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Online now: 5 members: Scott Harder, TABLE SETTER 11, cecil, pprimmer, softball4b; 105 anonymousDetails for audieh
Real name:
Audie Hollis
Location:
Jacksonville, FL
Division:
Men's 60
Messages posted by audieh »Message board home »Start a new discussion
| Sept. 6, 2013 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: SSHOF I would like to second your comments Steve. When we have played against Rick we could not get anything passed him at third. After he had made about 4 incredible plays against us in one game we decided to shoot every ball at him until he misplayed one! He never did and we lost the "round robin" game. Vern is a pain in the Keister! I have told my outfield on several occasions that I do not care if he burns you I DO NOT WANT HIM MAKING IT TO SECOND on a base hit! Pete Rose hasn't made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but we've got our Charlie Hustle in Vern. All three men, Rick, Vern and David are great players and men! Well deserved fellows! |
| Aug. 9, 2013 audieh | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Eastern National Championships 2013 updates Webbie, here is my take for what it is worth. We built our team on speed and power in order to compete on the east coast. The balls in Raleigh did not perform well in the heat. Basically, our power hitters were struggling and did not adapt to the balls by trying to hit base hits. That was our fault and it sure limited our fun. Riding back home for 8 hours it made me wonder if we should limit our playing in June, July and August when it is miserably hot and the balls are soft. After all we play for the fun and sport of it and if you are not having fun!!!!!! That said, we are totally looking forward to playing in Vegas in late September, the Villages in October and the Winter Nationals in November to finish the year. In the meantime I will be practicing a lot more hitting the 5/6 hole, and the middle!!! |
| July 24, 2013 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Las Vegas 60 M+ Webbie, good to see you and the west coast boys in Dalton! We had our typical let down in Dalton but the Hollis team will see you guys in Vegas. Looking forward to another competitive tournament! Line Drive played well and we hope they will show up as well as Superior and Edge from the east coast! |
| July 16, 2013 audieh | Topic: Associations Discussion: FHC Duane Jones is the man to talk to: 813-453-8302 |
| July 8, 2013 audieh | Topic: Players looking to join a team Discussion: Will be 49 in August - Looking for Central Florida 50+ team Jimmy, give me a shout. Curt Hollis with Hollis Appraisals at 904-262-9500 or 904-303-7798. |
| July 4, 2013 audieh | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Eastern Nationals in Raleigh N. C. Hollis Appraisals 60 Major Plus will be there. |
| May 13, 2013 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Babe Ruth's swing vs BJ Fulk supermajor slopitch player & What Focus the Pros use when Hitting. Swing Makeover 8 Bogie, another great video. I really enjoy your work and insight. It has given me pause to change my swing! I appreciate your efforts! |
| May 6, 2013 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Dominican Republic Goodwill Game - Christian Mission Guys, I hope this is the right forum for this plea. Forgive me in advance if it is not. The Hollis Appraisal team is playing a Goodwill Tournament in Santiago, Dominican Republic from June 13-17. This is a Christian ministry for our team and we are donating numerous new and used bats, gloves, balls, jerseys, etc. to several adult and youth teams in the poorer mountain areas. We have arranged free shipping from Melbourne, Florida. This would be an excellent time to clean out your garage or closet. Items can be sent to Ed Rose, 2800 Allen Hill Drive, Melbourne, Florida 32940 or call ed at 321-223-9640 and he can help with shipment. We thank you in advance. |
| May 3, 2013 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: The Rock balls Big Mike, we accept your challenge! We will meet in Dalton after a game and time your fastest 3 guys plus you going around the bases in a relay. Then we will time ours plus me to establish a winner. If nothing else it will start as a world record! haha Should be fun. I suspect me and you will be the slowest but for sure the most fun to watch! I have a sun dial for us! |
| May 2, 2013 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: The Rock balls Webbie, I also noticed that some very good outfielders were misjudging the ball repeatedly. Granted, balls really fly in Vegas due to the altitude and dry air but almost all of my outfielders were being fooled by the flight. However, being troopers none of them complained about knuckling or the ball sailing on them. That does explain to me why they were having troubles and I will ask them their perception of the ball. The ball did perform well in hot conditions and was fun to hit. I did notice that you had about a 25% chance of the outfielder misjudging the ball if it was hit right at him! |
| April 30, 2013 audieh | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Vegas Spring 2013 Webbie and Big Mike, we really enjoyed playing against your exceptional team this weekend! You guys have become our "left coast" rivals and we really look forward to coming and playing power ball! What a great park and some unbelievable talented teams with exceptional ball players like Imlay, webbie, Big Mike, Vern and the rest of you Hall of Famers! Let's continue to build the 60 major plus division and see if we can get more of the east coast and central teams to "come out and play!" You guys go and tear up Reno and we hope to see you in Dalton! |
| April 30, 2013 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Southwest Championships, Vegas Another excellent tournament with very competitive teams, good umpiring and a awesome venue in the Big League Dreams ballpark. The Hollis appraisal team wants to think SSUSA and Dave Dowell for arranging the 60 major plus to play at the Big League Dreams ballpark. That is a very impressive venue and probably the future of softball. We had the opportunity to play some very good west coast teams including the West Coast All Stars, Smith Electric, D&K Softball and our buddies, the powerful Joe Brown All Stars. We had some close and exciting games and really appreciate the level of competition, but even more the respect and friendships. It was great meeting Ed Andrews, George Robinson, and the man who will be dominating 50 major plus when he gets his groove on, big Brett Kreuger. I got to see my buddy and hitting partner Don Norquest who is now living in Vegas as well as the legendary Stoneman! Webbie is still "da man" and big Mike can still kill the ball! Steve Imlay is the real deal and what a pleasure to meet your adorable wife! She's a keeper, no catch and release there! We appreciate the hospitality and hope to see many of you guys in Dalton at the SPA and hopefully we can make it back out to Vegas in September! Good luck in Reno as that is a "wow" tournament as well. |
