TCS Presidents Day Showdown 16u - the mud pit

by **Dugout Dad** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:38 pm

The tournament was canceled on Saturday because of poor field conditions; so TCS tried to play the whole tournament on Sunday. They should have canceled Sunday as well. Take a look at the pictures below of field 1 at 12:30pm, before the third game. Mira Mesa Magic and SoCal Storm played on the field at 8am. The coaches told us that the fields were much worse than what is seen on the pictures. We saw them playing when we got there and were in disbelief on how bad the infield was, it looked like a horse race track. One parent told me that when the ball touched the infield, mud would stick to the ball and players would have to throw it with the mud stuck to it. Stealing was impossible, no traction plus mud kept on accumulating on the cleats. The Signal Hill Black Gold and San Diego Chaos refused to take the field for the 9:30 game citing safely concerns. The coaching staff from both teams got busy with sand and rakes to get the field to a marginal safe condition. The field drag was even jamming up with mud. The games were delayed one and half hours so TCS decided to play 60 minutes no new inning bracket play. TCS had all of Saturday to get these fields ready, no way they should have played these games on Sunday in the condition the fields were in. Rain happens TCS, cancel the tournament if there are safety concerns, don’t make us drive 90 miles for this, with the potential of girls getting hurt.