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How important is USSSA "World Series" title?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by spikechiquet, Aug 1, 2008.

  1. spikechiquet

    spikechiquet Well-Known Member

    OK, this is confusing.

    First off, I know of the ASA, but never heard of USSSA until a coach that FINALLY after two years warmed up to me and told me that he coaches a team in this league.

    A few weeks ago, he sent me a recap of the last month of activity (yeah, thanks for waiting a month) in which they won 4 tournies...OK, fine. I re-wrote what he sent, added a team pic and ran it on the inside.

    No qualms. I hear nothing.

    I get an e-mail on Monday saying they won the USSSA World Series title. I did some research and found out there is a crap-load of "World Series winners" in this format.

    So, I run the info this week, but skip the team pic...because I had already run a pic of this team just a few weeks ago. Pretty much the same girls..so why waste the space.

    My publisher rants and raves to me that a mother called him and said we don't care about her girls team (which, yeah...she's right, but that's not the point) after they win a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!

    OK, I am assuming that the mom/my publisher doesn't know as much as I found out...or am I in the wrong for not making this a big deal.

    If you look at the USSSA website, these "World Series" tournaments are segmented by region, so it's not really a 'National' championship...right?

    I just want to be able to go in on Monday and rub someone's nose in it if I am right...or else call the mom and say sorry because I was wrong.

    Anyone else know of this organization?
     
  2. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Yeah. It's not a real World Championship or comparable to Little League or Babe Ruth because they typically have these tournaments where 40 or so teams compete.

    It's not like you have to win your district, state and region to get there.

    Now, beating 40 other teams is a pretty good accomplishment, but if you win the Little League or Babe Ruth World Series you are the best of thousands.

    So there really is no comparison.
     
  3. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    We just had an NABF "World Series" in our area last weekend.

    Never mind that there are eight "World Series" held around the country and a good quarter of the field at this "World Series" were local teams that didn't have to go through any sort of qualifying process.

    So no, not a big deal.
     
  4. TheHacker

    TheHacker Member

    I'm not all that familiar with USSSA, but we had a team in my area that competed in one of these things too. They sent me a direct link to the page with the tournament results. But now that I take a good look at the site, I see what you're saying -- they have multiple tournaments at each age group, and they seem to be regionalized.

    This is the same problem you get into with a lot of sports. I don't want to start the "cheerleading: sport or not a sport" debate, but every freakin' time some cheer squad sends in a report from some competition they went to, it's called "nationals." You know it's BS. I know it's BS. But non-sports-savvy bosses and those afflicted with YSPD (Youth Sport Parent Dementia) don't know that it's not BS.

    To me, it's got to meet a certain standard. There can't be multiple tournaments for us to think of it as a true national championship. AAU basketball nationals. Sure. U.S. Youth Soccer Association National Championships. No problem. But the USSSA Midwestern U-10 Nationals. Not so much. I'm not saying don't run it, but you're justified in not running a team photo, especially if you already had one in the paper a month ago. Good luck facing down your boss, though. We've all be there. It's no fun, even when you know you're right.
     
  5. WS

    WS Member

    It's like AAU. Any dopes can pay an entry fee to participate. Win 5 games, and you're national champions.

    We had a summer baseball team last year enter the national AAU baseball tournament. They went about 5-3 in pool play, and won the consolation bracket. Then, tried to push it off to us and the rest of the area that they were national champions. Good thing our prep writer pays close attention to detail, or we might have believed it.
     
  6. Blue_Water

    Blue_Water Member

    There's no such thing as "national championships" at the youth level, including Williamsport.

    Take baseball:
    You've got Little League Baseball with its champion.

    You've got something called the National Youth Baseball Championship, which brings together the champions from AABC (American Amateur Baseball Congress), AAU (Amateur Athletic Union of the United States), Babe Ruth Baseball, Dixie Youth Baseball, NABF (National Amateur Baseball Federation), Pony Baseball, Super Series Baseball of America and USSSA (United States Specialty Sports Association).

    And then you've got travel teams that don't participate in any of these levels but play in tournaments all over the country. These teams often would easily beat those champions.
     
  7. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Disagree. That's like dissing the Final Four champion because there are also tournaments in Division II, NAIA, etc. and the NBA teams could beat them anyway.

    Winning the "World Series' in Little League or Babe Ruth or whatever is a significant accomplishment.
     
  8. Italian_Stallion

    Italian_Stallion Active Member

    It might not be important to YOU, but those little girls worked just as hard as anyone else. I can't believe this. I'm canceling my subscription.

    You bastard! Rot in hell!
     
  9. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    I get that call or e-mail a couple of times per summer from a USSSA parent.

    Most of the time those "national championship" tournaments are really "national invitational tournaments" — and by "invitational" it means "any team willing to pay a $250 entry fee."

    There are usually five or six happening each weekend. So I'll ask the parent "How can your team be the U-12 national champions when there were six U-12 national tournaments this past weekend? You can't have six 'national' champions in the same age group from the same organization."

    Now, depending on the size of your paper, it still might be worth a team photo or even story. But just make sure you get the verbiage correct. Don't call them "national champions" when the teams only came from a 500-mile radius of the softball fields.
     
  10. 2underpar

    2underpar Active Member

    we have a lot of dixie youth "world series" down south.
    the world as Dixie Youth knows it begins and ends with the confederacy.
     
  11. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member

    USSSA is a money-making scam that people participate in because they like the idea of traveling teams. During the year you have about a million chances to qualify for the world series by doing well enough in qualifying tournaments. You can also go to state qualifiers which allow you to play in state tournaments that can get you to a world series. You can also get exemptions for being local to the site of the world series.

    It all adds up to a handful of guys lining their pocket with tournament entry fee money and a bunch of sucker parents who are willing to finance their six-figure incomes.
     
  12. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    We had this come up a couple of weeks ago.

    Area team wins 11-and-under USSSA title. There were 11 11-and-under World Series around the nation. There were 13 teams in this tournament. The qualifying standard was basically you had to have played in the state qualifying tournament, played in the state tournament, and you had to pay a $495 entry fee.

    I could start my own tournament, slap the name World Series on it, charge $500 and let anyone in. It doesn't mean they're world champions.

    It's as big of a scam as ASA softball.

    Side note: One of our two local ASA teams was having its tryouts for the fall season, wanted us to run a brief every day. Told them that we only run such announcements once, and if they wanted to run it every day, they had to buy an ad. They bitched up a storm. My thought was this _ you've got enough money to haul these kids around the Midwest to play tournaments every weekend, you can pony up the money to buy an ad. (The other team, by the way, bought an ad and it ran every day.)

    Side note 2: ASA is having its national 18-and-under tournament in a nearby city. On the TV newscast the other night, the father of one of the players was saying how he probably spent just $9,000 this year alone so his daughter can play around the country and try to catch the eye of college coaches and get a scholarship. Seriously, if he had $9,000 to pay, don't you think that would have been a nice down payment on a college education?

    Rant over.
     
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