Lasers 2018

Stedman00

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
632
Reaction score
446
Points
63
14u the largest division in the tournament got cancelled at 8am Sunday Morning. Mean while all other divisions were playing in the nice sunny weather all day Sunday. Also all other tournaments around Central Ohio were playing there tournaments on Sunday. Berliner shouldn't schedule all these teams to play on there fields if half the fields can't recover from a storm that happened 12 hours ago. Our team only completed 2 games and we payed for at least 7. We payed ~$400 dollars a game. I looked on the website and I see no refund policy. Poor very poor. Very disappointing for our team in the first year at Laser nation.


last games for 18u were at 12:30 sunday.
 

1stbasecoach

Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2018
Messages
73
Reaction score
20
Points
8
It was ridiculous to see teams leaving our hotel to go play while we sat there until 4pm, meanwhile hearing about fields that were playable going unused. We got 8 innings in all weekend, not cool.
 

her mom

Active Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
120
Reaction score
25
Points
28
We were not a Lasers this year, but we kept talking about how we should have went back this year. There was 2 big "Showcases" in Western PA. We got lucky Friday and Saturday and got 5 games in. However after the rain late Saturday night into Sunday morning. The IUP showcase was cancelled. Turned out to be a very nice and sunny day until 7:00pm. This is the second time in the last couple years that IUP called it off on Sunday and they could have played games from 12:00 to 6:00 easy ...Same thing happened with ASA Cranberry. I'm starting to think some of these events are to big and they either don't have enough umps or field crew to manage rain. Would love to see True Showcases only have 14+ and up ....or start to limit the amount of teams. Guess we were lucky to play 5 ?
Yes, seems like it is all about the money. There are way to many teams involved in these tournaments now a days and it needs to be a smaller set limit especially bc of cases like these when there is rain involved and lightning etc and then you have to try and home these teams on the fields etc. We played maybe 2.5 games this weekend. :( I feel even worse for teams that drove 3 to 4 hours and didn't get to play at all or not much.
 

Justsaying

New Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2015
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Not sure everyone is aware of some of the umpires were rushed to the hospital for heat exhaustion/stroke. We had two of them parked next to us that we had to help til the squad came. Talk about unorganized. The event has a very poor response to emergencies. I was literally trying to keep one of them alive as the squad went to the wrong area of the park. Workers didn’t know what to do. Thank God I’m a nurse and happened to be in the right place. Those umps didn’t have any break in Saturday’s games. I heard there were other umps down too! That’s probably why some Fields were sitting unused. However, they were very disorganized besides the ump issue. FYI, my daughter is a 16u. We got 6 games pool play then no bracket play. I hear that’s a lot more than others got.
 

SonicMojo

Active Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2014
Messages
218
Reaction score
122
Points
43
I think everyone generally understands that when it rains, there are going to be scheduling changes and decisions made on the fly. When those changes are not communicated, or are communicated poorly, you are going to have some understandably unhappy campers. Then, you pile on things like: having 3 teams show up to a field for a game with an ensuing argument about who is playing whom; seeing playable fields not being used when at the same time games are being cut to an hour; waiting over an hour for umpires when teams are ready for play (and game times have been shortened); the widespread use of plastic balls (simply unacceptable); cutting a whole day of 14u play in favor of 10u when the event is supposed to be a college showcase (when Sunday's weather was fantastic, which unfortunately meant I had to mow instead of watching my daughter play softball); changing rules from one game to the next; not first eliminating crossover pool games before shortening game times; not updating the great communication tool you have everyone tied into before the tournament (Tourney Machine app), and so on and so on. All this is indicative of problems higher up the food chain. One wonders if the damage can be undone. When the word for this once great tourney goes out next season, it's going to have to include an apology (in addition to the one that should be forthcoming this week) along with a lengthy explanation of what steps will be taken to avoid a repeat of the 2018 debacle. It may be too late though. I talked to more than a handful of coaches who are adamant that they will not play this event next year. It's a shame for the Lasers, and a valuable lesson for others.
 

