Last week I interviewed softball legend Joan joyce for the Fastpitch Radio Show. Joan has an amazing story, and was so exciting to talk to. I started digging around on the internet, andI found this story about her pitching against the late and great Ted Williams. I thought I would share this story By Tom Yantz with you.

The chances of landing “The Splendid Splinter” one year after he had retired from the Red Sox looked slim. Still, an audience with Ted Williams was arranged at his baseball camp in Massachusetts in the summer of 1961. The idea: Come to Waterbury and play in an exhibition softball game to benefit the Jimmy Fund.

To help the city make its best pitch, a new player was added to the Waterbury roster. She was the city’s best softball pitcher, a tall 20-year-old who could fire the ball past anyone. Williams asked the pitcher to throw him a few.

She fired a few past him.

The campers broke for lunch. Williams, conversing with a small group, walked ahead of the pitcher. He suddenly turned and asked: “That curveball, how do you throw that?”

“You hold it on the seam with the middle fingers like this and give it a quick wrist snap,” she said.

Williams said, “Oh, girls aren’t supposed to know that.”

“Well, this girl does,” Joan Joyce said.

Williams smiled at the retort. “When would you like me to come down there?” he said.

Williams batted against Joyce at Municipal Stadium in August 1961 and also in the summer of ‘66. The crowds were the largest in city history for a sporting event.

“The stadium could seat 8,000 or 9,000,” said Frank Vaccarelli, the catcher for Joyce in the ‘66 exhibition. “We’re talking 16,000 to 20,000 for Joan and Ted, maybe more. People overflowed onto the field and were 10 to 12 deep.”

What is remarkable is the number of people who say they witnessed the meetings between Joyce, whose pitching record in 26 softball seasons was 750-42 with 150 no-hitters, 33 perfect games and an 0.09 ERA, and Williams, considered by many the greatest baseball hitter of all time. The number of “fans” far exceeds those who were actually there.

Over the years, recollections of those Williams-Joyce confrontations have carried beyond the borders of Connecticut. They are some combination of fact and exaggeration.

“It’s amazing,” Joyce said. “I’ve been in airports, hotels all over the world. It doesn’t matter where, but people will come up to me and say, ‘You struck out Ted Williams. I was there.’ ”

Slingshot Slays Goliath

Williams was just as brash and determined at the plate against Joyce in ‘61 as he was during his playing career with the Red Sox.

“He was a competitor, but I wasn’t going to let up,” Joyce said.

She threw from a slingshot delivery in which her right arm swung high behind her back, then snaked forward past her hip. This was a change from her windmill delivery, which she had abandoned three years earlier. In the windmill, a pitcher whirls her arm straight up over her shoulder and then around her hip before releasing the ball like a stiff tin solider.

Joyce changed because she believed she had better control and more velocity with the slingshot.

One study at the University of Southern California in the mid-’60s determined that Joyce threw 118 mph. The study examined the reaction time of batters swinging at a ball from 40 feet, the softball distance from the mound to the plate. That would have been faster than a fastball from Walter Johnson or Sandy Koufax.

Joyce doesn’t believe it. She said her pitches were never timed with a speed gun.

“They probably were in the 70s,” she said. Still, to a batter 40 feet away, they may have looked 118 mph.

Joyce says she always wanted to play ball.

Her father, Joe, introduced her to softball when he played with the Waterbury Bombers. She practiced throwing against a wall of the family house at 222 Tudor St. in Waterbury. That didn’t last long, though. Her mother, Jean, shooed her away. So Joan set up a makeshift backstop of chicken wire across two trees.

At age 20 in 1961, she was no rookie at Municipal Stadium. She was an eight-year veteran with the Raybestos Brakettes, the perennial national fast-pitch softball champions from Stratford. She started out playing second base and the outfield before moving to the mound.

“My pitching philosophy was to keep the umpires out of it,” she said. “That meant pitch to the area where the batter didn’t want to swing.”

Joyce believed Williams’ weakest area was up in the strike zone. “Ted was at bat for 10 to 15 minutes,” she said. “He fouled off three.”

Some say Williams, at nearly 43,hit a few balls to the outfield. Joyce disagrees.

“Dom DiMaggio came down with Ted and I let up on him so he could hit a few,” she said. “But Ted? No. He swung and missed a lot. He finally got so disgusted he threw the bat down and walked away.”

Five years later, the second Joyce-Williams exhibition for the Jimmy Fund almost didn’t happen.

“I had hurt my knee playing basketball in the winter, took one month off and then played softball,” Joyce said. “Then I hurt it in July sliding into a base. We were going to play the national tournament in August, so I wanted to take some time off to be ready.

“Well, I get a call from the Waterbury organizers who asked me to play, and I told them, ‘I can’t. I’m hurt.’ About 10 days later Ted calls me and says if I don’t come, he won’t either.”

