The 2000 Women's Professional Softball League season was the fourth season of professional women's fastpitch softball for the league named Women's Professional Softball League (WPSL). It was the WPSL's final season until the league relaunched in 2004 under the name

National Pro Fastpitch National Pro Fastpitch (NPF), formerly the Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL), was a professional women's softball league in the United States. The teams battled for the Cowles Cup. The WPSL was founded in 1997 and folded in 2001; the NPF revive ...

. In 1997 and 1998, WPSL operated under the name Women's Pro Fastpitch (WPF).

Teams, cities and stadiums

Milestones and Events

In October 1999, the WPSL announced a restructuring plan to consolidate the league and to facilitate a tour between the league's teams and the USA Softball Women's National Team. The plan was to take the 1999 roster of teams (

Akron Racers The Akron Racers were a women's softball team based in Akron, Ohio. They have moved to Cleveland and been renamed the Cleveland Comets in 2018. The team was started by Joey Arietta in 1999 to participate in the Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL). ...

Carolina Diamonds The Carolina Diamonds, formerly known as the NPF Diamonds, Tennessee Diamonds, Rockford Thunder and Texas Thunder, was a women's softball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since the 2004 season, they have played as a member of National Pro ...

, Durham Dragons, Georgia Pride,

Tampa Bay FireStix Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

, and

Virginia Roadsters Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are s ...

) and reduce it to two teams in Ohio and two teams in Florida. The tour of exhibition games against team USA was called "From Central Park to Sydney" (the

2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

were played in

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

) and ran from May to September. The WPSL's two Florida teams were revealed as the

Tampa Bay Firestix Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

and Florida Wahoos, and the Ohio teams as the

and Ohio Pride. These locations in Florida and Ohio were intended to be developed as national training centers for fastpitch softball. On October 14, 1999 WPSL suspended operations of the Georgia Pride, Durham Dragons,

, and

. The contracted Roadsters' players were assigned to the newly created Ohio Pride of Akron, Ohio. The contracted Georgia Pride players were assigned to the expansion Florida Wahoos of Plant City, Fla. Tampa Bay FireStix relocated to Plant City Stadium in Plant City, Fla. The players of the Dragons and Diamonds became available for selection in the 2000 WPSL draft.

Player Acquisition

Player Drafts

WPSL held Draft Day 2000 on December 4 at the Tradewinds Resort in St. Petersburg, FL during the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Convention. Three drafts were held: * The 2000 Elite/Supplemental Draft selected players from a pool of players on the rosters of the Dragons and Diamonds, 1999 USA Softball Olympic Trial and Olympic Festival invitees who had completed their collegiate eligibility, and WPSL players who were not on their teams' protected list. The Florida Wahoos selected Fresno State shortstop

Nina Lindenburg Nina may refer to: * Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname Acronyms *National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq *Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology *No income, n ...

as the first elite/supplemental pick. * The 2000 Senior Draft selected from collegiate senior fastpitch players. The Ohio Pride chose Fresno State pitcher

Amanda Scott Amanda is a Latin feminine gerundive (i.e. verbal adjective) name meaning, literally, “she who must (or is fit to) be loved”. Other translations, with similar meaning, could be "deserving to be loved," "worthy of love," or "loved very much b ...

as the first senior pick. * The 2001 National Team Draft drew from the 2000 USA Olympic roster, with the hope the players selected would play in the WPSL in 2001. (However, the WPSL suspended play before the 2001 season.) The Akron Racers selected 1996 Olympic Gold Medal-winning pitcher

Lisa Fernandez Lisa Maria Fernandez (born February 22, 1971) is an American former softball player and current associate head coach at UCLA. She played college softball at UCLA as a pitcher and third baseman, and is a three-time medal winning Olympian with Te ...

as the first overall National Team pick.

Central Park to Sydney tour

As part of the run-up to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, a nine-city tour, called “Central Park to Sydney Tour,” was scheduled between WPSL teams and the USA national softball team. USA pitcher

pitched five straight perfect games, and in one of those games she struck out all 21 batters.

Tour schedule and results

League standings

Sourc

WPSL Championship

The 2000 WPSL Championship Series was held at Meador Park in Springfield, Mo on August 25 and 26. The top two WPSL teams met in a best-of-three series to determine the champion.

Statistical Leaders

WOMEN'S PRO SOFTBALL LEAGUE LEADERS (THROUGH GAMES OF 8/19/00) BATTING TOP 10 (MINIMUM 76 PLATE APPEARANCES) HOME RUNS RBI STOLEN BASES TEAM BATTING TEAM PITCHING PITCHING TOP 10 (MINIMUM 32 IP) WINS SAVES STRIKEOUTS

Annual awards

Source:

WPSL All-Star Team

2000 WPSL All-Star Team roster Head Coach: Cindy Bristow, Florida Wahoos The USA Olympic softball team played a doubleheader against each NPF All-Star Team on July 13. The Olympians swept the games beating the East 5-0, and edging the West 5-3 in 9 innings. The West All-Stars beat the East by a score of 1-0 on July 14. Nancy Evans was named the Most Valuable Player.