This is true - I always said "When I'm these kid's best bet for a coach we need to find better coaching" - That's not to say I don't know what I'm doing - I mean to say I wish there were a higher skill set then mine available to coach. I wish there were more dedicated people to act as Non Parent coaches - Guys who have gotten their daughter to and through collage who can come back and take a 10U team and start again. But it's a ton of work and hard and frustrating when it is your kids team how much harder when you have no real ties to the team.I agree with the standard being set but how do you go about it. College coaches tell me that kids come to them now with much less skill set and game sense than they used to. Quote: The game is about the athletes and the development of the athletes:quote. That in my opinion is what is lacking most in today's game. I just dont think there are enough good quality coaches and instructors to ensure that the development is taking place.
Yes, however that line had very little to do with the overall article. I guess we got different things out of it...I believe I quoted from the article...yes I read it
The author's initial theme is inconsistent rules across orgs, but doesn't provide any examples. It reads like classic sour grapes.
I found the issue about pitching distance curious - "the rubber was placed at the wrong distance for the first three rounds of games. Nobody had bothered to actually measure the distances before the event started." How far were they off? A large difference of 3' (e.g. 40' instead of 43') would be noticed by the pitchers right away. I suspect it was a small variance that would only be noticed with a tape measurer.
It's not hard to figure out the org - the mission statement excerpt indicates PGF. The author says "The national organization that put their name on this event should know when their mission is not being met, those who stray from the mission should be held accountable." Yet, I'm confident they posted the article and didn't report it to the national organization. If it was as bad as they say, the right thing to do is encourage as many teams as possible to report it to someone that can do something about it. Isolated reports are likely to be brushed off, so they need corroboration from other teams - preferably from teams that won.
That said, PGF qualifiers are not uniform across the board because it's not a trivial matter to set up a national network of qualifiers. PGF's primary concern is locating qualifiers where they will draw the best teams to their championships and they refine it every year. They don't have a lot of options in many areas/regions, so it is a balancing act between location and host TD. The national board does take credible feedback into consideration when planning out the next year's qualifiers.
Added: Did any of the previous posters actually read the article?
I read the article and it did sound mostly like sour grapes. As for the question raised (i.e.. will lack of consistency slow growth), I believe the answer is "no". Yes, there are inconsistencies in rules, field conditions and umpire quality, but there are inconsistencies in all products and services we buy, but people don't quit buying the product if it's bad quality ... they just quit buying that brand or at that store, and go buy it somewhere else. Most people who exhibit sour grapes about things probably won't be in a position to be "buyers" in the future anyhow ... they've simply lost their interest in the product and/or don't have what it takes to really enjoy it anyhow. I will be glad to explain that more if I need to ...
Cool.Thanks for the feedback. I wrote the article and would be more than happy to discuss it.
Cool.
1. Examples of inconsistent rules: You are correct I should have listed examples, I made the assumption that people reading this had been to different events like ASA and PGF. Where rules do vary often from event to event.
The differences in rule sets are fairly minor. You wrote "I will regress to point out several things that I observed this past weekend to frame the overall point better." You certainly regressed, but you failed to deliver on framing your point. Were you the parent in the stands that was berated by the umpire?
2. It was off by 3 feet (the rubber). I agree people before us should have noticed. We noticed when our pitcher who is a DI recruit struck out the first 9 and we were the ones that pointed it out and had it measured. Why didn't other coaches or pitchers point it out? Not sure. Also note that the picture with the opinion is an actual picture of the fields.
Beyond belief earlier pitchers didn't notice. Are you sure there wasn't a 12U game before yours? Was the water on the field from rain? Please provide more info about when the picture was taken in relation to games played.
3. You state you are confident that the national organization was NOT contacted. Well you would be wrong they were notified immediately. They were notified by three of the top four teams including the team that won.
Good - what was PGF's response? BTW, which qualifier was this?
4. I disagree with your comment about it being hard for PGF to coordinate the tournaments etc... This is what they do and they should do it well. In most cases they do and I think in most cases they have excellent events. I also do not agree that they only make decisions to bring in the best teams. But that is a different topic.
Easy to type, much harder to do in the real world.
Based on your comments I would guess (and me be wrong) you are tied to PGF in some shape or fashion. That is great. I do like the feedback and I think you make some valid points, but I also think you made a few assumptions.
I'm not tied to PGF, but I know people that are. My DD was involved in high-level TB in SoCal before PGF's inception, so I know its entire history and what things were like before that. I respect them, however I don't shy away from criticizing them when it's warranted.
As for sour grapes, not so much but I can understand that view. It was written as an Op-Ed. My opinion which at the time was not a high one of the event I was at.
Complaining about facilities, umpires and strike zones are classic sour grapes. You tried to dress it up by wrapping it with some idealized notions and cliches, but it is what it is.