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Online now: 5 members: AZBillyD, Andy215, CHI-TOWN BALLERS, DeanMO, TABLE SETTER 11; 118 anonymousDiscussion: LVSSA/SSUSA WORLD MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS
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| July 15, 2019 Albie34 20 posts | LVSSA/SSUSA WORLD MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS SSUSA - This weekend, it was brought to my attention that you switched the World Masters Championships (for the W50s division) from a 2-Day tournament to a 3-Day tournament. Why do this when you know we 50s DO NOT have enough teams to stretch a tournament out for us into 3 days? That's ridiculous!! Also, we've already made travel plans for the 2-Day tournament and by October, a number of people have already used their vacation time, so they won't be able to take the Friday off. It's bad enough we're traveling to Nationals/Sacramento for a 4 team tournament, that I'm sure will be broken out into a best 2 out of 3 because you don't want 50s Majors playing 50s AAA in bracket play. Quite honestly, for 4 teams and if you do the best 2 out of 3 thing, we could've forgone the seeding (totally not needed) and done the best 2 out of 3 games in ONE DAY. It is inconsiderate for the World Masters (W50s division) to be stretched out to 3 days when it was originally planned as a 2 day tournament and we've already planned for this since the schedule was released. Had it not been brought to my attention, I don't know when I would've found out because I don't check your site frequently. It's not right to change the dates IN JULY. Also, I don't understand why don't you play later into the evening for the younger divisions instead of ending the day in the mid/late afternoon. If we're able to do a 2 Day tournament, we wouldn't mind going later and playing into the evening! Please change our W50s division back to a 2 Day tournament as it was planned originally. |
| July 15, 2019 DaveDowell Men's 70 4312 posts | Albie34 ... It might be a wise idea for you to call (Wednesday or later) the Sacramento Home Office at (916) 326.5303 and ask for me ... I'm the guy who writes the schedules and am one of the few of us who make the playing days/times/places decisions ... There are more than a few factual errors in your analysis as well as misconceptions in your theories about how tournaments work ... Rather than air it all out here, give me a call and I'll be happy to listen to your thoughts and bring you up to speed on reality ... Thanks! ... |
| July 15, 2019 shortstopchic10 Women's 40 61 posts | I also am just finding out about this. Can't take an extra day off work, planned my flight earlier this year based on coming in Friday night after work. If I am able to work out out with work now that's an additional 50.00 added to my flight cost or more depending on the flight I can take, additional hotel and rental car. This is going to effect our whole team as well |
| July 15, 2019 Albie34 20 posts | Hey Dave - Thanks for responding so quickly. I appreciate it. I will definitely give you a call later this week. As for airing it out on this message board, I did so b/c I thought this was a forum for softball players to communicate and offer ideas and constructive suggestions for improvements. I know most of the Women's 50s teams (and some 40s) feel the same way my team does and we want to voice our concerns publicly so you/SSUSA can hear us and improve the way the Women's divisions are scheduled. The reality for us is that we're disappointed that we have to be scheduled into/around a crap ton of Men's teams that we (women's division) are not fortunate enough to have. Thanks for listening. |
| July 15, 2019 Albie34 20 posts | I don't know why that 2nd to last sentence got cut off, it should read: The reality for us is that we're disappointed that we have to be scheduled into/around a crap ton of Men's teams that we (women's division) are not fortunate enough to have. Thanks for listening. |
| July 15, 2019 DaveDowell Men's 70 4312 posts | No worries ... Smaller divisions of play, frequently including some of the Men's Major-Plus divisions, often make the same mistake of thinking "..It's only a six-team tournament, why can't we ______________________________ [fill in the blank]? ... The reality is that the 2019 Western National's is not a six-team tourney ... It's a 136 team tourney and the World Masters is likely a 650± team tourney ... The global magnitude of those events makes it imperative to schedule efficiently as it relates to all teams, not just a theoretical smaller sub-set with possibly unique self-interests ... Regardless, please give me a call after tomorrow and I'll spend as much time listening (and responding where appropriate) as you wish ... Thanks ... |
| July 15, 2019 freeway24 1 posts | As co manager of Stix With Impact Womens 50, I agree that it is wrong for the SSUSA to switch the W50s from a 2-day tournament to a 3-day tournament. As is the case with many W50s players, travel arrangements and or vacation time have already been secured for a two day tournament and in some cases those arrangements cannot be changed. It seems to me that the question becomes whether or not the W50s divisions could in fact be played as a two day tournament. I would argue that it could easily be done. Last year the W50s were split into two divisions, majors and AAA. There were 6 major teams and 7 AAA teams. On Friday and Saturday, all 13 teams played at Desert Bloom, a two field complex. On Sunday, the majors were moved to Sunset park, assigned 1 field, while the AAA were moved to BLD, assigned 1 field. Imagine if the W50s divisions had been played on a four field complex. There would be no question that both divisions could have been completed in 2 days. Or imagine if the W50s had been allowed to play into the evening. While the costs of lights would certainly be a consideration, using fields