Just curious on the reason for Senior softball players playing on fields that are 325 down the lines and 400’ to center field. This big of a field was ridiculous and took a toll on all teams I’m sure. We are talking about 50 and 60 year old men playing in Major League Baseball dimensions.
Loudoun County makes their complete 16 softball-use fields inventory available to SSUSA for the Eastern Nationals, and we need them all ... Only half of them (four fields each at Potomack Lakes and Phillip A. Bolen) have a 300' maximum outfield fence dimension ... The other half exceed that distance ...
The Session #1 teams, for ages 65+ and more senior divisions, play only on the shorter fields ... For the "youngsters", the odds for you are 50/50 each year on the 300' over/under configuration ... We also do our best to rotate divisions from year to year so that you see different venues at these superb facilities ... The only Session #2 division that was a "repeater" this year was the Men's 40-Masters Major division ... They also played at Brambleton Park in 2023 ...
Hope that helps in understanding what we do on this ...
I've been to Loudon 5 straight years for 50 Majors and been on the big fields just once, so the "repeater" point is more than fair.
I think they should put the women on the big fields, but of course that's a self-centered view. I'd be curious what they think of the big fields, as most male players I have talked to don't want to play on them. The women probably complain less.
Jeff50, that is a good thought. I never thought about the woman. Center field being greater than 400 ft adds a hold extra dimension for outfielders playing defense. It creates a damn if I do, damn if I don't situation. I was telling my guys to play up. If you don't think those fields made a difference, we played 50 AAA. I watched 10 games, and I played in 5 of them. I only saw 2 homeruns the hold time, I watched or played. So, what we had is an E Ball tournament with no homeruns. SMH
Further to DaveDowell's point
60% (77 of 130) of the teams played on 300' diamonds.
40% (53 of 130) of the teams played on something larger.
Do you know where 100% of the teams played?
- On fields with covered dugouts
- On fields where the grass what cut on Mon & Thur
- On fields that have MLB quality infields
- On fields that have no lips
- On fields that have level batter's boxes
- On fields that were prepped and re-chalked after every game
- On fields that had staff on-site, ready to help in every way
- At parks that were no more than 15 minutes apart
- At parks that were near 40 quality hotels
- At parks that were near 100+ restaurants
- At parks that were near 12-15 breweries and wineries
- At parks that were 15 minutes from a major airport
Do you kknow what else the teams got?
A tournament with teams from 16 states
(MD, NY, NJ, VA, FL, NC, PA, DE, MN, CT, OH, RI, WV, IN, MA, AL)
Rather than grouse about what you didn't get, try being thankful for all that you did get in Loudoun County.
Women- 2 of the past 3 East nationals were on 300' diamonds.
Men 50 AAA- 2 of the past 3 East nationals were on the 300' diamonds.
Men 40 Major- 0 of the past 3 East nationals were played on 300' diamonds.
GIO, Your not alone in why your curious SSUSA would EVER have major plus teams and some 40 & 50 year old teams playing on 300 ft fields while 60 - 70 year old men playing on 325'-400' fields. This should never happen !!! It was told to me that some of the teams from last year were crying about how big the fields were and they couldn't hit Home Runs . Hooyah I hate to be so negative while everything else was great - Can we get rid of this terrible ball ? If the answer is NO can we at least get this ball with blue laces? I am suure EVERYONE would pay a little more to have either a ROCK, TATTOO or even MORTER ball . RIGHT GUYS ? I can already feel onslaught lol
All teams in S1 (age 65-80) played on the 300' diamonds.
Thats great and everyone agrees with you but for ALL the tournaments going forward can you please include ALL the 60 divisions on 300 ft fields ? This way everyone will be very happy with you and SSUSA . Thanks
Hey GIO223NY go to Arizona, mesa to be exact and play at LEGACY PARK and let see how much you will wine about the big fields. When I played 50/60s we could still could motor more so in the 50s but the 60s wasn't to bad either just have to play little deeper on larger fields. As the old saying goes "its easier to run in then to run out".
Tim you did a GREAT job this year THANK YOU!!
I agree that Tim did a great job. Don't let the 10 percenters take away from a great tournament.
