Oklahoma City, OK---The Amateur Softball Association is slated for a historic weekend as it launches Softball 360° and begins its weekend series on ESPN featuring the USA Softball Women’s National Team. Softball has never had the exposure it will enjoy this season with Softball 360° covering everything from slow pitch to the women’s national team and the USA Softball squad being featured on ESPN prior to the Olympics and MSNBC during the Olympic Games.
Softball 360°, the newly launched national television series highlighting weekly softball action, kicks-off 18-consecutive weeks of coverage beginning Monday, July 5 at 3:30 p.m. on FOX SPORTS NET. Each show will be replayed at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday’s throughout the season.
“The launch of Softball 360° into the sports media landscape is a groundbreaking opportunity for the ASA,” said Kelly McKeown, ASA’s Director of Marketing. “With the help of our business partners from Easton Sports, Hooters Restaurants, Miller Brewing Company and the additional financing of John Daniels we are able to bring all facets of softball to the millions of players and fans across the country.”
The Amateur Softball Association, Easton Sports and John Daniels joined forces in 2004 to launch Softball 360° to highlight all aspects of the sport of softball. “Softball 360°” programming will feature a news recap segment entitled, “The Inside Look presented by Hooters and the ASA” highlighting softball events from around the country, a “Hey Blue” segment that will break down the rules of the game by ASA officials and an exclusive behind the scenes look at the USA Softball Women’s Olympic Team as they prepare for Athens, Greece.
The “Easton Bomb Squad - 2004 Home Run Challenge” segment will also showcase a home run derby-type competition featuring the biggest hitters from the softball world performing at major league ballparks around the country. “
ESPN has partnered with the ASA to feature the USA Softball Women’s National Team during the ‘Aiming for Athens’ tour. In that agreement, starting on Sunday, July 4, ESPN will showcase Team USA for four consecutive Sunday afternoons at a destination time slot of 1 p.m. EST each week. The final game of the package will air in primetime at 7 p.m. on July 31.
“We are extremely excited that ESPN has decided to expand on our current relationship allowing for the casual sports fan and potentially the corporate decision makers to see what the softball community has known for years-these women are exceptional athletes and ideal role models,” said Kelly McKeown, Director of Marketing for the ASA.
Not only will the games be featured in over 80 million homes across the U.S., but ESPN International has pledged to support the initiative on a global basis. ESPN has also elected to re-air selected games throughout the month of July to give the U.S. team unprecedented coverage leading to Olympic Games.
The complete schedule of USA Softball Women’s National Team games on ESPN and ESPN2 follows:
Date Time (EST) Network
Sunday, July 4 1:00 PM ESPN2
Tuesday, July 6 3:00 PM ESPN
Friday, July 9 3:00 PM ESPN2
Saturday, July 10 8:00 PM ESPN
Sunday, July 11 1:00 PM ESPN2
Wednesday, July 14 2:00 PM ESPN
Sunday, July 18 1:00 PM ESPN2
Friday, July 23 8:00 PM ESPN
Saturday, July 24 3:00 AM ESPN
Sunday, July 25 1:00 PM ESPN
Saturday, July 31 7:00 PM ESPN
About ASA
The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation's largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 91 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 240,000 teams and 40,000 umpires today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit www.asasoftball.com
About USA Softball
USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture back-to-back gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won seven World Championship titles including the last five consecutive. For more information about USA Softball, please visit www.usasoftball.com.
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