Don Cherry's

The BMFL will be hosting its annual recreational tournament 16-19 July. The entrance fee is $325 and rosters and fees are due by Monday July 6th. Interested GCMFL teams are welcome to enter.

For further information please contact:

Wayne Hunter (whunter [at] rogers [dot] com)
613-830-3808

Tournament Outline:

As in the past, all teams entering our tournament will be guaranteed a minimum of three games.

Player Eligibility for Teams:

1. All current league players must play on their BMFL team if their BMFL team enters the tournament.
2. Teams may use non-league players, including pitchers; however, they must be pre-approved by the tournament committee.
3. Rosters for non-BMFL teams must be approved by the tournament committee.

Congratulations to Medaglia Auto Imports who defeated ASAP Print Management by scoring 3 in the bottom of the 6th and then held on for a 5-4 come-from-behind victory to claim the tournament championship.

The "B" trophy went to Laurysen Kitchens who defeated Mattamy Homes 4-1.

All in all it was a great weekend, with good fastball weather, nice facilities, and highly competitive games. Of the 18 round-robin and 6 playoff games played, only three were decided by a "mercy", and in all three of those cases it was because the losing team's starting pitcher was unavailable.

A big thanks to:

• The Broadway Bar & Grill in Stittsville for sponsoring our tournament and hosting our pub night on Friday. The tournament trophy is on display at Broadway's and will soon have a plaque added to it for the 2009 winners.
• Our three non-league teams: The Insomniacs, the Blackburn Warriors, and Trend-Arlington. Having 12 teams made for a much better schedule, and all three teams played great ball and were very competitive.
• Geoff Lathem and the Huntley Community Association for the use of their excellent facilities and the grooming of the diamonds each day.
• All of the players and fans who helped keep the park free of litter - that goes a long way toward giving the league a good reputation with the community association and the residents around the ball park.
• The men in blue for working through the heat and doing an excellent job despite being shorthanded all weekend.
• Mike Vandenberg for looking after the Combat draw on Friday night and the league equipment all weekend - taking it home each night and making sure it was back at the diamonds before the next morning's games.

Final standings were:

Pool "A"
Ottawa Home Services  2-0-1 5 +12  A3
Air1One               2-1-0 4  +7  A4
Laurysen Kitchens     1-1-1 3  -6  B3
Trend-Arlington       0-3-0 0 -13

Pool "B"
Medaglia Auto Imports 3-0-0 6 +13  A1
Mattamy Homes         2-1-0 4  +6  B1
Insomniacs            1-2-0 2  -7
Cavanagh Construction 0-3-0 0 -12

Pool "C"
ASAP Print Management 3-0-0 6  +5  A2
Local Heroes Kanata   1-1-1 3  +1  B2
East Side Mario's     1-2-0 2  -3  B4
Blackburn Warriors    0-2-1 1  -3

"B" Playoffs
Laurysen Kitchens over Local Heroes 4-1
Mattamy Homes over East Side Mario's 19-4
Laurysen Kitchens over Mattamy Homes 4-1

"A" Playoffs
Medaglia Auto Imports over Air1One 11-1
ASAP Print Management over Ottawa Home Services 3-2
Medaglia Auto Imports over ASAP Print Management 5-4

We were fortunate enough to find 3 more teams to give us 12 for our tournament. The format is 3 pools of 4 teams with a 3-game round-robin. The pool winners and the next best team advance to the "A" playoffs, the 5th through 8th best teams advance to the "B" playoffs.

The full schedule is online and a PDF is available in the Handouts section of the web site, or via this link: Tournament Schedule.

Tournament-specific rules are available in the League Rules section of the web site, or via this link: Tournament Rules.

Players

League teams are allowed to pick up extra players for the tournament. There are no restrictions on what position pick-up players play or where they hit in the batting order, although pitchers must be approved by the executive committee. Weekend roster size is unlimited, but normal league rules where everybody bats are in effect. Non league players must pay $20 prior to playing their first game and must play in at least one round-robin game to be eligible to play in the Sunday playoff games. If you're interested in playing in the tournament, send an email containing your fastball resume to captains (at) gcmfl (dot) com so that teams in need of players may get in touch with you.

Pub Night

Head to the Stittsville Broadway Bar & Grill after your game on Friday night for our league pub-night. Each team will receive a food & beverage voucher when they arrive at the pub, plus there will be a draw for a new Combat Virus Morphed bat valued at $300 once all of the games finish and the teams arrive at the pub.

