Alameda Little League: Welcome

Welcome to Alameda Little League, California District 4!

Our League President, Ron Matthews, explains the Matteucci and Wootten Awards.

THE MATTEUCCI AWARD Bill Matteucci coached in the early 2000’s here in Alameda Little League and was a hard working Board Member as well. Bill was always a hoot, full of laughter and good, clean, honest friendliness. He loved the kids, all of them, from opponent teams as well. He would do anything for the League and always rolled up his sleeves to pitch in where needed. But most of all, on the field he NEVER argued, yelled, or showed anyone emotion that was negative. Yes, umpires then were like the ones today in Little League, very human. He saw that and knew the bigger picture in life was what we were there to teach the kids. His teams would never be in the cellar, nor would they be on the top, but they were always out there to have FUN and still compete. Bill was the embodiment of good sportsmanship and integrity during his short life, and our League learned a lot from him, which is why we have named this prestigious award after him. The Matteucci Award is given to the Manager of each Baseball Division voted by fellow Managers to exemplify the good sportsmanship and integrity that we seek to teach our youth in Alameda Little League. It is the highest honor a Manager in Alameda Little League can receive from the League.

THE WOOTTEN AWARD Whitey and Alice Wootten started going to baseball games at Krusi Park in the late 1970’s. Whitey was about 60 years old at the time. They didn’t have any kids or grandkids in the program. They just loved baseball and cheered good plays. They didn’t care who won. They cheered for all of the players. In December 1984, Whitey died. To honor his memory, his wife Alice donated money to both Little League and Babe Ruth to establish sportsmanship awards. This award is given to players on each team in Alameda Little League and Alameda Babe Ruth who show leadership through good sportsmanship on and off the field. This award is the highest honor a player can receive from the League.

The Alameda Attack fall baseball teams -9U through 14u - have set the evaluation dates for this fall's teams. Evaluations will be held on June 23 at Krusi Park. See the Attack flyer for details.

For information about the 2012 season, please visit the Alameda Attack page on this website. 

The Alameda Little League Board of Directors announces that the 2013 All Star selection process is being defined and will be announced later this month. The Board may elect to change the voting used in 2012. Also, the President appoints and the Board approves All Star Managers and coaches. Below is the process used in 2012.

2012 All Star Selection Process:

11 Blue: team to be selected first; then red team will be selected. Major managers vote on first 8; next 4 or 5 chosen by assigned mgrs for that team. No players from AAA should be on blue. No input from AAA managers unless requested. 11’s are purely age 11.

11 Red: All AAA mgrs may attend meeting & provide input to managers. Major managers vote on first 8; next 4 or 5 chosen by assigned mgrs for that team. Purely age 11.

10 Blue: Voted on by AAA managers 8 + next 4 or 5 chosen by selected manager.

10 Red: Voted on by AAA managers 8 + next 4 or 5 chosen by selected manager. 10’s are 9 and 10 years old.

Diamond Skills Camps is offering 10 weeks of summer camps hosted at the Little League fields. Camps start on June 10 and run through August 23.  

Alameda Little League endorses the Diamond Skills Camps that are run by Neptune Beach Pearl at our Little League fields. These are former Alameda Little Leaguers who have come back to Little League and offer excellent clinics designed to make our players better during the summer months. No other clinics in Alameda are endorsed by Alameda Little League, nor do they contribute to us. You can find more information and register at www.diamondskillscamp.com If you sign up for a clinic please sign up for these to benefit Alameda Little League!

Click here for the Diamond Skills Flyer

These two coupons can be used for the entire month of May at Bay Area Sports Authority Stores:

The weekend of May 18-19 is Alameda Little League Appreciation Day. Bring this coupon to a Bay Area Sports Authority Store to recieve 20% off your entire purchase -> ALL Appreciation Coupon  

e-Coupon to Sports Authority $20 OFF -> $20 coupon

e-Coupon to Sports Authority $10 OFF -> $10 coupon

We regret to inform you of the sudden passing of one of our Little League coaches on Tuesday. Craig Wolff was a coach for three seasons in Farm Division and this year was a coach of the Single A-Lugnuts. In addition to being a doting father and devoted husband, Craig was a first year doctoral student at Cal Berkeley and a researcher, scientist and environmental engineer for the public health industry. Craig enjoyed the outdoors and was an avid cyclist. Craig is survived by his wife Sonia Urzua and his three children: Clarisa, Sebastian and David.

To honor Craig's memory, Alameda Little League held a silent reflection period before the Lugnuts game at Rittler Field at 11:25am on Saturday, May 11 for anyone who wanted to join. Over 300 attended, including all teams from games at that game time.

A scholarship fund has been set up for Craig's children at Wells Fargo Bank: Acct Name: Sonia Urzua Acct #5207-822213 or donations may be made to AIDS/Life-Cycle in Craig's Wolff's name. Alameda Little League is contributing $500 to the scholarship fund. Please join the League in recognizing this loss in our community.

It was a beautiful day for baseball in Berkeley as the Cal Bears hosted Washington State. Alameda Little League had 350 Little League in attendance at Alameda Little League day at Cal’s Evan’s Diamond. Alameda players witnessed a 2-1 Cal win. 

