When Chicago Bandits’ center fielder Emily Friedman suited up to play in the National Pro Fastpitch she thought that after one year she’d had her fun and was done. “Just after my first year I was like, ‘oh that was a great experience,’ but I wasn’t planning on coming back,” said Friedman. Four years down the road and the five year veteran, “wants to play as long as [she] possibly can.”
Only a handful exist in the league. Those who are so dedicated to the sport of softball that they have kept throwing strikes, stealing bases and hitting home runs in the NPF for five years or more. With meager pay and a strenuous season that includes long stints on the road and consecutive five game series, it seems like quite a feat for an NPF athlete to keep coming back year after year. Of the 75 athletes that currently play in the league only 15 of them have been in the NPF for five or more years (that’s only 1/5th of the league). And yet, something is bringing these committed athletes back for more softball action every year.
Written by Grace Weitz
Photo of Emily Friedman by Dina Kwit
With an average salary ranging between $5,500-15,000 for the three months from June to August that the season lasts, players have different motivational factors behind staying in the league.
“[I do it] just for the love of the game and wanting to play,” said Friedman, who played with the Philadelphia Force for four years before joining the Bandits prior to the 2010 season. “Nobody is playing in the NPF for the money…so really to be a part of something developing and growing that will hopefully soon be a year-round full time career is awesome to me.”
Bandits’ pitcher, Jessica Sallinger, who is the only other five-year veteran on the team, besides Jennie Finch, says that she stays in the league for the level of competition. “I’ve played internationally and there’s nothing like the competition in the NPF. They’re definitely the best,” said Sallinger. “You make good connections softball wise, it’s fun, and we have a great time.”
Although the competition in the NPF is top notch, the players only get three months out of the year to showcase their talent.
“For probably 95 percent of other professional leagues [playing] is a year round thing and it’s really tough especially as you get older and you want to make a name for yourself,” said Sallinger.
Friedman agrees that the NPF’s short season is a major reason why players don’t stay for an extended period of time. A lot of the players have coaching careers that take up the bulk of the year, and if the players are not coaching it can be hard to find a job that will give them time off during the summer to play professional softball
“[We] have jobs during the year instead of careers,” said Friedman. “We’re all driven and we’re all capable and talented people, but we also want [careers] in our lives as well. The goal is to get it to the point where this is year-round and our job is to stay in shape and continue to develop as athletes, but right now all of us are doing something else September through May.”
Along with the need to create a career, Bandit’s assistant coach Mike Steuerwald cites families and the rigor of the schedule as reasons why players exit the league early.
“They don’t make a lot of money, so these girls are coming off their coaching or other jobs in the school year and jumping into the season, spending eight or 12 weeks on the road all summer playing, and living out of hotels,” said Steuerwald. “You really have to have a love for the game if you want to do it a long time.”
Being on the road and playing professionally certainly does take a toll on the body.
For Friedman, whose teammates jokingly call her grandma because she’s been in the NPF for so long, she says she honestly still feels good.
“As I’ve gotten older I’ve figured out my body a little more and how to be more efficient,” said Friedman. “Also one of the big things for me…is that I’ve started eating a lot better and putting the right things in my body.”
Similarly, Sallinger, who became a vegetarian a few years ago, cites her eating habits as a legitimate reasons why her body is still healthy enough to play.
Coach Steuerwald believes that both Sallinger and Friedman could last in the league a little longer.
“[Friedman] keeps herself in great shape, so, physically, if she wants to keep playing this games she’s got a few more years,” said Coach Steuerwald, “[While Salllinger] can last in this league a long time because she throws strikes.”
Whether or not Friedman or Sallinger actually stay in the league for a few more years, they both say, is up in the air.
When the time does come for Friedman to hang up her cleats as a player she says her passion for the sport won’t end with her playing career. Not only has Friedman established her own softball company, Gloveworks, which provides clinics and professional instruction for aspiring young girls, but this fall she will be entering her third year as the assistant softball coach at Fordham University in New York City, N.Y.
“My passion is with coaching,” said Friedman. “I walk away every year with a handful of things that I believe in and I carry over into my work.”
Sallinger is equally interested in continuing her softball career outside of the pitching circle. While she is currently an assistant coach at Tiffin University in Ohio, Sallinger’s dream job is to open a fastpitch academy, where girls cannot only learn how to play the game, but also receive help during college recruiting. Sallinger says that when it came to the college recruiting process she didn’t really know how to get her name out there.
It’s important to Sallinger, who lives by a park back home where all of the younger softball teams have named themselves the Bandits, to be a role model for girls in her community.
“[I want to] make sure these girls have the opportunity to get scholarships and go on and play at the collegiate level,” said Sallinger.
Whether its the desire to be a role model, a love of the game, the competition, or just wanting to play the sport longer than college, something has kept Friedman and Sallinger throwing balls and swinging the bats, making them true veterans of the NPF.