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Online now: 3 members: SB#8, SSUSA Staff, TABLE SETTER 11; 147 anonymousDiscussion: MYRTLE BEACH FIASCO!!!!!!!! SPA
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| Oct. 29, 2011 GaCMan 86 posts | MYRTLE BEACH FIASCO!!!!!!!! SPA WOW can you believe this one??????? After the Major screw up in Pensacola I thought maybe this one would be better,NOT!!!!!! This is the 2nd tournament in Oct put on by SPA PENSACOLA,FLA AND MYRTLE BEACH SC that we have been to and you might think someone with no experience was running this event. I was told 3 weeks before this by some friends that it would be the same as the last one because it is put on by the same crowd of people boy sure wish I had listened. This tournament started falling apart more than a week before we even got there and has gotten worse every day up till and through play day. They blame this on the city for over booking a baseball tourney but this event has been on the books since last yr. Games have changed every day where as we were supposed to play at 9, 12 and 6 on SAT to only playing 1 pool game at 2 on Sat and then being told no more games for the day. And our only one pool game for the tournament going only 5 innings.Then they tell us to come back and start Bracket play at 8 on SUN morning. All this after changing field complexes 2 or 3 times before we started on Sat. So we will have to play all of our pool games on SUNDAY making for either a very long ride late late Sunday night or haveing to pay for another day at the motel and miss another day of work!!!!!! WOW You would think that maybe they would REFUND some of our money, yeaaaa probably NOT. At 450 to 475 bucks a tournament I think you should get better than this for your money. I will seriously consider another tourney for next yr. Hope everyone that went to this one will post their opinion and email SPA about this. Whats your opinion as other softball players?????? |
| Oct. 29, 2011 softballerK1 Men's 65 30 posts | We (Northern Virginia Force) got the same story from SPA. What started out as a 3 day tournament, went to a 2 day tournament and turned out to be a 1 day tournament. We found out Friday morning when we were supposed to start pool play. We were supposed to play 4 pool games on Friday (3 were scheduled and we volunteered to play the 4th game)and then the best 2 of 3 in DE on Saturday. We played 1 pool game Friday morning then had to sit for 2 hours with 3 of 4 fields open while 2 teams played their pool game for seeding purposes. They had a meeting after the last pool game and told us we were not involved and to go away. We played our 2 of 3 and then went home. They could have let us start at the same time as the last pool game, but made us wait until that game was over. And the 10-15 minute breaks between games turned into 30-45 minute waits because the umpire went to the other fields to watch games. A lot of time was wasted, not to mention the expense for just a 1 day tournament. We played SPA in Glen Burnie and Richmond and they are always screwed up too. As for the refund, I am willing to bet they did not tell anyone so they could say "you played" and then invoke their refund rule as stated in their rulebook. I'm not sure if it's $25 or $25/game. Either way, it's not any consolation. I'm pretty sure we won't be playing any SPA tournaments, except for maybe Dalton, from now on. This was beyond a fiasco!!!! |
| Oct. 29, 2011 warren60 Men's 65 49 posts | Can you play Dalton if you do not play any other SPA events? |
| Oct. 30, 2011 softballerK1 Men's 65 30 posts | I believe you may have to play at least 1 qualifier. Myrtle Beach was it since it was a 2012 event. |
| Oct. 30, 2011 Tater50 Men's 60 336 posts | GaCMan: does the roster that you use in MB count against you for 2012 or is this tourney consider a non-qualifier? Tater50 Just a thought!! |
| Oct. 30, 2011 turn2 489 posts | Tater, This was a qualifier for 2012. Donnie |
| Oct. 30, 2011 turn2 489 posts | How did the 60 major division turn out? Were the scores high with the cold weather? Thanks, Donnie Turn Two |
| Oct. 30, 2011 BruceinGa Men's 70 3233 posts | Donnie, we played three and we came out on top, winning the first and third. I don't remember the scores as it was Friday when we played. Our 50 major team lost our first two to a powerful Tri State Connection. Our second loss this mornnig was closer since they had three that could play on Sunday. tell Carson that Lynn and I just received free night offers from the Grand in Biloxi for November. I believe we'll stick with Harrah's in Cherokee. |
| Oct. 30, 2011 turn2 489 posts | Bruce, Congrats on the 60 win. Dad already has the reservations and they are ready to go. The Villages has already poated their dates for next year Oct. 19-21 I believe. Later Donnie |