Skeeter

Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2014
Messages
158
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Not sure everyone is aware of some of the umpires were rushed to the hospital for heat exhaustion/stroke. We had two of them parked next to us that we had to help til the squad came. Talk about unorganized. The event has a very poor response to emergencies. I was literally trying to keep one of them alive as the squad went to the wrong area of the park. Workers didn’t know what to do. Thank God I’m a nurse and happened to be in the right place. Those umps didn’t have any break in Saturday’s games. I heard there were other umps down too! That’s probably why some Fields were sitting unused. However, they were very disorganized besides the ump issue. FYI, my daughter is a 16u. We got 6 games pool play then no bracket play. I hear that’s a lot more than others got.

Those umpires are so lucky that you were sitting in your car next to them, thankfully God put you in the right spot at the right time. I hope they are both ok, they had been overworked in that heat while I know some of the other umpires had been sitting on break for several hours because the field they were assigned to was unorganized with no games scheduled on it after they decided to do the 1 hour drop dead games. I happened to be the crazy lady running down the middle of the main road trying to find the ambulance while you were trying to keep the umpire alive, I found the ambulance coming from the other side of the park and it was slowly driving without its lights on behind one of the park workers in a golfcart that was stuck behind a line full of traffic, I took it upon myself to start waving the cars over to the side of the road to direct the ambulance to the umpire you were trying to keep alive in his van. It was one scary situation for sure.
 

her mom

Active Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
120
Reaction score
25
Points
28
Those umpires are so lucky that you were sitting in your car next to them, thankfully God put you in the right spot at the right time. I hope they are both ok, they had been overworked in that heat while I know some of the other umpires had been sitting on break for several hours because the field they were assigned to was unorganized with no games scheduled on it after they decided to do the 1 hour drop dead games. I happened to be the crazy lady running down the middle of the main road trying to find the ambulance while you were trying to keep the umpire alive, I found the ambulance coming from the other side of the park and it was slowly driving without its lights on behind one of the park workers in a golfcart that was stuck behind a line full of traffic, I took it upon myself to start waving the cars over to the side of the road to direct the ambulance to the umpire you were trying to keep alive in his van. It was one scary situation for sure.
Thank you, to both of you! And this was very well said!
 

Pacerdad57

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
835
Reaction score
18
Points
18
Location
Delaware
Anything but impressed with the lasers tourney.
No communications, then last minute get to this field, no movemto that field, just a huge cluster...., and witnessed some less than stellar example
of sportsmanship from one of the tournies teams. Came away totally underwhelmed.
 

McGinger

New Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2016
Messages
7
Reaction score
7
Points
3
This was as poorly run a tourney that I have ever witnessed in 8 years of them. Directors of tournaments, please take note. COMMUNICATE! The software is readily available. Teams will not return to this next year, if ever...was that bad. Would rather stay close to home and play a "lesser" tourney than have to deal with this weekend ever again.

DD's college coach - " why didn't you text me when your games were"? DD - "because we don't know".
 

Klump

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
86
Reaction score
1
Points
8
We were told we are playing Sunday at 11 then told Sunday morning that we were done and could go home. After we all paid to stay in hotels Saturday night. We did not get our 7 game guarantee yet were told there are no refunds. WTF? Horribly run tournament, we won't be back.
 

lewam3

Active Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2014
Messages
498
Reaction score
64
Points
28
We were told we are playing Sunday at 11 then told Sunday morning that we were done and could go home. After we all paid to stay in hotels Saturday night. We did not get our 7 game guarantee yet were told there are no refunds. WTF? Horribly run tournament, we won't be back.
So I'm reading these posts thinking "When will Coaches and players realize that maybe it was the weather and not the lack of communication, maybe it was the muddy field conditions rather than it being a money grab for the Lasers. It's travel ball in Columbus" Then I read this post by Klump and I'm like "Ok if Julie is pissed off, then these posters are probably right lol"
 

okiedad1961

Active Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Messages
682
Reaction score
48
Points
28
Location
Green Oh
I'm hoping the City of Columbus will review there safety policy and develop a plan to get to the right location quickly to save lives when possible.Also anyone holding a tournament there should know how many city workers are available or are needed depending on the size of the event to get fields back playable to keep things rolling.Im sure the event staff weren't givin any timeline by workers adding to the lack of organisation.We had a umpire that had us concerned and offered him water Gatorade a chair if he wanted one.He said he did 4 games at the plate in a row before doing bases.Nice man glad he survived.Since this wasn't a sanctioned event there's no rules for shortening it properly .An effort to get as many games for all teams should have been a priority.Bring on the turf it would certainly help.
 

