SAN DIEGO – A lot has changed since a handful of gay and lesbian San Diegans began organized play and formed America’s Finest City Softball League (AFCSL) in 1981.

Raiders of the Lost Ark discovered gold at the box office. Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” went to number one. On June 5 of that year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported five gay men in Los Angeles were suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with failing immune systems.

A lot has changed, indeed. But there to mark the time for thousands of GLBT athletes has been softball.

On Sunday, March 25, the AFCSL began its 26th season of play, as vibrant as ever. Never only about a game, San Diego’s gay and lesbian softball league always placed importance on being welcoming to everyone, regardless of skill, gender or sexual orientation.

AFCSL games are as much social events as sporting events.

While certainly an institution for athletes, the AFCSL is hardly a unique organization. In fact, it is but one of 56 gay softball leagues in 35 cities across North America, ranging from Vancouver to Ft. Lauderdale.

These leagues are actually governed by a larger national organization, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA). This umbrella group was founded in 1977 and sets guidelines for players, adopts rules of play and provides a framework for new leagues to join.

Teams in each city start the season with the hope of reaching the Gay Softball World Series, a week-long championship tournament held each year in a different member city. San Diego has twice hosted the event, once in 1997 and again in 2005.

But to make it to the series, teams must first win their division, and divisions are determined by skill level. The A division is for the most skilled players, and D is for new players still developing fundamentals. Divisions B and C fall somewhere in between.

While the formula is complicated for determining in what division players and teams should compete, the objectives couldn’t be plainer: Have fun and make as many friends as you can.

It is precisely these goals that drove more than 400 players to lace up their cleats this year.

League players are truly a cross-section of our community. They are straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, closeted, out, White, Hispanic, Black, Asian, younger, older, single and married. Some wear white collars to work, many wear blue.

It appears at times, whatever a player’s life experience, they will find peers on their own team who can relate. This camaraderie is precisely what makes the League so popular.

The league has grown in recent years and has had to find larger venues for its games.

For many years, games were played at quaint Tidelands Park in Coronado. There were only three fields for softball, but scheduling the 15 or 16 teams that existed at the time wasn’t a challenge.

However, with unprecedented growth, the tiny park by the water became impractical. Boasting more than 40 teams in later years, the league now monopolizes two entire complexes for its games on Sundays, Hourglass Park in Mira Mesa and Sportsplex USA in Poway.

As the league’s roster grew, so too did its expenses. To help keep player fees low, the league reached out to businesses, both straight and gay, to develop strategic partnerships. In exchange for affordable sponsorship fees, the league encourages its players to use the services and buy the products sold by its sponsors.

As in every sports league, many AFCSL sponsors are bars and restaurants. But other businesses too are finding out membership has its privileges: real estate agents, accountants, furniture and apparel stores and even a mobile notary and massage company.

Over the years, the league has worked hard to become an official non-profit organization, which only makes it easier for businesses to participate.

What was once a small league of close friends hoping to provide an outlet for GLBT athletes to “come out” and play ball has become one of the largest and longest-running gay and lesbian organizations in San Diego.

Twenty-six years is a long time, and the world has indeed changed since 1981. It has become smaller and more complicated. But there to mark the passing of time for thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight and transgender San Diegans has been softball. As W.P. Kinsella wrote in Field of Dreams, “This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and could be again.”