The Little League Coach

Get Your IId Boundary Waivers Turned In

In case you didn’t know, and I didn’t until a few years ago, you have to put in waivers for kids that moved out of your league’s boundaries, but still compete in your league. Little League allows kids that have “continuous service” to the league to stay w/ the league forever. For instance, a kid that has played in League A move across the line and now resides in League B’s boundaries. As long as the kid has “continuous service” in League A he can play in that league forever.

What is “continuous service”? That means he hasn’t missed a spring season. He or she can miss a fall season, no problem, but they have to play in a spring season. Just missed one spring season and want to come back? Too bad, you can’t. Why have this rule? Because if we didn’t respect each others boundaries, we would constantly be stealing each others talent, and that’s not what Little League is about. There are no free agents in Little League, now travel ball is a different story, but that’s an article for later!

Anyway, it is simple to maintain your continuous service, but how often have player agents forgotten to file the proper paperwork! One time, and one time only, you need to fill out a Regulation IId form. (named for the regulation that permits this, creative eh?) The form is super simple to fill out and, once completed, need only be kept on file, it does not need to be completed again.

Herein lies the problem. Let’s say Johnny played a season of t-ball and then moved to rookie/machine pitch. He was a good player and moved to minors at age 7. At the same time, he moved to the next neighborhood over which is in another league’s boundaries. The player agent at the time completed the IId, had the district administrator sign off on it, and filed it away.

Now Johnny is 11 and certain to make the all star team. Does anyone remember who the player agent even was in 2005? Much less where all the waivers he/she filed are? Probably not. The best way to avoid this as a parent is to make sure you have a copy of your child’s waiver form. Then you always know where it is. Come all-star time you are going to need it, your birth certificate, and proof of where you live now, so you might as well keep this in a safe place w/ that documentation.

Don’t forget to fill our your IId’s and make sure to keep them in a place you can remember! Then you won’t be digging out old files all weekend like I am going to have to do!

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General
baseball, Free agent, league, little league, Little League Baseball, Sport, Waiver, Youth
27 February 2009 comment TrackBack-URI

First Radio Appearance!

Today I recorded my first radio appearance on the inaugural Chuck and Cody Sports Report on wnzf in Flager County, FL. It was a blast! Chuck and Cody are father and son sports fanatics that discuss the local, Florida, and National Sports scene. I was brought on to participate in the local portion. It was pretty fun!

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of going on a radio show w/ a 15 year old kid, but Cody is amazing! He rattles off stats, has bold opinions that he stands behind, and goes toe-to-toe with Chuck, his father, without hesitation. I was very impressed!

My part of the show focused on the upcoming spring baseball season with jaunts into steroids, character, and volunteer opportunities, of course. At the end they play a game of trivia called “Break the Code”, a play on Cody’s name. There you have to ask him a question and if you stump him, you get a prize. He nailed mine! Oh well, I always say only a fool would try to outsmart a teenager!

The show will air Saturday at 10AM on FM 106.3 and AM 1555. Those of you outside of Flagler can listen live on the web at www.wnzf.com. That’s where I will be Saturday morning! Come on, let’s crash the station!

Listen to the show here: http://wnzf.com/archive/chuck_and_cody_022109.mp3

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General
Alex Rodriguez, baseball, Chuck, Drugs, Florida, Kids and Teens, Sport, Steroid
20 February 2009 comments [2] TrackBack-URI

Cool Scheduling Site

I found a cool scheduling site today. You can print brackets and round robin schedules there. Very nice to create games to plug into your field spreadsheet.

Tip: Play a double round robin and simply reverse the home and visitor teams.

The site is called printyourbrackets.com and I have no connection to them at all. Just liked how easy it was to use.

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General
Bracket, Browser Based, Games, Round-robin tournament, Sport, Spreadsheet
18 February 2009 comment TrackBack-URI

Viral Twitter Post

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General
Business, Facebook, Marketing, On the Web, Online Communities, Social media, Social network, Twitter
13 February 2009 comment TrackBack-URI

A-Rod, A-Rod, A-Rod

A few months ago or so at one of our extended family get togethers my brother and I were discussing Barry Bonds and his steroid usage. I was pointing out, as I often do, how great his swing was and how perfect it is, or would be, to use a a model for kids. It is so short, so fast, and so powerful, just a simple flick of the wrist and the ball is served into the bay.

