Ghostbusting The Friday Check in 7/15/16

[FP26]

Just an A D D observation, only about 2 years ago there were about 2 maybe 3 national championships. Now there are half a dozen organizations, a dozen world series and 2 dozen national/world championships. I bet by next summer there will be a Galaxy or Universe championship, and my bet is USSSA will be the one to come up with it. Then by the following year they will have half a dozen Galaxy championships. IMO they are becoming a bit of a joke. I will see social media posts of say a 12U team "National Champs" then a week later see another 12U team "National Champs". To save on time and travel they should offer a buy out option, $1000 gets a photo of team with a "National Championship" trophy.

And P.S. JJ, I feel just terrible that it is not in your softball budget for the whole family to tour Europe. Maybe reach out to some organizations for help. They could get Sally Struthers to do some commercials for you. "Each year, families are ripped apart simply because they don't have the means for the whole family to travel Europe for their precious child's sports. For only the price of a jumbo stuffed Chicago style pizza, a side of cheesy breadsticks, 2 pitchers of craft beer, and desert for the whole table each day, you could help families like the Squeeze family with the simply essential needs like a European vacation." .....I will remember you.....I will remember you....

This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. A few weeks ago we knew people on 4 different teams that were all playing for the PA State Championship. Each at different locations, and all on the same weekend. And, yes, they were all the same age group. A few years back some other friends were fortunate enough to win ASA Eastern Nationals. They had a very good team and this was a heck of an accomplishment for them. But facebook lit up with all of the "National Champion" stuff. I just find it misleading and borderline dishonest to not include "Eastern" when making the comment. But maybe that's just me... Be proud of your accomplishment. There is no need to embellish it further.

 

[FP26]

It was an honor and privelege to meet both you and Perfect Circle today. Congrats on the win! We play our first one Sunday at 8:30 on field 14. If I get a chance when we're done, I'll try and sneak over to cheer you on.

This was our first trip to Ohio for a tournament and I must say I was impressed with the qualify of softball. We played teams from Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. We were able to fight our way to a 3rd bracket game before being eliminated by a team called Cincy Ice. Very solid team... Overall it was a great weekend and I am looking forward to coming back some day.

YOCOACH - I was very impressed with your team. Some very talented young ladies. You have done well!

 

[YOCOACH]

This was our first trip to Ohio for a tournament and I must say I was impressed with the qualify of softball. We played teams from Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. We were able to fight our way to a 3rd bracket game before being eliminated by a team called Cincy Ice. Very solid team... Overall it was a great weekend and I am looking forward to coming back some day.

YOCOACH - I was very impressed with your team. Some very talented young ladies. You have done well!

Thank you for saying so. We ended our run at 4 games in a 5-4 loss on a suicide squeeze with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th. The entire game irritated me because their pitcher was doing the triple jump on the way to release. I asked Blue about it and the conversation went like this:

Me: Blue, you might want to watch the pitchers feet on the pitch. She's replanting about 6 inches in front of the plate before release.

Blue: I saw that. Unfortunately the Tournament Director told us he considers this a participation tournament since it's non-sanctioned and told us not to call illegal pitches unless it's the championship game.

Me: Let me get this straight. We have sanctioned ASA Umpires using the ASA Rule set.

Blue: Yes.

Me: But you're only supposed to uphold part of the rule set and not call illegal pitches unless it's the championship game.

Blue: Yes.

Me: They lied. This tournament is most certainly sanctioned....by the NCAA!

Blue laughs.

As a side note, I believe the Ice won it all in the your Bracket. Diamond Chix Gold won our Bracket. I also wanted to mention how much I enjoyed watching your team play and DD pitch. They had their struggles in pool play but you could see the determination and faith in each other as a team. They never hung their heads and made a solid run in bracket play which is a testament to your coaching staff. Hopefully, when, not if you guys return we can meet again. Although this time, after the games, we need to make it family dinner and beers

 

[FP26]

Thank you for saying so. We ended our run at 4 games in a 5-4 loss on a suicide squeeze with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th. The entire game irritated me because their pitcher was doing the triple jump on the way to release. I asked Blue about it and the conversation went like this:

Me: Blue, you might want to watch the pitchers feet on the pitch. She's replanting about 6 inches in front of the plate before release.

Blue: I saw that. Unfortunately the Tournament Director told us he considers this a participation tournament since it's non-sanctioned and told us not to call illegal pitches unless it's the championship game.

Me: Let me get this straight. We have sanctioned ASA Umpires using the ASA Rule set.

Blue: Yes.

Me: But you're only supposed to uphold part of the rule set and not call illegal pitches unless it's the championship game.

Blue: Yes.

Me: They lied. This tournament is most certainly sanctioned....by the NCAA!

Blue laughs.

As a side note, I believe the Ice won it all in the your Bracket. Diamond Chix Gold won our Bracket. I also wanted to mention how much I enjoyed watching your team play and DD pitch. They had their struggles in pool play but you could see the determination and faith in each other as a team. They never hung their heads and made a solid run in bracket play which is a testament to your coaching staff. Hopefully, when, not if you guys return we can meet again. Although this time, after the games, we need to make it family dinner and beers

Thank you very much!! We have a great group of young ladies. And they are very close with each other. It is a lot of fun to help coach them. I really like the dinner idea and hope to take you up on that next year! If you ever travel to PA, let me know.

It's a shame you had the issue with blue. The entire "illegal pitch" thing is a sore subject for me... To be honest, we had no issues with blue the entire weekend. We had two female umpires for a game Saturday evening that was the best crew we have had all summer. We hit 3 homers in that game including the first career homer for the one young lady. The umpires made it a point to get balls for them and chatted briefly with those players after the game. Very classy... We had another umpire for two separate games (I believe his name is Shawn) that was also among the best we have had all year. Very enjoyable trip for all of us!