What I learned at the Strongsville ASA/USA qualifier

1. Nylon peaked roofs over the spectators' bleachers are great, simply great.

2. Nothing over the dugouts, and fences too high to put our pop-up tents over the dugouts, are not so great.

3. No gate fees, no parking fees, and no cooler restrictions are great, simply great.

4. When fields have not been watered for several days, the result is three inches of dust that is kicked up by simply taking a step; underneath that dust is a hard pan that rivals concrete.

5. Using baseball fields with a mound for an ASA/USA qualifier introduces an element of luck that might best be avoided, especially for pitchers backing up to catch a pop-up.

6. Workers who draw batters' boxes without a steel template often get the dimensions and placement of the boxes wrong.

7. Some teams have no respect for fastpitch, or for that matter for other people in general. Case in point: artificial sound makers are specifically described, per ASA Supplemental Rule 49, as unsportsmanlike conduct in ASA championship play and are "prohibited". After this was pointed out to a team packing multiple vuvuzelas, the team ridiculed the opposing team players for being "intimidated" and the parents decided that the unsportsmanlike conduct rule didn't apply to them. That same team decided to blow the horns on multiple floors of the Holiday Inn tournament hotel at approximately 8:00 am the next morning; I'm sure the Holiday Inn will reconsider offering great rates to this tournament next year. Finally, that same team's players, after a Sunday loss, incredibly decided to blow the vuvuzelas while Sunday play in a different age group was taking place about 20 feet away.

8. Teams with no respect for the game generally don't win against the teams they ridicule and generally don't end up in the finals of ASA championship play.

9. Teams that teach "showy" practices such as sending the entire team out to the base line (without helmets) to time up the pitcher, for base-running purposes, in first inning warm-ups might better address their time to teaching fundamentals. And ASA umpires should ban this practice as unsafe.

10. The Ohio Hurricanes 14U Red team and their fans respect the game of softball.

6. the coach of that team called us classless when they thought we we stalling in a pool game. (we weren't) which is funny as the pool games meant nothing at all.

woolfman:

lol, you are exactly right. Pool games meant NOTHING in this tourney, which is in and of itself somewhat odd for ASA/USA championship play.

2. Blue tarps are great for more than a leaky roof.

That its a great place for tournaments and they should have more.

They should get some temporary fencing so that you dont have 240ft doubles. I saw two from #26 on the Doom and one from #29 from the Jaguars.

We were also there and while there was no gate fees (huge plus). I was discouraged about that lack of concessions. We were not at volunteer, but the other two had nothing and with a 3 hour+ gap in between our games it really would have been nice. Definitely was the cheapest out of pocket expense tourney we have ever been at. I don't like putting umps down (let's face it-it is a tough job), but at least he could have bent down to be behind the catcher while calling balls and strikes. He was 3 paces back and standing up. Couldn't even see her framing. And please, I beg of you umps-learn the difference between a slap and a bunt. A girl got called out (same ump as above) for having two strikes and SLAPPING the next ball foul, but she was called out for bunting with two strikes and it going foul. I know that most of you are good and I don't want to sterotype you all, but this was the worst umping I have ever seen in a tourney. JMHO

Is this how you felt cgs. http://www.break.com/index/fellowship-of-the-vuvuzela.html

cgs -

sorry we didn't get to meet up with you. you played at a lot of the same times we did...lol. BTW, what does Casey the Wonder Dog look like? We saw a gorgeous English Bulldog and were wondering.... Did you see the Ohio Ice basset hounds with their Ice jerseys on? Too cute!

As for the tourney itself, the only complaint other than the uncovered benches, was the porta-john we had had big holes in the floor and I am pretty sure it almost caved in on me once...lol. That, and in dd's 4th game (10u), one of the Ohio Power girls hit a foul ball that stayed on the backstop. When the ump threw her another ball to use, hubby said "That ball looks huge!" A couple batters later, hubby said something. Turns out, she had been pitching with a 12" ball...lol. The ump said "That's what they gave me for a game ball". Geez.

1. You can recognize a Hillhouse pitcher a mile away.
2. It's almost like a cult.
3. After 350+ recorded pitches in two days (I missed recording two innings), DD has absolutely no soreness and is still wanting to go at it, forced her to rest and take Sunday off.
4. Even if the pitcher does her job, if she can't rely on the fielders, it's a moot cause.
6. My two girls will sing cheers all day long.
7. A little sun is good, hours in the sun equals burnt!
8. Leaving at 4:30 in the morning is cause for a 4 hour nap when you get home.
9. DD can pitch decently with a 12" ball.
10. Ohio Power likes to hit and is very good at it.
11. The field crew didn't move a 12U game to 40'. Wondered how long it would take for Ice and Avon to figure it out. Answer: a little over half an inning.
12. The tarps over the bleachers were very nice, yet we choose to sit in the sun.