Williams wore a white sport shirt and gray slacks the evening of Aug. 5, 1966, just a few weeks after he had been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Though he hadn’t played competitively since hitting his 521st home run in his final at-bat in 1960, he wanted to get a hit off Joyce.

“He was pointing to her, a little like Babe Ruth. You know: ‘I’m going to hit it,’ ” Vaccarelli said. “With Joan out there, there was no fooling around. She was serious.”

Joyce had five pitches: riser, drop, inside curve, outside curve and changeup.

Williams only saw risers.

“By throwing underhand the ball rises near the plate,” Joyce said. “In baseball, the ball comes down at you. To hit a softball you have to get up in the box and try to hit it before it rises.”

Williams tried and failed. He watched one outside pitch for a ball and missed three others.

“He kept saying, ‘I’m going to hit her. I’m going to hit her,’ ” Vaccarelli said. “And I’m thinking, ‘No, you’re not. No your’re not.’ ”

After striking out, Williams went to the mound and hugged Joyce. Then he waved and departed in a convertible.

Softball Just The Beginning

Joyce’s strikeout exploits did not end with Williams. She struck out Hank Aaron in an exhibition between Conn’s Kings and the Connecticut Falcons at Hall High in West Hartford in 1978.

The Falcons were in the Women’s Professional Softball League, which was founded by Joyce, Billie Jean King and Jane Blalock two years earlier. Joyce was the player-manager of the Falcons until 1979, when the league folded.

Joyce’s amateur career, 1954-75, included three years with the Orange Lionettes while she attended Chapman College in California in 1962-65.

“My amateur victories were 620, 625, somewhere in there,” she said. “I don’t know exactly. Many records that have been previously written about me aren’t right because they don’t include my years with the Lionettes.”

She pitched the Brakettes to the world championship in 1974. It was the first time a U.S. team had won the event. Two weeks later she pitched 45 scoreless innings in a 24-hour span to lead the Brakettes to their fourth consecutive national title.

In addition to her pitching, Joyce had a .327 career batting average.

Joyce excelled in other sports. She set an AAU basketball record with a 67-point game for the Lionettes in 1965. She played volleyball. She bowled (a 182 league average) and golfed.

She didn’t play golf until she was a teacher at Waterbury Catholic High, after she had graduated from college. She was good enough to be a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977-1995.

“She really was the Babe Didrikson Zaharias of her era,” said Kathy Neal, a former Falcons teammate.

Take It From Ted

Last week, Mary Edwina Dluhy, the personal assistant to Williams at the Ted Williams Musuem in Hernando, Fla., read him a newspaper account of his at-bat against Joyce in 1966. Williams, 81, has limited vision after suffering two strokes in 1994.

Williams nodded and laughed. “The story is all true,” he said. “Joan Joyce was a tremendous pitcher, as talented as anyone who ever played.”

Joyce, the women’s athletic director and softball and golf coach at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla., respects Williams as much today as when she told him: “Well, this girl does.”

“He has been my friend ever since that day,” she said. “We’re very similar: competitive and proud. He loved to hit and test his skills against the best, and he wanted to be known as the best hitter who ever played the game.

“And me, well, I just loved to pitch.”

With softball dropped from the 2012 Olympic Games, Crystl Bustos is ready to try baseball.

After winning Olympic gold medals in 2000 and 2004 and a silver medal this past summer in Beijing, Bustos, 31, is considering an offer to play minor league baseball for the Tucson Toros, a professional independent team that was formerly a farm club for the Astros.

“I’m looking into it as a possibility. I think I can do it,” said Bustos, who resides in Valencia and played high school softball at Canyon High.

Bustos said she has retired from USA Softball but might stick around as a coach.

“I left my cleats at home plate in Beijing. I knew it was going to be over for me, whether we won or lost,” Bustos said. “I just want to focus on other things. By the time softball would be in the Olympics again, I’d be 39, and that’s stretching it a bit.”

By KANDACE MCCOY

The softball game played on July 27 started as any other travel team game for Mt. Vernon’s Alisha Capps. There was the routine infield chatter, the barking of umpires’ calls and quiet conversation by fans in the stands. However, normalcy abandoned the game in the fourth inning of a scoreless contest played during the U.S. Nationals at Florissant, Mo.

Capps, a 16-year-old hurler playing for the St. Louis Esprit 18-and-under travel team, stared down a Missouri Wicked Elite batter. “She was pitching pretty good that game,” recalled Capps’ father, Steven.

Capps hurled a curve ball — high and outside. “It was a pitch no one should have grabbed,” said her mother, Leslie. The Wicked Elite batter reached for and cracked the ball, hitting it approximately 125 miles per hour — right into Capps’ face.

“I knew when she fell down and didn’t jump back up something was wrong,” Leslie Capps said, trying to control her trembling voice. “I was screaming to call 911. I knew she was hurt bad — for her not to get up, she had to be hurt bad.”

