fulfill up and watch.
As we break up our time between baseball and softball, there was one thing unstated drawing us to at least one set of fences reasonably than the opposite; one thing made crystal clear by my good friend as soon as we stepped again as much as the fence nearest the Gaylord softball dugout, music bumping out of the dugout audio system and the a lot bigger group of followers surrounding the TC junior varsity softball diamond.
“It is like a celebration over right here.”
It was a easy, off-hand assertion, however at that second, it made one thing very clear to me that had been an actual a part of masking sports activities in Gaylord previously few years; with the latest rise of recognition in girls’s sports activities, groups like GHS Softball might make softball into the following booming, well-liked sport to get behind, as a result of it already is in Gaylord.
The Caitlin Clark impact
For these engrained within the sports activities world, the rise of girls’s basketball did not come out of nowhere. There are many individuals who have recognized the names Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and, after all, Caitlin Clark, for years now.
However for others, it took a star like Clark to step into the highlight and draw the eye of the followers much less in tune with the the game of basketball as a complete. Positive, the womens sport has been price waiting for some time, however when somebody as gifted as Caitlin Clark can grasp the eye of practically the complete sports activities world, it drew the eyeballs that womens basketball has wanted (and deserved) for years.
After I watch Gaylord softball, I see Caitlin Clarks up and down the roster.
Not solely is the GHS softball roster oozing with expertise, however what makes their video games so enjoyable to observe, very like Clark and Iowa, is the enjoyable they’ve enjoying the sport.
They’ve their very own signature walk-up songs, their very own signature celebrations and residential run props. They rejoice each out like they completed off the ultimate out of a championship sport. They’re not often, if ever, silent, with an inventory of cheers solely rising as increasingly more younger gamers enter the fold and earn their very own rallying cries.
When Gaylord performs softball, its nearly by no means a query of who’s successful (often Gaylord), however it’s NEVER unsure who’s having extra enjoyable. That is all the time Gaylord.
And, because the loaded Class of 2024 will get set to disband after this season, I count on each a kind of women to take that Gaylord type, that love they’ve for the sport of softball to varsity diamonds throughout the nation and, as softball continues to develop, maybe can have their very own Caitlin Clark-esque rise to fame.
Baseball vs. softball
Baseball might study a factor or two from softball.
Not the Gaylord groups essentially, however the sport generally.
As somebody who spent nearly my complete youth on baseball diamonds, I really like the intricacies of the sport greater than most. However now, as somebody who spends most of my time watching and nearly none enjoying, there’s something concerning the sport of softball that simply does it higher.
A part of it’s the compact nature of softball; you are more likely to see somebody clear the 200-foot fences of a softball discipline than you’re the 300+ fences on baseball diamonds. Admittedly, a part of it for me is getting to observe groups like Gaylord and Johannesburg-Lewiston previously few years turn into state title contenders and a few of the finest softball groups in Northern Michigan.
For me, a giant a part of what holds baseball again is what makes softball that rather more entertaining; softball encourages enjoyable, whereas baseball remains to be attempting to embrace it. At the same time as younger ball gamers have tried to make the sport extra enjoyable with bat flips, celebrations and distinctive methods of their very own to deliver baseball ahead, each a kind of makes an attempt to have enjoyable comes with the data that someplace, somebody is not having enjoyable watching; an old style coach, guardian or umpire who sees youngsters having enjoyable as an affront to the sport of baseball itself.
That stigma does not exist on a softball diamond; very like the opposite women sports activities I cowl, softball gamers have enjoyable enjoying the sport they play and are not afraid to indicate it. Hit a house run? Ensure that your staff is prepared at dwelling plate with a customized celebration. See a brand new, enjoyable double celebration on TikTok? Add it to the repertoire.
It is a part of why the rise of womens faculty basketball this previous season was no shock to me, and why I feel softball is just not far behind.
Contact GHT Sports activities Editor Dylan Jespersen at Djespersen@gaylordheraldtimes.com. Comply with him on X, previously often called Twitter, @dylanjespersen, and Instagram, @dylanjespersen
