ASA "C" Nationals in Stockton

HUSTLER21 · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Posts: 23 Location: Anaheim, CA

Anybody have any thoughts on the tournament this year. Personally, I thought they dragged it out way too long. We played one game a day for four days after going in the losers bracket after the second game. You can't get any momentum going. I understand them wanting teams to have an experience that lasts a few days but it seems to me they just wanted to keep us there to get our money. I've been on teams that finished 5th and 7th and weren't playing on Sunday past noon. All teams should be able to be heading out of town by Monday morning at the latest. Also, there should be some kind of ball standard. Use the same balls during the year as they will be using at the Nationals. Those things were like rocks! Some pitcher is going to get killed. Combine that with the juiced composite bats=very dangerous.
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dudeybarra18 · Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 14

I totally agree that the "c" nationals were to long. my team won thier first game, then had to wait 28 hrs before we played our next game. to long of a wait. but considering the long tournament my team went 1-2 and had a great time being there. as we were there for our coach who past away at the end of july. we missed him and went on to play the game we love.

how about the fields at the regional complex. the were terrible.

hotcorner · Joined: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 53

I agree Dude. Regional Park was a dangerous joke. For us NorCal boys it was embarrassing. But overall it was an exciting tournament with plenty of upsets and surprises. But waaay too long. Global Pacific and Penn Power could have been done by 12:00 on Monday if there would have just been a round of 4 games on Wednesday night at Louis Park. It just seemed as if the tournament organizers got all jazzed up about getting the bid and then realized, "Oh crap, we have to put all of this together!" This seemed obvious by the organizational chaos during the draw.
I also noticed that a couple of egotistical umpires could really drag out the time. For example, in our 12:00 game on Sunday, the blue made us take all helmets and bats out of the dugout and line them up on the fence. Then he had his 10-15 minute conference right on home plate and refused to move as the opposing pitcher was trying to get going. This was all after sitting on his butt in the bleachers as the single grounds crew was prepping all three fields and both teams on our field were ready to go. As a result, we started about 20-25 minutes late, at least. If this happens more than once on the same field it just snowballs.
Hey. Hats off to the ground crew who had far too few people to do the job they were asked to do. Those guys busted their butts to get the fields as ready as possible despite the deep dirt and Regional Park cow pasture.

gofsudogs2005 · Joined: 17 Aug 2005 Posts: 6

Well being my first nationals I was excited to play against some of the better teams in the nation. I knew the team I play for wouldn't be able to roll with the great teams but I didn't care, I just wanted to experience this for the first time. We (Madera Outlaws) were fortunate enough to play our first game at Louis Park and it was an exciting one as a team from New Mexico beat us 6-1 (it was much closer as it was 2-1 going into the sixth). Louis park was set up well and the fences were nice. Unfortunately our second game (which didn't even take place until Friday afternoon) would be played at regional park (a complete crapper of a park). I was embarrassed to know that California with all of it's beauty would put any games at this piece of junk. During the game a ball was hit in the gap against the sports team from PA and I fell over running after it due to the ground condition. I usually get to line drives like the one hit but it turned into a homerun with me tripping over the dangerous outfield terrain.
Anyhow I am not here to gripe and complain about everything. I was able to hit off pitchers I don't see often here in the central valley and to me that was an exciting experience. The two problems I had were 1) the dang tournament could have been much faster. Put two games on Thursday and two Friday and everything would have been done much faster, and 2) the parks at regional stunk. It was good to see Team Taylor come in third and represent our central valley division well. Congrats to every team who did well and hopefully next year the host of the nationals (Marietta, GA I believe) will have a much improved park for us to play in. I apologize to all teams from out of California for the shotty conditions in Stockton, what a bad place to stage the nationals.

Neil Coppola #1, center fielder
Madera Outlaws

hitman · Joined: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 2

It was the same thing at the B's. The main fields were not in good shape, the umpiring was very inconsistant and the tourny was not ran that well. I attended both the NAFA and ASA this year and the NAFA organization had everything in line from the umpiring to team pictures. The fields were in great shape and the people of Mankato welcomed us with open arms unlike Decatur.

