[greymule]

I noted that I could speak only for this area. Obviously the quality of play and of officiating varies from place to place, and of course in fast, modified, and slow there are lazy umps and dedicated umps, and umps who dress like slobs and umps who want to look as professional as they can. When the big eastern teams play each other in tournaments, umpiring is exacting and difficult. And yes, doing the bases isn't easy. But the township leagues don't even use BUs any more. Everything is a one-man affair.

Men's FP disappeared around here long ago. SP took over and flourished until the late 1990s. But slow deterioration over the past decade has put SP its deathbed.

Interest has dropped to the point where leagues that operated since before WW II have folded, and there are so few competitive teams that the townships are thinking of merging their few good teams into one league. A team made up mostly of guys I played with in my 20s and early 30s dominates the area. Thirty years ago, that was inconceivable for a bunch of guys in their 50s. So were forfeits for not having enough players. Today, they're routine.

So it's partly lack of interest from the young guys, partly that there was a lot less to do 30 years ago (no computer games, DVDs, web surfing, etc.), and partly that the equipment has turned what would have been 7-4 games into 37-34 games. The main county field has a 300-foot fence 10 feet high. When I played, 8 or 10 balls would go out all year, all by true sluggers, not pretenders. Several hundred people might attend a big game. Now, they have a 6-homer limit that teams exceed by the third inning (and nobody's watching). How much fun can that be?

It is true about the "pretenders"--the JV-level guys who strut around the bases after their Miken home runs. And it's also true that the teams they're on constantly try to sneak into a low level and steal a trophy.

Again--around here--SP is dying and boring and quite negative. I think many of the players are just going through the motions out of habit. I used to enjoy doing SP; now I just want the game to end. FP games are the opposite: lively and fun and positive.