President's Report September 2023

CSJBA Presidents Report
September 2023
 
After what seemed a long build up to the season, we have round 2 in the books and ready to bring on round 3. I have managed to check in to 8 grounds so far and looking forward to my next Saturday road trip to see more happy faces and plenty of good baseball.

Sydney Cup and Association Cup got off to an earlier than usual start, many thanks to everyone who helped with the selection process and those who took on coaching and team management roles. Best wishes to all teams and hope everyone enjoys the pre-Christmas representative program.

I’m sure most of you will have noticed an improvement with our social media content and activity, many thanks to Julie for her hard work and prompt attention to various requests at all hours of the day. It’s great to see photos coming in from clubs and rep teams, please keep them coming.

We have a CSJBA team of LL age girls travelling up to Queensland in December to compete in the Queensland Girls State Championships, keep an eye out in coming weeks as they will be not only training hard but also undertaking fundraising activities.

Details of the Archer Cup were released last week, this is an opportunity for LA 10, 11 & 12 Girls to participate in a tournament on 26 November at Kelso, hosted by East Hills Baseball Club. Registration links can be found on CSJBA and East Hills Facebook pages.

Onto a few housekeeping matters;

• JL1 and SL coaches are reminded to familiarise themselves with the rules around what constitutes a Local Player, DLRP’s and the number of DLRPS permitted on the field. If coaches/clubs are unsure, please check ignorance is not bliss!
•  Hopefully, all clubs passed onto their coaches the information provided by Nick Pontifex about how to build-up their pitchers for the upcoming season.
• All clubs have a duty of care to provide guidance and protection for their young umpires. Some clubs do this better than others. Please ensure there is an Umpire Co-Ordinator, mentor or person dedicated to providing support and supervision for all games umpired by junior umpires.
•  I have included the memo to T-Ball coaches I wrote last year. It is still relevant, and a reminder of the role T-Ball coaches play.

 
Darren Cummings
CSJBA President
 

Memo to T-Ball Coaches

Every season more time is spent at Monthly General Meetings, Exec Meetings, and Rule Committee Meetings talking about T-Ball than all other age groups combined. We have more blow-ups, complaints, umpire abuse, spectator issues, confusion, and general angst with T-ball than any other age group. Ironically never has the blow-up, complaint, umpire abuse, spectator issue or general angst come from a player. 

The players are not the problem. 
 
​What is the problem?
 
Rules 

• Every season there are new rules proposed and hotly debated for T-Ball, changes are sometimes agreed upon and implemented.
• We have a set of rules in place which must be followed.
• If you feel strongly about rule changes, jump on the rules committee and/or put your argument forward in the correct format/forum otherwise abide by the rules that are in place.
• If you don't like the rules, don't coach T-Ball.
• We are aware of the common practice of coaches changing the rules at the plate meeting or prior to game commencement. This is totally unacceptable and is one of the major contributors to the confusion and angst that causes blow-ups and the like.
  • Most T-Ball umpires are 12-14-year-olds and how are they supposed to interpret the rules when you have something different happening each week?
  • A 12-14-year-old umpire is unlikely to argue with an adult coach. It is the coach's responsibility to leave them alone and let them umpire and learn their craft. Not to walk up to the plate and say ok so this is what we are doing this week - it's just not on!
  • How do the players learn when you play to a different set of rules each week?
  • Many Mum's and Dad's and Spectators are new to baseball at this age and don't understand why the rules change from week to week.  This often leads to umpire abuse and other ill-informed and inappropriate comments from the sidelines.

Coaches  

• It is really easy to coach your T-Ballers to win, not so easy to coach them how to play
  •  If you are not sure what this means, you may be part of the problem 
    • Normal baseball fielding positions do not have a shortstop in a line between 3rd base and the pitcher. Shortstop is behind the 2nd-3rd base running line and your outfield is in the outfield. The outfield is not just defined by the space outside the bases. Yes, the infield continues past the baselines.
    • There are very few instances in baseball where a fielder picks up the ball and takes more than 2 or 3 steps to beat the runner to a base or home plate. Always encourage the kids to throw the ball to get the out.
    • The Elephant in the Room - The Running of the Bases
      • Why should a player be penalised for smoking a ball into the outfield and only getting one base?
      • The one-base-at-a-time approach is terrible and slows the game down. 
      • Where this comes undone is where we have coaches who take advantage of players who cannot throw or catch and junior umpires frightened and too inexperienced to make a call
      • It is not in the interest of the game to encourage runners to run with the aim of drawing an error, good coaches understand what this means and manage their runners accordingly.
      • If the ball is on the way in from the outfield, treat it as if it's an MLB game. Yes this is open to interpretation and abuse but a good coach will understand it and play by it
      • Teach your runners to run the bases hard and turn the corners hard but don't be frightened to send them back if the ball is on the way
• If you walk away from each game and deep down know the kids had fun and learned something, then maybe none of this memo is directed at you keep up the good work.
• Unfortunately, there are always going to be people with a win-at-all-costs attitude, don't lose your cool, remember the kids and perhaps ask if they got the memo.
• Never argue or lose your cool, nothing looks worse even if you are right, always walk away knowing you did the right thing by the kids

 
 Umpires

• Seriously guy's they are kids and some of you use this to your advantage!!!
• If you have a problem in a game, call time and casually walk up to the umpire and have a chat, if it is a judgment call just smile and walk away. If it is a rule/technical issue, ask the other coach over and try to work it out. Clubs are supposed to have someone roaming around who looks after the Junior Umpires, you can ask for the Umpire Surpivisor but bear in mind it is T-Ball and what are we playing for and weigh up the time it takes to overturn a decision.
• You are going to get bad calls, get over it
• Teach your team to respect the umpire

 
Spectators, Mum's and Dad's 

• For many mums, dad's and grandparents this will be their first baseball experience and they will follow your lead.
• You are not only coaching 10 or so kids but another 25-30 parents and grandparents. Their behaviour and actions are on you!
• They will all think you are wonderful because you are taking time out of your life to teach their little Johnny or Julie and rightly so but don't forget you are coaching T-Ball, not the MLB
• If you have some "overly keen" parents/spectators who like to "bark" it is your responsibility to reign them in
• Coaches can be tossed from a game because of spectator behaviour.
• Clubs need to keep on top of this, particularly where you have junior coaches. Junior Coaches should not have to deal with unruly parents from either side. Clubs need to be all over this and where necessary deal with such matters in-house or report to CSJBA where opposition spectators may be a problem.

 
I'm sure there are other aspects I could have included in this memo but I'm also sure you get the gist.
 
Darren Cummings
CSJBA President
Dec 2022