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Online now: 9 members: Chad Mellott, DV, FireCrackerFun, JK39, Matty507, Runner Blue, TABLE SETTER 11, drew28, inzerillo; 103 anonymousDiscussion: The 1 day Tourney Movement
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| Nov. 23, 2016 TA Men's 55 11 posts | The 1 day Tourney Movement Just wanted thow this out there....... I've been playing senior softball two years now (age 51) and enjoy the fellowship and competition, however, do we have to play two day tourneys with 4-6 teams in the tourney? I'm in SoCal and our tourneys are usually two days and a good 1 1/2 to 2 hour hour drive away, which means two days of long drives or a hotel for something that could be done in one day. Maybe I'm missing something but at 51 I still work 5 days a week and would prefer to play ball on sat and have sunday to spend with the wife or patching the roof or whatever. Of course bigger tourneys will require two days, no problem there. This is a problem when trying to recruit my buddies who may be 50 or so but don't want to play two days and have to get a hotel to play the same 3 teams 2-3 times What do you guys think, maybe I'm off base here? Tom in Torrance |
| Nov. 23, 2016 deep14 102 posts | Sounds Like you are still in the young guy mode. most of us 50 and over enjoy travel and ball with the wives. |
| Nov. 23, 2016 Benji4 Men's 55 289 posts | Tom Those of us in your same boat go play GSL. (SoCal GSL) One day tournaments, cash prizes. 2 game round robin then single elimination. |
| Nov. 23, 2016 raiderman66 77 posts | I am all for this idea for sure. However the bigger question is why in the world is there 3 day tournaments for so many tourney's? So many times there are anywhere between 4-8 team tourney's going on and the games are done by 12 am or earlier on Sunday. Why can't these tournies be 2 days instead of 3? They are adding an extra day and expenses to basically play 2 extra games when they can easily be shifted to Saturday and Sunday. When I ask this question the response I usually get is that the associations get kickback from the local hotels. Really? Is that true and if so that's not right to all of us having to take off of work and spending the extra money for a simple tourney in April-September. |
| Nov. 23, 2016 DaveDowell Men's 70 4317 posts | The answer to the "bigger question" is exactly that: The events that are bigger than just your team's division ... It's a common self-focused attitude for many players that the event is all about their own 6-team division and not about the size of the overall multi-age and multi-division event ... We had a couple of 6-team divisions in Phoenix ... They were part of a MUCH larger 210± team tournament that filled a LOT of fields over seven complexes simultaneously ... The usual Sunday finish times in SSUSA events call for 2:00 PM Championships and 3:30 PM "If" games ... Other factors for many seniors include a reluctance to play at or after dusk, a desire to limit the number of games played in a day and a desire to experience some of the local amenities in addition to the softball ... But if those more common desires are too much for your travel appetite, we encourage you to seek out the little 1-day events and play as much as you can! ... Good luck and play safely ... |
| Nov. 23, 2016 TA Men's 55 11 posts | I know the big tourneys need to be 2 days, but I think we could get more guys interested in playing senior ball if we had more 1 day'ers. And lord knows my wife's softball traveling days ended years ago, and I don't blame her for not wanting to drive 2 hours to Hemet on her days off to sit in 100 degree heat to watch my old behind play softball, she's weird like that. I used to joke back in my "real" softball days that you could tell if the team you were playing was any good by the number of ladies in their dugout, the newer teams/guys always had girlfriends and wives but if you played a team with zero women in the stands watch out, these were guys that play so much the wives have quit coming and they are probably good! |
| Nov. 23, 2016 swing for the fences Men's 50 1224 posts | Funny story, we have a guy when we first came to 50s that wanted all 1 dayers... he would run for everyone play outfield and never stop running... well by the second year in fifties he changed his mind about playing 5 games in one day.... LOL And as Dave said, nighttime vision is not the best for guys over 50... Happy Thanksgiving to all! |
| Nov. 23, 2016 TexasTransplant Men's 70 516 posts | Consider yourself lucky if you can drive 2 hours to get to a tournament. This past season, my shortest trip was 6 hours, with at least five that were 10+ hours. I sure don't want to drive those distances for a one day tournament. |
| Nov. 24, 2016 Lefty Men's 75 721 posts | My closes tournament is a little over 3 hrs. The rest are 4 to 8hrs. |
| Nov. 24, 2016 Webbie25 Men's 70 2414 posts | Living in Albuquerque, my closest tournaments are Phoenix at 6 hours drive. Denver is 6 1/2 and Vegas is 8 1/2 at best. I have to fly the rest. Ir recently played 2 tournaments for fun in Las Cruces-only 3 hours. Hardly got comfortable in my car-lol. You guys are lucky. I enjoy the 3 day 'get away' from work, and any more than 3 games in a day gets hard now. |
| Nov. 24, 2016 raiderman66 77 posts | Dave it may come as a surprise to you but a lot of tournaments don't have 210 teams and believe it not a majority of players also think that the scheduling of 3 day tournaments for 40-50 teams over 3 days is ridiculous. So while you may have guys who love the amenities of such exotic places like Wilkes Barre PA, Columbus IN, Tulsa OK the majority of guys actually prefer to not have to spend extra money for no reason other then to have the assoc. line it's pockets. I would encourage people on here to weigh in on this discussion. I'll watch this discussion safe on my couch..... |
