Thought this would be such a fun tournament because it coincided with the CWS. But unfortunately this was played at a place called the Boomer Sports Complex which was beyond bad. First problem - the "artificial turf" infield. I had it in my head that it was going to be a pristine artificial field. Instead it was filthy. I mean just really bad carpet, and the pitchers had to pitch off a black mat. In 95 degree heat (we had two pitchers go down due to heat exhaustion - more on that later). The fields were terribly slanted as well. Almost impossible to keep a bunt fair. And the fences were set up for baseball. A good 400 feet to center field, so doubles became home runs. Outfield was an ugly combination of grass and weeds.
The 'no cooler" policy was STRICTLY enforced. Girls couldn't even walk in with a bottle of gatorade in their ball bags. And the food offered inside the facility was your typical crap - nachos, hot dogs, etc. We like to have a team meal where every parent brings something healthy - bread, lunch meat, fruit, etc. Not possible at Boomer. I feel that the inability to bring in healthy food contributed to two of our players going down. We played most of the championship game with 8 players. And the two players who went down were both treated at an area hospital and both were asked where they were playing their tournament. Boomer. "Oh," said the medical staff BOTH times, "hope that nobody got any scrapes on that field because it's notoriously filthy and people have developed staph infections from playing there." I mean that's just what you want to hear, right??
On the positive note, there were a lot of good teams and it was fun to take in a session at the CWS. But I wil never allow my DD to play at the Boomer Sports Complex again.
The 'no cooler" policy was STRICTLY enforced. Girls couldn't even walk in with a bottle of gatorade in their ball bags. And the food offered inside the facility was your typical crap - nachos, hot dogs, etc. We like to have a team meal where every parent brings something healthy - bread, lunch meat, fruit, etc. Not possible at Boomer. I feel that the inability to bring in healthy food contributed to two of our players going down. We played most of the championship game with 8 players. And the two players who went down were both treated at an area hospital and both were asked where they were playing their tournament. Boomer. "Oh," said the medical staff BOTH times, "hope that nobody got any scrapes on that field because it's notoriously filthy and people have developed staph infections from playing there." I mean that's just what you want to hear, right??
On the positive note, there were a lot of good teams and it was fun to take in a session at the CWS. But I wil never allow my DD to play at the Boomer Sports Complex again.