Bocce Tournament

There will also be a sign-up sheet for anyone who wishes to enter a double-elimination outdoor bocce tournament, to be played Saturday and Sunday between ball games at the Carp Fairgrounds. Entry fee is $20 per two-person team, with the winner taking half of the proceeds and the other half going to the league. Anyone is free to sign up for the bocce tournament - league membership is not a requirement. Teams may sign up in advance by emailing eric (at) rosenquist (dot) com and providing the names of both players and phone numbers where the players can be reached during the tournament weekend.

Teams

We're looking for two more teams for our June 12-14 tournament in order to give us an even 12 teams. The cost to enter a team is $250 with a three game guarantee. All teams are limited to having three pitchers per team, and those pitchers must be approved by our executive committee to ensure that their calibre is appropriate for our recreational league.

Roster size is unlimited, but everyone on the roster bats, so an extremely large roster can be a disadvantage. Unlimited defensive substitutions are allowed and there is unlimited "last out" pinch running. Metal cleats may be worn, but shorts may not - some form of long pants are required. Batting helmets are required, as are bats that meet the ASA-2004 certification standards.

If your team is interested, please contact executive (at) gcmfl (dot) com prior to Friday evening (June 5th). If we cannot get two more teams by Friday night we'll proceed with 10 teams.

 

Players

League teams are permitted to pick up outside players to supplement their roster for the weekend. The cost per player is $20 regardless of the number of games played. Teams are allowed to pick up pitchers, but as mentioned above, pitchers must be approved by the executive committee. If you are interested in playing, please send your contact info and fastball resume to captains (at) gcmfl (dot) com.

Our league tournament is fast approaching (June 12th-14th), so here's an update on what the executive have been up to concerning the tournament.

Tournament Location

As you may have heard, we were unable to get the Bridlewood Core Park diamonds this year. The city originally told us that we were confirmed for the June 12-14th weekend at Core Park, but then reneged on that this spring when they realized that a large slo-pitch tournament needed the diamonds that same weekend. That slo-pitch tournament always books the weekend before Father's Day, which for the past several years put them on a weekend around June 5th or 6th. With Father's Day being later this year (June 21st) the city messed up and we got bumped.

A.Y. was also booked on the weekend of the 12-14th, so the best the city could offer us was J.C. plus the Beaverbrook diamond by Mlacak arena. We considered moving the tournament to the 19-21st weekend (Father's Day), but there's a large fastball tournament that weekend at Carlington Park that many of our league's top pitchers and players will be attending. The weekend before was just as bad with all of the GOFL teams (and therefore many of our best players) participating in a "showcase day" on the Saturday, so we felt it best to stick to the original weekend.

We expanded our search for diamonds to include neighboring communities with twin diamonds. Stittsville's Alexander Grove park would have been a great location but it too was booked. In the end, we settled on the twin diamonds at the Carp Fairgrounds. Both are in excellent shape and are substantially cheaper than what we would have paid for city-managed diamonds (about $800 for the weekend vs. about $1600). The Carp diamonds are adjacent to the W.E. Johnston arena and are part of the Carp Fairgrounds complex; they're quite easy to get to with the parking lot entrance off Carp Rd. just a bit north of the main intersection in Carp.

Schedule

We'll do our best to stick with the historical scheduling format of giving every team one game Friday night, two Saturday, and then semis & finals on Sunday. With 9 teams however that will be impossible. We're asking for feedback from league members on some key issues that will impact the tournament and its schedule. We could stick with just our 9 league teams and try to figure out a format that guarantees everyone 3 games, or we could open things up to outside rec-level teams for the first time ever. We've had some interest from both the Fitzroy and Trend-Arlington men's leagues, so we could explore that and try to get either 10 or 12 teams in total. Outside teams would have to pay a fee (probably in the vicinity of $300) but there would not be any prize money for the tournament winners. Pitchers for outside teams would need to be approved by the league executive to ensure that their skill level is on par with our league. Please let the executive know your thoughts on the use of outside teams and other schedule issues. A survey is attached to this article - please vote for your preferred option.

Sponsor

Through good fortune and hard work, we have a tournament sponsor for this year and next! The manager of the Stittsville Broadway was impressed with the turnout for the registration session we held there and approached us about sponsoring. Dan and Trevor have negotiated a two-year sponsorship deal with him that will bring the league significant additional revenue over two seasons. Our tournament banquet night (Friday June 12th) will be held at the Stittsville Broadway and the tournament champion trophy will be named after the restaurant and kept at their location for the year. The Stittsville Broadway is just 10 minutes south on Carp Rd. from the diamonds, so it's a good fit for both parties given the location of the diamonds. After your game on Friday night, please support our new sponsor and bring your team. There will be some free things for your team to enjoy (exact details to be ironed out) and a draw for a new Combat high performance bat for those who attend. As we like to do with all our sponsors, please come out and show your support, they have made a big financial commitment to our league.