McGinger

New Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2016
Messages
7
Reaction score
7
Points
3
So I'm reading these posts thinking "When will Coaches and players realize that maybe it was the weather and not the lack of communication, maybe it was the muddy field conditions rather than it being a money grab for the Lasers. It's travel ball in Columbus" Then I read this post by Klump and I'm like "Ok if Julie is pissed off, then these posters are probably right lol"
Indeed. The posters are right. I'm always keen to give the benefit of the doubt. This weekend at Berliner was an abject disaster for just about every team entered.
 

10smom

New Member
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
9
Reaction score
2
Points
3
This tournament was so unorganized !! The communication was awful. We were scheduled to play at 8:00 Saturday morning. Get message games will start shortly after 8:00. Didn’t end up playing until 3:30!! We only played a half inning of a game and they counted that as a game played! How can that be? They need to think about some reorganization of this tournament. Many people very unhappy! Then to get pool play games in so theyDONT HAVE TO GIVE MONEY BACK, they do away with the elimination games.
 

grabber711

New Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2015
Messages
29
Reaction score
7
Points
3
For as much money that is being brought in on parking alone, there should be ample grounds crews and better plans of attack when situations like this arise. I can't blame the Lasers for that, but can for the horrible communication. When you are told you have a game Sunday morning at 11 on a turf field, then as you are leaving the hotel to go play and are told your game is now canceled, and all 16u is canceled, but then find out later there were 16u teams playing on those fields and empty turf fields next to them. Then later seeing a post of a Lasers team picture with medals for going undefeated when I know of other teams doing the same but no medals, SAD.
 
Joined
Jul 10, 2015
Messages
84
Reaction score
1
Points
8
I feel the need to point out that the Lasers TD for the 12U at Whitehall did an excellent job of communicating and the Lasers folks over there worked hard to get us as many games as possible. I realize that having 8 fields and one age group is a little easier than the larger scale at Berliner but maybe that's the answer to this issue for large tourneys. Divide Berliner into age groups and have a TD for each age group. If your age groups fields are washed out then it's just tough luck. Way easier to reschedule and communicate this way.
 

Basehitgirl

Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Messages
82
Reaction score
8
Points
8
Location
Northeast Ohio
We were told we are playing Sunday at 11 then told Sunday morning that we were done and could go home. After we all paid to stay in hotels Saturday night. We did not get our 7 game guarantee yet were told there are no refunds. WTF? Horribly run tournament, we won't be back.
No refunds... BS, we only played 1 1/2 games. What a joke.
 

okiedad1961

Active Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Messages
682
Reaction score
48
Points
28
Location
Green Oh
For as much money that is being brought in on parking alone, there should be ample grounds crews and better plans of attack when situations like this arise. I can't blame the Lasers for that, but can for the horrible communication. When you are told you have a game Sunday morning at 11 on a turf field, then as you are leaving the hotel to go play and are told your game is now canceled, and all 16u is canceled, but then find out later there were 16u teams playing on those fields and empty turf fields next to them. Then later seeing a post of a Lasers team picture with medals for going undefeated when I know of other teams doing the same but no medals, SAD.
Not Suprising ,All the larger Orgs self promote themselves to that max using all forms of social media.Unfortunately they leave out that most teams were batting rosters and rotating players so winning anything means very little.
 

chucklesp

New Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2016
Messages
4
Reaction score
4
Points
3
anyone else see this? Found here:
Rain Refund Policy - Because of the expenses in running the tournament, we can’t give a full refund if the tournament is cancelled. Here is the number of games played along with the refund for that: 6 – $35, 5 - $70, 4 - $105, 3 - $140, 2 - $175, 1 - $210, 0 - $245 (started games are considered played games)
 

BA824

Active Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2014
Messages
252
Reaction score
58
Points
28
Location
Gahanna,OH
Yes I just went back through emails and this was sent out as part of the application. Guess we should see some refunds
 
Top