by Bob Fromer
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada: July 12 -- What a strange place to hold a major World Championship event!
The town of Whitehorse has a population of about 26,000, and that is well over half of all the people living in the vast and legendary Yukon Territory. The town may well have its McDonalds and Walmart and Starbucks and its Chinese, Indian and Japanese restaurants, not to mention two cinemas, several small arts centres, numerous hotels, North America's longest fish ladder and an airport that receives a direct -- and full -- flight from Frankfurt, Germany once a week throughout the year.
But this is still very much a frontier town in the middle of nowhere, sitting in a semi-arid bowl surrounded by gentle mountains that still have traces of snow in mid-July, where paved roads eventually end in dirt tracks and some of the housing is made from whatever odd materials people can find.
Having held the 12th Women's Fastpitch World Championships in a city where players couldn't leave their hotel without an armed guard (Caracas, Venezuela), the International Softball Federation has gone to the other extreme with the 13th World Championships. Players can roam freely around the streets of Whitehorse, but there's almost nothing to do or see except to wander down to the fast-flowing Yukon River or browse the shops and small malls that populate the "downtown" area. There are plenty of cafes and restaurants, too, but the prices are prohibitive -- it's not easy or cheap to transport anything up here!
Still, here we all are -- 16 teams plus umpires and ISF officials -- and the World Championships get underway tomorrow at the well-appointed Pepsi Softball Centre at the top of Two Mile Hill, just down the road from the prison and the Yukon College and Archives. Whitehorse wanted to stage this event (they staged the Junior Men's World Championship four years ago as a dress rehearsal), and they have come up with the considerable amount of money needed to do so (each team receives $15,000 for attending, and that's just for starters). Someone in the Yukon Territorial Administration must see this as a major boost for tourism.
What it may not be is a major boost for softball in the year before the decision is made about which sport will be added to the 2020 Olympics, since media coverage is going to be sparse, not to mention attendance. But still, all the games will be webstreamed around the world.
GB goals
For the GB Women's Fastpitch Team, fresh off 14 games of preparation and an appearance in the final of the Elite Division at the Canadian Open Championships near Vancouver, the initial goal is very simple: beat Italy in the opening game at 3.30 pm tomorrow.
The World Championship format is two eight-team round-robin groups, from which four teams advance to the playoffs. The groups are seeded according to results at the previous World Championships, with teams that didn't play last time added at the bottom, but this can result in uneven groups, and in this case it definitely has. Group B, which contains Japan, Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Italy, GB, New Zealand and Mexico, is a much tougher pool than Group A, which has the US, China, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, the Czech Republic, Argentina and South Africa, and coming up with the four wins that will pretty much guarantee a playoff spot is going to be a much tougher task in Group B.
That's why GB's first two games -- against Italy on Friday and Chinese Taipei on Saturday -- are crucial. GB will expect to beat Mexico and New Zealand later in the round-robin, based on these teams' performances at the Canadian Open, but if GB can't win the first two games, then wins will be needed against one or more of the big beasts of world softball: Japan, Canada and Australia. That is a tough ask, even though Canada performed well under expectations at the Canadian Open and when GB and Canada last played in the Softball World Cup last year, the score was only 6-4 to Canada and GB had chances to win the game.
The last three times GB and Italy have met, the score has been 1-0 to Italy, and the GB team is confident that this result can be turned around. And GB's two wins over a strong Chinese provincial team at the Canadian Open will give them confidence against Chinese Taipei. But GB will go into these first two games without their outstanding shortstop, Jessica Legendre, still hobbling after a take-out slide from a China Liaoning player at the Canadian Open that would have earned a red card on any football field.
Despite this injury, GB will still go into this tournament with more depth in their squad than ever before, and with high hopes.
The forecast for Friday and Saturday is for rain, but of course there's not much problem with rain delays here: it stays light until almost midnight, and the sun rises again a few hours later. Who needs lights?