Why 8 fields for baseball? Why not just four?

[davidlimbaugh]

If 2005 Spring Fling Baseball was in Murfreesboro this year and I was in charge....

 

hmmm......

 

AAA at MTSU

 

WEDNESDAY

 

10:0am G1 Houston 9 vs Tullahoma 2

 

1:00pm G2 Farragut 6 vs Franklin 1

 

4:00pm G3 Knox Halls 2 vs Riverdale 0

 

7:00pm G4 Overton 6 vs Collierville 4

 

THURSDAY

 

10:00am G5 Tullahoma 8 vs Franklin 7

 

1:00pm G6 Riverdale 0 vs Collierville 6

 

4:00pm G7 Houston 10 vs Farragut 7

 

7:00pm G8 Overton 13 vs Knox Halls 3

 

FRIDAY

 

10:00am G9 Farragut 2 vs Tullahoma 1

 

1:00pm G10 Knox Halls 0 vs Collierville 2

 

4:00pm G11 Houston 12 vs Farragut 0

 

7:00pm G12 Overton 11 vs Collierville 7

 

SATURDAY

 

1:00 or 4:00 G13 and or G14 if neccessary

 

SUNDAY 7:00 AAA Championship Game

 

Rinse and Repeat for AA, A and DII at

 

Riverdale, Oakland and Blackman

 

with Championship SUNDAY games all

at MTSU. Why Sunday? With some Saturday dates open and

Monday is a holiday if it Rains and because Pitchers NEED REST.

 

With Friday being day to win or else, waiting until Wednesday

gives them another day of rest. Waiting from Wednesday to Sunday

gives them one more day of rest.

 

This is being played 'for the kids' isn't it??? And if you are a

second baseman or leftfielder, wouldn't you have more fun playing

with your ace as much as possible and also facing the other teams'

as well???

 

With this format everyone gets to see as much baseball as they

want to. Less ticket taker-upper locations, concessions stands to

run and the list goes on and on...

 

What do ya think???

 

Combine this with the Limbaugh playoff plan and

it would make for two fun weeks of baseball.

And to quote Willie Stargell, "It is called Play Ball

after all, not Work Ball."

Edited May 29, 2005 by davidlimbaugh

[mtsugrad05]

who cares its over

[Game Time]

who cares its over

825684187[/snapback]

 

 

I do! Agreed and you should be a consultant to the TSSAA.

[davidlimbaugh]

I do! Agreed and you should be a consultant to the TSSAA.

825684188[/snapback]

 

thanks for the kind words...

 

I try

 

They can't even understand why their link,

 

http://www.tssaa.org/2004Champions/Saturday.htm

 

is wrong.

 

Isn't this 2005 after all????

[Opperman]

with Championship SUNDAY games all at MTSU.  Why Sunday?  With some Saturday dates open and Monday is a holiday if it Rains and because Pitchers NEED REST.

 

With Friday being day to win or else, waiting until Wednesday gives them another day of rest.  Waiting from Wednesday to Sunday gives them one more day of rest.

 

With this format everyone gets to see as much baseball as they want to.  Less ticket taker-upper locations, concessions stands to run and the list goes on and on...

825684110[/snapback]

 

The TSSAA sets the dates and times for the games. So in effect, they're the ones requiring an 8-field setup.

 

Also, I think people will complain about the extra hotel cost if you extend the tournament an extra day.

[Bball4life234]

If people complain about an extra day, which i am assuming would be the championship game, then they are crazy i would pay 62 extra dollars to play in the finals

[CoachT]

Nobody else who bid on the Spring Fling three years ago thought that you could expand to 32 teams in baseball, 8 in each class including DII, except for Memphis. That was one of the main drawing points for Memphis. Why was it such a big deal that Chattanooga, for example, didn't think they could do it? Was it the number of extra volunteers it would take or the quality of the fields available or what?

[davidlimbaugh]

Nobody else who bid on the Spring Fling three years ago thought that you could expand to 32 teams in baseball, 8 in each class including DII, except for Memphis. That was one of the main drawing points for Memphis. Why was it such a big deal that Chattanooga, for example, didn't think they could do it? Was it the number of extra volunteers it would take or the quality of the fields available or what?

