Oakland Park Baseball

Today we had 22 people ready to start by 12:00. We even had 3 people that came later that were turned away. High turnout reduces how fun it can be. We need to think of a way to make turnout average out, whether playing every week and hoping it averages out, or by forming 3 (or more) permanent teams with schedules to play every other week. The weekly option is definitely easier to implement and manage.

So this poll is to guage what a weekly setup would do in terms of turnout.

Please vote and post. If you don't post, at least vote.

-Scott Leathers

YOU MEAN MORE BASEBALL!?!?!?!?!?! What's wrong with that?

If it were around every week, I'd show up as much as possible.

This may be harsh, but we could also tell the few new people who came today "sorry, but maybe you shouldn't come back."

Unless you're saying we have 3 teams, and it'll look like this... (teams A, B, and C)

Week 1: A v. B
Week 2: A v. C
Week 3: B v. C

So that way, its wouldn't be every week... like, 2 of 3 weeks. There would be games each week, though. That may work well. Thoughts?

What do we do when turn out drops? i guess teams with as low as 7 players each could work. hum.... we'd need a way to trade players if teams were totaly un even, or team A had 9 people at each game and team C had 6.

The other problem is that I like the idea of being at each game. I like to see all the plays. I wouldn't wanna miss watching a game.

Every week is fine with me... I may miss a few... but more than twice a month would be great.

Scott,

Moving the bi-monthly event to weekly is a great idea ~ especially as baseball season nears. As organizer of past pick up games in sf, popularity is always the highest come baseball season...but once the season over so to goes the numbers.

We should all take a vote our next time out.

-L

I don't like the idea of telling new people to go away.

I think it would be a good idea just to make it weekly and assume that turnout will stabilize slightly below 20. For example, I typically come to about every other game since I have so many other things going on. However, if games were weekly, I would probably come about every 2 or 3 weeks because there would always be a game.... if I miss one, it wouldn't mean a whole month between games (which sucks).

I think it's fair to say if you don't get to the park before 12:00 (or 1 when we switch it), if we have 18-20 people there already, the game is full. (If we don't have 18-20 people there already, then of course they can join a team whenever they get there, as we've always done it.) And if people get there late, they can stay and watch; they can sub in after the 7th inning or so (if someone actually wants to leave early); they can go to the field on 14th (though there's often a soccer game there); or they can go home.

I don't think turnout is going to drop anytime soon. We seem to have a pretty good core of regulars and have been pretty good at getting new people (recently seems like just by word of mouth).

I'm not that into having A, B, and C squads because I like the simplicity of "come to the park, let's play baseball" and not having to worry about what week I have to be there. If we get up to 30 regulars or something, though, then we might want to consider that. (Hell, are we almost to 30 regulars yet?)

Ignore my idea of teams. i don't even like it! Just thought i'd put it out there.

I'd love to have it every week. Not coming for a month and a half made me realize how much I missed it.

As far as teams... while I think that would be awsome, I don't think we really have the capability to do that yet.

Hi All,
Just throwing my 2-cents in...

I like the idea of having games every week. As the season gets going, I suspect there will likely be more players showing up. In general, I think its a bad thing to turn guys away. And having guys limited to being DHs OR players sitting out innings isnt much better. In the long run, doing this will hurt attendance in the future. Here are some ideas for coping with the increasing numbers.

1. As the days get longer, play 2 games. A morning and an afternoon game. Its not likely too many wiill want to play a double-hitter.

2. Play on Saturday & Sundays. Some will be able to get thier weekly fix on either of the days. And yes, there will be those that will want to play on both days.

3. Abandon the purist concept that you can only have the standard 9 players on the field at a time. Let everyone that shows up play all the time. Its been my experience (in many softball pickup games) that even with a field and infield full of extra players, it still isnt that difficult to get hits(or even doubles). And you will still see relatively high scoring games.

4. Have a back-up plan in which if you reach a certain number of players (probably around 32-36), another game will be held simutaneously at another pre-determined location.

Great post, Rob. Lots of ideas.

I think our best options are:

a) making the games weekly

b) having a double-header, with 2nd game starting at, say, 3:00 (first game at 11:00)

c) the "back up plan" of a 2nd location when numbers overflow DeFremery (there's a nearby field that's supposed to be good, on 18th I think)

I think you're right that turning people away, and DHing people, will reduce turnout in the long run in a negative way. So finding another option like those listed above seems preferable.

I'm surprised so many are voting for the weekly option! Eight (8) already! If everybody came out weekly, that would reduce its viability as an option to reduce turnout obviously. But I find it hard to believe that so many would really come out weekly.

I don't like the idea of Saturday games, because we're bound to conflict with other legitimate users of the field, like Little League. We used to play on Saturdays 2 years ago, but had to change to Sunday because of that.

I'm also not into the last idea of loading the field with more fielders. While you may still get hits and score, you won't get as many chances to field, and it's hard enough as it is waiting out there for the ball to be put in play. Imagine going 3 innings without seeing any action in the field. (Of course, you being a Right Fielder primarily, you can probably easily imagine that.) Finally, I think loading up the field leads to collisions and injuries. That's really the biggest threat out there is running into one another, particularly in the outfield. I want to be able to dive for a catch without fearing I'll crush into another fielder.

Baseball=Life wrote:Great post, Rob. Lots of ideas.

I think our best options are:

a) making the games weekly

b) having a double-header, with 2nd game starting at, say, 3:00 (first game at 11:00)

c) the "back up plan" of a 2nd location when numbers overflow DeFremery (there's a nearby field that's supposed to be good, on 18th I think)

I think you're right that turning people away, and DHing people, will reduce turnout in the long run in a negative way. So finding another option like those listed above seems preferable.

I'm surprised so many are voting for the weekly option! Eight (8) already! If everybody came out weekly, that would reduce its viability as an option to reduce turnout obviously. But I find it hard to believe that so many would really come out weekly.

I don't like the idea of Saturday games, because we're bound to conflict with other legitimate users of the field, like Little League. We used to play on Saturdays 2 years ago, but had to change to Sunday because of that.

I'm also not into the last idea of loading the field with more fielders. While you may still get hits and score, you won't get as many chances to field, and it's hard enough as it is waiting out there for the ball to be put in play. Imagine going 3 innings without seeing any action in the field. (Of course, you being a Right Fielder primarily, you can probably easily imagine that.) Finally, I think loading up the field leads to collisions and injuries. That's really the biggest threat out there is running into one another, particularly in the outfield. I want to be able to dive for a catch without fearing I'll crush into another fielder.

great minds think alike.

and the two of us agree a lot as well.

I will filp-flop and support the weekly option.