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| Feb. 20, 2015 garyheifner | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: 2015 Las Vegas World Championship Staff thanks for this change. It is not about how many games but how many quality games a team can play and make a run at the championship. Last year many of the 70 AAA teams were all in after 4 prelims and the real tourney hadn't even started. Much prefer the new format. |
| Jan. 30, 2015 garyheifner | Topic: Bats Discussion: Endload or balanced? Does age have anything to do with the above #s. My 70AAA team has experimented with ELs and all went back to balanced. As for me, I am fairly strong and found it a chore to get the ELs around on day 3 or 4 of a major tournament especially when heat and humidity came into play. |
| Jan. 30, 2015 garyheifner | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Facing one batter good point BJ. Maybe the ump should have had to sit out one batter for forcing a player to pitch without protective gear. Maybe the staff should contact this ump and remind him of what he did as to safety. |
| Jan. 7, 2015 garyheifner | Topic: Bats Discussion: Do you use senior bats in non tournament games/leagues? Made the move to Dudley balanced-love them. Broke both of them in and now use them only for tournament games. If one does ever go down, I have a 2nd ready to go. One of my Ultras had a very small crack, some gorilla glue and 3 wraps of duct tape and I got a warm weather "batting practice" bat. Found a centurion with a small crack in the garbage at a tournament, more glue and tape and I got a cold weather "batting practice" bat. My other Ultra is in good shape and now use it in a dlb header league once a week from May through Oct. P.S. I have been doing the bat repair thing for years and can usually get anywhere from 3 to 12+ tournaments of "batting practice" before they go to bat heaven. This may sound nuts to some of you younger guys. Just wait until your 70 and every retirement $ counts. |
| Jan. 2, 2015 garyheifner | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: The TOC pitcher 22 Didn't know you were M+ You guys are elite players with talent way above most of us. Maybe you have a case to appeal or get things changed considering the lack of M+ teams around the country for your classification. My team is AAA and 1 or 2 players added by another team for this could make a huge difference. |
| Jan. 2, 2015 garyheifner | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Pitcher safety screens. My team got one for batting practice. If you don't have one for your team, you are making a big mistake. I play in a league that uses the screen. Guys- It is not a big deal. It does not interfere with the integrity of the game. Ball hits screen-dead ball do over. After a few innings, the pitcher really hardly knows it's there. The middle shooters can blast away without the worry of hurting an opponent. We have many games where it is never touched and if it is hit, maybe only once or twice a game. Game time delay maybe 5 seconds. Pitcher picks up ball and pitches. Since moving up to the 70s and with the middle fielder, only a very few balls are hit up the middle anyway. Saw mostly pulling or going opposite field last year. |
| Dec. 29, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: The TOC Pitcher 22 I feel your pain as my team has played short handed in this before. However. it is just not fair to add players to this. Your 3 might be new to the game but be great athletes/players and not be fair to the rest of the field. They will have the opportunity to help your team get back to the TOC next season. I know one of the staff's greatest challenges is to try and rate teams properly and keep the playing field as fair and even as possible in every age group and level of play. It is sad to say, but there are managers/teams that would load up for this if given the opportunity to add players and turn this really nice event into a farce. |
| Dec. 14, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Best turf shoes out there I have tried at least 5 different brands if not more. Still trying to figure out why I wasted money on all of them except Tanels. I have one newer pr for tournamnets, 2 older pr 1 for practice and 1 for league play. After 4-5 years on several, they are still going strong. For the hell of it, I bought a new brand at a tournament in Joliet last summer. They lasted 3 games before falling apart. I prefer the mid level over low cut as they give me a little more ankle support. I have had a little toe issue in the past. I now buy 1/2 size bigger. The difference between an 11 and an 11-1/2 is really small, but gives the toes needed space. Problen solved. |
| Dec. 3, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Home plate Mat size change? As a part time pitcher, I don't care what the size is. I can zero in and hit it. Maybe my thinking is off here, but if the mat is bigger, wouldn't the batters have more area to defend? As a result, the hitters would be more likely to swing at the 1st pitch that is in their window rather than take 2 strikes and be forced to swing at a marginal 3 strike. The pitcher would have more area to throw a waste pitch that could still hit the mat. The larger mat might help the many of us who would rather play with the 1-1 count as I said above might encourge hitters to swing sooner. Hope you get my thought. |
| Dec. 1, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Tournament Balls In the spirit of the staff post re: game balls. Remember, when you are flying to ring tournaments you have limited space in your ball bag. One of the really "BAD" perks of getting knocked out of ring tournaments early is that you accumulate a stock pile of new balls. Being sure that we will use the Stote in Vegas and want more than the 6 you get, I bring 3 brand new ones and 3 like new. Get there and they are using the Rock. Assuming SSUSA has switched to the Rock, I bring 3 new and 3 like new Rocks to Ft. Meyers and they are using the Stote. Staff, can you post what kind of ball will be used in future ring championship tournaments. |
