Usssa
 

I'm seeing this on the baseball board, too. More USSSA questions are being asked than in previous years. Does that mean USSSA is growing, or does that mean USSSA coaches and umpires are less knowledgeable than those in other sanctioning bodies?

Personally, I think it means that USSSA rules are more asinine than other organization rules.

Barring any major leadership changes or abnormal circumstances, I think most leagues stick with the rules they've got. As a result, the growth for most rule orgs is probably pretty level.

As for the quality of umpires, well... You have your good and bad across all orgs. Beyond that, I won't comment. ;)

Growing, at least around here, mid-Atlantic and apparently northeast. Tourneys that were PONY or NSA are now USSSA.

Acutally, a while back in North Texas USSSA was everywhere. Several of the complexes that either split ASA or USSSA for tournaments, or those that were straight USSSA seem to have primarily gone over to ASA totally again. Dunno what the reasoning was here.

Personally, I think that you are wrong. USSSA rules are almost a mirror copy of NFHS, and thus are very close to ASA. For the most part, all you have to remember is to take out the DP/FLEX and learn the rules for EP's and DH/DP. Learn one minor interference rule that almost never comes up, and you are ready to call the game.

USSSA is also expanding in West Michigan. We've gone from a couple tournaments to a dozen. ASA is almost non-existant, though several non-sanctioned tournaments use ASA rules. NSA has been the dominant sanctioning group in this area. (Speaking, of course - girl's FP)

WMB

BTW - their shirts are a lot cheaper. $19.95 for powder blue. And I think the red over grey is sharp.

I think the perception comes from the SP pitching rules, which looks more like a ballet than anything else. I can almost always spot a U-trip pitcher within their first 5 pitches.

USSSA SP rules used to parallel ASA rules a whole lot closer when I used to call it back in WI in 1995 and 1996. It had slightly different wording, but the effects of the rules were largely the same. Years later, USSSA branched out from SP into different levels of play and different sports as well.

And having worn the red shirt with the black shorts/pants for an all-weekend tournament in the summer heat, I can attest to the fact that red over black is a BAD choice. Do y'all still wear that?!

U-trip is the big slow pitch league in my little corner of the Twin Cities metro. I don't do slow pitch, so I don't know about other areas --- I just see the red shirts and dark colored sweat pants ;) (at least up until a couple of weeks ago... shorts, now) on the umpires as I drive by the slow pitch games.

It is virtually non-existent in fast pitch, except for some teams that sanction U-trip so they can play in the World Series (aka several states tournament). Mike, the translation of the name of the U-trip national is for your benefit! ;)

I've never really paid much attention to their rules, but I have wondered about an organization that apparently considers fastpitch to be a "specialty" sport!

U-Trip is fairly popular for slow pitch. Fast pitch is almost non-existant with ASA being the dominant sanction.

A local SP league I work in switched from USSSA to ASA last year and is going through some growing pains, especially in regard to bats. I've been throwing out a lot of bats during pre-game bat checks there were probably never meant to be used in ASA play.

In our area...

Fast Pitch - ASA. Basically everywhere. There is one USSSA FP guy in North Sacramento that I know of. Aside from that, ASA rules the FP roost.

Slow Pitch - City Leagues - ASA; Tournaments - USSSA.

Boys Baseball - USSSA.

The current situation regarding bats is ironic, considering U-trip brags on their web site that they were the first organization to establish bat performance standards. Now, virtually anything is seemingly legal in U-trip (caveat - I don't umpire in U-trip, so this is what I "hear").

Was it U-trip a couple of year ago that "banned" all of Louisville Slugger's bats, but the reason turned out to be LS had not paid the annual tribute to sanction the bats? (It had nothing to do with performance.)

For FP, USSSA has opened up the shirt choice to the state associations. You can purchase navy, powder blue, red, cream, and black shirts with the USSSA logo on them. The pants color is grey. I cannot speak for SP.

The cream is really nice in 100 degree weather. I only wear the red when my partner doesn't have the cream, which happened this weekend. Luckily it was a morning game and the temperature was only 80 degrees. :)