Post by Homer Hawks Site Administrator on Nov 13, 2009 13:26:22 GMT -5
11/12 ASA CHANGES THE GAME
Written by Rayburn Hesse
Thursday, 12 November 2009 18:17
ASA CHANGES THE GAME
The following press release was issued by ASA following conclusion of the 2009 Council meeting. These issues and others are elaborated by SPY at the conclusion of the press release.
For Immediate Release: 11/12/09
ASA makes 2010 Rule and Code changes for future play
RENO, Nev. --- The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America concluded the 78th Annual Council Meeting in Reno, Nev. on Thursday afternoon with decisions being voted on that affect the ASA Official Rules of Softball and the ASA Code.
A complete list of 2010 ASA code and rule changes will be posted via PDF on the ASA website, Facebook and Twitter at a later date once the complete document is final.
The following are highlights in each division of play:
JUNIOR OLYMPIC FAST PITCH
Article 501 C 02 d. New and Re-number
Rostered Player.
d. Once a player participates in a club or varsity softball program for any university, community college, or junior college, he or she is ineligible to play in the Junior Olympic Class B program.
Comments: Eliminates college players from the JO Class B program.
Article 501 C 05 a 07 New and Re-number
07. Once a player participates in an intercollegiate softball program for a university, college, or junior/community college, she is ineligible to play in the Junior Olympic Gold Program
Comments: Eliminates college players from the JO Gold Program.
Article 509 B 04 f Girls’ ASA Gold 18-Under Fast Pitch. This National Championship Final shall be scheduled to conclude on the first Saturday in August and not be scheduled more than seven (7) days. This event will not have and opening ceremonies event and the managers meeting cannot be scheduled prior to 6:00 PM on the prior Sunday.
Article 602 H 09 The Junior Olympic Girls 18 and Under Gold Fast Pitch will be rotated to Oklahoma City every third year and in the off years will be placed in other parts of the country by the Executive Director.
RULES: Pitching Distance Change for 16-U A&B FP to 43 feet.
Pitching Distance Change for 18-U B FP only to 43 feet.
ADULT FAST PITCH
Article 509 B 02 b Delete Current and Replace with
01. Men’s Open Fast Pitch shall be scheduled on Labor Day weekend commencing no earlier than 6:00 p.m. Thursday and concluding no later than Labor Day. Effective 2011.
ADULT SLOW PITCH
Article 507 G 01 Men’s Class A
Five ( 5 ) players from the ASA Restricted Player’s List.
Comments: Increases the number of Restricted Players that Men’s A can have on their roster.
Article 516 C New and Re-number
C. Men’s Class B Slow Pitch will conduct one (1) National Championship Final. The tournament will be held in Oklahoma City on Labor Day weekend.
Article 516 F 04 ASA Eastern / Southern / Northern / Western National Championship Finals. The ASA will conduct four ( 4 ) National Championships in following divisions and classifications:
01. Men’s Class C Slow Pitch.
02. Men’s Class D Slow Pitch.
03. Men’s Class E/Rec Slow Pitch
04. Women’s C Slow Pitch
05. Women’s D Slow Pitch
06. Co-ed C Slow Pitch
07. Co-ed D Slow Pitch
RULES: The pitching arch height for All Divisions of Slow Pitch is now 6-10 feet.
OTHER
Article 601 A New
Exception: The ASA Annual meeting will be in Oklahoma City every 5 years beginning in the year 2013 to celebrate ASA’s 80th year anniversary.
SPY COMMENT
Without waiting for ASA to publish its revised Code, much can be said about today’s decisions.
Banning college players from Gold was an idea whose time had come. Gold competition should be more evenly matched, breaking the string of Gold tournaments in which returning college pitchers dominated and often won the Gold championship. Hopefully, college players will find teams in 23U and Women’s Majors for the summer of 2010. Oddly, by inference, a college player can still join a 16U and 18A team and compete in those nationals, which doesn’t seem to make much sense. Disequilibrium applies to any age group.
Readers with knowledge of tournament play will be quick to note that moving the date for Gold eliminates direct competition with the Premier tournament, which will be held August 9-14 in 2010. The seeming rationale was to avoid going head-to-head on the calendar with the new Premier tournament which is expected to attract 40 or more of the current top Gold teams.
But, with the change, Gold now competes directly with 16U and 18A, as currently scheduled. The probability, given the continuing emphasis on early verbal commitments, is that the number of college coaches/scouts attending Gold will be markedly reduced, depending on the site chosen for Gold. Eg, if Gold were held on the West Coast, a sizable contention of Gold teams could elect to play both, which is permissible under the ASA code, as explained by ASA Commissioners to SPY. Whether Gold teams from California would trek across country is an open question. For certain, many college coaches will definitely mark 16U on their 2010 calendars; will they also recruit at the two other options for that same week?
Gold coaches will welcome the decision to rotate Gold out of Oklahoma City, returning to the Hall of Fame every third year. SPY is advised by ASA officials that decisions on where the 2010 Gold tournament will be held will be made this coming weekend by the Board of Directors. The Council broke precedent with the provision that site selection for Gold will be made in the future by the Executive Director, rather than bid like other classifications.
Officials who participated in the week of meetings tell SPY of at least one other change. ASA Gold will continue to use the four-team box in pool play, but will no longer govern placement on the bracket (ie, #1 playing #4). Instead, there will be an open draw. However, while not guaranteed berths, the four top ranking teams returning from the previous tournament will be seeded apart from each other in opposite quads, and thus would not meet until the semi-finals of bracket play.
In a new development, the Council agreed to have territorial tournaments for Gold-level teams who do not qualify for nationals, just like 18 and 16.
Playing rules were changed to permit metal cleats for Gold, 18 and 16U. The pitching distance for 16U was extended to 43' -- which also applies to 16B and 18B.
