Feb. 4, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: e-mail update on bat testing have you registered for an SSUSA card? I believe the emails go out to registered players of SSUSA not the website. |
Feb. 4, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Teams looking for players Discussion: 50 AA needing OF's Good guy here and runs a fair team with good guys. |
Jan. 28, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: softball comparison GMCinCOS, The Super Duper Extreme balls are definitely a better ball than the Gold Dot. When it's cool they are a great ball and very durable. They do tend to get a big soft with it's high humidity IMO, but it's definitely better in performance and durability over the Baden Fires. |
Jan. 27, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Foul tip - catch or not Donna McGuire, USA took out the phrase "that it must go above a catchers head to be considered a foul ball". The new terminology that was changed in like 2014(or so) states that as long as there is a discernable change of direction it's considered a foul ball and a legal catch for an out. It's really up to the umpire in what his opinion of "discernable" change of direction actually is. Seeing at most umpires stand between the batter and catcher it's hard to determine if it changes direction or not. |
Jan. 27, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: bat testers. s3fernandez, I think there might be a word or something missing. SSUSA does NOT test prior to tourneys, I believe you were agreeing with me but theres a word or two missing.. |
Jan. 24, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: softball comparison Dave, I agree with you on the Tattoo and Trump balls but you will be hard pressed to find many people that don't work for SSUSA that will agree with the Baden being at the top of the list. They aren't the worst but the are middle to top third at best for performance with the absolute worst covers. The Short Porch Mortar and Onyx Energy+ are both vastly better in performance and covers than the Baden Fire ball. I get why you say they're good but the people who actually play this game don't agree at all. |
Jan. 24, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: TOC Qualification According to the website they've been 60AA since Nov 2023.... Even if they were a new 60s team they wouldn't start at AA they would start as AAA. So maybe they had both a 50 and 60's team and you just weren't aware. |
Jan. 24, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: bat testers. Curty, That makes more sense about the "team" being SSUSA people but that would then require them to spend more money like I said before which ultimately will come out of our pockets like everything else. Why would you not want the bat back, it's yours you paid for it. Not SSUSA it's not their property. If the pretest bats before hand and they fail I would be willing to let them mark it in a way they see fit that doesn't harm the integrity of the bat saying it can't be used in SSUSA. To your point, Off the top of my head there is ISSA, NSA, PSA, One Nation, SPA, USSSA, TPSSA that all have Senior divisions that don't have bat testing so something testing 135 or whatever number can still be used in those associations because it's not cheating it's legal by their rules. You can also use bats that have failed compression as your BP bats as well until they break if the only association you play is SSUSA.. Just because a bat fails compression doesn't mean it doesn't have uses. |
Jan. 23, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: bat testers. Curty, Why would a "team" do the testing. It would 100% fall on SSUSA to pay someone to do their testing. First off you can't expect a team to get there hours early to test bats for other teams. Then you have the trust factor could come into play. 90% of the reason they are testing is to get cheaters out of the game so how would you ensure that the selected team would be honorable enough to fairly and accurately test bats. We've already seen examples of certain members of this forum come out and admit that if their friends and teammates were swinging shaved bats they wouldn't say a word about it and still play with them. I still stand by my statement in another post about this. IF this is truly about safety and we as players could be asked to surrender our bats for further testing if they fail testing then SSUSA needs to test every SSUSA stamped bat players bring into the complex just like every other association does that tests bats. If you bat fails compression there is no penalty but it's marked permanently with a "Not Legal for SSUSA Play" and given back after the tourney is over. All bats that pass will be stickered for each tourney or once a month. Its very easy to have a battery engraver onside and you mark the bat. There would be no doubt every bat being used is legal because it would have a sticker on it. Make them the type of stickers that if you peel them off the sticker is ruined so it's not transferrable to another bat or person. Takes under a minute to test a bat. I don't want to hear about the cost of testers or paying a person to test bats for the day. SSUSA expects us as players to find a way to gain access to a tester to make sure our bats are legal and it's far harder for an individual person to purchase a bat tester than an association as large as SSUSA. If a bat has a chance to be surrendered because of failing compression then SSUSA needs to have a way for players to test their bats so they know they are swinging legal bats especially considering how much money we have to pay to play here than any other association. |
