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Online now: 2 members: gpump, scottflodin; 10 anonymousDiscussion: Cure for AAA after 3rd HR!
| Posted | Discussion |
| Jan. 5 Steve 27 22 posts | Possible cure for protecting the pitcher in AAA after the 3rd homer! As soon as the 3rd homer is hit the defensive team would be allowed to have their ah or any other position player to play the 6-4 hole giving them 11 defensive players. The defense would not have the option to put the additional defensive player in the outfield. He would have to play infield which would address the intent of the rule. Now, let's hear the pros and cons! |
| Jan. 5 Webbie25 Men's 70 2414 posts | Would the team that has hit the three home runs also have the 11th fielder? If not, you have created a huge handicap situation for the HR happy team: No more home runs AND having to hit against an 11 man defense. But nice try, seriously. |
| Jan. 5 Jawood Men's 50 943 posts | I have been thinking for a while that the minimum lineup be an 11 man defense instead of 10. |
| Jan. 5 leftyodoul Men's 65 106 posts | It's not really a viable solution. It gives too big of an edge to the team with the extra defender. But I like the idea of "thinking outside of the box". |
| Jan. 5 L 85 posts | Wow what an idea this sure would make teams really consider what division they play only thing is if both teams hit all 3 then both teams would have the extra fielder so it would be fair. The only question is would they go head hunting early so as not to be in that situation? |
| Jan. 5 L 85 posts | I would like to also point out that the 1-1 count is a good thing for the pitcher and would like to also see the mat larger as this would also help protect the pitcher as the ones that just miss would be a strike and alot of us just miss and with the wind blowing sometimes it is hard to control. We all played ball in the time of unlimited arc and I would like to see it go to the 15ft level and with the extended box this will also help us. |
| Jan. 5 Steve 27 22 posts | To address webbie25's comment on advantage. A true AAA team doesn't have so much power that they are going to hit 3 homers early in a game. The teams that come out hitting homers left and right and sometimes with nobody on base are the ones who should be playing major. Most true AAA teams are smart enough to save the homer for at least 2 on. Also, they are smart enough to save 1 for late in the game. They also usually only have certain players who hit homers. So the idea of having the 11th defensive player added after the 3rd HR will make teams think twice before hitting the 3rd one. And the teams that have a lot of power wouldn't want to play with this rule and should want to move up to major. Finally if the other team feels they are at a disadvantage they could go ahead and hit their 3 HR's and then they would have 11 on defense. This might be a good rule to experiment with sometime in pool play! Directors! |
| Jan. 5 Jawood Men's 50 943 posts | L, How old are you? lol. Wasn't the last year of unlimited arc 1976? I don't think we all have played with it! Hasn't every association (except SSUSA) gone to a 6-10' arc? |
| Jan. 5 L 85 posts | Yes I played when there was unlimited arc and does not seem that long ago so I would really like to see how the other half that is playing would be able to handle it. We also had some wood bats for a while then we got the metal bats and it really was nice hitting the 52 and so on balls and playing on the 280-290 foot fences. |
| Jan. 5 L 85 posts | Jarwood I do not know when you started but I can remember when they played with the red and green dot balls and teams would still fix the metal bats so they could try and show off how far they could hit a homerun. To me that didnt take much talent when the balls were like baseballs any way. |
| Jan. 5 Steve 27 22 posts | Jawood is correct. 1976 was the year of unlimited arc. Absolute worst rule ever in softball. |
| Jan. 5 L 85 posts | Steve 27 why was it such a bad rule you didnt have pitchers getting lit up the middle as much even though there usually was not a home run limit. But it still gave the pitcher an edge and you needed it with the hot balls and just the metal bats not including the titanium that came out. |
| Jan. 5 Jawood Men's 50 943 posts | 1976 was my first year of softball, what a year to break in! L, the balls with the different color dots were Worth. I believe the red dots were .52, the blue dots .48 and I don't remember what the green dots were. I wonder what one of those balls would do with our senior bats ... probably break them! |
| Jan. 5 miken44 90 posts | if this is way we are thinking about a extra fielder why not just put up a screen and be done with it hit it once foul ball hit it second time same at bat batter out then as far as 15 foot arch that is something that stunk 35 years ago and still stinks |
