OK, I'll start it, who got the bids this week?

[slapperdad]

16U, Wasco Diamonds and Dreams Montgomery.

[backstop13]

I heard Dreams and Team Indiana were "given" the bids. And Team Indiana had a loss on the weekend. Granted the loss was in Pool Play, but when handing out bids to the top dog shouldn't things like that be taken into consideration??

I don't know what is fair when you cancel a tournament (fields were OK by 3p) and have 8 remaining in the winners bracket. Sounded like a mess and a lot of pissed off people after the announcement.

[iou]

Dreams and TI did receive bids at the 16u tourney. From what I understand, the tourney was very unorganized. Its a shame when national bids are up for grabs and the tourney organizers don't put forth the effort to get fields ready.

I don't think there is ever a good way to determine ties.

[Fat Guy at 3rd]

Its absolutely disgusting what happened at the goat ranch in Plainfield this weekend! Wasco Diamonds was awarded a bid because they gave up 0 runs in bracket play. They played Team Nike and Team DMX , sorry but both are start up teams that have no business even being part of this discussion and that why it is impossible to award bids with 8 teams left in the winners bracket based on runs given up. ASA may have officially canceled that tourney at 1:30 but they were done with it at noon. They never even touched the diamonds all day. If they were prepared to play on the sh*t fields they played this tournament on they would have had plenty of diamond dry and the final 8 could have easily played a single elimination tournament starting at 4pm. The final 4 would have started at 5:30. Championship game starting at 7 and done by 8:30. Hell the original schedule had the "if game" starting at 8pm so they should have planned on being there until 9:30 anyway. Then the births would have gone to the teams that EARNED the births instead of the bullsh*t way it was done. ASA should be embarrassed and apologize to the girls that were fighting on the field to find the true teams that should have gotten the births! If our money wasn't already paid for next weekend we would be playing in the Premier tournament and stay as far away from Bloomington as we could. It's disgusting!

[gunshy]

Weather was an issue all weekend at the 18u A/Gold Qualifier in Bloomington. I thought the parks Dept did all they could on both days to get fields playable. Torrential rains at the start of each morning made schedules impossible. There is never a fair/equitable way to hand out bids in a weather-shortened tie breaker and everyone should realize that. If you factor in pool games, of which we all had 1, the medium strengeth team that draws the cupcake in pool and runs up 15 runs has a huge advantage over a strong team that wins a competitive game against another strong team. The first tie breaker this weekend was runs SCORED, so a 12-11 sloppy game trumps a solid 7-0 win. If you throw out pool games, you HAVE to play it out and imagine the complaints today if we had championship games slated for midnight Sunday night and it rained again. As I read it, the forcast was for "strong thunderstorms" the biggest part of the day and evening. Before you get bent out of shape, really think thru the available options and the forcast for the rest of the evening that ASA had at it's disposal. Hindsight is 20-20 and I thought, at least at Bloomington, ASA did the best they could with what they had.

[crystalblu31]

For all of you who are questioning why bids were handed out the way they were, remember because this was a qualifier, ASA code dictates the order of finish on an incomplete tournament. Pool play is not factored into the order of finish in any ASA championship play, including nationals.

See http://downloads.asasoftball.com/about/ ... ACode2.pdf.

Article 510 H 02:

02. Incomplete Tournament. In the event a national qualifier, regional,
territorial qualifier or national championship final tournament cannot be
completed within the scheduled time frame the following procedures shall be
used to break ties among teams in the same spot in the bracket.
a. Head to head competition.
b. The team that advanced the farthest in the winner’s bracket.
c. Won-loss records, except among undefeated teams.
d. If only two teams are tied for a position and have played each other,
the winner of that game.
e. The teams shall be ranked according to the fewest runs allowed per
game played.
f. If a tie still exists, the teams shall be ranked according to the most runs
scored per game played.
g. If a tie still exits, by a coin toss.

I was not at Plainfield, so I cannot comment on that situation. But, I was at Bloomington and agree with Gunshy on how things were handled there. We cannot control the weather and strive to do the best with the circumstances that we are given.

I will be in Bloomington this upcoming weekend as the ASA rep, so if any of you have any questions or comments before, during, or after please do not hesitate to contact me.

Crystal Dombkowski
Indiana ASA Assistant JO Commissioner
cdombkowski@indianaasasoftball.org

[whatever]

Crystal,

Is there a schedule yet for Bloomington 16U this weekend?

[Stratos]

Lets be clear - its not how the bids where handed out.

Its that they could have finished the tournament. They could have avoided all of this - as stated above, the games could have been completed and a champion named - we preach effort to our players - how about a little effort from the TD and the crew. I bet if you let the coaches and parents work on the fields, they would have been ready. Reason - because they care.

Crystal you can hide behind the rules - but it was another bad deal for ASA. How come you guys just dont get it. Effort - that is all we ask. Whether it is answering the phone, email, or getting our insurance cards mailed out in a timely manner.

Of course that is just my opinoin...

[backstop13]

getting our insurance cards mailed out in a timely manner.

To my knowledge we have not received ours yet at all...let alone timely.

[Fat Guy at 3rd]

Stratos you nailed it! I couldn't type any slower for them to understand i guess. You other 2 that want to quote rules to me I dont need to hear them. It was simple they have these new radar things out that seem to work pretty well. There are even some people that have them on their phones! It's crazy! Don't talk to me about hindsight it was right on the radar showing the rain was done in Plainfield. It was a total lack of planning and effort. NO EXCUSES!