Little League

Letters inviting players to play in Hills’ Little League competition have been dispatched. Initially 450 letters have been posted. To comply with the Little League rules we have to conduct a 12 game competition. The intention is to play the first part of the competition in the January school holidays. They will be played after the Hills’ January camps. The venue will almost certainly be Castle Glen. What we do not have are coaches. The coaches to take the Little League teams into the finals have to be involved in the competition.

It will be interesting to see the response. In the end it will be the players’ choice – no one will be able to say we did not try.

Rep News

The format for the Under 12 and 14 representative competitions has altered. The top six teams in these age groups now play another round with all teams starting equal. The top four teams qualifying for the final series.

With Blacktown Olympic Park unavailable for the final series the highest finishing team will host the two day final series. The ‘lucky’ Association will have six days notice. I am not anxious to re arrange Junior games, let alone negotiate changes in the senior games for six games (requiring a venue that can provide two diamonds). My guess is that the host Association will have to supply the manpower to conduct the tournament – BNSW Umpires Association has said they will appoint umpires but I am not confident in their ability to do so.

We do not expect to lead the Under 12 age group however the Under 14 are a distinct possibility of being the leading qualifying team. The Under 14 Association Cup team has qualified for the final of that competition. It will play Cronulla.

General

• The JLSC has requested that Associations revisit their decisions to restrict the use of high performance bats. There are other Associations who wish to retain independent.
• Last meeting I suggested that we conduct an end of season gala day for Under 8 and include the Hills’ Mini Ball in the day. The more washouts there are the less the Under 8 play – I guess no one is replaying these washed out games. I am still prepared to promote the concept however I have reservations whether the idea will be supported by the parents.
• The balance of the breakaway bases that were on order have arrived. I have Kellyville and Oakville’s bases with me tonight. Also I will have baseballs for Schofields and Carlingford.
• Correspondence – complaint base umpire in Modified League game, Schofields v Kellyville. Need Kellyville to identify umpire. Kellyville is giving the impression they want to handle it in house.
• Last month I complained about the conduct of the SJC and Association Cup competition was totally foreign to what we were used to under NSWJBL – stating basically there was no one is at the wheel.
  • Well they did it again – on the Monday we asked to play Ryde in Under 12 as a mid-week as we had three players away on a week where originally no play was scheduled. By the following Friday we had received no answer from Baseball NSW. Ryde refused to play the game as a midweek and advised Baseball NSW that Hills “could play on Sunday or forfeit”. We played and won easily.
• Robert Stone has resigned as assistant coach of the Hills’ Youth League team. It is most disappointing to lose Robert’s services. Hopefully he will return to representative coaching next season. He left with Hills’ best wishes and we fully understood his reasons.
•  BNSW is to conduct a Champions of Champions tournament in 30th March and 6th April next year. The eligible teams will be the Minor Premiers in Youth, Hay and Douglass competitions. This concept is causing a few ‘hassles’ in Under 12 and Under 14 competition as we battle with what are now weekly pitching restrictions necessary for the representative team. We will be as fair as possible to enable the leading teams the best opportunity to qualify for the Champion of Champions – if they are interested in the concept.

Wet weather

The wet weather will just not go away. Washouts keep occurring and the weather returns midweek stifling the opportunity to replay many of the games. The dates for the replays of the washed out rounds of 3rd and 10th November has previously been set as 23rd December. The replays of the ‘partial’ washouts of the last two weeks will be 12th February – just cannot be any later than that.

There are alternatives in both Catt and Daisley Leagues to vary those competitions – the end result means that there will be fewer games played in the season. Really the washed out games in these two Leagues can be easily played at Kellyville on a Thursday night. Without resorting to time ‘slots’ a night we can play four if not five games on one night – at a relatively ‘comfortable’ 6pm start.

I am close to declaring the outstanding games in Catt, Daisley and Petroff to be played in that manner. In Catt League: Carlingford Cubs, Kellyville and Castle Hill Archers all have four games outstanding, Baulkham Hills three, Carlingford Redsox two games and Oakville one.

If history is anything to go by, there will not be a lot of activity, not only in Catt League but across the Association in general, as Christmas draws closer.

• When replaying washed out games I am seeing some poor decision making – or at the least unwise decisions.
  • There are reports being received from clubs/ teams that they have played on diamonds which they consider were unsafe.
  • I was disappointed that Winston Hills played the Under 14 Hay League game on diamond three with an Under 10 game on diamond two. Just as big a risk was playing an older age group on what is basically a junior diamond. Foul balls could well ‘finish’ on the M2 with catastrophic results.

