For two days last week, Austin’s Todd Park was a bevy of fast-pitch softball action as it played host to the men’s 23-and-under and the boys’ 18-and-under national championships.

Monday, August 09, 1999

For two days last week, Austin’s Todd Park was a bevy of fast-pitch softball action as it played host to the men’s 23-and-under and the boys’ 18-and-under national championships. The two national tournaments brought 11 teams from five states as well as six teams from Minnesota.

This weekend, Todd Park North will also be the site of the Minnesota men’s class B and D fast-pitch state tournaments, which are expected to bring-in even more teams. But once again, as was the case last Friday and Saturday, Austin, with no fast-pitch teams aside from girls’ teams, will not be represented in the tournaments.

Such an occurrence was not always the case. From the early 1940s to the mid-’70s, Austin was home for several fast-pitch teams with games played every night. But the popularity of the sport succumbed to the rise of the relaxed pace associated slow-pitch softball.

"You had to be pretty damn good to play fast-pitch," said retired teacher and former KAUS sports director John O’Rourke. "Anybody could play slow-pitch."

"Slow-pitch just took over," said Austin Park and Recreation director Denny Maschka, who played fast-pitch softball in a church league from 1964-68.

At one point in the late ’70s, Austin had as many 102 slow-pitch softball teams; more than double the 46 teams playing this summer.

Maschka also said a lack of quality pitchers keyed the turning of the tide between the popularity of the two summer pastimes.

"It got to be where all the top pitchers were always getting picked up by the same teams," he said. "This is a sport where pitching is everything. All the other teams got tired of getting their brains beat out."

In the small town of Ostrander, just south of Austin, where fast-pitch is still king among summer activities, there are four teams. In Ostrander and similar size communities, fast-pitch softball starts at the pee-wee level and continues as high as a master’s league for players 40-and-over.

Maschka believes fast-pitch softball for boys and men could thrive again in Austin if there was enough interest.

"It would be great for boys who stopped playing baseball after Little League," he said.

Tournament results

The Munger Bulldogs (Mich.) won three games to win the American Softball Association’s fast-pitch national championship in the men’s 23-and-under division and another team form Michigan, Tanner’s Farm, need five games, climbing out of the loser’s bracket to capture the ASA national fast-pitch title in the boys’ 18-and-under division over the weekend at Todd Park

The RWP Hitmen, a team made up of players from the Lake Crystal/Geneva area, finished second to the 23-and-under tournament, losing 3-2 in the championship game. The RWP Hitmen’s only other loss was also to the eventual champs, a 7-2 defeat in the third round.