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stevebrewster
26 Posts |
 Posted - 03/28/2012 : 00:10:37
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My 9 year old team recently had to play 5 games back to back to back to back to back with only a 15 minute break in between games.
This only put us in the finals in which we would have to win 2 more games to win the title. It was already 10pm on a Sunday night.
Therefore, if we played in the finals, we would have finished the first game of the finals around 11pm and if we won the first game, the second game of the finals would have ended around 12:15 at night and then after the trophy ceremony, we would have finished around 12:45 at night and then a 1 hour 15 minutes drive home puts us at home at 2:00am and then shower would have out the kids in bed at 2:30am AND they have school the next day. That would have been 7 games back to back without a break.
Bottom line, after we played 10 1/2 hours of playing to get to the finals at 10 pm, I let the 9 year olds vote whether to play or not in the finals or go home. Since the vote was 5-5 with 3 kids in tears to go home, we had to forfeit the finals.
A couple of questions, is it right or even safe to require kids to play 7 games in a row in one day?
Was I wrong by allowing our kids to vote to keep playing?
The tournament director was ticked off that the kids voted not to play any longer.
When is it too much? Have u ever heard of a team being required to play 7 games in one day w/o a break? |
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funnyhop
74 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 08:40:14
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Never have heard of such a ridiculous scenario.
Travel ball is getting way out of whack if this is happening. Keep that pace up and the kids will hate baseball by 10 years old.
The Highschool format is very good. 2 or 3 games a week. Practice every day (M-F, sometimes on Saturday). A single game or doubleheader. Great playing surfaces. Decent umpiring.
None of the crazy 5 games a day stuff and most of the kids are able to write the next day at school.
The NWBA organization puts together leagues for most of the age groups. It makes total sense to run a league in this fashion. You can still have travel teams compete at the highest level without total burnout. Problem is, not everybody has bought in to the concept.
I guess the $600 / tourney fees, gate fees, 10 hour days at the ballpark, gas, lodging (sometimes), and burnout is all worth it. After all, the kids get to come home with a nice shiny plastic trophy or towel.
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ATLDEE
41 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 08:46:12
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| Wow that is alot of games for one day...let me asked were the games on Saturday delayed or moved to Sunday. That has to put alot of stress on the kids and the parents not to mention pitching had to be about tapped out. Were any of the game 3 inning abbreviated games because of the time it just seems strange to me to play that many full games in one day... |
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ATLawman
32 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 08:52:38
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| Letting the kids vote was a kind gesture. Next time if you feel like enough is enough, just forfeit and go home. They're 9. Playing that much in one day is completely ridiculous. I think it falls on the TD's. They allow too many teams into some of these tournaments, most likely to get a big payday. If there are any delays at all, and there usually are, then everything gets out of wack. I liked the SNIT which only allowed a certain number of teams to earn the right to advance to Sunday play, rather than alot of tournaments where, everyone plays on sunday. That also keeps teams from laying down during pool play and saving everything they've got for the bracket. But to get back to the original post. Starting any ball game, let alone a 9u game after 7 to 7:30pm on a school night should never be allowed. |
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ripacad
4 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 09:45:08
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| The answer is 3. A quarter, a semi, and a final. After three or four, heck after one game, kids start to tire. If kids are tired they are in a greater danger of getting hurt (see posts about bat rules). As ATLawman states, know your guys and when YOU feel enough is enough go home, could be 2 games could be 5 games. I am sure you don't vote about who is pitching. |
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excoach12
159 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 09:49:55
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The only other time I have heard of this was Cooperstown after a rain delay the day before.
There is no reason for that many games in a day or to start that late.
We are hosting a tourney this weekend and had to limit the # of teams due to field space limitations or else we would have had the Ship starting at 9:30pm. We felt that was too late even though there is no school Monday due to spring break.
I 100% feel the TD was hoping a team would forfeit and probably hoped it would have happened sooner.