And it was bad. Though Alisha raised her glove to try and catch the ball, she wasn’t able to get it up in time to protect herself, and the ball smashed nearly every bone on the right side of her face. “I didn’t know how she was,” Leslie said. “The ball came off so fast, and if you could’ve heard her hit — she turned around and fell on her stomach.”

When Alisha’s father rushed onto the field to his daughter’s side, he saw her face covered in blood. “It was pouring out like it was pouring out of a glass,” he stammered. “There was a lot of blood. I pray no parent has to see their child like that when it’s so preventable,” Leslie added.

And the hit could have been prevented, Alisha believes, if she had been wearing a softball face mask. The mask, according to sports equipment company SoftballJunk.com is one of their hottest selling safety products. “If I had [the Fastpitch mask] on,” Alisha explained, “I would have been fine.”

As a result of her injury, Alisha suffered fractures which resulted in little to no solid bone remaining in the right side of her face. Her jaw was broken in two places, the bone along her eye socket had been shattered, and her cheek bone was crushed. “It pretty much shattered every bone,” Leslie Capps said. “It’s a miracle she didn’t lose any teeth.”

Alisha endured two different surgeries to help restructure her jaw, and since there wasn’t enough bone intact for the placement of metal plates, a titanium screen wire was inserted into the right side of her face — an internal device she will have for the rest of her life.

After a week’s stay in Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis, Alisha returned home with a crusade. “Two weeks after we were home, she said, ‘Mom, I can’t stand it, get your glove and let’s play catch,’” Leslie remembered. However, she said her daughter was determined to educate younger players about the importance of wearing the infrrlders face mask.

“She talked to a 12-and-under traveling team. She still had a black eye and her cheek was still swollen,” Leslie said, “and the jaw bar on her teeth was still on.” Once Alisha explained to the girls what happened to her, one mother came up and thanked Alisha for her concern.“She said, ‘Thanks for talking to them because my daughter didn’t want to wear [a fielders face mask] and now she would.”

Alisha is also drafting a letter to the Illinois High School Association and the Amateur Softball Association for consideration to mandate all infielders, including pitchers, wear fastpitch face guards.

St. Louis Esprit coach John Kieny, who started the organization in 1982, said in his 40 years as a coach as well as 20 years as a hockey trainer, he had never seen an injury like the one suffered by Alisha. “Alisha’s a good athlete, but she had no opportunity to react and deflect the ball,” he said.

He added that with the way bats are made and the strength in which players swing, he agrees with Alisha that there needs to be a mandatory requirement for pitchers and corner infielders to wear protective face masks. “I think bats have gotten too dangerous since they have gone to composition materials — it’s too much,” he said.

Mt. Vernon Township High School softball coach Steve Morris said he saw Alisha on the first day she returned from the hospital.

“She looked a lot better,” he said. “She’s lucky to be alive.”

Morris, who has a rule that all infielders wear a mouthpiece during games, says he wishes the IHSA would also pass a rule requiring infielders to wear mandatory protective gear. “I definitely think that as good as players are getting, and getting stronger, something has to be done,” he said.

Pitchers like Capps are “very vulnerable,” he continued, and even though coaches try to teach their players the proper fielding position, hits like the one Capps received aren’t expected.

“I’ve taught players to have their glove down and ready in field position. With first and third [bases], you want them to have gloves up and ready. I’d rather it go through their legs, than see [players] get hurt.”

Morris sent a report to the IHSA following Capps’ incident, but until the association creates a new rule mandating protective gear, he said enforcing players to wear safer equipment may be difficult.

“I have heard lots of discussion about coaches trying to enforce this,” he said. “I think it comes down to personal preference. … It’s pretty difficult to force [players] to do this if there’s not a rule to back you up.”

Word of Alisha’s incident hit the area not long after it happened.

“I heard about her accident at the beginning of school,” noted Woodlawn softball coach Eric Helbig. “I was surprised, but then again I wasn’t. You hear more and more about this kind of thing. Between the hardness of the balls, the new bats, and the better players, there’s unfortunately a lot more of this in baseball and softball. In softball, the pitcher’s only a little over 30 feet away at the end of a pitch, so it can be a scary situation. The same goes for third basemen who play in for the bunt.”

However, coaches say that if players want to wear protective gear, they will be able to do so.

“I don’t require my pitchers or infielders to wear protective equipment, but I’m also not going to prevent them from it if they want to,” said Helbig. “I’d definitely say that it would be a good idea to wear protection at the younger levels and even in high school if you’re the type of pitcher that isn’t real overpowering. I don’t think we’ve faced a pitcher in high school that wore a mask, but I’ve seen them around, and I’m guessing we’ll see more of it. I think we’ll probably buy one for the team in case someone would feel more comfortable with one on and I’ll definitely pass on information as to where they can be bought.”

“I highly recommend [wearing a mask] to players on first and third base,” Morris “I’ve got a kid that plays third that has hands as quick as I’ve seen and she caught some vicious line drives — fortunately — last year.”

