softball a dying sport?

[nanne1]

HR limits killed the local city league. Fields were short and most anyone could hit a bomb. It was fun and players enjoyed hitting "bombs". No homerun limits allowed weak teams to compete with better teams.

New director comes in 5 years ago and the weekend tourney guys get in his ear and convince him to reduce homeruns and "get softball back to the way it should be played". The teams that were loaded with weekend guys (who are used to playing under homerun limits) now have an advantage. They hit backside judy or up the middle and use their homeruns sparingly when runners are on. Basically getting weekend practice at the expense of the league teams, who only play league, and enjoyed being league heroes and hitting homers.

Now the director has a few teams that show up new and get killed by the weekend guys and the teams fall apart before the season is over. In fact, so few teams are now signing up for city league that they allow individuals to sign up and be placed on a team. It's that bad now.

Composite bats on short fields was fun for the regular guy who showed up for league. No pitcher was ever physically hurt by a ball that went over the fence.

 

[Mature Rage #20]

I grew tired of the playing the same teams over and over in city league play. So I created a wood bat league in my community to play on Sunday afternoons. Started with 6 teams two seasons ago, now I am up to 12 teams participating and some teams are on a waiting list. I had my assn order 8 softball wood bats for the men...same type and weight and ordered 3 lighter bats for the ladies (lighter weight). I get a kick out of watching the composite warriors try to hit at 250' on a 300' field. The games are low scoring and competitive. No trophies at the end of the season, just tshirts and bragging rights.

 

[MaMaLuLu]

I grew tired of the playing the same teams over and over in city league play. So I created a wood bat league in my community to play on Sunday afternoons. Started with 6 teams two seasons ago, now I am up to 12 teams participating and some teams are on a waiting list. I had my assn order 8 softball wood bats for the men...same type and weight and ordered 3 lighter bats for the ladies (lighter weight). I get a kick out of watching the composite warriors try to hit at 250' on a 300' field. The games are low scoring and competitive. No trophies at the end of the season, just tshirts and bragging rights.

League provided wood bats and decent balls on 270-280' fences = most fun I've ever had.

 

[2TransAms]

Around here I see less but better teams. I've said it before, the guys just looking to get out of the house and have a few beers have nowhere to go without getting stomped by stacked "league" teams. They might play one season, get discouraged, and you don't see that team again.

You see a lot of the same guys, if not the same team, playing all over too. Different night, same guys. That's fine, I do it too. I'm just saying the guys who want to play will always keep playing, but I see a decline in the "casual" player who just wants to play for Jimbo's Plumbing once a week.

 

[ryanclink]

I see a bunch of people in cold weather states saying attendance is down and the warm weather states say attendance is up... basically I think people in the midwest are moving to the west coast and playing.

 

[AreJay]

Softball is slowly dying with regards to both tournament and league play here in Kansas as well.

The majority of events in Kansas are U-trip and the numbers for tourneys have dropped almost exponentially. Just a few years ago, it was common to have 30-40 E teams and maybe 20-30 D teams in different tourneys. There were even enough C teams to have their own tourney, last year there were just two C teams registered in Kansas. Now, a lot of events are combined C/D/E because the numbers just aren't there.

It's a combination of sandbagging, ever-rising fees for both leagues and tourneys, and even bad league/tournament management. Factor in the money players pay for equipment (especially for bats which now may only last a couple of seasons at most) and people think there is a better investment for their time and cash.

 

[markf]

Thats what kills leagues now is a loaded league team that beats up on the new teams and they either quit or dont come back....plus alot of dbag in arm sleeves and flat brims

This is what does it..... I played in a rec league that had a team with a bunch of C players.... That team won that league championship for the past 8 years or so. We played for 4 years and then moved to a different league farther up north. Finally last year the Recs department league director sent emails to all the managers from years past announcing they had removed the team from the league because quality of play and entertainment had decreased so much as voiced by the other teams over the years.

I do believe stuff like this hurts the sport, because players that used to play arent willing to drive half hour each way to play.

Other than that, My other 2 league have to decline teams every year.

 

[PCMAY]

League participation is way down here, so they've started combining upper and middle leagues which is only making it worse. Teams are getting pounded 30+ to <10, and neither side has any fun with that.

That's what happened in our league. We had a better than average E league team and due to shrinking league size they moved us into a league with mostly D and C league teams that used this league for practice. We got pounded ever game. With the exception of one other team, we weren't even competitive, so we moved on.

That said, depending on the area some are flourishing and some are not.

 

[louconn]

softball is still alive and well where i live. especially for a small town. we have 3 men's divisions, 3 women's divisions. each division has 10+ teams. then you got chruch leagues. then coed usually has 4-5 divisions with 10 teams a piece. during summer there is almost always a local tourney of some sort going on just about every weekend.