Yours in Softball,
hitman

SSS BALLER · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 10 Location: South Stockton

I'm from Stockton and I told the guys running it not to use the Regional Complex that place is terrible we have anthor complex that only has two diamonds but everybody was only playing once a day anyways so I don't know why they didn't use that facility.... Besides that I met a bunch of cool people this weekend hope to see some of you next time.....

South Stockton Outlawz

fpw · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 1:59 pm Post subject:

Though an older park, I thought Louis Park was a great place to play (except for the fact that you can't see the game from the dugouts) and that the grounds crew did a great job of keeping the fields prepped. There were a lot of people watching the games, especially Saturday and Sunday afternoon and evenings, and some great action. Everything was crammed into close quarters, which I thought gave the tournament a high energy level - something that makes it fun for the fans, and fun for the players competing. Heard Regional Park referred to by a local as "the Desert", so unfortunate that games were played there. 64 teams is a lot to handle, though, no easy task. Kudos to the T.D. and organizing committee for updating the bracket online during the tournament and the extensive box scores and stats...something that few tournaments have, including the ASA "A" and "B" tournaments.

fpw · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 2:04 pm Post subject:

I've not gone through all of the stats yet, but a few have caught my eye so far, posted below.

Perhaps all of you readers can add additional ones as you find them. (click reply below)

Derrick Zechman of 2005 Champions Penn Power, PA:
21-35, .600 avg, including 11 singles, 5 doubles, 3 triples and 2 home runs, 12 RBI. Some pretty sick numbers, eh?

Eric Geierman of the Rounders, CA
14-23, .600 avg. ...OBP shows .679, but I think scoresheets show even higher.

Ronnie Dillon, Global Pacific OR:
15-29, .517 avg.

Donnie Bellum, Global Pacific, OR
15-28, .517 avg

Damian Guerrero of the LB Black Sox, CA
.714 avg, 5 for 7

Mike Butler, Black Oak Casino, CA
4 home runs (anybody hit more than that?)

Black Oak Casino Team
11 home runs (anybody hit more?)

PITCHING

Joe Given, Team Taylor, CA
0.52 ERA, 4 wins, 0 losses over 27 innings

Here is the link to all of the box scores and stats:
http://www.socal-asa.com/adult/2005%20C%20Nationals/2005%20C%20Nationals%20team%20stat.htm

hotcorner · Joined: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 53

I definitely agree that despite the field conditions and waiting durations, the stats were terrific. I've never seen any so complete or quick. They even took away one of my errors. Bonus! Laughing

T3 · Joined: 14 Jan 2004 Posts: 1 Location: Clovis

Maybe the tourney took so long, because they let any team in from California that could field a team..When did the Nationals start letting teams in that did not earn their way by either winning a Regional Qualifier or a National Qualifier or finishing in the top braket of their respected travel leagues? We all know what teams did not belong, come on get real.
If you want the thing to move along then don't let teams in that don't belong their. We all know it is a money things, the more teams = more money for the city putting it on and for ASA to get their cut.
It happens every year why are you so surprised?

hotcorner · Joined: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 53

I tend to agree about the number of teams, though I'm not that upset about it and I still think organization was the main problem. We were pretty pumped about having qualified in the Western Pacific Regional, or whatever it was called, but felt somewhat let down when we found out we could have saved a lot of time, money, and injury by just asking to be let in. But then again, I like big tournaments, and a couple of teams who "paid in" actually won a couple of games here and there, so there were surprisingly few "pushovers" and a lot of cool local guys happy to get a chance to play giant killer. Black Oaks Casino, who just couldn't put it all together in many tournaments except Sonora, actually did quite well and put up huge numbers. They didn't have that entire squad together during the qualifiers, but talent-wise at the end they definitely proved they belonged.
Maybe they should cap at a specific number with a couple of last minute local births if teams don't show from other regions...the "next in order of finish" rule. I wonder if there would have been as many local add-ins if all the qualified teams from every region showed up, which, of course, will never happen. I think the maximum is over a hundred according to ASA, but I could be wrong.