Midwest Blues!

[gunshy]

Just completed a weekend of play at Midwest, 16U ASA State Games, and am scratching my head after the weekend's events. We begin this saga with brackets to the event, then a revised bracket that has teams playing different pool times and even some games off site. I find out Friday night that our schedule had to be significantly revised because the facility had to accomodate adult slow pitch AND a kick ball tournament (yes, I said kick ball tournament) on Saturday. So everyone drives to Indy for 1 pool game Friday night, of which most games are marked by the umpires cry of "Illegal pitch!" Just like the college world series, rules are rules and they were called to the letter of the law in every game. Not just 1 game, 1 field or 1 crew...it was the dominant theme Friday night. I can live with the calls, but the problem was that they were so prevalent Friday and virtually nonexistent the rest of the weekend; these rules were unenforceable because of the bomb craters that developed in front of every pitching rubber and were not repaired all weekend. The last field we played on had at least a 10inch drop from the rubber to where the plant foot landed. The fields were beat to death all day and were not worked or re-lined 1 time; they were dragged and lined in the morning and that was it for the day. ASA officials were left to apologize for the poor conditions all weekend, for which they really had no control. ASA deserved better and we deserved better from Midwest.

[bucketboy]

Well put and said as always Gunshy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

DD and I went up Saturday evening to watch some games and will concur the craters/fox holes/pot bunkers in front of every pitching rubber were awful. Sorry we missed you, but all the winners bracket teams were gone already....

We are playing up there this weekend and certainly hope the kickball games are in full swing. Brings me back to the good ole CYO days

I hope Stratos will pass on the word to Tim as it is such a nice facility, but very tough to pitch it from a moon crater.

Did you also notice how the catcher's areas were getting rutted out yesterday. Thought we might have to send out a search party for a couple of smaller stature catchers Saturday night late.

Have fun in Colorado

[slapperdad]

Gunshy I have to agree. Field maintenance was about as bad as I've seen. My DD was called out on Saturday for being out of the batters box. Now I understand that she sometimes gets a good run at it, but there were never any batter's boxes lined to begin with. We played early Saturday and Sunday and neither game had batters's boxes. My question is unless the batter is half way to the pitcher, how the heck do you make that call with no box?

After watching the college world series, I figured the blues would be all over the illegal pitch. It wasn't that big of a deal last week at Compuware, but I agree they were all over it Friday and we had a couple called yesterday, one even costs us a run as the opponent had a runner on third.

I agree 100%, for what kind of money the teams/parents spend on this crap, and the effort involved, they deserve better than this.

FYI, overall I thought the umpires did a pretty good job this weekend, the blues at Compuware were abysmal!

[ballguy]

I was there as well this weekend. I heard about the illegal pitch calls but didn't see any personally. As far as the umpiring it was ok. Had a problem with a few as I felt they were to worried about being the man rather than calling the game. I felt like they were looking to toss coaches or fans out. Saw 4 or 5 umps who were very short with coaches when there was really no need to be. The fields..... No different than every other time we play there. They line em once in the morning and that's it. The pitchers all ways have the craters to deal with. Saw a lot of good talent though. I was impressed with girls from every game I watched.

[trojan05]

Kickball Rules!!!!! We had five CYO CITY CHAMPS on our Varsity Roster this season. My position of Kickball Commissioner, however, doesn't pay very well.

[gunshy]

Midwest as a complex, has the potential to be a great place to play. Problem is, you can't run it like a dairy farm: milk it till it dies. When an ASA qualifier is there, deciding who gets a coveted 16u ASA National bid, teams should not have to contend with kick ball, beer league slow pitch and the crappy field conditions we get virtually every time we play there. Diamonds of the South was in Jasper last week with a comparable number of teams and it was so much better. I live an hour north if Indy, played to the last game this week and last, and was home an hour EARLIER playing in JASPER!!! (3 1/2 hrs away). Midwest forced this event into 3 days, when it could have easily been completed in two with the fields at their disposal. Kick ball and slow pitch could have run Friday night, saving 24 teams the trip to Indy to play 1 pool game. Every coach I talked to was grumbling and it did not need to be that way. First place we have played where the indoor running water restrooms smelled worse than the port-o-potties.

[slapperdad]

Gunshy, I'm an hour+ south of the northwest side. After driving to Indy for various youth sporting events for the last 7 years, Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball, and Softball, I just chalk it up to the fact that the schedulers don't really care, they just schedule the games. Basketball is worse, we would drive (from Seymour) to Noblesville, to play Columbus, or Franklin, or Indian Creek. How stupid is that?

FYI, there was one Kickball game Saturday afternoon, that was well worth the price of admission. Those who saw it know what I'm talking about!

[jag1]

The fields were bad.....I am really suprised there weren't some serious injuries with the holes on the mound and at home plate..! There was plenty of exciting games and the parity was good...

[coolstuff]

So... what were the final standings?

[slapperdad]

1. Magic Gold
2. Shockwaves 93
3. Indiana Velocity
4. Magic 93
5. Rockets
5. Gators 93
7. Shockwaves Harper
7. CG Wizards
9. Xtreme
9. Team Indiana
9. Southern Indiana Sun Devils
9. Xcel