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Reply to "Showball Question"

FWIW, I didn't think the Dallas event was very good or worth it.  There were a few D2/D3 coaches there but they didn't interact with the players at all.  I really doubt coaches were watching remotely--the live stream wasn't very good--pretty hard to see much of anything.

But if I had to characterize the event in one word, it would be RUSHED.  They claim they've taken the "fluff" out and that helps the players maximize performance, but the opposite is true. It's really just code for how to get >200 players through everything on only one field.

Heat index was >110 and the players are running everywhere and constantly being told to hurry.  Run from station to station, run sprints in the warmup, then immediately run out to the OF and throw, then immediately run into the infield and take ground balls, then immediately run out to the 60 station, No water etc.  Run a 60, job back, immediately run it again.  By the time they ran the 60, they were all gassed.  We knew a number of players in attendance--every single one put up worse numbers across the board than they had elsewhere.  BP was a joke--they double barreled, which is fine, but the throwers were rapid firing and hitters had a ball coming before they'd finished the previous swing.

Games weren't much better.  They played one "12 inning game" which took a little over 2 hours.  Batter started with 1-1 count and there was 1 out at all times.  Each half inning was either 3 or 4 hitters.  One guy calling strikes from almost 2nd base who was chiefly concerned with making each inning as short as possible.  Players spent half their time sprinting on and off the field.

After Day 1, son commented that at HF, the staff all seemed genuinely interested in the players and really wanted them to maximize results.  Here it just seemed like they wanted everything to get done as fast as possible.

Again, not sure how similar this is to their regular events.  Maybe they typically have more fields and do things better.  I know there are only a couple of HA showcase organizations, but we'd probably avoid this particular event going forward if at all possible.

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