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Real name:
Dave Dowell
Location:
Sacramento, CA
Division:
Men's 65
Messages posted by DaveDowell »Message board home »Start a new discussion
| , Sept. 20, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Adding players Do what I do when facing a similar situation ... I ask my 8-year old grand daughter to help and it works every time ... Good luck! |
| , Sept. 18, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Vegas Brackets CallaVett and curveball ... It's done through my proprietary scheduling system software ... But here's a brief overview of a 2-pod system ... I'm not sure what it's going to look like with the 4-pod, 85-team 50-AAA division in Session #3! ... • The system takes all entrants in a division and sorts them alphabetically both by state and team name ... The teams are then split by state equally (±1 team) into the two pods ... Example: If there are six Texas teams, three will end up in each pod ... • The system then analyzes the East vs. West composition in each pod and adjusts those for balance without disturbing the "same-state" balance ratios ... • The system then suggests East v. West seeding pool play match-ups in an attempt to have all teams play teams they seldom, if ever, play during the season ... The only exception is force-feeding specific games for the USA National Championships, if applicable ... BTW, all of this is done on a numbers only basis ... The team names are overlaid as the LAST step in the process, which is the first time I see actual game pairings by team names ... This eliminates any question of bias on "who plays whom" ... In a single site venue (like 42 teams in the 60-AAA), they are seeded #1-42 and alternated between the pods after seeding ... In a multi-site division (like 42 teams in the 55-AAA), the pod split occurs prior to seeding to minimize travel hassles, failed show-ups on time for Round #1 games and changes in hotel convenience ... As for competitively balanced pods (not being sure how you define that), it's completely irrelevant in my view ... The SSUSA's national rating system does that already .. A AAA team is a AAA team, simple as that, with no judgment offered or required of me ... And in the case of the World Masters Championships, the bracket divisions are pure, absent combined brackets in all but the 70+ and 75+ Major+ Divisions this year ... Other than that, it's a piece of cake! ... JUST KIDDING! ... Good luck! ... |
| , Sept. 18, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Bats Discussion: Carrying bat And it seemed like such a simple question! ... "Where can I find the rule covering carrying bat to 1st base" ... Question was asked and answered pretty concisely without the introduction of additional hypothetical facts ... |
| , Sept. 17, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Bats Discussion: Carrying bat Agreed, B.J. ... About the only other rare circumstance I've seen in 15± years as a tournament director is the batter who hits an easy one-bouncer back to the pitcher or a slow roller directly at the first baseman and trots down the line with bat in hand ... Never seen a guy trying to stretch a single into a double that way ... It's a total non-issue in my view ... |
| , Sept. 16, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Bats Discussion: Carrying bat J R ... Best places to search would be the Rule Books of other associations ... In SSUSA sanctioned play, there is NO PROHIBITION against carrying your bat after putting the ball in play ... Any umpire who may rule otherwise has made a mistake that, hopefully, would be overturned upon appeal to the tournament director ... |
| , Sept. 13, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: 60 Division Schedule No one (until just now), Don ... LOL! ... Credit (or blame?) for this goes to those poor unfortunate souls who are being inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame and asked us to make it so everyone from several other teams (including YOUR team) they wanted to attend could do so ... That and wanting to play early in order to be at the ceremonies on time and have an opportunity to celebrate with families after! ... Something "had to give" at Arroyo Grande because they only allow us 20 games slots on Friday due to local league restrictions against a 22-game load of 13 for 55-Major+ and 9 for 60-Major+ ... You'll be OK, since you get to recover at Arroyo Grande Country Club over the weekend ... Good luck! |
| , Sept. 12, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: 60 Division Schedule Noted and fixed ... That was a residual "hangover" from having to re-do an earlier review version to accommodate the guest lists, and timing of play, for the Hall of Fame inductees ... Problem was in the game times and fields for the 60-Major+ ... Should be good to go now ... Thanks! |
| , Sept. 10, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Any idea I do (simple answer) ... Game sequencing (who plays who and when on Friday) has been completed ... Still in "make it fit" mode regarding additional field acquisition efforts to handle bracket games load on the weekend ... Session #1 has 194 teams playing about 625 games in three days ... We're also working on eliminating some issues to accommodate teams who have player-sharing issues, ensuring that teams (and former teams) who have players going into the Hall of Fame aren't conflicted with the ceremony timing and dealing with local league restrictions ... Just the "usual" stuff ... BTW, schedule publication is historically 7-10 days before each start date ... At the moment, we're ahead on that timeline and looking to Monday sometime ... Simple suggestion is not to confuse when you "want" something with when you actually may "need" it ... |
| , Sept. 8, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Players looking to join a team Discussion: VEGAS B94 ... Clicking on his username will reveal that he's in Chico, CA (NorCal) |
| , Sept. 1, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Northerns Whew! ... You had me worried there for a second, Sparky ... They've been online for so long I was afraid they might have been archived already! ... [grins] ... |
