Hi everyone! My name is Tihana and I am a softball player from Croatia.
Let me tell you about softball here. Croatia isn't a country where people know what softball is.
When people here ask you what sport you play, and you answer “softball” they give you the “what is that” look . So, you start to explain that it is very similar to baseball but with little differences like: the field is smaller, the pitcher isn't throwing overhand, the bats are not made out of wood and etc..
Then comes the question: “how many teams do we have?” It was better before,we had around 7 teams and they were in other cities like Karlovac, Sisak, Varazdin, and Split. Then some of them fell apart and softball stayed only in Zagreb with three teams Princ, Lady Pirates and Mladost.
That's when I started. Even though there were only 3 teams left there were always interesting championships because the teams were kind of equal,you didn't know for sure who is going to win. Then we lost Mladost, but a new young team called Pink Panthers started playing. So we now still have 3 teams that are good but my club: “Princ” is dominating for the last twenty years.
We have 2 championships and one cup. But we are also playing Euroleague, we go on European cup, there is also the national team, and two tournaments that my team organizes: “Forever fastpitch” which is in May and “Ballgame” which is in October.
So softball in Croatia isn't a sport you can make money off, everyone knows about, or you can become famous by playing, but every player here plays with heart, passion and love to the sport, and we put effort to improve it.
We are trying our best to keep it active and even have plans to create some new teams, despite the fact that we need lots of stuff to do that, we won't give up, because softball is the best sport in the world.
I'm happy that I am a part of it :)
Titaan