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Alliance Year Zero

What's on your mind?

by xmarksthespot » Sun Aug 01, 2021 5:40 am

The inaugural is done. Well at least for 16 and 18's. The weather was implausibly hot. For the majority of teams not pre-selected to the bracket of 16, there were days upon days of games, with a crescendo of five on Friday to make the "championship" vying for 17th place. Pitchers melted. Catchers melted. Teams melted. The Conklin Raiders advanced four rounds in the bracket due to forfeiture (If you can find the bracket. The website is still a WIP). The championship field a siren's lure - we've all come to OK after all. Tie me to the mast. The other fields. Torn turf, rutted pitchers circles and a dearth of shade. The Sting were bested by the mound with some twenty illegal pitches called on both teams in a single game. Hard to avoid that hole. The last illegal pitch called after the Sting's premature victory celebration. To reach these gems one must pass through miles of churches and, you guessed it, pot shops. A forlorn land deemed suitable for Indians ~150 years ago, held today with some twisted sense of pride. An inevitable denudation of talent. What does PGF platinum mean now? I will not be returning to this. Despite its shortcomings, the general consensus among the paying audience is that the PGF experience is superior.
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by xmarksthespot » Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:19 am

The alliance tourney while purporting to emulate the college format is not dispersed across many sites and weeks nor could it be. Moreover, only the CWS is held in Ok in [b]June not end of July. Teams not fortunate or talented enough to escape the initial bracket ought just go home because the following 2X elimination format for 17th is largely pointless, costly and not very pleasant (see above). So, the bottom line: for 2/3 (48/64) of the customers, PGF looks pretty good, Not a particularly good business model,
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by xmarksthespot » Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:26 am

Another nit - what exactly are college coaches looking for in a best of three series. The strategies and depth are coach/team, not typically player specific, nor is it as stressful as a single game. On a positive note - It was nice to have proper seven inning games.
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by curveball496 » Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:03 pm

See Q bracket in above referenced url. Good luck with that.
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by ofc80 » Mon Aug 02, 2021 2:29 pm

Biggest disappointment for the 14's in Florida was the games going to 1:45 after the lightning / rain delays instead of 7 innings. Changed the outcome for some.
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by curveballerguy124 » Tue Aug 03, 2021 9:33 am

We did the 14U Alliance in Florida we were in the tier 2 bracket we lost and went to the Q bracket which just allowed us to play more so long as we kept winning. We were fortunate enough to win the Q bracket but we had to play the same team three times in the end. That proved to be very difficult because they were a tough team but we won in ITB in walk off fashion but it was only a 5 inning game so ITB was officially the 6th inning!!.However me and the other coach agreed to this upon starting the game. The reason for this agreement was it was miserably hot out and the girls were beat to shit from the heat.....

I myself really like the college format however, this abridged version was a little rough on the players I think. Not to mention I absolutely HATE Florida in the summer, I’m not sure if hell exist but I would think the weather in Florida would be as close to it on earth as we could get without dying….

Truth be told I believe the weather and lack of us acclimating to it played a big factor in our performance from day one. I don’t believe any team was at their absolute best in Florida because like I said that weather was rough that was the most uncomfortable I have ever been and I’m pretty good coaching and playing in hot weather. Don't get me wrong it was a beautiful facility but turf fields in the middle of summer in Florida was rough, the sole of one of my shoes came apart from the heat!!

In the end the biggest complaint I had was the weather that was a huge factor for us to overcome. Or maybe I'm just a snowflake Californian and I should just man the hell up!!!
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by curveball496 » Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:39 pm

The venue ought not play a role, but the June altitude and July oppressive heat. NCAA got nothing on a bunch of brave kids.
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by Luiaguilera » Wed Aug 04, 2021 7:08 pm

curveballerguy124 wrote:We did the 14U Alliance in Florida we were in the tier 2 bracket we lost and went to the Q bracket which just allowed us to play more so long as we kept winning. We were fortunate enough to win the Q bracket but we had to play the same team three times in the end. That proved to be very difficult because they were a tough team but we won in ITB in walk off fashion but it was only a 5 inning game so ITB was officially the 6th inning!!.However me and the other coach agreed to this upon starting the game. The reason for this agreement was it was miserably hot out and the girls were beat to shit from the heat.....

I myself really like the college format however, this abridged version was a little rough on the players I think. Not to mention I absolutely HATE Florida in the summer, I’m not sure if hell exist but I would think the weather in Florida would be as close to it on earth as we could get without dying….

Truth be told I believe the weather and lack of us acclimating to it played a big factor in our performance from day one. I don’t believe any team was at their absolute best in Florida because like I said that weather was rough that was the most uncomfortable I have ever been and I’m pretty good coaching and playing in hot weather. Don't get me wrong it was a beautiful facility but turf fields in the middle of summer in Florida was rough, the sole of one of my shoes came apart from the heat!!

In the end the biggest complaint I had was the weather that was a huge factor for us to overcome. Or maybe I'm just a snowflake Californian and I should just man the hell up!!!


Yea u sound like a snowflake , next time stay home and enjoy this beautiful weather here in orange county and play PGF !!!!!! :evil:
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by Backnine » Fri Aug 06, 2021 8:07 am

If they were recruiting coaches (they are not) the 3 game series would make sense. Players preforming (or not preforming) in do or die elimination games is more of a test for the players and college coaches to evaluate.
Both Alliance and PGF websites suck. Come on guys, quit giving the job of running your websites to your nephews and hire a professional. I think you can afford it.
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by cent » Wed Aug 11, 2021 11:16 am

Spazdad luv you to death but you are wrong. It was tough on the kids. Too many games played against the same teams. Remember, the NCAA does theirs in a few weeks and spread out. This was done in a week.
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