Last call for umpires

The Byers staff is willing to have a workshop for those of us who are interested in becoming umpires for the 2023 season. Presumably, we would be working games at the Byers Complex but not on our league nights.

The city pays umpires $30 a game, so this is a chance to earn a little extra cash during the summer. It also could give the Byers folks some flexibility in their planning, because there is an areawide shortage of umpires.

We’ve had three candidates step up. If anyone else is interested in the training, please contact kenbradford@comcast.net by noon Friday, Feb. 2.

A midseason break

The schedule approved by commissioners in both divisions includes a full week off for the July 4 holiday. Independence Day is on a Tuesday. We will be taking off on Thursday, July 6, as well.

Sponsor your own team?

We’re just beginning our effort to find sponsors for the 2023 season. Our first step will be to contact last year’s sponsors to see if they’re still with us. We know this much already: We will need some replacements.

Of our 12 sponsors from last year, four were there because of players who have left our league. Those include Access and TAG in the junior division and Christman and AIM in the seniors. We hope to have the other eight return. If they do, and if we have 10 total teams, we still will need two new sponsors. If they don’t, we may have room for even more.

We will be talking with friends who own businesses or lead other organizations, and we ask that you do the same. The sponsor fee is $400 per team, and we can help with details on that. Our preference is that we give league members a chance to become sponsors before we go outside.

One extra bit of information: If you pay a team sponsor fee, that covers your annual player dues. In effect, it would cost you $400 for the sponsorship but save you $100 if you’re playing in both divisions, or $60 if you play in just one. The net cost to you would be $300, or $340.

The way it looks now

We’re expecting to hear from new recruits throughout February and March. But if the season were to start today, we would have five solid teams in both our divisions.

A five-team junior division would be great for several reasons. For one, we would be able to use just two diamonds instead of three. We would be putting up and taking down fewer home run fences. We also would be needing fewer umpires.

Another advantage is that we could have a 24-game season on just 20 dates. That’s because one team every night would be scheduled for a doubleheader. Four teams would play at 6:30 – 1 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 4, for example. Then Team 5 would play at 7:30 against one of those four teams from the earlier game. We’ve constructed a tentative schedule that would give every team an equal number of later starts and the same number of double-headers.

Another advantage would be that no team should ever have to play short-handed or forfeit. There always would be substitutes available – at 6:30, from the team waiting to play the late game, and at 7:30 from the three teams who completed the early games.

The senior division would have the same benefit of players being available to avoid forfeits. With five teams, one always would have a 5 p.m. bye. The downside is that the seniors don’t have the option of playing a late game, so a 20-date regular season would give each team just 16 games, plus a minimum of two in a double-elimination tournament.

The commissioners will need your input on this. Some seniors like the bye as a night off. Others want as many games as possible. If we want to turn our 16-game schedule into 20, we could add some extra games, once or twice per month on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday. If we want to spice it up, we might be able to play those games away from the complex, at other city parks.

Or, if we get permission from Byers, we could stick with the 20 dates and add an early game, at 4 p.m., for four senior doubleheaders per season. One game would be at 4, followed by two at 5. All ideas should be on the table. Think it over and talk with your manager or your commissioners.

Our preference would be to have six teams in each league. It would be consistent with our steady progress during the past quarter-century. But this is an unusual year. We believe it will be better to have five solid teams this season than six shaky ones. We’ll have fun either way.

First spaghetti dinner

The league collected $120 from its fundraiser with the Knights of Columbus on Jan. 20. Tickets were $14 apiece with $4 going to the league. Thanks to all who attended. If we end up paying $8 or so per shirt, we just found enough money for uniforms for an entire team.

We ended up selling 30 tickets, about half of which were used for carry-outs. The dinner also served as a chance for a dozen or so league members to socialize during the off-season.

If there is interest, we could have one more chance for a spaghetti dinner before Lent. The date would be Feb. 17. Let us know if you would attend, at kenbradford@comcast.net.

