There once was a sport called baseball, where the players stood around and occasionally ran from one place to another, swung a bat, or threw a ball. Then, some baseball players decided that the ball moved too fast and was too hard to hit, and that the running distances were too long. Thus “softball” was born. And yet “softball”, a “sport” that isn’t evening going to be in the Olympics next year, is making eventing look bad today in front of the entire world.
The US Olympic Committee voting for April female athlete of the month is currently running online with 16 nominated athletes, including eventing’s Sinead Halpin, fresh off her 3rd place finish at Rolex. Sinead currently has 31% of the vote, which is impressive, but Raven Chavanne from “softball” is tied with Sinead with just 16 hours left to vote. Friends, eventers, countrymen, let’s put an end to this madness and stand up and support eventing’s supremacy over softball. Admittedly, the vote only counts for 10% of the athlete of the month, but it’s the principle of the matter. Click the link below to vote for Sinead:
If defending the dignity of eventing is not enough motivation, here is a comparison of the two sports, borrowing from George Carlin’s classic skit about baseball and football:
Softball is contested on a small “diamond”
Eventing is contested on the CROSS-COUNTRY COURSE
In eventing when you screw up you get time penalties, refusals, eliminations, and falls
In softball when you screw up you get an “error”
In softball you score “runs”
In eventing you get penalty points
Eventing competes in any weather, rain, sleet, snow, or hail
Softball has rain delays and cancellations–you don’t play softball in the rain
In eventing there are ride times and a set schedule
In softball there are innings and no one knows when the game will end
Ties in softball are settled with extra innings and more play
Ties in eventing are settled by whoever was closest to the optimum time
In softball the goal is to go home and be safe
In eventing the goal is to be the champion after surviving a weekend of intense competition
Stay thirsty my friends.
