BACK AT THE SAMARANCH...

Talk about adding a heavy hitter. The people working to get women's fastpitch (or "softball") back into the Olympics for 2016 have Juan Antonio Samaranch advocating on their behalf.

Samaranch is chairing the International Softball Federation's task force on coming up with a pitch to the IOC on reinstating softball. If the all-time International Olympic Committee kingpin can't convince the IOC that fastpitch — which competitive teams hailing from the Caribbean, North America, China and Australia (but notably, not Europe) — belongs in the Summer Games, then who else could?

Speaking of which, kudos to an athlete from the old Simcoe Reformer beat: infielder Megan Timpf (pictured) of Port Dover, Ont., has been selected to Team Canada for the Pan-Am Games (July 23-30, Rio de Janeiro) and the World University Games (Aug. 8-18, Bangkok). Canada already qualified for the '08 Olympics by finishing fifth at the worlds in Beijing last year.

Meantime, here's hoping Samaranch and the ISF succeed. It's a shame it's going to leave some great ballplayers with a hole in their careers since it may end up at best being eight years between Olympic tournaments.