Perfectly balanced, as all things should be
OK, so maybe our league nights this season are not quite going to be perfectly balanced, but we continue to trend in the right direction. Following meetings in February and March - not to mention a whole lot of work by our board members and a number of managers - we are set with schedules and a reduction to just 3 league nights.
The Rec 3-4 night started in 2019 was well received, so it returns with 8 teams now playing on Mondays. Tuesday is currently our smallest night with just 6 teams, which will be helpful in regards to available umpires considering that the women's league on that same night may need as many as 6. Our top 3 teams will play on Wednesdays in the Upper Division. 5 teams in the Lower Division will get us to an even 8 teams total. An unbalanced schedule will be utilized to minimize the number of games played between the two divisions. Printable versions of this year's regular season schedules can be found here. With nearly 8 weeks before our first games, these schedules are subject to change should we need to add or remove teams. We will post updates as necessary.
The March managers meeting also produced a few rule changes. Pickup players must now be added at the bottom of a team's batting order. Otherwise, the pickup player rule remains the same. Teams may pick up players up to the highest classified team on their night and can pick up as many as 3 players up to a total of 10 players.
Makeup games will now be played BEFORE regularly scheduled games. In other words, a single makeup game will be played at 7:00 p.m., then the regularly scheduled doubleheaders will be played. This is intended to reduce the amount of time that teams may be waiting on their next opponent. Also related to makeup games, with July 4th falling on a Saturday, we are leaving open the possibility of using the bye week (July 6-8) for makeup games this year.
Umpire pay has been increased to $28 per game. This is up $2 from last season. State tournament pay is still $25 per game, though it is very likely that that amount also increases in 2021. If you are interested in umpiring - and we are always in need of more umpires - please contact us through this site or Facebook or speak to one of our board members directly.
Finally, we have scheduled and end of the season banquet on Friday, August 14th. The event will be held at Hillcrest Softball Complex (in the west side parking lot nearest the soccer complex). We will be grilling up some food and serving non-alcoholic drinks, though attendees are welcome to bring their own beverages. Shirts will be awarded to our playoff champions that night. We will not, however, be able to use the fields in any way since we are hosting the Men's Masters 40 state tournament starting the next morning.
