One of the most frustrating and disappointing things that I’ve ever experienced in the world of travel softball is when we go to a big national event and end up playing a team from our home area.
A few years ago we traveled to California for the PGF National Championships. Which meant that many thousands of dollars were spent to make this trip by all the families involved. During our pool play, we had the opportunity to play a few games with teams we had not already played but we knew that our first bracket game was already set.
Now I understand the logic of doing a blind draw for the bracket play of a national tournament to insure that no one can argue that the event was stacked in a way to help one team or another have an advantage. “Home cooking” is not a term you would ever want associated with such a prestigious event.
But, when you travel a couple thousand miles to play a team from your home area that you have played a bunch of times already, it’s just not that much fun! And, of course, when you lose that game in a hard-fought battle, it’s even more upsetting.
There is no real answer to this problem. It is the luck of the draw. It is just too bad that you might be this unlucky once in a while.
