SD ASA Let Down

[Lenny]

Fellaz,
This is Lenny - from First Assembly Church League Div D, Pepsi, Bucks, First Assembly Div A, Subway, ChuknDuk, Sanford, Tharaldson, and Mr D's. I haven’t read or posted on this site in years, taking some ground balls or hitting in the cage always seemed more productive to me personally. I'm just the guy that shows up on Thurs and some weekends and plays the game because it’s fun and I love to compete. Most of you know me cuz I've played for 23 yrs in SD.

Last week, I heard through the grapevine that I would not be allowed to play in my own State Tournament this year, so to put the rumor to rest, I called Gary Harrington whom I have never had a conversation with in my life until last week, and asked him what was going on. Gary and I had a nice talk and when it was over, he assured me he had no problem with me playing the State Tournament. He stated that Dan Pheffer was the person that told him he could not allow me to play in the D1 state tournament. After my teams discussion with Dan, that was simply not the case. Dan said no such thing. I found out later that Gary was only trying to protect those speaking directly to him very LOUDLY against me playing D1 SD State. Yeah, "those" being my fellow competitors that I play against in League. Some of you, who call me friend to my face. Most of you who call me friend AND have called and called and called asking me to play with you or for your team at one point or another. (of which, I've said "yes", whenever I could). Your very complaints to Gary have even gone as far as promising him your team would not be playing if I was allowed to play for Sanford. I keep telling myself that’s not true because of how backwards and cowardly it is – but then again why would they lie to me about it?

Yesterday, I received a letter from the State ASA office saying I cannot compete in the SD State softball tournament this year. Congrats to those who voiced the loudest to Gary in your efforts to keep me from playing the very game that I once sucked at, (while trying to convert from baseball) but I practiced and practiced until I could play competitively. There’s an inner drive in all of us - I guess some take it and practice to get better to win, others join forces in Miami to get it done haha, and some of you use your position of power in softball to convince a State director not to allow the best players to compete. The latter of those is not so funny.

Remember this, I used to get my butt kicked by a team called Johns Shoe Repair, and a team called Taco Bell, and probably many others. (It happened so often for a while there, that I can’t remember all the teams) I was there for the 30-5 beat downs and some probably even worse. As I played and played and played and practiced and practiced, I also go to be there the few times we beat those teams. Then I got to play a small part of setting up a new team (ChuknDuk), that would eventually have lots of success in SD tournaments including the State tournament. With the success of that team locally, finally, I was asked to join forces with a Midwest team (Tharaldson) that took 4 yrs of building to get the job done and win the B National Title. To this day, when I play, I still use some of the tools I learned from those Johns and Taco Bell beatings I took. To be the best, you have to learn from the best.

I say all of this, to tell you I've been on both ends of this stick - I've been the guy who went 0-2 at State - 0-2 at Nationals and "1 out away" from….. I've also been a guy on a team that wins alot. I would imagine as a few more yrs go by, I'll begin to be the guy on the other end of the stick again. HOWEVER, never in my mind did I think of how I could stop a certain player or team from playing in a tournament that I wanted to win. I'll never understand that mindset. Winning tournaments when the best teams aren’t there really doesn’t mean that much to me. It actually disappoints me when I see the brackets finally come out and the best teams aren’t coming. (like Firemans last week) What fun is winning if you know the better players and teams didn’t come. That’s how tournaments fall apart over the years - the best teams stop coming. Then those tourneys turn into Beer Ball - which I know can be fun too, BUT not our State Tournament. Do we want our State Tournament to become that? Is there ever really going to be a League player that shouldn’t be allowed to participate in our State tournament because of TALENT? Honestly, I'm 5-10" and weigh 170lbs. I can’t think of a team on Thurs night that doesn’t have a guy that hits the ball harder than me. I catch with a glove, hit with a legal bat, and run with my 2 legs, just like every other guy that will be at State. Are you that afraid of Sanford if I'm on it or if Jason is on it? We’ve abided by all the rules – we played our 5 games, we paid our money, yet many of you have voiced your dissatisfaction SO LOUD, that state ASA director is not going to allow me to play our State tournament. When Sanfords streak ends – shouldn’t it be to the team that beats us between the lines? We've paid our money, we've played our league games, there are no players on our team that haven’t lived in SD or currently live in SD. Does this really seem right to disqualify us from State?

