Monday, May 21, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
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LITTLE LEAGUE ONTARIO DISTRICT 2 |
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Schedules: |
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| Previous Seasons' results can be found via the Archive link | ||||||
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Spring Rules: Interlock Rules Document
Big League Rules: Big League Rules Document Summer Rookie Rules: Link will be up in late June. |
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2012-05-17: ENTER AND LOCK YOUR ROSTERS ASAP, PLEASE:
You need to do this so you can enter your game results and then see updated
standings and ineligible pitchers. I thank you, and your opponents thank you.
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2012-05-17: PINECREST TO HOST BLUE JAYS INSTRUCTIONAL CLINIC FRIDAY THE 1ST OF JUNE, 4:30PM TO 8:30PM
2012-05-16: TORONTO BLUE JAYS BASEBALL ACADEMY IS COMING TO OTTAWA JULY 26-28: The Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Academy will be in Ottawa from July 26th to the 28th and will be running a Blue Jays Honda Super Camp at Kinsmen Field at the Kanata Recreation Centre on Terry Fox at Hazeldean.
This three-day Super Camp offers children ages 10-16 - of all abilities - the ultimate Major League experience. Duane Ward, Jesse Barfield, Frank Catalanotto, Candy Maldonado and Denis Boucher will all be acting as guest instructors in Ottawa! We would love to have as many children join us for top-notch baseball instruction combined with unforgettable moments such as meeting Blue Jays alumni players! Every child who registers will receive a Blue Jays Hat and T-Shirt along with a Robbie Alomar KR3 Pro model Gold Series Glove. Blue Jays Honda Super Camps cost is $230 + tax per child. You can register at http://bluejays.com/camps.
For a poster,
see more here...
2012-05-15: ORLEANS RED SOX Annual Summer Slam 2012:
Minor & Major A : June 30th - July 2nd
Junior A : July 6th - July 8th
Orleans Little League would like to invite you to the 6th annual summer tournaments. There will be eight teams in each division with both divisions being split into two pools. Each division will be a round robin within each pool and the top two teams advance to the semi-final and the two winners will play for the championship.
UPDATE: The tournament mailing address has been changed in the file available at the 'see more here' link.
For registration information and tournament rules, see more here...
2012-05-15: CLARIFICATION ON JUNIOR BATS: Because there was an issue a few nights ago, here is a clarification on bats for Juniors.
2012-05-07: ADVERTISEMENT: You are invited to join former East Nepean Eagle and Olympian Mike Kusiewicz
at Mike's 7th Summer Skills Camp for ages 6 and up. It will be held at the Nepean Sportsplex and
will take place July 2nd thru 6th, 8:30 a.m. until Noon. Each day players will be provided with lunch
and Bottled Water. Equipment will be provided, but players are expected to bring their own gloves,
cleats and athletic support/cup! The cost is $300, although Family discounts are available.
T-shirt is included with each registration.
see more here...
2012-05-06: WEB SITE SMaLL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM STUFF:
SCHEDULES - THE "UMPIRES ASSIGNED" COLUMN: I have received many e-mails from people asking about the "No" they see in the Umpires Assigned column of the schedules. That column is designed for league Umpire Schedulers. As of right now, as far as I know only CFR and East Nepean are putting their umpire stuff info the D2 SMaLL system.
My advice to all players and coaches is to ignore this column when you are the visitor, and know that umpires are the home team's responsibility when you are the home team, so if you have any concerns there, check with your league's scheduler.
UPDATE: Ken has changed "Yes/No" to "Assigned/None Specified". Again, your best bet is to ignore it anyway.
SCHEDULES - THE "INCIDENT REPORT" LINK: You may have noticed that every game for which both teams have reported a score now has a link marked "Incident Report". That is a link an umpire or a coach can use to *submit* an Incident Report. It does not mean that there was an Incident Report you can view. We'll come up with better words for the link.
UPDATE: In a brilliant stroke of software development, Ken has changed "Incident Report" to "Report Incident". Simple change, but makes a lot more sense now.
PASSWORD STOPPED WORKING FOR YOU? Some users have experienced a problem with their password working for a while and then stopping. We discovered that a bug was wiping it out. That bug should be repaired now, but if it happens to you we will reset it for you and ask that you please let us know that last thing using your password that worked, and the first thing that didn't.
