Son played 1st tourny at Lakepoint (GA) this past week. Pitched 1st game. He told me he was having trouble because there were "holes" where his foot was landing. This was obviously limited to the field he was pitching on as far as we know. Anyone else run into this at Lakepoint?
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Elijah posted:Son played 1st tourny at Lakepoint (GA) this past week. Pitched 1st game. He told me he was having trouble because there were "holes" where his foot was landing. This was obviously limited to the field he was pitching on as far as we know. Anyone else run into this at Lakepoint?
Yes, happened to son last weekend at LP on field 12, which is a 60x90 field.
He basically had to either shorten his stride or alter where he set up to get around it. It was disappointing, and since it's not like you can throw dirt in the hole it wasn't like they could do anything about it.
Yep. Just checked. It was #12. Must be hard to pitch when you are having to concentrate more on the landing. I would assume Perfect Game knows about this. We have another tourny there soon. Other than that, he really enjoyed Lakepoint.
Elijah posted:Yep. Just checked. It was #12. Must be hard to pitch when you are having to concentrate more on the landing. I would assume Perfect Game knows about this. We have another tourny there soon. Other than that, he really enjoyed Lakepoint.
I got the impression that PG at Lakepoint wasn't "real" before Memorial Day. Hence why a 7 year old is getting charged admission. There is a disclaimer on the PG website that says until Memorial Day adults are $5, kids are $3. Since it's typically $10 for an adult, and free for under 14, it's still a better deal at the moment to pay for my daughter.
I'm going to guess the problem will be fixed for the 15u and up tourneys which aren't until after Memorial Day.
Lol. I'll take the $5 for now. I was not aware of the pricing. Hopefully it will be corrected soon because we will be the ones to get #12 again!
$10 is kind of a bummer because we have friends in the area that came out to see my son play. I know...how much is $5 more really, but it is enough to make casual observers think twice about stopping by. For a couple, $25 can definitely be spent elsewhere. Parents don't have the choice. Oh well. Happy to have Lakepoint and PG in this area. We are lucky.
Same field last July for WWBA - same problem. I would have assumed they would have fixed it by now.
Aside from the annoyance of a hole (which also happens on real dirt mounds, right) i would think this "could" be a safety concern for any kid pitching there since you can't fill up and tamp it immediately?
I have checked with our people in Georgia and they will be repairing the mound. Interesting that no one there knew about this until I read about it here.
We are looking into a new way to repair the mounds. presently it takes a whole day for them to be playable after repair. They are usually checked after each game and repaired for the next day of play. Always it has been a turf tear. An actual hole would be extremely rare due to the material under the turf. Not sure what happened in this case, but our staff is looking into it. There are some college fields that repair their turf mounds in minutes. We will be using that technique in the future.
For reference, that mound and others along with the batters box are repaired several times each year. So it is unusual that this would happen for more than one day. We have held Juco games on that field this spring without any complaints. Did anyone complain or mention the problem to staff or even the umpires? We really don't want pitchers throwing on a faulty mound. I apologize to anyone that had to deal with this.
Huge safety concern and something that should never happen, especially on a field with such a great reputation.
PGStaff posted:I have checked with our people in Georgia and they will be repairing the mound. Interesting that no one there knew about this until I read about it here.
We are looking into a new way to repair the mounds. presently it takes a whole day for them to be playable after repair. They are usually checked after each game and repaired for the next day of play. Always it has been a turf tear. An actual hole would be extremely rare due to the material under the turf. Not sure what happened in this case, but our staff is looking into it. There are some college fields that repair their turf mounds in minutes. We will be using that technique in the future.
For reference, that mound and others along with the batters box are repaired several times each year. So it is unusual that this would happen for more than one day. We have held Juco games on that field this spring without any complaints. Did anyone complain or mention the problem to staff or even the umpires? We really don't want pitchers throwing on a faulty mound. I apologize to anyone that had to deal with this.
Our team complained to the umps last year, but, honestly, I just assumed it's something that happens and would be fixed at the first opportunity. For all I know, it was fixed and happened again. I'd guess that's the case.
I also mentioned it here a couple of times, but, obviously, this isn't the correct forum for such complaints. And, yeah, "hole" is probably the wrong characterization - it was a rip my son was complaining about. He says he actually slid his landing foot right into it once and opened it up farther.
I just went back to check and our incident was on Field #11, not #12.
Thanks PGStaff! ROOTHOG66, my son used the word "holes". When he tried to adjust to another side of the mound, he said there was another one on that side. I do not believe the turf was torn. He must be referring to the surface being altered due to the amount of pressure applied over time which lead to an uneven surface.
I was going to call PG but I wanted to double check to see if others had experienced the same.
3and2,
No doubt it is a safety concern. The one thing that I have found out over the years is that very unusual things that should never happen, do in fact happen!
ELIJAH,
May have been caused by some bunching of material, making it feel uneven. The mounds are built with concrete then some type of filler on top and then the turf. So up until now we haven't seen any holes. But I suppose it is possible and we will check it closely. PG is not in charge of maintenance, but even though we don't work on the fields, we do expect safety. Appreciate the heads up.
One question... was he referring to in front of the rubber or the landing area? Thanks
PGStaff posted:3and2,
No doubt it is a safety concern. The one thing that I have found out over the years is that very unusual things that should never happen, do in fact happen!
ELIJAH,
May have been caused by some bunching of material, making it feel uneven. The mounds are built with concrete then some type of filler on top and then the turf. So up until now we haven't seen any holes. But I suppose it is possible and we will check it closely. PG is not in charge of maintenance, but even though we don't work on the fields, we do expect safety. Appreciate the heads up.
One question... was he referring to in front of the rubber or the landing area? Thanks
The landing area.
PGStaff posted:3and2,
No doubt it is a safety concern. The one thing that I have found out over the years is that very unusual things that should never happen, do in fact happen!
ELIJAH,
May have been caused by some bunching of material, making it feel uneven. The mounds are built with concrete then some type of filler on top and then the turf. So up until now we haven't seen any holes. But I suppose it is possible and we will check it closely. PG is not in charge of maintenance, but even though we don't work on the fields, we do expect safety. Appreciate the heads up.
One question... was he referring to in front of the rubber or the landing area? Thanks
I texted my son over lunch, he pitched there last weekend. He said:
- "there was a tear on the outer part where my foot landed, but in the middle of the tear there was a small hole".
- "it wasn't really a slipping problem it was kind of like a speed bump and then a hole the tip of my foot could have gotten stuck in if I landed wrong."
I think we are all kind of use to the portable mounds nearly always having a hole that no one ever fixes, the coaches just tell the pitchers to adapt. It didn't occur to me to complain, and to be blunt, anyone watching the pitcher would have seen there was a problem with the mound. I don't know much about pitching but even I noticed that everyone was landing wonky.
I will clarify with my son after school.
Update:
#12 also had a hole at the rubber.
#10. He said a pitcher on his team told him "there was a hole where you out your foot".
When I've coached in games where this occurs (in other states, haven't coached in a PG Event yet), I call timeout, &stop the game. I let the umpire know we aren't playing until they change the mound out, fix it, or find a safe field for us to play, and to call the Tournament Director. Every single time they have brought in a different portable mound and accommodated my safety concerns.
I would bet that if the coaches had taken the same approach, Perfect Game would have dealt with things in a similar manner