General reminders

Since the last meeting I have issued two general reminders – one about pitching limits and the other re ending mid week games.

• Midweek games- Just a word of caution re the twilight games I am concerned about games progressing past a time that I thought was safe - with the storms around it gets 'dark' much earlier than the normal sunset. Some of you will remember the 'rule' in the days we played twilights - which was when the street lights come on then umpires are to call game. It would have been difficult to claim it was light enough to play safely at 6.50 / 7pm.
• The pitching limits advice was - It is appropriate to remind coaches of the pitching rules that apply. These rules do not alter because there was a midweek game played.
• Where games were played on Thursday or Friday nights - IF the pitcher threw more than 30 pitches then that pitcher cannot pitch on Saturday. They were not allowed ' to finish the batter' and have the pitches not count.
• Where games were played Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the pitches thrown are deducted from a total maximum of 128 in five days. eg An Under 17 pitcher throwing 75 pitches mid week can only throw an absolute maximum of 53 pitches on Friday or Saturday. Again cannot finish the batter once the upper limit of 128 pitches is reached.
• Same rule applies to State Under 17 and 14 pitchers in their respective practice games including the rule relating to the need for 60 hour rest period where they pitch more than 30 pitches.
• Any breaches of pitching rules will result in an automatic loss of game.
• The 128 upper limit starts over from the last assignment. This means that pitches thrown on Saturday are 'considered' when assessing the pitcher's available pitches on the following Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
• Also, the rule requiring 60 hours rest period after pitching more than 30 pitches applies to every pitching assignment - irrespective of the day the game is played.

Parkball

BNSW has called a meeting of Park Ball Associations tonight. There is a suggested change in the Constitution. If accepted these changes will mean the independence of Hills’ clubs be hampered with BNSW more easily able to dictate how competitions will be conducted and where teams will play ( especially/ initially seniors).

This is the anticipated move to direct affiliation of clubs with BNSW and one step closer to the same model as other states and a further decrease in the significance of Associations (both senior and junior).

It seems that everyone is happy/accepting of the current situation for running baseball in this state and those minor hiccups where the decision is imposed 'from above' (eg Little League) are just accepted. The prize for most outrageous statement of the year goes to BNSW for this:-

"MEMBERSHIP The current membership structure for BNSW was adopted also under the ABF ‘model’ constitution. This model is not that dissimilar to the one operating prior to the adoption of the current Constitution."

On what planet is that true?

I see that this is clearly the start of the dismantling exercise. I'm not sure I'm still interested in fighting the good fight when most people out there don't seem to give a toss about most of this. Or even understand it.

Remember the old adage – people get the Governments they deserve! Same in Baseball!

More general business

Remember there is a change in the Youth League draw this week. Kings Langley v Baulkham Hills at Kellyville and Lansvale v Kellyville at Hartley’s. This is a ‘straight swap’ of the rounds of 14th December with the 18th January. We are recommending a change to rule relating to the ending of the Youth League games played at Kellyville and Knights for different reasons. Kellyville where there is a Woman’s’ League game following and Knights with the 10pm curfew. At Kellyville the game will conclude by 7.45pm and 9.50pm at Knights.

The alternative is to start earlier at both venues. Having said that the decision to start at 6pm was a very deliberate one – 5.30pm starts were thought to be too early.

There is need for a Judiciary after a coach was ejected. It is proving difficult to organize all the people we need at the meeting to be anywhere at the same time.

This will be our third meeting at this venue. Are you happy with it as a venue or would you prefer to see if we can locate another alternative venue.

Are you happy to sign off on the discussion on the Dispensation Policy? If so it will enable a new discussion paper to be prepared.

The Thursday night pitching and catching development program is being hampered by the weather. We have only been able to conduct two of the four sessions so far. They have been very well attended – approximately 30 players a night.

We have had better luck with the visits to clubs with the pitching instruction program. We have visited Carlingford (twice), Hawkesbury (twice), Winston Hills and Schofields once each. This week it is Kellyville on Thursday. We have also extended the club visits to include hitting. The instructor is Trent Oeltjen. We are paying Trent for his services, so far he has been to the Under 12 Representative team, Oakville, Winston Hills and Schofields. Tonight, weather permitting, he will be at Ashley Brown, Wednesday at Kellyville (with Under 12 Douglass League team) and Thursday with Rouse Hill.

We are attempting to concentrate on the smaller clubs and improve their standard. The target age group is the Under 12.

