BallFourBaseHit

Should be lots of fun. One last hurrah for some great kids before they head off to college. Many thanks to the Diamond Jaxx for making this happen.

How do the rules account for last night's Oakland vs. USJ game?

A word to Lexington players and fans -- do yourselves a favor, and give it a rest. Continue to work hard. Let what you do on the field speak for itself. My prediction is that if this stuff doesn't quit, there will be far more Lexington haters than lovers before the season is out. Better to go into the playoffs under the radar. And next year -- if you want to really measure the strength of your team, choose better early season tournaments. For example -- Lewis Harris and the Warrior Classic. As has been well-documented, the strength of your schedule this year so far is very questionable. JMO

PageMan - Daniel Grimm will be joining Clayton Gant as a returning senior next year ... and believe me, not because he failed any classes (he does as good a job in the classroom as he does on the ballfield). The TSSAA program had him listed as a Sr., but he is only a Jr. thanks for your great reports ... we all enjoyed reading them. An congrats to the Bruins. You guys left it all on the field. Looking forward already to next year!

Has my vote. What a great idea: best out of three series ... and games on Friday night and Saturday so no need to leave school early during the week at end of the semester to travel. Also has to be great for parents who work! Seems like a great approach once regionals begins.

Great game Bruins ... truly a team win. Timely hitting, solid defense and strong pitching. Up and down the line-up, everyone contributed something to this one! Stay focused and good things will happen.

Another example of someone creating an account on CoachT just to take a shot at another school. Come on CoachT - reveal the identity of this guy if he won't do it himself. He obviously hasn't learned his lesson since his first post was locked. /dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

Any updates on the weather in Ripley? Does it look like there will be a game tonight?

Congrats to Clayton Gant on a great game. He held a very good hitting squad of Ripley Tigers to just 3 hits in six innings ... he also registered 8 Ks. Way to go #1.

9th grader, Preston Overbey, threw for USJ ... kept Covington off balance all night ... 6 strikeouts, 2 walks and only 4 hits. Great to see John Wills getting his swing back - 2 run HR and a bases loaded single to drive in the 10th run in the 6th inning. Covington looks young, but they can still play. Good luck to both teams tonight.

thanks for locking the post started by Red Rooster, but on behalf of many who have grown tired of individuals who continue using Coach T for the wrong purpose, I would ask that the powers that be delete that post - and this one for that matter. I would also ask that if individuals sign up one moment - as Red Rooster did - and post garbage the next, that their identies be revealed to the entire board. please ... use the board to criticize TSSAA ... use it to talk smack (nicely) about rivalries ... use it by all means to point out all the great stuff going on in high school baseball in Tennessee ... but stop using it as a forum to talk down individuals or programs. please.

Bigchief and Hoganknows - sorry ... but it does affect the summer. If there are no open facilities for spring sports until Jan 1, then how can kids use their high school hitting facilities during the summer? And before I hear from you private school bashers out there, be careful, most of the high school hitting facilities I have seen in the state are at public schools! and even if a school doesn't have an indoor hitting facility, won't this also technically apply to the use of the baseball or softball fields? of for that matter, the soccer fields? I guess we could just take down the gates to our fields and let unsupervised kids go it alone. " ... and give the kids and parents their lives back ... and bring back the 3 or 4 sport letterman." Did you really just write that? So they'll have more family time by playing 3 or 4 varsity sports than they will playing 1 sport? Sorry hogan but in this case you don't know what you're talking about. ... except that you do bring up an interesting point ... perhaps the football coaches are the only ones really liking these rule changes. After all, their sports are affected the least and if other sports don't get as much off season opportunity, maybe those kids will play football ... and end up swelling up to unhealthy weights ... and deal with debilitating injuries ... and end their promising baseball or basketball careers before they even get the chance to be the 3% earning college scholarships. But hey ... at least they'll get to spend more time with mom and dad ... maybe for the rest of their lives if they're really lucky. but that's just me flying off the handle again ...

