The following LDBA teams won Gold or Silver medals at this season's OBA Championships.

 GOLD

North London - Senior Rookie 'A'

Dorchester  - Senior Rookie 'D'

St. Thomas - Minor Mosquito 'A'

St. Thomas - Mosquito 'B'

London Badgers - Midget 'AAA'

London Badgers - Midget Eliminations

London Badgers - Canadian Midget Champions.

St. Thomas Cardinals - Junior 'D'

SILVER

London Badgers - Bantam 'AAA'

EBBA - Bantam 'A'

London Bulls - Senior 'B'

CentreField Sports is now taking registrations for fall and winter programs.  Brand new 12 000 sq.ft. facility @ 45 Midpark Cres. (401 and Highbury area).  Check out our website at  www.centrefieldsports.com.  Programs now run for eight weeks, and memberships are available this year. 
Softball instruction is also available this year.
 

Contact :

Adam Stern
519 318-5881

Classification requests have been sent to Baseball Ontario for their meeting later this month.  For those divisions with mega format tournaments, please contact the host directly about the tournament.  Since you are already classified due to the mega format, there will be a $500 fine if your team withdraws from the OBA tournament.  For all other divisions, you will be notified after July 26 if your bid for attending a certain division was successful, if a playoff is needed, etc.

When reporting your scores to your division convenors, please remember that the division, game number, score, and pitching records are required and necessary to be able to post the score.

Points, not percentage, is used to determine the league champions.

LDBA has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to language on the field.  It is inappropriate to swear during games.  Please be aware that there are parents and other family members attending games.  The umpires will be enforcing the zero tolerance policy. 

When reporting your score to your convenor, please include the division, game number, scores, and pitch counts of both teams.  It is the home team's responsibility to do this.  Please ensure that you send the score to the correct division convenor as listed in the handbook which all coaches received.

As per the OBA rule book -- In addition to wooden bats, metal bats will be allowed in OBA play. Subject to the following sentence, these bats shall meet the dimensional requirements, specified in rule 1:10 of the Official Rules of Baseball.  All bats used in:

Major Bantam will not exceed 2-3/4" in diameter, and will not have a weight to length differential of greater than five (5) ounces.  For all Minor Midget, Midget, Junior and Senior OBA play, only wood (including composite wood bats) shall be permitted.  Metal/wood bats are not to be considered wood bats.

In Bantam Girls, Minor Bantam, PeeWee, Mosquito and Rookie Ball, metal bats are permitted with no restrictions beyond the provisions of the Official Rules of Baseball.

If this past Sunday was any indication, the new program will be a huge success. The free hitting clinic allows house league and competitive players aged 8-12 the opportunity to actually 'HIT' with the Badgers. Despite a windy and chilly morning, close to 10 young baseball players and their parents took part in a one-hour hitting clinic with the Minor Midget Badgers prior to their PBLO doubleheader with the Ontario Blue Jays Under-16 team at Aldridge Field.

Garry Robbins was at the clinic with his son Adam who plays for the EBBA Mosquito Tecumsehs and had this to say, "It can only be a positive learning experience when our 10 and 11 year old boys attend a Badgers Baseball Clinic. It was a good time." Adam had some very interesting comments as well, "It was really a lot of fun, and I want to do it again. I like playing with the big guys. One of the players taught me how to bend my knees and position my arms so I can hit the ball better."

You wouldn't have known it was as chilly as it was by watching the young players go through warm-ups and hitting drills and then play a scrimmage against the Minor Midget Badgers. Another EBBA Mosquito player, Daniel Jaffe had some comments about the clinic and the scrimmage in particular, "It was great to play with older boys who are incredible players and who love baseball as much as I do. I don't know how they beat us in the scrimmage when they were hitting from the wrong side and running backwards."

Daniel's father Peter Jaffe explained what this kind of experience means to the young ball players, "The boys all want to be Badgers one day, so it is a good motivator to see how much they have to keep learning every day. It is like climbing to the top of one mountain and then seeing four more towering peaks ahead."

The free hitting clinics which are open to all London area baseball players aged 8-12, will continue for the next few weeks.

Anyone interested in taking part in this great opportunity can get more information by clicking on the 'GRASSROOTS' tab on the Badger website, www.londonbadgers.on.ca and then clicking on 'HIT WITH THE BADGERS.'

Regular meetings -- August 16, September 20, October 18 -- all at 7:30 p.m. -- Elizabeth St. building

Classification meeting -- July 12 -- times for divisions TBA -- Elizabeth St. building

Annual General Meeting -- December 6 -- 7 p.m. -- Nichols Arena Meeting Room

A player wishing to play competitive baseball in the L.D.B.A. for the 2009 season MUST register with his/her home association prior to March 15.  Failure to register with the home association before March 15 would mean that said player will be allowed to only play house league for 2009. 

(A Badger player only needs to register with the Badgers before March 15 -- if he is not successful in his attempt at making a Badger team, said player must return to his home association to play for the 2009 season)

 LDBA has a no release policy -- players MUST register with their home association.

A number of people have asked us why we have a “no release” policy, as referenced on our website.  Good question.  The LDBA Board, which consists of the executive and representatives of all the Associations, approved this policy in 2006.  It is designed to protect our associations and help us field balanced and competitive local leagues. 

Our objective is to have each association field competitive teams at all or most age groups.  We have the best chance of accomplishing this objective if each player plays in the association in which he or she resides (i.e. their home association”).  Therefore we do not grant releases prior to registration and require each player to register with their home association.  If we were to grant releases with no consideration for our objective, we would have difficulty forming good local leagues for our players.        

Following registration, if an association does not have enough players to field a team, a player who registered in that association can play for another LDBA association without the need for a release.  The following season we would expect the player to once again register with his or her home association.  The LDBA will ensure that every player has a team to play on if the home association does not have a team.  

Associations should NOT be registering or recruiting out of area players.  Doing so is in violation of Baseball Ontario rules P1-4(i) and P1-4(j)

"Any coach or manager who allows a player to participate in any game(s) or practice(s) with a team that does not hold his/her playing rights will leave the said coach and/or manager open to suspension by the OBA."

"NO player, coach or manager may approach any other player for whom their team does not hold the playing rights with the intent of securing said player for their own team without the permission of the Local Association that holds the player's playing rights.  Violation of the rule will leave the player, coach and/or manager open to suspension by the OBA."

This would include all indoor workouts/tryouts, outdoor workouts/tryouts, practices, etc.