Kieny said he will be asking coaches in his organization to require players to wear the face mask. “I’m a convert because of Alisha,” he said. “No one will pitch for me without a mask.”

Even though Alisha will be submitting a letter to the IHSA, Helbig says he doesn’t believe the requirement of face masks is an issue at the moment. “Right now, I don’t think it’s that much of an issue that the IHSA or NFSHSA (National Federation of State High School Associations) needs to step in and require fielders to wear masks,” he said. “I think they might tinker with moving the pitching distance back first and see if that helps create a little more room between the pitcher and hitter.”

Alisha has a hard time digesting that philosophy. “It makes me mad that people think [the mask] is not worth it,” she said. But the high school junior knows that no matter where her crusade may lead, she has supporters behind her.

In fact, after Alisha was transported to the hospital following her injury, her Esprit team was behind 5-0 by the seventh inning. Fans then began to chant her name, and with that inspiration, the team came back and won the game, 7-6. “We still don’t know what’s in store for her future,” Leslie Capps said. “You can’t sleep when you picture your child hurt. I keep seeing her get hit with the ball over and over again.”

Yet Alisha says when she picks up a paper and sees a photograph of a player wearing a mask, she says to herself, “Good.” She does not want her pain to be in vain.

If you are looking for a facemask for your players, check www.FastpitchFaceguards.com.

Whether you’re a softball parent., or a softball coach with kids playing at the YMCA, or playing select ball there are a variety of online tools that can help you and your team. Here are the top 10 services for softball parents and coaches that allow you to manage your team’s schedule, notify players of news, upload and share player photos and statistics, and much more.

Many of these services are free, but there are a few high-quality services that require a monthly or one-time fee for a season. Each provides trial periods so you can test them out to see which works for you and your team.

10. TeamTexting only does one thing, but it does it extremely well. It’s totally free and lets you create a new email address that everyone on the team can use to share news and information instantly via text messaging or email. The format is TeamName@teamtexting.com. If you just need a way to keep everyone in the loop and don’t want to bother with getting everyone’s email address and creating a distribution list, then this is the answer.

9. RosterBot does slightly more than TeamTexting when it comes to communicating with your team. It uses email to poll each player and notifies you of the results.

8. Pinger isn’t geared specifically towards sports enthusiasts, but its group voice messaging feature makes it ideal for team captains to communicate with each member instantly. Pinger is free at this time and works on most mobile devices, but especially well with Blackberries thanks to a handy little application that plays back voice messages.

7. MyEZTeams basically does the same thing as RosterBot but adds message boards and Google Calendar integration.

6. TournamentBrackets.US offer brackets for both single and double elimination tournaments. The best part about then is they are free, just print whatever you need.

5. Fastpitch.TV takes all the best fastpitch softball videos on YouTube and puts them in one place. No more looking trough tons of videos about nothing to find the few you are interested in looking at.

4. TeamPages is another full-feature team site with a free basic package and a couple of premium packages that remove ads and add more features.

3. RedZoneLeagues offers an impressive amount of features and it’s totally free. All of the standard features are available, including a calendar of games, player stats, photos and more.

2. eTeamz is a professional looking service that covers just about everything teams and even league organizers will ever need. They offer a free basic service that is extremely limited but it’ll be good enough to get your feet wet if you just want to test it out. You can even add video highlights of games in addition to player photos and statistics.

…and the number one tool?

1.TeamSnap is similar to eTeams in regards to all of the incredible features it offers but it edges them out simply because it’s currently free. Now, it won’t remain free for very long, but for the time being it’s offering all of the commercial grade options and features for free.

Former University of Washington All-American softball player Jaime Clark was recently named the Nokona American Glove Offensive Player of the Year for the 2008 National Pro Fastpitch season.

Clark, who played for Washington from 2000-2003, completed her fourth season with the Chicago Bandits two weeks ago, helping the team capture the 2008 NPF championship. She led the NPF with 38 RBIs and 12 doubles while also ranking fourth with 11 home runs. Clark, who saw time in right field, left field and shortstop for the Bandits, also scored 24 runs and collected 40 hits on the season. She was an All-NPF selection for the third consecutive season.

In her time at Washington, Clark was a four-time All-Pac-10 selection and was named First Team All-American in 2002 after leading the nation with 75 RBIs and batting .431. A three-time All-American, she finished her career with UW records in runs batted in (243) and runs scored (221).

Clark went on to play for three seasons with the U.S. National Team and was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Team that captured gold in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – The Amateur Softball Association is pleased to announce that USA Softball’s very own Jessica Mendoza (Camarillo, Calif.) is a finalist for the Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year. Vote TODAY for Mendoza, as she helped lead the USA Softball team to a silver medal finish at the 2008 Olympic Games and has been a major staple through the 2008 season.

