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| Jan. 16, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Bats Discussion: Compression Test Vito B. ... JohnO28 is correct: 140 and above is passing for the SSUSA testing threshold ... 1,500 is irrelevant for us, but may mean something in another association ... Good luck ... |
| Jan. 16, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: balls and strikes The 40+ Masters Men and Women went to the 1-1 count for the 2017 Season ... I "think" the 50's thru 60's followed a year or two later and then everyone played 1-1 starting with the 2021 Season ... |
| Jan. 16, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: TOC Diamondplex field Thanks, Vince ... [1] We now have two acceptable Diamondplex addresses for your GPS machine ... Either will get you close enough to see the light standards ... If you miss them, I guess we'll just have to make you an umpire! ... [2] The sun rising behind the pitcher in morning games is not an issue for us because that's not a "pitcher protection" issue ... We don't have any interest in protecting batting averages ... We play an outdoor game, and the sun is a fairly common outdoor element ... Good luck! |
| Jan. 15, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: OK Boys, WHAT WOULD YOU DO 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! |
| Jan. 15, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Bats Discussion: Rolled bats JohnO28 ... [1] As a Director, I'm not going to ask anyone to surrender a bat for testing if there's no SSUSA-owned tester on site ... That would probably be a waste of your time and mine ... I'm also not going to seek to borrow a tester from a third party like a player or manager ... I would expect other Directors to take that same approach ... [2] Which makes your second question a bit of a hypothetical, but here's my personal non-binding opinion ... I have suggested that SSUSA try to develop some procedure that would allow pre-testing that doesn't require significant additional personnel on site nor unreasonably delay play ... I don't know what that "balance is" ... It seems logical to approach it like we do pre-event roster composition ... Just like you have to have everyone on your roster before the 1st pitch of your team's first game, I think I would prefer any voluntary bat testing occur on that same timeline ... This is, obviously, an evolutionary process, so your suggestions are welcome ... Thanks! |
| Jan. 15, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Nearest major airport Smiles123 ... If cost isn't a factor OR if you are flying your own aircraft, St. George has a nice regional airport ... I've been the T.D. there multiple times and I fly into Las Vegas, get a rental car and am in St. George in about 2½ hours ... If I hotel in Mesquite, that reduces the drive by about 45 minutes ... If the criteria is "major" airport, then it's Las Vegas ... |
| Jan. 12, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Doc Metcalf schedule 2025 Raul ... I don't write that schedule, and the independent director handles all aspects of his events. I'm also aware he intentionally avoids this message board ... So that brings you back to continuing to reach out to him through the information on the tournament page ... Good luck! |
| Jan. 10, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Teams looking for players Discussion: TOC Plant city He is if he's playing in the imitation T.O.C. ... SSUSA runs only in Winterhaven, Auburndale and Lakeland ... |
| Jan. 10, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Batting or fielding team leaves their gate open by accident NancyAllen ... Can you and Butch Drake handle this one? [grins] |
| Jan. 9, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: General and miscellaneous Discussion: Complex review The facility was SSUSA's 2024 Softball Complex of the Year award winner at last month's National Convention Awards Banquet ... In the most recent Senior Softball Magazine, at page 8, there is a nice picture and information on why Los Altos and Albuquerque were honored ... If you are an SSUSA member with a valid email address, you would have received that magazine in the past week or so, but that's unclear due to your "anonymous poster" status here ... Only the most unreasonable of players would be disappointed playing there ... |
| Jan. 4, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: TOC: target date for field assignments? Well, I'm reasonably confident in my skill set on these things, but you made it difficult by being an anonymous poster and not disclosing your age group, division or team name! ... [grins] |
| Jan. 4, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: TOC field location TOC entries closed at 4:00 PM on Friday (01/03/25) ... TENTATIVE field assignments should be released Monday or Tuesday ... We're waiting on clarification from Polk County on availability of Loyce Harpe Park ... It's being used for Hurricane debris handling and there is not much the county can do as FEMA controls the park until they are completely finished ... It is closed M-F 8-5 ... DRAFT games schedules and brackets are somewhat dependent on the resolution of the access issue mentioned above ... I promise you'll have plenty of time to get to your park on Friday! ... |
| Jan. 4, 2025 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: TOC: target date for field assignments? T.O.C. entries closed at 4:00 PM on Friday (01/03/25) ... TENTATIVE field assignments should be released Monday or Tuesday ... We're waiting on clarification from Polk County on availability of Loyce Harpe Park ... It's being used for Hurricane debris handling and there is not much the county can do as FEMA controls the park until they are completely finished ... It is closed M-F 8-5 ... DRAFT games schedules and brackets are somewhat dependent on the resolution of the access issue mentioned above ... I promise you'll have plenty of time to get to your park on Friday! ... |
