WWBA

Marietta is probably more central.

See if you can find something in the Barrett Parkway area (either Marietta or Kennesaw address). It is close to the mall and restaurants but also very easy to get the fields.

On another topic, this is our first WWBA tournament. Can someone give me the "Cliff Notes" on what we need to know (pitching, rules, how seeding for elimination play works, etc)?

We look forward to playing.

It is laid back and a showcase not a tournament. It just happens to end in a tournament format. Don't get on the umpires, especially if everyone can tell who your son is.
The games are well attended especially at EC. There are very few make-ups if it rains. Just not any time to add extra games. It is fun just to hang out at EC when not playing to watch the games and scouts.
Most pitchers will not pitch enough to worry about pitching rules.
Most umpires are real good and cordial unless someone is a jerk. Then they will send them home in a heartbeat.

quote:

Originally posted by EC_Dad:
Marietta is probably more central.

See if you can find something in the Barrett Parkway area (either Marietta or Kennesaw address). It is close to the mall and restaurants but also very easy to get the fields.

couple of years ago, I stayed @ The Roof in this area for the week...bare-bones, but economical and convenient...and a huge Chinese restaurant across the street.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Connell:
It is laid back and a showcase not a tournament. It just happens to end in a tournament format. Don't get on the umpires, especially if everyone can tell who your son is.
The games are well attended especially at EC. There are very few make-ups if it rains. Just not any time to add extra games. It is fun just to hang out at EC when not playing to watch the games and scouts.
Most pitchers will not pitch enough to worry about pitching rules.
Most umpires are real good and cordial unless someone is a jerk. Then they will send them home in a heartbeat.

Not sure I agree?
We played in the 17U event last year and it was very competitive! Every player and Coach I saw was there to win!
It rained like crazy last year, and they rearranged schedules to get all the games in, including playing games very late into the night.

We're taking an 18U team this year. Every kid on the team is signed for next year. We're going for the competition.

Here's a link to the rules used last fall. Generally PG tournaments have rules which are consistent year to year, so you can use these to get a good idea of the whatever rules may be in force this year. Look about 1/3 down the page under Documents:

http://www.worldwoodbat.com/To...tDetails.aspx?id=342

quote:

Originally posted by gitnby:

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Connell:
It is laid back and a showcase not a tournament. It just happens to end in a tournament format. Don't get on the umpires, especially if everyone can tell who your son is.
The games are well attended especially at EC. There are very few make-ups if it rains. Just not any time to add extra games. It is fun just to hang out at EC when not playing to watch the games and scouts.
Most pitchers will not pitch enough to worry about pitching rules.
Most umpires are real good and cordial unless someone is a jerk. Then they will send them home in a heartbeat.

Not sure I agree?
We played in the 17U event last year and it was very competitive! Every player and Coach I saw was there to win!
It rained like crazy last year, and they rearranged schedules to get all the games in, including playing games very late into the night.

We're taking an 18U team this year. Every kid on the team is signed for next year. We're going for the competition.

Games are competitive but atmosphere is not. I have been there for two years at all age groups and have not seen the tournament side. Coaches are competitive but not tournament like. They don't argue calls and let the kids play. 90% of the coaches know it is about getting the kids seen and not at all costs. That is what I meant. It will be competitive because it is the top players and teams in the nation during the single elimination phase. As always there are some teams that don't need to be there and it shows in the scores.

What about at the 14U age? How much "Being seen" is actually going to go on?

quote:

Games are competitive but atmosphere is not. I have been there for two years at all age groups and have not seen the tournament side. Coaches are competitive but not tournament like. They don't argue calls and let the kids play. 90% of the coaches know it is about getting the kids seen and not at all costs. That is what I meant. It will be competitive because it is the top players and teams in the nation during the single elimination phase. As always there are some teams that don't need to be there and it shows in the scores.

It doesn’t really matter what anyone thinks, whether it is all showcase or all tournament or both.

I’ve been there for all of it every year. Here are a few things that I have seen.

An umpire threw out several fans

Umpires refused to leave the parking lot to go to the fields until we called for a “police” escort.

A full out brawl

One team that thought they were slighted in the playoffs, broke a water main and flooded a field.

A large number of ejections (both coaches and players)

Pitchers being overused in order to win

Dog piles after winning the tournament

Cheating to win

A large number of protests

Serious injuries

Coaches arguing about the bracketing

Coaches arguing about the scorekeeping

Coaches arguing about the rules

Coaches stalling to run out time limits in order to win a game

Parents going nuts

Those are just some of the things off the top of my head.

Not sure we ever see any of the above, except for some injuries, at any showcase for individual players. The very best teams are there to win the rings. If they do that, their kids get amazing exposure.

EC_Dad,

The 14U is scouted (every game) by our staff. We report what we see to most everyone in baseball and all the information we gather goes into each players file. Obviously, there are not many scouts or college coaches at those games, but anything a player does will be listed in his file. this information is very important to us and others as the young player progresses. It's amazing how many kids we first identified when they were 13-14 years old. To me, it's a win win for the young players... If they play badly no one will hear about it. If they play well everyone will know who they are.

quote:

It is laid back and a showcase not a tournament. It just happens to end in a tournament format. Don't get on the umpires, especially if everyone can tell who your son is.
The games are well attended especially at EC. There are very few make-ups if it rains. Just not any time to add extra games. It is fun just to hang out at EC when not playing to watch the games and scouts.
Most pitchers will not pitch enough to worry about pitching rules.
Most umpires are real good and cordial unless someone is a jerk. Then they will send them home in a heartbeat.

Sorry, I missed this post earlier. Some of this is simply not true. The goal is to make up every game if at all possible. We take great pride in doing everything possible to play and make up games. For the most part we lose very few games. One year they had 26 inches of rain in 2 weeks and we did lose some games, but still got the whole tournament in. We bought the entire county out of diamond dry, picked up different fields, and constantly rearranged the schedule. I doubt if anyone on our staff had more than 2 hours sleep a night. We do not take games lightly and give it every effort always, including spending a lot of money when neccessary to get games in.

Also...

Some of the umpires really are jerks!

People do get on the umpires

It really is a tournament that many want to win badly

Some pitchers are overused way too much... To the point that we've thought about adding a pitching limit to the rules.

It is true that there are a ton of scouts (including scouting directors) and college recruiters and agents in attendance. They all tell us the reason they like this is because everyone is there to win rather than just workout and show skills. They see things that they never see in a showcase from a competition and team standpoint.

How about a tournament director coming down from the tower to talk to a plate umpire about reversing a slide/no slide call made at home plate! You don't see that in meaningless game

I see that you can hit 9, 10 (EH), or 11 (EH and XH) but I don't see anything about the use of a DH. Is a DH not allowed?

That is covered right at the top of the additional rules.

National High School Federation Baseball Rules will be enforced with the following exceptions.

One of those exceptions is rule 7.
7. Hitting lineup: Can consist of 9, 10, or 11 batters. The lineup must stay with the same number of batters for the entire game. The 10th and 11th hitter if used will be designated as an EH and XH on the lineup card. XH is a 2nd EH.

Which is to say, you can use a DH for any defensive player, because that's the NFHS rule left unchanged by the WWBA exceptions.