Prongs
 

Al,

I have found, and of course this is just my opinion or my own warped "logic" that the longer a player is "standing" on his prongs the more he loses his tweak, strength or straightness if you will until they "rest" or get "touched up". Also as Mark mentioned, dusk building up can reap havoc on a speed base such as a safety or receiver not to mention the negative effect dust can have on strength...just my opinion but I'm not very bright:)

Hope that helps...

fat on the field
 

Al, perhaps you should stop eating potato chips and french fries during your games. You "oil" the field with your big fingers, transforming it in a ice hockey board...or something like that.

I'm sure it's the problem. :D

There is a lot to this. There are also additional factors which come into play as a result of repeated vibration stress and game length. In my own experimental playtest league of last year, I had designed my games for a fast-play system —game lengths of around an hour and a half maximum— and this would tend to minimise these factors. After each game, I take the players off the bases and store them prongs-up so as not to deform them over time. I do not tweak bases or make other adjustments, but I've managed to get more or less consistent performance out of the bases and some surprising results.