| Jan. 5 Webbie25 Men's 70 2414 posts | Steve-great point- a TRUE AAA team won't. The exception could be a strong wind blowing out. I fully agree with your statement about hitting homers left and right-and that is the intent of the out rule-to make these teams consider moving up. I still don't believe it will fly, but it is very innovative thinking. I played unlimited back in the 70's, with wood bats. I remember getting recognition because I hit .565, and never hit one out of the park. It was a different game-nobody hit the ball over the fence. And we were Nebraska State Champs! Everybody is talking about the 1-1 to speed up the game and make guys swing. I threw this out in another thread more as a joke, BUT, what if you got called out for TAKING 2 strikes?? Would that take out a lot of the problem of taking that first strike? |
| Jan. 5 rightrj1 Men's 55 286 posts | The extra fielder sounds like a good Idea! BUTTTT My question would be how does this protect the pitcher? I always thought when hitting the ball up the middle, the ball will reach the pitcher before it gets to the infielders, therefore making the pitcher a defensive player as it should be…..When guys play 5 man infield, there are still holes to hit the ball though, be it up the middle or slightly to the left or right of the pitcher or opposite side of the 5th infielder……I have never notice guys going up the middle just because the HR’s are gone, if anything they cut down on their swing, as to not hit the ball out the park for a DBO.. You guys give hitters too much credit for hitting the middle, its not as easy as all make it sound, guys at the AA & AAA level on a consistence bases just don’t have good enough bat control! |
| Jan. 5 Webbie25 Men's 70 2414 posts | miken-you are throwing in the towel. No screen, please, at least at the higher levels because it takes the pitcher out of the game. But, unlimited arc CAN be hit. I still go up and get them occasionally. Ask GI. But it takes practice. A true hitter will adapt. |
| Jan. 5 Omar Khayyam 1357 posts | In contrast to Steve 27, I thought the unlimited arc was one of the BEST rules ever in softball. Finally, a pitcher could have some legitimate impact on the game. Only challenge then was just clearing the plate by 4 inches or less. If more, the ump declared it impossible to go through the strike zone. And of course hitting the plate was a ball. I helped pitch an inter mural team to a championship in college with this rule (and the fat softball they used) and I had my best year pitching ever with an unlimited arc in rec ball. Webbie25 is right that some guys could hit it. If you can consistently hit fungoes, you can hit the unlimited arc. It's amazing how many guys can't! My shutouts, my two one-hitters, my almost no-hitter came from that wonderful year. But boy did the prima donna hitters complain! They complained so loudly, the rule was changed back again. Different time. Different strokes for different folks. |
| Jan. 5 Beasley Men's 50 173 posts | I have to ask - why would you build a AAA team that is going to hit more than 3 homeruns on a consistent basis? I mean, if I was building a AAA team I might have one guy that was a legit homerun hitter. At least 3 times in the game he can swing away and we might get 3 homeruns out of him. All the rest of the players on the team would have to be real good base hitters. Isn't that the intent of the AAA division? To allow players of that caliber to have a division they can play in? I'm not trying to be a butthead, but isn't that the intent of creating divisions with fewer homeruns? Maybe it's time for the sanctioning bodies to actually watch some of these teams and have the b#@@* to tell the team they're too good to be playing AAA and they have to move up. Yes the team may decide to go somewhere else and play but isn't the integrity of the game more important then the entry fee. I'd bet that if you actually forced teams to play where they belong you'd find true AAA teams coming out of the woodwork to play. Just a thought guys. |
| Jan. 6 Webbie25 Men's 70 2414 posts | Beasley-that is exactly what they try to do, but it is not so easy when it comes down to actually making the decisions. A lot of teams holler like stuck pigs when they get moved up. Then they break up and refuse to play. With so many teams in Senior Softball, it is very difficult to assess them all on the field, so they use HR's, tournament wins and run differential. On the field, if TD's watch, how do they know they are not watching the best tourney a team ever had. Or the worst. Overall, they do pretty well. |
