After controversy following the cancellation of the Championship Final game this past Sunday there is a release on Profastpich.com from National Pro Fastpitch Commissioner Cheri Kempf who is planning on formin a committee to review the post season policies for future years.
See here from Profastpitch.com:
“National Pro Fastpitch Commissioner Cheri Kempf today announced the planned formation of a committee to look at the league’s post-season policies and procedures. The new committee will examine the rules and guidelines in place in other leagues, as well as the unique conditions under which NPF operates.
“First and foremost, we want to apologize to all the NPF fans who have supported their teams through the exciting season. We were all deeply disappointed by Sunday’s unfortunate weather-related cancellations of the final game(s) of the league’s three-game championship Final Series,” said Commissioner Kempf. “We want to make sure that this never happens again. Nothing is more important to us than the integrity of the league and its championship and we’ll be working with our owners, board of advisors and outsiders to look at best practices across other professional leagues.”
Kempf expects the committee to be in place in the next 30 days and to have findings and recommendations by the end of the year.”
The Commissioner went on to comment in a personal release later to discuss the events that occurred on Sunday surrounding Game 8. Read more below and on profastpitch.com:
“To All NPF Fans and Followers…I apologize for the delay in posting a comment. I know there were many concerned fans and followers of NPF that were eager to read or hear an issued statement. As you can imagine, there were many things that begged attention in the last 48 hours and it was my priority to address players and owners before moving forward with additional duties. I deeply regret our inability to complete the Championship Series. Like all of you, I am a softball fan at heart and was eager, after seeing the first 3 days of spectacular competition showcased by our talented players, to see the final day of action unfold. I was also eager to share the experience with a worldwide audience through ESPN2. It is a great loss to our teams, players, owners, and of course all of you, the fans of professional softball, to lose our final day of competition due to rain.
Enough has been said through various media outlets about the events that unfolded and the reasoning behind the decisions. I do not plan to re-hash all or any of those details. The one thing I want to state clearly is the fact that I have no doubt in my mind that every single player on both teams competing wanted to complete the Championship Series as it was formatted in a best of three series. Any implication or interpretation that I ever thought otherwise is simply untrue. I am constantly inspired by the competitive spirit of our players, among other qualities. Further, as in any business, there is time for disgruntlement and disagreement. In spite of those occurrences, I have the utmost respect for the owners that sacrifice their time, efforts, energy, and money in pursuit of making this League a viable career option for professional softball players for generations to come.
It is important now to move forward and that is what we are doing. We recently released a statement regarding the formation of a committee to review Championship Series policies to avoid any situations similar to this in the future. We have also issued a statement regarding refunds for the Sunday game(s). All of that can be found on our website at http://www.profastpitch.com .
For three days, the Championship Series was an incredible event. Our players, on all four teams, did not disappoint as they displayed their spectacular talents with the passion we are used to seeing from NPF athletes. The outcry of concern for the ending of the Series is a reflection of how dedicated and attached each of you are to professional fastpitch. That speaks well for the NPF. I understand the disappointment of so many, including players, fans, coaches and staff. I assure you we are working on planning that will improve this situation and the outcome in the future. I hope you will join me in looking forward to the 2013 season being bigger and better than ever.
Sincerely,
Cheri Kempf
Commissioner
NPF”
About NPF:
National Pro Fastpitch is headquartered in Nashville, TN. The league, created to give elite female fastpitch players the opportunity to pursue a professional career in their chosen sport, has operated since 1997 under the names of Women’s Pro Fastpitch (WPF) and Women’s Pro Softball League (WPSL). NPF is the Official Development Partner of Major League Baseball in the category of women’s fastpitch softball since 2002.
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