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Online now: 1 member: Shy; 7 anonymousDiscussion: Senior Softball Poem
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| March 5 glovedad 31 posts | Here is a "Senior Softball" poem I wrote. Hope you enjoy it. SENIOR SOFTBALL (One letter at a time) S is for Senior, Senior Softball Playing guys our own age Is the most fun of all E is for extra Extra base hit The older I am The fewer I get N is for never Negatory and not There is no warranty For the Miken I bought I is for us As in you and me Softball has a way Of making us a we. O is for outfield A great place to play I am afraid of ground balls So out here I will stay R is for round Round rolling ball The one we’ve been chasing Since we first learned to crawl. S is for strike mat When we are at bat If the ball hits the rubber Why argue with that O is a circle With no end or beginning If there is softball in Heaven Both teams will be winning F is for fun With friends on the field For all the sore muscles Not fully healed. T is turn two A sweet thing to do Unless of course The batter is you. B is the bat That gives the ball wings How can one ounce Affect our swings A is for ageing Aches and arthritis None of which dampen The spirit inside us L is for the ladies It is their game too I’ve even seen them Argue with Blue L is for like Most likely love For playing a game With a bat, a ball, and a glove Mike Perry (glovedad) March 2013 |
| March 5 Tim Millette 615 posts | P is for player That stands at the plate Swing senior composites And thinking he's great H is for hoax That stands for his bat Hitting balls hard Those he's older and fat. O is for obvious To those that are true Knowing the hitting Is not done by you. N is for naive thinking your a softball stud For without that bat You'd be a dud Y is for you Who think your so great When without these bat Softball is something you'd hate. PHONY....is how is see this game For if swinging aluminum Many would look so lame. Wearing helmets while pitching Because of these bats Five run limits Because of these facts Signing a waiver If you chose no head protection All caused by the Composite infection. So we as senior Can pretend like we're great Because we are old Father Time didn't wait And we support The change of our game All chasing an ageless pony fame That You can hit better then before Though Aged, and decrepit Chasing some softball lore. Did you see him hit That ball out of sight I think it even cleared that kite He is so awesome He must have played pro ball If he didn't?? He missed his call I can go on and on... About the state of our game But to some it up... THESE BATS ARE INSANE. |
| March 5 Tim Millette 615 posts | Sum |
| March 6 swing for the fences Men's 50 1224 posts | G19 returns!;( |
| March 6 TOMAR77 Men's 65 333 posts | Glovedad, enjoyed your poem.A salute to our game we (most of we) Love to play and share with like minded men & women :O) Millette, what a bummer! If you despise the way the game is played and the equipment that we use, why are you on this Board and assuming you play, again,why? Though your point is to try and berate myself and fellow player's,your comments are in effect all about you. No one is forcing you to participate on this Board or our game. It might be healthier for you and for us that you just take your narcissistic negative attitude and GO AWAY. Glovedad, ending on a positive note, thanks again for sharing an uplifting Poem. Tomar |
| March 6 Tim Millette 615 posts | Tomar, Narcissism requires a need for approval....something I definitely don't need or thrive. Good attempt at an attack in reaction to my obvious truths. I am sorry if they hurt your feeling. So...let me get this straight.....insulting composite bats and show they have negatively effected the playing field is berating you? I must conclude that you are one of those I poke poem fun at as deriving personal achievement based on false composite advantages.... |
| March 6 E4/E6 Men's 70 873 posts | Nice job Glovedad, well done. Tim as I see it as we age, we all need some kind of aid, we loose our strenght, ability and agility. Telling yourself otherwise is talking to a fool. If the bats help us enjoy the game why not use them. And whats wrong with being able to hit further now then when we were 20 or 30? As far as changing the game, that started when the first bat other then wood was introduced. For me, I like the game as it is, Senior Bats, 44/375 ball, and 0 0 count works just fine. This isnt just my opinion, it is The Majority Opinion withing SSUSA....... |
| March 6 glovedad 31 posts | Thanks guys. Nothing but good things to say about this great game that keeps us young at heart and allows us to meet so many good people. |
| March 6 usmc0311 32 posts | Tim go back to the old scout and spew your negative bullshit about the usssa! |
| March 6 Webbie25 Men's 70 2414 posts | Tim-the point is he made up a very POSITIVE poem for senior softball and you chose to trash it? Why? That's unfortunate. Glovedad-thanks |
| March 6 tg69 393 posts | Timmy, curious as to what kind of stick you swing? is it wood? |
| March 6 taits Men's 65 4548 posts | I heard the assn is going to make the home plate mats 34 x 68 inches so he and at least one other guy on here can hit the zone and still be able to pitch. Ya know beach towel size. lol |
| March 6 swing for the fences Men's 50 1224 posts | Tg69, he swings my old salty pickle! No BS! |
| March 6 swing for the fences Men's 50 1224 posts | FYI the Pickle is a Demarini SS bat! Lime green/AKA the pickle!;-) |