| Jan. 6 L 85 posts | Beasley is correct about how to build a AAA team. But I also believe that each player should be rated. With this being said if you win a national every player should be rated to the next level of play for at least the next year and possibly cut out the breaking of teams. I believe that there was some rules in the upper divisions that say you can have so many major plus on a major team But I dont know for sure. I think that if you are rated you should play in that division and with teams playing tournaments the games and batting information could be caculated by the home office and be a factor in the rating of a player. This is not hard to do as the computer does all the work except for inputing the information. I guess the only question would be the critier for each player in each division of play. |
| Jan. 6 boston Men's 60 355 posts | Please no more changes to the game. Here's a cure for AAA HR rule. Don't hit more than 3. If you or your team can move the hell up. |
| Jan. 6 SS13 40 posts | hey steve....great idea |
| Jan. 7 southernson 280 posts | I fail to realize in all of these type discussions there is almost a "venom like" approach to AAA teams that might hit more than 3 home runs on days they hit well. One day a AAA team may look like a Major team, and next week, they can't beat St. Mary's Home for Unwed Mothers. There's a significant difference between Major and AAA a nd that is the day in and day out consistency of hitting. It's not easy to make that leap without a pickup truck full of power delivered to your doorstep. It takes time to develop that. Must we dilute the AAA performance pool so that some lower teams in AAA now become competitive? Quit crying, it's a sad commentary.... |
| Jan. 7 Omar Khayyam 1357 posts | southernson, I'm sure some AAA teams will be penalized by having a great day or playing with a strong wind blowing out, but most of the concerns here ARE about the AAA teams that routinely hit more than 3 HRs a game and should consider moving up. In my experience playing AAA teams, I don't remember a team (including my own) that had 3 over the fence in a single game unless it was a known sandbagging team, or a team that managed to get a Major Plus player into a tournament without being noticed by the TD. |
| Jan. 7 miken44 90 posts | what about the way teams are ranked by ssusa and spa in one you can be major in the other aaa if you get ranked in both at whar you play then there would be team sandbagging play what you are let us aaa guys play with our 3 homers and let the majors have theres there will be days when aaa is going to hit more than 3 but they will have to live with the outs but maybe with the new rules teams will play where they should only time will tell |
| Jan. 7 softball4b Men's 70 1248 posts | One day a AAA team may look like a Major team, and next week, they can't beat St. Mary's Home for Unwed Mothers. That sounds like most every senior team I know. Sometimes we just play our age. We can beat this horse to death, but it ain't a changing. You gotta adjust or deal with the circumstances. I mean look at 3A aka Webbie, he hits 3 HRS against Hollis and everybody thinks he is a M+ player. Obviously he is not M+, he played AAA all of his senior career until this year. Just because he batted about 800, threw out one guy a game, and was 3rd on the team in Hrs, he has to be AAA and not M+ because that is where he played for 10 years. Just saying. |
| Jan. 7 jsheeran Men's 50 60 posts | Why should AAA teams who routinely hit more than 3 homers a game consider moving up and why should anyone be concerned with a AAA team routinely hitting more than 3 homers a game BECAUSE THEY ARE OUTS AFTER THE 3 HOMER LIMIT IS REACHED. THEY ARE OUTS. AAA teams only get 3 homers a game. Who cares how many they hit for outs after the limit is reached. THEY ARE OUTS! |
| Jan. 8 mad dog Men's 65 4191 posts | jsheeran,and the problem is they want the AAA hrs over 3 to be walks,and not outs.....i'm all for the outs after 3,think it is great...... if your team constantly hits more than 3 move up or quit crying....... |
| Jan. 8 samg 35 posts | I think some AAA teams do not move up because in the region you play there are not that many Major teams around and they will play the same teams all the time. I think there is no easy "fix" to the HR rule for AAA level that all will be happy with. I play AAA and we do hit on an occassion our limit of three and there have been a couple of tournaments where we hit over the limit, it even cost us a tournament when we hit three consecutive for outs! But again, not complaining just stating my opinion. In the midwest you may see several Major teams listed or not but the fact remains to play more than one particular team all year long you stay at AAA. I am not a large person body wise but I do hit the ball hard. When we are out of HR I try to not hit the middle out of respect and change my pitch selection as well as where in the zone the ball is when I hit it. Do I think I can play Major, yep, will I, not unless my fellow team mates make a decision to move up. Does that make me a sandbagger, not at all. It makes me loyal to a group of guys that are loyal to me. :-) See you on the diamonds when the snow melts. |