2012-05-06: CONVENERS: I am very pleased to announce the appointment of two volunteers to Spring Interlock Convener positions. Abraham Sudhakar of East Nepean LL will be handling the Juniors' Spring Interlock. Elaine Cooke, also from East Nepean LL, will look after the Seniors. Please correspond with them about any schedule and rule questions. They are free to contact me when/if they need any help, but going to them first will help keep my inbox at a somewhat managable level. Thank you Abraham and Elaine for volunteering!
2012-05-02: START TIMES IN DISTRICT 8: For financial reasons, games at Sneddon Casey in Almonte and at Beckwith in Carleton Place have to be without lights. This is the reason for the 6:00 PM start times, which is different from last year. You have my apologies, but this is perfectly fair as we always ask those teams to come into the city for games at 6:00 PM at our sites. (When my son was a Junior almost a decade ago, we had to drive to Perth for 6:00 PM games, so I know what you are going through and it is not a big hardship -- especially since you'll probably only have to go there a maximum of one time this spring).
This spring, the Perth teams are playing out of Lanark, and they will use lights, and have agreed to 7:00 PM start times.
2012-05-01: TOURNAMENTS: PINECREST LITTLE LEAGUE announces their Spring and Summer Tournaments:
Spring House League Tournament : June 2nd and 3rd -- All levels Rookie to Junior
Summer A and B Tournament : August 10th thru 12th -- All levels Rookie to Junior
see more here...
2012-04-30: WEB SITE ACCOUNTS:Reminder to Managers (i.e. Head Coaches), Team Administrators, etc.
If you have had a userid and password in the past, it is still good. If you need it reset, just
send me an e-mail. If you are new to this system and need a new account, let me know and I will
set one up for you. I need your name, e-mail, phone, team, and your role with the team.
Once you have been entered, the first thing you do is find your name on a contact list,
click "Edit", and change your password.
The next thing to do is click "Edit" again and add missing, or change existing, contact info
for yourself.
PLEASE NOTE: Because of a quirk in the system, you can't change your password and change your
other info in the same "Edit".
Finally, start entering your roster. You can select players who were in the system last year,
and you can add players new to the system. The player list is fairly long. You can shorten it
by typing a name in the "Filter" box and clicking the "Filter" button. Now when you look at
the player pull-down, it will have only players matching your filter string.
Once your roster is entered, you must "Lock" the roster. Only then will you be able to enter
your team results. So please tend to this ASAP. Thanks!
One more thing: Managers and Team Admins can add Assistant Coaches and Scorekeepers, same sort of method as for players. Look for existing people first, and if that is not successful, create a New User using the link, and try again. Userids should be first initial plus last name (for example "jsmith") but must be a minimum of 6 chars long. So "jdean" is out of luck, and would have to use something like "jdean1".) As above, you'll need to know their name, e-mail, and phone, otherwise you won't be able to create the account. You should pick a default password for them and tell them what it is, asking them to change it ASAP.
OOPS!! Some Managers are having issues adding players to their rosters. After some playing around, we think it is an issue with the code and Internet Explorer, at least versions 6 and 7. Ken is looking at that now. I can tell you that it works in Safari on a Mac, and it works in Firefox in Windows, and it works in IE 8 in Windows, so if it is failing for you in IE, please try a different browser. I can also tell you that IE 6 is so old and clunky that it is not likely we will spend any time trying to support it. Do yourself a favour and upgrade.
2012-04-29: JUNIOR AND SENIOR SCHEDULES: The first week of the Junior and Senior schedules are up. I won't do more for a couple of days due to the flux that usually happens in the first week of the season.
Important note for Managers and Team Administrators: You need a userid & password so you can enter your team's rosters and game results. If you remember yours from last year, it is still active. If you don't remember, or you need a new one, send me an e-mail. I need to know which Managers and/or Team Administrators belong with which teams before you can enter anything. Also, if your team has a name -- for example, Expos or Blue Jays -- let me know and I can change it so it is added to your team name throughout the web site.
Some things you should know about this year's schedules:
2012-04-28: RULES! Two very small revisions to the Interlock Rules for Spring are a 5-run limit now for Junior Canadians, and an option for the Convenor to not split playoffs into A-side and B-side when the regular season schedule has been unbalanced. see more here...
2012-04-27: TOURNAMENTS: The East Nepean Little League Spring house league tournament (Junior/Major/Minor) is planned for May 25-27 2012. Saturday May 26th is designated as "Do It For Darin" (DIFD) day. Volunteers from the DIFD foundation will be at tournament sites that day, raising awareness about youth mental health issues. DIFD merchandise will be available for purchase.
