20 million men and women in this country play softball. On the surface, The SoftballGame is about men and their need for battles. Aggression is as coded in our DNA as is ourneed to reproduce. It is a fun game with laughs recalled from years playing softball. The old storytelleris reluctant to do battle. He tells the confrontation in the first person singular, episode byepisode. The game is a tribal struggle played by redneck, bad guys and middle class,semi-affluent, anti-heroes. Coming to the rescue is Beth - - a woman! Beth reduces the male struggle to a farce. The driving timbre is the storytellersexperiences with three females whose lives are indirectly, obliquely, and directly affectedby his wars at softball. The Softball Game is about these women. Phaedra literally hands the young warrior his first sexual experience. Entering the man world still a child, he meets Bridgette his playtoy. She is atransition to adulthood and the paragon of summer love. Playing at sex with adult bodiesand a childs maturity, they both lose. Then comes Beth. If you read one chapter, it should be 11. There has never been a hero like her.