Only if you’re interested

Most of us would rather just know when to show up with a glove and a bat once the season starts. Others want to know how decisions were made on everything from the preseason player draft to the menu at the season awards program. Reports on the annual league meetings are posted on this site, and so are these newsletters. If you have questions, let us know. Otherwise, we’ll look forward to seeing you at the Complex on May 9.

If you have questions or want to join the league, contact kenbradford@comcast.net.

Attending were commissioners Steve Sporinsky, Mark Witkowski and Ken Bradford; and managers Snookie Ferency, Ron Betzer and Rich Sparks. Unable to attend were managers Ron Wilson and Gary Marcus.

The main topics included preliminary player head counts and the post-season tournament.

The early head count shows three teams with 14 or more players with three others ranging from nine down to three or four. Based on those numbers and expectations of recruiting newcomers, we will plan for a five-team division with the flexibility to add a sixth. The league alignment will be decided closer to March when we know better about our recruitment efforts.

A five-team league would have several advantages. We would be using two diamonds and requiring just two umpires on game nights. That also means we would be putting up two sets of fences before games instead of three. The team with the bye would have players available to substitute, so we should be able to avoid playing short-handed or forfeiting.

The main disadvantage is that a 20-date schedule would give each team four byes, for a total of 16 actual games per team. We could stretch the season to two more weeks, if we don’t lose games because of wet or hot weather. If so, including the double-elimination tournament, all senior players should have a chance for 20 or more games.

The managers prefer a double-elimination tournament that likely would begin Aug. 8. The winner’s bracket final would be Aug. 15 with the “if necessary” game on Aug. 17. We hope to have the senior and junior championships on the same night.

The managers decided to continue with last season’s bat rules, with all nationally approved bats allowed as long as they don’t exceed a 1.21 bpf (bat performance rating).

Four additional issues will be voted on by all players, if possible, at a summer meeting:

1. By-laws that would qualify our league as a nonprofit organization.
2. Will we continue to play at the Byers Complex for the 2024 season and beyond?
3. Will we continue to use the temporary home run fences at the 250-foot mark?
4. Will the senior division games begin in 2024 at 5:30 with junior games beginning at 7?

Other decisions and discussions of note include:

No games will be played during the July 4 week. Everyone gets a week off.

We are exploring the concept of an all-star game as a season finale. One idea is to play that game as part of an outdoor banquet-style event. We’re looking for ideas on that.

The managers also heard a summary of our treasurer’s report. With current fees ($60 for one division and $100 for both) and sponsorships ($400 per team), we’ll easily meet required league expenses. Any money left over could be used for uniform shirts, a banquet, league awards and/or sponsor plaques. If money isn’t available for all these items, the commissioners may have to decide which expenses have the highest priority.

There is an areawide shortage of umpires. One way we can help is to get training to umpire on our off-nights. Presumably, by working a Monday or Wednesday we may free up an umpire for our league nights.

We are attempting in several ways to attract more players, both at the junior and senior level. Anyone with a friend or acquaintance interested in joining the league can contact one of the commissioners or their manager.

Jerry AuFrance hosted the meeting at Holy Smokes Pizza, just as he did for the juniors on Tuesday. The commissioners are grateful for that.

Attending were commissioners Ken Bradford, Steve Latzke and Adam Kroemer; treasurer Bob Gorny; managers Jerry AuFrance, Snookie Ferency, Jim Nace and John Rice; and Ron Betzer, representing TAG, and Steve Sporinsky, representing Palmer’s.

The important topics included preliminary player head counts, post-season tournaments and bats.

The early head count shows four teams close to full strength, with Palmer’s at half-strength and TAG’s numbers uncertain. If the season were to begin based on current numbers, we would reduce the number of teams to five. The logical way would be to merge Palmer’s and TAG. Additional players are expected to join in the next few weeks, which may allow us to have a sixth team. We have a target date of March 1 to make that decision.

The managers are leaning toward a double-elimination tournament that would begin during the first week of August. Dates will be determined after we decide how many teams will compete – Aug. 8 for five teams, Aug. 3 for six. The winner’s bracket final would be Aug. 15 with the “if necessary” game on Aug. 17. These dates depend on the senior division tournament schedule because we hope to have both division finals on the same night.