Jan. 22, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Bats and shaving LB16, I'm not wrong, your assuming I meant the manufacturers couldn't tell. I was referring to visually inspecting it in person |
Jan. 22, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Bats and shaving the average person who buy a roller will leave marks on it. The companies that do it for a living don't leave any discernable marks. They know how to do it right so it won't show. |
Jan. 22, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Bats and shaving Except you're missing the big picture. The bat manufacturers don't care about associations rules. They are in this to make money and shaved bats break faster leading to more bat sales. Kind of like big pharm makes way more money treating illnesses than curing them. |
Jan. 21, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: TOC Florida WX 9 ball, Going to be lots of broken ones I would assume. I saw 5 broken bats aside from mine that broke last year in Dayton OH for a first week of April tourney and the temps were pretty similar and that was a rather small tourney with like 25 teams. I'm pretty sure 2 teams didn't show because of the rain/cold temps forecasted. |
Jan. 20, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Rolled bats Masons, I don't think they are just trying to make examples of people. If they were they would have released the names of all the players who were banned/suspended already. They also wouldn't have allowed it to take 3 full months from the time they took a very well known Senior players bats for failing in compression in Vegas to come back with the results |
Jan. 20, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Rolled bats Garyheifner, I am 100% not opposed to bats being tested. Every player that plays this game wants to go home safe and healthy from every tourney to family, friends and even some to work. While the testing process isn't even a year old yet and from the sounds of it is a work in progress but I also 100% think that if SSUSA is going to potentially force players to either surrender their bats for testing or be banned that they have to allow bats to be tested prior to use with no repercussions. This is where the issue it going to happen. SSUSA on this or another post made it quite clear that testing will only be available if they can do it where it's not going to cost them more money. I believe the term they used was "they have to find a way for another person not having to be at the field to test" which in Engish means we don't have to pay anyone else to check bats. But they expect players to know what their bats test at which requires players to either purchase a tester or find someone who does. Not trying to by cynical here but it's another case of SSUSA making rules that cost the players more money and them nothing. I applaud them for trying to get cheaters out of the game but the way they have it set up costs the non cheating players more money each year, if SSUSA wants to make rules about testing and they should have testers at every facility and test and sticker bats prior to someone getting hurt not after someone gets hurt. With the amount of money each team pays just to be a part of this association along with individual players fees is ridiculous compared to what every other association charges. $50 a team plus what $35 per person on the team. That is literally half a million dollars in registration fees alone then the tourney fees that are higher than every single other association out there per tournament and give out less than any of them as well. I'm all for getting cheaters out but strongly disagree with the way SSUSA is doing it. |
Jan. 20, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Rolled bats Masaons Grandpa, You're spot on with this. I own my own tester and have tested bats that don't have a single crack but test under 130. People make comments and posts without any knowledge of what they're talking about. If you could show pics on here I would show you a few pics of a bat that doesn't have a single crack and isn't terribly worn that still smashed the ball but tests under 100. Not all things are always as they seem but you're exactly right composite bats generally break down internally first before you see a crack on the outside(seams are a different story) by time you see an actual crack on the outside it's already too late. |