Mendoza started in all nine games of the 2008 Olympic Games at left field, hitting .333 (8-for-24). She scored 10 runs with four homeruns. She contributed nine RBI while remaining perfect in the outfield. Her four homeruns help set a new Olympic Record for most homeruns in Olympic games by a team with 15. Mendoza is not only a leader inside the lines buts also outside. Just moments after the Gold Medal Game, where the team was dealt a devastating loss Mendoza reached out to the Gold Medalists Japan team and Bronze Medal Australian team. Together they formed the statement ‘2016’ with softballs and joined together chanting “Back Softball, Back Softball”, hoping to make a statement for the future of the sport.

Throughout the KFC Bound 4 Beijing Tour, where the team barnstormed the Nation playing exhibition games, Mendoza hit .495 with a team high 89 runs scored with 107 RBI. She was also perfect in left field in 59 games played.

An activist at heart, Mendoza started out the year going on a U.S. Army Goodwill Tour of Afghanistan where she visited troops there. She is also about to embark on a European Tour where she will help assist development in European areas where the sport needs growth as an effort to get softball back in the Olympic Games.

Athletes were considered for the 2008 award based on their athletic achievements between August 1, 2007, and August 24, 2008. Criteria include championships won, records set and awards won. Voting has begun and will conclude September 2, 2008. Please vote today at www.womensportsfoundation.com.

The awards will be presented, at the Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner on October 14, 2008 at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Amateur Softball Association announced today that USA Softball Women’s National Team head coach Mike Candrea (Tucson, Ariz.) will be retiring from the coaching reigns of the Women’s National team effective immediately. The head coach since 2002, Candrea has led the U.S. team to one Olympic Gold Medal and most recently the Silver Medal finish at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

“It has been the highest honor to coach for the United States,” said Candrea. “I wouldn’t trade it for a minute. The experiences I have had through USA Softball and more importantly the relationships I have made with athletes and staff are wonderful. It’s been a tremendous ride and blessing to be a part of all of this. But I am ready to settle down and begin my life at home and allow someone else this honor.”

Candrea will continue his involvement with ASA/USA Softball through a series of educational roles to continue the development of the sport both domestically and internationally. From regional coaching clinics with ASA, to enhanced curriculum with the ASA’s ACE Program to further enhancing ASA partnership’s with Liberty Mutual Group and ResponsibleSports.com, Candrea will remain actively involved with the National Governing Body. Up next, he has a 10-day trip in September to do clinics in London and in Pisa, Italy with National Team member Jessica Mendoza (Camarillo, Calif.) in order to assist development in European areas where the sport needs grow. The IOC will vote in October 2009 on the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The IOC will also select the sports to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games. The clinics are needed to bring awareness for the sport of softball to the European IOC voters.

“I am anxious to continue my involvement to help get this sport back in the Olympic Games,” said Candrea. “We have 14 months to show the IOC that the sport of softball belongs at the Olympic level. I plan to assist in the education process for both athletes and coaches at all levels in order to keep the pipeline alive and healthy.”

“Coach Candrea provided our Women’s National Team program amazing stability and an expectation of greatness that will long be remembered,” said Ron Radigonda, ASA’s Executive Director. “His passion for making everyone better and drive towards excellence will be missed, but we are equally excited about the future and regaining our number one spot in the world next year during international play.”

Candrea’s resume with the USA Softball National team dates back to over a decade as an assistant coach in 1994 on the Women’s World Championship team that captured the Gold Medal in Canada. Since that time, Candrea has been involved with over ten Women’s National teams while taking over the head coach reigns for the 2002 World Championships. During his tenure, the U.S. has captured two World Championship Gold Medals, two Pan-American Gold Medals, two World Cup titles, one Olympic Gold Medal and one Olympic Silver Medal. (See below for complete USA Softball resume).

In 2004, he was awarded with the United States Olympic Committee’s highest honor with the Olympic Shield award. An honor given in recognition for an individual’s outstanding service to the USOC and the Olympic movement, Candrea is only the 45th person to receive this award since 1966. The first ever Olympic coach in the award’s 39 year history, this honor has only been awarded on 12 occasions since its inception.

Candrea earned an associate’s degree at Central Arizona College in 1975, a bachelor’s degree at Arizona State in 1978 and a master’s degree from ASU in 1980. Candrea was married to the former Sue Ellen Hudson for 28 years until her tragic death in July 2004, just 10 days prior to the Olympic Games. On Dec. 30, 2006, Candrea opened a new chapter of his life, as he wed the former Tina Tilton in Tucson, Arizona. Candrea has a son Mikel, 28, and daughter Michelle, 26, in addition to stepsons Ryan and Sean Tilton. Mikel is currently in his second year as an assistant softball coach at the University of the Pacific and Michelle works for Caterpillar. Michelle celebrated the birth of her son, Jaylen Mikel, on Oct. 27, 2005. Jaylen is Candrea’s first grandchild. Ryan and Sean are both students at the University of Arizona.

