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As I was taking the evaluations at the slow pitch table I
heard so many different comments: "Hey, did you hear that
guy over there say 'y'all'?!" "You talk
funny..." "Where are you from!?" When I
explained that we were from Florida and that Softball Magazine was the
promoter and producer of the event, they went nuts.
“You came three thousand miles to put this event on here?” “This is unbelievable!”
“This is one of the best times I have EVER had at a
tournament!” “You HAD to
do this before!”
that any
“loading” of ratings will be recognized and removed from the final
tallies.
The overall
ratings are a result of those variables present when a group of people
are left to make their own decisions in an uncontrolled atmosphere.
We stand firm on the fact that the best bat is the bat that you
think is best for you, not necessarily the one with the highest
rating. Ratings are
published to give the player that can not make it to the event an idea
of what the group of people present that day thought. Not posting the
ratings defeats the purpose for the enthusiasts who do not make the
event; it is essentially the same input they would have received
standing in line having conversation with the participant who is in
front of or behind them. The
way a bat is pre-promoted, post-promoted, presented, the amount of times swung, the “chatter” of
the participants, the caliber of the majority of the player that is
present, the weather, even the physical location of the event affects
the outcome of the ratings. As in Bat Wars ‘99, the margins between
the bats were minimal.
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 At times throughout this year it seemed to
me that Bat Wars Wild Wild West was very far away.
As the date of July 12th, 2000 began to bear down
upon us, I began to think that it couldn’t be far enough away.
When the Bat Wars Posse boarded the two sets of planes from
Orlando, Florida and one from Cleveland, Ohio the morning of July
12th, there was no more preparation that could be completed, no more
anxieties, no
turning back.
This year it was possible for
Softball Magazine to go "Coast to Coast" with the
sponsorship of our partners at Eastbay, the Official Catalog Company
of Bat Wars. I thought it was funny that people had no idea that
we were there from Florida.
“I
have never seen anything like this...are you coming back next
year?!” As always, the most important part of
Bat Wars is that the grassroots player who spends his or her utility
bills on a softball bat once a year is the ultimate winner.
The chance to get the feel of the bats, talk with the
representatives and with other players is an experience that the
grassroots player is hard pressed to find anywhere.
The atmosphere is festive and geared around the participants
and those who just come to browse through the vendor booths. There is the part of Bat Wars that has
turned into a combatative subject and that of course is the ratings of
the bats.These ratings are not scientific and there are no measures in place to conceal the
identity of the bat. There
are, however, security procedures in place to insure
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