That is just great ... have the morons at TSSAA compared these wonderful resolutions to other states? Do they realize that the net effect will be that our kids will fall behind the development of kids from other states as well as from the rich kids in TN? Do they even care what the implications will be for college scholarships? All they've done is given the independent - and ridiculously expensive - club teams opportunity to expand. If you're from a family who finds it impossible to shell out $2000 for a top-flight summer or fall program, you're out of luck. Way to go TSSAA - always looking out for the little guy -- you've even just given these folks a free pass to jack up prices! The TSSAA just gave us a lesson in supply and demand: sports academies and private facilities now have less competition. That's OK ... the kids from families with higher incomes ... the ones who can afford these programs ... they'll gladly shell it out. An oh yeah, they'll also appreciate the advantage they'll have in playing time ... since they will develop better skills quicker than their poorer classmates. And their parents, who can more easily afford college tuition, will appreciate the advantage their kids will get when competing for athletic scholarships. How naive for us to think it a good thing to pay our high school coaches a couple hundred dollars a player to teach, mentor and coach our kids in the summer. Boy ... am I ever glad that the TSSAA put a stop to that criminal behavior. Sorry coach, it's back to working the early shift at UPS during the summer for you! And another thing ... if student-athletes have less days to work out, just what does the TSSAA think is going to happen to the length of practices when teams can finally get together? There goes that quality family time. Business tip - buy stock in your local health club - there will be a spike in memberships - paid by boosters who want to help kids succeed. TSSAA - are you just plain ignorant or what? Everyone in the world knows that the best way to keep kids from gangs, drugs, alcohol abuse, premarital sex, and a host of other distractions is to keep them busy doing things they love that are good for them. So what do you do? You give them more free time to get in trouble. Let's give them more time where they have no accountability to teammates or to coaches. Let's keep fooling ourselves that mom and dad will be taking them out on vacation. Sorry ... mom and dad are busy working multiple jobs with split shirts just to keep from defaulting on mortgages so they can pay minimum payments on their credit cards. Just what does TSSAA stand for anyways? Tennessean Stupidity Stifling Athletic Achievement? Morons ... just a bunch of morons!!

USJ vs. Dyersburg at USJ. 4:00 p.m. Go Bruins!

With a daughter that plays softball, I'm well aware of the differences between the pace of play, field dimensions, , pitching staffs, etc. Even still, I'm not convinced this requires a different format for state championship. Keep trying though ..

I believe if you compare the baseball and softball brackets, you'll see they start with the same number of teams. As for the number of games, they play the same number except when they need to go to double elimination in the finals, as TCA and Columbia did this year.

I understand that the pitching motion for softball creates less strain on an arm than the pitching motion in baseball. Still ... it doesn't seem consistent. If there is enough time to finish softball on Saturday ... then let's finish baseball also on Saturday if necessary. If any team is allowed a loss, all teams should be allowed a loss. JMO.

OK ... last I checked, both sports use pitchers ...

Can anyone tell me why softball uses double elimination all the way through the finals and baseball goes to single elimination for the finals?

USJ all the way!

Is there anyone who can explain why the AA game reports appear as they do? These reports are a great way to be able to inform fans, out-of-town relatives, and others about the games, especially when they are not on the radio or available on-line. They are also kept by TSSAA as part of the historical record. For example, if anyone is interested, here's last year's AA championship: http://tssaa.org/2004Champions/StateBaseba...ssAA/Game15.htm. As of right now, all Single A, AAA and DII games are posted using Automated Scorekeeper. AA games in Columbia are reported - albeit in abbreviated fashion - while the game reports for the Murfreesboro AA games are not posted at all. Come on ... we can do better than that.

Single A game reports look great: http://www.tssaa.org/2005Champions/StateBa...lassA/Game1.htm AAA game reports look great: http://www.tssaa.org/2005Champions/StateBa...ssAAA/Game1.htm AA game reports look ridiculous: http://www.tssaa.org/2005Champions/StateBa...assAA/Game1.htm What's the deal? you can't tell anything from the AA game reports.

Anybody know the time of tonight's game?

It wasn't just the fireworks - although that was bad enough. It was the agressive behavior demonstrated toward the opposing player - whether language, beating on cars, or kicking the fence - that affected the play. Think of it this way. The catcher attempts to field a pop up back to the fence and the opposing fans cuss him out, shake the backstop, and attempt to rattle him. What would blue do? I think we know. Why is this behavior tolerated just because it is behind the center field fence?

Sorry Tater - if you read SallyMae's post again, you'll note she is not a USJer. But maybe you're part of the redneck crew ... As for the behavior in center - there was at least one play that was affected. A covington player hit a shot to dead center that the USJ center fielder nearly caught close to the wall - despite the worst of the worst behavior from the rednecks. I for one believe the center fielder makes the catch if he isn't worried about what the rednecks are going to do. And as I recall, a run scored as a result of this play. So - if you're one of the idiots out there - show some class. Covington is too good a team to have this kind of garbage going on.