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Online now: 2 members: TABLE SETTER 11, Wildman715; 51 anonymousDetails for DaveDowell
Real name:
Dave Dowell
Location:
Sacramento, CA
Division:
Men's 70
Messages posted by DaveDowell »Message board home »Start a new discussion
| Feb. 15, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Batters Box Rule Change Scott ... I wasn't trying to single anyone out ... To the contrary, I intended to be all-inclusive ... I suspect you likely fit somewhere in the height range of 3'-7" to 6'-8", which is the upper and lower limit of ALL non-pitcher Major League Baseball players in history ... I picked that group because they have one thing in common: The ability to STAY IN THE BATTER'S BOX for nearly a century and a half of play ... If you think there should be further refinement, please write it up for submission, or attend in person, the 2024 National Rules Committee sessions at the annual convention in late November ... |
| Feb. 14, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Batters Box Rule Change Major League Baseball non-pitchers, ranging from 3'-7" Eddie Gaedel to 6'-8" Nate Freiman, ALL found a way to stay in the batter's box during the nearly 150 years since that first MLB season in 1876 ... This discussion has now gone from the sublime to the ridiculous ... With the clarity of 20-20 hindsight, the National Rules Committee never should have changed the batter's box rule ... |
| Feb. 13, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Batters Box Rule Change We'll see how it plays out ... But for the sake of transparency, more than a little bit of the intent of the rule change was to reduce the incessant complaining by batters getting called out of the box, particularly at venues where they are unable to wipe out the permanent lines on artificial turf fields ... Have fun! |
| Feb. 4, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: aloha bowl Those details will be available after the entry deadline passes and the teams list is published ... Good luck! |
| Jan. 23, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Dave Dowell outtashape3 ... Although I believe your suggestion on requiring "ID" is an excellent one, it's a non-starter ... Ownership here believes strongly, and I concur, in unrestricted (subject to just four simple posting rules) freedom of the press, and it's unlikely to change ... Those who wish to comment while hiding behind the cloak of anonymity are certainly free to do so ... But they have no reciprocal expectation that we will give any credence to that commentary ... |
| Jan. 21, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Dave Dowell John028 ... Fair question ... The primary reason for the policy is that we don't require Message Board posters to "ID" themselves here and, accordingly, we are not interested in having to sort out the fact from the fiction authors in this largely unregulated and anonymous environment ... Some posters DO choose to identify, but it's not a requirement ... In this age of easy electronic communication, if the item is of sufficient importance to the author, we believe that suggestions for inclusion on the official Agenda of the National Rules Committee should be clear as to their originating author ... Donna accumulates every single properly submitted suggested rule change proposal throughout the season, sorts and categorizes them in a pre-committee meeting correspondence package for the members of the Committee, and distributes it for our review ... She does a tremendous job with that process, and I can't imagine how difficult and inefficient it would be if she had to cull through thousands of (sometimes non-sensical, contradictory and redundant) posts here to build the draft Agenda ... The quality of the proposals we receive is very high, and we deeply appreciate the effort expended by those who participate ... But I suspect we're not likely to open the process up to random anonymous commentary ... Thanks for asking ... |
| Jan. 20, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Bats Discussion: New rule on shaved bats Markanthoni24 ... Donna is the tenured Chair (ten years of service) of the SSUSA National Rules Committee, so let's get right to the point: What you allege is, respectfully, complete nonsense, either originating from the umpire or yourself, individually or collectively ... • SSUSA does NOT provide for, or even allow the use of pitcher screens in tournament play ... Local leagues may (and many do) have local league rules permitting their use, but not in SSUSA sanctioned tournament play; • SSUSA does NOT contract for the rental (or other arrangements) for use of screens that may be deployed Contract Tournament Directors; • Contract Tournament Directors do NOT have the authority to make financial arrangements for items that are not permitted ... In fact, they have all been advised that permitting the use of pitching screens in tournament play is grounds for termination; • This umpire, presuming you have quoted him accurately, is completely ill-informed of the tournament administration function as it relates to screens; and • The Rules committee meets at the annual National Convention in late November ... Public participation is welcome, in person, by snail mail, or by identifiable (as to you) email correspondence in advance of the meetings ... Message Board commentary is specifically excluded from potential Agenda consideration ... The last few messages in this thread should remove any doubt as to why we have this policy ... We have wandered way off the original topic regarding the new penalty for the use of altered bats, not to mention an excessive "pitch count", so ... ** THREAD CLOSED ** |
| Jan. 13, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Spring Winter Worlds ALL Spring World Championships Men's divisions aged 50+ and up are playing (only) in St. George, UT ... Men's and Women's 40+ Masters and Women's 50/55+ Senior Divisions are playing (only) in Bullhead City, AZ ... This is exactly as is disclosed on the respective event Tournament pages ... |
| Jan. 9, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Top Gun 2024 in Bullhead City Should likely be later today, but could slip to the morning ... The T.D. is on a SoCal to NorCal road trip today and I won't release it until he has a chance to review and approve ... Thanks ... |
