Marc Gofstein 
Special to Outsports

It's Countdown to Series 2003 in DC. And, it’s getting more exciting everyday. I can’t believe that it’s just about time to start the weeklong tournament known as the Gay Softball World Series, running from Aug. 19-23 in Washington, D.C. 

For the past 27 years gay softball teams have competed in their local leagues for the honor of competing for a World Championship trophy. True, they’re not doing it in front of hundreds of thousands of fans, or in front of a worldwide television audience. They don’t play for millions of dollars and don’t sign lucrative endorsement deals. 

They play for the love of the game. What a novel concept in this day and age. Playing a game mostly for fun. Granted, there is a trophy involved, and maybe a T-shirt or sweatshirt with the word “Champions” on it. But, for the thousands of ballplayers, coaches and fans who will converge on our nation’s capital, the lure is the game, and the friendships that will be either rekindled, or newly established. 

That is the wonder of gay softball. OK, so other sports can also lay claim to this. However, softball is different. It has the distinction of being the largest gay team sport in the nation, second overall behind bowling.

What started in 1977 as a simple, best two-out-of-three game event between the team from Badlands bar in San Francisco and The Ramrod bad in New York has blossomed into a weeklong extravaganza of competition, camaraderie, entertainment, fund-raising, and good old-fashioned fun. 

Geographic, cultural and gender diversity will be featured, as teams from 33 different leagues representing 29 cities will participate. There will be several teams made up of gay Asians, Latinos, African-Americans; and nearly 40% of the teams will be solely made up of women. 

The games aren’t the only happening during the week. The governing body of the event, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA) sponsors a talent night during the week, where participants are drawn from the competing teams and every penny raised (both from admission to the event, and from a celebrity T-shirt auction), is donated to selected charity organizations in the city where the games are taking place. 

Most importantly, the week is a celebration of gay athletics. Competitors come with every level of skill (from never having previously played any sport, to those who have played either collegiate or professional baseball [or both]). Stereotypes? Gays can’t play sports? Those notions are shot down quickly. 

Oh, there is plenty of “gaydom” during the week, as well. There are teams that play with an entire wardrobe of colorful uniforms (Timberline CHAOS! from Seattle has a many as 30 different uniforms), and have a library of hysterical cheers that they chant during the games (several teams have entire books of cheers, and some even rehearse them). There are the flirtatious comments directed at cute players, and yes, even future boy/girlfriends have been know to meet while playing against each other. You definitely don’t get THAT from straight sports. 

Even the umpires are predominantly gay. For the series, the best umpires in the U.S. and Canada are invited to be a part of the festivities, and is just so happens that most of them are also gay. In fact, many of the umpires who are invited also work at the highest level of both softball and baseball, having even umpired in collegiate championship games. This crew is the best. 

However, when all is said and done, the games won’t matter nearly as much as the memories and friendships that will be around long after the results. This is definitely something that gay athletes bring to the world of sports. Not only do we compete with the same fervor as straights, we know how to do it right. More importantly, we know how to do it FABULOUSLY! 

With that, it’s time to “Play Ball!” I say to everyone competing in Washington, D.C.: best of luck. Play hard and leave your best on the field. No matter if you win or not, don’t leave feeling you could have done better. 

As for everyone else, enjoy it. This is gay softball, and it’s wonderful.