Around here it is pretty much just USSSA or you can drive 2 hrs to play NSA, but USSSA is dying. Less and less teams playing E each year. Our upper program is non existent we have opens which are D and up and its the same 4 teams every weekend unless a couple don't play then the open gets cancelled cause no on wants to play a 2 team tourney. The only decent C team moved to conference because beating the same 4 local D teams wasn't fun anymore. I've been playing a long time, I see a lot of talented guys quitting the game and I don't see an equal amount of new talent coming up. For kids out of baseball I wonder if the idea that you can't hit home runs at all turns them off to softball. If softball was the way it is now in 1997 when I stopped playing baseball I probably wouldn't have played.
Hitting a home run doesn't make you good at softball. Instead of trying to use home runs to force people to move up, the directors really need to do their jobs and know the players and teams in their area and bump the players who have no business playing E which is supposed to be rec. Punishing home runs hasn't done anything other than turn big tournaments into poopy fests where guys who can mash are scared to swing hard. Every year I hear rumors that the rules are gonna change and they never do. I agree that E(rec) shouldn't have a worlds but it makes them so much money it will never change.
Agreed but while I'm a good E player I'm not good enough to play up and at 37 years old with a job, wife and kid I'm not getting better.
I agree with you 100% sir.
Every year we have an end of season meeting. i tell the director of the league the same thing. You need to come up with a classification system. It makes perfect sense,yet, not enough thought or energy is put into it. All of the players in the area know one another and it is not hard to figure out E,D,C etc players.
Another issue is that the directors that are hired are not only overseeing softball but they are in charge of other sports. Well which one generates the most revenue? that sport will get the most attention.
Another one.......
my town hosts an overnight E tournament.....
Well what is happening to the D,C,B and A teams? Well if they are a known team they can not play. Is there an overnight tournament dedicated to those players/teams? NOPE! so what would you do if you wanted to play and you are a D->A team/player? you change the name of your team or you go under a different name(player) no one is checking anyway so it does not matter. which goes back to the classification system that should be created.
There were 3 legit E teams at this overnight tournament that had no business being there!!!!!! Meaning, they were flat out aweful but, it was an E tournmanent though.
Will those crappy E teams that went to the overnighter come back next year? probably not. This is the reason why the game is dying.
Not enough thought is put into things like tournamanets. it will take the effort of many individuals to actually change the way things are being handled.