East Nepean is dedicating the Major Championship game in memory of their 2010 summer coach Carlo Petrocco who passed away over the winter, having been a parent, volunteer and coach with the league.
For the tournament website,
see more here...
2012-04-26: BRINGING PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL BACK TO OTTAWA: At the recent D2 meeting, your League Presidents heard from a special guest, David Gourlay. David is the Founder of the Champions for Ottawa Baseball. That's a community-led organization supporting "AA" baseball in Ottawa. Their website is www.champsottawabaseball.ca where you can learn more about their current focus of securing 2,500 deposits as a goodwill gesture for not only AA baseball, but delivering a strong message to the Blue Jays that Ottawa is ready to support their "AA" affiliate.
The Champions have initiated a program they have called, "For the Love of the Game in Ottawa". Under this plan, a local business will invest 100 youth deposits (value of $1,000) to be transferred to a youth organization; such as Little League, youth baseball or disadvantaged youth groups. This new partnership will allow youth to then enjoy AA baseball next year in this business's name and may lead to more opportunities for your league's in securing corporate sponsors in mainstream needs. As recognition, they will also arrange for a photo op/media presentation with any of our Honorary Patrons, including the Mayor, and all members of the partnership.
There is already good news in that several businesses have stepped forward and we're ready to start partnering. They would like to collaborate with the District 2 leagues to transfer these deposits and ensure that our players and families can enjoy games. The idea is that through the partnership, the business will secure 100 tickets to a game the league chooses and the league will distribute them to the league families. As this is a significant number of tickets and leagues, David will work with the team once they're established to organize an "Little League Night" with other benefits.
The last words of this belong to David: "If you enjoy the game of baseball as much as we do and want to see professional "AA" Baseball in Ottawa, be sure to visit this website to show your support. The Champions for Ottawa Baseball need 2,500 residents to show their support for "AA" baseball and a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate through fully refundable deposits for tickets for the 2013 season. Please support the Champions today !"
2012-04-17: TOURNAMENTS: Kemptville District Little League invites you to
participate in the First Annual KDLL Wildcat Shootout Tournament
for Minor and Major aged players (as per Little League Canada
rules) June 22-24, 2012, Riverside Park, Kemptville, Ontario.
Space is limited to twelve teams in each division. Divisions will be split into three pools of four teams. Weather permitting, each team is guaranteed three games.
Every player receives a commemorative pin. Finalists receive
medals and the two winners also receive a championship banner.
For a registration form and tournament rules, see more here...
2012-04-13: TOURNAMENTS: Here is Carlingwood-Frank Ryan's list of tournaments for 2012:
2012-03-30: DEL HARPER TOURNAMENT FOR MAJOR AND MINOR IN PERTH: It is time for the 21st Annual Del Harper Tournament, hosted by Perth & District Little League. The Tournament Director is Adam Lowry, and he writes: This year it will be held on July 6, 7, and 8. It will be a 8 team Minor and a 8 team Major tournament. For further details, contact Adam as follows: E: adam.lowry@live.ca, H: 613-267-7649, C: 613-812-8675
2012-03-13: DEBATE GROWS OVER HOW TO PROTECT YOUNG ARMS
For decades, it has been an article of faith for parents of young pitchers: Do not let them throw curveballs. The reason was simple. Contorting elbows -- all in the service of ever more competitive baseball at ever younger ages -- puts more strain on the joint than arms can handle.
This article was written by Bill Pennington and appeared in the New York Times.
But as the research into the biomechanics of pitching has evolved, the debate has grown more robust, and more perplexing. A recent major study shows curveballs pose no greater risk than that of other pitches. And many studies lately have shown that the greatest threat to young arms is not throwing curves but making too many pitches of any kind.
"Science is banging heads with intuition and gut instinct," said Glenn Fleisig, the research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute, who has conducted studies on breaking balls and young arms since 1996. "For years, we told people that curveballs were bad. Then we set out to prove it. We did not prove curveballs are safe, but we could not prove they were dangerous."
Like a pitcher and a catcher disagreeing on pitch selection, the opposing sides in the debate could not be more closely allied. Dr. James Andrews, the orthopedic surgeon to many athletes, is a founder of the American Sports Medicine Institute and has written with Fleisig some of the studies that have failed to prove that curveballs are hazardous to young arms. It has not stopped Andrews from challenging the results.
"What we found out in the lab is true," Andrews said. "For pitchers with proper mechanics, the force of throwing a curveball is no greater than for a fastball. But that's not what happens in reality on the baseball field. Many kids don't have proper mechanics or enough neuromuscular control, or they are fatigued when throwing curveballs. Things break down.
