Draft Days

Our draft days are coming up, girls this week, boys next week. The draft is when the managers pick their team. Some age groups don’t draft because there are only enough players to make one team. That means players are stuck with one manager and that manager is stuck with those players. In most divisions there are several teams. After the managers are chosen, they are required to come to the draft and pick their team. While I have them as a captive audience, I first hit them with all the BBA events and activities they have to help promote. This year, they will also be hit over the head with Safety Issues and programs. After some research, I have found that there is an enormous amount of information available about safety. Not only basic first aid but there is also information on how to prevent injuries and dealing with health issues. Our goal this year is to have our managers updated on important safety issues. You will also hear more about this later.

Now, on to the drafting. Each manager has his or her own style and strategies when picking a team. As a manager for many, many years I can tell you some of the variables.
- Pick the best available player at all costs.
- Pick the kids who behave and are team players.
- Pick the kids with the best, most cooperative parents.
- Pick the kids whose parents request you.
- Pick your kid’s friends to make him/her happy.
The opposite holds true on the strategies of not picking certain kids. There are probably also variables I fail to mention because I want to believe our managers focus on what is right and fair. The priority of these variables is at the discretion of the manager based on his/her personality and goals for the season.

Shortly after the draft is over, the managers make the calls and the kids start talking in school, I start getting the phone calls. I will be right up front and say that my patience on getting phone calls from parents not happy about who drafted their child is very, very, very low. We specify on the registration form that we do not guarantee that one’s child will be placed on the team he/she wants. That means making new friends and learning to get along with others will be valuable lessons learned for the year. It is also called growing up.

I hope this year I do not get many calls and parents give their managers a chance. We have very good managers who I believe have the team’s best interest in mind. This is a team sport and children need to learn how to be a contributing part of a team. And when I do get a call from an unhappy parent, I pray for God to give me enough patience to explain why we will not assist in the spoiling of a child, but we will assist in teaching the child about teamwork.

Anticipation….It’s keeping me wai a a a a ting…

The time between registration and the first warm up throw in practice can be excruciatingly long. And the weather…the weather always seems to get worse right when we want it to get warm enough to catch a ball without it stinging your glove hand. But nooooooooo…not yet, the waiting period has begun. So what do you do while you wait? Some have found ways to practice inside in gyms by signing up for clinics and organized practices. Some just fret about who is going to be the manager and who is going to be on the team. As I explained in previous blogs, the commissioners and us board members spend this time scrabbling to get enough kids to make fair and even teams. We are also planning for the parties and other events like Opening Day and BBA day that makes for a fun season. But until then, there is going to be some more snow, more cold and more anticipating before we get out the rakes and mowers and start priming the fields. Either way, I stay busy, but I prefer to be busy outside with the hustle and bustle of field preparations, kids playing ball and the smell of concession stand popcorn in the air.

Meetings and more meetings

This is the time of year when I am going to have meetings coming out of my… you know what. It’s planning time. We have to plan for the Monte Carlo night, Draft Nights, Field Days, Picture Day, Opening Day, BBA Day, take your child to work day, okay…I made up the last one. You get the idea. Tonight is our monthly meeting of the membership. We hold it at the local pub and restaurant called the Little Brown Jug. They are very good to us there and give us the back party room for our meetings. Meetings can be a lot more tolerable when you can eat a little and sip on a beer or two. Also I try to make sure the meetings move along quickly. Cover what we need to and keep it moving. One hour is my goal for the meeting time. Sometimes we go over, but not much. Although only the Board votes on issues, the meeting is open to the whole membership. If you want to know what is going on with the organization then come to the meeting, eat, sip on a drink and take in all that is happening. Although I keep the formal meeting to about an hour, many people stick around afterward. This offers new members a chance to network and meet others. If you haven’t been to a BBA meeting, keep an eye on our website for dates (they are usually on a Monday) and join us.

