ASA Committee Meetings Underway
 

General Info

Background checks are going deeper and further.

Big push on the SP game, need to get Canada to change their rules to include stealing. ASA seems to be getting more involved in McQuade & Cincinnati tournaments.

SP Border Battle to include Great Britain & Ireland exhibition teams

6/27-7/2 WCOS - six teams

ASA Complex of Year - James I Moyer Softball Complex, Salem, VA

Bright Light Award (Musco Lighting) - CA Yard Sharks, Carmichael, CA

Umpire Staff

ASA 2012 exam will be web-based and tested by four states, Indiana, Maryland, Georgia & Arizona.

The Friday added to the National Schools has purpose. Attendees will be asked to take a 25 question test. They will be graded and thos missed the most will be discussed the following evening during the scheduled social.

Umpire registration fees will go up at least $5

ASA will be bringing out a new ASA pull-over umpire jacket which will include powder blue stripes on the shoulder.

Leveling the Playing Field

Demonstrations and discussion on the bats and balls. From the Q&A, there was no indication to support others' opinions that there will be any change.

They did demonstrate the "paper test" for rolled bats. Some interesting info concerning Rawlings (Worth/Miken) composite bats. They have added a thin layer of aluminum inside the composite bat which bends when rolled and creates a ripple in the surface of the barrel.

What now? Credit checks?

Feds have already cleared my background. I ain't worried, but... Yeah, we've beaten that one to death.

Got tired hearing the constant reference to the umpire in AZ who was arrested for taking two runaway teenagers to a hotel and leaving them money. The only reason he was caught was because the girls complained that he paid them with counterfeit money. Oh, BTW, they were not softball players, nor was this associated with softball in any way.

However, the moment it was mentioned he was an umpire, Chicken Little came to roost. The man DID clear TWO BIs, once again proving my point that background checks only catch those who have been caught and are not smart enough to avoid being caught again.

The excuse was that the previous conviction was too long ago and in another state. Forget about the fact that the individual provided an altered SSN & driver's license number.

Yeah, we just started doing BIs this year for anyone calling kids' games. Next year, it'll be for all umpires, regardless if the level we call.

My biggest concern is the security of the information we provide after we provide it. Identity theft is rampant these days, and I just don't trust people well enough to properly destroy the documents after they're no longer needed. There are many laws and requirements for agencies housing medical and financial records, and there are severe penalties for non-compliance. What about those who do BIs?

You think you got tired of hearing it??!?!

What does this mean that ASA is getting more involved?

As in recognizing and supporting them as important ASA events.

So, it's taken the ASA 35 years to recognize that the largest slowpitch softball tournament in the world is an important event? Now they want to jump on the bandwagon? We'll welcome it with open arms.

Well, don't know if that is completely true. There used to be an amazingly large tournament in Richmond that was pretty renown in it's time. Then again, there wasn't a Team USA for slowpitch at the time.

Don't know if what's completely true?

That McQuade was the largest softball tournament in the world for the past 35 years.

The Richmond Round Robin has been around 41 years and though not as many teams come now, at one time routinely reached 400+ teams.

I figure it is just a matter of the game peaking at different times in different areas.

The McQuade wasn't very big last year because of flooding issues. We we short 22 fields so they had to cut over 300 teams from the tournament otherwise it would have been another record of 400+ teams in a 3 day tournament. This is a full bracket tournament except for the A/B open which starts as a round robin.

There's also a tournament in Bosnia usually played the same weekend sponsored by the same entity so that make the McQuade tournament international or is that called "interglobal".