ASA Tournament Bat Wars

[default]

Nothing like starting the dislike for unions at a young age.
DD: Why can't we rake the fields?
Dad: It is a union job and we would get in trouble.
DD: Well where are the union workers?
DAD: Collecting the parking fees and they make to much money on a Saturday and Sunday to have alot of them working.
DD: So we drove all this way to look at a field that would take 10-15 minutes work to get ready but no one to do it.
Dad: YEP!!
This conversation never happened to me but I'm sure it did in some cars. Just pointing out how children are not stupid and remember things.

 

[default]

Sorry, I have some idea, and there is no excuse for the lack of effort down there yesterday. Hire your own crew, give'em some rakes and some diamond dry and get the games rolling. All we want to see is a good effort......and that didn't happen.

That's the point... you can't hire your own crew to do anything. It's UNION ballfields. The Sports Commission of Columbus, should have paid for the workers since they are generating revenue for the City coffers and motel tax on rooms goes directly into their coffers. There is a lot to it.. that many never see and even know about when it comes down to TD's, Sports Commissions, etc....

$36.00 X 8 hrs = $288.00 per person for Sunday city workers.

But, as a TD.. you can't NOT plan for rain.

Personally, I'd be beware of the city/union owned and operated fields in the future. And if you go, then you know what can happen WHEN it rains and control your own destiny.

In Ohio, there seems to be an abundance of "fair-weathered" Tournament Directors....LOL

I just wished that I had ONE weekend of no chance of rain to worry about in the past three years...LOL Just one please. That's all I ask...LOL

 

[default]

That bites that it was cancelled.

We had the same thing happen in Whitehall....But the crews at Whitehall busted butt.....The TD, Whitehall and ASA made the decision to cancel.

I don't truly believe it has to do with union but the City is to blame for the fields. Berliner has become a bureaucracy nightmare. The city/Berliner has slowly forgot that we the tax payer have payed for the improvements to this park via taxes or multiple types of sport fees.

You can hardly take your family to this park anymore just too have a fun day without paying for something.

 

[default]

We understand that these are union/city ran fields - but did the TD try to contact LuAnn Carnegy that runs the Parks and Rec. for the City of Columbus or did he just say ok - if it rains and these are union fields then I'll just lay back and not try to fight for the tournament to run properly. And what about the parking? I've heard that parking is charged $3.00 by the City and anything above that goes to the TD. Why keep charging this if you know this is going to be a wash? I feel sorry for those that had to come from a different state. This is not good for the City of Columbus if they want to generate dollars to our City/State. Again, just sad for our DD's that look forward to a good weekend at what is suppose to be one of the best ball fields around!

 

[default]

I am sure you sign a contract as a TD for the use of Columbus fields.

Best ballfields around????? Who says that ? That's the first I ever heard of that being said.

How much Female and Male prostitution was going on in the Park over the weekend? How many drug sales were happening? If you look at the police blotter for Berliner... you'd be scared to go back.

 

[default]

Mike Craig could tell you if a TD gets a kick back on the parking. I'm almost sure he never got one.... You can base it on what is charged by the City for parking when he uses the fields. If the city charges $5.00 for parking at Mike's events... then you know there was a kickback to the TD in this event.

 

[default]

Is this the same group that does the Midwest World Series in Columbus in July???

YES....Had pretty much the same problem last year at the World Series ran by this same group. If the weather is nice you may be alright, but one little hiccup and you are in for the likes of "NSA Tealtown"

 

[default]

Have you ever seen another complex around Ohio or another State that has as many fields as Berliner does? And again we are talking about softball during the day not what you do after hours at Berliner - and again this goes with the City's responsibility and for having so much prostitution and drugs going on - it pulled and awefully lot of teams to play at this tournament and ball park....

The point is our girls deserved something better then what they received....period.

What complex do you run? Maybe next year you should recommend yours to Bill.

 

[default]

I run no complex.. but I use Goshen and have led others to use Goshen... just as I did in Wilmington as well until I found out one weekend it couldn't drain the rain off the fields in Wilmington and I quit using Wilmington.