SportJunk.com has created another great website for fastpitch softball fans. Fastpitch.TV is our newest, and maybe our best website yet.

We scan You Tube daily, and find the best Fastpitch Softball videos for your viewing pleasure.

What does this mean to you? It means you no longer have to search through 1000’s of videos to find the best fastpitch softball videos. You won’t have to see another video of a 4 year old hitting a softball. You will never have to worry about clicking on a softball video, only to find out is is porn mislabeled as a softball video. Every video on Fastpitch.TV is G rated.

Take a look at Fastpitch.TV, and I think you will agree. It is the best free fastpitch video site on the Internet. Just go to www.fastpitch.tv and start enjoying our newest website.

BEIJING (AP) — With silver medals swinging from their necks, their eyes filled with tears, five members of the U.S. Olympic softball team walked to home plate and placed their cleats in the dirt.

Their games were over, and so were their international playing careers.

With that they said goodbye to softball, the sport they played better than anyone else save for one game.

Losing for the first time since 2000, the Americans were denied a chance for a fourth straight gold medal Thursday, beaten 3-1 by Japan in softball’s last appearance in the Olympics for at least eight years. Maybe forever.

Yukiko Ueno, Japan’s remarkably resilient right-hander, shut down the Americans and handed them their first loss since Sept. 21, 2000 at the Sydney Games. The U.S. had won 22 straight since then, most with outrageously lopsided scores.

Another gold was certainly within reach. Instead, they walked off Fengtai Field with their heads bowed.

“It hurts a lot,” slugger Crystl Bustos said. “You train your whole life and you want to win. You don’t expect to lose.”

The U.S. team never led and made two uncharacteristic errors in the seventh inning to help the Japanese add an important insurance run — one they didn’t even need.

When Caitlin Lowe grounded to third for the final out, Vicky Galindo, who led off the U.S. team’s seventh inning with a pinch-hit single, wrapped her hands over her helmet and cringed.

Moments later, U.S. coach Mike Candrea huddled with his stunned players, many of whom couldn’t even look up. Lowe choked back tears as Bustos tried to console her overwhelmed teammates.

Bustos, who homered in the fourth for the Americans’ only run, was first in line to congratulate the Japanese players. As she shook hands with the U.S. team, Japan catcher Yukiyo Mine teared up.

“You don’t want it to end this way, but it’s all we could do,” said Bustos, who attended the medal ceremony wearing sunglasses.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to end for the Americans, who had lost just four of 36 in Olympic play.

Not this team. Not this time. Not this tournament.

The U.S. has dominated the sport since its Olympic debut in 1996, winning all three golds, rewriting the record books and setting a standard for a sport considered too All-American by some.

It was the Americans’ utter domination — they outscored the field 51-1 four years ago in Greece — that may have contributed to the International Olympic Committee’s decision to drop the sport in a close vote taken in 2006.

The U.S arrived in China determined to put on a show of power, precision and poise. And except for a tense, nine-inning 4-1 win over Ueno and Japan in the semifinals, the Americans had done just that. That game was by far their toughest test in the tournament — until they met Ueno again in the final.

“She just beat us,” U.S. starter Cat Osterman said. “I’m not hanging my head too much about it.”

One of the few players in the field who could win a roster spot on the U.S. squad, Ueno stopped the Americans on a cool, drizzly night. The day before, she had pitched 21 innings — the equivalent of three complete games — to get her team to the gold-medal match.

Less than 24 hours later she was back on the mound and appeared no worse for it. The 26-year-old Ueno was handed the ball again by coach Haruka Saito, who didn’t have many other options against the U.S. team’s relentless top-to-bottom attack.

Though it’s rare for a pitcher at this level to work consecutive days, Ueno’s performance can stand with any in these games. Not only was it physically demanding in China’s thick air, but she couldn’t afford a misstep in two matchups with the U.S. or against the free-swinging Aussies, who won bronze.

How did she do it?

“It was my strong belief to win,” she said through an interpreter.

Except for Bustos’ homer, Ueno was in command. She was able to escape a pair of one-out, bases-loaded situations to keep the American scoring machine in check. And needing three outs in the seventh, her shortstop raced into foul territory to snag a pop up by Tairia Flowers and then her third baseman backhanded Natasha Watley’s hot smash.

Always out front, this time the U.S. found itself trailing 2-0 in the fourth inning. It was the first time the Americans were behind by more than a run in four Olympics, and it proved to be too much for the world’s best lineup to overcome.

Bustos cut it to 2-1 with her 14th career homer, and it looked as if the Americans would finally get to Ueno in the sixth when they loaded the bases. Lowe singled leading off and Candrea, who came in 17-0 in Olympic games, had Jessica Mendoza, one of his power hitters, sacrifice. The decision moved Lowe to second, but it allowed Ueno to avoid Bustos by intentionally walking the fearsome slugger.

