April 20, 2002
The Southboro youth baseball clinic was put on hold for the time being. It is hoped that the
event will still take place, it's just a matter of when right now.
The Cubs will scrimmage a Boston Baseball league team from Wellesley on Sunday 4/21 at 10AM.
This will be the last practice before the season opens next weekend on 4/28.
March 10, 2002
The first league meeting of 2002 was held on January 20th. Here are the meeting notes:
The largest item on the agenda was what was the status of the Newton Red Sox team. It was decided
that based on their not meeting the guidelines set forth at last year's probation meeting that the
Newton Red Sox team would be disbanded. Players from that team that wish to remain in the league
will need to contact Paul Valentino. If the players pay a $50 registration fee, they will be
entered into a reentry draft. Teams will pick in reverse order of last year's final regular season
standings. The replacement team (more later) will have the first selection and then Brewers,
Cardinals, Mariners, Indians, Yankees, Cubs, Braves, Phillies, Orioles. It turned out that no
Red Sox players tried to reenter the league.
The next item, was allowing a new team to enter the league. Congratulations to our newest league
member, the Ashland Red Sox lead by Rob Scherer!!! The league is excited to have this new team
in the league! They will use Ashland High as their home field.
The schedule order was picked:
Orioles 1, Indians 2, Red Sox 3, Mariners 4, Yankees 5
Cubs A, Phillies B, Brewers C, Cardinals D, Braves E
(Interestingly, in all three years these letters/numbers have been drafted the Orioles have been 1
and the Cubs A, that's weird...)
The standard schedule will be created this season with Mother's Day weekend off and play on both
weekends around the July 4th Holiday. This season, the National League will be the home team for
the first and third double header weekend while the American League will be the home team for the
second double header weekend. Keep in mind however that a second schedule will be made that adjusts
the last two weekends worth of games into weeknight games earlier in the year shortening the schedule
by 2 weeks. If it is decided that teams can't get fields for these weeknight games then we will
revert to the standard schedule.
The umpiring fees are remaining the same as last year. $65 per ump per 9 inning game, $60 per ump
per 7 inning game. If a game starts and is then called before completion, the umpires receive full
payment. If the umpires show up at the field and the game is called before it starts, both umpires
receive a half payment. If the umpires are called at least 1 hour before the game starts to cancel
the game then the umpires don't get paid. The home team has the responsibility of determining if a
game will be started. The new rule this year is that the teams will split umpiring costs instead of
the home team always paying for both umpires.
We are a wood bat league and this will no longer be discussed at league meetings. However, there
was a vote on whether or not to allow bamboo bats and the decision was yes. We also discussed using
a leaguewide bat supplier. Tom Galvani will be making inquires and getting back to the league with
more details on pricing and logistics. Send Tom any information you might have on current bat
suppliers.
We will be using Feely field again for the Championship games.
Our insurance policy is changing. We will no longer be holding a coverage that kicks in extra money
for costs above a players insurance plan. We are adding more liability insurance, but the net cost
to the league is a $500 savings!
The existing teams in the league will need to make a payment to the league by 3/15/02. The final
payment amount covers at least the following items:
$40/dozen balls
$240
Insurance
$100
Webmaster
$80
Umpire stipend
$20
League winner
$30
The final fee amount will be $545.
Rich Moran presented three very interesting items for discussion. The first was the splitting of
the umpiring fees which was passed and mentioned above. The second was to require each home team
to line the infield for each game. Many managers felt this was a great rule, however, logistically
it presented some issues. Not all managers have access to facilities at the field to store the
machine or the vehicles to get the machine back and forth to games. This item did not get passed.
The last item was to create a three member board that would serve two purposes, alleviate some of
the onus on the President from having to make all the difficult "hardass" decisions when grey area
issues arise. Also, it might help resolve some issues that don't need to have a vote from all ten
managers. While the exact wording of the proposal was not accepted, a modified version of the
proposal was passed. There are three board positions now, but any issues that arise still need to
be voted on by all 10 managers. The President remains Paul Valentino. There is a co-president/VP
Rich Schwarz (thanks for the support!) and a treasurer, Rick Huckins. Each of these members will
serve a two year term at which they must be reelected for the position. There are no term limits,
a member can remain on the board for life but must be reelected every two years.
We have been working out in the cages since the beginning of March. We have also scheduled two dates
for a Southboro youth baseball clinic! On 3/30 and 4/13, the Triboro Cubs will hold a clinic for
Southboro Youth Baseball. More details on this will be coming shortly.