Welcome to PAA BASEBALL, a summer baseball league provided by Phillips Athletic Association (PAA) in Hampton, Virginia.  We are open to boys and girls ages 4 yrs through 17 yrs old.    PAA has a long standing tradition of baseball in Hampton and our coaches are committed to teaching players the fundamentals and strategies of baseball in an environment that promotes the long standing truth that America's Favorite Past-Time should always remain FUN.  While the teams and players are competitive our focus is on providing players of all skill and experience levels maximum playing time, maximum times at bat, quality instruction and maximum fun and excitement. 

PAA is not affiliated with any national organization, and thus it can be more flexible and independant minded than some other sports leagues can afford.  As a summer league our season is off-cycle from most baseball seasons and therefore we provide a great opportunity for players in Little League, Cal Ripkin, and the various school leagues to continue to train and play baseball during the summer.  Our registration each year is in April, with practices beginning in May and games beginning in June and running through July.  If you have any questions please feel free to email the commissioner at PhillipsBaseball@cox.net   PAA also runs sports leagues for Soccer and Futsal (indoor soccer).  If you are interested in learning more about any of the PAA leagues you can leave a message on our (757) 851-6600 sportsline and one of our volunteers will get back with you.

The season ended in some very close and competitive games:

PBS Series Champs for SY are the Braves who bested the Mets by 1 in a 9-8 victory.  In the #3/#4 consolation game the Pirates ran away with a 9-1 victory of the Orioles who had just previously beaten the Pirates earlier in the weeks.

PBS Series Champs for JY are the Mets who jumped out to a lead over the Orioles who kept it close but couldn't overtake the Mets, final score 7-5.  The #3/#4 consolation game was close with the Tigers overtaking the Pirates in the last inning for a 12-10 victory.  The #5/#6 game was also a close battle with the Nationals besting the Braves. 

The Teens continue to play this week with games Mon, Wed and Friday at Phoebus HS and the Finals of their tournament played this Saturday 10am at PHS. 

The SY matchups for Saturday, Aug 1 are confirmed and listed on the schedule. 

1:30 pm  game will be the Pirates v Orioles

4:00 pm game will be the Mets v Braves

The JY (machine pitch games) will be played at Phillips Elementary.  The games are as follows:

9:00 am  Braves v Nationals on Front Field

9:00 am  Tigers v Pirates on Back Field

11:00 am  Orioles v Mets on Back Field

All JY (machine pitch) and SY teams will play the final games of the tournament this Saturday, Aug 1st.   All games will be played at Phillips Elementary.  The game times are as follows:

JY  #6 v #5   at 9:00am on Front Field
JY  #3 v #4   at 9:00am on Back Field  (Note back field is right behind the front field, not the Tball field).
JY  #1 v #2    at 11:00am on Back Field

SY  #3 v #4  at 1:30pm on Back Field
SY  #1 v #2   at 4:00pm on Back Field

Rankings are based on the Win-Loss records for the tournament games leading into Saturday.  The net runs (runs scored minus runs scored against) for each team will be the tie-breaker method used in the event of a tie. 

Plan to pack some drinks, snakes and a lunch or bring a grill and help make closing day a celebration of the 2009 season.

We hope all players and families enjoyed the second annual PAA Baseball Skills Challenge Competition held this past Saturday, July 18th.  With rain coming down in buckets the day before it seemed that a postponement was possible.  But with a little field maintenance (sweeping off water) Friday evening and a dry night, the partly cloudy Saturday morning made for a comfortable day to have all teams competing against each other at the same time performing the same drills.

Last year's event which featured only the SY and JY divisions was clocked at a whooping 9hrs, 13 mins and 58 seconds, or so it seemed.  Point being the first year out with this event was fun, but very long.  With better planning, briefings, and preparation by many coaches the event ran smoothly and efficiently.  Most divisions finished the team competitions in just under 2 hours, and the individual competitions in another 45 - 60 minutes.  This year the TBall/CoachPitch and Teen divisions held Skills Challenge competitions as well; and the Teen families even made a big division cookout of it as hamburgers, hotdogs and various picnic items were being inhaled by all just as quickly as the balls were flying. 

The results are as follows:

 Teen Division

     Team Champs:     METS coached by Scott Snyder

     Golden Glove Champ:     John Edwards (Nationals)

     Longest Hit Champ:     Zach Schlapkohl (Nationals)

 SY Division

     Team Champs:     METS coached by Bill Barry

     Golden Glove Champ:     Dylan Wells (Mets)

     Longest Hit Champ:     Tim Garris (Braves)

JY (machine pitch) Division

     Team Champs:     TIGERS coached by Ken Campbell

     Golden Glove Champ:     DJ Boltz (Tigers)

     Longest Hig Champ:    Nathan Perry (Mets)

Feel free to email any feedback, good, bad or indifferent to the commissioner at phillipsbaseball@cox.net so we will know whether or not to continue this competition next year.  It was created for PAA to provide something challenging, inclusive, unique, and above all - FUN for the players and families that are PAA Baseball.