@chicoflip: lol, they are annoying.

@crystlemc: there were several beautiful dogs there this weekend, but ours was the golden retriever packing around her flying squirrel toy.

BTW, you remind me that I forgot one important item from my list: 11. It's great to put faces to OFC handles.

cgs said:

11. It's great to put faces to OFC handles.

Click to expand...

Completely agree. Now, if I can only remember who every looks like in the next few months.

Several years ago when my daughter played at Strongsville, they played at a field where center field dropped significantly. When our fielders were truly in center field, you could only see the top of their head. It was kind of funny to see them run after a fly ball then all of a sudden run down hill as the ball flew over their head.

Back to Umps;

How 'bout the Sunday 16U game where the Ice coach "suggested" to his pitcher that she not throw any more Meatballs across the center of the plate, then the Ump ran over and said "one more word out of you and you're out of here". To which Coach Wahl said "what, I can't even talk to my own players...?"

True story - I saw the whole thing.

7-10) I agree that the team that you are talking about was incredibly disrespectful and over the top. To everybody who wasn't there, you can tell that they were awful considering my team did not play them and I understand exactly what cgs is talking about. I am glad that the Hurricanes (who I agree, are very respectful of the game) beat this team because they are much more talented and don't need to prove it by being showy.

4-5) We played on one of the baseball fields and I have to say that our shortstop did an amazing job of at least knocking everything down as the mound made most of the ground balls take a very bad hop. In the baseball field there were also spots of dirt a foot deep where the infield normally stands for baseball. In right field, I know that I could have thrown out at least three girls at first base had the ball not died in the spot right behind first where the first baseman would stand in baseball.

6) One of our slappers was called out multiple times this weekend for stepping out of the box or stepping on the plate, which was annoying for a couple reasons. 1- The boxes were not the correct dimension, so she wasn't used to the size of the box relative to the mound or the plate. 2- Most of the time the lines had been stepped on so much that you could not even see where the box was, so it was hardly fair that the umpires could make this call.

@initfor51- Umpires should definitely learn the difference between slap and bunt. I don't think we saw the same play, but both of our slappers were called out for this. It made us angry considering they had never been called out for this by an ump all season and it was frustrating to have them change what they had learned.

But other than umps who didn't know the rules, disrespectful teams, and bad field locations, I really did enjoy this tournament, with the shade and the way that everything was run. &The bows that they were selling were very cute!

The officiating behind the plate was sketchy for sure. The strike zone for every game we were in was all over the place. Lack of concessions was a surprise, but thanks to the in-laws, who live close by, for cooking a great breakfast for us. First time I can recall home cooking during a tourney weekend! Also, would like to say thank you to the TD, didn't get his name, for answering questions, stepping in on a rule issue that the umps got wrong, and being visible and available all weekend!

Explode96:

Thanks for the support. OFC readers know that I am usually highly complimentary of our opponents, win or lose. But I couldn't in good faith not comment on the vuvuzela team. What are they teaching their players when they allow/encourage the use of something specifically prohibited by ASA rule? And even without an ASA rule, who would think that it was classy to blow vuvuzelas after the team was out of the tourney and there was Sunday play going on so close? Who would think that blowing vuvuzelas in a hotel that early in the morning was acceptable? This isn't sour grapes, since we beat this team (and despite the vuvuzela controversy, we wished them good luck and told them we expected to see them on Sunday). It's more about whether we as adults use the travel ball experience to teach our players how to conduct themselves with class and respect for others, or instead instill a concept that our players can act however they want, rules and civility be damned.

I have to agree it total bush league to bring S O C C E R toys to a fastpitch game . Maybe their PARENTS are big world cup kickball fans ? MD

Are you allowed to have artifical noise makers, according to asa rules?

Not in championship play. See ASA Supplemental Rule 49.

We as a team wanted to take batting practice using vuvuzelas as balls. I had never seen or heard one until this past weekend, but read an article about how irritating and distracting they've become at ****** games. I can't believe anybody in their right mind would think this is okay to bring to a softball game. Not only is it irritating to the opponent, but to all the team players and spectators on the other 3 diamonds. I met some of these parents at the hotel and they seemed like nice parents and coaches, so it baffled me that this same team were the ones with the vuvuzelas.