| Dec. 25, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Rules of the game Discussion: Change in Player Eligibility for 75+ and 80+ Teams OK, fellas, let's get caught up a little bit here ... The initial post in this thread by Rich Root (Deceased) is very OLD news about the actions of the SSUSA National Rules Committee meetings from early December 2022, over TWO YEARS ago ... A YEAR LATER, in December 2023, the 2022 scheduled phase-out was reversed by the Committee, preserving the eligibility for 75+ age division teams to add up to five (5) 74-year-old players who are otherwise eligible as to residency and player experience rating history for the intended target team ... NO CHANGE was ever actually implemented, and is not scheduled now ... You still have your 74's ... Good luck this Season ... |
| Dec. 20, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Tournaments Discussion: Bullhead Tourney Date Change from prev years Advil ... Ask around a bit and you may develop a better understanding of who made the date change and what some of the other factors were (like the T.O.C. and the facility availability in Bullhead City) ... It's a bit hasty and incorrectly presumptive that it was all the doing of SSUSA ... And you also may want to look at the scheduled actual dates and discover that the tournament will NOT be playing on Super Bowl Sunday ... We'll be done on Saturday ... Good luck (if you decide to play after all) ... Thanks! |
| Dec. 20, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Website comments Discussion: Selective classifications? TAKO88 ... Please carefully re-read the Official Minutes (at the bottom of page 2) from this year's rules sessions ... This item initially passed the National Rules Committee, but was re-opened by a Motion for Reconsideration the next morning ... It was then Tabled pending further study and analysis by the Office Staff ... In effect, nothing happened and it may be reconsidered depending on the results of the Staff report ... All of the votes were unanimous, at 10-0-0 ... __________ §13.1.(3) A. 2. • TEAM REGIONS OF SSWC – Beginning with the 2026 Season, for Men’s 40+ through 60+ teams rated AA and AAA, the two (2) currently allowed “out of region” players are phased out. All players must be from the home state and bordering state(s) or must have a current year valid snowbird card. • PASSED: 10-0-0 MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION: • PASSED: 10-0-0 MOTION TO TABLE PENDING SSUSA STAFF REVIEW AND REPORT: • PASSED: 10-0-0 |
| Dec. 14, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Website comments Discussion: Definition Please Consistently negative, erroneous and recklessly offensive guest commentary sure gets tedious quickly ... We've had enough of that, so here's my final contribution to this thread: • SSUSA WILL NOT BE ALLOWING ALTERED EQUIPMENT, INCLUDING "HEATED BATS" IN GAMES • SSUSA WILL NOT BE REDEFINING WHAT CONSTITUTES ALTERED EQUIPMENT • THE NEXT SCHEDULED NATIONAL RULES COMMITTEE SESSIONS ARE IN NOVEMBER |
| Dec. 14, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Website comments Discussion: Definition Please Grandpa ... In my sole view, the most compelling reason to wait rather than trying to force an Emergency Meeting is that you are nowhere near having the number of votes you would need for passage of a change, ANY change, to the definition of what constitutes an altered bat ... Right now, you mayhave, at most, exactly one vote, INCLUDING mine! ... The membership mostly applauded our efforts last season to aggressively go after "altered bats", and we are not going to abandon that campaign ... So, it would be a monumental accomplishment to somehow convince a majority of that governing body that, "Well, we've now decided that some altered bats are OK to use, if you're at least __ years young AND if the temperature is less than __° at game time." ... Right now, the votes simply aren't there, and quite possibly might never be there ... P.S. - We heard about the new "Batter's Box" rule all last Season, but everyone seems to have survived that noise machine relatively unscathed ... |
| Dec. 14, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Website comments Discussion: Definition Please DBLB32 ... At the risk of further promoting cyclical redundancy on this topic: I was the only member of the National Rules Committee who favored exempting completely passive bat warmers from the current rule ... For the record, I was the one who got clobbered 1-9 in the vote on the issue! ... I fully respect every decision the Committee makes, especially the ones where I voted with the minority because it makes me examine the other side of the same coin ... The problem with my "position" was that I was proposing we carve out an "exception" to the firm rule prohibiting the use of altered bats ... I was wrong for proposing it, and the majority was correct not to do so ... Grandpa ... We won't close/delete this thread so long as everyone behaves with the same decorum in "our house" they would demand in their own homes ... There's no hurry in any event ... The National Rules Committee is about 11½ months from reconvening for the 2025 sessions ... |
| Dec. 14, 2024 DaveDowell | Topic: Website comments Discussion: Definition Please Other Dave ... The operative rule, for BOTH softballs and bats, is that SSUSA wants them to be used in a "temperature neutral environment" ... That means no softball "chilling" and no bat "heating" from whatever the natural outside environmental conditions are at game time at the venue ... Generally, nobody is going to heat a softball, and that's why most good directors do not store/keep softballs in direct sunlight or the trunk of a vehicle parked in the sun ... Players think "chicks dig the long ball!" ... Players also generally won't admit it, but they will assume some level of increased risk of bat breakage before they voluntarily hit a warmer, and therefore softer, softball that won't carry as far as a cooler ball ... So, if the softer ball is out of the equation, that leaves only the bat side of the bat/ball combination formula in play ... |
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