There is a brouhaha in the JLSC over the intention to have an address at its meeting tomorrow night from Good Sports giving a 10 to 20 minute presentation on Alcohol in Sport. Good Sports are a company that in conjunction with BNSW are trying to legalize the process of selling alcohol at Baseball games at local parks/ canteens.
What is behind the address is a $20k sponsorship for Baseball NSW. Delegates like Jeff are upset at the concept of selling alcohol at Junior Sports. Peter and I share the same concern even more so which we will elaborate more on tonight. This is yet another illustration that the structure of BNSW is just the wrong structure.

Hills is prepared to conduct two camps in the January School Holidays the tentative dates are 15 to 17th and 22nd to 24th January. Cost will be $40. Venue Castle Glen. Preferred ages are 10 to 13 years of age.

Clubs within the Baulkham Hills and Blacktown Council areas may well be ‘in trouble’ in having their grounds mown this week. It has to be expected that Council’s first priority will be to the clean up of storm damage.

There are a couple of issues relating to the Youth League team. One matter is nothing to do with Hills and the Association will not be involved in the matter in any shape or form. Another has yet to surface formally. There will need to be a formal complaint before we will act. The team will forfeit its game against Ryde’s Association Cup team. That is very disappointing. Hopefully Castle Hill’s Youth League is prepared to play.

The Secretary’s report was accepted.

• The tours to Thailand and Taiwan were cancelled due to lack of interest from players.
• The trials for overseas tours will begin in March, 2008.

• G. Smith complained about Association’s rules in relation to bats – wants common rules. He wants Associations to consider the restrictions placed on high performance bats. A number of Associations have ‘bans’ on these types of bats.

• The Under 12 and 14 representative competitions are well into another round robin competition – this time between the top six teams. There are changes to the rules for finals.
• The Under 12 State Cup competition will move to Little League ages next year. There is support for changes, maybe in 2008, in age groups, Under 13, Under 15, Under 17. Problem is that the Major League Sub Committee is wanting to assume control of Under 17 age group to bolster its Under 18 competition.
• Baseball NSW has abandoned the extra rounds for Under 12 and 14 Association Cup.
• It is reported that Baseball NSW registrations suffered a modest decline.
• Baseball NSW lost $22K. It was reported that the cash flow needs to be monitored.
• Message from Baseball NSW Board criticizing the JLSC for a lack of leadership, as it was unable to ‘find’ a chairperson for the JLSC.
• The Champions of Champions tournament will be held on 30 March and 6 April, 2008. It is for Minor Premiers in Under 12, 14 and 16 age groups. Venue is Kelso.
• Teams will play seven innings games over two weeks. Winning team will receive a playing kit.

Matters arising from the JLSC report:

The meeting reviewed its decision to bar the high performance bats in Under 14 Hay and Street North League.  It was resolved that the restrictions will remain.

• Statement of Financial Position was presented.
• Payments were approved.
• Debtors and liabilities were disclosed.

Little League: The provisional draw will be issued shortly. Unsure if the proposed dates will suit the coaches who have nominated.

Representative Competitions: The proposed changes to Under 13, Under 15, Under 17, with the eligibility birth date being under the age as at 1st May – was discussed. It was agreed to, but not for the entry of more than one team in representative baseball.

Dispensation Policy: Mr. Schmidt advised that the revised Policy, as discussed at October meeting, will be issued as a Draft. There will be assessments and the timeline brought forward.

Behavioural Standards Commission: Mr. Schmidt advised that the report has not been finalised to the stage that would enable the report to be issued.

Under 8 competition: Mr. Tossell stated that he was concerned that the Under 8 players were ‘getting left behind’ due to the number of games being washed out. Mr. Yard advised he was also concerned that the players were not getting ‘value for money’ and may feel so disappointed that they would not return to the sport next year.

Mr. Yard also advised that he was considering suggesting that the Association conduct a Gala Day on a Sunday to help make up in some way, the loss of games. The problem is having the club’s teams to agree to the concept and then actually attend.

Muirfield Improvement: Mr. Borg advised that Carlingford has reached an agreement with Muirfield High School to improve the drainage. The two parties will share the cost.

Contact for coaches: Mr. Petrone suggested that Hills issue the contact numbers of coaches with the draw. Mr. Yard advised that he has problems with the suggestion –

• Yes is may be convenient, however it would require the agreement of the individual coaches to publicize the information.
• The information is not always received by the Association – and when it is, it is long after the draw has been issued.

Replay of washed out games: Mr. Blundell reported that the wet weather had forced the cancellation of two washed out games scheduled this week. Mr. Yard advised that consideration is being given to extending the dates that midweek and washed out games have to be played by.

Level O: Instructors approved by Baseball NSW are Phil Hemmer, who has done the course: Greg Robinson is to undertake the course.