Yeap..........Thankless job by any interpretation.

You need to read in the rule book what is the basic requirments that a diamond must have. They get to take thier turn just like everybody else. Pitching requirment: this is one of then pentalties for wanting to play only small league teams. Rule book specifically states that any division of tournaments within the district is apart of the district tournament. The pitching resets at the following levels: State, Regional and World Series.

Umpires are subject to complaints all the time. Sounds to me like Carl was consistant and thats all you can ask for.

so, its ok to be horrible as long as you are consistant?

And IMO locations (field conditions etc.) should be taken into consideration.
I think the"they get their turn" like everyone else is wrong. Once again,
I have played where there were the fields looked as if they just took the cattle off
the day before. And there were not any bathrooms with working water......
Some of these kids grea-*test*-('") memories of playing will be the parks. Like Blytheville, Southaven and etc. And that goes for us adults as well. I'm just
sorry we had to endure Ashdown for a 14 yoa State Tournament. What a bad
way to end a LL career for some of these kids.

And I think not giving everyone a chance to host some kind of District tournament is wrong. That level of play needs to be moved around and shared. Now at the State and Regional levels you have to put your best foot forward. You can comment about Ashdown all you want, you are preaching to the choir on that subject.

You mentioned Blytheville. Don't they have great facilities? Does it make you understand why they get to host tournaments?

Question for youth expert.
Blytheville does have great facilities. But, L.L. is for the small town baseball teams. This past weekend we were playing at Pine Bluff in the State Tournament and there were probably 3 parks in our league twice as better than their fields.
My question is why don't some of the smaller towns in the N.E.A. have a chance to host a post season tournament, or at least be asked to? I know Brookland hosted the 7 & 8 district, their parks will be great in a couple of years but not this year, it was terrible on the infield, grass had not matured and no bleachers, people were getting hit from foul balls, like I said the field will be better in a couple of years.
It seams like Brookland is the only place in NEA that you will place a tournament site. All the STATE tourn. will be placed at Blytheville from what I can get from your last posting. I wish you would have a little confidence in the other towns to host a state tournament. If you go back and check I will bet that the NEA has more teams which means more kids participating than anyother league in district 4 . Give us a chance

GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU KILLER, HOPE YOUR DOING O.K

yea im doing good just still celebrating that state cahmpionship!!!!!i hope your doing good to wannabe.

Thanks for the question. At the January District meeting a list of all the tournaments that District Four is going to host is put up for leagues to offer to host. Each league president indicates what they are willing to host. If the league president does not elect to host something than that league is not considered.

To be awarded a tournament someone must be present at the January meeting from that league. In the NEA, most times the League President will not accept for communities that he does not live at.

In the near past, Bay, Lake City, Brookland x 3 and Manila have all hosted District Tournaments.

State Tournaments require alot more facilities and exspense. If a community with 2 grass infield diamonds and at least 200 rooms of hotels wants to bid on a state tournament I will consider them.

I recently hosted the Small League State Tournament last year at Mt. View. You can not get much smaller than that.

Expert is basically right...on hosting tournaments..the leagues that want to host have to be involved from the get go. Not just decide at the last minute they want to host a tournament. Expert is like most DA's, he can't just call them up and say well you're going to host a tournament whether you want to or not. So I would say if you're interested in hosting you need to start attending the meetings...

blytheville parks are so good because we spent 750,000 dollars to upgrade the facilities to host more tournaments. small towns need a local tax to help their communitys. luckily we have a mayor in bville that supports our league but stays out of the daily politics, set up a booster club and run ur leagues without citys imput keep politics out of baseball. i love little league and despise usssa it kills a local league, trumann hope u come back to ll.blytheville doesnt want to be the big bad monster, we think all towns deserve tourn, ask nea about 10yr old tourn, their da scrrewed the nea and bly on the time to play yesterday, be glad we got jeff he does really try . we got regional because we have 3 good fields, and 600 motel rooms which we fill up august 1-8th. one day its gonna take off and keep getting bigger and bigger, were glad that some local teams get to come and play in regional, these teams could beat any usssa team from any league . texas teams play for real. thanks and good luck with all ur tournaments. by the way keep ur concession stands sales out of the hands of ur city , run it for the league it will make u money. thanks and see u soon in blytheville

i meant da at the state tourn in fordyce he is goofy, told nea one time and changed it on the bracket . our da is doing a good job

Great info! I agree with all that you are saying. Our concession stand loses plenty of money I can guarantee. Too much cash and goods goes in and out the door, nobody keeps real books on it. If you ask me, this should be contracted out to the highest bidder. The city will get a cut of the profits or a flat facility use fee and the person who is contracted to sell in the stand will be responsible for all aspects of the concession stand including workers, cleanup and the purchasing of all goods. It works in parks all over the state. The city should not be taking part in it.

youthbaseballexpert, I applaude your efforts. 95% of the people want to go to the ballpark, watch their kid play ball, and go home. Most of these complain about how things are done, or not done. If they want it done any differently, they need to step forward and get them some. Like I said, I applaude your efforts. Good job, Doc.

Pocahontas has been suffering, I mean playing, in the USSSA league for the past 2 seasons and it has been the worst move that any league can make in my opinion. Mr. Smallmon tried to help us get LL start in Pocahontas last season, but it fell through for reasons that had nothing to do with him. I was at every meeting he came to here in Pocahontas and he was extremely helpful at all times on all issues. I believe the suffering my have come to an end, the local baseball board in Pocahontas has 7 new members and they all want something other than USSSA league baseball. Again thank you Mr. Smallmon for your efforts.

A couple of things.
first: Blytheville's aeroplex at Thunder Bayou is one in the top of the state facilities. I personally know Gail real well, he does an outstanding job every year with their set up and volunteer to run the tournaments. I'm sure in the next few years their going to get a World Series in which they deserve.
second: I never said I dont disrespect or second guess what Jeff is doing with Little League, their is so much money and time spent hopping between towns during the season. A man in his shoes seldom gets praise but alot of critisism. Obviously he fights for our side of the state to get our share of big tournaments. All I was stating that we played on a state tournament fields that several other towns in our nea takes as much or more pride in the way they look. As far as hotel rooms any where you place a state or higher tournament in Northeast Ark. the farthest you would be is less than 15 miles. Most big towns you would have to travel that anyway.
If it's up to the league presidents to take information to the district meeting, then maybe thats where the problem might be.

As far as our D.A. keep up the under appreciated job you do year around for district 4. Our league is getting stronger from it.