04/27/2026
Brought some ATL hardware back home after a chaotic weekend. Zero games complete on Saturday to being told we "tied" games we didn't play AFTER relocating nearly an hour between two parks to be able to play due to weather but still unable to play. There was only 8.5 hours between the scheduled gametimes due to the juggling act which resulted with nothing except the reward of driving another 75 minutes to a different location for an 8:30AM gametime Sunday morning. So the excitement of waking up at 5:30AM started our day but the boys flat left it all on the field and couldn't be more proud of the way they battled.
If you are looking for a tournament that has multiple parks in one singular division spread out up to more than an hour and half making it impossible to find lodging in a logical location, will charge your six year old siblings $10 per day to be at the fields although their website says $6 which is still insanity because frankly that sibling has no choice but to be there 98% of the time, charges $13 per "adult" but in the world of gate fees adulthood starts at 13 years old which this seems to be the case for numerous associations anymore, have umpires Googling rules during the game on a field because they "don't know" all while having a strike zone that the teams that experienced it on Sunday got to the point that all that could be done is laugh on both sides but on that token consistency can be good or bad technically so we will say is was consistent so you can figure out which side of consistent it was on. If you are going to charge a well above premium price for a 9U tournament for every aspect of it from team fee (double to triple most weekend events in our area), gate fees (if your still in diapers you are FREE) that is your right to do so but the expectations typically will be quality parks with effort to maintain throughout the day which was requested by three teams on Sunday and denied, well trained umpires, logistical structure on locations and solid prizes for players and providing baseballs would be something that was 100% expected at this price point.
The rings the boys got were really cool and one park we got to explore was not fantastic but the other two were perfectly fine. Outside of that the weekend was just pure insanity in all aspects unfortunately. But all the boys got a free t-shirt for the experience too! And for the naysayers this info doesn't come from an angered "we lost because of the umpires" place. Both teams in our Championship game played their tails off and it was great baseball and we lost in extra innings to a good team to wrap up the weekend because that team made one more play than we did. Sadly both teams in the Championship left with the same mindset and outlook of this would be the last tournament in that area we compete in. I am sure across all the locations and all the locations of this event there were some fantastic experiences but our specific experience along with a couple other teams we met along the way was not.
Back to the grind of being a little better each day this week at practice and on to the next one!
