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Online now: 8 members: Bob Downs, CHI-TOWN BALLERS, HomeWrecker, John Johnson, KentMace, Pascal, TABLE SETTER 11, rogt; 124 anonymousDiscussion: Brickyard results
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| May 1, 2016 TimMcElroy 942 posts | Brickyard results The 2016 edition of the Brickyard Classic is officially in the books. What a week! We had more than our share of rain at this tournament but were able to play 90% of the scheduled games. A huge thank you goes out to the park staff for getting the fields into playing shape, to the umpires who sat through a 6+ hour rain delay and to all teams for being patient while we sorted things out. Your compliments were greatly appreciated during the weekend but not necessary. You are the customer, and you deserve the service that we provided. THANK YOU- Tim Results from the 60 and 65-70 divisions have already been posted to the website by Dave Dowell. A summarized version of the weekend results are here for your enjoyment. 50/55 Major Plus 1) DLB 2) 50 Caliber / Dudley 3) Dave Jackson Nissan 50 Major 1) AB Contracting / Nobles 2) Gem City 3) Windy City Thunder 50 AAA 1) Steel City A's 2) Senior Dogs 3) O-50 50 AA 1) Jackson Merchants 2) All-In Softball 55 Major 1) MI Smash 2) J&J Sports 3) CPOA / N. Ohio Printing 55 Silver 1) Old Stars 2) Dayton Legends 3) Illinois Chiefs |
| May 1, 2016 17Black Men's 60 414 posts | Kudos to Tim and Nancy for your due diligence under "horrific" conditions (Both Days) Saturday Sunday. I know & understand you need to do, what you needed to do. I am going to wait a few days to post more complete comments, as "horrific" conditions is a key word. We lost two guys today who will need season ending surgeries due to field conditions. One took an ambulance ride and spent the afternoon in the ER, and over 7+ hours drive home in my car on his back. A 3rd guy was hurt due to slipping, although his injury occurred two weeks ago and is now hurt worse. He's likely done for quite some time too. The ambulance crew, who sloshed through the outfield with a stretcher & paramedics, asked "why are you playing in this"????? Keep in mind today was the "sunny day" I'm leaving it at that for now. Congrats to all teams/all divisions, who participated, and made it through, hopefully safely?????? |
| May 1, 2016 brian warner Men's 55 54 posts | Are you able to tell us what his happened to his knee? I played for JJ's in the mud mess. And you are being very PC with your statement about conditions. We also drove 7-8 hours to play, but that tournament should not have been played. Every local I spoke with said they had never seen this complex allow games to be played in such "horrific" conditions. Playing ball in infields with 2-3 inches of mud and 3-4 inches of water thru-out the outfields. Says one thing they care more about our money then the players. We won't be back. |
| May 2, 2016 17Black Men's 60 414 posts | I'm not a doc, so explaining the best I can. Muscles that attach lower leg to upper leg around the knee ripped. & broken bone in upper leg above knee. He is going to go through more extensive testing at his doc in Ohio today, they think tendons damaged too, not sure what extent? He needs to get MRI for full evaluation. I "think" they only did xrays and doctors review in Indianapolis. He is in good spirits. THANK YOU for asking, and was nice playing against you guys. |
| May 2, 2016 joel 1975 131 posts | who won in the 60's aaa , major & major plus |
| May 2, 2016 SSUSA Staff 3483 posts | joel 1975 ... Have you checked the event Tournament Page of this web site? ... When you do, please click on the 60's link and you should find the information you asked about ... It's been there since Friday evening ... |
| May 2, 2016 musial88 1 posts | 17Black - I hope your players recovery goes well. There was no one at this tournament (except the directors) who thought this tournament should be played, from the players to the umpires to the grounds crew who vainly but unsuccessfully tried to make the fields playable. I'm surprised there were not more injuries. Does the SSUSA do any kind of review of these tournaments and if any type of proper procedure was followed? |
| May 2, 2016 slippinjimmy 1 posts | The field conditions dictated that this tournament should not have been played. While the directors and staff put in a lot of work to make the games happen, what we ended up with was a disaster. Infields were a muddy, sloppy mess and outfields were filled with standing water. I saw a fairly well hit ground ball to third hit the huge puddle of water in front of the third baseman and stop. I saw an outfielder take two steps in to catch an easy fly ball and when he stopped, both feet went into the air and he splashed down on his back. I saw another outfielder splayed out in the muck after chasing a ball into the slop pit otherwise known as a warning track. To say we got 90% of the games in may be technically accurate for the tournament directors, but what the players got was not 90% of what they paid for. Any one slogging through the mud on the base paths on that field had to be more conscious of not slipping and falling than of actually trying to run. Outfielders were running around the deeper pools of water when chasing down balls. |
| May 2, 2016 Awg-dawg 5 posts | It was a mess, but everyone had the option not to play. I'm not choosing sides, it's just that if you felt it to be dangerous, why did you play? |
| May 2, 2016 stick8 1991 posts | The directors were in a catch-22, dam if they did, dam if they didn't. I will say with 99.99% certainty that if these were house league games, they would have cancelled the weekend. |
