NAFA World Series begins
Teams to come from as far as Japan

By Brian Ojanpa

Free Press Staff Writer
NORTH MANKATO ‹ Today, one team will leave the
community (the Vikings), as more than 120 begin arriving. Caswell Park
grounds crew worker Jay Nessler secures netting Wednesday in preparation
for the North American Fastpitch Association World Series. Play begins
today for more than 120 men's teams from the United States, Canada and
Japan.

The North American Fastpitch Association World Series starts its 10-day
run today featuring men's teams from the United States, Canada, and one
from Japan.

"This will be one of the largest, if not the largest, softball
tournament the community has ever had," says Greater Mankato Convention
& Visitors Bureau vice president Sara Gleason, who has been working for
months with NAFA on preparations.

"We're still having changes each day, but when all is said and done
we'll probably end up with 125 teams," Gleason says.

The tournament will be held on the six-diamond Caswell Park in North
Mankato, with some games also slated for Jaycees Park in Mankato.

The event will include competition in six divisions, with teams arriving
and leaving the community in shifts as their respective competitions
end.

The event will include a AAA/Open division for elite teams that are
concluding play this week in the International Softball Congress
Tournament in Wisconsin. Eight of those teams will compete Saturday and
Sunday.

A special ceremony at 7 p.m. Friday at Caswell will recognize the
community's Happy Chef and Junker's teams of the past, which made their
marks in national softball competition and helped the Mankato area
maintain itself as a hotbed of the men's game.

"When we were planning this tournament, the one thing we kept hearing
was that we had to get the locals involved," Gleason says.

In addition to the Happy Chef/Junker's commemoration, the tournament
field will include several area teams, most prominently the Fischer
Group squad, which won the 2001 Class A title at the NAFA World Series
and has won the Minnesota Class B championship the past three years.

Community involvement also will extend to providing free admission to
members of youth baseball, football, soccer, hockey and fastpitch teams.
Players need only wear their team jerseys to gain admission on days
designated for their particular sport.

Playing its first tourney game on Friday will be a team comprised of
students from Waseda University, a prestigious Japanese school that
Gleason says is that country's equivalent of a Harvard or Yale.

She says their arrival poses particular challenges because of the
language barrier and the group's transportation needs during the
tournament.

NAFA was founded in 1993 after the American Softball Association began
increasing its emphasis on the more-popular slowpitch game.

NAFA executive director Benjie Hedgecock says the Oregon-based
association was organized to promote fastpitch at the lower skill ranks.

The NAFA World Series began with 63 teams in 1993.

Used with the permission from The Free Press, Mankato, Minnesota
(August 18, 2005).