et’s face it, among hardcore sports
fans slow-pitch softball has always
been considered kind of a joke.
Compared to the prestigious
baseball— hailed as the king of sports, the
great American pastime— slow-pitch is
better known as the tagalong kid sister.
But just like any sport, competitive slow-
pitch not only requires time, skill and
dedication but a drive to be the best.
Really, all gay softball teams
aren’t like The Broken Hearts Club,
we promise (good movie, bad
stereotypes). But as slow-pitch
teams like Scandals are showing
us, it’s time for the boys of base
ball to move over because the
queens are in town.
The Scandals slow-pitch
team will compete in the 26 th
annual North American Gay
The Scandals Team has gone straight to the top this season thanks to new coach
Amateur Athletic Alliance
Dawn Henley (kneeling, right)
softball World Series. Given
According to team managers and slow-pitch stars Victor Nunez
the C division team’s natural fire and flair for the
and J.R. Perez, they contrived to start from scratch. “We we’re
game, it should be one of the most exciting to watch as
looking for a lot of people that were athletic,” Perez explains.
they step up to the plate and vie for the championship.
“Anyone that’s a good athlete should be good at softball.”
Nunez also thought that a new start might be better for building
Cinderella story, the once overlooked Scandals
a strong team. “There weren’t a lot of male egos to get in the way,”
labored throughout the season to prove them
he says. “We started from ground zero, and it’s really worked out.”
selves a top contender in their league and secure
After recruiting enough people, Nunez and Perez’s mission
a spot in the series. Their success, however, should not be
was only half over. In addition to signing on some new faces,
mistakenly attributed to luck but rather careful planning and
they also wanted a team that would put the Yankees to shame.
intentional molding of a winning team.
So the pair sought out Henley.
“From the very get-go this was set up to be a competitive
“Dawn has been there before,” Perez comments. “We knew
team," head coach Dawn Henley says. “The World Series was
that she was really good.”
definitely a goal.”
Perez and Nunez originally wanted Henley to play on the
While Scandals has had teams in the past, what makes this
year’s contingent so remarkable is that it’s made up of mostly
new players, many of whom had never played softball before.
•
Continued on Page S15
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