"Those are the kids I'm seeing every day in my operating room."
Little League Baseball imposed strict per-game pitch limits five years ago, but Andrews said he performed about seven times the number of arm operations on young pitchers that he did 15 years ago.
Last year, the findings of a study conducted on more than 1,300 pitchers from 8-year-olds to college students, were released by Little League Baseball, which had commissioned it with USA Baseball. Three University of North Carolina researchers surveyed the pitchers over five years, annually assessing multiple factors: number of innings pitched, kinds of pitches thrown, number of teams played for and any arm pain or injuries experienced. The answers were analyzed to judge which factors influenced injury risk. The test group included 410 Little League pitchers.
"There was no association between throwing curveballs and injuries or even arm pain," said Johna Mihalik, who wrote the study. "It was surprising in a sense because of the conventional thinking about curveballs, but we were well aware that the studies by Dr. Andrews and Glenn Fleisig had come to similar conclusions. That's what fueled our study."
Stephen D. Keener, the president and chief executive of Little League International, said that deliberations among youth baseball leaders about banning, by rule, all breaking pitches had led to the commissioning of the study. When the findings did not link curveballs to injury, he said, Little League felt compelled to maintain the status quo.
"It doesn't mean we're advocating throwing breaking balls," Keener said. "We don't promote it. We just think it's very difficult to regulate it out of the game, and there is no data to show that throwing breaking balls is at the root of arm injuries."
Dr. Timothy Kremchek, an Ohio orthopedic surgeon who is the Cincinnati Reds' physician and whose practice frequently treats youth pitchers, called Little League's stance irresponsible.
"They have an obligation to protect these 12-year-old kids and instead, they're saying, "There's no scientific evidence curveballs cause damage, so go ahead, kids, just keep throwing them," " Kremchek said. "It makes me sick to my stomach to watch the Little League World Series and see 12-year-olds throwing curve after curve. Those of us who have to treat those kids a few years later, we're pretty sure there is a cause and effect."
Kremchek said he performed 150 elbow ligament reconstructions a year, a complex operation named after the former major league pitcher Tommy John, who had the surgery when it was developed in the 1970s.
"Seventy percent of those surgeries are pitchers who haven't hit college yet," Kremchek said. "I ask each one the same question: when did you start throwing curveballs? And they say: "I was 10. I was 11." Sometimes, it's 9."
Kremchek coaxed about eight Ohio youth leagues to prohibit breaking pitches. The umpire issues a warning the first time he suspects a pitcher has thrown a curveball, slider or other breaking pitch. A second offense means the player must stop pitching.
"The mothers in those leagues are the biggest fans of those rules," Kremchek said. "It's not a hard call for the umpires. A 12-year-old trying to throw a breaking ball is pretty demonstrative as he does it. You can tell."
But Keener said that rule, if enacted by Little League, would be hard to enforce across its more than 7,000 leagues.
"I applaud people for trying to do it," Keener said. "But we often have volunteer umpires in a Little League trying to make balls-and-strikes calls and basepath calls, and it would be a very hard thing to ask them to also decide if a pitcher intentionally tried to throw a breaking pitch. What if that pitcher just has natural movement on his fastball?"
One aspect of the curveball debate, and the studies it has spawned, that everyone agrees on is that throwing too many pitches of any type is the biggest danger.
As surprised as Mihalik might have been about her study's findings on curveballs, what alarmed her most was the number of pitches thrown.
"So many were playing for three teams at once," she said. "And the data was extremely clear that overuse led to injury more than any other factor."
That, too, is consistent with the findings of more than 15 years of research at the American Sports Medicine Institute, and similar studies around the country.
"Maybe asking whether the curveball is safe is the wrong question," Fleisig said. "Maybe the question should shift to this: Are you overdoing it? Because there is no question, scientifically or anecdotally, that too much throwing leads to injury, and often it's serious injury."
Little League instituted pitch limits based on research conducted by Andrews and Fleisig. This season, the limits are 85 pitches a day for 11- to 12-year-olds and 75 pitches for 9- to 10-year-olds. Rules also mandate days off between pitching appearances. Other recommendations by Andrews, who is on Little League's board, and Fleisig, who acts as a Little League adviser, include a break of months from overhand throwing and competitive pitching, a 100-inning annual limit, avoiding radar guns and barring pitchers from playing catcher.