| Jan. 9, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: vegas world's JohnO28 ... "Rec" tournaments may run under SSUSA rules sanction compliance, but they're not required to do so ... The most common difference(s) is that they seldom comply fully with roster eligibility rules ... It's not uncommon, nor is it frowned upon or even discouraged, for "rec" events to have teams playing with underage players and/or geographically ineligible guys, although that's a lot less stringent since we've opened up borders a bit ... Not many are willing to admit it publicly, but it's not exactly unheard of for teams to start playing "Rec" later in the summer as tune-up events that are (in theory) outside of the view of our National Ratings folks ... Rec is just more casual for all concerned ... |
| Jan. 9, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: vegas world's H10th ... Your team must play in an SSUSA sanctioned qualifier ... It does NOT have to be a T.O.C. qualifier, but may NOT be just a "Recreational" event ... |
| Jan. 9, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Commitment Line question TJK73 ... NOPE, that's nothing more than my individual preference if I were somehow assigned to be "Softball Rules God for the Day" ... I'm not, so until the National Rules Committee decides to clarify, right now the SSUSA rule is 40' from 3rd base in a 70' bases configuration ... The SSUSA rule book is silent as to what that would happen with 65' bases (35/30? or 40/25?) ... |
| Jan. 9, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Commitment Line question It probably IS my fault (that's the "new normal" I think!) ... Maybe the easiest thing for consistency would be to consider this fall at the NRC meetings a simple: C/L is 30' from home ... Regardless of the base distance being used, once you get within 30 feet, you have to close the deal ... Make any sense? ... |
| Jan. 8, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: T.O.C. in january Projmac ... The annual tentative field assignments are principally driven by team-count balance, not by random opinions as to perceptions of facility value, and secondarily by avoiding the same facility on consecutive years, if possible ... There has not been any formal field rotation in the first 17 years of this event ... In a five-game guarantee structure, the optimal facility load is six teams per playing field ... That makes 24 teams each as the target for the three 4-field complexes, and 30 for Auburndale ... The 2024 assignments are nearly perfect under those goals and technical criteria ... We're one team "over" at Auburndale (31) and exactly on the button everywhere else ... The Men's 70+ (except 70-AA) and the Men's 75+ are repeating at Walker Rd. this year only because I surrendered early to a barrage of November and December emails insisting on an early determination ... I chose Walker Rd. for them just for the peace of mind! ... The only other repeaters are the two 40-AAA teams, because they have to play preliminary games with the 40-Majors at Loyce Harpe ... This process is a simple mathematical exercise driven by games-demand within the context of available games slots inventory ... Privilege and superiority are not factors ... Good luck! ... |
| Jan. 5, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Ratings bump and then after back down again John ... Very simple explanation here ... Those are teams playing in the upcoming Tournament of Champions, where they compete at the rating level they had when they earned their bid to the event ... At the conclusion of the T.O.C., those teams will be re-rated to their current appropriate rating ... This is just a temporary move to avoid confusion at the T.O.C. ... Someone different asks this question every year, but the answer is always the same ... Good luck this Season ... |
| Jan. 4, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Top Gun 2024 in Bullhead City Preliminary teams list has been published ... Schedules and brackets will follow when they are completed and pass final review ... |
| Jan. 2, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: What's the rile The National Rules Committee met during the first week of December in Ft. Myers (Estero), Florida ... Those sessions established the rules amendments that appears in the Minutes accessible from the pink priority message of this website for the current 2024 Season ... The Committee will meet again in late November or early December this year, somewhere in the Western USA ... If you want to put something together, 11 months should be plenty of time ... |
| Jan. 2, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: What's the rile It's getting even easier than I thought! ... We don't have a 3-2 count system at any rating level or age of play, so you can toss out that "Exception" ... Seriously, most T-ball kids I know are probably capable of figuring this out ... I appreciate someone having a little fun "mountainizing a molehill", but I would be embarrassed publicly admitting to not being able to figure it out ... If you have a language objection, write it up "your way" and send it in ... We've got 11 months or so until the next Rules Committee sessions ... P.S. - I use the "inning" wheel on the indicator to track the number of runs across (5 or 7) in an inning ... That would work for up to 10 strikes, but not a single umpire to date has failed conceptually on this! ... Happy New Year! |
| Jan. 2, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: What's the rile T2, titan and mck ... This really isn't all that difficult for anyone who can [1] count to 4 (and we spot you the first number "1" of the 1-1 count), and [2] can remember if they have used their "waste foul" yet once they have successfully counted to 3 ... Really, that's all there is to it! ... Happy New Year everyone! ... |
| Dec. 23, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: Bats Discussion: New rule on shaved bats softball4b ... The National Rules Committee has already developed a "..best case response.." ... They may revisit the issue at the 2024 N.R.C. sessions next November or December, about 11 months from now, if anyone proposes it for potential Agenda inclusion ... In the interim, we would welcome the opportunity to review your specific action items to make sure "..the current rule is as effective as it could be.." ... |
