- Jun 8, 2016
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You know my price..
Blatant cheating USSSA tournament. thoughts?
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Never ever mention high leg kick again??
- Jun 8, 2016
- 16,118
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That would suffice but wasn't what I was thinking of....Never ever mention high leg kick again??
- Aug 30, 2020
- 21
- 3
We saw quite a bit of this type of cheating in Nebraska this past HS season as a result of new COVID rules. The major change was that each team keeps their softballs, rather than dropping it in the circle for the next half inning. What effect did this have...? You don't get to see/hold/use the ball you are hitting. In addition to that, the umpires were instructed to handle the softballs as little as possible.
We could hear that the ball sounded different on contact occasionally. The worst offender would switch after a good hit. Finally, after retrieving a foul ball, we saw that they were using a safety sponge ball, like 8U would use, that has trouble making it out of the infield. I video my DD's games and have it all on camera, three different teams switching softballs between batters and within an at-bat. This includes watching a HC dig through a backpack for the ball and throwing it to the pitcher.
We dug through the rule books as we all felt this was blatant cheating. There are minimum ball spec requirements but nothing regarding what to do about a ball that doesn't meet those specs. Turns out, the only infraction we could find was in the sportsmanship section, which are all umpires discretion, and normally they just eliminate the ball from the game. If the umpire feels it is egregious the coach can be ejected. The rest of the season, we would cut the ball with a knife to make it unusable and point out the "damage" to the ump.
Now for my rant.... This is cheating, not using the rules to your advantage. I don't care if there isn't a specific rule against it, lying by omission is still lying, cheating by omission is still cheating. As the coach, you are telling your kids that they aren't good enough to compete on their own and you are telling everyone else that you are not a good enough coach to teach the team how to out play an opponent. What ticked me off the most this fall was which teams were doing it, three of the best teams in the State. They had no reason to need what they thought was an advantage.
We could hear that the ball sounded different on contact occasionally. The worst offender would switch after a good hit. Finally, after retrieving a foul ball, we saw that they were using a safety sponge ball, like 8U would use, that has trouble making it out of the infield. I video my DD's games and have it all on camera, three different teams switching softballs between batters and within an at-bat. This includes watching a HC dig through a backpack for the ball and throwing it to the pitcher.
We dug through the rule books as we all felt this was blatant cheating. There are minimum ball spec requirements but nothing regarding what to do about a ball that doesn't meet those specs. Turns out, the only infraction we could find was in the sportsmanship section, which are all umpires discretion, and normally they just eliminate the ball from the game. If the umpire feels it is egregious the coach can be ejected. The rest of the season, we would cut the ball with a knife to make it unusable and point out the "damage" to the ump.
Now for my rant.... This is cheating, not using the rules to your advantage. I don't care if there isn't a specific rule against it, lying by omission is still lying, cheating by omission is still cheating. As the coach, you are telling your kids that they aren't good enough to compete on their own and you are telling everyone else that you are not a good enough coach to teach the team how to out play an opponent. What ticked me off the most this fall was which teams were doing it, three of the best teams in the State. They had no reason to need what they thought was an advantage.
Name them, and send your story to the state director.
"Altered Balls and the potential of a ball being altered and those suspected ofaltering, owning or using an altered ball (or determined to have altered, owned or used an Altered Ball) shall be viewed as falling under the same rules in place for Altered bat"
USSSA Rule 2, Section 3, Page 9...
Unfortunately, some people believe "winning is the only thing." Which of course is a misquote of Vince Lombardi.
But for them it doesn't matter how they win as long as they win. If they can take a shortcut to winning instead of developing their players they will do it. How do they sleep? Just fine, no doubt, because they don't view what they're doing as wrong. After all, if you're not cheatin' you're not tryin', right?
The saddest part (other than their self-worth depends on the outcome of a game played by a bunch of children or adolescents) is that their players get shortchanged, both as players and as human beings. Kids are impressionable, and they watch what adults do. If they learn that it's ok to cheat as long as you don't get caught they will likely carry that lesson into the rest of their lives. Then they may get expelled from school for cheating on exams, or arrested for tax or securities fraud, or have some other problem later.
They also may lose out on the character-building lessons that come from losing honestly. As tough as losing can be - and believe me I hate losing more than I like winning - it does offer the opportunity to learn about yourself and measure yourself, both of which can spur you on to greater things. I think it's pretty rare to have great things accomplished by people who are content and satisfied with their lives.
You hope that one day the kind of person who feels it necessary to hollow out a ball to win a 14UB fastpitch tournament has an epiphany and becomes a better human being down the road. But I wouldn't bet my house on it.
But for them it doesn't matter how they win as long as they win. If they can take a shortcut to winning instead of developing their players they will do it. How do they sleep? Just fine, no doubt, because they don't view what they're doing as wrong. After all, if you're not cheatin' you're not tryin', right?
The saddest part (other than their self-worth depends on the outcome of a game played by a bunch of children or adolescents) is that their players get shortchanged, both as players and as human beings. Kids are impressionable, and they watch what adults do. If they learn that it's ok to cheat as long as you don't get caught they will likely carry that lesson into the rest of their lives. Then they may get expelled from school for cheating on exams, or arrested for tax or securities fraud, or have some other problem later.
They also may lose out on the character-building lessons that come from losing honestly. As tough as losing can be - and believe me I hate losing more than I like winning - it does offer the opportunity to learn about yourself and measure yourself, both of which can spur you on to greater things. I think it's pretty rare to have great things accomplished by people who are content and satisfied with their lives.
You hope that one day the kind of person who feels it necessary to hollow out a ball to win a 14UB fastpitch tournament has an epiphany and becomes a better human being down the road. But I wouldn't bet my house on it.
- May 20, 2015
- 1,122
- 113
we had a lot of teams using crappy balls last summer as a result of COVID rules
we supplied Dream Seams, because that's what our pitchers liked.......it put as at a disadvantage in that other teams were using lousier balls than we were, but it helped our pitchers
in our local tournies, people actually complained that we were using dream seams, and next thing you know, they changed covid regs and tournies started supplying all the balls.......and they were crappy lol.....
we supplied Dream Seams, because that's what our pitchers liked.......it put as at a disadvantage in that other teams were using lousier balls than we were, but it helped our pitchers
in our local tournies, people actually complained that we were using dream seams, and next thing you know, they changed covid regs and tournies started supplying all the balls.......and they were crappy lol.....
- Aug 30, 2020
- 21
- 3
These balls weren't altered, they were right out of the package. They just didn't meet the minimum ball specs.
In summer of 2019 we were playing a few TC events which supplied their own balls. The balls weren't travelling very far and they had kind of a mushy sound when it came off the bat. When the ball comes off a ghost bat there is a distinct CRACK sound. You know what I mean. It sounds so goooood. I don't remember who I was talking to, but they said TC purchased a large qty of balls and they were being stored in a hot warehouse...allegedly. They were nearing the end of the supply of that lot of balls. I don't know if this is true or even possible, but all I know is those balls were not coming off those bats like they should.
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