| March 26, 2013 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Southwest Championships, Vegas The Hollis Appraisal team has placed Roger in out prayer ring. We are believing for a good report and quick recovery. |
| Dec. 26, 2012 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Best leadoff hitter Caleb Rabenold is the best I have ever seen and backs it up with outstanding defense. Granted, I have not seen every lead off hitter but he can carry a team and after playing with him for 6 years he is the best I've seen in the major plus division. That being said, there are a lot of good ones out there and Webbie just maybe one of the top one or two in 60 ball! Big power, good defense and speed! |
| Nov. 27, 2012 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Thoughts for the upcoming SSUSA Rules Committee meeting! Don, well said! |
| Nov. 17, 2012 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Thoughts for the upcoming SSUSA Rules Committee meeting! I understand at the upcoming meeting there will be a number of potential rule changes that could affect the major plus division. As a current player and sponsor of two major plus teams and having played in the 50, 55 and now the 60 major plus level for the past 10 years I would like to address some of the potential issues from our team's view point. All of these responses are strictly for major plus rules and are not for any other category. Granted I am a player and sponsor and not in the administration of any senior organization so I do not know all of the issues affecting a organization and the difficulties in running tournaments and keeping the clients happy. Never the less it is a good thing to hear back from your customers. 1)Pitching screen. Most of us do not like the screen but are OK if the opposing pitcher feels the need for a screen. Just do not make hitting the screen, whether it is the first, second or third time, etc. an out. 2)1 and 1 Count. We prefer a full count but understand the necessity of speeding up the game. We play the 1 and 1 in the Florida Half Century and it works well. It gives the pitcher an advantage but we are fine with this rule either way. 3)The 70' bases worked well in Vegas and we are fine with the base distance whether or not it is 65' or 70'. 4)Rock ball versus present ball. We do not have enough information to make the correct call here. However, we must have a ball that does not take weird bounces when hit, or require cutting the ball to hit out. We prefer a ball that does not lose distance during hot weather. The present balls appear to be fine to our teams. 5)Major plus allows team to pick up from bordering states and two players from east or west of the Mississippi River. We are fine with that rule. However, eliminating the two players from east or west of the Mississippi River would be acceptable as it would affect all teams the same. Making Florida and California stand alone states would not be in the best interest of senior softball in our opinion. This has been tried in the past and resulted in breaking up some teams as last year we said goodbye to some fantastic guys and players from Georgia and Alabama. If we use the recent Las Vegas World Master tournament as a test case we see that there were 28 teams in the major plus division for the 50s, 55s, 60s and 65s. Ten (10) of the teams were from California as would be expected as it is a major population state and borders Nevada. However, California teams only won one of the four divisions. Florida won one, North Carolina one and Washington one. This seems like a fair dispersion of talent and should not be changed. If California or Florida had won three or four of the divisions then you may have a need to address this rule. As it stands now the California teams are competing among themselves for the best players and as a result dilute their talent. We end up doing the same thing here in the Florida, Georgia, Alabama area. 6)Home runs over the limits as an out are NOT acceptable. Many of my players have told me that they do not want to play any tournaments that have home runs over a limit as an out or that have extremely low home run rules. I agree with this position. We believe home runs should be unlimited or if limited should be at least 10 or 12 with home runs over this amount a walk. We also feel that runs per inning should be no less than 9 in the major plus division or unlimited. Just install some reasonable mercy rules which would keep games on time. Low runs per inning limits such as 5 keep games artificially close and many times the best team does not win if the lesser team has one good open inning. 7)Major Plus versus Major dilemma. There are hundreds and hundreds of adult baseball teams in the United States. However, there are only 30 major league ball teams. The National league and the American league teams basically play most of their games in their divisions and as such play the same teams over and over again. This is expected when you are playing on the top level. Guess what, on the pro tennis circuit the same top eight players pretty much make it to the final eight in most of the tournaments. The same could be said for basketball and football. There is not a lot of room at the top of the pyramid and when you are at the top in any sport or endeavor there will not be a lot of equal competition, just a few. I do not think combining the major plus and major divisions would result in more teams. The better teams would recruit from the lesser teams and the division would result in a disparity that would result in the lower major teams dropping out. I hear players complain all of the time that there are not enough major plus teams. Well guess what sweet heart, if you want to play against the best (see the major league baseball reference above)there will always be very few teams to play. Therefore, in order to have diverse competition we need to have a way that a major plus team can play lesser teams on a more or less equal footing so that both teams have the potential to win. This past weekend we had no one to play in the SSUSA