In 2007, the first year of the Little League pitch restrictions, Tyler Richards and Kyle Cotcamp logged many innings as their Hamilton, Ohio, team reached the World Series. They also pitched for a travel team.
Two years later, Richards had Tommy John surgery. Kremchek performed the operation, as he did for Cotcamp last year.
"I just pitched way too much," said Richards, now a high school junior who has resumed pitching.
He added: "I should have just said no. I should have rested my arm."
This article was written by Bill Pennington and appeared in the New York Times.
2012-03-09: QUESTIONS FOR THE DA: (This year, I am going to try to make public
some of the questions I get and the answers I provide, replacing
specific names with more general terms.)
TOPIC: Special Games (games with teams outside your League)
Q: We have been given a call from a non-Little League team looking for games with us. Can we play them?
A: When you play a team from outside your league, this is called a "Special Game". Little League's rules about Special Games can be found in the 2012 official rule book, page 43, Section IX. According to those rules, Special games are only between teams from Little League programs, and no mention is made of non-Little League programs. However, I am aware of the existence of a request form for a game between a Little League team and a non-Little League team. See this document at Little League Int'l web site. It is a U.S. form, and shows that it will cost the non-Little League team about $45 to buy insurance coverage from Little League's policy for each game. I do not know if Little League Canada's insurance has the same ability. If not, then the other team would have to show proof of insurance for the game.
In Canada, the Regional Director allows the District Administrators to approve Special Games. In District 2, by unanimous agreement of the League Presidents and the D.A., the policy is:
2012-02-23: WOODEN-BAT TOURNAMENT FOR JUNIORS: East Nepean is hosting their 2nd Annual "Wooded Bat Classic Tournament" on May 26-27, for the Junior division. For now the dates are confirmed. The fee and other details will be confirmed with the league shortly. For the latest information, please check out East Nepean's tournament web page, http://eastnepeanbaseball.on.ca/tournaments. see more here...
2012-02-20: QUESTIONS FOR THE DA: (This year, I am going to try to make public
some of the questions I get and the answers I provide, replacing
specific names with more general terms.)
TOPIC: Age Groups
Q: I saw the message on your site about "...changes were made to expand the Senior division to 13-16 years-old and Big League to 15-18 years-old." What does that mean exactly?
A: REGULAR SEASON - Probably no change. It means leagues have a little more latitude in picking their seasonal age groups. Leagues are still at liberty to choose their own age groups within guidelines set by Little League. I suspect D2 will stay with Juniors = 13-14, Seniors = 15-16, and Big League = 17-18, and would not be surprised if D6 does the same.
TOURNAMENT (DISTRICTS, etc.) - Gives players and league more options. Regardless of what the leagues pick for their regular seasons, it means that certain players now have the right to try out for different Tournament ("All-Star") teams. For example, a League Age 15-year-old may now try out for Senior or Big League Tournament teams regardless of what he/she plays in regular season. The player can only be selected to one of those teams, though. Similarly, a League Age 13-year-old may now try out for Junior or Senior Tournament teams, and may only be selected to one of those teams.
The purpose of this rule is to help older Age Group teams fill out their Tournament Team roster, which is of particular interest to smaller leagues and districts which otherwise might not have enough players to field a team. This rule may also help to keep an elite young player in the Little League program by allowing them to compete at a higher level than their age group would have previously allowed.
2012-02-13: QUESTIONS FOR THE DA: (This year, I am going to try to make public
some of the questions I get and the answers I provide, replacing
specific names with more general terms.)
TOPIC: Police Checks for LL Volunteers
Q: We have started to recruit coaches and some of them also coach in hockey and they say they had a police check done for hockey which is considered valid for two years. Would that police check done for hockey be OK for this coming baseball season?
A: According to Little League Canada, we can accept police checks that have been done since the end of the previous season. So if the check for hockey was done after Sept 1st 2011, it will be OK to use it for Little League in the 2012 season. The reason for that is Little League only considers police checks valid for one year, and they must be valid for our whole season, which runs from May 1 to Aug 31.
2010-03-30: WHAT LEAGUE AM I IN?: We get this question from new Little League families quite a bit. To help answer this question, I have put together a map of the Little League boundaries for District 2 (Ottawa West out to Arnprior) and District 6 (Ottawa East out to Hawkesbury). It's a Google Map, so you can zoom in to your residence and discover which boundary it lies inside. You can click this link http://tinyurl.com/ottawaLL or click the "see more here..." link, and find out what your League is, and get its web site address as well. see more here...