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22202
263 Posts |
 Posted - 10/25/2010 : 13:31:17
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| As you can see from my post count, I am a newbie! With that said my son has played a couple of fall tournaments and we are having a blast! Great family time as well! My question/remark is, is it common for teams to sign up to play and then at the last minute dump out because a certain team signed up also? Do coaches really try to find tourneys that they want to dominate instead of try to find really good competition and compete? What does that say about them? I know I sound naive but I thought I would open up the discussion. |
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baseballnutz
427 Posts |
Posted - 10/25/2010 : 16:05:24
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| It happens but more often TD's list teams that may not be committed to draw more teams in. |
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YellowBlack
5 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2010 : 15:03:06
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| Yes, it is common. When the unfortunate circumstance of a 'circus' team signs up for a tournament, several teams will typically find other competitive venues. |
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SSBuckeye
575 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2010 : 11:10:02
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| Define "circus" team. |
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travelballer55
18 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2010 : 10:56:56
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| Very common. I questioned same things as a dad, but the reality is that a lot of tournaments are advertised and never come off. In some cases, a tournament won't go off but the coaches won't be given notice by the tournament director until very late. Regarding your other question, if there is a stud team that is simply significantly better than others, then at times those teams could be persuaded not to enter (as other teams may drop out, rather than lose big). There are definitely teams out there that will 'play down' in order to dominate and build confidence for their players. Or possibly even competitive teams that prefer to win (and not be challenged) then to play to their level and lose in bracket play. USSSA does a good job at the younger ages (specifically 9U and up) getting teams playing within their sanction (AA, AAA, etc), but early on it's tough for folks to know who should be where. |
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22202
263 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2010 : 10:00:25
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| I'd still like to know the meaning of "circus team". Please explain. |
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baldy87
118 Posts |
Posted - 12/17/2010 : 14:02:44
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I can't speak to what a "circus" team is. I've seen that term referenced a couple of times on this blog, and I can assume that it's a team who consistently have an over-enthusiastic (read: obnoxious) fanbase and perhaps some questionable actions by coaches?????
At the 8U Coach Pitch level last year, there was definitely a TON of jockeying by both TDs and teams to avoid advertising that certain teams would be in a tourney. At 8U CP, there was much less of a chance of an upset over a favored team. So, it was much more common for a dominant team to go unbeaten for awhile. Thus, if your team wasn't one of those dominant teams, you didn't want to travel someplace to play in a tourney against those teams, because odds were overwhelming that you weren't going to beat them. In kid pitch, it's going to be a little different. Pitching and base-running are going to take on such significance that, though there will still be very strong teams, I don't think there's going to be one or two teams that just roll through everyone without a struggle.
I look at the Buzz's USSSA CP record of 30-2 (.938) last year. If their website is to be believed (and why would they lie?) they went something like 74-4-1 in all their games last year. That would be a winning pct of .937 over 79 games - Ridiculous. The next closest dominant CP team in GA was probably the Newnan Legends, who were 29-9 (.763) in USSSA. With respect to the Buzz, because I didn't experience any negativity when we played them and I don't think anyone considered them a "circus" team at all, most teams just didn't want to travel someplace to play for second place. And if it was advertised in advance that the Buzz would be in a tourney - that tourney wouldn't get a lot of traffic.
Compare that to the dominant records of Kid Pitch. The GA Raiders had a USSSA kid pitch record of 39-7 (.848) That's still an awesome record, but there were a couple of teams with USSSA records that were reasonably close to theirs - Yard Dogs (.816), Blue Jays (.784), Gamers Red (.727). This is our first year, so we don't know for sure, but apparently, pitching can be quite an equalizer. :) |
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