| Nov. 24, 2016 DaveDowell Men's 70 4317 posts | raiderman66 ... It's no surprise to me that not many tournaments have 210 teams because I write all of the schedules for SSUSA Administered events! ... There are only three 200+ events, Phoenix, Reno and Las Vegas in the World Masters ... We're not sure where your poorly reasoned "..line [its] pockets.." theory comes from ... SSUSA certainly spends more on its own travel costs, rental cars, director's compensation, umpire housing and field rentals in a longer event ... Maybe you're confused because you've played in some other association events where there was a "stay to play" requirement for their favored hotels, but never in an SSUSA event ... SSUSA makes player-favorable rate deals at less than standard "rack rates" with host/headquarter hotels in most places, but you're on your own and are in no way required to use them ... You can stay in any hotel, private residence, RV park, your car or campground you wish, we don't care ... The 2017 SSUSA Tournament Guide will be published in the next few weeks, but don't spend too much tinme on it looking for one-day events ... There won't be any ... The safety of your couch is an excellent place for you to research other associations to see if you can find many/any of your preferred quickie one-day format ... Good luck and play safely! |
| Nov. 24, 2016 TimMcElroy 942 posts | raiderman66- If I'm not mistaken, the only 3 day tournaments hosted by SSUSA are TOC qualifiers which offer a 5 game guarantee, draw teams from a larger geographic area and award larger prize pacakage. You used Wilkes-Barre, Columbus and Tulsa as examples of tournaments that shouldn't be 3 days long. Wilkes-Barre is 3 days long, but is hosted by another Association. SSUSA has nothing to do with it. Columbus and Tulsa are hosted by SSUSA and are run over a shorter (2 day) period. |
| Nov. 24, 2016 titanhd Men's 60 639 posts | Tim just for the record not certain on Tulsa but,Columbus IN has always run 3 days. |
| Nov. 24, 2016 raiderman66 77 posts | Dave the comment about lining the pockets isn't something I know anything about, it was said by a few people as why the tournaments are 3 days long. I don't know if thats the case and couldn't care less about that. My comment was simply that the 3 day touney's could be 2 days very easily. The first day is a waste playing 2 games and sitting around most of the day. If this was only once or twice a year then it's no big deal however if your team plays 6-8 tournies then it adds up and your paying a decent amount of money for no real reason. Lastly I am only talking about the regular events, I am not talking about Vegas or the TOC. |
| Nov. 24, 2016 k man Men's 65 326 posts | We also travel between 3 and 8 hours to get to most tournaments (crazy as I am I drove 3 of my teammates 22 hours to Ft. Myers) and would have no interest nor do I know of any 1 day tournaments. 2 day tournaments can be fun and quite taxing as I remember a tourney in CT 2 years ago where we lost in the 'if' game playing 4 on Sat and 5 on Sunday. However as long as your are winning, the number of games seems to be an afterthought and even better reason to stay in the winners bracket. Our biggest problem is that in our 65+, many tournaments are midweek and therefore guys are reluctant to leave their 'summer' teams to attend a tournament. Not complaining, as I know it's the logistics of the tournaments. Last summer we even played down to 60+ in RI so that we could attend a weekend tournament just to get some tournament ball in. Oh and by the way, I do understand some of the concerns of the youngsters who still have to work, so time and money is more of a concern to them than most guys in our age bracket. Wishing everyone a healthy 2017 softball season as we are truly blessed to be playing a kids game at our age. But honey, it's the last bat, glove, spikes I'll ever have to buy. Yeah right! |
| Nov. 24, 2016 TimMcElroy 942 posts | Hello titanhd, I should have been more clear in my response. The Columbus, IN qualifier (APR) is a 2 day, 4 game guaranteee tournament. The ISA World Series (JUL) is also held in Columbus, IN. That is a 3 day, 5 game guarantee TOC qualifying tournament, Tim |
| Nov. 25, 2016 Ho 301 posts | Different days for different ages. Thee Buckeye Classic (an 80-team round robin tournament in Barberton,Oh)runs three days for 75 and 80 (they play two games a day). That said, they also have the option if there are open fields in any of the three days, they may move one of their games to those open spots, which could make it a two-day tournament. But it their option, their health. We usually draw arounf six 80's and sixteen 75's (AAA). The rest of the divisions (AA and AAA) play two days (three games a day). Only AA and AAA teams and they only play games against teams in their own age and rating division. We can do it because we usually have at least 14-to-16 teams in each age group (which normally is the maximum we can handle). We also schedule our 50 and 55's for Saturday and Sunday and the 60's Friday and Saturday (best we can do for them). As I said we are a round robin (six games against six different teams all in your own age and rating class). We would never be able to do it if we were a double-elimination tournament. We know who will be playing who, what time and what fields for their their three games each day (rwo day tournament). It is more difficult for double-elimination. What do you do for teams who after playing three pool games. lose their first bracket game and then are forced to play five or six more to reach the finals in a two-day event? Might be great for 50 and 55, maybe 60. You are stretching your luck for 65, 70, 75 and 80. SSUSA does a very good job watching out for the teams's health and enjoyment with the way their events are scheduled. If you want to change it, you should list a disclaimer sign sayong "Travel at your own risk" Ho |
| Nov. 25, 2016 Cuervo13 33 posts | I've had opportunities to play 50s in Nor cal the last two years but the two dayfformat ain't gonna happen at least for me in Nor Cal seniors. I'd rather play 40s locally in u trip or all World. I know it's a Little selfish but the 90 minute drive food and gas is a little too much a dozen times a year for the two day format for me Maybe in a few years but not now |
| Nov. 25, 2016 TA Men's 55 11 posts | Sorry guys I should clarify that my opinion is based on Southern California, we have many fields and a decent number of players all within an hour or 3 that could play a round robin tourney albeit with night games for the finals. The jump from 40's to 50's is of course the ages, however the 50's are almost always 2 days with 4-5 teams, that's a one day tourney even with round robin bracket I do understand the playing at night issue but we play at night in Vegas for worlds. I have some friends who are getting old enough to play 50's but dislike the idea of 2 days in Hemet or the other desert area fields And again I know the bigger tourneys are 2-3 days and that's fine |
