Teams -
Well it has been a year of adversity to say the least! The wettest June in Minnesota since 1871 according to the experts. Several teams have started scheduling makeup games, which is great to see. We still have a couple months before playoffs, so there is time yet to get them all in -- please stay on top of this.
Some important updates as we head into the midpoint of our season:
1. Makeup Games -- As you reschedule makeup games, please email the information (dates, times, places and opponents) to Mark Fioravanti (mfioravanti@seniorhelpers.com), so he can schedule an umpire for you. Also, email Lars Larson (mplsgraysbaseball@gmail.com), so he can update the schedule on the league's website.
2. All Star Games -- Given the amount of rainouts and lack of top fields available, the Board decided to cancel this year's All-Star games for both the 18+ and 28+ divisions. We hope you will consider using these dates in and around the July 4th weekend to schedule some of your remake games instead. Since the winning teams of the All-Star games decided home/away matchups for the championship games, the Board decided that this year a coin toss before the championship games will decide home/away matchups. Also, there will be some savings to the league with no All-Star games so the Board decided those extra funds will be used to improve playoff fields this year (with any additional remaining savings being applied next year to reduce league fees).
3. Eligibility -- We had an incident recently where an underage player lied to his manager about his age -- even going as far as to fill out a false date-of-birth on his waiver form. The league's grievance committee found the team was at no fault and suspended the player for one year. Note: The committee would have accessed automatic forfeit losses but the team lost both games in which the underage player was used. The league does not currently require teams to check IDs (something we may consider implementing in the future); however, it would still be a good practice to check IDs, especially for new players.
4. Field Invoices -- Please continue to send your field invoices to our treasurer Frank Volkers (frank.volkers@genmills.com) -- he will mail a league check to the cities/schools. If you paid for fields directly, please obtain a receipt showing payment and submit it to Frank -- he will then mail your team a reimbursement check. If you have remake games, please ask for credits/refunds so we are not paying for dates that were not used due to rain. Most cities/schools are good about honoring this -- any refund checks should be made out to the "TCMABL" and delivered to Frank.
5. Roster/Waiver Forms -- If you have not done so already, please make sure to submit your team rosters (including new roster adds) electronically through our umpire evaluation webpage: http://216.160.38.101:81/UmpireEvaluations/Login.aspx. Please also make sure to have player waiver forms in your files for each guy -- you do not need to submit copies of these to the league.
6. Rulebook -- Please note that the TCMABL rulebook is posted on our website: http://www.tcmabl.com/teams/default.asp?u=TCMABL&t=c&s=baseball&p=custom&pagename=Rules. The rules in the front of your league-issued scorebooks are MSBL National's rules for tournament play and are not applicable to our league. The TCMABL rulebook on our website is the first authority with MLB rules as second authority.
Regards,
John Remakel
President
TCMABL
