The PSP has gotten such a positive response to their off season changes it seems the NPPL has decided to emulate at least one of them by changing their bunker set. (Link is in the title.) The U is gone as are 2 Cakes and 1 Small dorito. In their place two 5 foot cubes and two 8x8x5 foot wings (triangles). Independent of the other changes this may work out fine and the new bunkers may prove popular but I can't help viewing this with a jaundiced eye. (I wasn't always so cynical. Oh, who am I trying to kid, of course, I'm cynical.) Look, here's how the league press release reads, "The goal is to provide larger bunkers on the field making it harder to get eliminations off the break and promote longer games." What that means is hey, we want all those old, fat & slow players to come play NPPL instead of PSP. If they really wanted to make it harder to eliminate players OTB then don't let anybody shoot OTB. Simple. Or have a no laning zone around the start bunker so that no one can shoot until they are outside the no shooting zone. And seriously whose idea was this really? C'mon, the leagues are not driving these bunker changes. The manufacturer is and the leagues go along with it.
What's next? Widen the field 10 feet on each side? Allow pit-side coaching?
UPDATE: I have been taken to task for being somewhat too cynical and all-inclusive in my closing comments. In the interests of accuracy I need to clarify a couple of points. Chuck initiated the NPPL bunker changes this year as the league decided to get rid of the enormous U. The specifics were decided in a dialogue between the league and the manufacturer.
Additionally the argument was made that some modest changes are good in general in that it gives players new shapes to learn how to play and provides fresh creative inspiration. Which I think is a fair argument to make in favor of regular change. Otherwise I will stand by my claim that the prime mover in adding, changing, modifying the bunker sets is the manufacturer and I'll leave it you to decide if that's a good, bad or in-between thing.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Do you really think the manufacturer came up with an idea this weird? Maybe, but I don't believe it though.
I like the idea of no shooting off the break though. I can see it now. "OK, you have five seconds to jog to the bunker of your choice and then we'll let you know when you are allowed to start shooting." I love it!...or...we could just have players start at any bunker of their choice at the start of the game as long as it's on their half of the field. There you go. Now we could include almost everyone, no matter how many jelly donuts they've consumed over the past 30 years.
You're confusing two separate things, Reiner. One thing is the annual changing of the props which is a SupAir gimmick to sell upgrade kits. And while SupAir is a sponsor of both leagues it's nuts not to take greater control over the game they offer to their customers.
The other element of this is the spin the league has chosen to put on the prop changes. A--it wasn't thought out at all or else they assume everyone is so dumb they will swallow such nonsense without a second thought, or a first.
The giant wings or something quite close to that were in play at least in the MS around the early 2000's and they were horrible (ok, back then there were 4 of these per field, but still).
Since the justification is to attract the fat kids and old guys, what will the major leagues introduce for 2012? Machine gun turrets? Grenades? Tanks? Quit rec-ing up my tournament ball!
Hmmm 7-man and giants wings on MS JT field. The memories. Bring back the HUGHE center bunker mazes.
I like the new bunkers that the NPPL are adding for the 2011, not because they are cool or anything but for the fact that the fields can now leave the mainstream concepts that has been the norm for the last 7 or so year.(the x,a, and u on the 50)
Post a Comment