The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) has many important responsibilities as the national governing body of softball in the United States, including regulating competition to insure fairness and equal opportunity to the millions of players who annually plaly the sport.
When the ASA entered the softball picture in 1933, the sport was in a state of confusion, with no unified set of playing relues and no national governing body to provide guidance and stability. The ASA changed all that by adopting softball's first universally accepted rules of play and by organizing consistent and fair competition across the nation.
From the beginning, the ASA has become one of the nation's largest and fastest growing sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every stae through a network of over 90 state and metro associations.
The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 230,000 teams and 42,000 umpires representing a membership of more than four million.
Purpose
The purpose of the Amateur Softball Association:
To promote softball for all persons, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin or ancestry.
To establish uniform softball rules and regulations.
To provide the sport with proper safegaurds in accordance with the spirit of true sportsmanship and establish principles for ethical behavior.
To encourage the union of all eligible teams, organizations or groups into active memverships in ASA, with the united purpose of advancing the sport of softball.
To establish and maintain, by allied membership, alliance with non-profit associations or organizations devoted to the promotion and development of the game of softball on a state, regional or national level.
To promote and conduct annual softball championships at the local, state, regional and national levels.
To educate and teach the proper skills and rules of the game by promoting and developing clinics, seminars and training materials.