 

[jbo911]

Thats what kills leagues now is a loaded league team that beats up on the new teams and they either quit or dont come back....plus alot of dbag in arm sleeves and flat brims

I think this is the biggest factor. It's been declining for the past 15 years or so, but the drop has gotten sharp as of late. Instead of bringing new guys into the sport, when a player has a kid they just pick up a really good player from a rival team. Then that turns into two good teams dropping their worst players and forming one really good team. Then those guys have to form a new team or try and get picked up. If they do, their former teammates beat their eyes in. Either way they usually throw in the towel.

 

[DEJ13]

20+ yrs of playing the game has not only changed but definitely less teams and less competitive...

 

[jhitman]

Is softball dead by you? Been playing since 2000 and there has been a decline in competition in not just leagues but tournies as well...any night of the week you could play league all around the area with 8-10 teams each night now most leagues have one or two nights if that with 5 or 6 teams and very few are competitive. Turnout in tournies is bad as well 4 teams in some. Seems like its dying. Is it the same everywhere?

It's less than it was back in the heyday. We still have most of the nights filled with leagues, but some leagues only have 4-5 teams. There used to be Sunday ball here, but not any more. It's pretty much Monday thru Thursday and one or two small leagues on Friday nights.

 

[bigdog2003]

We only have 1 field in town, so they cap the league at 10 teams. It fills up every year. This year we had 1 team drop out due to some guys on the team playing baseball, another team struggles to get enough to play every game. We played them last night and they had 8 at game time. Everybody else in the league play close games. Nobody is running away with the league title this year, every game seems to be decided by 5 runs or less. A lot of the guys play weekend ball, but the upper talent is spread across the teams. No team is stacked that much. The only team that doesn't compete every game is the team that struggles to find enough guys, and they have a sponsorship. They have been together 7 years, and have yet to win a game in league.

 

[Playmaka37]

Dying simply due to shaved bats.
Its that simple.

 

[Donger73]

Softball is slowly dying with regards to both tournament and league play here in Kansas as well.

The majority of events in Kansas are U-trip and the numbers for tourneys have dropped almost exponentially. Just a few years ago, it was common to have 30-40 E teams and maybe 20-30 D teams in different tourneys. There were even enough C teams to have their own tourney, last year there were just two C teams registered in Kansas. Now, a lot of events are combined C/D/E because the numbers just aren't there.

It's a combination of sandbagging, ever-rising fees for both leagues and tourneys, and even bad league/tournament management. Factor in the money players pay for equipment (especially for bats which now may only last a couple of seasons at most) and people think there is a better investment for their time and cash.

That's what happened in our league. We had a better than average E league team and due to shrinking league size they moved us into a league with mostly D and C league teams that used this league for practice. We got pounded ever game. With the exception of one other team, we weren't even competitive, so we moved on.

That said, depending on the area some are flourishing and some are not.

Combine these 2 and you basically have the story of softball in the midwest

IMO

 

[AttaBoyShort]

That's my tourney team name!

Honestly a lot of good players I know would rather just go do BP... League has lost it's flavor out here... We got a league team which just consists of a bunch of homies... We just show up to the park to drink and play softball...

Nice!!! I still enjoy this game.

 

[louconn]

Dying simply due to shaved bats.
Its that simple.

depends where ur at. majority of people here dont know what shaved bats are and they also pay full retail price for softball bats. i've never suspected even one local of having a shaved stick. i've gone to some out of town tourneys where i've seen some half swing homers i was suspicious of tho

 

[NorCal5150]

League wise is still pretty crazy here. 6 nights a week on 6 fields and 5 games a night per field. On friday nights there even have 11 o'clock start times for games so there us 6 games a night on each field. I'm sure the fact that it is a BLD complex has a lot to do with the amount of teams playing all the time.

Tourney's on the other hand has been on the decline big time in the last 10 years. When I started playing tourney ball 10 years ago a tourney there would be 6-10 B/C teams, 20-30 D teams, and more E teams than you could count. No there is pretty much no teams above C with the exception of Classic Glass and they dont even play locally very much anymore. 10 teams in D is a great weekend and E has about 8-16 teams or so. Even NIT's and State tourneys dont draw more teams than that on a consistent basis.

 

[Aztec3]

Lots of factors to the decline in some areas but one is because there's not a new crop of players coming in like years past. $50-100 league fees and $25-40 tourney fees for a straight out of high school/college kid is a lot of money. Also most baseball guys think softball is "gay" so they don't play.

