by Ron Wolforth, Texas Baseball Ranch, Pitching Central, and suspended by the USSSA

My grandfather once told me…when wrong…sincerely apologize immediately and ask what can be done to rectify the situation…then follow through without delay. And when right on an important topic…never capitulate and hang in there and fight the good fight.

His decree has now officially been put to test by the USSSA. But I have been tested before. I’m sure I’ll be tested again.
 
My Grandfather insisted that we stand for something and to not acquiesce simply because it’s uncomfortable, inconvenient or unpopular…that choosing your enemies was just as important as choosing your friends.

Jill & I have chosen to draw our line in the sand here.  It is here where we will dig in our heels and stand.

• At the Elite 32 in Orlando, a 3 pitch warm-up maximum was put in place to obviously speed up the games and keep the tournament running on time. At the time I was unaware of the policy because the umpires had not enforced the ruling earlier in the week. You can rest assured I would have voiced vehement opposition to such lunacy the second I was aware of the ruling.
• On the next to last day in the quarter-finals, Garrett came into the game to pitch from shortstop in the first inning with one out and two on. I was sitting in center field when I noticed three pitches was all he was allowed. I noticed Garrett’s coach object to the rule and while the two discussed the ruling…Garrett got a couple more warm-up throws (probably a total of 6-7).
• At the time I wasn’t that furious about it because we had prepared Garrett before the game for that possibility and had already completely warmed him up in the bull pen prior to the game. But later I became incensed just thinking about if we hadn’t completely warmed up…the umpire would have placed my son at grave risk of injury.
• When I went to check on what was happening in subsequent innings I was informed that the umpire was insisting on the 3 pitch maximum per inning policy. I headed for the tournament director and was told…”3 pitches it was…our coaches were informed of that possibility in the pre tourney meeting, that THAT was the policy…get used to it…moving on.’
• I returned and got the tournament director’s name .
• Our team compensated for the policy by artificially delaying the catcher in the dugout and letting Garrett get 4-5 pitches in with a coach before the catcher would arrive and the 3 pitch maximum was enforced….so the policy had no adverse effect to the game from what I could see. However, the umpire clearly did not care for our strategy and I believe without question shrank our strike zone….which did effect the game. But that is an entirely different topic for another time.
• Upon returning to Houston I officially wrote the USSSA to voice my displeasure and demand a change in policy. Last week ‘s e-mail included as an attachment that exact correspondence.
• The USSSA responded two days later with a denial that the 3 pitch policy ever was in place and that the incident I described never took place…that they had checked with tournament officials…I was in error.
• I responded with both team names, field #, game #, umpire’s description (he was from Indiana) as well as the tournament director’s name.
• The next was a veiled threat… the USSSA General Counsel asking me via e-mail if I was sure I wanted to go the route of suing the USSSA? I wrote back saying we had absolutely no interest whatsoever in any litigation. I simply wanted the 3 pitch policy corrected and to go the way of the dinosaur….extinction.
• Next the USSSA called our coach and told him to reign me in or the Wolforth’s would be suspended and even possibly the Nationals may be suspended as a team. They viewed the recent trouble with pitch count as serious and unacceptable and they promised our Coach this mistake would be addressed at the September meetings and would not be repeated. They asked Mike to obtain from me a letter which indicated that Jill & I were not interested in suing the USSSA.
• The next day I wrote the following e-mail

  To Whom it may concern in the USSSA, The Wolforths have absolutely no desire to sue the USSSA nor did we ever have an interest in litigation in any shape, matter or form. Our only interest has always been and will remain making certain that young arms were not placed at unnecessary risk. Since the USSSA has assured our head Coach, Mike Williams,  that our pitchers would get the major league standard 8 warm-up pitches per inning  and that the 3 pitch per inning policy used at the recent Elite 32 would not be repeated, we now view the matter closed.
  - Ron & Jill Wolforth

• The next day the USSSA e-mails our Coach and back tracks on his initial statements. They told him that our response was inappropriate that we should have filed a formal protest with the USSSA during the game…and that while they will discuss the issue at the September meetings he couldn’t guarantee our Coach any particular conclusion from such meetings.
  

IMO this man obviously had been smacked down by the attorneys.

• Two days later the USSSA suspends the entire Wolforth family. Stating that my correspondences in essence were de facto veiled threats at legal suits and that we needed a legal counsel to help us create something in writing that we will not sue the USSSA and our dispute with the USSSA is at an end…. and if their board accepts the correspondence….we could be reinstated….but until that time…we were all suspended immediately. Stating also that the USSSA and the umpires will make ‘discretionary decisions’ as to the pre-inning warm-up pitches and ‘The USSSA umpires and directors will make the final rule decision, not you.’

Ladies and gentleman…

this is EXACTLY what it’s like to fight City Hall…or any government bureaucracy…or large corporation.

The USSSA KNOWS darn well they are wrong. But they act to squash and deflect. They reject being held accountable by anyone. They twist words and meanings. They turn things over to lawyers.  They hope we will blink. Run scared. Beg for forgiveness.

In truth, they have shot their only salvo…and now it’s our turn. Our manager and coach have decided to not play USSSA this year. I have let many, including the ASMI, Webball, Paul Reddick, Brent Strom and Lou Pavlovich of Collegate Baseball know what is going on.

On Jill & my weekly radio show we will dedicate 1/3 of it each week to this issue. In other words…this is NOT going away. I don’t honestly know if anything short of an injury to a player and then a subsequent litigation will change the USSSA’s arrogant policy of ‘we’ll damn well do what the hell ever we deem right…and we’ll squash all  those who attempt to hold us accountable’ philosophy.

But that is neither here nor there.

The policy is wrong. It is dangerous…and it must be stopped. Now. The Wolforth’s will make a stand here…now. We fully understood that when we took this stand, there was no going back.
The cost of forcing the USSSA to change would probably be high. It would not come cheap. We sincerely hoped the conversation would have went something like:

Coach, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We view this as a very serious issue as the health and well –being of our participants is paramount. We agree that the 3 pitch pre-inning maximum is unwise and we assure you this is not our normal policy. We will formally look into why it was instituted in this particular case and we assure you it will not occur again. We will tell you what we found and the steps we have undertaken to assure this does not take place again after our end of season meetings in September.

Had we received that response via e-mail or phone…I sincerely would have viewed this issue as closed. But instead…the Wolforths have been suspended…I see no real desire or movement to get it right…let alone admit a wrong…and this giant simply flexes its muscles and threatens and bullies its members.

This is a classic case study on what is wrong with select travel baseball….and big government and big business.

If you wish to join the fight…I suggest a simple letter to the USSSA Executive board voicing your displeasure of the 3 pitch maximum between inning rules. If enough of you voice your displeasure they at the very least will be very hesitant to ever place these speed up rules in affect in tournaments all over the USA.

Which is all we wanted to have happen in the first place.