| Oct. 30, 2011 BruceinGa Men's 70 3233 posts | Thanks for the Villages date. We're also set for Cherokee. In my other post I meant to say "they had three that couldn't play on Sunday". |
| Oct. 31, 2011 perly 88 posts | GaCMan, Joey, Myrtle Beach and Pensacola were ran by two different groups. Even though both were SPA tournaments the organizers of these two events were not the same people. Pensacola had some definite issues with playing teams out of their age group and giving runs to teams that shouldn't have recieved them. Hopefully the Pensacola folks will correct these problems. Teams entering any Pensacola tournaments need to voice their concerns about the bracketing prior to the tournament and have the problem from last tournament addressed before the tournament starts. Mike DeSorbo, who runs Pensacola, will correct what happened in P'Cola. He had to make some decisions and they weren't appreciated by everyone. Under the circumstances Mike did what he thought was correct for everyone and it didn't work out. Hate to hear Myrtle Beach wasn't what you expected. Our coach decided to cancel out of that tournament and sounds like that was a good decision? |
| Oct. 31, 2011 southernson 280 posts | Thankful we didn't go, and it was a last minute decision. It's sad the execution of these tournaments has gone to hell. |
| Oct. 31, 2011 softballerK1 Men's 65 30 posts | Donnie - The ball came off the bats pretty good. It might have been the cool weather. The scores were 24-11, 34-26, and 16-13. Crystal Pharmacy won the 1st and 3rd games. We hit a total of 4 homeruns in 3 games, Crystal Pharmacy hit 14 (2 for walks) and hit their limit in each game. BruceinGa - What position did you play? I did not know you were on this team and it would have been nice to meet you and put a face to the name. |
| Oct. 31, 2011 turn2 489 posts | Bruce normally plays first base and he is a great defensive and offensive player. |
| Oct. 31, 2011 birdie Men's 70 802 posts | Mike, He was the first baseman and I think that he hit third. You need to pay closer attention to things on this board. Thanks Harry |
| Oct. 31, 2011 softballerK1 Men's 65 30 posts | Donnie and Harry, thanks. Harry, some of us are not the social butterflies like you. Plus, I was too busy making sure Melvin would throw strikes. I do remember Bruce because I coached 1st a couple of times and we did have some conversations. |
| Oct. 31, 2011 BruceinGa Men's 70 3233 posts | Birdie is correct, I batted third and played first. Birdie, it was nice meeting you! SoftballerK1, I'm sure we'll meet in 2012. See ya then! |
| Oct. 31, 2011 GaCMan 86 posts | Well this was a first, played every Bracket game on SUNDAY. Started at 8:00 that morning won 2 back to back no rest then lost the 3rd then won the 4th. All this with less than 10 to 15 minutes between games. This put us in the championship game being the 5th game of the day at 3:30. Due to injurys and other unforseen problems, no rest and only 11 worn out guys we were no match for a very good team in Reality Check. They were the only team we lost to all day. We played our only pool game and only game of the day on SAT against Pace a MAJOR team us being a AAA team. To me Reality Check was a much better team than Pace was as we played very close to PACE in pool play. Maybe Pace had a bad game against us don't know but seemed like Reality Check would have been more toward the Major catagory than the AAA to me. JMO Anyway we played some very good games but 5 in a row with no break gets to be very hard with only 11 players. We ran completly out of gas by the end. Had this tournament been better planed and some of the Bracket games played on Sat (especially since there were empty ones there when we got thru at 3:00) maybe we could have had a little more fun. I'm sure we would have been in a lot better shape win or loose at the end. We got finnished around 5:30 Sunday afternoon and for some guys up to 13 hrs away that makes for a very long drive home and to have to get up and go to work the next morning. These last two tournaments being my first as a guy running the team it was very frustrating Paying out that much money(game fees,travel,motels,food,etc) you would or at least I would expect a lot better run event.JMO Well guess thats enough for one post hope by the time spring comes around maybe someone will have figured out how to set up a tournament a little better than these last 2 have been. |
