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Post by renzi11 on Jul 25, 2011 15:30:22 GMT -5
You forgot GoodWood from Beloit! I know Electro glo is from fort Atkinson but no longer play together. Most of the guys from that team play a tourny maybe once a month but that is about it. My 2 cents on why people don't play as much is that it is hard to find sponsors if you are lazy and don't look. People don't have good jobs anymore and money is tight for alot of people. Even if you have a good sponsor and don't have to pay to play, You still need money for food, Drinks, gas those sort of things. I personally had to take a big cut on my playing time because I had to take a 2nd shift job and work every other weekend. Thankfully the guys I play with understand this and work with me to get games in when I can. I also think we need to get younger kids interested in the game of it will not be played for much longer. I'm with this part. You don't see teams with kids the age 18-25. You might see a couple kids on a team but not entire teams. If you do see and entire team of kids that age they don't take the game serious. At least thats what I see. My team, Bud Select/Water St. Pub, is completely filled with players 19-25 (talk about hitting your demographic perfectly) and we're in the top Tue/Thu league in Sheboygan. In previous years, the guy that ran our team was one of those guys who liked to use the phrase, "It's only softball." This year I took over the team and while we haven't come close to winning any tournaments, we haven't been afraid to play in the big ones. Unfortunately, we seem to be in the minority. We've played against Kart AG, Three Ts, Ox and Cats, Schnickelfritz and more this year, and have stayed somewhat competitive in some of the games. Have we gotten smoked a few times? Yes, but we've also hung with some teams that we're not quite up to yet talent-wise. For the guys that are in their early to mid-20s, they don't want to give up weekends in the summer, that's what I think is the biggest problem. That and the guys who run their teams don't want to do the leg work of getting a team organized for a weekend. Shooter Malone's out of Manty is an exception to that, they're all over every weekend and are 20-25 years old. I'm working on getting my team to that level, just haven't quite gotten there yet. To add to the list of teams, Bud Light/Plenco (A.K.A. Bud Dry) and Miller Lite/What's Up would be two teams from Sheboygan. And I'm not afraid to throw my team out there, even if we may go 0-2 in a state tourney.
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Post by bgraser12 on Jul 25, 2011 15:34:40 GMT -5
You should bring your team down in may then...and perhaps throw your name in the ASA D or NSA D tournaments. You only get better by playing better teams.
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Post by newguy on Jul 25, 2011 15:37:46 GMT -5
where are you thinking about having this may tournament??
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Post by bgraser12 on Jul 25, 2011 15:44:07 GMT -5
Well probably loggers park/slinger...I know that I can get those 3 parks and they are close together....I am on the lookout for something that would be cost effective. no matter where it is teams are going to have to drive. So Its not gonna be great for everyone. Thats why I'm gonna work on hotel specials for teams that do. I'm pretty sure that can be arranged.
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whg44
New Member
Posts: 37
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Post by whg44 on Jul 26, 2011 10:57:02 GMT -5
What kind of ball are we going to use?
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Post by bgraser12 on Jul 26, 2011 11:02:18 GMT -5
52 .300
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whg44
New Member
Posts: 37
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Post by whg44 on Jul 26, 2011 11:48:26 GMT -5
We're out then!
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Post by justwho on Jul 26, 2011 11:55:41 GMT -5
how are those 52/300 balls?
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Post by bgraser12 on Jul 26, 2011 11:58:44 GMT -5
actually i really liked them at ASA state...it sounds like you are hitting a sock, but they go if you hit them square. scores were still pretty high in the C bracket.
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Post by newguy on Jul 26, 2011 12:15:46 GMT -5
yea.. I was surprised by the balls there also..They did sound horrible..but there were still alot of homeruns hit
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Post by cwall282 on Jul 26, 2011 12:20:04 GMT -5
I have seen K-stone play 3 or 4 times now and played against them once they are probably not a C team but would deffinatly be a D team. I have heard when all there guys play together they are pretty good. I wasn't impressed though.
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vp12
Junior Member
What Would Jackie Do?
Posts: 70
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Post by vp12 on Jul 26, 2011 17:44:47 GMT -5
I played in tourneys where they used 52/300 and yes they sound like a dud. Just recently played in one where all the bats were checked prior to the team playing and I seen some 300 plus shot. I also seen some balls jump off the ground 3-14 feet after hitting the dirt is scary. The ball is too much like a tennis ball after it hit the ground. Some say the 52 core ball is suppose to deflect off the body better and reduce impact and not feel so bad when it hit you. My opinion is too much of an unknown of what the ball is gonna do after it hits the ground being a softer ball!