| May 3, 2016 17Black Men's 60 414 posts | Our player and friend is having surgery 8AM this morning as I type this. Torn Patella tendon, broken bones in femur and knee cap, torn muscles above knee, not sure what else, but he lucked out and got one of the best doctors anybody could ask for here in NE Ohio. I had another thread going "before" we even left Cleveland for this tournament. As stated, 100% chance of rain leaves little doubt its going to rain. Most of my team was adamant to "not even make the trip at all" but we (I) chose to do it. The injured players sub came into the game, and slipped throwing the ball back to infield, looks like probable torn rotator cuff. Moving forward, we will probably just eat tournament entry fees in the future, and save on human injuries and other expenses. You never know if its going to rain or tournaments might be shortened and modified. We spent a couple thousand $$$$ on motel rooms-------as did all other teams-------so this was win, win, win, for SSUSA/Midwest Sports Complex/ and local motels and eateries. I was really hoping when tournament director called the 3PM meeting to get all coaches together on Saturday, that they were going to just call it, and send teams home before spending another night in motels. I was shocked it was moving forward. I mean, as he was saying we were "going to start in a little over an hour" it was pouring like a monsoon outside?????? Yes it did stop raining when the radar said it would stop raining, but common sense had to see the standing water and mud everywhere????????? I took pics of it as I was walking up to the meeting room. We got done a little after 1AM on Saturday. Sure it was nice being 4-0 at the time. We did not get back to motels till around 2AM. I think the team we beat had to be back to play 7:30AM. Most of my guys haven't seen 2AM in decades, unless they have to get up to take a leak. I have a lot of "mixed thoughts" on this situation right now, some of them rational, and others emotional. I'll let others speak their mind as I really do not have anything "positive" to say about the entire weekend. If anybody has pics of the playing fields please feel free to email me. |
| May 3, 2016 SilverGhost 32 posts | With the forecast the way is was going into those days, I mean is was a crazy forecast, I give you and your team credit for keeping your word and showing up for this tournament, Greed by whoever ran this tournament won this weekend, hope your players heal well and good luck. |
| May 3, 2016 amr-4-lc 47 posts | i too played with my team at the brickyard classic this past weekend. i will say this, there was no logical reason for that tournament to be held as the weather dictated otherwise. yes we played, and yes we had the choice to say no, but as senior softball players who traveled hours to get to this tournament our natural instinct was to play. my guess is that the majority of players would have opted to play as well (just our competetive nature). i play the outfield and the conditions were at the minimum terrible .... to those that were injured this past weekend, i wish you the best and speedy recoveries .... it is obvious that player safety was secondary to the sound of all those checks being cashed by ssusa. |
| May 3, 2016 Sparky.1 Men's 75 284 posts | Nancy Allen: I asked “ If there was any further information regarding the weather and/or how the tourney is progressing? You replied “Sparky.1, all games are being played right now. The grounds crew, TD Tim and the umpires are the best. What a great bunch of games. Wish you were here.” Doesn't sound like an “honest” report of what was going on at the tourney with the various negative comments being displayed. As I have stated on many other situations with the SSUSA, it is strictly run for the $$$$ with player safety as an after-thought. "the Rattlesnake" (just for Dave) [grins] |
| May 4, 2016 WizKid 7 posts | Rattlesnake, you warned me about earning a nickname in another thread, but here goes anyway. First, thank you to Tim for posting the results so quickly after the tournament. While it does not take a lot of time to do so this practice has been sadly lacking in the past, and again it is much appreciated. That is where the positive comments end. I was in Indy for the tournament, and my team did come out on top in our division. Was it fun to have the final out and a tournament victory? Absolutely! Was it worth it to play in the conditions we had with the associated risks, and seeing the possible career ending and life altering injuries suffered by others? ABSOLUTELY NOT!! Chicago had similar weather to Indy on Saturday. The Cubs have a tarp on the infield to keep it dry until game time, state of the art field equipment, built-in drainage across the field, pallets full of Diamond Dry® and a grounds crew of 75+. They chose not to play on Saturday. It is not our expectation that a couple of guys with rakes could possibly keep up with Mother Nature on one field, let alone six of them. However, it is also not an expectation that we would be forced to play on a field with third base under so much water that the other team's fielder would be pointing out where to step on the bag because it was not visible. The fields were not playable at all on Saturday after the initial deluge. The risk of injury was obvious before we experienced a number of hard falls in the mud with the smallest of movements while trying to run or make defensive plays. For those who have said we all had a choice to play or not, poppycock! It should never be up to the players to decide whether or not to play on a field that DOES NOT MEET MINIMAL STANDARDS. The tournament director shoulders the full responsibility for putting so many at risk just to say that the show went on despite adverse conditions. If he had been told that he would be personally liable for any injuries suffered due to his decision, would we have played any games Saturday night? Not