Not sure if I would have asked the kids to vote. I think as the manager you just make the decision for the team and explain to the players and families that it was wrong to play that many games in a day and you are worried for their health and sensitive of their school commitments. But just my opinion, not really relevant...... |
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SavannahBulldog
50 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 09:59:43
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| You routinely find these ONE DAY "Iron Man" tournaments in South GA because parents do not want to play on Sundays. And you are correct the TD's cram as many teams into these tournaments for a big payday. You start at 9:00am and if you make the finals you play at 4-6 games in one day and you will be lucky to get home before midnight. I don't think you see the best baseball possible out of these kids after three games in one day. In those last couple of games the kids are exhausted mentally and physically and it just doesn't seem real fun for them at that point. There is a one day in Waycross, GA this weekend with 9 teams in the 10u, 7 in the 11u, 10 in the 12u, and 7 in the 13/14u. That's a lot of baseball in one day...going to be some late games played and some tired arms. Never really seen any pitching restrictions enforced at these tournaments. |
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baseballpapa
1520 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 10:13:06
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| Requiring a 9 year old team to play 7 games in one day is completely ridiculous and borders on stupidity. The TD can get ticked off all he wants but if this was Papa he would too busy spitting out tar and feather's and being ticked off would be the least of his problems. And just to be sure he was good and ticked off we could place him on a rail and take him somewhere that will allow this type stupid behavior. I am sure that someone will mention what organization did this so other's can avoid future tournaments that he plans on using this same format. 7 games back to back for a 9 year old. You have got to be kidding. It has been hard to stir you guys up this year on the forum but I am sure that they will be much to be said about this scenario. |
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ChinMusic
126 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 10:18:39
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Most we've even done on a Sunday is 5, which was brutal. 7 games is ridiculous.
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Steel Bats
15 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 10:45:42
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Believe it or not, our 11 under and 12 under teams had this happen to us twice in the last two years....both times were in the Nations tournaments in Cumming towards the end of Spring. Both were double elimination tournaments.
Two years ago, because we lost games early on, we played 4 games back to back on Saturday. We then went on a winning streak and won all the rest until the final on Sunday. On Sunday, we played 5 games back to back, losing in the Finals to the Midway Dirty Dawgs. They still had a loss to give, so we would have had to beat them twice, requiring another game......9 games in two days and it was HOT that weekend....right around 90.
Last year, we started play on Friday night and by Saturday morning, we had again put ourselves in a hole early in the tournament. On Saturday and Sunday, we played all of our games (except once I believe) back to back....we ended up losing to Home Plate Black in the semi-finals and we came in 4th....we ended up playing 11 games in 3 days....WOW!
Lots and lots of Monkey Butt used those two weekends! |
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billbclk
164 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 11:16:59
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| The coach needs to decide. Once you get into summer/fall Varsity Travel Ball teams will often forfeit sunday games if they have to play three games or they will forfeit games because of Home Coming or footbal games (eventhough without football players on the team). NO ONE should play 5 games in one day. I played three games alot of times and I can't ever remember winning that third game. |
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AllStar
762 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 12:56:29
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| Three max. |
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stevebrewster
26 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 15:16:07
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To answer some of the questions, we were suppose to play 2 games on Saturday but bc of rain, we only were able to play one game.
They were LONG games- No new inning after 80 minutes. Everyone of our games went the distance including our semi-final game (5th game of the day) that went into extra innings. (We came back from 8-0 to win the game!)
I don't want to mention where this tournament was but I did think requiring 9 year olds to play 7 full games in a day is excessive.
I had 6 kids in absolute tears. 3 bc they were completely exhausted and wanted to go home and 3 bc they wanted to keep playing to win first place.
Only 4 kids were able to school the next day on time bc they were so tired and sore.
