Police Softball Intra-Agency World Series I (Del Pickney Memorial)

The West Coast Championship began in 2008 as the first ever major provided bat tournament.  It was sponsored by Brett Helmer and quelled all the complaints about “juiced” bats infiltrating the PS circuit.  This tournament laid the foundation for the World Series eventually becoming a provided bat tournament and the current format we have used for years.  There is a 16-year history with the WCC and the venue has changed from West Covina Ca. to Riverside Ca. to Palm Springs Ca. and finally San Diego Ca.

Unfortunately, the event has run its course and effective 2025, the WCC is no more.  THE WCC IS SHUTTING DOWN.  The event has drawn as many as 32 teams in the past and as few as 21.  This year, it appears we will not have enough teams to secure the minimum number of games to secure the complex.  It is simply an issue of supply and demand and with so many tournaments in the May/June time frame, there are not enough teams to support them all.  We only had 4 teams commit to the WCC, so our hope is those teams will redirect to the ECC which is a few weeks later.  (Note:  2 of the 4 have already done so).   The bottom line is, PS.COM will never put out an inferior product and this year would have been nothing in comparison to the past 16 years. 

As the saying goes, when one door closes, another is opened.  When Del Pickney and Jeff Blair first got involved with police softball, in the early 1990’s teams played with their individual departments and combo teams were rare.  As the game evolved, so did the composition of the teams and today, there are very few (if any) single agency teams.  Before Del’s passing, Ryan Coe, Del and Jeff frequently talked about the need to return to the roots of police softball where teams played for the pride of the patch on their uniform sleeves.  It was designed for the men who work together patch to patch, day in and day out to get away for the weekend and blow off steam and play ball.  And the feeling of bringing the trophy back to your station to display in the lobby filled players with a sense of pride that is unparalleled. 

Make no mistake, we are very proud of how competitive “The Circuit” has become as many of our top teams can compete at the highest level against the nations best civilian teams.  Watching games at the World Series is impressive to say the least.  The games are fast paced, intense and highly entertaining.  We are happy with the direction of the World Series and obviously the other major tournaments in “The Circuit.”  We have a great thing going!

That said, throughout the years we have seen “less talented” players get forced into an early softball retirement as combo teams became more and more common and single agency teams were going by the wayside.   Our goal is to give those players who would not normally get a chance to play cop softball (due to the increasing level of talent, even by the lower tier teams) to get a chance to play once again. 

That opportunity to recreate the roots of police softball will occur Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 1, 2025 at the Sportsplex San Diego (Poway/Santee) is the first ever, Del Pickney Memorial Police Softball Intra-Departmental World Series.  This event will be akin to World Series 1 where the Ohio Lawmen bested New York Metro in front of a huge crowd in Palm Springs, Ca.  The Ohio Lawmen went down in history as the first ever Police Softball World Champions 20 years ago and we are still talking about them today.  We want to create that same buzz and begin that same history for the Intra-Departmental World Series.  Who will be crowned the first ever single agency World Champions?  We will be bringing out all the bells and whistles including announcers and champagne showers.  We are going ALL IN on this.

HERE ARE THE BASIC RULES with more information to follow.   Please use your agency name in your team name.  You can attach a nickname to it such as Sacramento County Sheriff RAZORBACKS, but please include your station name.

Division 1:  Agencies with 500+ sworn officers

Division 2: Agencies with 499 or fewer sworn officers

Note:  For the larger agencies such as LA Sheriff, if they pull players from the entire agency, they are obviously in Division 1.  But, if they are a “station team” such as LASD Norwalk and they happen to have fewer than 500 sworn deputies at that station they can play in Division 2.  The same goes for the CDC correctional agencies that might want to have a facility team.  Since we won’t be able to determine where your players are assigned we will have coaches sign a waiver and put their personal guarantee their team is legit and they will sign on the THIN BLUE LINE which should never be violated. 

Eligibility:  Any EMPLOYEE of the agency or retired EMPLOYEE with an identification card for the agency of employment.    This could be police officer, dispatcher, correction officer, community outreach liaison, CSI clerk, etc.  If they are part of your agency “team” they are eligible for you agency softball team. 

Wild Card:  You can have ONE player as a wild card from a different agency…but that player  must be a qualified LE employee as described above.  For example, the Mayberry PD Bulldogs from Arizona have a team and one of the players on the team has a brother who is a dispatcher for Anytown PD in Kansas.  They can use that guy as their wild card. 

Otherwise, you can expect a typical first class PS.COM event complete with provided bats, PS.COM stamped balls, very similar rules to the World Series and all that comes along with a PS.COM event. 

Please follow the www.policesoftball.com message board for updates and team sign ups.  As previously stated, we believe this will be a huge success and we believe Del is sending vibes of approval from above. 

Flashback to single agency teams.  Here is DETROIT PD displaying a massive trophy circa early 1990’s.