- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
We went to Pigeon Forge last week for the SEAA world series. Thought I'd share my take on it. We ended up going 5-2 and taking 5th place.
The competition was good. We're a solid B level team with a couple of A level players, and a couple of C level players, and everyone else B (just kinda making that up based on what I've seen around here from various teams but you know what I mean). We only have one bracket pitcher; if we had even one more I think we'd have gone further. Even so we have a good defense so we can hang pretty well with other B teams. We've even competed with a few real A teams. I was worried it would be a lot of really low-level teams, but it wasn't. There were a few but we didn't play them.
The opening stuff was pretty lame. The "parade" was around a conference room, so we didn't bother with it. The kids decided that was too boring so we just traded pins and left. Where they did it was VERY crowded. Inside was nice for the a/c but other than that it was pretty bad. I didn't watch opening ceremonies, I left the kid and went to check in to our cabin.
I was concerned after our first pool games which were both on Monday. The umpires were so bad I sent an email to the director. Not just the typical tiny strike zone, which we did deal with all week long. I'm talking not knowing the rules or enforcing them and making really blatantly bad calls. Calling girls out who were never tagged, not knowing what the look back rule is, not knowing pitching rules, etc. One guy told one of our coaches he's a basketball ref mostly and doesn't even know much about softball. I don't know if the director addressed it after my email, or if it was just a coincidence, but after that they got better. There were still random bad calls throughout the week but more like what you're used to just from umpires being human, not so much like, how did these guys even get this job?
They did not do a good job of keeping the website updated with info on wins/losses. Apparently USSSA has the market cornered on that kind of thing. For those of us who like to follow along it's frustrating.
The photographer was great. Probably made a killing. They took team pics which came out really well, and there was the option to have the photographer captures some action pics of your kid, which is pretty cool.
Pigeon Forge is not my kind of town. I think most of the families loved it. There is a LOT to do. But it's very crowded, tons of traffic, and extremely touristy. This was my first visit there. We went to the Alcatraz crime museum, which was very cool. But we didn't do much else. We did let the other adults take our kids with them so the kids had plenty of fun. They loved the Alpine coaster and bumper cars.
We live in GA, and our primary motivation for TN was the weather. So of course, we had a heat wave and it was close to 100 degrees in Pigeon Forge while back home it was 82. Figures.
Overall, I liked it way better than Panama City. I think it's a pretty good world series for any B level team that wants a shot at an actual win. A true A level team would probably be sandbagging if they played in it.
The competition was good. We're a solid B level team with a couple of A level players, and a couple of C level players, and everyone else B (just kinda making that up based on what I've seen around here from various teams but you know what I mean). We only have one bracket pitcher; if we had even one more I think we'd have gone further. Even so we have a good defense so we can hang pretty well with other B teams. We've even competed with a few real A teams. I was worried it would be a lot of really low-level teams, but it wasn't. There were a few but we didn't play them.
The opening stuff was pretty lame. The "parade" was around a conference room, so we didn't bother with it. The kids decided that was too boring so we just traded pins and left. Where they did it was VERY crowded. Inside was nice for the a/c but other than that it was pretty bad. I didn't watch opening ceremonies, I left the kid and went to check in to our cabin.
I was concerned after our first pool games which were both on Monday. The umpires were so bad I sent an email to the director. Not just the typical tiny strike zone, which we did deal with all week long. I'm talking not knowing the rules or enforcing them and making really blatantly bad calls. Calling girls out who were never tagged, not knowing what the look back rule is, not knowing pitching rules, etc. One guy told one of our coaches he's a basketball ref mostly and doesn't even know much about softball. I don't know if the director addressed it after my email, or if it was just a coincidence, but after that they got better. There were still random bad calls throughout the week but more like what you're used to just from umpires being human, not so much like, how did these guys even get this job?
They did not do a good job of keeping the website updated with info on wins/losses. Apparently USSSA has the market cornered on that kind of thing. For those of us who like to follow along it's frustrating.
The photographer was great. Probably made a killing. They took team pics which came out really well, and there was the option to have the photographer captures some action pics of your kid, which is pretty cool.
Pigeon Forge is not my kind of town. I think most of the families loved it. There is a LOT to do. But it's very crowded, tons of traffic, and extremely touristy. This was my first visit there. We went to the Alcatraz crime museum, which was very cool. But we didn't do much else. We did let the other adults take our kids with them so the kids had plenty of fun. They loved the Alpine coaster and bumper cars.
We live in GA, and our primary motivation for TN was the weather. So of course, we had a heat wave and it was close to 100 degrees in Pigeon Forge while back home it was 82. Figures.
Overall, I liked it way better than Panama City. I think it's a pretty good world series for any B level team that wants a shot at an actual win. A true A level team would probably be sandbagging if they played in it.
