October Newsletter
Hi everyone. Here we are. Another season looming closer and before we know it, the 2010 season will be underway. As in past years, we have some exciting news that continues to make MRBA the premier youth baseball league on the Plateau (and as you will see, beyond the Plateau). There is a LOT of information in this one, so please read it all.
First of all, I would like to welcome back all of our returning board members. I would also like to welcome some new board members. We have Tom Gwin who is the VP of Babe Ruth and the VP of MRBA as a whole. Zach Erwin is now the VP of Cal Ripken. Our new Player Agent for the Minors and Majors is Bill McNally. Bill will also be assisting our new Equipment / Uniform Manager, Chuck Howard. And finally, our new Sponsorship Director is David Boyce. Thank you all for stepping up and serving the kids of our community. For a complete list of your 2010 Board of Directors, visit www.playmrba.org. We still have some board positions that we need to fill. The two most important ones are the Fundraising Director and the Major / Minor Scheduler. Please help make a difference and take one of these positions. We also have a few other positions open. If you are interested you can email me.
First, the bad news. I know several of our 2009 members approached me or other board members pushing to include girl’s fast pitch in MRBA. Unfortunately, we can’t do that at this time. We need several key board positions filled to be able to accomplish this, and no one volunteered to take this on.
Now for the good stuff. For the first time ever, MRBA will be offering Babe Ruth baseball for 13 – 15 year-olds. This will be a great way to continue your kids love for baseball. The great thing about this division is coaches can keep kids playing together that have played together for years. What I mean is a coach doesn’t necessarily have to draft a team. If they have 12 kids that want to play, they have their team. We will also accept individual registrations and hold an evaluation try-out to fill in any slots that coaches may have. We can also form another team this way. Games will breakdown this way. League games will be during the week at a field local to the Plateau. Weekends will be reserved for teams to play in tournaments against any other type of league or select team. Remember, MRBA is not limited to who they can play. There will be plenty of opportunities for games. We would also like to set up some interleague play against other Babe Ruth leagues in different areas of Washington. The possibilities are endless. Stay tuned for more information.
MRBA is revamping our Cal Ripken divisions. We are adding a division between Minors and Major 70’. This division will be named Major 60’. This division will be available for players 10 – 12 years-old. It will be played with 60’ base paths and a 46’ pitching distance. We realize that not everyone wants to play at the 70’ bases. This will also give kids that aren’t drafted in the Major 70’ division a chance to play with kids their own age. We are also revising the recommended age groups for each division. Here is how it breaks down:
Major 70’ – 10 to 12 years-old
Major 60’ – 10 to 12 years-old
Minors – 8 to 10 years-old
Rookies – 6 to 8 years-old
T-ball – 4 to 6 years-old
This will accomplish several things. Safety is the biggest factor. This will prevent 12-year-olds from playing in the Minors against younger, smaller players. This will always give a player a division to play in. Here is an example: 9-year-old Johnnie goes to the evaluation for the Minors division. Johnnie has never played baseball before. During the draft, Johnnie is not drafted. Johnnie would be placed in the Rookie division and still gets to play some great baseball. This would mean that all players 9 – 12 years-old would need to tryout and all 7-8 year-olds wanting to play in the Minors would need to tryout. In the end, all kids will have a place to play with other kids close to their age and skill level. It’s a win-win for everyone. If anyone has questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
The MRBA borders are expanding!!! In the process of establishing our Babe Ruth division, boundaries had to be created. With this, we were able to include some new school districts in the league borders. Last year, our borders included the School Districts of Enumclaw, White River, Sumner (the White River High School Catchment area), Orting, Carbonado, and Dieringer. We lost the Orting School District, but were able to add Tahoma and Auburn. That’s HUGE. Both the MRBA Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth divisions will only allow players that live in these school districts into the league.
As always, we need more volunteer support in the league. As I mentioned before, we still have board positions available. The current board won’t always be here. We need people to continue running this amazing league.
Thanks for your time everyone. Stay tuned for more information in the months to follow.