He was pointing out that, while Bond’s record still stands, it didn’t matter because Alex Rodriguez was going to crush it over time. If you ran the numbers out, there was legitimate support for that assertion. I was very happy about this, even told a couple others about it as well. If he beats out Bonds in a few years, all will be well in baseball world. Or so I thought.

Turns out the ONLY guy not lying in baseball is Jose Canseco! How pathetic is that? I really and truly am disgusted. It appears pretty much everyone was cheating, just like Canseco says. So what am I to tell my kids now? There is only one option and one lesson that can be learned from this.

CHEATERS NEVER WIN!

In my house you NEVER EVER NEVER EVER cheat! You stretch the rules as far as you can, but you NEVER cheat! My kids know this, they don’t even consider cheating in something as simple as Monopoly. It just doesn’t happen, we won’t allow it. That is a value we need to teach all our children.

How do we accomplish this? At first I didn’t know what to do, but now there is no question in my mind. Everyone was cheating, strip ALL their records. The tests that were supposed to remain anonymous are no more. They have been uncovered by the feds, so let baseball know who they are and strip every at bat from the record books.

Every pitch, every record, removed forever. Take away any pensions and anything else they earned from baseball. Any rings? Return them, any awards? Void them. Everything erased, eliminated. Cheaters cannot win! That is the lesson that must be taught to our kids. If the union screams, eliminate the union. They are one of the driving reasons for this anyway, they actually fought against drug testing!!!??? How can that be seen as responsible behavior?

There is no other choice for baseball at this point in my mind. Anything short of this rings hollow with our youth. Just as a child knows when you are not being sincere, they are well aware of false threats. If you keep telling a kid you are going to take him out, but never do, he won’t believe you. If we keep elevating cheating athletes, why would we be surprised to find our kids cheating?

No asterisks, no sub-texts, no exceptions. Cheating? Eliminated from baseball forever. That is the only option in my mind. What do you think?

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General
Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, baseball, Drug test, José Canseco, little league, New York Yankees, Sport, Steroid
11 February 2009 comment TrackBack-URI

A Passing of the Torch

OK, that may be a little dramatic, but I had a cool thing happen tonight at the city council meeting. Each year our league has to renew its land use agreement w/ the city. This is generally a non-event as there are no real changes, but we always prepare for questioning just in case a council member or the mayor has any questions. We also show up in full force as a board and try to show our support for the council.

As with all city councils, there was a few items before ours and we have to sit through the long debates. My friend and fellow board member sitting next to me bent over and said, “I can’t believe I am at a city council meeting”. She then told me she was just about to turn 30! OK, I feel old! It was cool though, I told her that was about the age I attended my first meeting so we had a bit of a passing of the torch.

I remember it clearly. It was in Loudoun County and there was a park being proposed that offered four direly needed baseball fields and soccer fields as well. We usually battled w/ soccer over green space, but on this we were united. The place was packed! The county council was shocked to see so many in the room and moved our item to number one on the agenda. I am pretty sure they came to shoot it down, but they approved the measure based on the attendance and the people’s voice.

That was a major moment in my life. I realized that people really can make a difference and that we do control our own destiny. And while it is often not an easy path, change can occur, right can overcome wrong, and the people’s will can be imposed.

I only hope that I can serve as a model to help those that follow and demonstrate to those we mentor and coach. We all think we are doing good and right, most of us have good intentions in whatever path we take and choose. Together we can make the world better.

We were short a few sponsors for teams this year and I sent out a blast email to everyone in the league. A parent sponsored a team because she thought it was the right thing to do. Not a business, nothing to advertise, simply a message. This is it:

“Life’s about choices,
Make good ones”

They wished only to convey a simple message to the young ones around them. They asked nothing in return, and in fact, they actually paid to sponsor a team for the privilege.

They have already impacted one life, mine. I hope this has the same effect on every coach and board member around the world reading this as it has had on mine. I choose to put the kids first, every decision I make involves that though process. Please do the same.

What choices have you made today that impacted someone elses life? Were they good choices? Please share them.

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General
baseball, Board of Directors, city council, County council, Loudoun County, Loudoun County Virginia, United States, Virginia
4 February 2009 comment TrackBack-URI