You can find the scores of games by going to the schedules page which will present the scores of completed games, as well as the schedule of upcoming games.  By clicking on the completed game listing you will pull up the game summary if one was provided. 

You can also find game specific scores in the standings section, but not the game summaries.

Note:  Game summaries are included on the website when the coaches or a designee provides them.  These are cut and pasted into the website just as they are received by the sportswriter.  Scores and game summaries are generally posted to the website the next day after the game. 

The PAA sports leagues have been around for decades.  Its not uncommon for parents of players to comment how they grew up in PAA sports or how their parents or grandparents coached in PAA back in the day.  Some reasons PAA sports have remained successful from generation to generation has to do the flexibility of our programs, the dedication of so many volunteers, and fact that we never lose sight that sports, above all else, is supposed to be fun, not a chore.  Apparently our reputation is not that closely guarded of a secret.  In fact we have a growing list of VIP fans, like Governor Tim Kaine, Hampton Mayor Molly Ward, and Monster Truck Freestyle Champion Adam Anderson who are sending us their best wishes.  Check them out on the new VIP GREETINGS page.  And we thank them all for taking time out from their busy schedules to recognize our PAA baseball players.

This week is the 2nd week of the season and I have a few updates to mention:

1. The complete schedule for the Teen games is now posted.  In addition to our own PAA games, each PAA Teen team will playing two games against an area Pony League team.   Hopefully we can grow out our inter-league games in the future.
2. All JY games are at Barrons and all SY games are at Phillips.  The only exception is the PBS (Phillips Baseball Series) Tournament Final Day Games for both JY and SY will all be at Phillips.  The online schedules has been revised to reflect the schools that the games are at, rather than only the 'front' and 'back' field.
3. If you have not already noticed, we are taking several days off both before and after the 4th of July to celebrate the holiday as well as because many families may be vacationing.  Because the 4th falls on a Saturday it is not possible to guestimate if more folks would be unavialable for the week before or after the 4th and I did not want to have the league take off 2 full weeks of games.  Therefore I arrived at a few days before and a few days after.  This season the rules allow for teams who have fewer than 9 players available for a game to have players from other teams fill in the empty spots so that games do not need to be forfeited.  However, this system works best if coaches know exactly who will and will not be able to make a game.  Therefore, please plan ahead and let your coach know if you will miss any of the games before or after the 4th.  It is not only the courteous thing to do but it will also help your team and the league continue to play competitive games with a full roster in your absence.
4. Please take time to thank the umpires, and especially our Director of Officials, Ruben Apodaca who is responsible for scheduling umpires.  Finding qualified umpires who are available and interested in officiating during the hot summer is not an easy task.  Some of the spring leagues have even had difficutly getting officials to cover each game, especially for JY since many officials are not intersted in work a machine pitch game.  So far I believe we've had umps at all Teen, SY and JY games, and it looks like we will have coverage for most games this season.  Nearly all of the officials are new to PAA and even if you do not agree with all of their calls, or how they view the strike zone, we need to show them our appreciation for taking time to officiate your player(s)' games.   
5. PLEASE READ THIS:  As I'd mentioned in prior emails and web postings, we have a VIP Greetings page in which Governor Tim Kaine, Hampton Mayor Molly Ward, and Hampton Council Member George Wallace have sent very nice letters to wish our players and families a good season of baseball.  Included w/ their letters I have added links to where you can pull up their emails and thank them for their messages if you would like to.  I think it would be great for all of these officials to hear from all 260+ players/families saying thank you's and mentioning PAA.  Specifically I do ask that you take time to email and thank Mayor Ward and Councilman Wallace.  The reason I am specifically asking you to do this is because PAA does not have an easy time getting the Parks and Recreation department to help us with things other than granting us the 'privledge' of using the fields our tax dollars support, and moving the team benches into place.  We were told we could have bleachers this  season and they did not follow through. We were told the city would kill the grass on the infields of Phillips and around the bases at Barrons and we can all see that either that wasn't done or it was done so poorly that it didn't kill but a few blades of grass.   The city is also beginning to evaluate their field useage policy to possibly change the allocation or assignment of fields due to the number of competing leagues for limited field space.  With PAA being home to 260+ players, 19 teams, and over 125 games, not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of practices, we should be able to maintain the status quo with our fields but the fact that the city is looking at this means we don't know what may happen.  For these reason I believe it is important and useful in the future for City Officials to today hear the voices of all PAA families, and what better way to begin than by telling Mayor Ward and Councilman Wallace thank you for sending their well wish and support to our league.  If PAA becomes more and more known to the City: (a) to be a league that is growing within the city (we grew over 48% since last year, and last year we grew approx 46% over the year prior);  (b) that is innovative (with use of and content of our website and creation of our unique Skills Challenge Competition);  (c) that seeks to provide maximum playing time for kids of all skill and experience levels;  and (d) that is known to be valued by its players and families... if the City Officials can get a sense of this by hearing from our players and families, then hopefully we can be given more and better support by the Parks & Rec department in the future. 

That concludes this weeks updates.  I hope we all see some exciting, fun and close games this week.