New Baseball-Softball Hybrid is a Hit With Locals

After years of playing recreational softball, Gary Huizar needed a change.

He wanted something more competitive.  A game demanding more skill.

Huizer, 58, knew baseball would be more challenging, but the games took too long.

Instead, the Elk Grove resident grabbed his glove and tried FastballBSF, a mashup of baseball and softball that’s taking off in the Central Valley. 

“Any fat guy, skinny guy, or non-athletic guy could go out and play softball,” said Huizar.  “I just got kind of tired of it.  When [FastballBSF] came out, it was just more competitive.”

Here’s how it works: Fastball players use wooden bats, pitchers only throw fastballs and teams face off on softball fields, which are smaller than traditional baseball diamonds.  Games have a one-hour time limit, which means they never last beyond five or six innings.

That makes Fastball more appealing than baseball for some athletes, said Val Lewis, one of the sport’s co-founders.

Lewis, who lives in Elk Grove, also started Sacramento’s first men’s amateur baseball league in 1984.  He designed Fastball for ex-ballplayers who missed the diamond but found baseball seasons too demanding and expensive.

“That was one of the reasons it was designed, to bring baseball back into their lives in a time-effective manner and cost–effective manner,” said Lewis, who created Fastball in 2003.

Ball's soft core reduces injuries

Lewis tweaked Fastball in other ways that kept baseball’s basic rules but made it more accessible for weekend warrior-types. 

For starters, the ball looks and feels like a regulation baseball.  But Lewis asked Rawlings, which makes baseballs for Major League Baseball, to design a special ball with a softer core that reduces injuries.

Fastball also has three different leagues based on skill levels. Only in the top level can pitchers throw breaking balls like curves and sliders.

Those rules make the sport less intimidating for players like Ken Chavez, 57, who plays for the Elk Grove Tribe. Chavez pointed out that because teams welcome adults of all ages, batters often face off against younger hurlers who can throw 80 to 90 miles per hour.

Add breaking balls and pitchers might overpower the league, taking away Fastball’s everyman vibe.

“You know it’s going to be a fastball, not a curveball, so you have a fighting chance,” said Chavez.  “It’s mostly young guys who pitch, so it’s a challenge to hit the ball.”

For all the tinkering Lewis did to make Fastball easier, he still wanted to keep things competitive.  His target audience was players like Huizar, who were sick of the beer league atmosphere at softball games and wanted to play baseball instead.

“When you play [Fastball], you get the feel of baseball rather than the feel of softball,” said Lewis.  “It’s a fast-paced energetic game.  It enhances baseball skills because of the quicker reflexes you need, because you’re at those closer distances.”

Defense dominates

From an observer’s standpoint, Fastball is a throwback to professional baseball from the early 20th century—known as the “deadball era”—when there were fewer home runs and defense dominated the game. 

Chavez thinks the softer ball helps keep games close.

“It’s more true to a baseball, but it doesn’t go out [of the park],” he said.  “The game’s more based on defense and pitching.”

The sport has steadily grown more popular since Lewis conceived the idea in 2003.

Leagues have sprung up in California and Colorado, with most teams concentrated in the greater Sacramento area.  Seasons last about two months and culminate with playoffs and a championship game.

Lewis has also organized exhibition games to boost the sport’s profile.  Last week, several teams including a squad from Elk Grove played an exhibition in Folsom. 

Eventually, the sport could include more leagues and tournaments between teams from different states—if Fastball’s popularity continues to surge.  Lewis is hoping the sport catches on nationally like amateur baseball, which has a governing body and plays a yearly World Series tournament.

But for players like Huizar, who ran track in school and never played baseball before trying Fastball, it’s simply a good time.  And the Elk Grove resident gets to team up with his two boys, who both played four seasons of college baseball.

“What made it fun for me is that I play with my sons,” said Huizar.  “That’s probably my biggest draw.”