Needless to say, we took the next weekend off. |
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RACGOFAR
208 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 15:17:17
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| Played 5 Sunday games in this year and last year's ATL SNIT. Have also played at ECB where we had to play 2 pools and start bracket on Saturday and played 4 games on saturday and were done in a 4 day event. You need a big roster (11+) to play more than 3 games in a day in my opinion. I can see why teams would carry 15-18 kids on a roster of they are chasing SNIT/ELITE qualifiers. These big events often seem like they are determined by who has the freshest roster. |
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BREAMKING
323 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2012 : 00:36:55
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| I do not know of any 9u teams really having enough players to make a lot of games in a row. These tournaments are rough on pitchers. |
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C. MORTON
1051 Posts |
Posted - 04/03/2012 : 16:14:30
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| It was the only tournament that made that weekend and everyone got one pool game because of the rain. The TD gave the option of single or double elimination on Sunday and double was chosen. I am assuming double was chosen so everyone could have the 3 games that they paid for. He gives the option you choose double and now he is the bad guy. Sounds like to me someone want the most bang for their buck and got more than they wanted. Didn't you guys also have the option to leave, but wanted to keep playing for the hardware? |
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stevebrewster
26 Posts |
Posted - 04/03/2012 : 18:48:05
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We were NEVER given the option for single or double elimination.
They wanted us to forfeit in the semi's and they would give us second place. We didn't want to be given anything. We told the TD that we wanted to play the semi's, and see how the kids were doing physically and mentally after that game and we would decide.
So we played the semis and won. It was almost 10pm on a school night, we've been playing 10 1/2 hours straight and had an 1:15 hour drive home. I let the kids decide if we would continue. The vote was 5-5 with 3 in tears begging to go home. So we couldn't continue with only 5 players. We played until the 9 year olds physically could not play anymore.
(I never mentioned the tournament or even the city where it was played. I never badmouthed the tournament. They did an INCREDIBLE job of getting the fields ready for play. My only complaint is that you shouldn't schedule a team to play 7 games in a row, especially when each game 80+ minutes long. Judging from the comments, it sounds like most people agree.) |
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C. MORTON
1051 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 00:52:50
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| Yea most do agree. When looking at bracket play with double elimination one has to know about when the games are going to end. If he gave you the option of having 2nd and you still chose to play on. You didn't want to be given 2nd place but in the end you did what he said you could do EARLIER and take 2nd and go home. No big deal on his end as he didn't schudle 7 games. That's how the brackets played out for double elimination. And if the 9 yr olds would have said lets keep playing coach would you have let them keep playing until they won or lost? |
Edited by - C. MORTON on 04/04/2012 08:28:23 |
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stevebrewster
26 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 10:00:59
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If the kids voted to keep playing, we would have kept playing. I think it would have helped if the games were shortened to one hour instead of 80 minutes.
If the first game doesn't start until 11:30am, it is almost impossible to have enough time for one team to be able to play 7 (80+ minute) games in one day on a school night. That is the only mistake that the TD made.
In the end we did get second and go home, but we EARNED second place. We eliminated all but one team and the one team we didn't eliminate, we defeated the only time we played them on the first day of the tournament. If we left before, we wouldn't have earned second place. We would have been GIVEN second place and that wouldn't have meant anything to our kids.
Overall, it was a positive experience for our kids. We got to play a lot of baseball and came back to win after being down 8-0. The umpires were good, the concessions were good, and the crew worked VERY HARD to make the fields playable. |
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blowinsmoke
61 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 10:09:10
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| Papa, how many games did the Bandits play on sunday when they was 9 in the ATL.super nit, it was a bunch , do you remember how mamny? |
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baseballpapa
1520 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 18:45:00
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| If I remember correctly it was 9 games in one day but I also remember that the games were shortened to 3-4 innings, I can't remember which. If I am not mistaken it was after 1AM when we finished. This was the Bandits first Super NIT win and you would think I would remember more but evidently alzheimer's and old age has affected my memory. In a way it is ironic as I can recall every defeat handed to my Bandits much more vivid than I remember the wins. |
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stevebrewster
26 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 23:53:00
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| Papa, come see some of our levee games. We will make u our honorary coach. We play Thursday at 7:00 and Thursday April 12 at 5:30 and Saturday April 14 at noon. |
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What is the max # of games played in 1 day?
