The Spring 2013 baseball and softball season is about to get underway! And this year, the way that scheduling of games is carried out has changed. So I wanted to say a word about the new schedules that are now available under “Schedules.”

This year the PPBA decided to schedule each and every available field slot, instead of leaving some open for use as make-up slots in the event of bad weather. We did this because, with 153 teams in the league (making the PPBA one of the largest youth leagues in the country!), re-scheduling rained-out games had become a monumental task.

By scheduling all the available regular-season slots now, teams in every division are getting more games than they ever have had in the past. So, if it rains, every team will still have plenty of games; and if it does not rain, every team will enjoy a few extra games than in years past.

One result of scheduling this way is that there will be some weekends when some teams will have a game on both a Saturday and a Sunday for a given weekend. We hope that families will view this as a welcome bonus, and not as a further scheduling issue with kids who already have a lot on their plates these days. We know these kids love playing baseball and softball in the Prospect Park league, and this year they’ll get to play a little more!

After the regular season is over, all baseball teams in divisions age 9 and older, as well as all girls’ softball divisions, will participate in a season-ending tournament. Seeding will be randomly chosen by PPBA board members prior to Memorial Day weekend. (Since win-loss records are not maintained except in the Freshmen and Colt divisions, a team’s success, or lack thereof, during the regular season has no influence on its seeding in the tournament.)

We at the PPBA hope that you all are looking forward to another fun season in 2013! Please remember that the baseball and softball offered by the organizations who comprise the PPBA is all about learning and fun for the kids. As one national positive coaching organization advises: “Youth sports is not adult entertainment.”

If you have any comments about the league during the season, please feel free to contact us at president@ppba.info. Note also that each week a different organizational member of the PPBA is responsible to be at the fields in Prospect Park, and other representatives may be present at outlying fields such as Bensonhurst, Dewey Field, DiMattina Field, and the Parade Grounds If you see one of them, identified by a green jacket or shirt with “Official” on it, or a yellow and green cap, feel free to say hello or ask a question. In addition, the head umpire is there all day on the weekends in the Park. We are all in this together for the kids!

Also please support the umpires, many of whom are former players who are learning a new and difficult craft. One way to support them is to understand the rules, so please take time to read our rules. They are adapted for the different age groups, and while they are modelled on MLB rules, they obviously differ in many ways. The umpire organization spends considerable time training its umpires. But of course no one is perfect. If you have any issues with umpires, please email us at president@ppba.info. But be sure to be specific, not only stating the issue but also giving the date, time, opposing team, field number, and umpire’s number or name, if known. We cannot act on general or nonspecific complaints.

We look forward to seeing you at the OPENING DAY PARADE on Saturday, April 6 (the parade starts at 10:00 sharp!) as well as at our annual PPBA fundraising game at Citifield on Friday, June 7, when the Mets face the Marlins. Last year we got to see the Johan Santana no-hitter! You never know what we’ll witness this year…

Eddie Albert
President
president@ppba.info