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Online now: 2 members: Rangview85, just a player; 5 anonymousDiscussion: Baseball Fields
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| April 30 TxLeaguer 1 posts | What is the general consensus of allowing traditional baseball fields used for major TOC qualifying tournaments. The upcoming Texas State championship is being played this week on a field that is in excess of 350. I want to say its 330 down the line and 375 in center field. Why are we playing on this type of field? I have been playing on this field for several years now, but I'm into my 60s and feel this needs to be addressed. The game on this field changes dramatically from a standard softball field. Can we not put a temporary fence in place? Can we not address any rule changes when fields are used in excess of 330. At least allow an extra fielder to cover the ground on teams older than 55. Either way, to do nothing and act like this is OK and SSUSA is not going to address this problem is another problem in itself. |
| April 30 Parman Men's 65 42 posts | We played on turf Baseball fields 2 weeks ago in KC KS. Great new complex but huge fields. 375 feet in center. 325-330 down the lines. All I can tell you if it gets in the gap its a HR unless the hitter is a Steve Balboni type and then its a triple. Hope your team has extremely fast outfielders than can close the gaps. 65, 70 + 75 year old teams cant cover that much outfield territory at a reasonable level. Personally I didnt care for it, it changes the game too much. I know the old saying "its the same for both teams" but realistically its not the same if your rosters aren't similar. There is another 10 diamond complex in KC that all fields are 300 ft fences, I'm hoping SSUSA will go back there next year as they used that complex years ago for the Midwest TOC. |
| April 30 DaveDowell Men's 70 4330 posts | TxLeaguer ... As the SSUSA's National Schedule Consultant, I'm happy to address your initial post here because I am the person who planned and wrote the schedule ... While you my not like the end result here, this year's Texas State Championships schedule was carefully considered and logically constructed on a sound foundation ... • There were 43 teams in the initial schedule (before one team withdrew) playing 137 games in Session #2 ... That represents maximum scheduling at slightly over seven teams per playing field ... Six teams is the ideal ratio ... • There were NO open game slots in any of the three days, and in fact, we were "over" by the four Sunday evening 5:00 PM "If" games ... When a team withdrew earlier this week, it opened up one end-of-day game slot on Friday (@ 5:00 PM), one on Saturday (@ 8:00 PM) and one more on Sunday evening (@ 5:00 PM) ... • Of the six fields we are using at the Oak Grove Complex, FIVE of them are configured with 300' concentric fence distances ... The ONE field that is not (Field "H") is 320' down the lines and 375' to straight CF ... One non-standard playing field does not represent a compelling enough reason to seek out another (hopefully) nearby playing complex OR limiting the number of teams who wished to participate ... • We intentionally structured the schedule so that every division (except one) plays only one day on the "H and I" fields, and plays the other two days in the main quad on Fields #1-4 ... The three-team 50-AA plays all three days in the quad ... There is no more fair way to lay this out ... We've done it like this for several years and, more important, I envision it will be the same in the future if I'm still the schedule architect for this event ... • If you are interested in advocating for change in this scheduling philosophy, we consider rules and policy changes only once per year, at the National Rules Committee meetings during our annual convention in late November/early December ... While we respect your opinions, we respectfully and completely disagree with your last sentence ... Good luck this weekend ... |
| May 12 wbaum Men's 50 16 posts | TxLeager, temp fence for such large fields is a great idea, but unfortunately somehow not even mentioned in the SSUSA's response/defense. It is possible for larger fields as USSSA adds them during the Challenge cup Sr games at Space Coast. Youth tournaments also use them quite often. Not every tournament will use them on larger fields, but it would be nice if ssusa was more proactive in dealing with this issue. Not sure this is something that should require a rule policy change since it's just as important to consider as securing safe playing fields should be, and I doubt that requires an official rule/policy. There are resolutions to the complaints, but I am not expecting any to be enacted. Remember these field locations and enter different tournaments. |
| May 12 wbaum Men's 50 16 posts | I am adding to my previous comment by stating one SSUSA official did comment on another thread that one of the baseball sized fields did not have enough temp fencing to fit the field in question after they asked about adding it. I can not be sure how thoroughly they exhausted all the local options in these regions, but it might be something SSUSA could research further for either purchasing their own, or finding a source for renting and shipping to such locations? Doesn't seem like there are more than 1 or 2 fields per year that are really in question. Outfielder lives matter! |
| May 12 DaveDowell Men's 70 4330 posts | wbaum ... Here's the temporary fencing formula for each diamond: It's 2*Pi*R/4 feet of fencing, where R = outfield fence distance from home plate ... For a 300' field, that would be a shade over 471' of fencing per field for just the foul-line-to-foul-line arc ... Additional fencing would be needed if you would like to extend that arc to the edge of the live ball area in foul territory outside the foul lines ... In Kansas City, they had enough fencing for 225' fences (just over 353' per field required, excluding foul territory coverage), but not for 300' distances ... A very real further complicating factor is present in artificial turf parks in that they generally (maybe without exception?) prohibit puncturing the playing surface to drive stakes into the ground to secure any such fencing ... That makes it unlikely SSUSA will be acquiring and shipping nearly 2,000' of temporary fencing for a four-field complex ... As rarely as the once or twice annually we encounter this circumstance, maybe your suggestion to take a week off when it happens is a sound one for those strongly opposed ... Thanks for commenting and good luck! |
| May 12 Parman Men's 65 42 posts | A simple solution. Why not move this TOC to the 10 field turf complex that has 300 ft fences in Shawnee KS? Surely there is 1 week in the these fields would be available. |
| May 13 TimMcElroy 953 posts | Simple? I just did a quick search and found Utrip slow pitch events at Shawnee on March 2, 8, 15 & 30... Also April 12, 20 and 27. Another search showed Perfect Game (youth) in there for a week in May, June and July. Getting dates is not as "simple" as you might think. |