Kelly Kretschman walked to put runners at every base, but Andrea Duran popped to short and Stacey Nuveman, a three-time Olympian, popped to second.

Ueno had done it again, and sensing they had dodged disaster, the Japanese players sprinted off the field while doubt began creeping into the Americans’ dugout.

Surely, though, they would come back in the seventh.

“I thought we still had a chance,” pitcher Monica Abbott said.

But the timely hits that were always there, were swallowed up by Japan’s sure hands. And when the last out of softball’s farewell game was recorded, there was nothing more the U.S. team could do but wonder what went wrong.

Too emotional to talk, the Americans retreated to their locker room before filing back onto the field for the awards ceremony.

They stepped onto the risers to the right of the smiling gold-medal winners and accepted silver. Clutching a bouquet, Mendoza’s legs shook as she and her teammates watched Japan’s flag being slowly raised up the pole in the place where the Stars and Stripes had always flown.

More than hour later, many of the U.S. players were still dazed.

A few climbed over the fence to share hugs and quiet moments with family and friends, some of whom had never seen this American squad lose before.

It was all so new, so hard.

“This isn’t how it was supposed to end,” Osterman said.

On any given day, you never know who might be watching you, or our sport for the first time. What kind of impression do you want to leave on them? Every time you step on the field you have an opportunity to represent the game with integrity and class and it starts by holding a high personal standard.

Believe it or not there is going to come a time when you begin to toy with the idea of hanging up the spikes. I’ve told you before, I’ve thought a lot about it but why is it so hard to walk away? Even after two decades of playing, many off-field conversations with teammates turn to softball, but the focus of the conversations are no longer about the fundamentals of the game, it’s turned to the ways in which we can leave a positive, lasting impression on the sport that has given us so many opportunities throughout our lives. It may sound like a corny explanation but it’s true. Like many of my teammates, I feel like I have a responsibility to make sure that I leave the sport better than I found it.

In light of the Olympic Games it is a good time to reflect on what we can do to make our sport better. Yes, we’re growing and gaining more exposure through television coverage and player marketing, but what can you, as an individual, do to make sure you are doing your part? We don’t exactly know the future of our sport in the Olympics but we do know that other opportunities will continue to come as long as we are aware that it is us, the players, that control the fate of softball. On that note, is the way you present yourself day in and day out good for our sport?

If someone were to watch you or your team for the first time, will you have left them wanting to come back for more? The intriguing part about softball has a lot to do with talent and skill of course, but it also has a lot to do with your excitement for what you do and your discipline on the field. Are you a good teammate? Are you a good student of the game? Do you give 100% on every play of every inning?

You know what one of my favorite things to watch is? When a batter hits a fly ball in the infield or shallow outfield, it’ll be caught 98% of the time, but she is busting it to get as far around the bases as possible before it is caught. How many times do you think you’ll sprint all the way to second base for no reason? On the other hand, do you want to be the one standing two feet outside the batter’s box when that 2% error happens? What if it’s a crucial situation for your team with a runner in scoring position and it could be the difference in winning or losing the ballgame? This type of unselfish hustle is good for the sport.

Now, on the other side of the spectrum, softball is so hard! Sometimes I get so frustrated after an at bat that I just want to come in, throw my helmet against the wall, and hit something! And I’m a very laid back, calm person ☺ It sounds like a good idea at the time, it might make me feel better for a second, but ultimately it solves nothing and it’s bad for the sport. Softball is supposed to be hard! If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. I have found that when I am able to let things go, whether it’s an error, bad at bat, or missed call, I feel better and in turn, I perform better. More importantly, it’s a better reflection on the sport.

We could make an entire list of things that are “good for the sport” and “bad for the sport” but ultimately it’s up to you to make that call. Good rule of thumb: if you have to ask yourself, “is this good?” chances are you’re walking a fine line so be aware. I hope you all realize how lucky we are. Everyday we have an opportunity to do what we love so treat it as it is, a privilege and a gift. Make sure that everyday you are representing yourself and the sport with the utmost respect because you never know who is watching.

FRESNO, Calif. – With just four days until the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, former Bulldog softball player and four-time All-American Laura Berg sat down with www.gobulldogs.com for a Q&A.

Berg is the only four-time Olympian in the sport of softball and is looking to guide Team USA to its fourth gold medal. She was the starting center fielder the previous three Olympics and scored the first run of the championship game in 1996 and had the game-winning hit against Japan in the 2000 games. Berg has been a member of the U.S. National Team since 1994 when she was attending Fresno State.

In her four years at Fresno State, Berg was a crucial member of the 1998 National Championship, the first in school history. She was also a four-time All-WAC honoree, three-time NCAA WCWS participant, two-time Fresno State MVP and is ranked in amongst the top in numerous school, conference and NCAA categories.

1. How does it feel to be heading to your fourth Olympic games? I feel very lucky and fortunate to be going to the Olympic Games.

