A GOOD SPORT
While softball is easy for all ages to pick up , some players struggle to keep their competitiveness in check,
After 30 years of playing softball, Lesley Mak has seen good and bad days on the diamond.
Mostly, she’s had lots of fun, which is why she’s continued playing the game she picked up in childhood.
But Mak easily recalls one of the worst displays of bad behaviour she’s seen on the field. It happened about four years ago and involved an opposing team that appeared to be “a two-four in” before the game started.
First, there was the chirping: The opponents mocked a guy on her team for having long hair. Next they claimed her teammates were “too serious” because they wore Blue Jays jerseys. Then Mak got into an argument with a man who “asked me if it was my time of the month.” Then more comments were hurled at women on her team. “It was really bad,” Mak said. Her team complained and their foul-mouthed op- ponents were kicked out of the league.
With softball season in full swing and thousands of Torontonians taking the field this summer, the possibility of unsportsmanlike conduct still lurks in the on-deck circle. It just takes one or two badly behaved players to turn rec-league games into wrecked opportunities for fun.
There are definite reasons bad behaviour crops up in this laid-back sport with a beer-league culture, says Catherine Sabiston, a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto.
Some of the players who get wound up have played the game at a higher level — maybe in high school or a more competitive league, says Sabiston, who has played softball herself.
When they get back on the diamond, they can’t suppress their need to compete. “They are really in it for themselves,” says Sabiston.
Mak agrees that “lingering ego problems” cause issues.
This type of behaviour is at odds with what makes recreational softball so appealing — it’s a team sport that is easy for all ages to pick up and participate in.
Hard-core ballplayers often end up playing alongside the social players who are simply waiting to go to the bar with their friends after the game.
To combat their competitive urges, Sabiston says the players looking to challenge themselves should try to develop new on-field skills or help others to do so.
Bad behaviour should be ignored, if possible, she advises.
Softball is an unpredictable game. With so many players on the field at one time, anything can happen — a ball can be dropped, a hit can land unexpectedly and there is nothing that can be done to stop that.
“Some people have a hard time with understanding that aspect,” Sabiston says.
Calum McCullough, the customer experience and event manager for the Toronto Sport and Social Club, suggests competitive players dial back any temptation to trash-talk.
“Just because it happens in the big leagues doesn’t mean it’s appropriate on your rec softball team,” says McCullough, whose organization facilitates play for more than 500 softball teams and more than 6,000 players each summer.
There are also perils in getting overcompetitive that extend far beyond the end of a given game.
Peter McCluskey, a retired journalist, still recalls an infamous softball playoff game that took place nearly 30 years ago.
It involved two teams of employees at his former workplace and a collision that left a fellow employee off work for weeks.
A ground ball was hit and a big man on third base charged toward home plate. The catcher he was approaching was a much smaller person.
“He dropped her like a sack of potatoes,” McCluskey says. “I never got that out of my mind.”
Softball is an unpredictable game. With so many players on the field at one time, anything can happen