Go ahead and crucify me on the board - I'm not going to argue with any of you - and the truth is, I probably won’t even get back on the board to read the replies. I'm just disappointed that we don’t have a chance to defend our title and the next state champion will really just be 2nd place unless they come through us to get it. If you really want to discuss this, you will find me at the Softball Fields on Tue for church league and Thur for city league. I’d be happy to talk about it.

For those of you that want the full scoop you can contact Gary Harrington at gary416@hur.midco.net or on his phone at 605.352.6806

Lenny

[jbird11]

If GH is really banning Lenny & Madsen, then I think it's a pretty bad decision.

I don't see what basis he really has for it. Per the current SD ASA By-laws... as long as the guys are on their league roster and have played their 5 league games... I don't see how they wouldn't be legal to play in Pierre.

As long as their A-team isn't playing in a State tourney (which I don't think Mr. D's is...) then I don't know why they couldn't play in one with Sanford?

Perhaps this is a classification issue that SD ASA should address...because I would only think being an A-player matters for qualifying tourneys... and SD lists State as D1, D2, D3 & D4... so until they change it to B, C, D, E, etc... I don't know why it would matter.


Either way... Lenny's a great guy from anything I've seen & heard and it would be a shame if he got shut out of Pierre.

[petey23]

That is pretty lame. In ND we changed our state tournament format to the division system that SD has in part to accomodate situations like this. If Lenny plays with Sanford they are "B" which shouldn't affect any other teams opportunity to advance to C nationals if they want.

[Kool Aid Man]

With it being D1 and D2 and not a C tournament I don't know how they can't allow Lenny and those guys to plays as long as they are on the roster and have played the correct number of games. If they are considering D1 to be a C tournament then why the heck would any teams going to D nationals play D1?

[ChatterBox]

Lenny, you accomplished to much. It's like Mike Miller trying to come back here and play in a sanctioned 3 on 3 hoop tournament. I realize he grew up here and played ball here and worked on his game to get to the top level. The bottom line is when you get to be that good, you need to be playing with other players that are at your level. That's why we have classifications. I felt bad for a few of your players that were gonna get "B" classified because they played in an ASA sanctioned tourny with "A" players. Sometimes you have to give up some fun when you hit a certain level. It's the price you pay for being as good as you are.

With that being said, I think it is chicken shit how competitors / friends went about getting you dq'd from state!

[Secrets]

Lenny, you accomplished to much. It's like Mike Miller trying to come back here and play in a sanctioned 3 on 3 hoop tournament. I realize he grew up here and played ball here and worked on his game to get to the top level. The bottom line is when you get to be that good, you need to be playing with other players that are at your level. That's why we have classifications. I felt bad for a few of your players that were gonna get "B" classified because they played in an ASA sanctioned tourny with "A" players. Sometimes you have to give up some fun when you hit a certain level. It's the price you pay for being as good as you are.

With that being said, I think it is chicken shit how competitors / friends went about getting you dq'd from state!

Chatterbox, I would agree with you except for one thing - this is South Dakota Division 1, not South Dakota ASA C. We are playing at the highest level allowed in the state of South Dakota. Don't feel bad for our players on Sanford for being classified as B. That's the choice we made when we decided at the BEGINNING of the year to compete with Lenny, Madsen and Reggie. We decided to forgo picking up any extra players because those guys had committed to us at the beginning of the year to play state.

