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bballubet
17 Posts |
 Posted - 10/26/2011 : 06:52:38
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Being new to the travel baseball world, would you all mind shedding some light on the different types of tournaments available (below), particularly the pros and cons of each one. Also, if there are some I have missed, please let us know those as well.
We play 9U in the Northwest Georgia area. We appreciate your help!
USSSA – United States Specialty Sports Association
USTSA – United States Travel Sports Association
GSA - Global Sports Authority
Nations Baseball
Triple Crown
Grand Slam
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TAZ980002
831 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2011 : 08:50:02
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Here's my take on them:
USSSA - the biggest nationwide - doesn't mean it runs the best tournaments though. Does provide variety of competition depending on the tournament director, size of tournament and so forth. If you are a major team, you would definitely find the best competition at one of their Super NIT's.
USTSA - never played one of their tournaments
GSA - played in one of their tournaments. Well run tournament but there were only 4 teams in the tournament and the competition was not strong.
Nations - Shannon Ivey in Winder runs one of the best tournaments around. The only knock on them is the level of competition isn't always good if you are a major team. Otherwise, great tournaments.
Triple Crown - consistently the best run tournaments with the best competition in my opinion. Tony Vandolteren runs the ones in Marietta/Kennesaw and besides an occasional bad umpire, I can't think of a reason not to play in one of his tournaments. Competition is always great and he splits into gold and silver brackets to allow good competition for all levels.
Grand Slam - well run tournaments with the COOLEST 1st place trophies. These things are made of 4 real wooden bats and they stand better than 5' tall. Most of these are held in Macon or south of there. Competition level is hit or miss if you are a major team. Otherwise, great tournaments to attend.
Hope this helps a little. Feel free to send me an email if you have any other questions. |
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in_the_know
985 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2011 : 11:03:42
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A few additional comments to Hawk's.
USSSA - think of them as a franchise with few controls. That is, anyone can choose to host a tournament and then list it as a USSSA event by paying USSSA a fee. What this gets you as a customer are the points that USSSA use for rankings and pool seeding as well as the umbrella of the USSSA rules. Otherwise, the tournament director dictates how well any tournament itself may or may not be run. If you are interested in qualifying for the Elite 32, then you will be required to do so through one of USSSA qualifiers. By way of example, the Forsyth Slugfest tournament each spring was previously run as a USSSA event. Last year they (Slugfest) chose to hire Triple Crown to run this tournament, so it's now played with Tony VonD as the TD and under TC rules.
USTSA - Ditto, small in southeast. May grow to something, but not a player in major travel around north Georgia today.
GSA - Same as USTSA
Nations - Shannon does do a great job. Tourneys in Winder haven't typically gotten the concentration of talent. Their qualifier for the Memorial Day tournament will attract deeper pools of talent. Nations is a BIG player in Texas, but still in its infancy around Georgia.
Triple Crown - By comparison to USSSA, I liken it to a stongly controlled franchise (think Chick-fil-a). Always consistent, well run, you'll pay a bit more but you get something in return. Tourney's in north GA are typically hosted all over metro Atlanta. Consistently attracts the largest and deepest talent for their tournaments.
Grand Slam - Ditto to Hawk's take
With respect to umpires, people need to understand that there is something of a cartel mentality. NUA is pretty much the lead player and Stros would be the godfather. Bodies such as Triple Crown will contract with them to provide umpires for their tournaments. Much of this is driven by the parks used (i.e., ECB uses NUA). The TD becomes somewhat at the mercy of what umpires are sent. This is hit or miss depending on what's going on with tournaments across the country. The umpires sent to Atlanta this past weekend were probably the consistently worst I've seen in the past 5 years across the 3 different age groups I'm involved in. As I understand it, some of the TD's hands are tied based on where the games are being played (i.e., ECB). Maybe Tony can provide deeper insight if he wishes. I believe the smaller tournaments hosted in rec parks have a bit more freedom in choosing their umpires.
quote:
Originally posted by Bandit_Hawk
Here's my take on them:
USSSA - the biggest nationwide - doesn't mean it runs the best tournaments though. Does provide variety of competition depending on the tournament director, size of tournament and so forth. If you are a major team, you would definitely find the best competition at one of their Super NIT's.
USTSA - never played one of their tournaments
GSA - played in one of their tournaments. Well run tournament but there were only 4 teams in the tournament and the competition was not strong.
Nations - Shannon Ivey in Winder runs one of the best tournaments around. The only knock on them is the level of competition isn't always good if you are a major team. Otherwise, great tournaments.
Triple Crown - consistently the best run tournaments with the best competition in my opinion. Tony Vandolteren runs the ones in Marietta/Kennesaw and besides an occasional bad umpire, I can't think of a reason not to play in one of his tournaments. Competition is always great and he splits into gold and silver brackets to allow good competition for all levels.
Grand Slam - well run tournaments with the COOLEST 1st place trophies. These things are made of 4 real wooden bats and they stand better than 5' tall. Most of these are held in Macon or south of there. Competition level is hit or miss if you are a major team. Otherwise, great tournaments to attend.
Hope this helps a little. Feel free to send me an email if you have any other questions.
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bballubet
17 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2011 : 22:22:47
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Thanks Bandit Hawk and In The Know! We appreciate your insight and observations.
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sirlurker
187 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2011 : 01:05:43
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BPA is also an organization that runs tournaments in GA - mostly out of Dalton for lesser teams....
CABA is an organization not well known here yet but they do have World Series events at the end of the year for most ages and usually pretty competitive teams -
Don't have much to add - I think it has been fairly discussed so far but I would offer this advice - Decide where you want to end up your year in the beginning of the season - each of these organizations have end of year "world series" types of events in various locations. Where you want to end the year will determine where you want to concentrate on playing. Also, realistically assess your team....In my opinion you have the Majors/Elites teams, the AAA teams, then everyone else with varying levels of competition. Luckily in Georgia you can find tournaments and organizations for just about any level of baseball
I would also add that the Tournament Index here does a great job of listing Georgia tournaments..get to know where it is... |
Edited by - sirlurker on 10/27/2011 08:36:42 |
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budfrog1
53 Posts |
Posted - 10/28/2011 : 09:27:32
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| As the owner of Grand Slam Sports Tournaments, INC......THANK YOU to you guys for the nice comments about our events. We try to run a first class event EVERY SINGLE TIME and yes, our trophies are second to NONE! They are AWESOME! Most of our events are in LaGrange, Georgia, Flowery Branch, Georgia, Snellville, Georgia and hopefully soon to come in 2012, Ringgold, Georgia. We of course hole our major events including our huge World Series events in Panama City Beach, Florida. We have also just launched Grand Slam ALABAMA and Jarrod Kingrey is doing a great job with events in the state of Alabama. THANK YOU ALL for your support of Grand Slam! |
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Tournament Sanctioning Bodies
