Off-topic, but important.

The Times' George Vecsey again choses to write about women's sports. (You'll recall he tweaked the media on the lack of coverage of the women's soccer World Cup.).

This time he looks at women's softball and its elimination from the Olympics.

Those of us who remember pre-WNBA women's basketball know exactly what the Olympics meant (and still mean) to the likes of Edwards, Leslie, Staley.

Ditto that for softball, which is why people are fighting for its reinstatement.

De Varona is volunteering her expertise to Back Softball, an organization seeking the return of the sport to the Olympics. She recalled how her softball-playing daughter, Joanna Pinto, now 18, heard of the exclusion of softball in 2005, and said, “Go fix it, Mom.”

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While the television networks and sponsors would probably never feature women’s softball as an Olympic mainstay, Samaranch was on the right track in bringing women’s sports into the Games. Porter and de Varona must now persuade the I.O.C. members to do the right thing and reinstate softball.

Thank you GV: geovec@nytimes.com