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| June 2, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Senior Bats Mck71, Everyone is going to have a different story about dealings with people. My first dealings were with the same White Onyx you had. Mine cracked earlier than I thought it should and spoke with Los the owner and he replaced it. I've bought dozens of bats from Onyx since and have had nothing but great customer service from them. I had 1 other issue with a bat since then and they dealt with it quickly and I couldn't have asked for anything more. Unlike another company my team entered a "sponsorship" with this year. After having bought MULTIPLE bats from him and letting people swing my bats at tourneys to see how they performed we did a partial sponsorship with them. Bought 12 bats in all and so far 5 have shark toothed and 2 fail compression. Will never deal with them again. |
| June 2, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Batter in Batters Box BJ, Exactly, the batters swing turned him to face 3b and he looked up to see the ball and saw it was foul and stood there. The catcher was looking up and ran right into the batter and the ball fell to the ground. The ump called interference on the batter and said he has to move out of the way to allow the catcher to catch the ball. Every umpire on the premises agreed that the batter has the right to occupy the batters box as long as he doesn't intentionally move in front of the catcher which he clearly didn't because he didn't move in any direction. |
| May 31, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Batter in Batters Box RH Batter pops up 5' up the 3rd base line in foul territory. Batter never leaves batters box and has his back to the catcher who runs into him trying to get the ball. Is that batter interference or no? |
| May 27, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Senior Bats Foothills, Just curious why haven't you tried Onyx? They make great bats and have great customer service. I agree with everything else you said though, well written.. |
| May 23, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: 2025 Rule book got mine months ago |
| May 22, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: 50AAA Team out of IL Looking for OF Have multiple injuries from last weekend and looking to add an OF for Smoky Mountain Classic next weekend. |
| May 19, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Equalizers HSquared, Exactly the point I was trying to get across. Like you said there are no weak spots in the lineup of Major+ and very few if any on Major teams. AAA teams generally have multiple weak spots or are just inconsistent which is why they are AAA. Major+ should never play AAA... |
| May 19, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Equalizers Papa T, We have to do that all the time as well but when seeding is based on records and then first tie breaker is runs given up skews both of those when you're playing teams you wouldn't be facing in bracket play. I can see if you only have like 4 or 5 teams in a division to mix them up a bit but now when you have 12 teams in the bracket |
| May 19, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Equalizers Dave, I see what you meant now. As I said, I'm not sure how to make that rule change and doing this more as a discussion so that maybe something can be suggested and come up with a better idea to submit. I currently don't know what that is but I personally don't think a M+ should ever play a AAA regardless of age difference and the players on the 60M+ were in agreement that I spoke to. |
| May 19, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Equalizers Dave, Not sure what the "See if you can count to seven" comment is about but I don't really know how to improve it. Hence the discussion here because tourney after tourney guys are talking about the same things one of the big ones we hear every weekend is the "Equalizer" discussions. I have yet to meet or discuss with a single player at a tourney that feels a 60M+ is equivalent to a 50AAA team. Which really isn't even an equalizer discussion because there were no equalizers given. But it's always the same conversation, what is truly the difference between AAA, Major and Major+ is the hitting. With today bats and balls it's not even about the HR's it's about the ability to consistently hit up and down the lineup for average. Most guys at the Senior level in 50,55 and even 60 can still hit HRs with the equipment we have, it's the OBP is what really separates the AAA, Major and Major+ teams not the HRs. Major and Major+ team all have overall better hitting teams than AAA, the inconsistent hitting of AAA is what prevents most of them from moving up to Major. There are of course other factors but what I see tourney after tourney is defense plays a little role it in, so does consistent HR hitting ability but the biggest advantage those teams have over AAA is their ability to up and down the lineup consistently place the ball and get on base. There should never be a circumstance where a 60m+ team plays a 50AAA team even up. I get the rules about it's 2 age groups so it should be even up but when you have that team running a 5 man all weekend and beating up on every 50AAA team they played is just wrong. The only team they lost to was the team that was registered as a 50M team that somehow right before the schedule was made was reclassified as a 50AAA team by someone even though almost every player on that team played on a 50M team last year. There was even some guy running around bragging about how the was going to love playing 50AAA after being on a 50M+ sponsored Suncoast team last year. At the very least that 60M+ should have been playing 50M teams and using equalizers not playing 50AAA teams.. |
| May 18, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Equalizers Does anyone actually agree with the equalizer rules being truly equal? Been playing this game a long time now and still don't believe that a 55M team is equal to a 50AAA team or like we saw this weekend a 60M+ isn't equal to a 50AAA team. |
| April 29, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Carson City LC7, SSUSA especially Dave doesn't think any of that matters. He has said time and time again that we don't need to know that far in advance, be prepared to play at 8 00 AM at the furthest possible venue from where you might rent. It is their opinion as has been stated when multiple venues are used they are all within driving distance of each other so it doesn't matter where you rent. Find somewhere in between is the rule of thumb when it pertains to SSUSA. You're beating a dead horse as Dave would say. |
