Showcases, tie games, time limits--anybody got game?

With so many showcases, time limits, etc., does anyone know of any TB tournaments where teams can play regulation games and actually determine on the field who are the best teams?

 

Showcase: a setting, occasion, or medium for exhibiting something or someone especially in an attractive or favorable aspect (Websters Dictionary).

Softball Showcases are set-up to showcase the girls, not a team. Why worry about the score of a game if the purpose is to get the girls seen?

The different sanctioned Championship Tournaments are set-up to determine the best team. However, as you have brought up in your question, there are time limits that bring great repugnance to many people. As long as a sanction has a time limit in their rules or by-laws, then there will always be time limits on qualifying games.

I would love to see a tournamenmt with no time limits but I think the number of participating teams would have to be kept low due to amount of fields and time allotted for the tournament.

 

Winning does matter

We have several threads going that center around the purpose of the so-called 'showcase'. The consensus seems to be winning doesn't matter, it's just about 'showcasing' individual skills. I disagree. I think parents and coaches have to very careful when they tell the kids don't worry about the outcome because this all about impressing coach so-and-so. I know my daughter never approached her recruiting that way and neither did Jeff McPhail, the travel ball coach she played for. Our '04-'05 Wildcats won something like 120 games and lost about 20. They played hard as a team every inning. Jeff hated to lose and so did the girls. Sure he kept in mind if coach so-and-so was there and would make sure the kid s(he) came to see played but never at the expense of team. The approach not only got girls signed but created ballplayers. Six of those girls started a total of over 1100 games in their college career.

 

Exactly!!

The Wildcats are one of the first teams that come to mind when I'm thinking of a regulation tournament to determine the best teams.

Sure, the tournament might not accommodate 40 teams but it could accommodate a lot of teams. They used to do it back in the day.

The first year probably would have some mismatches but each following year the teams would be stronger and stronger when where you placed in the tournament the previous year determined if you qualified for the following year.

Once you had a tournament of the caliber of teams this would evolve to then you would see college coaches watching who would be more concerned with seeing the players than worrying about the time.

College coaches are not given enough credit in my opinion; they know how to see the players they want to see. I just believe in all-out competition they're going to see more of what the individual player has. Sometimes a player at hour and five minutes is different than a player in the bottom of the seventh.

Of course, they could always make college games an hour and five.

 

....Hey Doc, nice use of the "s(he)" gig. No doubt a TBR classic!

Hope all is well in GVegas.

Fishpirate

 

In over 10 years of travel ball I have never been to a tournament(other than HS) where the games were played out instead of to a clock. As late as we have been to the ball fields because of the cumulative delays with timed games, I cannot imagine the chaos of a tournament that allowed every single game to be played out. It would have to be a very small tournament to pull it off.

Most non-showcase tournaments do not use the drop dead time limit and it is just part of how the game was played.

With the disparity of talent at most tournaments, non-timed games would become miserable delays as games could take a very long time to reach the mercy inning. If there was a ranking system in Fastpitch, then maybe the tournaments could be smaller and more evenly distributed talent-wise based on rankings then open-ended games might be enjoyable.

 

Of Course Everybody Wants To Win !!

But the emphasis should not be about winning this is why we can't come to an agreement on this situation. If you ask the kids they are more influenced by what the fathers want than the mothers, so testosterone comes into play. Again I've been doing this for 13 years strong and more fathers holler at the kids to hit and throw then the mothers. Actually the mothers will fight with the fathers when they say something to their kids...ever been there dads ????

Guru

 

Topic

This topic has been beat to dead under different titles but I think the key is your GOAL! What are you trying to achieve with showcase ball? It is a necessary "evil" so to speak as it is the best way for college coaches (the customer) to see the products they seek (fast pitch HS and JUCO players), kind of like the Super Walmart, a one stop shop to seek products you need in the most economical fashion.
If you choose not to play showcase ball, fine do not play, to each his own! Now there are a number of showcase tournaments that do not bring out the college coaches due to location, failure to advertise, failure of players to let coaches know where they are going to be, and trying to compete against quality long standing events. Choose the events that work the hardest to bring in the college coaches, that offer quality facilities, treat the coaches as special guest, and provide a quality product on the field as well. Some of these events require you to qualify to enter, some require begging and working hard to prove your team deserves to be there and others require college coaches to recommend your team but all the effort is essential if you are going to provide your team (players) with the best chance of getting recruited to play college ball.
Look the best candidate does not always get the job but you will never get the job without hard work, preparation, persistence, and dedication to your craft. Oh throw in quality references, history of success, and sometimes a little luck and success is assured.

 

I understand why there are showcases. This thread was not meant to be about understanding the purpose of showcases.

What I am looking for are tournaments where the goal is to determine the best teams. Just a plain old tournament with no restriction on normal ASA-type rules. Full games.

I can envision a tournament where the best teams can compete; a tournament that would become more and more competitive and harder to qualify for as the years pass.

That type of competition may not even exist anymore at 16U or above. But that's what I'm looking for here.