| Nov. 17, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Suggestions for 2015 I disagree with some of the above. My competitive AAA played some majors this year. It's not just about HRs. Those guys killed the ball. Obviously a talent level far beyond ours. Without the "5" runs the games would have been more of a farce than they were. Do the major teams really enjoy beating lower teams by slaughter rules? By the way, you majors can practice hitting singles when you need them in big tournaments rather than huffing and puffing and hitting balls into the parking lot. It's beating a dead horse, but the 3-2 makes the games go faster. Hitters go up to hit. I pitched most of the games in Vegas for our team this year. Not a single batter in 5 straight games swung at the 1st pitch. Many took a second pitch. For those of you who claim the 3-2 doesn't matter, how come in every qualifier we played in this past season the TD used the 3-2?????? I had one ump ask me in Vegas why we don't use the 3-2. I said, dumb isn't it. He said, I agree and hopefully we can can get in 7 innings. Also, I can remember back in my younger days before the 3rd strike fair rule, batters intentionally fouling off 3 or 4 balls that were going to be close just to get the pitch they wanted. As to courtesy runners, we have guys who would not be playing without them. Of the things my team does really well, we know before most games who is running for who. Our pinch runners are usually heading out of the dugout as the ball is coming into the infield. If a guy is coming up to bat that will need a runner, we often have that runner coaching 1st base for a quick change. I will go along with, if a guy gets on base and needs a runner, it must be done right away. Once the next pitch is made, that guy should have to continue running-no sub. Also, although I live in Oswego, Illinois where it is 1 degree, I am sitting on the beach in Fort Meyers Fl by the cottage I am renting for a month. It is partly cloudy and 80 degrees. So, all the above doesn't really matter. |
| Nov. 15, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: Bats Discussion: NEW Miken Freak Black Senior bat with a 1 year warranty What weight is the bat you have hit for 1600+ hits. And, have you tried various other weights. |
| Nov. 13, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: Associations Discussion: SPA v SSUSA SSUSA has more teams at their World Tournament thus are spread out over many venues so each age group seems like a different tournament. However, no complaints. SPA has their World in Dalton at one large complex. So, it seems much more 1st class. Opening parade, tribute to vets, Christian overtones, two umps, official score keeper. As stated above, both are good. My team bases out of the Chicago area and we have very few SPA opportunities unless we travel east. SSUSA gives us many more opportunities to play. |
| Nov. 12, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: Bats Discussion: miken bat question Re: the Miken 2 piece end load-red/white I have seen some hitting reviews say that the new 2014 model is better than previous years. If I were to get one, is there a way to tell if it is the 2014 model or one from past years the bat company had in stock and just wanted to dump. |
| Nov. 12, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: Bats Discussion: When Is It Bat Altering? How about a knob cuff with two layers of tape over it. By the above, should be legal. |
| Nov. 12, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Are walks hits in Senior Softball? Slow pitch is a hitters game. However, if you have the poise to lay off swinging at "4" bad pitches, you are placing the team 1st. As a result, you should be awarded a hit. The most fun I had in my u-trip years was the year every time you reached base, it was recorded a hit. Every time you made an out, you put 25 cents in the quarter jar for the team party at the end of the year. A FC was an out. A sac was a hit. |
| Oct. 18, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: 1 and 1 pitch count The 0-0 count is absurd. I once again traveled to Vegas and on to Mesquite and the Huntsman games to play an endless number of "5' & "6" inning games. Endless # of hitters who took one or two strikes before hitting. I was told that California, which has a huge number of players, are the ones holding the vote power to keep the 0-0. Drives me nuts that we play 0-0 at the worlds and in every qualifier we play in, the TD uses a 1-1 count. Why would they use a 1-1 count? Let me guess. The tournament stays on time and we get "7" that's Seven innings. |
| Sept. 17, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: Product review Discussion: knob cuff advocates I have been trying out tappered knob cuff. For someone who has been using one for a long time: What is the value of or rather how does it help your hitting? |
| Sept. 17, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Nightmare bat approved What company or web site do you go on to get information regarding this bat-construction-models etc. |
| Sept. 14, 2014 garyheifner | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: RENTAL CAR PRICES FOR WORLDS 9/28-10/2 The Rental car situation is about the biggest scam I have seen. The rental itself is not bad, it is the $150 in airport taxes that are added in. Vegas-Billions of profit and the airport is worse than the one armed bandits. The only way I have found to really reduce was to book my flight lodging and rental car through Southwest as a package. Then the airport tax was $51 which is about what I have been charged at other airports around the USA. I miss Phoenix! |
