Can you feel it?
You may not know it now, but spring is in the air my friends! Forget those stupid rodents on February 2nd. Forget those dumb-ass weather prognosticators. All you need to know is that the league's first executive board meeting of 2015 happened on Feb 25th which means that spring is right around the corner.
The minutes, as with all league meetings, can be found on the league's website. If you're interested give it read.
So, its been a bloody awful winter. I can't remember a worse one to be perfectly honest. Others I know will have legitimate cause to disagree, but for me it was full of tragedy and heartache and simply terrible stories from near and far. Is it this way every winter or is it just me? Somehow this one seem to have been particularly disgusting.
But. This is when we remind ourselves that the light at the end of the tunnel is "hope" and not the train that you thought it was. You've made it this far, it'll be scant weeks until you no longer have to take the car to the mailbox. Seriously, I've been driving. Its so cold my shadow froze to the sidewalk.
And also we can begin to fondly remember the triumphant stories over the winter that were seemingly buried under mountains of snow. New friends, relationships, expanding families and the seeds of positive change that are in the air.
The work of baseball is well underway by your executive team. The road map for 2015 is laid and registration for this season slightly ahead of last year's pace. All good news. It seems light years away but we're less than 2 months from rookie night and then the draft a few days later and then ball will literally be around the corner. You'll no longer have to go into the arena to warm up.
As always, we'll have some non returning players this year due to moving, work or health. We lose about 25 every year and this year is bound to be no different. More about them closer to the draft when we know the registration is set. Also we'll have 25ish "new" people. This will be a combination of rookies and people who have taken a year or more off and decided to return. We welcome them back. Those that leave really miss this league, that is evident.
Which brings me to the BLOG.
The BLOG will be undergoing changes this year like it too has done every year. It started as just a Grisslie thing, then became a league communication, humour, contest, stats and catch-all tool.
I think that's going to change this season. Actually I'm sure that's going to change. There has been a lot of changes in Dwyer-ville in the last year and the resource that I need to recapture right now is time. Between stats and the BLOG I was in excess of 20 hours a week on league related "stuff". That doesn't count going to games, subbing, hanging out at the legion, recruiting for tournaments, pumping water off of C1 & C2 etc. I love doing it, but I simply can't invest that amount of time anymore.
The stats this year will not be done by me. As of last years AGM, Lou Conforti is the league statistician. Lou will do a great job and we have training sessions setup. Plus I'll be there, as will others, if there are any issues. But I'm not sure that Lou will have the time do all the "extra" stats that I kept. Its a lot to ask. And in fairness, I made it really difficult for the guy that follows me. Sorry Lou. We'll play it out and see how it goes. But if anyone would like to do the "extra" piece, let me know or Lou and we'll see if he wants to outsource that work.
Those "extra" stats aren't reported on the league website. They aren't sanctioned by the league. I see no scenario in which they would be and that is probably a good thing. Its meant for fun. We don't worry with all knowing Pythagorean accuracy on the details. We do our best. If those stats are still produced they'll need a home and the BLOG has worked well for that. So I'm hopeful that my role will be minimal in getting them posted even if there is a delay in the availability.
The daily game reports? That's probably a thing of the past unless there is a special occasion like Will Goodin showing up to game one looking like Grisslie Adams.
I would expect the BLOG to be significantly scaled back this year....like somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 editions total for the season. That could change, I don't know for sure.
Stay tuned gang. 39 days until Rookie Night! 41 days until the draft!
