NAFA recently announced a change for the format of the Masters Regional World Series, changing the tournament from a weekend (Saturday-Sunday) event, that may require teams to arrive and play games on Friday, instead of Saturday and Sunday.

Some have expressed support of the decision, saying it will allow them to get a four game guarantee instead of three, while others point to the fact that it will require them to take off another day of work (Friday for those flying, and Thursday and Friday for those driving). Some note the 10pm starting time for some of the Friday night games, and point to a tournament where games run hours behind schedule, and the possibility of playing til 2am, then coming back for an early morning game Saturday.

Here is what the press release from NAFA said:

Currently the plan is for each team to play one game Friday night, 2 games on Saturday and then the Single Elimination on Sunday. Some teams have requested 3 Saturday round robin games and no Friday game. We will try and accommodate their requests as much as possible but the consideration of all teams will take priority. If we did play Friday night it would be after 5pm with furthest driving teams playing at 6:30 or 8:15pm or 10 pm.

Whatever your opinion, vote in the poll to tell us what you think, and remember you can post more detailed thoughts in the comments section.

Fastpitchwest’s last poll asked readers their opinion on the ASA’s decision to split the “C” National in two. Voters overwhelmingly opposed the idea (337-61, 85%-15%) The poll and readers comments have been forwarded to the ASA for their information.

Have an idea for a future poll at Fastpitchwest? Send to jim (at) fastpitchwest (dot) com.

From Robert Hernandez at NAFA

2008 NAFA Masters World Series Wrap Up-All World Selections

The completed brackets are on the NAFA website at www.Nafafastpitch.com The 2009 NAFA Masters World Series will be held September 11-13 tentatively in Rockford, Illinois for the East and definitely in Carson City, Nevada September 18-20 for the West. The 55-Over will be held in the East Only. The Women’s 35-Over will be held in the West Only. Based on the coaches survey’s we have received so far, we will be adding an additional game for a 4-Game Guarantee (3 round robin games followed by single elimination on Sunday). Currently the plan is for each team to play one game Friday night, 2 games on Saturday and then the Single Elimination on Sunday. Some teams have requested 3 Saturday round robin games and no Friday game. We will try and accommodate their requests as much as possible but the consideration of all teams will take priority. If we did play Friday night it would be after 5pm with furthest driving teams playing at 6:30 or 8:15pm or 10 pm. The Masters Survey can be printed out and emailed to us. It is online at www.Nafafastpitch.com

Many of the survey responses have asked for a way to make sure games stay on time on Saturday in the round robin using one of the following methods; tie breaker, time limit or 5 inning games. Everyone agrees that the Sunday Elimination play should have no time limit, be 7 innings and not have a tie breaker unless it is after a lot of innings. In Carson City, players asked that due to the high elevation that the homerun fences be moved back from the present 250 feet to somewhere between 265 and 275 feet. The palm pilot scorekeeping in the West was so awesome that we are trying to work out having them in the East also for 2009. The courtesy runner for the pitcher and catcher only was well received and well enforced by the umpires. The older age groups have asked for an additional fielder to have a courtesy runner as well and we will be looking into that. We will continue the age eligibility rule for all ages (3 players, 3 years too young that are not pitchers) but the 55 Division where all players have to be turning 55 in the current calendar year. We will continue to do player ID checks in the East and start them in the West in 2010. The new ball was an overwhelming success and we will use it again next year. On the surveys many people have swung to desiring the yellow ball but not a majority yet but we need to address it soon as it is about even on white verses yellow on the surveys.

We would like to thank Terry Knight and his staff at the Bowling Green Complex in Middleton, Wisconsin for bringing in 3 backhoes, skinning 4 infields and making unplayable fields playable very quickly once it stopped raining at 2:30pm and had fields up by 4pm on Saturday. The staff at Verona did very well also using 30 bags of diamond dry to get their fields playable. With the amount of rain we had it was close to a miracle that the staff was able to get the fields playable. We started at 4 PM playing 5 inning games and got all games in by 2 AM. We started again at 7 AM on Sunday and got all games in playing 7 full innings and got done just 10 minutes before it started raining again. Thanks to Tournament Directors Mike Watson and Jon Kegel, Loren Lathrop for doing an outstanding job of administering this event and thanks to the Umpires and Tournament UIC Hank St. Clair for putting in a lot of late hours on the fields.

We would also like to thank Joel Dunn and his staff (especially Jeremiah) for hosting such an awesome event with perfect weather in Carson City, Nevada. The homerun contest was a hit Friday night and the games went very smoothly all weekend. Due to the number of teams we had to play on a 5th field for the first time and that went well also. Special thanks to Loren Lathrop, Dewey Yoke and Robert Hernandez for administering the event. Thanks to Roy Stout for handling the gate. Thanks to Jan, Mike, Kate, Sylvia and Tammy for doing palm pilot scorekeeping and stats and special thanks to Tournament UIC Steve Vail and the umpires for doing a great job. Kris Russom did an awesome job with souvenirs at both East and West events.

With a record number of teams in both the East and West, our NAFA Directors would like to thank each of our teams for choosing NAFA and making us #1. The 2009 season will be even better as we will have 80 Masters teams (48 in Rockford, Il. And 32 in Carson City) as well as over 228 classified teams that will participate in our NAFA World Series events in 2009. The dates and City’s for the classified World Series will be released on our website October 1st.

Benjie Hedgecock
NAFA Executive Director
nafafastpitch@gmail.com

All World Series Selections After the Jump.

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