2. What does it mean for you to represent team USA? It’s an honor to represent USA. Anytime I have USA across my chest I feel a sense of pride. I feel very blessed to have this opportunity.

3. Being the only four-time softball Olympian what does the experience and leadership you bring mean to team USA and the softball world? It just means that the young players can tease me by calling me Grandma.

4. Out of the three Olympics you’ve participated in, which one is the most memorable and why? Each Olympics has been very different. It’s hard to pick a favorite. Atlanta was the first time softball was in the Olympics and it was in front of our home crowd. Sydney we had our backs against the wall and had to fight our way to the gold medal. Athens was special because of how dominate we were and because it was the birth place of the Olympics.

5. What was the most memorable moment on the tour this year for you? When we were given a ride in a black hawk helicopter and got an up close and personal view of Mt. Rushmore.

6. What can fans except from Team USA in these Olympics? The fans can expect a dog fight. Everyone wants to win gold since it’s the last time softball will be in the Olympics. Everyone wants to have what we’ve got and will fight like heck to get it.

7. We have heard you are the jokester on the team, what do you think is the best prank you have played on a teammate? A pie in the face to Lauren Lappin during a mock interview.

8. Who are the greatest softball players you have ever played with and against? Lisa Fernandez, Dot Richardson and Crystl Bustos.

9. You have done a lot of traveling with Team USA, but name one place in the world that you have never been that you wish the team would travel to play? Germany.

The most decorated player in the history of Texas Softball, Cat Osterman is already a 2004 Olympic gold medalist, a four-time All-American and a three-time USA Softball National Player of the Year. However, her trophy case won’t quite be complete without another gold medal from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. As Osterman and her Team USA teammates prepare for a run at the team’s fourth straight gold medal, she stopped by the Forty Acres and checked in with TexasSports.com to give her thoughts on the Games, softball’s Olympic swan song and life after graduation.

You are gearing up for your second Olympic Games after winning a gold medal in 2004. What are you expectations this time around: It is an honor to be on Team USA anytime and to be able to go to the Olympics twice has been a goal of mine and it is a huge accomplishment. I think I am more prepared and more mature this time as I already know what it is like to be in the Olympic atmosphere. Even though I have been to the Olympics, I am still excited and a little nervous, but at least I know what to expect this time around. I think with USA I have earned my keep and I have proved that I can take on international competition. It will be very exciting to have a little bigger role this time than I did in 2004.

This time around Team USA has a smaller pitching staff and your role will be more significant. Talk about what it means to be getting the ball in key situations now: It is huge for me. We went to the World Championships and I got the ball in both games on the gold medal day. For me that was really the turning point because I knew how much confidence Coach Candrea had in me. I hope that I can carry that on with me to the Olympics. You can’t ask for anything but to be given the ball as many times as you can and with our smaller pitching staff we will definitely see more innings than last time.

The 2008 Games are the last Olympics for the sport of softball. What is the importance of these Games for you and for Team USA: It is disappointing because this is the last Olympics and many of us could have played in one or maybe two more Olympics. I think for our team right now we try not to think about that too much. We are trying to stay focused on the task at hand which is game one and everything between there and winning a gold medal. After we are done we can think back on what we have done with Team USA. It will be bittersweet because we will know that we will not be going through another four years of preparing for a big stage like the Olympics. Personally, I want to go out and put on a good show, I would have played in 2012, so I want to make the most of this opportunity to go out and show the world what softball is about. Hopefully we can changes some minds and maybe the vote will go the other way next time.

Once the Olympics are over what will you be doing as far as your playing career: We will still have USA stuff, we will have the World Cup, the 2010 World Championships and Pan American Games. We will still have a national team and I will keep playing every summer in the National Pro Fastpitch league with the Rockford Thunder.

You graduated from The University of Texas in May of 2007. Walk us through what Cat Osterman has been up to since leaving the Forty Acres: After graduating in 2007 I moved to Rockford, Illinois to play for the Rockford Thunder and competed with the national team at the Pan American Games last summer. I liked the change of pace of living in Illinois and I approached coach Eugene Lenti at DePaul about possibly volunteer coaching because I wanted to be somewhere new. I have family up in Chicago so I knew that I was far enough away to kind of be on my own, but still have help nearby if I needed it. As it worked out I got a paying job as DePaul’s pitching coach and I enjoy working with the program even though I missed a lot of time this year with the Bound 4 Beijing USA Softball tour. I did a lot of traveling with the team this year, playing 60 games in 40-something different cities. This year was a lot of touring and a little bit of coaching and now that our tour is over we are getting ready to head over to Beijing for the Olympics.

What is your game plan after the Olympics are over? What will you be up to other than coaching at DePaul: I will be coming back to Chicago, coaching for at least a couple of more years. I am going to begin work on my MBA this fall and just see where my life takes me after I finish my masters. I enjoy coaching, so I can see myself coaching for awhile.