Prostitution and drug sales are happening 24/7 in that Park. Day and night.

 

[default]

If you would like to give up your spot at the Midwest all sanction world series at Berliner, we will take it! Our 14u team did not get in it before it was sold out. Just PM me.

 

[default]

The fields that the 16's and 18's were in terrible shape to begin with and not enough conditioner in them to keep them in playable shape. It was 2 hours after the rain stopped before anyone came to work on them.

I must have walked at least ten miles to try and watch games because of the poor layout of those outer fields. Not sure why the games that college coaches were coming to watch were on the worst fields and not the larger, more centrally located fields. It was impossible to watch more than one game at a time. I needed a cart just to watch games.

 

[default]

The fields that the 16's and 18's were in terrible shape to begin with and not enough conditioner in them to keep them in playable shape. It was 2 hours after the rain stopped before anyone came to work on them.

I must have walked at least ten miles to try and watch games because of the poor layout of those outer fields. Not sure why the games that college coaches were coming to watch were on the worst fields and not the larger, more centrally located fields. It was impossible to watch more than one game at a time. I needed a cart just to watch games.

Don't make sense does it, Bill? Then again.. college showcases with 10u and 12u teams used as "filler" don't make much sense either for college coaches.... ;&

 

[default]

$10,000 a day in Parking fees and can't afford a couple of skids of field dry? In excusible. Many of the games were not played to due the city being unprepared to work on the fields. Union or not. Understaffed except at the gate to get the parking fees.

Friday games canceled and the fields were baked dry by th sun in an hour. Teams were out there practicing. The best field conditions all weekend were Friday afternoon but everything was canceled by 1:00.

Saturday: Fields sat for hours with no workers in site till one half- hour before the rescheduled game times. 4-5 bags of field dry per field and they would have been ready to go.

The 20 year old lone worker for four fields 10-14 said the city could not afford field dry because the park was to big. Refused to give me phone number of his supervisor.

We did not throw one pitch or have one at bat nothing and according to the policy which was not posted on Eteamz before tournament, out of $445 paid plus $5 per day X 2 days for Parking we get $175 back. The tournament is keeping $270 plus parking for what?

This Tournament was a disaster not due to weather. Every coach and parent knows nothing can be done about that.

THE COLUMBUS PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT at Berliner Park has poor supervision and has no idea how to deal with weather other than canceling games. I will never return to Berliner Park.

 

[default]

$10,000 a day in Parking fees and can't afford a couple of skids of field dry? In excusible. Many of the games were not played to due the city being unprepared to work on the fields. Union or not. Understaffed except at the gate to get the parking fees.

Friday games canceled and the fields were baked dry by th sun in an hour. Teams were out there practicing. The best field conditions all weekend were Friday afternoon but everything was canceled by 1:00.

Saturday: Fields sat for hours with no workers in site till one half- hour before the rescheduled game times. 4-5 bags of field dry per field and they would have been ready to go.

The 20 year old lone worker for four fields 10-14 said the city could not afford field dry because the park was to big. Refused to give me phone number of his supervisor.

We did not throw one pitch or have one at bat nothing and according to the policy which was not posted on Eteamz before tournament, out of $445 paid plus $5 per day X 2 days for Parking we get $175 back. The tournament is keeping $270 plus parking for what?

This Tournament was a disaster not due to weather. Every coach and parent knows nothing can be done about that.

THE COLUMBUS PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT at Berliner Park has poor supervision and has no idea how to deal with weather other than canceling games. I will never return to Berliner Park.

This has always been the problem with Berliner. Its a nice place to play "IF" the weather is good. Any rain at all and there will not be much ball played. We attended the Capital City Showdown a few years ago mainly because it was an 8 game guarantee early in the season. The only guarantee that I ssee there is that you are just about guaranteed NEVER to get the 8 games in. Any amount of rain at all big or small they are looking to cancel games. The problem is well documented about the union labpr they have and the unwillingness for them to do anything at all to get the fields ready to play ball. Why should they? They still get played weather we get our games in or not. I will never again take a team to an event held at Berliner regardless of who is running the tournament. The TD has zero control over the facility and that is a real bad senario when you factor in weather. My suggestion stay clear and find tournaments with a track record of getting as many games in as possible when weather does hit.

