How did the Nations Baseball World Series held in Pensacola, FL rate compared to other national tournaments?
Here is my report card on Nations Baseball U14 World Series Championship held in Pensacola, FL during the week of July 11 - 15, 2012.
My son has competed in the CABA World Series (U10 - Indianapolis, Indiana), the AAU National Championships (U11 - ESPN Disney Wide World of Sports, Orlando, Florida), Cooperstown Dreams Park (U12 - Cooperstown, NY), the Nations Baseball Premier National Championship (U13 - Gulfport, MS) and Nations Baseball World Series (U14 - Pensacola, FL). It is from this broad base of experience that I feel qualified to grade these events in comparison to each other.
Opening Ceremonies: The Nations Baseball World Series had an opening ceremony on Pensacola Beach the Wednesday before the start of action on Thursday. Our team did not participate for several reasons. 1) Many of the families stayed on Perdido Key far from Pensacola Beach. Few were motivated to get back into a car after recently driving 11 hours, 2) the 14 year old boys were not excited about the event, they wanted to stay on the beach instead and 3) There were only 4 teams in the tournament. What is festive and fun about that?
- Nations Baseball Gulfport, MS - Grade B
- CABA - Grade F (I don't remember any opening ceremonies)
- AAU Disney Fields - Grade A (Disney performers entertained the players, siblings, parents and coaches.)
- Cooperstown Dreams Park - Grade A (It was a bit long, but it was a festive start)
- Nations Baseball, Penacola, FL - Grade NA
The Skills Competition: The Nations Baseball World Series had a skills challenge on the schedule when the team signed up for the tournament, but it was canceled. I believe that they canceled it because there were only 4 teams in the tournament.
- Nations Baseball Gulfport, MS - Grade B
- CABA - Grade B
- AAU Disney Fields - Grade F (I do not remember any skills competitions)
- Cooperstown Dreams Park - Grade A (Exciting competitions played out in front of a packed stadium)
- Nations Baseball, Penacola, FL - Grade F
The Fields: The Nations Baseball World Series was suppose to be held at University of West Florida, but was moved to Tate High School. We believe that the event was moved due to the lack of teams in the tournament. Only one field was needed for the entire tournament.
Tate High School has a great field with a well manicured grass infield, a dirt mound, stadium seating and vast dimensions. The outfield grass was green, freshly cut and fast. The infield is made of a blood red dirt that looked great on the field, but terrible on soiled uniforms. The fences on the fields used for the U14 event were at least 9 feet high, 325 ft down the line and about 375 ft straight away. No home runs were hit during the tournament.
We had a torrential rain Friday night and Saturday morning, the field was unable to recover quick enough to play any games on Saturday. This made Sunday was a long day of baseball. Fields at Cooperstown and Disney recover much more quickly. Luckily, our team was seeded #1 after pool play so we got bye on Sunday morning.
Tate High School is where Don Sutton, Hall of Fame Pitcher, and Travis Fryman, Cleveland Indians third baseman, played ball.
From a spectators standpoint, the Tate HS field had the qualities of a minor league stadium. There was ample seating behind home plate on concrete steps. The concrete was hard and absorbed the Florida sun, so it was hot. The stands did have a roof covering up some of the seats which did provide some protection after 11am.
- Nations Baseball Gulfport, MS B+
- CABA - C+ multiple municipal fields of varying quality.
- AAU Disney Fields - A (Perfectly manicured fields configured identically. These fields can take on lots of rain and be playable in short order.)
- Cooperstown Dreams Park - A+ (20 perfectly manicured fields configured identically with reachable fences. These fields can take on more rain than the Disney fields and be playable faster.)
- Nations Baseball, Penacola, FL - Grade B (One great field)
The Concession Stand: Tate High School had a typical HS concession stand. The food was ok, the drinks were cold, the service was friendly and the prices were very cheap.
- Nations Baseball Gulfport, MS - Grade F
- CABA World Series - Grade B (Some venues were good, some not so good)
- AAU Disney Fields - Grade B - (Too expensive)
- Cooperstown Dreams Park - Grade A+ (Good food, big variety, honest prices)
- Nations Baseball, Penacola, FL - Grade B
Game Schedule: The games were not too early, nor too late. That was good. The tournament could create a schedule like this because there were only 4 teams in the tournament. Still, Nations Baseball gets an overwhelming F. The tournament started on Thursday and ended Sunday. Why? Why not start Wednesday or Tuesday. Most of the house / condo rentals in Pensacola were Saturday to Saturday. Most of the families came down on the Saturday before the tournament started a full 5 days before the games began. Many families had to check out of their condos on Saturday morning and find a hotel room for Saturday night. The tournament did not schedule a rain out contingency day, so the Saturday games and the scheduled Sunday games were played on Sunday. A lower seeded team could have played 5 games on Sunday if it played out that way. That is unacceptable because it puts young arms at risk.
Furthermore, the World Series happened to be on the biggest weekend of the year for Pensacola. The second weekend of July is the Blue Angels Air Show weekend. It is the most crowded weekend and therefore the most expensive weekend of the year. Nations Baseball missed a great opportunity to use the Blue Angles Air Show as a draw to the tournament. No the short sighted folks at Nations scheduled games during the Air Show each day, so our families paid the extra rent to go to Pensacola on the best weekend of the year, but could not enjoy the show. (NOTE: Folks that stayed on the Pensacola Beach side did get to see the Blue Angels practice. We stayed on the Perdido Key side of Pensacola so we did not see anything.)
Nations Baseball should start the tournament on Monday and end it on Thursday. If it rains, Nations would have Friday to make up the games. Families than will have an opportunity to see the Air Show on Friday, Saturday and can then drive home on Sunday. News alert for Nations Baseball. People need to get back to work to pay for the rather vast expense of a baseball tournament. The championship game for this tournament ended on Sunday at 7pm. Many families had to drive through the night to get to work.
- Nations Baseball Gulfport, MS - Grade C
- CABA World Series - Grade B
- AAU Disney Fields - Grade B - (Many doubleheaders had large gaps of time between them)
- Cooperstown Dreams Park - Grade A+ (I am not sure how they coordinate all of the teams when it is not raining, but they manage the schedule beautifully when rain delays or cancels games too.)
- Nations Baseball, Penacola, FL - Grade F
The Competition: Nations Baseball only attracted 4 total teams for the U14 tournament so they got an F. There were three very talented teams and one team that was rec level. Nations baseball was desperate for teams so they offered a local team a free entry. The local team had never played on 60/90 fields, so they took the free entry to prepare their kids for the upcoming season on the bigger fields.
- Nations Baseball Gulfport, MS - Grade F
- CABA - Grade A (International teams from Puerto Rico and Panama made the event special)
- AAU Disney - Grade A (Lots of quality teams competed in this event.)
- Cooperstown Dreams Park - Grade A+ (Each week for 13 weeks every summer, 100 plus teams compete. There is a wide range of competitive levels competing in this event. The top teams typically prevail, but the mid-range teams can advance far.)
- Nations Baseball, Penacola, FL - Grade F
Click Read More for Umpire, Competition Format, Destination, Website, Tournament Committee grades