Arucian Softball League
| Most recent season or competition: 2023 Arucian Softball League Season | |
 | |
| Sport | Softball |
|---|---|
| Founded | April 1, 1946 |
| Commissioner | Pierre Leclerq |
| No. of teams | 12 |
| Countries | Bonaventura Carucere Eldmark Île d'Émeraude Sainte-Chloé Satucin Vinalia |
| Most recent champion(s) | Orlavo Saints (2022) |
| Most titles | Sainte-Geneviève Virgins (12) |
The Arucian Softball League (Gaullican: Ligue de Softball Arucien), known as the LSA or ASL, is a professional softball organisation based in Sainte-Chloé. Since 2009, the League has had twelve franchises across six countries, with five in Sainte-Chloé, two in Eldmark, and one in Bonaventura, Carucere, Île d'Émeraude, Satucin and most recently Vinalia. Two teams historically existed in Imagua and the Assimas, but closed or moved to other countries.
Founded in 1946, the League was envisioned to be the women's counterpart of the Arucian Baseball League, using the sport of softball which was popular with women's teams at the time. Despite early financial troubles, funding issues and the closing of franchises in other former areas of the United Provinces, the League became popular on the island of Sainte-Chloé as a popular baseball off-season sport, and also developed a following on Bonaventura and Carucere. Overtime, new expansion efforts saw some successes and some failures, but gradually was able to spread from the three original core countries in the Western Arucian to many of the countries surrounding the Arucian.
The teams are divided into three largely geographical divisions, each containing four teams. The best performing team of each division, in addition the team from the remaining eight with the best record following the three, get to participate in the playoffs. The two teams which win in the first round of the playoffs go onto the Arucian Championship, which is the chief title a team can take in the League. Since the foundation of the League in 1946, there have been seventy-six Arucian Championships. The Sainte-Geneviève Virgins hold a record 12 Championships, although have fewer appearances than the 20 of the Sainte-Chloé Lady Imperials, Sermoni Victory and Jameston Pelicans. The most recent Champions are the Orlavo Saints, who won the 2022 title and are also the league's newest team.
To this day, it remains a popular sport in several countries. In Sainte-Chloé, it competes for the country's secondary major team sport, clearly behind baseball but competing with Arucian Football for popularity. The ASL works in close coordination with the ABL and its efforts, sponsoring programs to promote the playing of Softball around the Arucian. The League has its own minor leagues, although not as extensive as the baseball ones, and coordinates in regular international events with other major softball leagues around the world, such as the one in Senria.
Name
The name of the league was inspired by the Arucian Baseball League, as part of the goal behind the league was to create a counterpart of the ABL. The name gave legitimacy to the new organisation, and also allowed it to be international in nature, not just limited to the island of Sainte-Chloé. Although for the ABL, the name "Arucian" came from a name of the old colonial Viceroyalty of the New Aurean due to its position in the Arucian Sea, the word "Arucian" had been used for the Arucian Federation and was a common adjective used for the islands of the United Provinces. The word "Softball" is a direct loanword from the Estmerish word for the sport, due to the influence on the development of softball in Rizealand.
History
The sport of softball was invented in Rizealand in the late 18th century. Very quickly, baseball enthusiasts brought the idea of indoor baseball or baseball with a much larger ball to the island of Sainte-Chloé, where fans of baseball appreciated the more casual and more relaxed play because of the larger ball size. No standardised version of the sport existed until the early 20th century, as various forms of the same general game existed. Most notably, because it was seen as more laid back, it became seen as socially acceptable for both women and men to play the sport, while for baseball women were strongly discouraged from playing. By the 1890s, some girls' Holisitique schools already used an early version of the sport as a recreational activity.
There were a lot of variations upon the game, but as the sport became more standardised in Rizealand, many places on the island followed suit. Variant forms largely survived in casual play for local clubs, and still exist in certain areas of the island, but the adoption of the sport of "softball" became more standardised over the course of the early 20th century. Both men and women's clubs participated in barnstorming, although there was not enough resources to put together a full league on the level of the well-established Arucian Baseball League. Because the ABL already dominated the months from October to April, playing of softball from more dedicated clubs tended to happen during the other months of the year, so as not to infringe upon the development of the League. As time progressed, the most popular teams across the island playing softball were comprised of women, making the sport increasingly associated with women, although men still continued to play it casually.
Following the creation of the United Provinces in 1945 and the expansion of the ABL onto the other islands, an idea came to follow upon its success to create another league dedicated to Softball, as a women's sport to play across the states of a United Arucian. Six clubs formed the new Arucian Softball League in 1946, Including three from Sainte-Chloé (the Sainte-Chloé Lady Imperials, Sainte-Geneviève Virgins and Éclair Heroines), one from Imagua (the Nua Taois Queens), one from Carucere (the Jameston Pelicans) and one from Bonaventura (the Sermoni Victory). The first few years of the league were rough, as they did not have the resources that the ABL had, and eventually the Queens were forced to cease operations in 1952. However, the League survived and eventually the teams began to steadily grow interest in the sport. The League gradually expanded, although several expansion teams would close due to financial difficulties.
