Cat is my all-time favorite athlete, and favorite famous person of any kind for that matter! You may remember her from Team USA at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. She first made national headlines pitching for the University of Texas. In just her second start, as a freshman, she threw a perfect game! She went on to pitch numerous more no-hitters and six more perfect games in her 4 years at UT. She is still the only college pitcher to average more than two strikeouts per inning for an entire four year career. In addition to her Olympic appearances she has also played on Team USA in many other international tournaments, and in recent years has been competing in the NPF professional softball league for the USSSA Pride out of Orlando, Florida. In the 2013 playoffs she pitched two complete games, allowing no earned runs, and then threw 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief in the deciding game to secure the 2013 NPF championship for the Pride. She was rightfully named MVP of the playoffs!
       In 2014 Cat did herself one better by having possibly the greatest single season ever by any athlete in any sport. She went 16-0 plus a save in the regular season, and then 2-0 in the playoffs, leading the Pride to the regular season title and their 2nd consecutive NPF championship, winning Pitcher of the Year and another Playoff MVP in the process. Her combined ERA for the season was 0.49 - in other words, she allowed an average of less than half a run per game! All this pitching against only three other teams containing many of the best softball players in the world. No matter what adjustments they tried to make, nothing worked. Cat dominated the league from her first pitch of the season to her last.
       I also admire Cat very much for the kind of person she is. In addition to being an All-American for all 4 of her college seasons, and winning the College Player of the Year award a record 3 times (only 2 others have ever won it twice), Cat was also Academic All-Conference at Texas. She has helped put on clinics across the country for young girls to learn how to become better softball players. She also does charitable work. She is a wonderful role model to countless girls who dream of someday playing on Team USA and in the NPF. I've had the privilege of meeting Cat twice, once in 2014 and once in 2015, both times after she pitched a game in Chicago that I attended. I can personally attest that she is as nice in person as she always seems on TV, and those encounters with her will always be among my favorite memories (and the picture she took with me in 2015 will probably be my Facebook and Twitter banner for the rest of my life!).

I Photoshopped this Cat Osterman $10 bill in August of 2015 after hearing that the real version was going to be redone with a woman on it. After all, who better for the honor than Cat!

I made this Cat message board set for my own use in June, 2011.

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