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Real name:
John OSullivan
Location:
Oak Forest, IL
Division:
Men's 50
Messages posted by JohnO28 »Message board home »Start a new discussion
| Jan. 6, 2024 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: New rule on shaved bats You know it's 100% illegal to take someones property and cut it open right? That's why it's not done anymore because people got sued over it. It's also not fair to a legit hitter getting accused by butt hurt players to lose his "Gamer" bat because some people are just sore losers. If someone takes my bat and cuts it open to find out its 100% stock they are going to owe me a lot more than $300. They are going to replace my bat and compensate me for my time spent taking BP getting my gamer to that status. |
| Jan. 4, 2024 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: New rule on shaved bats Eazy, I agree with you to a point. I've seen small guys with good mechanics and bat speed absolutely murder the ball. I've seen monster guys that you would expect to kill the ball be punching judy hitters because of either bad mechanics or slow bat speed or a combination of both. I've seen average sized guys be really good or bad but sometimes people swings while they might look bad work well for them and they get a lot of exit velocity and/or distance with an ugly swing no matter what bat they use with clean stock bats. You have to look beyond just the look of a swing because there is no perfect cookie cutter swing that works for everyone. But I do hear what you're saying, seen plenty of guys over the years dropping bombs with certain bats but can't get the ball to the warning track with other bats. Sometimes a bat just works better for some people than others or one bat fits a players swing better and he excels with it. Doesn't mean it's shaved but I always look beyond the swing and a players size and sometimes you can just hear a bat has been worked or is so extremely broken in that it's about to blow up. There is no 1 way to tell over another but sometimes multiple signs point towards it. But if the associations don't have anything set in place as far as questioning a bat then what are we supposed to do. Also, another thing to remember is how small the softball world really is because of the internet. All it might take is a person who's swinging a stock bat but if the associastions put together some some of testing protocol in place and guys start getting called out for swinging shaved bats by a few people the name will spread like wild fire across these forums and you know damn well all most people will hear is "they're cheaters they swing dirty" regardless if it's true or not that is the only part some people will here and not even read the whole story, just the par thtat fits their narrative. There is no simple right or wrong way to take care of this and hold people accountable any time soon. As soon as something is set in place the cheaters will find an different way around it. They've been trying to cut back on cheaters with the youngers guys for years and whatever they come up with the cheaters find a way around it. Hell a big share of the shaving market now is girls fastpitch and little league bats. It's ridiculous and scary but no simple solution. At the end of the day bat sales is a multi million dollar business every year and so is bat shaving. The only company I've seen try to do something about it was Pure with their endcaps and even those are being shaved. Unfortunately, Senior players bitching on the internet won't do a damn thing because people will still play and buy bats and that is all companies care about. |
| Dec. 24, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: New rule on shaved bats MikelMart, I pretty much know every bat my guys swing mostly because I'm a bat wh*re and am always trying new bats and so are some of our guys. But to say one of the biggest things about being on a team is knowing what bat your teammates swing. Highly doubt you will find many people to agree with you there. Every player knowing what every other player swings isn't really a top priority for most people. |
| Dec. 24, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: New rule on shaved bats Nickname36, There is absolutely no room for shaved bats in this game. It's absolutely ridiculous you are trying to lessen the ban on a player caught cheating with altered bats. So in your world a player needs to be caught cheating twice just to earn a 1 year ban.. Ridiculous |
| Dec. 22, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: New rule on shaved bats softball4b, Fair enough. I can't disagree with you on that. |
| Dec. 22, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: New rule on shaved bats Softball4b, I would tend to say your assumption of 90% of guys not knowing a shaved bat if they saw it perform, heard it or hit it is vastly over estimated by at least 50%. You really think that a team full of guys who play with someone for an entire season don't know who swings shaved and who doesnt? There are generally tell tale signs. First, at some point everyone on teams have hit BP with their team. When a guy is hitting 400' consistently in games with his "Gamer" and hes taking BP before games with a different bat and he's barely hitting 300' with any other bat it becomes obvious. Secondly, the most common shaved bats are the big hyped bats we all know. Nobody is going to shave a Combat Centurian because it would be to obvious that a very common lower tier bat is hitting like that and most people have never seen one. So they shave the good bats everyone know so it's not as obvious. But the problem with that is there are a whole lot of them and they all sound pretty similar except the shaved one sounds like a cannon going off. Third, and not quite as common is they are extremely protective of their gamer and nobody at any point as long as they've had it is ever allowed to swing it. Even when it was "brand new", I get it when gamers have swings and they are game ready you don't want to take any more swings than necessary but since day 1 nobody has been allowed to swing it and after every at bat it goes into their bat bag. Anyone who's been around the game long enough and played with and against the same guys long enough starts to figure out who swings clean and who doesn't. It's not a 100% exact science but generally if a guy is doing the first 2 things I said then you can be pretty sure. |
| Dec. 21, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: New rule on shaved bats I'm all in favor of getting illegal bats out of the game as much as the next guy. You guys keep asking about testing at the fields. What testing do you expect them to be doing? The only bat standards besides size and weights that are in effect is the 1.21 BPF maximum standards. There is no minimum failing number on a tester for Senior bats. Senior bats weren't desinged of built with a minimum test number in mind and are legal until they break. You all want SSUSA to all of the sudden come up with a minumum tester number for bats to fail but that's not how they are built. I think many of you will be shocked that youre extremely hot Senior bats that are all webbed up can test lower on a compression tester than a shaved bats. What is everyone going to start doing when their completely stock Senior bats are now failing compression testing and can no longer be used and to make things worse Senior bats have no warranty like other assocation bats do where some can exchange them for new bats with a warranty. What are all the Red knob users going to do with their $500 bats then? You can't start punishing people who aren't cheating and who's bats are stock and conforming to the rules that were set in place when they were designed and built and then purchased. Unless SSUSA, NSA, SPA, ISSA, ISA, One Nation and any other assocations I'm missing all do this across the board teams will just go play where they don't test. I can probably guarantee that if they start testing and set the number low enough to catch cheaters then I'd say at least 1/3-1/2 of players stock broken in bats will fail. |
