The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) is a volunteer, non-profit organization based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was founded in 1933 with a tournament held in Chicago that was organized by Leo Fischer and Michael J. Pauley. The following year the 1934 National Recreation Congress recognized the ASA. Shortly afterward the ASA was located in Newark, New Jersey. A world amateur softball tournament was held by the ASA at Chicago's Soldier Field that started on September 7, 1939. The ASA moved to Oklahoma City on January 1, 1966.
The National Softball Hall of Fame and Museum is operated by the ASA and is located at 2801 NE 50th Street in Oklahoma City.
Since 2005, they have run the World Cup of Softball. ASA Hall of Fame Stadium also hosts the NCAA Women's College World Series and the Big 12 Conference softball championship.
ASA now runs competitions in every state through a network of 76 state and metro associations. It has a membership of over 230,000 teams, with more than 3 million players and 35,000 umpires.
Read more about Amateur Softball Association: National Team Program (USA Softball), ASA Youth Program, ASA Adult Program, Registration and Membership, ASA Championship Tournament Program, ASA Umpire Program, ASA Certified Equipment, National Softball Hall of Fame Museum and Gift Shop, Rule Book, Local ASA Associations
Famous quotes containing the words amateur and/or association:
“I have been reporting club meetings for four years and I am tired of hearing reviews of the books I was brought up on. I am tired of amateur performances at occasions announced to be for purposes either of enjoyment or improvement. I am tired of suffering under the pretense of acquiring culture. I am tired of hearing the word “culture” used so wantonly. I am tired of essays that let no guilty author escape quotation.”
—Josephine Woodward, U.S. author. As quoted in Everyone Was Brave, ch. 3, by William L. O’Neill (1969)
“It is not merely the likeness which is precious ... but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing ... the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think—and it is not at all monstrous in me to say ... that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist’s work ever produced.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)