in a million years. Sunday was not much better. The infields were too wet early in the day to be dragged, and the only raked spots were small areas around the bases. The outfields were still like swamps, with standing water all over the place. As stated previously the ambulance could not even attempt to go on the field to assist a badly injured player. At some point somebody needs to have some common sense, and again that comes back to the tournament director. Whether it is Indy or Vegas or TOC, players' health and well being should never be put at risk just to "get the games in." Most of us have lives away from softball, believe it or not. My thoughts and prayers go out to the injured players. I had my own catastrophic knee injury on a very playable softball field nine years ago, and the many months of physical therapy and rehab after surgery were only possible because of the help and sacrifices of those around me. Sadly, the injuries from this past weekend were entirely preventable. |
| May 5, 2016 Sparky.1 Men's 75 284 posts | Notice how those in charge have "quietly" stayed away from this discussion. Checks have cleared, everyone got paid, the tourney got in and a quiet hush is heard from those in charge "don't rock the boat". |
| May 5, 2016 SilverGhost 32 posts | I love going back and reading Nancy Allens post on this tournament....I need that brand of wine. |
| May 5, 2016 17Black Men's 60 414 posts | Our Guy, who took the ambulance ride Sunday------------------(18) eighteen months recovery & rehab time!!! NOT a MIS-PRINT------(18) months estimated by the doc. The doc is experienced, works on U.S.A. Ski Team injuries. Certainly age comes in to play. Surgery was Success Tuesday May 3rd. Immobilized for the next two weeks. Two more weeks of light stuff. Four weeks total projected off work-----------burning his entire year of vacation time. Luckily he has a desk job when he goes back. Still going to be uncomfortable. Probably TWO full seasons of lost softball----------he might not even come back to play. This is also a guy who kept himself in tremendous physical shape, the guy is "ripped", and eats extremely healthy diet/lifestyle. The doc said due to his physical condition------"maybe, just maybe" cut down full recovery time to 12-15 months. What a shame!!!!!!!!! |
| May 5, 2016 Hail Ragna! Men's 55 40 posts | So 17Black, it was definitely not worth trying to push through all the rain. Tourney should not have been played. We have all been there and the young guy inside still wants to play no matter what. That is where someone has to take charge and say hey, NO WAY. I played in a tournament in Bend, Oregon last year and two of my players ran into each other going for a high fly ball deep to center field. Unfortunately they ran into each other and the one player lost an eye and the other player lost all of his teeth. Had to have some serious surgery to fix his now hillbilly looking teeth. It might sound funny but it is not. No insurance. I now wear a mask playing third base. We all love the game but we have to think about after the game. I want to be able to relax and have a cold drink... Hail Ragna! |
| May 6, 2016 chikn55 Men's 60 29 posts | I play with 17black and coming into the tourney i was dealing with a rib injury which should have kept me out. Being stubborn when it comes to playing ball with a injury i wanted to play rain or shine. I gave a shot to help my team( we were short players) i realized once i started playing that i should not have played. The cold and rain definitely didn't help my injury. I was not able to play Sunday. It was tough knowing that some players were out there playing injured and i could"t help and then when our left fielder went down i was worried about other players.Did the field conditions have a play in his injury? yes it did. Should we have played in the conditions we did? Probably not. All the people that were associated with the tournament were very nice and i feel had the best intentions to get players who wanted to play ball on the field to play. I found however there was a lack of communication throughout the whole tournament. It seemed like nobody wanted to make a decision. After the fields were initially worked on they were not touched till a 50 major plus team starting working on their own field and then the grounds crew came out. We played all day Saturday until after 1a.m and during this period the concession stand was out of food. Then when my teammate was injured and laying in the water in the outfield i was told they were going to get the cart to get him off the field. I informed him he needs more than a cart he needs an ambulance. His reply was I'm on my way to ask him questions. It seemed like they wanted to avoid to call for some reason. It was a Cluster. I'm sure they did their best they could with all the conditions and the weather and all, but if i had a vote for next year to come to this tournament i think i would probably say no. |
| May 6, 2016 BH21 29 posts | Who was the Director from the East Coast that made the tournament proceed when I heard the complex wanted to cancel? I had two players drive 4 hours look at the mess on Saturday and then say they weren't going to play and went back home. We will not be back to Indy in the future, last year was nice most years it is a mess. Hope that injured player recovers quickly but of the sounds of it 18 months - it is a shame. |
| May 6, 2016 Sparky.1 Men's 75 284 posts | My best wishes for a speedy recovery also go out to all of the injured players. As I stated earlier in this tread: Notice how those in charge have "quietly" stayed away from this discussion. Checks have cleared, everyone got paid, the tourney got in and a quiet hush is heard from those in charge "don't rock the boat". "the Rattlesnake" (just for Dave) [grins] |