| Dec. 14, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Teams looking for players Discussion: Team OG 50AAA 55AAA and 60AAA Are you playing on all 3 teams this year? |
| Nov. 29, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Midwest Championships Bob21, How many teams would that be? Honest question, a quick scan of 50 55 and 60s ratings on the SSUSA website shows a total of 6 teams combined for those 3 age groups. |
| Nov. 26, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Midwest Championships Rob64, A little common sense goes a long way. Have no idea why this would have been moved. A quick scan of the Ratings page shows there are 8 total 50's MN teams and 6 I've never seen play ever and it looks like 4 haven't played in a tourney in 4 years. |
| Nov. 18, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: shoes I have tried almost everything and thought I had finally settled on the NB being the best I could find.. That changed this year, I gave the Under Armour Yard Turfs a try and I will never go back to NB after.. |
| Nov. 16, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Midwest Championships STL0, I'd love to know the thought process of HQ when it comes to tourneys. The last several years they tried the Windy City Classic in early April in Chicago, it' kept getting canceled because lack of interest because it's too damn cold still. Now they move the Northern Championships from MI to even further North in MN a week earlier. Teams that has been getting in it from IL, IN, WI, MI who were the majority of the teams that made up the paritipation. 27 out of 38 teams that got in last year were from 4 states I listed. The rest were from OH and ON,C. Talking with multiple managers from IL, IN and MI they won't even consider making that drive in April with a huge chance of rainout. |
| Oct. 22, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Player Classification If a player played 50 Major last year and filled in for some tourneys last year on a 55 Major team as well and move as an individual to 55s next year what will their ranking be? I've heard they would stay Major at 55 but also heard that since they were Major in 50s and moving up as an individual to 55s they would be classified as Major+. |
| Oct. 3, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Worlds Vegas Congrats to SSUSA for their hard work and effort that went into this years worlds. Not sure what was my favorite part. It was really nice to see the update brackets posted everyday so people could follow along. That was a nice change of pace and something everyone has been asking for for a long time. But if I had to pick it would be one of these: Was it when we were told on this message boards that when we got to the fields the Baden balls we had purchased already but didn't have the SSUSA logo on them would be swapped out at the parks but were denied once we got there. Or was it the new state of the art seeding program that they used this year that had the most teams I've ever heard complain about having to play not only teams multiple times in same tourney. Hell one 55 teams out of their 4 games they played the same team twice and one of them is local to them and someone they've played against at home. Or teams like myself that flew all the way to Vegas to play the same team twice this past weekend that we've played in 5 tourneys already this year. Nah, I think it's the fact they let a Major team who had success last year who already had 2 Major+ players on their roster petition down to AAA while they spent the whole year winning tourneys at the Major level in every other association while playing AAA in SSUSA. Then they proceed to go undefeated winning all their games by a margin of over 10.5 runs a game. |
| Sept. 27, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: 50’s AAA PODS After the pool play games to determine seeding, When and where will the brackets be posted then? |
| Sept. 22, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Thread Closed Coop3636, There are multiple programs available to do this. |
| Sept. 20, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Website comments Discussion: Can you please update the brackets for tournament... Banditos180, Thats a fight you're not going to win. It's been addressed here hundreds of times and brought to their attention that every single other association has live updates during games and they say it can't be done. Ironic that EVERY other smaller association makes it happen but ssusa won't |
| Sept. 20, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Batter out of the box TitanHD, I have been told by SSUSA HQ specifically Ant that no player is allowed to play for more than 2 teams in the same age group in a season. If a player is on a roster for example at 50 AAA buy never even plays a tourney for them but then is released from that team and he plays for another team that year he's not allowed to play for anyone else the whole season The scenario that happened to a guy we tried to pick up was he agreed to play for a team in MI and they put him on a roster their team roster but he never played a tourney for them. He asked to be released from the team when he realized they were only going to play 2 tourneys all year. He got on another roster and didn't feel he was being used properly and was basically just being used as a runner. Him and that manager came to an agreement that he would he released. It was then he found out from Ant that the only team he could play for for the rest of the year was the team he was just being released from according to SSUSA rules that no play may be released from 2 rosters in the same age group and still be eligible to play for another team. Apparently it's supposed to prevent team hopping but it's rarely enforced from what we've seen. |
| Sept. 18, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Batter out of the box It's ironic that Dave used that guys pics, it's been assumed by bascially every Midwest team that SSUSA couldn't actually see that guy to know he exists considering he plays on average of at least 6 different teams all in the 50s division every year to the point his nickname is Rent-A-Catcher... Now that there is actually video proof of him existing and was posted by someone who works at SSUSA HQ they have no argument that NOBODY plays for more than 2 teams in a season... Thanks for sharing Dave. |
| Sept. 14, 2023 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Tie Breaker Rule Rob64, Until Associations start holding teams to accountable to play in the divisions they've earned nothing will change. Sadly some teams would rather play against lesser talent than equal or better. |
