AlwaysImprove wrote:Ask ASA why invite process is not dropped. They been doing this for years, and still hand out tons of invites.
ASA hands out invites to pump up their numbers. I have seen years where they took the field from 70 teams to 150 teams with invites. 150 teams get's everyone to stay in town 2 extra days. ASA invites are for cash. Now you have to play ton's of teams that are not even A ball teams. It's a wreck.
PGF hands out invites to try and get more competitive teams. I'll take the PGF approach any day.
As far as talent assessment. It is easily checked. Look at the teams that are getting great players signed to competitive teams. The PGF guys definitely stay on top of who is playing great ball.
There have been numerous posters on here point that one team or another is on an invite and they stink. Everytime, every single time, that team has gone on to run through all the great talent at Colorado Independence day, and finish deep at PGF. Not a single time has PGF gotten it wrong. If you have counter example, bring it up.
AlwaysImprove wrote:Great, you think it boils down to only invites, that it is petty and that it is a Good Old boys network, you should join the 150 teams 70 of which are on invites and not even A ball teams at ASA nationals. Enjoy your trip. Competitive teams will be at PGF.
My point in all of this wasn't to claim ASA is doing it right. Clearly they are not. ASA and PGF are wrong to use invites so heavily. Just for different reasons. My point was that PGF could still do it better and achieve an even greater level of success if they got rid of the invites. There are still a lot of teams out there that are not even trying to get to PGF because they see it as a good ol' boys network because of those invites. Teams that could qualify. As far as calling out a team, sorry to disappoint you. I didn't enter into this to single anyone out but the assumption that all the invited teams would qualify is just that, an assumption. Asking all teams to play in a qualifier is not that big of an ask. They are going to play somewhere, right? Why not a qualifier?
I hate that every time PGF vs ASA comes up it spirals into a pissing match over BS details.
Is HB a better location? Yes, but we're not going to nationals to go sight seeing or the beach. We're there to play softball.
Is PGF cheaper? For some teams yes, for others no. Over all it's a drop in the bucket compared to what we all spend the rest of the year anyway.
Is the quality of teams better? A field of 64 will always have an over all quality that's higher than 124 or 200 or 300. But the top teams are the top teams. No one suddenly became a better team because PGF came into existence.
Umpires...well, so long as they make good consistent calls...whatever. Give'm more free sandwiches. The best umpires are the ones you never notice.
I'm simply trying to get to meat of the issue. And that's the invites. They have the appearance of favoritism, real or perceived. It's just my opinion, but if PGF got rid of them, their popularity would grow significantly and ALL of the best teams would try to get there. Would that be a bad thing?