No Support From U.S.

Upon participating in the recent 2009 Hong Kong Phoenix Cup International Women's Baseball Tournament, my teammates and I learned that every other country that participated in the event received sponsorship support from their respective countries to attend, and they regularly receive support for their women's baseball programs. However, the North American team (at least the players from the U.S.) received nothing and doesn't receive anything to help support the ongoing women's baseball endeavors in this country.

I don't have a problem with paying my own way to participate in any baseball event, but I find it very odd and frustrating that other countries... where baseball may not be quite as popular as it is here... support their women baseball players and women's programs, not only financially, but in other ways as well. Sure, we're not the official national team of the good ole USA, but neither are any of the other teams that just participated in Hong Kong.

In a land that boasts the birth of the modern baseball game and of it being its national pasttime, something isn't quite right here. It says a lot about where our society is right now.