As a result of a recent situation that occurred in an Alameda Little League Major Division game, we have decided to immediately ask all Official Scorekeepers in Major, AAA, and AA Divisions (Home Team Scorekeeper) to:

1) ANNOUNCE THE PITCH COUNTS OF ANY AND ALL PITCHERS EVERY HALF INNING, AS WELL AS THE CURRENT SCORES.

2) BE AWARE THAT HE/SHE MAY HAVE NOT RECORDED THE CORRECT INFORMATION AND, IN THE EVENT THAT HE/SHE ACCEPTS ANY INFORMATION PRESENTED, MAYCORRECT THE OFFICIAL SCOREBOOK ACCORDINGLY.

The Official Scorekeeper must provide the current pitch count for any pitcher when requested by either Manager or any umpire. In the event no announcement is made or heard, the Manager/s remain responsible for the pitch count and the rules that govern them, including limits by age. Please refer to Regulation VI-Pitchers, Page 37-38, Little League 2013 Baseball Official Regulations and Rules.

Click here for Rule 10.01 Score keeping and 10.22 Pitch Count

Click here for Official Scorer Rules from Little League

Dear Little League Parents,

The 2013 season has begun and we are already into our second week of games. The kids are having a GREAT time! Please take the time to read this letter from Mike Matheny (current St. Louis Cardinals manager) to the parents of his youth baseball team. It was recently published former St. Louis Cardinal Kevin Seitzer's company website.

In his letter, Mr. Matheny states his goals for the team at the beginning:

"My main goals are as follows: (1) to teach these young men how to play the game of baseball the right way, (2) to be a positive impact on them as young men, and (3) do all of this with class. We may not win every game, but we will be the classiest coaches, players, and parents in every game we play. The boys are going to play with a respect for their teammates, opposition, and the umpires no matter what."

Click here for the Mike Matheny Letter.

Little League International, Inc. (LLI) takes the safety of its children participants very seriously. In 2007, Little League instituted a program where it is mandatory for all volunteers to be screened annually. LLI provides to its districts a screening service that searches through the state level sex offender registry and also a criminal records database of over 270 million records.

Volunteers have expressed concern regarding the process and how their confidential information is protected. The following is the process used as submitted by Alameda Little League President, Ron Matthews:

The system that is in place is that I am the person who receives the application, not a committee. Any documents are scanned into a PDF and shredded. I transmit them securely to our Director of Legal Affairs, Scott Hennigh (an accomplished attorney) who submits them to Lexis-Nexis for the background check. After I receive a thumbs up on each applicant the PDF’s are deleted from my computer and his.

Little League International, Inc. has an entire section on its website devoted to this subject, and requires me to take this matter very seriously in order to protect our children from abuse. I am also required to sign and verify that I have checked every volunteer in the League. Here is a passage from the link provided:

Press here for summary of the LLI prescribed process --> background checks summary

Press here to be taken to the LLI website for information regarding background checks.

Hi Parents,

Help out your child's manager by completing all necessary paperwork prior to your parent's meeting. To play, each child must have a signed Medical Release, Medical Release 2013

and signed Parent's Code of Conduct. Parent's Code of Conduct

All volunteers (coaches for right now) must submit a Volunteer Application. Volunteer App 2013

The Volunteer Application can be either given to you team's manager or sent directly to Ron Matthews.

Volunteer Application Instructions: Complete the form and return to Ron Matthews, 2857 Sea View Parkway, Alameda, 94502, or scan and e-mail it to him at ron-matthews@comcast.net. Please include a photo copy of a government issued photo ID. 

Majors through A Division schedules are posted to the "Schedules" section of this website. 

Note: The start time of the 3/29 AAA Scrappers vs.  River Cats game at Leydecker Park has moved to 7:00p.m.

Check this news item for any future schedule changes. 

We will always use this website to advise field conditions during rainy weather conditions.

For the Little League Fields (Rittler, Lippert, Majors, Minor), the league controls whether or not the fields are open. Check the Little League website the day of an event (practice or games) to see if your team's field is open.

For ARPD managed fields (Bayport, Littlejohn, Leydecker, Tillman) on Monday through Friday, call the ARPD hotline at 510-747-7540. The hotline is updated by 2:00pm.

For ARPD managed fields on Saturday and Sunday, closure status will be posted to the Little League website.

As you may have heard at opening ceremonies, Alameda Little League has a great fundraiser starting up.  You can purchase customized laser engraved bricks that will be installed on or around the snack bar.  These bricks are similar to the custom bricks you may have seen at Disneyland.  You can customize it to say your players name, your family name, your team name - whatever you'd like.  This is your chance to leave a lasting memory at the Little League fields!

The cost is $100 for one brick/$150 for two. This fundraising effort is for the Alameda Little League General Fund only and will not go to any one team. All proceeds are used to keep registration fees as low as possible.

The order form can be found on the little league website, www.alamedalittleleague.org.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at (510) 523-7946 or ron-matthews@comcast.net.

Thank you for supporting Alameda Little League!