| Oct. 31, 2011 mc4softball 19 posts | Our team was also at Pensacola and Myrtle Beach. Been playing ball a long time and can't remember when I have last experienced back to back Badly run tournaments. I think somebody said these two tournaments were run by different folks. But I remember the same person collecting paperwork at both tournaments. We played in 60+AAA. Since all of you have already expressed our aggravation and frustration we encounetered in these two tournaments, I would like to talk about other SPA issues but still related to tournaments. Suppose Ridge Hooks has good intentions for smoothly run tournaments but can't find the right people to carry out his dream or desired outcome. Well, this is a short lived thought. If true, Ridge would thank more of his customers (us teams) and refund a satisfactory amount. $475 for 5 games would equal $95 per game refund. Instead, we are told that Ridge will only refund the amount that SPA has set forth in their policy ($25 per game). We were told at Friday morning's manager's meeting that SPA found out about the shortage of fields at the last moment. Let's see, SPA arranged for umpires well in advance and some came from out of town (Dallas, Tx and other states). Last minute notice of fields NOT available and umpires scheduled well in advance. Can anybody tell me why we only had one umpire for our first Double Elimination game? You would think there would be plenty of umpires since SPA did not find out until last moment that fields were NOT available. Let's talk rosters. We were told that we must complete our 2012 team roster and register before playing in Pensacola. After receiving our 2012 Team registration card, letter received with card stated our roster is now frozen in Oct 2011 for upcoming 2012 year. Now what team has there roster finalized in 2011 for the following year? In this case 2012. To add players will cost you another team registration and cost another $30. ANOTHER REASON NOT TO PLAY SPA TOURNAMENTS AFTER DALTON. |
| Nov. 1, 2011 Tater50 Men's 60 336 posts | GaCMan: sorry for the problems that you had; know that you will continue to play SPA. SoftballerK1 & mc4softball: I know that this is not fun to attend when things go wrong; but hope that you reconsider cause we need ALL Senior associations & SPA/Ridge has done a great job in the past. Hope you will give him time to make the corrections & adjustments; know he will do the right thing & have everything staightened out in 2012. The gentleman Mike D. is a great honorable person & I am sure there were some glitches that showed their faces that were unable to correct on short notice. Tater50 |
| Nov. 1, 2011 birdie Men's 70 802 posts | Bruce It was nice meeting you. You guys have a great team and it was enjoyable playing you, Although the losing part sucked. Have a good winter sorry we will not see you in Naples in Nov. but look forward to 2012. Thanks Harry |
| Nov. 1, 2011 3rdbase 9 posts | Ditto, ditto, ditto, let's hope there will be some corrections made to both tournaments. MB probably won't be in our schedule next year but never say never. Just expected better than what we received. One good note, met some fine new friends and had some new experiences. |
| Nov. 1, 2011 Paul P Men's 65 53 posts | I'm also adding my two cents worth (hoping to get change, actually!. This is my 2nd year at MB, and while I look forward to the locale, the tournament itself needswork. The outfield had been re-sodded, apparently by out-of-work illegals with no quality control. Gaps in the sod big enough to put a foot in to. I know of no one that got hurt, but... it was a disaster in waiting. One umpire, been through this before, it IS, after all, about the money. One seeding game, and then the rest of the tourney finished on day one? Wow. Port-a-John's were a days walk from home plate. Ok, maybe I exagerrated, but it was definately an innings worth of hiking. So we were the first one's on the field at 8am, and the last one's off at 6pm. Throw in the four games ... well you get the idea. Think next year I'll just bring the clubs and hit the local courses! Hope to see y'all in Ft Myers. I be the chubby fellow (THAT narrows it down!!)with the walrus moustache, playing 1st base and batting left!! Paul |
| Nov. 1, 2011 hombre Men's 60 240 posts | Well said Tom. Perhaps if everyone on this board would email your post to SPA, it would get Ridge's attention. Ridge is a nice person, but his first and foremost concern is money, not the quality of his product. Ridge, the quality of your product is diminishing. Your profits may be following suit if you don't make some adjustments. |
