ASA Tournament Parma Spring Shootout Revised

Todd,

Aside from the trophy thing (which none of our teams are affected by, LoL), and the father-son blue crew (which your assitant straightened out promptly) we had a good experience.

My only real complaint has to be the horrible bases, especially no double bag at 1st. I think some nice Hollywood bases, temp 200' fences and a concession that will accept a $20 bill would make a huge improvement.

All-in-all it was a decent weekend though.

I agree about the bases, and the $20 bill thing...
All fields have Hollwood bases, but not a single field has them set for 60ft as the coed and mens adult fast pitch league use 65ft bases, which is number #1 here in Parma everything else is second...

Thank you for taking care of the trophy situation. I know it will mean a lot to the girls. See you next year.

Same from us it will mean alot to the girls i sent you a e-mail with the address see you next year.

No problem, to all the teams, belive me i know it means alot.... but i got the pain more then anyone

Todd,

We enjoyed the tournament. As for trophy's, our players would much rather have t-shirts that list the teams, and that they all can sign for eachother.

You all did a great job in having the fields ready, and keeping things up to date.

I do have a suggestion though. I would abolish drop-dead times for bracket play. Let's play the inning out, so a team cannot stall their way to victory. We actually had a team change pitchers multiple times during an inning trying to get to the time limit. My scorekeeper counted and he said 7, count 'em, 7 pitching changes in one inning. They were changing after every batter. One of our players ended up leaving base a little early, and one took three bad swings, ;& but games like that shouldn't have to be played. Let the players decide it on the field, and finish the innings. That takes the shenanigans out of it. Our problem was in pool play, and we ended up winning, so it didn't work out.

On the other hand, you had two classy teams (Bees and Starzz) that could have played the same time game, but didn't. Let the teams decide it instead of the coaches.

Yes get rid of the drop dead rule. We lost our opening game because of that drop dead go back to the pre - inn score rule we had a comeback took the lad 6-4 and time ran out we lost 4-3. Finish out the inn is the best way to that i have seen. As for the coaches stalling changing pitchers that is uncalled for enough time is wasted by all the side show stuff that happens durning each inn.

I'm going to agree with everyone else. Drop-dead time limits are horrible. Although we benefited from it once, I prefer to finish the inning at least.

Todd, Thanks for taking care of the trophy situation my girls were quite bummed! I will get a hold of you about Nationals, shoot me a pm if you need my address.
Eric(North Coast Spirit 10U)

WWolff said:

14U Finals Tidalwaves 3 Explosion 2
On walk off homerun in bottom of the 7th
Tidalwaves pitcher pitched a great game was hitting spots with great movement never saw pitch down center of plate.

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Lake Erie Waves not Tidal Waves. I hear the final was a great game. Congrats to the Explosion for knockin us out in a very good game. #24 can bring it, and I wouldn't pitch to #2. Nice job Waves in winning the tournament.

Anna, great job with the bat this weekend! Way to rock it kid!!

Sounds like the TD stepped up to the plate and did the right thing with the trophey's for the girls. This is an awsome act by the TD, as I have heard so many excuses over the past couple of years (at many tournaments all over the state) in regards to awards for the younger age groups. I will have to follow up in the following weeks with a couple of families who attended this event and see how things turned out.

Lee Pyles
Lasers White 15U

Buckeye Heat 97 said:

We actually had a team change pitchers multiple times during an inning trying to get to the time limit. My scorekeeper counted and he said 7, count 'em, 7 pitching changes in one inning. They were changing after every batter.

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This is amazing. I couldn't have my daughter play for somebody that has so little respect for the game. Hopefully, this didn't sit well with the parents of the team.

softballrulz33 said:

I would think with a tournament this size you would try to play some games friday night this might have helped with the late night games and the need to play softball on baseball field with a big mound behind the pitchers rubber.We finished our last game at 12:10 and had to be back at the field at 7:00 a.m.With a one hour ride for most of the team. Not to mention the fact that teams that were seeded lower got to sleep in till 9:30.Not much sleep for OHIO EMERALDS 14-U GREEN. we went 2-1 on saturday and 1-1 on Sunday. by noon the girls fizzled out with only 3 hours of sleep!! Great job girls for a well hard fought weekend.