| April 28, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Foul tip - catch or not Umpires need better teaching. This happened in a winners bracket game this past weekend. The team this happened to ended up 2-1 count tip right back into the catchers chest and he cupped it against his chest with the glove and the ump called him out for the 3rd out. Bases were loaded down 1 run in the bottom of the open inning and the game ended like that. Neither captain nor the umpire knew the correct call and the game ended that way. I was right behind the fence when it happened and told the ump it was the wrong call that this discussion just took place on this page and he was mistaken.. I was greeted with I'm a trained ump in SSUSA, USSSA and ASA/USA and I know the rules. I asked him to confer with the director and was told he wouldn't.. The same ump allowed the game winning run to run through the batters box and step partially on the pitching matt to end the game while staring down and watching him do it. He said running through the box is allowed and that's not a rule, to which other other manager told him was a rule and he said well I didn't see him do it so it's not a valid argument. The manager said well what were you staring at you were standing on the 1B side of the plate staring down at it and as soon as he touched the matt you called ball game? He had no answer and walked away from him. There was another play where the ball was popped up behind the 1B and the batter fell coming out of the box and was a slow runner to begin with. The ball landed about 15' out in the grass and the 2B had time to get to the ball and throw it to the 1B. The throw was rushed and thrown low and between the 1B bag and the dugout. The 1B scrambled to get the ball and fell down to his knees to pick it up. From foul territory he picked up the ball and tagged the orange base then the white base because he wasn't sure of the rule about touching the base. The batter then ran through the base and touched the orange base. The ump called the batter safe because he said the 1B touched the orange bag prior to touching the white bag. There was also a big difference of opinion on what the ruling was pertaining to being in front of the plate when making contact with the ball. It was pretty much split down the middle on whether or not umps believed there was a rule about both feet being in front of the plate during contact. Our first game was our opponents second game and he asked the question at the coin flip meeting. He told the ump the last ump had called several batters out for being in front of the plate with both feet and wanted to know ahead of time if they were going to enforce that rule or not. The umps answer was seeing that that isn't a SSUSA rule he would not be calling batters out. 2 other umps said they would enforce the rules and the other I asked after that game said he wouldn't be enforcing it because A) it wasn't a rule and B) because there is no way for an ump to watch a batter feet at contact. I really wish umpires would realize we pay a whole lot of money to play in these tourneys and we know things like pitch heights are subjective and up to umpires discreption but knowing the rules isn't optional. Either know the rules of the association your umping or don't do it, youre getting paid for this. |
| April 20, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Infield fly rule Donna, Well you can do as you please but that is not how the rule is written nor intended to be enforced.. Nowhere at any level of baseball or softball does the rule say or even imply that the fielder has to make an attempt to catch the ball. Making calls late is what causes injuries and confusion. Call the rules the way they were written and stop overstepping your role. |
| April 18, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Infield fly rule B.J. Doesn't really matter one way or another if you agree with me or not. Those are the written rules and need to be followed by the umpires on the fields. Regardless of whether or not you think they're right. |
| April 18, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Need help on a ruling for when a bases loaded walk occurs Tim, As someone who's been an ump for over 30 years I agree that umps that take pride in their work, make the right calls, don't try to make the game about them, and know not only the scenario prior to every pitch but also ones who know the actual rules. I'm glad that you witnessed all of that last weekend but that doesn't make my statement any less true. I'm sure you've been around the senior game longer than I have but I can assure you that umpires more often than not try to speed the game up exactly how I said. Hell we've had guys that were injured and had no subs but had to stand in the box and occasionally taken walks and the umps have said you don't have to walk all the way down there just tell me the number pinch running. Not all umps follow all the rules as is extremely evident by a few of the people commenting on this and other posts claiming to be umps. He'll some umps tell you in SSUSA a HR is hit and sit while some make everyone advance a base and that is a fact. |
| April 17, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Need help on a ruling for when a bases loaded walk occurs Dave, I would assume the runner on 1B didn't advance because most of the time in situations like that the umps tell you that you don't have to advance to save time. Rarely do we get to play a full 7 innings so in order to save time when things like this occur and there is zero chance of an out taking place we are just told we don't have to advance. I get it rules are rules but the runner physically walking to the next base or even running should have no bearing on the outcome. |
| April 17, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Ranking and Rosters Dave, I can see how it would be harder to keep track of player ratings themselves but why can't rosters be posted? Since you brought up Medical exemptions I have an honest question for you. 2 years ago Crawford Contracting was 50 Major and following Vegas were bumped to Major+. Upon getting bumped the team disbanded so shouldn't every player should have carried a Major+ ranking for 2 years according to what you posted in here? Every member of that team was granted a medical appeal and spent all last year playing either 50AAA or 55AAA? How does that happen? I can see a player or two getting exemptions but every single player is crazy. |
| April 16, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Ranking and Rosters One Nation is another that lists player rankings as well as team roster. ISSA publishes team rosters and I believe NSA does as well. |
| April 16, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Infield fly rule BJ, You're still missing the point. regardless of whether or not a player attempts to catch it or just lets it land it's still an IF and batter is out if there are men on 1st and 2B with fewer than 2 outs a player "CAN" make a play with "Ordinary Effort" doesn't mean the player has to attempt it. It should be called every time that scenario presents itself because that is what the rule states. If the ball is popped up and those circumstances are present you know damn well every player in the field will be calling IF along with you because it's the right call as well as the base runner so he doesn't get doubled up. The call is based on the base circumstances, ball flight and number of outs not what an umpire thinks of the players abilities. |
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