This year was the 39th. annual Dayton National Police Championship Softball Tournament and once again it did not disappoint. After an early second-round loss to the defending champion Minnesota Lawmen — rated No. 8 in the East Coast rankings — Ohio rattled off six wins while facing elimination to again face Minnesota in the finals of the 2010 National Police Softball Championship. Coming out of the loser’s bracket, Ohio then needed to win two games against Minnesota in order to secure the championship. That’s what it did. Taking Games 1 and 2 by a score of 18-12 and 25-15, Ohio won its first police softball national championship since 1972 on Sunday, July 11, at Vic Lyons Field (known as “The Hill”).

Zephyr Cove, NV.-------- Another tremendous 3 days of Softball up in 7,250 feet altitude with bright sunny skies all weekend. Tempatures averaged 85 degrees. Bracket play began on Friday in both "A" and "B" Flights with Alliance,Stanislaus, Hardcore and Concord winning their respective Brackets in A Flight and Santa Cruz, Butte County, So-Cal Beach Bums and Folsom J-Cats winning their brackets in B Flight. There were a total of 8 one-run games in bracket play. Friday Nite included a homerun derby which had a showdown between Paul Blandford and Chad Johnson of Hardcore for the title of HR King. Paul outlasted Chad in the final round and won the Brett Helmer Easton bat. Mike McMorrow of DEA( Played with LAPD) finished third. The HR derby raised $620 dollars which was donated by the tournament to two different causes, The Stepon Gray Memorial Fund to help new cadets into the Police Academy in Merced.Ca and to our brother in New York,The Bryan Bangs Foundation. Friday nite concluded with 3 more softball games under the lights at Zephyr Cove.

The weekend was long and hot but at least it didn't rain. Because of the weather the infields were very hard but all who played made the most of the field conditions.The Shamrocks and The Steel City Enforcers met in the championship game in the Gold Division but before they got there both teams had to go through very strong teams. The Shamrocks were the #1 seed and they opened up against the #8 seed which were The Steel City Enforcers. The Shamrocks beat The Steel City Enforcers in the opening game and then they went on to play and beat Montgomery County Young Gunz and Maryland State Police. After losing to The Shamrocks; The Steel City Enforcers had to go on to play Worcester Police Department, Team Jersey, Montgomery County Young Gunz and Maryland State Police.

The ‘SA Law’ softball team comprised of San Antonio officers entered the 2010 Texas Police Games in Brownsville, TX with the bitter memory of our miserable 2009 performance. This year was different and members of the team understood their purpose and goal. Win at all cost and prove to other state agencies that ‘SA Law Softball’ was back and stronger than ever.

The NorCal Mid-summer classic was a great tournament and was pre-designated by 3N2 as a “3N2MVP Tournament”. After the dust settled, two players whose names are pretty well known to police softball were named 3N2 MVPs. The award winners are:Mark “Tolly” Tolliver, who is a former West Coast Player of the Year award winner was his usual self on the bump, tying up batters with precision pitching and shutting down the middle. At this tourney, Tolly’s offense was what stood out as he led the team with an .875 average and had some key HR’s.

The Sacramento Sheriff Razorbacks and NorCal Choir Boys co-hosted one of the most important tournaments of the year this past weekend. The NorCal Mid-Summer Classic was played out in the Sacramento suburb of Lincoln at the beautiful Foskett Regional Park softball complex and twenty of California’s top teams participated in the event. Several factors elevated the status of this tournament including the following:Six (6) World Series berths would be awarded to the top finishers who had not already qualified.It was the first ever law enforcement manufacturer provided bat challenge. Each field had a variety of bats from the top manufacturers to choose from. Since the bats were the same for everyone, there would be no allegations of altered bats or cheating.

To commemorate the 2010 season and a new decade of LEO softball, PoliceSoftball.com plans on naming their All-Time Police Softball Team. This announcement will be made at or just prior to the 2010 World Series. It is PoliceSoftball.com’s intention to name one of these teams every 10 years as the passage of time will surely adjust the make up of the team. As when MLB named the All-Century team, there will be some great players and Hall of Famers left off the list. That is one of the biggest difficulties in creating this team. Another difficulty will be putting word of mouth, legend, myth and eye witness accounts into the proper context of ability. Because there are so many great players, this team may have some players playing out of the position they typically played in. For example, there may be two great shortstops considered and both of them may be better than the second baseman considered. For the purposes of this team, it will be comprised of what PoliceSoftball.com thinks the best All-Time team would be.Furthermore, great players of today in their prime may be overlooked or passed on because he will not have the breadth of a career that others may have. Those players will surely be considered when we do this again in 2020. To create this team, we have been scouting, listening, reading and taking in all the information we can. As this year goes on, we will be speaking to many people who we think can give us an accurate assessment of this team. We will continue to do this right up until the team is announced.We plan on documenting this team in the 2010 World Series area of the PoliceSoftball.com where it can be permanently viewed. In addition to naming the All-Time team, PoliceSoftball.com will revive their annual naming of an All-National team.

At last years World Series we asked that all Hall of Fame members in attendance come out on the field and welcome the newest inductees into that exclusive club. This year the World Series will be moving to Las Vegas Nevada and we are expecting the biggest turnout ever in terms of Hall of Fame members being present. To honor and pay homage to our Hall of Famer’s we are planning on a 4-5 inning Hall of Fame exhibition game between the East and West Hall of Fame Squads. All Hall of Fame members are invited to participate in the game. Coaching duties will be handled by our Hall of Fame committees and this game should be a great way to honor our Hall of Fame members and add some fun to our night.

The off season is about to come to an end for PS.com and it is time for us to get back to work. First off is the rosters. Please submit your team rosters to us in an E mail, Private Message, or best of all, post them yourselves in the Roster area of the PS.com Message Board. Roster are very simple. All we care about for our purposes is: Name (First name and last initial), Agency (Agency you are employed by), Basic Job Description (Police Officer, Correctional Officer, Probation Officer or Parole Officer---WE DO NOT WANT SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENT) and the State in which you are employed. (Even if it is obvious, please add it)

Over the past 6 years the World Series has evolved into a bigger event than we first imagined, and in order to continue to produce a high quality event it is unfortunately necessary to limit the number of participating teams. As always we want every team to get a fair and enjoyable experience, which will continue to include 2 round robin/seeding games and then a blind-draw double elimination playoff format. Based on field availability we have determined our cap will be 39 teams in the Platinum division and 15 teams in the Gold division (total of 54 teams). Schedules for both divisions will be intertwined and will span over the same three day period. This will ensure that everyone can enjoy the same experience. The ONLY thing differentiating the two divisions will be the opponents. The championship games for both divisions will be played on late Sunday afternoon/early evening.

As just announced, World Series VI will be held in Las Vegas Nevada. The Las Vegas Big League Dreams is a new facility with 6 replica fields versus the 5 fields (3 replica/2 minor league) we had in Palm Springs. The extra field will give teams the chance to play every game on a replica stadium, but it will also allow us the opportunity to start slightly later and end slightly earlier on most game days. A big change for World Series VI will be the Platinum and Gold Divisions. The Platinum Division will feature 39 teams and the Gold Division will feature 15 teams. Both divisions will play two games in round robin which will seed them into a double elimination format. Both divisions will also play all three days and the games will be intertwined so every player has a similar experience. What does this mean? This means the games just got that much tighter for the 39 teams in the Platinum Division. It also means it will be a dogfight for the 15 teams in the Gold Division. Nobody should plan on booking flights too early on Sunday because there will be a lot of teams slugging it out on Sunday morning/afternoon. Both winning teams will have their picture grace the home page of PS.com for the following year.