USA in finals of softball World Cup

The U.S. and Japan will face off in the finals of the World Cup of Softball tonight (Monday) at 6 p.m. PST on ESPN2.

To my two readers out there, I ask you to watch tonight. You won’t be disappointed.

Softball moves at a much faster pace than baseball and the games are shorter, making them more exciting (7 innings instead of 9, and no annoying pickoff throws to first base). Defense matters more than it does in baseball, because the bases are only 60 feet apart, runners get to first so much faster.

The women playing for the U.S. are obviously the best in the world and for those of you watch the Women’s College World Series, almost all of them played in it.

The championship game should be a classic — this is the third consecutive year that these two teams have met at the finals of the World Cup (the U.S. won last year, Japan in 2005).

I wonder what will happen to this sport after 2008, when softball is not in the Olympics anymore. What a shame.