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Real name:
Dave Dowell
Location:
Sacramento, CA
Division:
Men's 70
Messages posted by DaveDowell »Message board home »Start a new discussion
| May 12, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Carson City?? Just Curious LC7 ... The Carson City Parks & Rec. Dept. wasn't immune from the personnel effects during the pandemic ... They experienced a declining work force and didn't have the resources to present their historically fine job on the facilities ... We've been told that, despite using only three fields this year, things will be much improved ... We'll know that with the luxury of 20-20 hindsight in early June ... There was no spike in reported injury incidents last year at Carson City ... |
| May 12, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Carson City?? Just Curious LC7 ... The office is working on a Carson City Host Hotel ... Hopefully some good news there shortly ... Also, you're technically correct about the Men's 40's in Carson City ... The last time they "fit" in Carson City was 2017, but having been assigned there in 2015, it wasn't their turn that soon ... The maximum number of teams is generally six per field (24 @ a 4-field complex) when we lay out a tournament ... When the 40's played in Session #3 in 2022, they had grown to 30 teams, too large a group to be absorbed by Centennial Park ... If we go back to scheduling the 40-Masters (Men and Women), the 60's and the 50/55+ Senior Women into Session #3, we will consider assigning at least the 40+ Women to Carson City ... They have never played there ... Good luck! |
| May 12, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Who decides? JohnO28 ... It seems you may not fully understand the degree of latitude we provide to our Independent Tournament Directors and the level of confidence and appreciation we have for them ... They set their own event parameters, implement them, and run their events for your and their mutual benefit ... By design, those events are administered differently from the Sacramento Home Office managed tournaments ... We publish contact information for the IDT's running each event ... We post whatever they want us to do, but if they haven't asked, it's really easy for you to reach out and ask them yourself ... You're highly likely to get accurate information without the risk of us guessing on either what you want to know or what the IDT has in mind ... Your inference that we somehow have failed the membership by not including each and every detail you want to see is an unreasonable expectation on your part ... Good luck ... |
| May 11, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Who decides? JohnO28 ... Independent contract tournament directors are given a complete set annually of criteria and expectations to comply with to host an SSUSA sanctioned event ... The responsibility is fully on them and, not so surprisingly, there is a very broad range of compliance ... That range, on a 1:100 scale varies between about 3 and 97 ... We publish contact information for all TD's on the individual event pages of this website ... If you have specific questions, that would be the place to start ... Good luck ... |
| May 11, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Carson City?? Just Curious 65Phantom22 ... There's a simple answer to your question, but a much more comprehensive set of circumstances is needed to explain why that's the answer ... • YES, we have a self-imposed moral obligation to play a part of the Rock 'n' Reno event in Carson City annually ... __________ Here's the "full story" ... • In 2006, Golden Eagle was under construction and had not yet come online ... We played at Don Mello Park (NW Corner of I-80 and Sparks Blvd., where the Legends Shopping Center is now), Shadow Mountain and Rancho San Rafael in those days ... When the City of Sparks sold Don Mello Park to developers to (partially) pay for Golden Eagle, we were suddenly four fields short for Rock 'n' Reno ... Carson City stepped up in our time of need, and we have never forgotten their generosity ... • The Rock 'n' Reno event was only two sessions then, starting the day after Memorial Day and running through Sunday ... Memorial Day weekend was (and remains) unavailable to us in Carson City because of the long-running Midnight Madness tournament ... • Because nobody in Reno, Sparks or Carson City runs leagues over the Memorial Day weekend, SSUSA has completely unrestricted game slot access at the three northern venues ... That's why the 40-Masters (Men and Women), Men's 60's and the 50's and 55's Senior Women comprise Session #1 ... We can play anythere, anytime and as late as we need in Session #1 ... • For Session #2, we keep the Men's 65+ and more senior groups in Sparks because Centennial Park would't be available to us until Wednesday ... Their 24-hour staffing for Midnight Madness consumes their employee resource budget, and bringing that staff back early in the week creates OT issues for the city ... They also need that time to clean up and recover from the M/M event, and SSUSA manages Session #2 just fine in Sparks ... • For Session #3, Men's 50+ and 55+ divisions, it gets a bit more tricky ... Local league is back in play at Rancho San Rafael on Friday ... The same is true in Sparks, but they moved the Friday night league play from Golden Eagle to Shadow Mountain, clearing the decks for us at Golden Eagle ... This is critical because we can't use Shadow Mountain in Session #3 ... We don't have any divisions in the 50's or 55's that would "fit" on 280' and 285' fence distances at Shadow Mountain ... • With Centennial Park in Carson City and Golden Eagle in Sparks wide open, Rancho San Rafael being local league restricted and Shadow Mountain being technically inadequate, the answer is easy: Golden Eagle and Centennial are the Session #3 venues ... I also rotate the ages/divisions into Centennial Park on a fairness model ... The 50-AAA division has gone the longest without playing in Carson City (2018) ... It's their turn at bat ... Good luck! |
