Just 10 days before the Fall Ball season for America’s Finest City Softball League (AFCSL) was set to begin, a notice appeared on the league’s Web site (www.afcsl.org) announcing the season was cancelled. The reason: not enough teams to make it viable.

This “lack of interest” may be reasonably explained, but it draws attention to the dwindling numbers in the league, and that may be endemic of a larger problem.

Fall Ball is always a smaller version of Spring competition, and it’s designed to be. But, as of the league’s announcement last week, only about eight teams, less than half of the 17 teams that competed in the earlier Spring season, signaled their intention to play in the Open Division. I believe significant attrition occurred in the Women’s Division as well. No group was hit harder than the Open B division, where five out of the eight teams that played in Spring decided not to return for Fall.

With so few teams participating, league organizers found it impossible to put together a cost-effective schedule that would be worth playing, considering teams pay a registration fee of $250 each.

There are a few reasonable circumstances that could explain this lack of interest.

A few weeks back I wrote a column about the Autumn Classic coming early this year, a San Diego tournament normally held in October, in the middle of Fall Ball. But this year it shared a scheduling conflict with the Gay Softball World Series, so Classic organizers moved it up to August.

Because of their close proximity, many teams would use Fall Ball as “practice” for the Classic, one of the largest gay softball tournaments held annually on the West coast.

This year, however, because the tournament was held prior to Fall Ball, there was little incentive for players to spend the time, energy or money to play.

Also, a lot of gay athletes are also big sports fans.

Fall Ball always coincides with football season, both the NCAA and the NFL – and a lot of softballers are also big Aztec, Aggie, and Chargers fans. (OK, well, maybe not as many Aztec fans as Aggies!)

The AFCSL plays its games on Sundays. It just so happens LaDainian Tomlinson plays with his friends on Sundays and the Chargers happen to be playing better the last couple seasons than they have in more than a decade.

This may sound like a stretch, but believe me, part of the lack of interest in Fall Ball could actually be related to the expected success of the Chargers. Some people would simply rather watch the Chargers than play another season of softball.

I know I’ll be watching their season opener against the NFC Champion Bears this Sunday.

But whether it’s the Chargers or there not being a tournament teams can practice for, the first cancellation of the now 10-year-old Fall Ball season, might be a sign of a bigger problem for the AFCSL: shrinking membership.

For a few years now the league has noticed its rosters declining.

While new players come to the league every season, they haven’t been in numbers large enough to make up for those who leave at the end of every season.

Some players move away, some move on to other sports and still others find that softball isn’t really for them.

Who knows for sure how long the “average” player stays in the league, or if that tenure varies significantly between the Open and Women’s divisions? But one thing is clear: Unlike in years past, the AFCSL is not the only game in town, literally.

It used to be if you wanted to be active in gay sports you had few options. You could run with Front Runners, you could bowl, play tennis, or you could play softball. That was really about it. Since then, both the number of gay sports leagues and the number of people playing have multiplied.

Take for instance the flag football league (www.sdffl.org). When it first started, it had barely enough members to fill out four teams. Now there are eight, each carrying about 15 players and many of them used to play softball.

Perhaps more damning is the fact that one of the teams playing gay Team Tennis (www.sdtf.org) is captained by a former softball league commissioner, George Biagi. One of his teammates is another past commissioner, Jim Costello.

That’s two of the last three softball commissioners who are now playing a sport other than softball.

You can forgive Biagi and Costello. They are two men who each played softball for more than 15 years and needed a change of scenery. But however reasonable their departure from the league is, it is still notable.

At its peak, just five or six years ago, AFCSL boasted more than 40 teams and monopolized two entire softball complexes on Sundays from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. The after-game atmosphere was vibrant, with many teams going to bars and restaurants to revel in their victories or agonize in their defeats. In those halcyon days, softball was a community, with players interacting with other teams. But that doesn’t happen much anymore, and it’s really kind of sad.

Perhaps the league grew too big, too fast, and the arrival of new personalities forced the league into a new and different direction that isn’t as player or sponsor friendly as in years past.

Maybe the attrition is due to the level of intense politicking managers now must engage in just to keep their teams together.

Personally, as a former league board member for 3 years and a player/coach for more than 12, my unsolicited opinion is that the AFCSL’s declining membership can’t be pinned to any one cause, but instead is the result of a combination of factors that include, among other things, when the league schedules its games and what is, in my opinion, a player ratings system that’s out of sync with other leagues in Southern California.

I also think it may not be such a bad idea for the league to take a season off, to be honest.

There are two new commissioners coming into office in November, and a whole spate of other new board members. Perhaps the break will provide the opportunity to strategize and create ways to potentially revitalize the league. Their job won’t be easy, I can tell you.

Part of my job, when I was on the board all those years ago, was to recruit new players to the league. I tried everything I knew, and I failed miserably.

This column is going to get me into a lot of trouble, I’m pretty sure; so in an attempt to mitigate that just a bit, I should mention here that the league is still an incredibly vibrant, financially solvent institution run by caring and dedicated volunteers who are all wonderful people who genuinely try their best, and very often succeed. I have the same respect for each member of the incoming board as well.

I should also say the Spring 2008 season will likely be one of the largest gay softball seasons in the country. In other words, the AFCSL is by no means in any kind of danger of folding any time soon. Even though the teams are down to only about 30, that’s still double what you’ll find in many other cities.

But the league has been shrinking over the past years, for better or for worse. But maybe, just maybe, all the new board needs to do to return the league to its former glory is to make a simple reminder to each and every one of its players and managers.

Every organization is only as vibrant and alive as its members who participate.