| , Sept. 1, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Rocky Mountain Championship Results As a "general theory" question, there are several variables that would need to be addressed directly with the Home Office in Sacramento ... 1. What is the rating level of the team? ... Major+ has different rules for eligibility ... 2. How many players did the team have from their original/master roster available for this event before they asked for "exemption" players? ... Teams 65+ and younger may add such otherwise eligible "exemption" players to get to 10 ... Teams 70+ and more senior may get to 11 by this procedure ... 3. Of the "exemption" players, what are their individual ratings history numbers over the current and two previous Seasons? ... Have the player(s) been in this circumstance before in this Season? ... We don't allow players more than one "guest" appearance per Season ... 4. Were the "exemption" player additions approved by Sacramento before the event? There isn't a general rule for global application ... Individual facts and circumstances, with real names of teams and players, will dictate any such roster additions being approved or denied ... |
| , Sept. 1, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Rocky Mountain Championship Results curveball ... You've got us confused, too ... We had 14 Championship Games and the crystal ball isn't clear enough for us to figure out which game and which anonymous team(s) are the suspects! ... If you're seeking some sort of official censure or other remedy, send an identifiable email to us at info@seniorsoftball.com with the facts ... Don't count on a public Message-Board-Trial here ... Thanks! |
| , Aug. 31, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Rocky Mountain Championship Results They are already posted and available from the links on the event Tournament Page ... |
| , Aug. 31, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Rocky Mountain Fields They are already posted and available from the links on the event Tournament Page ... |
| , Aug. 30, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Players with the same number on a team mad dog ... We concur, which is why the duplicate number rules are in the book ... In this instance, we asked for the team names and pulled the game cards for review to see if the "allegations" matched the "facts" ... Judge for yourselves on that question ... |
| , Aug. 27, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Players with the same number on a team OK, let's get away from this anonymous theory-thread and take a peek behind Oz's curtain ... Which two specific teams were involved in this "issue"? ... We'll pull the game cards and see how the teams and/or umpire(s) handled it ... Thanks ... |
| , Aug. 25, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Players with the same number on a team stick8 ... I had that same question right on my fingertips as you posted! ... I'm all about playing the game and having fun doing so, with no thought of scrambling around for the reason(s) to prevent someone else doing the same ... This is "senior" ball ... Every team has "that guy" who brings the wrong color uniform to the park, or maybe forgets it all together! ... By boom's account, there were a couple of hours where someone could have been a creative thinker and scrounged up a 6" strip of tape! ... So boom, what did you do to solve your "problem", one that seems to have very, very little significance as a rulebook provision with no penalty attached? ... As a member of the SSUSA National Rules Committee, I have a professional curiosity in trying to understand your thinking ... |
| , Aug. 22, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Players with the same number on a team OK, I guess it's maybe a good thing to have "The Great Uniform Crisis" every decade or so ... At the 2006 SSUSA World Championships in Seattle, a local area team, comprised principally of attorneys, and known as There Goes The Neighborhood showed up and brought scorekeeper-chaos with them ... They had nice new uniforms, with the following numbers: I, II, III, IV, VII, IX, XII XIV, XVII, XX and XXIV, etc. ... Yep, you got it: Roman Numerals! ... Never saw anything so hilarious on uniforms, and they argued, successfully as ball players AND attorneys, that they were "rules compliant" (and they were right!) ... So we changed the rules that year to prevent a repeat ... This one isn't quite as funny, and likely won't make it on this year's National Rules Committee Sessions agenda ... For future reference: All of our Director Box Kits we send to events have duct tape in them ... Ask to borrow some strips if it remains that serious to you ... This should be a pretty simple fix if it comes up again! ... Priceless, to quote MasterCard! ... |
| , Aug. 22, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Players with the same number on a team boombah721 ... This rule set is about administrative compliance for ease of scoring, etc., and less confusion for apparently easily confused individuals ... It's not a rule with punitive remedies ... That being said, I have seen, as a Director, all sorts of planning to spring it on a batter as he comes to the plate in hopes of getting a cheap out and/or ejection ... And my response is always the same: "..If you knew who you were going after, you obviously weren't deceived in the slightest by the duplicate numbers ... Let's get a piece of tape on this guy's shirt and Play Ball.." ... That's what the umpire should have done ... It's difficult in this one to ignore the possibility of a certain level of gamesmanship being present ... Otherwise, there's way too much "picking at nits" here ... |
| , Aug. 22, 2017 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Players with the same number on a team STL0 is spot on ... Notwithstanding what the letter of the rule is, the fundamental guiding concept is whether or not game officials can tell the players apart ... If not, adding a strip of tape to make "23" into "123" works every time ... Play on ... |