RFH
Written by Rayburn Hesse
Thursday, 12 November 2009 18:17
ASA CHANGES THE GAME
The following press release was issued by ASA following conclusion of the 2009 Council meeting. These issues and others are elaborated by SPY at the conclusion of the press release.
For Immediate Release: 11/12/09
ASA makes 2010 Rule and Code changes for future play
RENO, Nev. --- The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America concluded the 78th Annual Council Meeting in Reno, Nev. on Thursday afternoon with decisions being voted on that affect the ASA Official Rules of Softball and the ASA Code.
A complete list of 2010 ASA code and rule changes will be posted via PDF on the ASA website, Facebook and Twitter at a later date once the complete document is final.
The following are highlights in each division of play:
JUNIOR OLYMPIC FAST PITCH
Article 501 C 02 d. New and Re-number
Rostered Player.
d. Once a player participates in a club or varsity softball program for any university, community college, or junior college, he or she is ineligible to play in the Junior Olympic Class B program.
Comments: Eliminates college players from the JO Class B program.
Article 501 C 05 a 07 New and Re-number
07. Once a player participates in an intercollegiate softball program for a university, college, or junior/community college, she is ineligible to play in the Junior Olympic Gold Program
Comments: Eliminates college players from the JO Gold Program.
Article 509 B 04 f Girls’ ASA Gold 18-Under Fast Pitch. This National Championship Final shall be scheduled to conclude on the first Saturday in August and not be scheduled more than seven (7) days. This event will not have and opening ceremonies event and the managers meeting cannot be scheduled prior to 6:00 PM on the prior Sunday.
Article 602 H 09 The Junior Olympic Girls 18 and Under Gold Fast Pitch will be rotated to Oklahoma City every third year and in the off years will be placed in other parts of the country by the Executive Director.
RULES: Pitching Distance Change for 16-U A&B FP to 43 feet.
Pitching Distance Change for 18-U B FP only to 43 feet.
ADULT FAST PITCH
Article 509 B 02 b Delete Current and Replace with
01. Men’s Open Fast Pitch shall be scheduled on Labor Day weekend commencing no earlier than 6:00 p.m. Thursday and concluding no later than Labor Day. Effective 2011.
ADULT SLOW PITCH
Article 507 G 01 Men’s Class A
Five ( 5 ) players from the ASA Restricted Player’s List.
Comments: Increases the number of Restricted Players that Men’s A can have on their roster.
Article 516 C New and Re-number
C. Men’s Class B Slow Pitch will conduct one (1) National Championship Final. The tournament will be held in Oklahoma City on Labor Day weekend.
Article 516 F 04 ASA Eastern / Southern / Northern / Western National Championship Finals. The ASA will conduct four ( 4 ) National Championships in following divisions and classifications:
01. Men’s Class C Slow Pitch.
02. Men’s Class D Slow Pitch.
03. Men’s Class E/Rec Slow Pitch
04. Women’s C Slow Pitch
05. Women’s D Slow Pitch
06. Co-ed C Slow Pitch
07. Co-ed D Slow Pitch
RULES: The pitching arch height for All Divisions of Slow Pitch is now 6-10 feet.
OTHER
Article 601 A New
Exception: The ASA Annual meeting will be in Oklahoma City every 5 years beginning in the year 2013 to celebrate ASA’s 80th year anniversary.
SPY COMMENT
Without waiting for ASA to publish its revised Code, much can be said about today’s decisions.
Banning college players from Gold was an idea whose time had come. Gold competition should be more evenly matched, breaking the string of Gold tournaments in which returning college pitchers dominated and often won the Gold championship. Hopefully, college players will find teams in 23U and Women’s Majors for the summer of 2010. Oddly, by inference, a college player can still join a 16U and 18A team and compete in those nationals, which doesn’t seem to make much sense. Disequilibrium applies to any age group.
Readers with knowledge of tournament play will be quick to note that moving the date for Gold eliminates direct competition with the Premier tournament, which will be held August 9-14 in 2010. The seeming rationale was to avoid going head-to-head on the calendar with the new Premier tournament which is expected to attract 40 or more of the current top Gold teams.
But, with the change, Gold now competes directly with 16U and 18A, as currently scheduled. The probability, given the continuing emphasis on early verbal commitments, is that the number of college coaches/scouts attending Gold will be markedly reduced, depending on the site chosen for Gold. Eg, if Gold were held on the West Coast, a sizable contention of Gold teams could elect to play both, which is permissible under the ASA code, as explained by ASA Commissioners to SPY. Whether Gold teams from California would trek across country is an open question. For certain, many college coaches will definitely mark 16U on their 2010 calendars; will they also recruit at the two other options for that same week?
Gold coaches will welcome the decision to rotate Gold out of Oklahoma City, returning to the Hall of Fame every third year. SPY is advised by ASA officials that decisions on where the 2010 Gold tournament will be held will be made this coming weekend by the Board of Directors. The Council broke precedent with the provision that site selection for Gold will be made in the future by the Executive Director, rather than bid like other classifications.
Officials who participated in the week of meetings tell SPY of at least one other change. ASA Gold will continue to use the four-team box in pool play, but will no longer govern placement on the bracket (ie, #1 playing #4). Instead, there will be an open draw. However, while not guaranteed berths, the four top ranking teams returning from the previous tournament will be seeded apart from each other in opposite quads, and thus would not meet until the semi-finals of bracket play.
In a new development, the Council agreed to have territorial tournaments for Gold-level teams who do not qualify for nationals, just like 18 and 16.
Playing rules were changed to permit metal cleats for Gold, 18 and 16U. The pitching distance for 16U was extended to 43' -- which also applies to 16B and 18B.
RFH