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Well the Friday thing would not have worked because of the rain.
This is Softball you get up early and you play late its the way it goes
The girls on your team did well with 3 hours of sleep .
GREAT JOB and hats off to the wildcats for doing the best they could,nothing
is perfect alot of hard work went into those game and like i always say if you think you can do better next year run your own Tournament.

Brianna87 said:

This is Softball you get up early and you play late its the way it goes...GREAT JOB and hats off to the wildcats for doing the best they could,nothing
is perfect alot of hard work went into those game and like i always say if you think you can do better next year run your own Tournament.

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Been doing this for a long time but first time in Parma. I would definitely consider going back - overall, it was a pretty good experience. Park was very nice and the people running it made a genuine effort to make you feel welcome. As you stated, up early and playing late is definitely what you should expect and I have no problem with that.

However, the attitude you show with the rest of your post is inappropriate in my opinion. Putting hard work into something doesn't mean anybody's suggestions (alright - complaints!) aren't without merit or that they have no right to voice them. Simply doing their best does not remove the obligation to give people a quality product for their money. If they don't want to be held accountable for how it is run, then do it for free. Teams will tell them how they liked the tournament by whether they return next year or not. And I think the majority will return.

That said, I've been involved in travel ball since 2002. A few things happened that have not been the norm in my experience.

1. We played on a field with a mound for only the third time ever (did play on a grass infield once also). I would rather see less teams and not use the field with the mound. It doesn't necessarily affect the game, but we are playing softball, not baseball and people don't like the mound on the field. That same field was lined and declared playable Saturday morning even though you couldn't walk without sliding in the mud in the middle of the field. It wasn't checked.

2. Didn't find out until very late Saturday what our game time was for Sunday. This is highly unusual - not seeding by pools is fine if that's what you want, but not to find out until 11:30 Saturday night what Sunday game times are is not good. Original schedule had games starting at 9:30 so this was not just because of the delay.

3. Trash removal. I know they weren't responsible for it, but it needs to be taken out.

4. Awards for players. Already been beat to death but no excuse for not having them at the tourney. Too many places who could have gotten them done with a week's notice not to have them ready.

I went to watch several games at this tournament just to watch (my team was not playing). I cannot comment on most of the items above, but as a spectator only - I was there for hours and bought food from the concession stands and I'm surprised this has not been brought up yet. The prices were VERY HIGH. I'm at the ball fields all summer and will spend money at the concession stands to support tourneys and did so at this one too, but was shocked at the prices. $3.00 for NACHOS! I'm sorry, but that just seems crazy. I paid it, but expensive.

There was no fee to get in (i.e. gate fee or parking fee) and everyone was very pleasant. So, I guess they have to make money somewhere else and the concessions was it.

Just my two cents - haha.

Nice meeting you Marie

Yeah, same here! It seems like a meet a new ofc'er every week at the tournies! It was nice talking to you Marie and and you to Bill!

It was nice meet you Rick,
and nice talking to you Bill. Sorry about the blue mouth though.

SoftballCat12 said:

I went to watch several games at this tournament just to watch (my team was not playing). I cannot comment on most of the items above, but as a spectator only - I was there for hours and bought food from the concession stands and I'm surprised this has not been brought up yet. The prices were VERY HIGH. I'm at the ball fields all summer and will spend money at the concession stands to support tourneys and did so at this one too, but was shocked at the prices. $3.00 for NACHOS! I'm sorry, but that just seems crazy. I paid it, but expensive.

There was no fee to get in (i.e. gate fee or parking fee) and everyone was very pleasant. So, I guess they have to make money somewhere else and the concessions was it.

Just my two cents - haha.

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I welcome all coments good or bad. I will say the city makes their money form the concessions, but this is the first time that i heard prices are high. This year and last year everyone said the prices were very low, a hot dog is only $1.00, I guess some things may be slightly higher but most are way lower then at other parks i have been too.

We will never charge gate fees. As for the trophies i went to pick them up Thrusday,,,no trophies,,, they did not have enough medals on hand to go that way either.... I guess its like the uniforms this year, with the bad economy no one is keeping a large inventory.