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Post by jake26 on Jul 27, 2011 13:39:02 GMT -5
I have not read every post because holy hell there is 8 pages of guys writing novels lol. Here are a few of the things I have seen in my short time playing softball, 3 years. D/E teams for the most part (not every team so don't take offense) has a group of guys who play because they are getting their fix of ball in, but are not seriously committed to traveling and putting in the work to raise money to travel. This is why these teams stay local and play in cash tournaments, again not every D/E team but in general or I am also talking about teams that play at the D/E level but dont play sanctioned. This happens in every state or at least in Wisconsin and Illinois, I will even put Cinci in there from what I have seen. This does not mean they are bad people or anything they just have other interests than traveling to play softball. Since these guys do not travel and know they are more of a local team, they run tournaments and do not allow C or higher teams into their tournaments. That means guys like me, someone who rode the coat tails of the teams i was on, are not allowed to get my tournament teams in these tournaments that have good showings 15+ teams. Now that my team cannot play together every weekend because tournaments do not allow us we have a hard time winning money for travel and have to rely solely on sponsors. Along with that comes the fact that we dont play together all the time so when we finally do we dont have the team unity or whatever you want to call it to compete fully at the national level. If we are not going to go to a national or to a world, why would we drive all the way out to stevens point for a tournament that we can win no money. Now on to Milwaukee, my favorite discussion because I am going to make people mad. The reason why Milwaukee leagues, and tournaments around here are falling apart is the managers of the "better" teams. I have now played on 2 teams in this area KA and Coaches/SNL, me and seth both actually. The reason you do not see younger teams in the leagues, and in tournaments is because of the teams in the power league. I know for instance me and seth both started playing in leagues in oak creek with our buddies, all our age, who are not that great but I think seth can agree that every time we come back to play these guys are def. getting better. The reason they never made the jump to play in the power league or even try to get in a better league is because of the power teams that saw me n seth on some crappier teams in some tourneys and picked us up right away. This then makes the team we played on say well without these couple guys we wont compete in tournaments or in a better league. This is one example and I am sure that there are many others you all can think of out there. Another example of why tournament teams struggle for guys is an example I read earlier of KA picking up Travis for sunday. Who sat? do they trust you now with traveling. I do not mean to throw you under the bus Brandon it was just an example I thought of, I guess I did the same thing this past sunday coming to play for Brads team in Falls fest even though I sucked royally. When you do this guys do not want to commit to traveling because they do not even know if they will play, then why waste the money to travel if you are going to sit. I have said all along I will play E ball if I have to just to play every game, who wants to sit? Even in our league I had this discussion with Bobber last night talking about a guy and his commitment issues. I do not understand why guys put up with that, I would rather take a guy who is not the "best" talent out there but shows up every game ready and excited to play, and those guys are out there. I know this has been going on forever, but finally the younger guys have had enough. If you want to build softball up in Wisconsin let the higher teams that will travel and go to states/nationals/worlds play in your local tournaments. It is not the old days where these tournament teams have a ton of money to travel, then when they cannot play all year locally together because they are not allowed they feel they will not be able to compete nationally. Before we blame the guys running the associations, take a look at yourselves, look at if you ever ran a tourney and didnt allow teams in because they are "too good". What I am saying is the problem did not start with the guys running ASA or NSA, it started at home in your leagues and local tourneys. Let people play that want to play, and dont throw a guy under the bus just to pick up some hot new prospect. There are plenty of people that play leagues, and small tourneys, but their teams are hurting when these upper teams pick apart their good players year in and year out, leaving them with scraps to rebuild on again. As far as USSSA goes that is a mystery to me. What is the general consensus of Wisconsin softball. Big fat or roided out guys that can hit the ball a mile but cant bend over to field the ball. That is definately me included so not talking trash. Now if you go play USSSA its a defense minded game that has a baseball feel to it. Guys in their mid 20's in Wisconsin still playing baseball will not come play softball because of this, they think its all big fat guys that dont play defense, and the ball is pitched 20 feet. I promise you there will be a huge spark in interest if we built up USSSA by the younger generation that can still run and field. Again please dont take offense to what I am saying here guys I am talking in general I know there are good fast guys in these leagues I am just saying what people I talk to that still play baseball say. I will say this, Lemmer I am willing to run a USSSA tournament at Homerun Heaven next year, and will try to promote it to the best of my abilities. I ask you guys from Milwaukee to come and play. I will even make it a $100 dollar buy in so fairly inexpensive just to have guys come out and play to see if they like the game.
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Post by jake26 on Jul 27, 2011 13:51:43 GMT -5
I want Wisconsin softball to build up as much as possible. It is my home and I believe there is a whole heck of a lot of talent in this state, it is just hidden to the nation. I also drive a shit ton to play in Illinois, and am on an Illinois team because I love playing USSSA. If we could build USSSA in Wisconsin maybe me, and the other Wisconsin guys on my teams wouldnt have to travel as much, and could play with people we know, in places we know. Please feel free to contact me if there is anything I can do to help promote the game here in Wisconsin. I suggest other guys do the same and if we have enough guys that are willing we will make it happen.
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Post by bgraser12 on Jul 27, 2011 15:19:48 GMT -5
i agree with you jake that saying D/E teams can only play in every WI tournament makes it very difficult for teams who are "good" to play. how can you say d/e teams only when they don't even know what that even means. What they are really saying is we don't want the top teams to come play cause we are scared to lose to them. Just let everyone play and it will make softball better overall. Cincy Metro softball tournament has 200+ teams and there is zero payout. We can't get 20 teams in our top bracket they have 40.
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