Fences

This weekend past, we played a tourney, that was on Softball/Baseball fields with a 300 foot Fence. Nothing new really, quite a few of the parks have the large fields so that they can be used by Adults as well as children. But, here is my question/rant. We are 14u, and have solid hitters, that hit liners and grounders. We played teams that hit HARD liners, which this weekend, went into the gaps. We gave up 3 running Hr's and a few triples, which came with runners on. . At 12u, it was rare that a kid would hit a ball, that would get to the fence, so this is not even a consideration. However, with the 14's the fence plays an important part in how deep the OF plays, eliminating some of those "Ducksnorts" that would not be a hit, when the OF can play honestly. But a line drive to the gap, would be a double, after it hit the fence, not keep rolling, and rolling, and rolling.

I will state, that my own DD benefitted from this situation, with a RBI Triple into the gap. (Would it have gone over? I had never seen her do it, until the Monday following, when she hit 3 during her hitting lesson) But yes, I think that it would have gone yard, But then she would not have a triple in the books. (My dilema, not hers).

My question would have to be, do these fields take away from the game, And something I should ask about, or is it something I should not worry about, and bite my tongue?

Sorry about the length.

I would say nothing to worry about as the same advantages and disavantagrs are equal to each team.

However I am commenting to mention that I have been to several tournaments where on the bigger fields like that there are temporary fences set up at more normal 10-12u distances. These are the nicer temporary fences so I don't think they are bought for just the weekend single tourney.

IMO, there should have been temp fences on those fields.

We coaches bitched loudly and long enough around here that the three top orgs (ASA, NSA and USSSA) finally got temp fences for all the fields in the metro area.

If possible they should always put up fences. One park we play in is on artificial turf and it's just stupid when they don't put up the fences. They have them at that park, but they cost a lot to have them put up so some TD's don't.

Or try the opposite. We played a high school tourney on 180' fields. It sucks when routine pop ups turn into home runs and doubles become singles.

Our TB team plays in an 18U TB/HS Summer league. The fences are 295' on 2 of the fields and 180' on the third one. I hate playing there because our team is loaded with longballers and we never play on the smaller field. The opposing coaches play their OFers really deep and it robs the girls of a butt-load of HRs if they had a temporary fence at 200' over the course of the season.

Whether it takes away from the game or not is open to interpretation. If you mean that the coaches aren't experienced enough to adjust, then no, IMO, it doesn't. It just means that they need to have more experience since the game of SB is entirely a game of adjustments continuously made throughout the game. For example, when we play at this league's fields, if the opposing team is playing their OFers deep, our team will be instructed to hit for singles or doubles short and we will play station to station SB, be more aggressive on base stealing since the backup is further away etc. etc.. When they move their OFers in, then we go long. There's multiple ways to score runs with an experienced team and coaching staff.

The only way it might actually take away from the game itself would be the excitement of a parent seeing their DD go yard on a true OTF HR for the first time. As exciting as that is, it's usually a very small part of most games if a part at all depending upon the quality of pitching by the opposing team.

Our HS field has the outfield fence at somewhere around 400'. The boy's fence is also that distance. Stupid. Just stupid. I don't know how many potential HR's DD has lost because the opposing coaches know to play her deep. On the plus side, our #2 pitcher isn't giving up those bombs either...lol.

It is up the whatever sanction you're playing to enforce it. If your state director doesn't enforce it then there's not much you can do. All of the sanctions have field regulations.

If you're not playing a sanction then you're pretty much screwed.

Everybody wants the fences, but they are not that cheap or easy to install & break down. And with at many tournaments as there are nowadays, not everyone has access to them.

Don't get me wrong, I believe all the fields should be properly fenced for games, just noting it is not as easy as some people believe it to be