The managers decided to continue with last season’s bat rules – single- or double-walls for ages 64 and younger, composites for ages 65 and older. No bat should exceed a 1.21 bpf (bat performance rating). We will come up with a method of tagging bats for easy recognition.

Four additional issues will be voted on by all players, if possible, at a summer meeting:

1. By-laws that would qualify our league as a nonprofit organization.
2. Will we continue to play at the Byers Complex for the 2024 season and beyond?
3. Will we continue to use the temporary home run fences at the 250-foot mark?
4. Will the senior division games begin in 2024 at 5:30 with junior games beginning at 7?

Other decisions and discussions of note include:

No games will be played during the July 4 week. Everyone gets a week off.

If we have a five-team league, and if the Byers schedule allows, we will be able to fit 24 games into a 10-week period by playing some doubleheaders. A proposed schedule has games scheduled on two diamonds, e.g. 1 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 4 in the early game with 5 vs. 1 in a late game. This would allow each team to play four double-headers during the summer.

Also, if we have a five-team league, any short-handed team will be able to borrow players from an idle team. We’ll create parameters for that.

We are exploring the concept of an all-star game as a season finale. One idea is to play that game as part of an outdoor banquet-style event. We’re looking for ideas on that.

Commissioner Adam Kroemer has proposed an end to the “player of choice” tradition that allowed managers to recruit a new player directly to their teams. All newcomers, and free agents, will go through a draft on April 11. If we have enough newcomers to justify it, we’ll have a tryout/practice that night at the complex. Any player from last season will be allowed to declare free agency to join a new team with a March 1 deadline. Declare by contacting kenbradford@comcast.net.

Treasurer Bob Gorny presented projections that, with current fees ($60 for one division and $100 for both) and sponsorships ($400 per team), we’ll easily meet required league expenses. Any money left over could be used for uniform shirts, a banquet, league awards and sponsor plaques. The league is looking at fundraising ideas that could help pay for additional items.

Bob also is working with the former treasurer to get money out of our old bank account. Ideally, this gives us a final break with that group.

There is an areawide shortage of umpires. One way we can help is to get training to umpire on our off-nights. Presumably, by working a Monday or Wednesday we may free up an umpire for our league nights.

We are attempting in several ways to attract more players, both at the junior and senior level. Anyone with a friend or acquaintance interested in joining the league can contact one of the commissioners or their manager.

Jerry AuFrance hosted the meeting at Holy Smokes Pizza. The commissioners are grateful for that.

Play with us, learn with them

Have you heard about the Forever Learning Institute? FLI has been offering a wide range of classes for people in our age group for 45 years. It’s a chance to develop new interests and skills – from Hawaiian dance, to juggling, to speaking French, to understanding obscure Biblical prophets. Most classes are at the Little Flower parish center, 54191 Ironwood Road, South Bend.

We’re not exactly joining forces, but we’ve asked FLI to include information about us in their newsletter and course calendar. They serve ages 50 and older, so it’s possible that their students can become our ballplayers – and vice versa. We may need an influx of newcomers, especially in the senior division, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.

As for FLI, the spring semester begins in March. Keep an eye on the website – foreverlearninginstitute.org – for class offerings, schedules and registration deadlines.

We all share the same mission – helping people find ways to stay active as they get older. If you have other ideas for outreach, please let us know.

Thinking about spaghetti?

Our first 2023 fundraiser is a spaghetti dinner Jan. 20 at the Francis Club at the Knights of Columbus lodge, 61533 S. Ironwood Road, South Bend.

Tickets are $14 apiece, with $4 going to our softball league. The menu includes spaghetti, salad, garlic bread and ice cream. The club has a cash bar for those who want wine, beer or other adult beverages.

The club has set aside 50 seats for our league members, from 5 to 7 p.m. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Family members and friends are welcome.

If you want to reserve seats, contact kenbradford@comcast.net before Monday, Jan. 16. We’ll put your name on our reservation list, and you can pay at the door. Carry-outs are available for those who prefer to grab and go.

Issues for seniors

As we prepare for the January manager meetings, we’re looking at some policies related to the senior division. Some of these discussions are coming up now because, in past years, managers didn’t have much of a voice in how the division was run.