| May 11, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Courtesy Runner stick8 and NY² ... I'm not surprised about that in the slightest ... The circumstance is pretty common, but that's not really what yogi08 was asking ... He appears to be seeking clarity on whether or not there is a Rulebook provision to support the "I'm running for myself!!" side of the baserunner vs. manager debate ... There's not ... The "ego" is the last thing to go.................. |
| May 10, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Courtesy Runner Same answer: This issue is between the base runner (who apparently doesn't want to have someone run for him) and the manager (who apparently has a differing opinion) ... The CR rules are an option for the team batting to take advantage of in certain circumstances ... There is NO rule requiring a CR nor is there any rule permitting a base runner to refuse to vacate the base if a CR is deployed ... Forgetting for the moment the complete absurdity of actually having a base runner and a manager arguing about it during a game, the two managers are the (only) people in charge of substitutions and, by extension, CR's ... If the offense team's manager says "#xx running for #yy", as a Director I would rule that to be what's going to happen ... Please solve your disagreement privately and before it becomes a waste of time in a game ... So, on that basis alone, it IS an umpire's issue because, as the Director, I would instruct him to resume the game without delay ... |
| May 10, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Courtesy Runner That's between your baserunner and your manager ... We "don't have a dog in that fight" ... As a Director, I would not be interested in having an umpire delay a game while that dispute is resolved ... |
| May 8, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Wes Weddle Senior Men's Tournament May 20-21 Steve ... It's an unsubstantiated and false rumor (as are almost all of them) ... The tournament is a "Go" from our viewpoint at the SSUSA Home Office ... Good luck! |
| April 24, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Senior Softball: A hitter's game? I'm reminded (as I sit here at 71 years young) of about 15 years ago when an old guy, I think he was on a 70+ team, was walking off the field with his head down, mumbling as he left the dugout post-game ... They'd just been eliminated and as a Director, I wanted to thank him for being there ... So I asked, "Are you OK? Anything you want to let me know about?" ... I'll never forget his reply: "This game was so much easier when you only had to get three outs an inning. Not like today, where we had to get five or six because we try hockey kick-saves, then chase it down and throw it into the next damn county!" ... I still laugh at that memory, mostly because it's true ... |
| April 17, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Player/team ratings Two things ... [1] He's actually a "6", I got cross-eyed on the chart! ... and [2] it DOES matter what his player history is for the current and two immediately preceding full seasons ... He will carry the "R/I" of the single highest rated team during that time ... Those numbers "roll out" of the equation as each season ends ... |
| April 17, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Player/team ratings Rob64 ... He's a "5" in the rating system ... That's the Rating Index ("R/I") that encompasses: 65-Major+, 60-Major, 55-AAA and 50-AA ... The full chart of R/I values is available from the RULES page of this website ... |
| April 17, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Slap hit The Definition at §1.13 • CHOPPED BALL in the rule book is not the place you should be looking ... I wasn't there to see it, but reading your post seems to infer that the third criteria mentioned in the following rule, based on an umpire's judgment, resulted in the "Out" call ... __________ §7.6 • BATTER IS OUT . E. When the batter bunts or chops the ball, or does not take a full swing when deliberately hitting a pitched ball. __________ |
| April 14, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Southwest Scores Every score from every seeding and bracket game was posted online daily, many in "real time", for the entire 298-game first session schedule. The time lag between the last game to go final yesterday (65-AAA "If" game at Sunset Park) and the results being posted here was approximately a minute and a half. Men's 70-AAA was won by Warriors 70's (16-11 over D&K Softball in the "If" game) and 75-Silver was won by Al's Sports Shop (23-11 over 75 Scrap Iron Diamonds.) |
| April 9, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Carson City Same answer ... Check back here sometime around ± May 5th ... "..Sparks for a change??.." ... The 60-AAA have played at Centennial Park in Carson City exactly three (3) times in the past 10 years (2013, 2017 and 2022) ... The other seven years they played at Golden Eagle in Sparks ... |
| April 7, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Carson City Mike ... It will be some combination of the Men's 50's and/or 55's ... That determination will be made sometime closer to, or at, the entry deadline date of May 5th ... |
| April 6, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: How would you call this one? ...I didn't know I was supposed to be shooting at you, Ricky! |
| April 4, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: nicest softball complexes Dan ... I just confirmed directy with BLD-Ls Vegas that the daily admission fee is $8 ... And, NO, SB associations, including SSUSA, have no influence on the setting of that fee ... And neither does the local venue ... BLD Corporate sets the rate ... |
| April 2, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: 70 and over The 75+ division may draw players from east or west of the Mississippi River (only) depending on the manager's state of residence in relation to the river. |
| April 2, 2023 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: New rules and changes ...and it took so long, I almost ran out of crayons! ... Ha! |
