Softball and baseball’s favorite newspaper since 1987

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Coming to the plate for our 22^nd season

Welcome to the 2008 baseball and softball season, and to Let’s Play Softball/Let’s Play Baseball’s 22nd year of publication.

That’s an incredible number, especially when you consider all the sports publications that have gone by the wayside along the way.

But we’ve been with you every step of the way for the past 21 years, and plan to be for 21 more and beyond.

We’ve done in the past only with your help. This is your newspaper. You’re the folks who pick up a copy at any number of locations. You’re the ones who had your calendars planned months ago for the Corky’s, Dudley Early Bird, Fireman’s, Dudley Budweiser Classic, and, hopefully, well beyond into state and national tournaments.

We’ve evolved alongside the game over the years. From the big-time superstars to the statewide powerhouse teams, the past 21 years have brought an array of coverage to the pages of LPS.

With dedicated softball hounds like Don Bowman, our columnist, and Mike Thill, our photographer who gets dozens of calls each week from players who want a copy of his pictures, there’s plenty more in store.

Mostly, we rely on you, the readers, to help spread the word about your teams, leagues and association. Is your team hot, and deserving of some notice in LPS? Let us know. Heck, surveys have shown you’re online 90 percent of the time you’re at work anyway, so drop us a note, let us know how your team fared in the tournament over the weekend. Send us a team photo to go along with it.

Sponsors have been known to really appreciate their players taking the time to get a little extra bang for their bucks with a team photo or tournament report in LPS. But because Minnesota is No. 5 overall and No. 1 per capita in the number of softball teams registered with the various governing bodies, we don’t attempt to cover all the tournaments.

In short, Minnesota is just as crazy for softball in the summer as it is for hockey in the winter. Our flagship publication, Let’s Play Hockey, has taken a similar approach of allowing teams to spread their own word, and we’ll begin Year 37 of that publication later this summer.

As we all know, it’s never taken much to get a softball player to tout. But just do it in writing to editor@ letsplaysoftball.com. We’ll make your copy family-friendly.

As you’ve seen, we’ve also tried to help spread the word about Minnesota baseball in the past few years. From 10-and-under to townball to the Twins, teams have found our publication to the only one of its kind.

Just like we do in Let’s Play Hockey, we encourage all youth baseball teams to email their tournament reports and photos to editor@letsplaysoftball.com.

And because we had so many requests for them, we’ll be back with the only statewide youth baseball rankings in Minnesota. The youth baseball rankings have been a home run, and were yet another reason for a kid to pick up something a read. We’re also in need of youth coaches to help us with the baseball rankings. Let me know if you’re interested at editor@letsplaysoftball.com.

We’ve discovered in recent years that even passionate softball and baseball folks don’t get too fired up about their favorite sport in February or March.

As a result, we’ve wiped out those snow-covered issues from our publishing schedule.

Bring on the sun, bring on the pitch.