| Nov. 1, 2011 jah#4 Men's 70 576 posts | Just got back in from the Beach, I will agree it was beyond a FIASCO TOURNAMENT!! Being on the board of SPA we will have ALOT of thing to overcome to our loyal SPA players Men and women. Cutting games moving games time limits it is all true. We was down on Wedneday and found out we had 4 fields that were told we had a contract on we didn't have them to play on. This is after they took the Market common fields from us two weeks before. There is no one to blame but SPA and our staff. We trusted on group to get fields and help setup and they didn't. But it falls back on SPA. I for myself am sorry for what happen to all my friends that I have played with for all these years, and will only promise to do my best to correct this in the future. I know alot of you won't play in some of out tournament again and I really don't blame you some of my our teammate feel the same way untill SPA proves they can hold another tournament without all these errors. But having 4 field taken Thursdays morning and having 60 teams we had to cut games and hope we could get some more fields to play on. It was going to be a as Mike said more than a Fiasco and it was. the more we tryed to overcome our problems the worst they become. HECK I WAS PRAYING FOR RAIN. I hope all my friends will help SPA overcome this tournament because we need more places to play Thanks for bearing with me. Don Ward Crystal Pharmacy 60's |
| Nov. 1, 2011 jah#4 Men's 70 576 posts | to Mc4softball I know you are upset with SPA but if you feel so stongly about SPA send your SPA card in and I will ask the staff to refund your money and you won't even have to play in the Dalton Tournament. |
| Nov. 1, 2011 Tater50 Men's 60 336 posts | Don Ward: great post!!! I did not attend due to work, but sounds like the glitches occurred & caught everyone off guard; Know that SPA will straighten it out. Tater50 PS I am not on any board of SPA & never have been, but things can happen & I believe that Ridge & the crew will iron out the wrinkles.........give them a chance. |
| Nov. 1, 2011 mc4softball 19 posts | Don, You missed my whole point. VOC means listen to the Voice of your Customer. You don't fix the SPA program by telling an upset player or team that you will give their registration money back. Ridge can begin making amends to the teams at MB by giving more than $25 per game back. Afterwards, you begin fixing the problems experienced in these last two tournaments by initiating Root Cause Analysis. In other words, get to the root cause of the problems and implement change. Get rid of those that are not living out Ridge's dream. They are hurting the program. You will most likely lose a few teams but as the word gets out that the tournaments are run with minimal issues you will find old teams returning and probably new teams coming on board. Lastly, change some of the current policies by listening to teams who have better ideas. If I was so upset with SPA I would have said "I am not playing in another SPA tournament." I apoligize if I may sound abrupt and disgruntled. I'm really not that type of person. I just like to know tournaments are well organized and carried out effectively and efficiently. Teams spend a alot of money traveling to a tournament and during a tournament. It's fun when you come fellowship with other teams and players and get to compete. But it's frustrating when MB issues are encountered. |
| Nov. 1, 2011 GaCMan 86 posts | JMO I think that this forum is here for just this type of talk. If no one says anything when something of this nature happens, then nothing will ever CHANGE!!!!! There will be some teams that cut this tournament for next yr as so it should be. If some of these problems are taken care of and a lot of good will is spread then you will see teams come back. We have no intention yet of abandoning SPA as generally I think they are a great org. But, there are some things that need to be changed for the better. We surely need more than one ORG. so as to keep good venues to play in. 25$ is not much of a refund when you spend the kind of money it takes to attend one of these tournaments. I really feel sorry for the teams that came so far booking rooms for several days then starting and finnishing in 1 day. Don't know about everyone else but getting to the field at 7:15 on Sunday and then playing 5 bracket games in 1 day and then haveing a 8 to 12 hr drive home is unreal. We had players that lived 12 to 13 hrs away, finnishing up at 5 on Sunday afternoon. By the time they got ready to leave this puts you around 5 or 6 on MONDAY morning getting home. Try and go to work then!!!!!!! Try and make that drive by yourself. As for MIKE DESORBO he's a great guy never been nothing but nice. I really think a lot of him,but someone really dropped the ball on this one. On aanother note looking to play in Jacksonville in Feb I hope it's better. |
| Nov. 1, 2011 Omar Khayyam 1357 posts | Really appreciated jah#4's attitude, especially as he is a SPA board member. Wouldn't it be great if all associations had lots of guys with Don's approach and humility? I'm hoping his involvement resolves some of those unacceptable conditions for future tournaments. |
