USSSA A Worlds

The people at the Wide World of Sports were giving away ice cream Sunday and Jean Shoppe/Worth decided to get a double dip. The Shoppe boys came all the way back through to win this Class A World Championship. The Shoppe boys have been one of the top A teams all season long and now have proven they are the #1 A team in 2007. Shoppe has everything it takes to win in Class A. This team can base hit it with anybody. They have enough power to keep them in all games and can flat out catch it, both in the infield and outfield. They also have two very good pitchers in Mooch and Filby. I’m very happy for Greg and Ed who have been trying to win the big one for a few years and they finally won it. Greg is one of the best sponsors in the game, and I’m here to tell you he is a first class guy who deserves this championship. I cannot say enough good about this team. This bunch has some very, very good players who can play the game. I believe with Larry Q coming over gave Shoppe some good chemistry and experience. He brought some very good players along with him from last year’s championship team Northwest Pipe. Congratulations to Greg, Larry and the whole Jean Shoppe/Worth team on winning this great Class A Worlds. Good luck the rest of the way.

Second place went to KME/Chaney/Easton, who I believe was the #2 Class A team in 2007. This is another one of those very good A teams. This bunch also has some great class A players, that’s for sure. This club has played well all season and was one of three teams to beat Resmondo this season. The others were Shoppe and Bell. This team has a few players from the great Benfield team the last few years, O’Hara, Crime and Messina and others who know how to win. KME also has some very good players from California who also can play. Congratulations to KME for a great Class A Worlds, and good luck the rest of the way.

Third place went to Woodlaw, who started out with their own team, then folded and combined with Extreme Fitness and then ended the season being Woodlaw again. This team has some good A players who can play This team is a legit A team who can compete with any of the top A teams in the country. I believe if this team did not go through all the problems they would have been right up near the top

Fourth place goes to Aubrey’s/Worth who struggled a little early in the season, got rid of a couple of players and then started to win some. Aubrey’s always seems to play well in the Worlds. and did so in this one. Congratulations to Rocky and all your sponsors and team members on a good tournament. Good luck down the road.

This year’s Class A Worlds was a little different from the past few years. The ball used this year was the same ball the USSSA used all season on the 300′ fields .44. The last few years they used a .47. Don told me he wanted to keep the same ball that they used all season long. He said they will hit .47 core on the baseball fields in Kissimmee and Disney. I agree with Don to keep it uniformed and the teams will always know what they’re hitting. I’m here to tell you the ball made for a lower scoring tournament and that’s okay. There were a lot of very close games and not a lot of homeruns. The ball also made for a much better defensive game. I liked the 70′ bases on the 300′ fields. Don said the Conference Championship and the Major will have 75′ bases. I like that also. I had said earlier that I thought eight teams had a chance to win in this A Worlds. I believe the eight teams I thought could win finished just about how they should have. I know we are getting close to where we should be in bigtime softball. We have about ten very good A teams. We need to get six more to make sixteen very competitive Class A teams, and softball will be right where it should be. The Class A Worlds is the way the game should be with good hitting, great defense and homeruns hit by the players that should hit them, lower scores and not a homerun derby. I say put sixteen competitive teams in a tournament ten times a season letting them play two championships and you will have the best ball the game has ever had. I believe we are getting close to this happening. They just have to make the moves. Bigtime softball does not need 30-40 teams in a tournament, like years back. They got 30 & 40 teams back then, but only 12-16 were competitive. No different then and no different now. Class E, D & C need 40 teams, not bigtime. Bigtime needs the best 16 teams it can get and any of the 16 have a chance to win. That is how bigtime softball should be. That’s just my opinion. Don congratulations on another very, very good Class A Worlds. Keep up the good work.