Now, you called Jpaul one of the biggest USSSA guys with James E. He is also under the gun on the parks and rec board because of his and James promise that Truman would not loose money if the switch to USSSA. Now I know you will not beleave it from me. Call Ronnie or the lady who does sharon job now. She and the city council have all the facts and figures to make you see that jpaul and james did not know what they were talking about.

Have talked to Both parties, I can say you are right. The USSSA side admits the loss of home games is behind the loss of funds, but claims it wouldn't have mattered if they were LL or not this year, that they still would have lost home games due to weather. Harrisburg also lost thousands this year although they don't advertise their numbers quite like Trumann. They too claim they lost home games as well but I have personally heard the director say that it costed more to play USSSA in fees. Anybody who doubts that can be shown the numbers without looking at a specific parks budget. My overall fear here is the division on opinions will create a physical division, meaning people will leave our city programs. For programs already thousands of dollars in the hole, this will mean shutting down. NO YOUTH BASEBALL. So, IMHO, one or two people shouldn't be making the decisions here, and they should be made with our youth in mind, not what suits certain people.

Ok, listen up, I have the cities figues on the ball program. It does not cost the cities more money to play USSSA. It does cost the league more. All the cities pay a flat rate to the league, the SAME rate that was paid to LL.

Ask Ronnie? The person who told Pocahontas and Newport that Delta was staying LL? The one who told Monnette, Lake City, Caraway and all the Softball teams in that area that Trumann was going LL in softball before it was ever voted on and then voted down with only one "yeah"? Yep thats a real good person to ask. As far as USSSA, yep the tournaments are more expensive, but the cities dont pay that, The cities pay the same money they paid in LL to Delta, and less in sanctioning fees and insurance. As far as Trumann making thier money issues "well known" , please dont wrap all of Trumann with the one person who is making it well known.

That's probably what he was trying to say then... He was emphasizing post season costs in particular...

[QUOTE]That's probably what he was trying to say then... He was emphasizing post season costs in particular

The post season costs had no effect on Trumann or any other town. The Delta Baseball League paid those costs. Trumann's biggest loss of revenue was because they only had about 4 or 5 softball teams this year. That was the biggest reduction in income. Everyone keeps talking about, "its for the kids". Lets ask the kids what they want to play. I know that every kid that I asked, and that has been MANY. They ALL want to play USSSA. They call it Real Baseball. This is not me saying this, this is directly from the kids.

Since taxpayer inevitably pay for these programs, shouldn't their budgets be made well known? I think every dime needs to be accounted for every season. The people in Trumann aren't going to agree on the USSSA vs. LL issue anytime soon. There is a strong opposition on both sides. In my opinion nobody should be profiting from youth baseball programs, but they should be breaking even at least. I had someone tell me "why should parents care if the league pays more to play USSSA, that doesn't even affect them". BUT when it came time to pay for post season play where the tournaments were twice the fee compared to LL, who did they turn to to make up the difference? PARENTS... Everybody was asked to pay $10.00 for their child to play post season and were told they couldn't even afford to buy the all-stars hats, we had to provide that for our boys too. So the cost does eventually go back to the parents which is why they deserve a voice too.

My sons have played in NEA for 6 or 7 years and we have never played league games with Trumann or Delta. Think you need to talk to someone else besides Ronnie to get your stories straight

There are some leagues that does not even supply uniforms. So if the parents want to buy hats, then IMO that is not asking to much and untill everyone starts helping with fundraising tournaments, then maybe people will realize how much money it takes to operate any league. You get a handfull of people to help with a tournament. I am talking like 20 people from the whole county of poinsett. I would like to know where all the people that are griping about the league was then?...

I agree that the kids LOVE the rules of USSSA. I think it is much more advanced. What I want to see from all of this whether we play USSSA, LL or whatever, is organization. All the way from each citys' pre-season budget to post season play. If we know in advance we need so many thousand dollars for all-stars at the end of the season, money should be set aside at the beginning of the year for this and not touched. That way the cost DOESN'T go back to the parents and the boys have uniforms when they need them including hats and we don't have to have emergency fund raising to pay for the post season tournaments. This should be priority for Delta. As far as each city goes, our town supposedly lost thousands on "uniforms". But softball players recycled theirs for the last 3 years aside from hats and socks. And our boys get cheap t-shirts . Anybody can put a pencil to it and see that sponsorship fees should cover each teams jerseys and hats. Plus you pay to play so how could uniforms make us in the hole? I'm only saying this because I don't think any one type of baseball program (USSSA or LL) is going to solve city league budget problems.

uh oh here comes the truth... I told you expert

Delta baseball has not turned anyone away from attending our scheduling. We would be glad to play NEA and the other local teams, to fill out our schedules. We would of course have to agree on which rules we would use. Possibly LL rules at LL sites and USSSA rules at Delta sites. This was also brought up to Ronnie and he said that LL would not allow them to play USSSA teams. HMMM dont they play in some non sanctioned tournaments against USSSA teams? I know they did this year because several LL teams were in the Delta pre-season tournament (thank you NEA, Jonesboro, Monette Caraway and any other teams that played). I dont want to argue the Issue of USSSA vs LL. There is too much mis information coming from second hand informants to viably discuss the issue any more.

Again, this is where planning an organization come in. People will be happy to help when something isn't spur of the moment and well planned. Also, correct information needs to be given to volunteers about what these fund raisers are for. There was a tournament held where several people inquired if it was for all-stars and they all got different responses, therefore none of them came to help because it sounded like a private fund raiser, not one for the Delta. I could name 5 families off the top of my head that would've all ben there had they known it was for Delta. Everything doesn't have to be run by the 2 or three ya'll are always referring to. People want to be included but they also want to know what their hard work is paying for. And that's not too much to ask... AND I wouldn't call any of this griping about the league. Delta is a great league. They just need to get their money under control.

Ok; I couldnt stay out this after all...............

Youth I have to admit,

Blytheville and Mt. Home are two the best sites for tournaments around here.
I have been other places (Ashdown), and it was awful and the poor DA didnt have a clue about the rules and only enforced the rules he wanted to and plainly ignored others.

I know you make trips to Waco and such and it does help you have some pull for the area. I could careless if you do make money. Hope you dont lose any.

P.S. please note I am BASKETBALLDAD; not BASEBALLDAD

yep he is Buford T Justice