| March 6 TOMAR77 Men's 65 333 posts | Tim,just to be clear you are right you are not soliciting approval from others.Yes a narcissist does thirst for approval. What you're not getting is, a person such as yourself is according to Websters Dictionary a narcissist.You have shown yourself to be egotistical,in love with your own reflection. Your opinions are self serving at the expense of hi-jacking a thoughtful charming Poem, which was a simple Ode to a Game we Play, recognizing the joy's and frailties one experiences while participating in this great game. Adjustments have been made to accommodate our aging and to allow for different skill levels. In the end it isn't about life or death, it is about the blessings of getting together with friends making new friends, by playing Slo-Pitch Softball. By the way you are, berating the game and those of us who play it. As for myself and my softball achievements they are limited. Even with the composite bats.No need to prove anything here.I just love the game and take advantage of the improved equipment available to us.Your entitled to your opinions , but it does't make them right. Tomar |
| March 6 Tim Millette 615 posts | I usually swing a kids version of composite. I do this because senior bats last an average of 90 swings for me.....and I don't use them unless it's over 80 degrees. That's probably going to change starting this season. I have been envolved with testing/developing the new TPS senior bat. The last one lasted over 2,000 swings and tested better then the combat, Mikens and Pickle I had to compare during exit ball speed tests.... It was 5 to 8 mph faster then the Mikens and pickle and three miles an hour faster then my yellow combat. My poem is nothing more then stating my belief that softball has been negatively effected by the composites especially the shaved ones and senior ones which in my view tilt the game to much towards offense. As to the usmc guy.....go Army |
| March 6 swing for the fences Men's 50 1224 posts | so you won't be bringing a knife to a gun fight. So you are saying you will be bringing the most powerful senior bat of them all... hmmmmmmm I see your point! :-) |
| March 6 Tim Millette 615 posts | Yes. As the current state of senior ball is being implemented I will swing a senior bat on special occasions. Young kids composites the rest of the time. But......as we do in our 35+ league in Pleasanton CA...when given the ability to have both teams swing aluminum......we ALWAY chose to get composites out of the game. Composites are the worst thing to happen to softball....even worse the steroids shaved/sleeved aluminum and shaved composites. Swing....if your NorCal Warriors team wants to swing nothing but aluminum during our games...I am sure we would be up for the challenge.. It's just to bad your boy Joey would be scared of the challenge....with his hot bats and ball crap while crying about the game being dangerous for pitchers. |
| March 7 1billyd 32 posts | Thanks Glovedad, here's my contribution. The Boys of Winter I rise each dawn and slip away To the field of green where the boys of winter play We don our gear our lot is such To play this game we love so much What joy when throws go true The flight of ball against the blue By the grace of God we come another day To the field of green where the boys of winter play |
| March 7 glovedad 31 posts | 1billyd...Nicely done! I agree we are blessed to still be playing this great old game. Thanks for sharing your poem. |
| March 7 swing for the fences Men's 50 1224 posts | Tim you are the minority on the Board about the bats... do you think Any Association is going back to metal bats????? It's not going to happen.. would I like to see it go to metal bats? Sure, But only if they went back to the same balls we were hitting in the late 80 and early 90s... If you hit(Nut it) it would go well over 350 feet... so I would have zero problem with it.. but, once again, it isn't going to happen.... Senior softball has already dumb down the balls from their early days. So, the game has been equalized between balls and bats to their liking and your opinion on the combination means zero to them! majority of seniors can live with it, and like it. The kids game and bats are what it is... I feel worse playing against inferior players(in Kids divisions) with shaved bats that can't compete with me with equal equipment! But, that is why I moved to the senior game sooner than I wanted to! I got tired of the shaved bats, at least in SS softball we all have hot bats and can compete on the same level without the worry if our bat is hot enough to compete, except for the few retards that shave or doctor the senior bats! |
| March 7 Al33 Men's 55 183 posts | Swing, Well said. Metal bats with good balls like we used to use go just as far as what we play with today. |
| March 7 Tim Millette 615 posts | Swing, I agree the shaved bats are worse the seior bats... At least every player has a chance to have the same bat technology. As fa as your balls of the aluminum bat era goes.....sorry....I didnt experience what your talking about. From around '84 on....the top levels both leagues i played in and tourneys used restricted flight balls....those "rocks. Were only used when we started playing the World Series on baseball fields in the Florida heat.... Which by the way were very had to hit over 350 unless you were very very big or extremely talented. |
| March 7 Tim Millette 615 posts | Al33.... I cannot understand your statement on the bat issue... I can oh speak for myself in this experience....in 87 I was put on the major players list....I could hit a ball 335 tops.... Now......25 years later I can hit a ball 425+ with a senior bat.... What's that....35% farther while I am pushing 55, with a bad back, not being in a gym for 20 years/probably 70% as strong as before, taking BP around ten times a year when I used to hit five days a week. Your statement sounds like another senior trying to validate these bats as not being crazy. Are you really saying you believe today's senior bat ball combo is the same as aluminum and lower level rocks of the 80s/early 90s? |