for only 2 days rather than 3 days should offset the costs of lights. Another consideration lies in the fact that by Sunday, many fields previously unavailable were open due to the fact that teams from the mens and women's 40 divisions had been eliminated. As such, fields simply were not used to capacity on Sunday. This would work in favor of a full day of play for the W50s divisions, majors and AAA, on Sunday. Here is a final thought from last years tournament. The W50s majors were moved to Sunset Park for the final day and subsequent championship. However, the 1 filed assigned to the women's teams was a most terrible field. The outfield had far too many pot holes and there was absolutely no shade available for the teams. It was simply unbearable. As teams appealed this situation, we were finally moved to the heart of the complex where the men had just finished their play. I just think and hope that SSUSA can do better. I am writing this as a collective voice begins to rise, asking the SSUSA to change the W50s division back into a 2 day tournament. |
| July 15, 2019 BabyDoll10 Women's 50 5 posts | Hi Dave, I did call headquarters on Friday to discuss the changes from a 2-day to a 3-day tournament. My biggest concern and issue is that the date was changed sometime after July 3rd (I was on the site that day and the tournament dates was still posted as a 2 day) and none of the Women 50's Coaches were notified of the change. As for my team, all of my players have booked their flights (some with flights that cannot be changed or if they do change it, they will be charged an expensive Change fee) and hotel. My team and I am sure other teams have already planned for this tournament to be a 2-day. Most of us did NOT request a vacation day for Friday, which now we have to go back to our employers and request an additional vacation day (which some people may NOT have available at this point). Because of the change, I now have players that will NOT be able to play on Friday. We will barely have a team to field on Friday. I would NOT have had a problem with a 3 day tournament if it was originally scheduled to be a 3 day, but to change it to a 3-day in July when most of us have already made our arrangements, is VERY DISAPPOINTING!! I have been the biggest advocate and supporter of SSUSA, I have been trying to get other Women 50 teams to play this year because this year it was NOT a conflict with the Women 40's Division (which some of us still play). I was able to get at least 2 other teams to consider playing, but now with the change to the tournament schedule, one of the team will definitely not be able to play. I am worried with all the chattering I am hearing from the Women 50's division Coaches that we will lose teams for future tournaments. The Women divisions already feel like 2nd Class citizen to the Men. I would hate to see that happen with all the growth I have seen over the past 3 years. Dave, please consider changing it back to a 2-day, show everyone that SSUSA really do care about how the Women feel. Thank you so much for reading and listening. |
| July 15, 2019 East Coast 1 posts | Well as we should all know... that is we women!! That we always get the shit end of everything when it comes to a tournament. But this changing it from a 2 day to a 3 day has screwed a lot of us big time. We have our flights, car rentals....etc... And plus we have planned our vacation time and now we can't change that or our flights. Changing my flight would cost way to much. I know for a fact that 3 of my team mates are not able to get to Vegas until Friday...some of us still work, or we can't drive there. East coast is a long way!!! Y'all have field that have lights. We pay to use them in our fee for this tourney. Let's use them and play more than 2 games a day. Heck we play one day tourney here on the east coast and it all works out just fine. We will be playing our eastern nationals in 2 days. I'm sure it's tuff scheduling all of this, but it's not your 1st time and ding this. And you just changed it. Because it was still on the schedule as a 2 day as of July 3....We all can play a little later than 5! None of us have a set bedtime or that we have never been to Vegas before. So please rethink this before teams back out altogether. I mean look at other Vegas tourney where you can barely get 4 teams. And you make that into a 2 day and could be played in one!!! Besides we really wish you would move Worlds out of Vegas!! See y'all on Friday and hope my team even gets enough to field a team for Friday. |
| July 15, 2019 Jules15 7 posts | Hi Dave. I coach the women's NW Lady Legends 50+. I was just told by another women's coach of your late change to the women's schedule! OMG!! You have got to be KIDDING ME! Do you have any idea how many players have already booked their flights?! Hotels and cars?! Have not planned for an extra day of vacation time off from their jobs?? How are we supposed to compete in your tournament if we don't have enough players to field a team? No notice of this change went out to the coaches that have already notified SSUSA that we are coming. This isn't going to work. Please reconsider this decision. I keep hearing the question from SSUSA directors, "What happened to the women's program? Why can't we get women's teams to play?" Julie Childress |
| July 16, 2019 DaveDowell Men's 70 4312 posts | Julie ... "What happened to the Women's program?" is simply that the women collectively insisted on total equality by being treated just like the Men's divisions, until we did ... Now, special treatment and sometimes unreasonable requests/demands are the norm rather than the exception ... __________ East Coast ... Pretty weak "rookie mistake" post ... We're very intolerant of foul language on this forum ... We will (and do, as you demonstrate) tolerate ill-informed and rude commentary, but we demand proper decorum while doing it ... ** THREAD CLOSED ** |
