The 2008 National Pro Fastpitch season was the fifth season of professional softball 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 ...

(NPF) for the only professional women's fastpitch

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

league in the United States. From 1997 to 2002, NPF operated under the names Women's Pro Fastpitch (WPF) and Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL). Each year, the playoff teams battle for the Cowles Cup.

Teams, cities and stadiums

Milestones and events

The

Chicago Bandits The Chicago Bandits were a women's professional softball team based in Rosemont, Illinois. Since the 2005 season, they have played as a member of National Pro Fastpitch (NPF). The Bandits won the 2008 NPF championship, defeating the Washington ...

started their first season in

Elgin, Illinois Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook and Kane counties in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. Elgin is located northwest of Chicago, along the Fox River. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 114,797, the seventh-large ...

Judson University Judson University is a private Baptist university in Elgin, Illinois. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. Judson was formed out of the liberal arts component of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary. When the seminary moved f ...

. The original plans were for the Bandits to play at Judson temporarily while a potential $5 million softball stadium was built nearby. Those plans did not come to fruition, and the Bandits eventually moved to a new

ballpark A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...

Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Located immediately northwest of Chicago, as of the 2010 census it had a population of 4,202. The village was incorporated in 1956, though it had been settled long before that. Whi ...

for 2011.

Team NPF and Bound-4-Beijing Tour

As part of the USA Softball Team Bound 4 Beijing Tour in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, two games were scheduled between the US Olympic softball team and a team of NPF All-Stars. The announced roster for Team NPF was: NPF veterans

Monica Abbott Monica Cecilia Abbott (born July 28, 1985) is an American professional softball player. Abbott was an All-American pitcher for the Tennessee Lady Volunteers in college before starting a professional career in the NPF and in the Japan Softball ...

Cat Osterman Catherine Leigh Osterman (born April 16, 1983) is a retired American softball player. Osterman pitched on the United States women's national softball team that won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and silver medal at the 2008 and 2020 Su ...

Kelly Kretschman Kelly Sue Kretschman (born August 26, 1979) is an American former nine-time professional All-Star softball outfielder and current head coach for the USSSA Pride of the Women's Professional Fastpitch (WPF). Kretschman played college softball at A ...

Vicky Galindo Victoria Noel Galindo-Piatt (born December 22, 1983), commonly known as Vicky Galindo, is an American, former collegiate All-American, medal-winning Olympian, three-time professional All-Star, softball player and current head coach at West Va ...

and

Jennie Finch Jennie Lynn Finch Daigle (born September 3, 1980) is an American former softball player. She played for the Arizona Wildcats softball team from 1999 to 2002, where she won the 2001 Women's College World Series and was named collegiate All-Amer ...

were on the Olympic team roster. Team NPF was coached by Oklahoma head softball coach

Patty Gasso Patricia Marie Gasso ( née Froehlich; born May 27, 1962) is an American softball coach for the Oklahoma Sooners. She has been the head softball coach at the University of Oklahoma since 1995. She has led the Sooners team to seven national champ ...

and private instructor Cindy Bristow. Bristow was head coach and assistant general manager of the Georgia Pride, which later became the Florida Wahoos, a team in the WPSL. The Olympic team beat Team NPF in both games, on June 6 by a score of 10-8 and on June 14 by a score of 6-0. On the same tour, the US Olympic team beat the

Washington Glory The Washington Glory was a women's softball team based in Fairfax, Virginia. They played during 2007 and 2008 as a member of National Pro Fastpitch. History The Glory won the 2007 NPF championship, defeating the Rockford Thunder in the final ga ...

2-0 on May 10, and beat the

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). ...

6-2 on July 22.

Player acquisition

College draft

The 2008 NPF Senior Draft was held February 18, 2008 via conference call. First-Team All-American pitcher Katie Burkhart of

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

was selected first by the

Philadelphia Force The Philadelphia Force was a women's professional softball team based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. From 2006 to 2009, it played as a member of National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) league until a failed sale in September 2009 put an end to the team on hia ...

Notable transactions

League standings

Source In each NPF team's 48-game schedule were games against international teams, which counted in the standings. Chinese Taipei,

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

each played at least two series against NPF teams.

NPF Championship

The 2008 NPF Championship Series was held at Sunset Point Park in

Kimberly, Wisconsin Kimberly is a village in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 7,320 at the 2020 census. The village is east of Appleton. History Kimberly was originally known as The Cedars (after the Treaty of the Cedars)Herman, Jenn ...

August 21-4. The top four teams qualified and were seeded based on the final standings. The series matched the teams up in a double-elimination bracket.

Annual awards

Source:

References

External links

* Softball teams Nat Softball in the United States 2008 in American women's sports