| Nov. 2, 2011 Tater50 Men's 60 336 posts | Ridge: I think that he has had some health issues in the past, but I feel as others; if you give the proper feedback showing your discontent on a subject, then the right results will occur, because products get better as the customer replies on the use. Years ago, the snowbird rule got pulled on our team in the SPA Plano tourney; according to the then rules, it was a FIASCO, but thru proper GENTLEMANLY feedback, I instituted a MASS EEEEE to SPA & got the rule changed for the better, the past 2 problems are best rectified, if MASS EEEE's are sent in a proper fashion showing each player's discontent. I am sure it will be corrected by the next tourney. Tater50 |
| Nov. 2, 2011 Paco13 424 posts | We played 50AAA and even though they took one game away and we finished at Conway...for the most part I believe that everything went well. We were done around 5. My biggest complaint is the fields itself. One of the complexes only has portable and they are to far...for us guys portables perhaps are not as bad but they are awful for the ladies and young kids...the other complex the infield was to shallow and not well kept definetely not in shape to play senior ball with senior bats. Overall we had few great games especially against the fellows from RI (Action Auto Sports) two very exciting games. Great guys especially my latino boys. Just as an advise if we ever play you guys again...do not hit the ball so hard at me I have a family. LOL. Mis dos centavos and REMEMBER IF NOBODY ELSE LOVES YOU, JESUS DOES! |
| Nov. 2, 2011 jah#4 Men's 70 576 posts | Paco13, GMan, Tater50, Mc4, Omar, Thanks for all your comments and I have talked to Ridge and we in SPA Nov17th meeting in Dallas will work on this problem and other things that is happening in our tournaments. when I get back I will post what is going to happen and what is changing to make it better. There is going to be some MAJOR changes I know because Ridge already put them in place and will inform the ex. board and other will be put in in Dallas. IF anyone has any suggestions email me and I will ask the board to address them. I know there will be a better guideline for combo teams in pool and bracket play so another Pensacola will never happen again, and the Fiasco at the beach has some big policy changes for in which we will discuss in Dallas and will make happen to make our program better for the senior players we serve. Paco, Big John Omar and everyone my email address is donward4@ymail.com send me your suggestion I will answer all before or after Nov 17th and will forward all to the other board members as well. As RIDGE has always said this is your association and we are here to serve you. Thanks to all my friends and look forward to hearing from all of you. Don Ward SPA Board member Crystal Pharmacy 60's |
| Nov. 2, 2011 GaCMan 86 posts | Don this is exactly what this forum is for, so players that are not on the board can hopefully have some input into these ORG. THANKS for this last post and hope next yr every tournament goes as planned. I don't think anyone wants any of these fine ORG to go by the wayside. We need them all so as to have different options to chose from. In our part of the country SPA seems to be the one most seen. Again hope to see some postive changes in the comeing yr. Joey Ammons Columbus 55s |
| Nov. 2, 2011 jah#4 Men's 70 576 posts | Thanks Joey I know this board is very good to let everyone know what we like and dislike about tournaments and helping people find places to play and just talking at times. But with this tool the Directors of tournaments need to pay attention to our customers (the Players) and listen and improve our tournaments so each and everyone has a chance to come back and play. There will be some postive changes in 2012 I know for a fact in SPA as SSUSA has already done. There is a great fellowship of seniors we are blessed with I know myself I have builted some longtime friendships that I treasure friends like Bruce, Elmo, big John, dutch, Patty Mac,RT, bogie, Audie, gunny and so many others that I can call if I ever need something. This is what Senior Ball all about friends I Will do my best to not to let my friends down and make SPA a better place to play. Don Ward SPA director Crystal Pharmacy 60's |
| Nov. 2, 2011 mc4softball 19 posts | Don, Thanks for the feedback and this is all we ask that you listen to your customer and go through the process of improving the identified deficiences. Overall SPA has some great tournaments and I am thankful to have the opportunity to participate. For my part, SPA is not being judged for a few bad tournaments. We look forward to the changes that you and SPA will suggest for making things better. You have heard my complaints but if you need them sent to your email address I can certainly do that too. Let me know. Thanks Don |
