Pittsford Little League: My Site News

We are improving our website to enable better communications within the PLL family and to enable online registration.

Please click on the title above to view our new website and to register for Fall Ball.

The Pittsford Mendon High School baseball program is pleased to share their 2009 baseball program with Pittsford Little League.

Hope you enjoy seeing some former PLL players (almost) grown up!

Click on the handout to download the program.  (be patient as this is a large pdf file)

At the end of the 2008 season, the Pittsford Little League Board voted to proactively implement a "No Dogs" policy at our field complexes beginning with the 2009 season.  Key rationale for the policy:

• Desire to avoid "messes", as not everyone cleans up after their pets.
• Keeping our complexes safe and comfortable for all.  Some people, particularly children, are simply afraid of dogs.
• Limiting disruption to games when dogs growl/bark at each other.

We appreciate your cooperation with this policy.

Thanks to locally owned and operated Recognition Experts, you now can easily order PLL logo clothing and for added convenience (and to save a shipping charge) you can pick up your order at Ford Field!

What a perfect Mother's Day gift - "Baseball Mom" or Father's Day gift "Baseball Dad"!

Click on the title of this article to go to our special online store.

Great items at attractive prices!

1st Annual PLL Chicken BBQ & Silent Auction

June 21st 12 Noon - 6pm under the Tent at Ford Field

A GREAT way to CELEBRATE as the season winds down! All proceeds benefit the Russ Smith Scholarship program. This scholarship will be given to two high school seniors who have played in Pittsford Little League and have shown an ongoing passion for community service.

A fabulous chicken lunch/dinner will be served that includes 1/2 a chicken, two sides, roll & butter for only $8. Eat-in or take-out. Tickets will be available through your team manager/team parent.

We should have play-off baseball to watch as you enjoy the day!

DUNK THE COACH SPECIAL! All teams ordering 10 or more lunch/dinner tickets are guaranteed to get a time for your manager/coach to sit on the dunking stool! What fun!!

A silent auction will also be held with some wonderful donations from individuals, area companies and sponsors.

More details are in the attached flyer.

Our league mourns the loss of Russ Smith who passed away at his home on Sunday, February 10th. He was 77 years old.

Russ was an invaluable part of Pittsford Little League for decades. He served as President of the league in 1967 and was heavily involved in service to the league for the past 41 years. He was a current member of the Pittsford Little League Board of Directors serving as Historian.

Russ had a passion for Little League that served to inspire many to volunteer to help the league thrive and grow.

Recently, in 2004 Russ successfully campaigned to expand our league offering to include 5 year-olds and the league dedicated a new t-ball field in 2005 to Russ naming the field "Russ Smith Field".

The league also nominates and recognizes a volunteer of the year annually with the "Russ Smith Volunteer of the Year" award. Russ himself was honored by the Town of Pittsford in 2001 as "Citizen of the Year".

The Board of Directors of Pittsford Little League has already begun plans to honor the memory and service of Russ Smith in the upcoming 2008 Little League season. He serves as a model of the importance of dedication, team spirit, and friendship.

We are deeply saddened by this loss to our league, to our community and to our players, coaches, and board. Russ will be remembered as a tireless volunteer with a big smile and a fierce dedication to the league and the kids. It is hard to imagine an opening day without Russ Smith starting the parade and being a part of the ceremonies.

He will be missed.

Arrangements:

Viewing hours: Friday, February 15th 4-7pm at Zornow-Hedges Funeral home, 21 Lincoln Street, Pittsford

Service: 12:30pm on Saturday, February 16th at All Seasons Chapel, White Haven Memorial Park, 210 Marsh Road, Pittsford

The Smith family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made in his honor to Pittsford Little League, PO Box 313, Pittsford, NY 14534

Our mission at Pittsford Little League (PLL) is to create the best possible environment (fields, facilities, coaching) and programs (spring, summer, fall tournament) for Pittsford youth baseball and softball. This is achieved by a dedicated group of volunteers just like YOU!

We are looking for volunteers for the following positions:

This position orders and inventories all baseball equipment and organizes spring, summer and fall equipment hand-outs to managers.

If you are interested in any of the above positions, please contact PLL President Steve Hallowell at smh41@yahoo.com

You are also invited to attend a PLL Board Meeting. We meet the second Monday of every month. The dates, times and locations of this meeting are at the bottom of the main page of the web site.

Former professional ballplayer John Valle has been a friend of Pittsford Little League for a number of years and was the Director of this year's PLL Summer Camp.

We are pleased to announce that Coach Valle has opened the Valle Baseball Outlet store in Rochester. Please open that attachment below to learn about the tremendous bargains available at his outlet store. The baseball gloves and other items are discounted up to 50% from the regular prices found on his web site (www.vallebaseball.com) where he markets products to customers all over the United States. He is also offering difficult-to-find services like glove re-lacing and re-conditioning.

Happy shopping!

Now some three years old, the piece below on why we all volunteer for Little League is truly timeless.

We appreciate all the hard work that goes into making our league a success. From the board members to the managers, coaches and parents you really do make a difference.

In case your have always wanted to get involved in our league, we are currently in need of a baseball equipment manager (filled - Thanks!), and an assistant to our treasurer (filled- Thanks!). If you are interested in either of these positions, please e-mail me League President Steve Hallowell at smh41@yahoo.com.