Winter Nationals in the 60 major plus division. We ended up playing 55 major teams even up. We felt this was fair. The weekend before we played in the SPA World Series and again had no one in our division. We played against 50 major teams even up. We felt that 10 years was too much to give with no equalizer as honestly the 50 teams are faster and stronger. Hey, we lost some games but had a good time and enjoyed the challenge. The point here is that there should always be some one to play. The associations just need to decide what is a fair equalizer. My suggestion is to give the lesser team extra runs per game but to not double penalize the better team by also making it play down to the lesser teams home runs and runs per inning restrictions. Here are some interesting facts based on the 2011 ToC tournament in Polk County. (It should be noted that some rules have changed since I penned this last year.) There were 2 major plus 50 teams and 3 major plus 55 teams. Due to the small number of major plus teams the major plus teams were required to play major teams in the round robin. The results were 1, yes I said 1 major plus win, and 9 major wins! The scoring was also skewed with the major plus teams averaging 16.6 runs per game and the major teams averaging 21.2 runs per game. This is a 4.6 run differential per game which would lead me to believe that the major plus teams having to give 5 runs or an extra 11th defender creates an unfair advantage for the major team, or the major teams are just as good as the major plus teams. In essence the major teams were given 5 runs which should have been an equalizer. Instead they won by an average of 4.6 runs per game. I have seen these results repeated in other tournaments as well. Based on this limited sampling it would appear that no equalizer is required and the major teams are every bit as good as the major plus teams! However, you and I know that there are only a few major teams that can compete heads up with the major plus teams. However, my personal experiences has shown that the major plus teams are being double penalized as they are having to play with the major rules of only 5 home runs. This is a major impediment to the major plus teams which are typically built with more home run power. This results in the major plus team hitting home runs for outs and/or power hitters having to purposely hit opposite field or up the middle to keep the ball in the park. Since the major plus players tend to be power hitters and not base hitters this limits their success and gives an advantage to the major teams who are more practiced at hitting for base hits and quite honestly tend to have as good or better defensive players. I believe the senior softball associations should at least analyze this predicament and considered instituting the following corrective action. When major and major plus teams play give the major team the 5 runs but play with the major plus home run limits and runs per inning. I believe a tournament or two using this change would provide some interesting data which could then be used to make changes if they are deemed necessary. If not, it appears based on this limited analysis that the major teams have the advantage. The proof is in the 1 and 9 record exhibited by the major plus teams. OK, those are my thoughts based on discussions with several of my teammates. I would ask SSUSA to really consider if their current model is broken. To me it seems to be working fine! |
| Nov. 14, 2012 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: You Make the Call Stick8 there were two umpires and the base umpire immediately made the right call. The other team protested loudly. The home plate umpire who didn't follow the play after the first tag on the wrong base conferred with the base umpire and then called the tournament director for a ruling. I listened to what he told the director and he never mentioned that our pitcher was standing on the right base with the ball in his hand prior to the base runner getting to the bag. When he walked away i told the director what really happened and he said the runner from home was out. The home plate umpire then said he never saw the pitcher on first and the runner was safe. Since this was just a round robin game and we were winning I quit protesting and we finished the game. My reason for bringing this up was just to see what the correct call is, nothing more! |
| Nov. 13, 2012 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: You Make the Call PlanoPlayer, you are right. I should have said, "the ball rolled out of the first baseman's glove into foul territory about 4 feet. I believe you have solved the puzzle. However, the umpires decided the batter was safe. Basically, the umps gave up on the play when they saw the wrong bag touched and neither would admit that the pitcher was standing on the right base holding the ball. Not a big deal but I felt the wrong call was made. |
| Nov. 13, 2012 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: You Make the Call Ground ball hit between first baseman and bag. Fields ball but drops it and it goes out of bounds. The runner stopped running. The first basemen picks ball up and steps on the orange safety base not the actual first base. The pitcher who has run over realizes the mistake and takes ball from first baseman and stands on the right base holding the ball. The runner than proceeds to run to first base and touches the bag while the pitcher is standing on the right base holding the ball. Umpires said that since the first baseman touched the wrong base the runner was safe! Really? The runner was not within 20 feet of the base when the pitcher was standing on the correct base holding the ball. You make the call! |
| Nov. 12, 2012 audieh | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: How many active 60 Major Plus teams for 2013? Webbie, the Hollis Appraisal team will be active in 2013. Hopefully John and Clint will reconsider as I thought they had very competitive teams this year. Perhaps there are some very good 59 year olds coming up in their areas. I know we have to recruit every year or get left behind by you west coast guys! I thought Reno with 7 teams, Las Vegas with 9 teams and Dalton were a lot of fun. Typically, here in the southeast, we end up playing 55 major plus, 55 major and 50 major teams as the 60 major teams usually will not play us. However, we prefer playing in our division and hope that next year there will be even more teams! At this stage of life, there are only so many good years of softball left, so play all that you can and keep on smiling. |