I guess this means that if Tryon or Zoo go on to finish in the top 10%, you will not be allowed to play state next year. They will be classified as a B team, just like our team (having 3 A players makes you a B team).

Keep in mind, Lenny and Madsen have not reached the highest level of softball - they are not on any restricted player list and they do not play major level softball.

I wish everyone luck this weekend. Hopefully Gary will abide by the rules that he has written and overturn his decision (again) as just one week ago we were given the go ahead from Gary Harrington to use those guys at state. If he doesn't change his mind, South Dakota will have a new D1 Champ.

[Legend]

This is wrong! If Lenny abided by the rules that he played his 5 league games (which I know he has) then he should be allowed to play. I am a rules type guy I don't believe in breaking them or creating new ones along the way Lenny and Sanford got hosed.

What happened to everyones entitled to a state tournament????

Again this is wrong!

[T. Juhl]

WTF! People need to pull there head out of there a$$! Madsen and Lenny have been playing for Sanford/ChukNDuk for years. This is D1 State. I have never heard it be classified as a "C" tournament.
Those are the types of player's, as a ball player, I want to compete against.

Our society is getting soft. "Everybody's a winner"," everybody's equal", " you hit the ball to hard", "your to good to play in this tournament". BUNCH OF FU(K!N BABIES! NOT EVERYONE IS CREATED EQUAL! SOME PEOPLE ARE MORE TALENTED THAN OTHERS, BIG FU(KIN DEAL! Go out and compete with them, work hard, that's how you get better! If you don't want to compete stay home!

Whoever wins D1 this weekend, does it knowing that they didn't have to beat the best team in SD to win it.

GET A FRI(KIN CLUE!

Tyler Juhl
Tryon Gym #5

[catfish]

Wow Boys??, now state is limited to whom some certain people want to compete against?. It seems kind of cowardly for people to worry about this guy or that guy showing up to play in the state tourney that these guys grew up in??. This is a Div. 1 tournament, which means top level, in my mind, and these guys should be allowed to participate. Who would even want to be state champion without having beat the best?. Sure, these guys have been around and won some big games, but should that preclude them from playing in their own state tournament?. When I played against ChuknDuk/Viesmans/Sanford I knew the title went through them and they had to be beat, that's life. I was fortunate enough to get to play a few years with some of the guys and also felt that winning would be a challenge each and every game because every team we played would be "gunning" for us. That's sports, that's competition. Someone has to be number 1, and every team has a shot at them. Anyway, I hope it works out and they let these guys play and defend their title that they rightfully won last year. Let them defend that title fairly and squarely.

[Lunchbox]

Just another of many reasons why SD ASA softball is toilet. I agree if it was a C,D,E tourny or whatever then yes something probably could be said and should be said, yes 2 A players can play with a B team and the team needs to enter a NIT or National as a B team or higher, but, SD goes by DIV I,II,II ect, and this is why players such as Lenny and Madsen should be able to play locally in the state, Now when these two are playing at a NATIONAL level then yes things do change and yes they should be playing according to their NATIONAL classification, but other then that they should be able to play, it is unfortunate that alot of teams consider this state tournament as their NATIONAL tourny instead of just seeing how well you do at state and then take your game to the NATIONAL level. If you have never played at a national tourny you are missing out by the way, I was fortunate to play at Utrip Worlds the last two years and it is an amazing experience.

When I lived in Oregon the state tourny was a joke, so it is kind of nice that state is take somewhat serious here, in oregon for state ASA they had to combine C,D,E to make a 14 team tourny (also mainly because ASA is dying on the west coast), and they handicapped the tourny depending on the team you were playing, absolute joke. The reason is because it was classified as C,D,E so there were alot of players in the area that were not allowed to play with their team because they were ranked B or higher, but atleast it was no surprise to them out there, here it is Division, and Sanford is playing at the highest division, so as long as all rules were followed with their roster, lenny and mad dog should be able to play.....