Here is a little story to help you get in the mood to volunteer:

• This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
• There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.
• Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
• Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job.
• Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.
• It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

And now, our classic essay............

****REPRINTED FROM 2005- A Classic!****

I feel compelled to share a touching moment that happened during the baseball evaluations this year.

There are a few different stations that the players go to show the coaches their skills. It starts with playing catch and fielding, running, batting, and finally pitching for those kids who like to pitch.

During the afternoon session, I was stationed at the pitching station and greeted each player by asking them "Do you like to pitch" in hopes that they would relax a little.

A 10 year-old player had just finished batting and came into my area. He was a small guy, but you could just tell that he was taking this whole thing very seriously. Decked out in his best baseball clothes, he was all business. I asked him my standard question of "Do you like to pitch?" and his answer was priceless.

He looked up at me and with a confident voice said, "I have been waiting for 10 years for this moment." I smiled and enjoyed watching him pour his heart and soul into his 5 pitches.

The moment really touched me. It showed me the real reason that our league is here and the reason we have so many great volunteers who put in loads of time and effort for these kids.

If you are currently volunteering with our league, we thank you.

If you have considered volunteering and haven't quite found the right role please contact us. We promise to let you in on this wonderful experience so that you too can look into the hopeful eyes of a 10 year-old and know that your work is very important.

Steve Hallowell
President, Pittsford Little League
smh41@yahoo.com

Note to Readers: The essay below is used by permission from Coach Bruce Lambin who is a baseball coach from Houston, Texas. Coach Lambin does seminars and has an online baseball business located at: www.tipsfromthecoach.com. I thought this topic was perfect as we get ready to HAVE FUN this Fall playing baseball and softball!

Here is Coach Lambin's essay: 

“ If a kid isn’t playing ‘select’ ‘travel” and just plays ‘rec’. ‘league’ ball when he is 8-12 years old he will never catch up and make the High School team.” As proof, then comes the statement, “every single player to make the High School team the last 3 years has played ‘travel’ ball since he was 8.”

First, this is totally incorrect statement. The part about all the players that made the High School team having played “travel” ball may be true but that only proves that the parents of every quality athlete that attended that High School drank the Koolaid and followed the masses in an attempt to ‘keep up with the Jones’.

What a ballplayer does prior to puberty is no indicator of his future potential as a ballplayer. Whether he plays 30 or 100 games a year has no bearing upon how much he knows about how to play the game. Hiring the priciest Private Instructor (PI) at age 10 will have no bearing upon how he performs at 14.

There is a mass hysteria that is driven by people that wish to make a buck that prey upon parent’s desires to help their kids succeed. Ten year olds swinging $300 plus bats because they might be able to hit a HR. $75 an hr PIs because if a 9 yr old doesn’t learn proper rotation hitting mechanics he won’t make the elite ‘travel’ team and be shunted to the lower echelons of LL from which he will never emerge.

Imagine the pressure placed on a kid to succeed by the amount of money and expectations that are being placed on a kid when his parents spend thousands of dollars on lessons and equipment to facilitate a future and he doesn’t get selected to that elite team.

Baseball prepuberty is about having fun, playing ball with your buddies, learning a love for the game, and lessons in life. Nothing a player does will give him a future in baseball. Nothing he does will doom him to not have a future in baseball. This youth baseball experience is a short and precious period that you as parents get to share. If the kid is an athlete, and plays ball for 6 or 8 years prior to High School, he knows how the game is played. If he wants to succeed as a ballplayer and make the HS team, in a couple of years of diligent work he can surpass the less athletic kids that played absurd amounts of games and studied at the hands of the ‘Masters”.

There are valid reasons to play "travel" baseball but don't be sucked in that it is the only path to future glory. With the TIPS FROM THE COACH.COM website, I have tried to select training aids, videos, and sporting goods that are effective and give good value so that you don’t have to spend absurd amounts trying to keep up with the Jones. I produced the BASEBALL SKILLS AND DRILLS video series and the TIPS FROM THE COACH video series to provide tools whereby anyone could have the knowledge necessary to help a kid have the most amount of success/fun playing baseball. With the videos YOU, MOM or DAD, have the ability to work with and share this marvelous baseball experience with your young ballplayer. All the drills are applicable to a home training program. No need for expensive PIs. No pressure.

I wonder how my sons managed to make the HS team, play college and pro ball without playing absurd amounts of games prepuberty? Neither played more than 50 games a year prepuberty. Neither played more than a couple of tournaments beyond their youth league and All Star teams. Both loved the game and worked very diligently to be the best that they could be without PIs and spending every weekend of the year galavanting around the country playing in one tournament after another.

Forget delusions of a “baseball future”. Embrace the opportunity to get to play today and be the best that he can be today.

RESPECT THE GAME, WORK HARD, HAVE FUN

Yours In Baseball

Bruce Lambin , THE COACH

Pittsford Little League is pleased to offer up to two $500 college scholarship awards in memory of Russ Smith who passed away in 2008 after over 40 years of service to the league and community.

The scholarships will be awarded to seniors who have played at least three seasons of Pittsford Little League and have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to community service and volunteerism during their high school years.

The league awarded the 2008 scholarships to Kelsey Decker and Tim Rogan.

Complete eligibility details are available on the scholarship application. (see handout below)

Deadline for submission is June 15, 2009