The Langley Little League all-star team cracked the top eight at the Little League World Series, finally losing 4-0 to Japan Aug. 23 in Williamsport PA., but the 11and 12-year-olds returned home to fans, cameras and autographs.
Last year, the same fanfare celebrated the little leaguers from Little Mountain. And the year before that, those with Hastings Park Little League.
By contrast, the Vancouver girls' softball team is nearly running on empty.
The Vancouver Westside Minor Softball Association (VWMSA) began in the early '90s with 850 registered players. By 1999, the league reached 1,200 players. Today, it sits closer to 350.
In order to maintain robust house programs, the association is working towards meeting a 600-player threshold.
"It's dropped a fair bit over the last six or seven years and that's consistent with what softball is experiencing," said Will Gaherty, president of the West Side amateur softball league. "Baseball in Vancouver is a very strong Little League town. My son plays. The girl's game has gone up and down."
From what he's seen in his three years running the Westside Minor Softball Association, which counts his 12-year-old daughter as a player, and in five years as a baseball coach, the dynamics of ball for boys and ball for girls are world's apart.
Due to the variety of competitive avenues for boys and young men to pursue collegiate and professional baseball in North America, the elite teams of the carefully and strategically managed boy-dominated Little League, are selected each year through a draft. The girl-dominated softball league in Vancouver operates differently and when a draft was considered one season, Gaherty said it was quickly and vehemently rejected by parents.
"There was only one year where we proposed to do something like [a draft] and there was basically a riot," he said.
For the girls who view softball not only as an opportunity to play sports but also as a way to make friends, the social aspect has cemented the team's players together. There's no draft. The same players return to play each year.
Yet make no mistake, Gaherty said, the girls are just as physical and competitive as the boys-if not more.
"There's a lot of people who figure that girls don't slide," Gaherty said. "All you have to do is go watch an elite game and you'll see it's every bit as competitive and it's every bit as athletic."
A motion called the "crow hop"- in which players move at a controlled speed towards their target in order to build momentum into their throw-is a manoeuvre often seen in baseball but is not allowed in softball.
"Girls are not allowed to crow hop if they pitch because they get a hell of a lot of speed if they do," Gaherty said. "Boys [and girls playing baseball] are allowed to because they don't have as much power in their legs."
Despite prevailing misconceptions, amateur youth baseball leagues aren't exclusively for boys, nor is the sport of softball just for girls.
"I think it's history and culture that says the boys play Little League and the girls play softball," Gaherty said.
Most softball associations in the Lower Mainland, particularly those geared towards girls, sprouted in the '80s and '90s. Gaherty credited parents who sought out and, if no league existed, created a ball club.
"Most have been dads looking at their daughters, saying, 'She likes the game and there are only a couple girls in Little League.'"
Two girls play on Gaherty's son's Little League team, one who is undoubtedly among the team's top players-a fact he said everyone acknowledges.
Then there's the preconceived notion that baseball is "fast ball" while softball is "slow ball," a judgement Gaherty said is simply incorrect. "The girls look at slo-pitch and say, 'What's that?'"
On the international level, baseball and softball may officially be coming together. In the spring, the International Softball Federation and the International Baseball Federation revealed they are preparing a joint proposal to bring ball back to the 2020 Olympics.
Baseball officially joined the Olympics in 1992, softball in 1996. Both sports were then removed from the Games in decision made in 2005. The Beijing Olympics Games marked their last on the platform.
In Vancouver, the non-profit Vancouver Westside Minor Softball Association continues to look for volunteers and players to help sustain its program.
As for Gaherty's kids, it's not about softball or baseball. Ball is ball.
"My daughter and son will play catch," he said. "They're not fussing about which ball they do it with."
Twitter: @kimiyasho
