The Women’s College World Series is coming to a close. The Texas Longhorns have come out on top (for the second consecutive season) as they managed to beat Gerry Glasco and the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Oklahoma City. And it’s so fascinating to see the sort of momentum that both of these programs have, but also the overall momentum that softball has right now.
College softball specifically is having a fascinating moment. Massive audiences are showing up in Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series, but it’s also clear that folks are paying attention at home as well.
ESPN reported that through 10 games of the Women’s College World Series, its viewership was up 33 percent year-over-year. That’s remarkable. And so much of that has to do with the work that the athletes playing the sport and those representing it have put in over the years to really elevate its status and prominence.
The women who have, for decades now, dedicated significant chunks of their lives to helping college softball grow deserve a ton of credit. And it’s encouraging to see that there are more and more resources out there to help this momentum continue growing.
Seth Daniels, the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Rapsodo, spoke with me a bit about everything that they’re doing to promote the game and develop increasingly better softball players. And I’m sure you won’t be shocked to learn that softball players don’t just want leftovers from baseball.
They’re interested in developing what is truly best for their sport.
Built for softball, not borrowed from baseball
“When it came to the software, that’s really where we had a lot of internal champions, women who’d played softball before, or some of our key customers and partners who we’d send beta releases to and talk to about product development, that’s where the emphasis got started,” Daniels told me. “A lot of those internal champions were saying, ‘For us, it’s really easy to see that this is a baseball product retrofitted. We’d love software that’s truly baked from the ground up, this is meant for the softball community.’”
And so, Rapsodo delivered.
“When we look at pitch types, when we look at break measurements, we don’t have a break zone built around how a baseball pitch would move,” Daniels continued. “It’s built around the expectations of a softball pitch. There are similarities and overlaps, but there’s a whole different bag of pitches designed specifically on the softball side.”
Which makes sense. The throwing motion is different. The size of the ball is different. You’re standing in a circle instead of a mound. I’m no physicist (my high school physics teacher did enjoy electrocuting me in a couple of experiments though), but I’m sure all of that impacts the outcome of getting the ball from point a to point b.
So yeah, let’s make sure that we get the proper sort of set up for these athletes. They deserve to have something that is created for and catered to them.
And that’s what Daniels and the good folks over at Rapsodo are committed to.
Here’s why Rapsodo started from the ground up
“For so much of the softball community, it’s been unfortunate, they do often get retread baseball products,” Daniels said. “Some of that is the technology being adopted into the sport a little later, partly because of budgets and what’s available. All of that has a trickle-down effect.”
While that has historically been the case, that doesn’t mean things will always be that way.
“The appetite for this data is there, and some of the great coaches who are champions of this stuff are out there,” he explained. “So the rest is going to follow. It’s just a matter of building something that truly meets the needs of the consumer, and we hope we did. We’ll continue building and improving as we grow.”
That last line sticks with me. It’s clear that Daniels and his team believe that they’re working in the right direction and the ongoing commitment towards ongoing improvement is a good and healthy thing to have as this sport continues to grow and the audience interested in it continues to become more emotionally invested.
The tech is only getting more democratized for softball
“Moving forward in our technology and offering better, more options, even building out player profiles, letting players build their own journeys within that space and take ownership of their growth and development,” Daniels said of the future in this space for Rapsodo. “I can see in-game technology continuing to make a play, where it’s becoming so big. You look at the ABS system going into the SEC tournament, it’s so cool to see that kind of top-down adoption. As that technology becomes more and more available, I think it continues to be democratized and go down the ranks.”
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