825684217[/snapback]

 

We have gone from 32 to 40 teams in The Warrior Classic that past two years. We had rain this year and no extra days and still got a lot of games in.....

[riverdaleman]

I like your plans limbaugh but i would like to add that in case of rain there are a fw extra feilds still in rutherford county that we could use for a back up plan you can use MTSU, RIVERDALE, oakland, blackman. With your back feilds being lavergne and smyrna and...in about 3 years i have faith in the seigal coaches that they will have their feild in superb shape for another feild to use no one would even have to leave rutherford county same thing for the softball championships.

[cbg]

David

 

Some of your plan is good but parts of it are off base:

 

1. Yes, the 2 teams that play for a championship should play a best 2 of 3 series starting with 2 games on Friday (this will not happen because the T$$AA will not be willing to spend the extra money)

2. No, the championship games should not be played with the current format on Saturday so that people can throw their ace. Coaches know the format going into the tournament and need to plan accordingly. It didn't seem to hurt the Lea kid from Houston but I would not have thrown him after using him on Tuesday. Coaches need to understand that a 3 man rotation will not win a state championship, they probably need 6 players that can throw strikes to give them a chance.

3. Several schools have graduation on the Saturday evening after Spring Fling and the various school boards do not seem to be willing to change the dates due to athletic events. Kids do need to participate in all of the graduation exercises and if you want to make 99.9% of the mothers mad just tell them that little Johnny will be playing baseball and will not walk at graduation. You can't beat city hall and don't even think of picking a fight with baseball moms.

Edited May 30, 2005 by cbg

[davidlimbaugh]

David

 

Some of your plan is good but parts of it are off base:

 

1.  Yes, the 2 teams that play for a championship should play a best 2 of 3 series starting with 2 games on Friday (this will not happen because the T$$AA will not be willing to spend the extra money)

 

I am not advocating 2 out of 3 - the 'if necessary games' are if the losers bracket winner beats the winners bracket team the first game.

 

2.  No, the championship games should not be played with the current format on Saturday so that people can throw their ace.  Coaches know the format going into the tournament and need to plan accordingly.  It didn't seem to hurt the Lea kid from Houston but I would not have thrown him after using him on Tuesday.  Coaches need to understand that a 3 man rotation will not win a state championship, they probably need 6 players that can throw strikes to give them a chance.

 

IMHO, ANY baseball tournament should be of such a length that #1 can throw the first and last day. That is just the way I was raised I guess

 

3.  Several schools have graduation on the Saturday evening after Spring Fling and the various school boards do not seem to be willing to change the dates due to athletic events.  Kids do need to participate in all of the graduation exercises and if you want to make 99.9% of the mothers mad just tell them that little Johnny will be playing baseball and will not walk at graduation.  You can't beat city hall and don't even think of picking a fight with baseball moms.

 

Graduation is an issue for all spring sports, through out the playoff season. And yes, some moms and grandmas get a tad upset from year to year. But NO scheduling will ever take this out of spring sports.

[ksgovols]

Graduation seems to be an obstacle no matter how you slice it. Milan's fans were ticked that Harpeth wouldn't move the game up to 2:00 P.M. at sectionals while that Friday was a normal school day for Harpeth and their graduation was the next Friday. Sycamore's was Sunday. There's no consistency with the school years or even the day that graduation will occur at different schools in the same county. I contend that graduation is more for the moms and grandmas anyway. The players will remember going to state with the select few that went, while almost every warm body graduates from high school sooner or later. It's not that big a deal.

 

My preference would be to extend the regular season to the end of May and then play tournaments during the first 2 weeks of June. Summer ball and showcases would move to the end of June and July. Yeah, tournaments would be after graduation...........So! Each school could schedule around graduation or the vast majority could and the high school coaches would have the kids a few more weeks in the summer. Alot of high school kids play summer ball for the high school coach already. What's the difference?