 

[default]

The TD has zero control over the facility and that is a real bad senario when you factor in weather. My suggestion stay clear and find tournaments with a track record of getting as many games in as possible when weather does hit.


I agree Ohio Wave. May I be the first to suggest.. Greenville, Troy and Goshen..

 

[default]

This was a huge disappointment for all the teams, coaches and parents. Parents sacrificed alot in a very tough economy and they definitely deserved much better. I can say that we never had a lined field, no pitchers circle, umpires raked home plate, 1 umpire per game, absolutely no diamond dry and several canceled games that could have been played. Our experience with the field crew was not positive to say the least. If my son worked on that field crew and talked the way they did to 10u girls, he would be unemployed and have a long list of addresses to visit to give personal apologies to those involved. I am glad to hear that Vandalia worked very hard on their fields and had plenty of diamond dry to allow their teams and parents to have an enjoyable weekend. Huge let down at the parents expense in Columbus, hopefully they feel obligated to make things right and correct things for the future.

 

[default]

The TD has zero control over the facility and that is a real bad senario when you factor in weather. My suggestion stay clear and find tournaments with a track record of getting as many games in as possible when weather does hit.


I agree Ohio Wave. May I be the first to suggest.. Greenville, Troy and Goshen..

Good idea...how do you find "find tournaments with a track record of getting as many games in as possible when weather does hit"?

 

[default]

This was a huge disappointment for all the teams, coaches and parents. Parents sacrificed alot in a very tough economy and they definitely deserved much better. I can say that we never had a lined field, no pitchers circle, umpires raked home plate, 1 umpire per game, absolutely no diamond dry and several canceled games that could have been played. Our experience with the field crew was not positive to say the least. If my son worked on that field crew and talked the way they did to 10u girls, he would be unemployed and have a long list of addresses to visit to give personal apologies to those involved. I am glad to hear that Vandalia worked very hard on their fields and had plenty of diamond dry to allow their teams and parents to have an enjoyable weekend. Huge let down at the parents expense in Columbus, hopefully they feel obligated to make things right and correct things for the future.

Randco.. So well said, being a TD is not easy, and any time Mother Nature makes a mess its hard to get things back on track. The Hurricanes had 2 teams there in 2009, and talked so much about it 5 came back in 2010. Older Team had a Game Friday AM cancel and did not have another game schdueld till 5:45PM Sat what a joke. Team was a no-show forfitt, cant say I blame them given the weatehr, yet so much more was worng.. its been said, yet in summary, no game plan for rain dealys until 2pm Saturday, Umps uniformed, TD poor communcation, City Parks lack of effort and caring about 140 teams showing up in Cols, Kids using feet to clean up home plate and mound on an otherwise playable field. ( I will post a great picture later of that).

on def of the TD. if they force more games on sloppy fields, maybe someone has a career endeding injury, or less severe many teams complain the forced games on crappy fields to avoid paying rainout refunds. So it is a tough situation for the TD, YET!! BILL the planning and commincation was so poor its hard for 1600 Players and nearly 3000 Family and Friends to cut you too much of a break nor the crappy City park repsonse. the Capital Citty gets a black eye for this one.

 

[default]

Usually, you can watch the tournament threads in here for about three years...like I did.. and see who can take rain, etc... and who can get their fields back up quickly and which TD's are "fair-weathered TD's" and which is not.

IN SW Ohio..... Expressway (1st), Goshen (2nd), Pastime Park ( yes the fields drain great.. ask the teams there last weekend).... (3rd) and that park where the Outcast org has their event in June up near Dayton. That place can take rain... no doubt in my mind.

I can tell you which major facility doesn't like to use diamond dry or turface at all due to the cost and would rather cancel games. ALL by watching the tournament threads on the OFC.

 

[default]

I actually saw one game with no umpires. The catchers were calling balls and strikes. The coaches did a good job in an unfortunate situation. And one of the teams was from Illinois.