 

[doG]

League wise is still pretty crazy here. 6 nights a week on 6 fields and 5 games a night per field. On friday nights there even have 11 o'clock start times for games so there us 6 games a night on each field. I'm sure the fact that it is a BLD complex has a lot to do with the amount of teams playing all the time.

Tourney's on the other hand has been on the decline big time in the last 10 years. When I started playing tourney ball 10 years ago a tourney there would be 6-10 B/C teams, 20-30 D teams, and more E teams than you could count. No there is pretty much no teams above C with the exception of Classic Glass and they dont even play locally very much anymore. 10 teams in D is a great weekend and E has about 8-16 teams or so. Even NIT's and State tourneys dont draw more teams than that on a consistent basis.

Tried to put together a little team for a tourney a month or so ago. Tried to enter 3 separate D tourneys and they all folded. One was still on but we had one dude who a C* and they wouldn't let him play. Well he ended up flaking anyway so we settle on an E tourney and these dudes were hitting 400 ft DBO's lol. 1 homerun per inning and these "E" players were still hitting them out on accident for dbo's. Meeh, we still had fun, went 1-3 but im glad all the D tournaments fell through

 

[NorCal5150]

Tried to put together a little team for a tourney a month or so ago. Tried to enter 3 separate D tourneys and they all folded. One was still on but we had one dude who a C* and they wouldn't let him play. So we settle on an E tourney and these dudes were hitting 400 ft DBO's lol. 1 homerun per inning and these "E" players were still hitting them out on accident for dbo's. Meeh, we still had fun, went 1-3 but im glad all the D tournaments fell through

Ya thats pretty typical in NorCal. You would think these directors would want to get on the same page around here instead of 6 different guys trying to run tourneys within an hour of each other. There is maybe 25 D teams that play on a consistent basis. With so many options its just impossible to have any decent size tourneys. Now that is hard for D teams to find tourneys a lot of those teams are getting reclassed to E so that can play more. That when you end up with E teams hitting all kinds of DBO's. I personally think if the directors would get on the same page instead of stepping on each other we would have a lot more teams at tourneys. But most of those guys can care less about the game and just want to make as much money as possible..

 

[Madbeers]

this is an interesting conversation. i've been around this game my whole life starting in 1979 when i was 2 and went to houston to watch my dad play. i was a bat boy until 16 and then my dad let me fill in on his league team. he played from 1968-2000. luckily i got to play with him for the last couple years on the same tourney team. he was interviewed when he got done by a radio station up here and he attributes the decline of softball to hr rules and the new bats. think about what two tourneys at the highest level are the most fun.. the smokey mtn classic ( unlimited homers) and the major world series.. hit what you can. even us scrubs have the most fun playing in unlimited homerun tourney's. go get the best 5 or 6 kids fresh out of college who played hs baseball.. tell them to come play softball but you can't hit a hr. they will look at you like you have 5 heads.

the cheating with the bats, and sponsors not being able to get a 1 for 1 tax deduction for their sponsorship are also big reasons.

The thread can be ended after this.

 

[joncon]

I don't think it is dying here.

Although some leagues have fewer teams than 10 years ago but there are also many more parks that have opened up. Tournament ball seems to be as strong as it was a decade ago, but I'm only guessing.

 

[matte22]

softball dead

yep. went from 3 mens league to one with 7 teams and thats in city. doesnt count small town league that also folded.been playin over 20 years same ol same ol:wtf2:

 

[matte22]

Nice!!! I still enjoy this game.

beer and softball ............perfect....:biggthumpup:

 

[AttaBoyShort]

^^^ everything else is uncivilized ^^^

 

[kingaj99]

Thats what kills leagues now is a loaded league team that beats up on the new teams and they either quit or dont come back....plus alot of dbag in arm sleeves and flat brims

Good thing there aren't teams like this in the leagues I play in... that would suck.

 

[Redsvt00]

You are that guy

 

[chrometip78]

Tried to put together a little team for a tourney a month or so ago. Tried to enter 3 separate D tourneys and they all folded. One was still on but we had one dude who a C* and they wouldn't let him play. Well he ended up flaking anyway so we settle on an E tourney and these dudes were hitting 400 ft DBO's lol. 1 homerun per inning and these "E" players were still hitting them out on accident for dbo's. Meeh, we still had fun, went 1-3 but im glad all the D tournaments fell through

Where was that E tourney you played?

 

[adkins1203]

Eastern Ohio has lost almost all softball. Have to go to PA to play league and for tournament ball have to drive an hour and half to Cleveland. When I grew up watching family play you could get a different league every night within a half hour. Baseball is also on the decline with specialization and I think that's carrying over to softball in adulthood.