Mark Witkowski has two issues he would like to bring to the attention of players and managers.

Rosters: If a senior manager lists new players on his preliminary roster, the league commissioners will review those requested additions in light of overall team composition. One consideration will be whether all teams are able to field a reasonable number of players, that being approximately 14. A second consideration is to insure a fair and competitive balance between teams. If a player requests participation in the league without any team affiliation, the league commissioners may add them to any roster short of players. For newcomers to our league, the team assignment may be made after the April tryouts.

Bats: As far asthe senior division goes, any unaltered ASA, USSSA, NSA and ISA bats are legal. Miken Ultra II’s and similar bats meet this standard. If your bat exceeds 1.21 BPF, it will not be legal in Senior Softball.  A senior bat is any bat which complies with the 1.21 bpf standard.

Send comments to debmarkwit@comcast.net.

The junior division managers tend to change from year to year, but there is a proposal in place that the juniors follow the national standard. That rule gives players age 60 and older the right to use the higher-rated bats, which include composites. If you play in both divisions, the best advice would be to wait until after the January meetings before spending a lot of money on a bat.

Who’s in first?

It seems like a simple thing to keep track of wins and losses. But somehow, there always seems to be confusion about league standings at the end of every season.

We’re solving that problem this year, with the help of the Byers staff.

For their other summer leagues, the Byers crew has kept up-to-date records on a web site. Beginning this year, they’ll do it for us, too.

The site has a complicated address, but you can find it by searching for Byers Softball Complex – SBVPA, entering the Phil St. Clair Park site and clicking on Byers Softball Complex.

For now, because we’re in the off-season, most of the site is empty. But if you click on the Schedules/Standings tab, you’ll find the shell of last year’s South Bend summer leagues. Click on Summer Tues 2022, for example, and you’ll see options for Game Schedule, Player Stats, Team Stats and Standings.

Click on Standings, and you’ll see the Fire Breathing Llamas were 17-1, Imagineering was 14-4, SB Fire Local 362 was 9-3, etc. The standings also show runs scored and runs allowed.

We’re still refining what we’ll want to use on our page. We probably won’t want to run Player Stats or Team Stats. That could get really embarrassing.

But I’m guessing we’ll want a schedule page, a scores page and standings, and maybe home runs. My recommendation is that we post the rosters there. The way it could work is that you go to the standings page, click on any team name and the roster would pop up.

I think it will make us a better league if we know the names of our teammates and opponents. That’s especially true for people new to our league. When I was a rookie, I knew my teammates only as Woody, Coach, The Rev and Topper. We all knew Snookie but had no idea what his actual name was.

I would ask about someone and would be told, “He’s the short guy with white hair” or “the heavy guy who plays first base.” It didn’t narrow things down much.

We’re also hoping the Byers page will help us connect with potential players who don’t know that this league exists. We will have separate registration procedures and fee collections, but it will benefit them and us if we can trade inquiries back and forth.

By the way, the South Bend parks web site was posting an outdated statement that Byers was offering a senior league for ages 50 and older on Wednesdays. We’re getting that fixed.

We’ll be working with the Byers IT guy, Mike Sniadecki, on creating our page, probably as soon as we figure out our rosters in April. If you have ideas on what you would like to see there, please let me know.

The plan is to continue having newsletters throughout the season. Eventually, they’ll be less about league politics and more about cookouts, special events and roster additions. Eventually, we’ll be able to communicate about some league-wide votes we’ll have later in the summer. But, for now, it’s good to know that we won’t be wondering who’s in first place. You’ll be able to find out on our web page.

Send comments to kenbradford@comcast.net.

Out or safe?

John Walczewski, the Byers softball director, says there is a chronic shortage of slow-pitch umpires in our area.

Several of the guys in our league serve as umpires on other nights. They get $30 a game, which translates to about $30 an hour. If you work three games a night, once a week during a 14-week season, it adds up to over $1,000.

If you’re interested in giving it a try, let me know at kenbradford@comcast.net. If we get a group together, I’ll see if John can put together a training session for us.