Safety

Last year my daughter was pitching when someone lashed a drive right past her head. With the age of new bats, the speeds that a ball can shoot through the pitchers mound are terrifying. My daughter acted like it was just another play. After some coaxing, she did admit it shook her up a bit. As a dad, it scared me to death! It not only shook me up but it took the game away from me. As the manager, I had a hard time functioning the rest of the game. The next inning, I struggled to give signals to the batter from third base and simple strategies were being ignored. Of course by that time my daughter had forgotten about it and went about the game. I couldn’t do that. I could not help thinking about how a matter of a few inches could have changed her life.

Now I want to go out and buy every item of protective gear there is. Put her on the mound with some sort of pitcher’s version of catcher’s gear. It is easy to want your child to wear safety apparel but the real challenge is to get them to want to wear it. I am afraid of my little “baby” getting hurt and she is afraid she may not look “cool”. Guess who is going to win that battle.

This year we have a plan to put forth an effort both financially and through instructions to promote safety. Fielder’s facemasks and chest plates are becoming more common. Wearing this equipment is also becoming more accepted. We will have this equipment and apparel in the equipment bags and available to purchase. Many kids like mine will want her own facemask. We will have them available and on hand to purchase at the same cost we get them for. We are also investing in new bases that fold on impact when sliding into them. This will reduce ankle and leg injuries.

I am just about positive that every time my daughter struggles on the mound this year, it will be because of that “stupid” face mask her dad and manager (same guy) is making her wear. I’ll take the complaints and nasty looks over seeing her get hit, and deal with the kind of pain she would be in, if she wasn’t wearing that “stupid” face mask.

Managers

Now is the time when our board reviews our sign up lists and determines manager prospects. My first thought is always, why in the world would someone want to do this? Or if we are looking at a new prospect, do they really know what they are getting into? This, comes from someone who, by my last count, managed 17 teams.

A manager must be a glutton for punishment. They have to be a sounding board for parents who think their kid is the next great major leaguer. They have to have organization skills to take care of picture day, uniforms and scheduling. They have to be a promoter for such events as Monte Carlo Night, Opening Day, All Star games and tournaments. They have to be a disciplinarian when dealing with unruly kids who want to run the team. They have to have the patience of Jobe to deal with parents who think they know how to run your team. Why? Why put up with all this?

Because it is one of the most rewarding experiences you could have in a lifetime! Not just winning. If you win, great! It is about taking the enormous responsibility of molding a child’s brain into a positive mind set. What?!?! Sports, is a microcosm of life. It is a privilege to have the platform to teach kids how to win with humility and lose with dignity. To understand teamwork is more than just playing with your friends, it is playing with kids you may not particularly like in school, but have to root for on the field. It is about teaching that if you do not give your best effort, you are cheating your teammates. When Bobby steals second base, what is more important a few days later, was he out or how did he handle being called out?

Managing a team is a privilege accepted by men and women who should be blessed with support, encouragement and a little bit of sympathy.

Registrations

After registrations come the logistical nightmare of putting them in order and making sure each age group is correct. We have to do this in a hurry to prepare for late registrations that always come in. This is a difficult time for BBA officers and coaches. We need to determine how many teams we are going to have, then make the most difficult decisions of all. When do you stop accepting late registrations? In a perfect world everybody signs up on time and each team has 11-12 players. Obviously this doesn't happen. What if we get 17 kids to register for a particular age group? That is too big for one team and not enough for two. This is where the work comes in. Our group has to call families to see if there are more sign ups coming. We want everybody to play but what happens when you have 12 kids sign up for the age group and then as time progresses 6 more want to play. Do you close the age bracket at 12 and deny kids an opportunity to play? Do you accept the late sign ups thus penalizing the kids whose parents signed them up on time because now they are going to play less innings? There is not correct answer. This is the stress of registration time, hoping all teams are filled to a manageable level and no one is denied a chance to play.

Ya Gotta Start Somewhere...

So this is the first posting of the Bauerstown Blog. Be ready for some insightful readings on all the happenings of what goes on in a community baseball and softball program. As President, I find myself in the middle of everything. There are issues, problems, success stories, new programs we are pushing and there are also the same situations different year senarios. What's new this year? I am going to blog about it. And you thought I had no life...