| March 7 Omar Khayyam 1357 posts | Swing for the fences and Al33, your memories may say that you could hit the old pre-composite bat/ball combination just as far back in the day, but the facts are against you. 1. Testimony from dozens of players on this forum, of all ages, indicates that they now hit the ball much farther with a senior composite than they ever did in the past no matter how hot the ball back then. Tim is just one of the most recent to make the claim. 2. With rare exceptions, people hitting the ball farther today are NOT in better shape. Just the opposite. Years (we're talking 20-30 years ago) have taken their toll—we are weaker, slower reflexes, slower bat speed, disabilities such as bad knees/elbows, shoulders/etc. Yet we can still hit the ball farther?! 3. Parks are much, much larger now than were necessary back in the 80s. It was not uncommon to continue to build parks with 250- 265 foot fences in the 80s. Only in the last 15 years have new parks had to build fences 300, 310, even 325 to try and contain the composite-driven balls...and still they fail as the number of blasts over the fence increase. 4. Fielders play much deeper than they did two decades ago. I rarely remember a third baseman playing more than a step behind the bag at third. He wanted to get close to throw out the runner at first. Now my third basemen, and those we play against, are often 10 feet or more behind the bag. Why? Ball is coming much faster now with composites than ever with aluminum and "hot" balls. Outfielders hover near the 300 foot fences to try to catch a short hit or intercept a gapper. Whose outfielders played that deep in the 80s except against a slugger or two (and those were fences shorter than 300 feet). Pitchers, especially, are aware of the faster ball speed and now wear masks and shin guards and even chest armor. Who ever saw a pitcher like that in 1990? Now to return to this thread, glovedad, that was such a great poem and expressed for many of us the reason we still have joy playing our sport. |
| March 8 swing for the fences Men's 50 1224 posts | Tim, I have seen you swing now and I have seen you swing in the early 90s, you haven't lost bat speed... your memory may be shot but your bat speed is the same! Just saying! ;) And if you think the 525/50 blue stitched Skyhawks we were hitting at the Creeks were limited flight balls back then, you are mistaken! And yes, they would go with a single wall bat over 400 feet if nutted. |
| March 8 Tim Millette 615 posts | I guess we are talking different eras. I remember many years where TC fields four, five, and seven were almost impossible to hit balls out of with the normal Sunnyvale winds. I also remember field one at Willow Pass in Concord having a parking lot beyond 60 feet of grass behind the left field fence. NOT ONCE did I ever see a ball reach the asphalt. As to your ball thing......that's the proof we are talking different times..... During all the 80s and almost half of the 90s I never heard of any ball having anything other then a core (coaficent of reflected energy???) stamped on it.... I know this to be true because I remember how mad Donny D got when UTRIP tried restricting the ball core even more and the ball companies gave him a lower core but....bumped up the compression and actually made the balls harder. Your comp/core numbers are proof your talking about an aluminum bat era after Ray invented his double wall. We were not playing in the same tourneys back then but.....trust me on this....AA/Major tourneys used restricted flight balls back then. It's the lower level players that cried for the hot balls and were coddled with them. I don't remember the year After Shock won the A World/maybe '99 but.....that season the A teams got wind Donny/USSSA was going to be using the major/AA ball at the A Worlds in Sterling Heights...the A teams got together and forced Donny to guarantee they would be allowed to use the high core rock hard balls instead. And....my hand speed is not what it used to be...the proof is....I have some of those old bats still...tested them on the field and I hit a ball around 290 feet with them.... What's 290 compared to 335 feet? 15% less? |
| March 8 usmc0311 32 posts | Tim i am gonna puke admiting this but i do agree with you . I do hit the ball further today than i did back in the day! and with a senior bat well lets just say batting practice in a stadium is pretty cool FYI go Army are fighting words! lol |
| March 8 crump22 Men's 50 60 posts | Omar Khayyam,there is nothing wrong with Al33 memories,because in 1983 i played against Al33 Pace team in Rochester, New York, the fence were 310 and we were hit the ball up in the tree with aluminun bats, not those advance player model bats which were shaved by the bat company, i think they use the term "cut thin" and we were hit those red dots balls.The player on this board that played in the 80 and 90 that had a bat contract they know what i,m talking about, if you can find one of those old GREY TPS take the cap of you will be surprise what you might find. lol |
| March 8 Tim Millette 615 posts | In 83 i think???? the top bats were the Howard's western steer and the Black Worth Thumper, or gold/red worth thumpers. I have a brand new Black thumper, and my old gold and red Thumpers..... If any senior wants to prove they can hit a softball out of a three hundred foot fence (without any wind/altitude) with these bats...... I'll go so far as to say ill give $200 to the guy that does it. Contest entry is....$25 Now I am not privy to all the great seniors playing but.....I will bring these bats to any NorCal event and let You use them to prove its not the bats.... I even have some Dudley balls given to us in 92 that were so hard we never used them in BP because they would dent our bats. |
| March 8 Webbie25 Men's 70 2414 posts | guys let's take this to a new thread-the poems have been forgotten. Unfortunately! |
