Barrie Red Sox

Did you know that there were 101 Canadians who played in Major League Baseball's minors leagues in 2001 and that 46 players were from Ontario. Look at this: In the spring of 2001 there were 544 Canadians attending collage in the U.S., 272 (or exactly half) came from Ontario.

Here is some general interest stuff. Check out 40 of the most common misconceptions concerning the offical rules of baseball.

Introduction The following is intended to provide you with background information concerning the winter ball clinic and the AAA Rep Team. All this information, and more, will be accessible at the team web site: http://www.eteamz.com/BarrieRookieBall. If you have questions, concerns or suggestions please talk to me. General Comments I want to begin by emphasizing the need for volunteers to help support and operate Barrie Minor Baseball. The Association needs volunteers urgently to fill many vacant positions and to generally just help keep things running. There is a very small team who, for years, have been working diligently, and generally with little fanfare and certainly without thanks, to keep this Association functional. These people have given tremendously of their time and in some cases their kids have grown and no longer play ball. If you can help in some way me know - the Association needs your assistance! Fundraising: I am a big believer in raising funds to help offset some of our costs. BMBA relies heavily on fundraising each year just to breakeven. Last year just over 13% ($22,391) of the Associations operating revenue came from charity bingo. Without these funds the league would have had a significant operating deficit. As it was the Association lost $532. Under the current conditions we, as a team, should not expect much from the Association in terms of new equipment, especially bats, helmets, etc. To be competitive we will need some new equipment hence I have proposed some aggressive fundraising activities on our team web site in order to raise money so we can purchase a couple of high end bats and hopefully equip our player appropriately. Winter Ball Clinic News The clinic is run as a separate program and it is not part of rep team selection. While the rep team will be comprised of the players participating in the clinic the focus of this clinic is player development. Final tryouts for rep will be in the spring. Needless to say players who participate in the clinic will be further ahead of those players who simply appear at the tryouts. The clinic sessions are not practices in as much as they are focused on specific developmental areas (i.e., batting fundamentals, fielding and defence, pitching). The clinic is, for the most part, revenue neutral however it is hoped that a portion of the clinic fee will go towards the purchase of new equipment specifically for the Rookie rep team. BMBA has worked hard to put together a rather ambitious program. The clinic will feature the use of expertise from Baseball Ontario and we will be bringing in coaching expertise from Canada's national junior and senior teams. I will also have the opportunity to run some of the sessions. Most sessions will be 90 minutes however this may vary. You will know in advance of any deviations from the 90 minute schedule. When practices are at Lampman Lane if you choose to remain for the duration you are asked to wait outside of gym area - we need the space. Rep Team News At another date I shall provide you with information concerning my philosophy on how this team will operate and what I see as the goals for this up coming season. Suffice to say that after five years of coaching baseball I have come to believe that this is not so much my team as it as our team and my goals are of little consequence to those of the team as a whole. I expect to carry 12-13 player in the 2002 season. Following tryouts I will also invite several additional players to be alternate players (AP's) for the rep team. AP's are players who can come out and practice with the team and who will get to play in the occasional game and tournament. AP's have an important role since they help to fill in for absent or injured players and every year AP's become critical. At present the Association is considering forming a second rep team for the rookie level. Given the talent base that was present at the tryouts in the fall there is some logic in forming a Junior Rookie team. More on this issue will follow, however, if someone is interested in coaching such a team let me know. I will soon have to begin making commitments for the team in terms of tournaments for the coming season. You are invited to provide input into which tournaments you would like to participate in. We will likely participate in 5-6 tournaments. Last years team played in 6 tournaments including St Catherines Whitby and London. I expect to play in at least one Mississauga tournament. Here is the most recent list of options: „h Vaughan/Maple: May 17 - May 19 „h Mississauga North: May 31 - June 2 „h Burlington: June 14 - 16 „h Mississauga SouthWest: June 21 - 23 „h Ajax: July 19 - 21 „h London: July 26 - 28 „h Barrie: Remains TBD Additional Costs: Players who are selected for the rep teams have an additional Rep Fee that is payable to BMBA. This fee goes towards the cost of tournaments which the Association covers, typically to a maximum of four not including our own. The Rep Fee will be between $135.00 - $150.00. On top of this there will be other expenses for travelling and additional uniform costs beyond what is supplied by BMBA. So please collect those cans as part of our fundraising. Commitment: The following is an approximation of the time you can expect to commit for this team (based on past experiences). You can expect to commit three days a week, excluding tournaments, optional batting practice as well as special practices. There will likely be two games a week (one home, one away) as well as one regularly scheduled practice. Besides ourselves there have been three other teams in the York Simcoe Loop: Vaughn, Georgina (Sutton/Keswick) and Newmarket. Home games were Tuesday. The away games were as follows: Vaughn - Wednesday, Georgina - Saturday and Newmarket - Friday. The Georgina games were normally doubleheaders thereby reducing the number of dates. The season typically consists of 14-16 games. The winner of the loop play-down tournament advances to the Provincial Championships. Practices will likely be Thursday and additional practices may be necessary as the need arises. Mark Russell Barrie Red Sox Rookie AAA Coach 733-2707

Some ideas for fundraising have been posted in the Message Boards section. Check it out and add your thoughts