The two biggest organisational changes to the league occured in 1977 and in 2001. In 1977, just over 30 years of playing, the league expanded into two divisions (West and East), and expanded the playoffs from two teams to four teams. At the time, this meant half of the league made it to the playoffs, but would make more sense when the division size increased over the following decades. By 2001, the league had expanded to twelve teams, warranting another reorganisation of the league into three divisions rather than two, and reducing the wild-card to only one spot. Since this reorganisation, the league has largely followed this model, although the collapse of the Bastions in 2007 left a one-year gap where the East was unbalanced until the introduction of the Orlavo Saints in 2009. With the expansion into Vinalia, the league reached a grand total of seven countries, making it almost as multi-national as its male counterpart.
Organisation
Executive
Teams
| Division | Logo | Team | City | Country | Stadium | Founded | Joined | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West | File:Sport Club Internacional 2008 Crest.svg | Sainte-Chloé Lady Imperials | Port de la Sainte |  Sainte-Chloé
|
1943 | 1946 | Known in Gaullican as the Impériales, they share a common ownership with their ABL counterpart, the Imperials. | ||
|
Canicule Contraltos | Canicule | Sainte-Chloé
|
1977 | |||||
|
Éclair Heroines | Éclair | Sainte-Chloé
|
1937 | 1946 | Named after Saint Chloé, who was titled the "Heroine of Sotirianity". | |||
| File:Hvksurf.png | Hammarvik Surf | Hammarvik | File:Eldmark.png Eldmark | 1992 | |||||
| Central | 
|
Tranquille Lambs | Tranquille | Sainte-Chloé
|
1952 | Team initial is "A" for agneaux. Joined the league after the collapse of Imagua's team to restore the league to six teams. | |||
|
Sainte-Geneviève Virgins | Sainte-Geneviève | Sainte-Chloé
|
1928 | 1946 | One of the earliest and most popular barnstorming teams. Named after their patroness, St. Genevieve, in honour of her consecrated virginity. | |||
| File:Gronsundbatteri.png | Grönsund Battery | Grönsund | File:Eldmark.png Eldmark | 1992 | 2006 | Formerly the San Pietro Mondine before moving to Eldmark in 2006. | |||
|
Jameston Pelicans | Jameston |  Carucere
|
1946 | |||||
| East | 
|
Sermoni Victory | Sermoni |  Bonaventure
|
1946 | ||||
|
Port-au-Grégoire Angels | Port-au-Grégoire |  Île d'Émeraude
|
2001 | In reference to their LBA counterparts, the Robins, being renamed after Robin Gautier in 1985, the Angels were named after Robin's wife Peggy Morel-Gautier, who was nicknamed "Angel" | ||||
|
Arac Cats | Arac |  Satucin
|
2001 | |||||
|
Orlavo Saints | Orlavo |  Vinalia
|
2009 | The team's mascot is the Quetzal, an important bird for Vinalia. | ||||
Defunct Teams
- Nua Taois Queens (Imagua, 1946-1952)
- Decouverte Lionesses (Sainte-Chloé, 1955-1966)
- Appanno Explorers (Bonaventura, 1977-1983)
- Escalade Express (Sainte-Chloé, 1985-1989)
- San Pietro Mondine (Imagua, 1992-2006)
- Trinite Bastions (Sainte-Chloé, 1997-2007)
Season Structure
| Arucian Championship Records | ||||
| Team | Number won |
Last won |
Number played | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Geneviève Virgins | 12 | 2017 | 19 | |
| Sainte-Chloé Lady Imperials | 11 | 2018 | 20 | |
| Sermoni Victory | 11 | 2016 | 20 | |
| Jameston Pelicans | 11 | 2015 | 20 | |
| Tranquille Lambs | 6 | 2001 | 15 | |
| Canicule Contraltos | 6 | 2021 | 11 | |
| Éclair Heroines | 4 | 1965 | 10 | |
| Hammarvik Surf | 4 | 2019 | 7 | |
| Grönsund Battery† | 3 | 2020 | 8 | |
| Port-au-Grégoire Angels | 3 | 2014 | 5 | |
| Arac Cats | 2 | 2011 | 5 | |
| Nua Taois Queens‡ | 1 | 1949 | 2 | |
| Orlavo Saints | 1 | 2022 | 1 | |
| Decouverte Lionesses‡ | 0 | 2 | ||
| Appanno Explorers‡ | 0 | 1 | ||
| Escalade Express‡ | 0 | 1 | ||
| † Totals include a team's record in a previous city or under another name. | ||||
| ‡ Team is no longer currently active. | ||||
The Season goes from early May, beginning on the first monday of the month (though never before Low Sunday) and continues through late August. The season usually is 75 games, with significantly more breaks than the ABL. Playoffs occur in the month of September. Each team plays a total of 51 games (17 games each) against members of their division, and 24 games (3 games each) against members of other divisions, thus playing each team in the league at least once. Due to rainy conditions, the league is notable for playing both outdoor and indoor games, although outdoor is the ideal condition.
Playoffs
Each division winner proceeds to the playoffs, together with the team with the best record (the "wild card"), forming a four-team playoffs. The number one seed plays the wild card in a best of seven series, while the number 2 and 3 seeds play each other with the same number of games. The winners proceed to go on to the Arucian Championship, a title used to avoid conflict with the Arucian Series or the Arucian Cup. The Championship is the best out of seven as well.