Jan. 17, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Rolled bats Not Dave, I agree with a lot of what you said. I think overall what SSUSA is trying to do by getting the cheaters out of the game is a great thing. We've all been to tourneys and seen guys swinging bats that make people question if their legit or not. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a very well broken in bat and a shaved bat because bats that are very close to breaking can test lower than shaved bats and produce better results. I am 100% for the testing of bats but even though it's new to them it's all over the place on protocols. From the very get go of the announcement of the testing that was going to be done it was very vague aside from the testing number being 140 and the penalties for swinging a bat that failed compression. I asked dozens of times on here if they are going to make us surrender OUR property or be banned for life that they need to give us detailed steps in the process and it was ignored over and over again until finally we got a slightly less vague description of what would happen. I don't believe they ever answered the question that if they take an OG Dudley or similar bat in price and cut it open only to find out it wasn't altered are they going to replace the bat for market value because offering anything NIW wrapper isn't comparable to an OG Dudley. In Vegas our bats were all "randomly" selected to be tested on Friday and every single bat passed because we made sure ahead of time that all of our bats were good. We were then told by that director that if we were to qet asked to test again at a different park that we should tell them that our bats were tested on Friday and to call the director because he documented names and bats each player had and what their testing numbers were at. He said it would allow them to test more teams bats and not waste time testing the same team over and over. I told her that and she said I could care less what he told you we are testing your bats. So here we are in between back to back games we had to test bats which meant taking every bag out of the dugout going up to the table and then testing every bat in each persons bag. We had guys trying to use the washroom between games and get something to eat and she wasn't allowing any of that and said we have a time schedule to keep we don't have time for you to be doing that. Which is utter BS. In the 5 minutes we would normally get between games to use the washroom and get food and sit down we spend standing in line getting bats tested in the sun. It's ridiculous. Several of the guys even wrote their test numbers on the bats and their machine was within a few pounds of it. So she knew our bats were legit. When SSUSA implemented these rules and punishments it became very unfair to guys who don't have the extra cash to buy a tester and don't know anyone with a tester who have well used bats. If they are going to implement rules like this that can alter an persons entire playing ability they need to have testers at every field and test every bats BEFORE the tourney starts. But that would actually mean some directors would have to do more. Quite honestly I think we played 11 or 12 tourneys last year and I can tell you truthfully we actually had to check in with either players card of ID exactly 3 times all year. The rest of the year me as the manager was only required to turn in a signed roster for that weekend. Make sure there is a tester at every facility and when each player checks in with ID of some sort test their bat(s) and give them official that is good for a month or so and make sure it's a sticker that if you peel if off it's ruined. That will ensure every player is swinging a good bat, then if someone walks up to the plate without a stickered bat then that bat is either surrendered for testing or the ban gets handed out... If this is truly about safety then nip it in the bud before someone gets hurt not after. With all of the damn money we pay to play in these tourneys and get less and less each year and continue to be the only association besides One Nation ($10) for a players card they can damn well afford to pay to have a tester at every facility and someone to do the testing. As far as bat warmers I fully agree, they don't have that big of an effect on compression of the bat and it's honestly more about the frozen ball than the bat but when you're no longer allowed to use less hot bats like ASA/USA and USSSA bats during cold weather and guys start breaking more and more of the most fragile bats on the market and the only ones wihtout warranties one of 2 things will happen. Guys will stop playing SSUSA in the colder months and look for alternatives to play which are more and more abundent each year or just wait until it's warm enough. Either will result in less money made my SSUSA. |
Jan. 15, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: OK Boys, WHAT WOULD YOU DO Jan. 15 DaveDowell Men's 70 4477 posts And people actually seem surprised that we pay exactly ZERO attention to anything posted by the anonymous keyboard courage crew here ... This thread is the poster-child for that rather sound theory ... Oh, and BTW, it's RATTED out, not RATED ... Hilarious! LMAO, might be the funniest thing you've ever said.. Ironic that he made such a big deal out of capitalizing RATED each time and had no clue he was spelling it wrong... SMFH.. |
Jan. 15, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Bats Discussion: Rolled bats Are directors allowed to just ask someone to surrender their bat for testing if they don't have a tester on hand to test the bats? So depending on your answer will lead to my next question which is in order to test someones bat that would mean the director or someone representing SSUSA on site will have a tester, will that tester be available for players to have their bats checked to ensure they pass before they are used? |
Jan. 15, 2025 JohnO28 | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Clarification for pop-up caught by catcher rule Curious as to why when pretty much every association has changed the rule to include foul tips for out would SSUSA change this rule? |