Olde Tymers Softball of Delmarva

Report on the February 11 OTS Board Meeting. Compiled by Sal Corrallo The meeting was held in the Ocean View VFW post and hosted by Pete Rendina. All were reminded that the 2004 Players Meeting will be held in the Ocean View Town Hall on February 18 at 7:00 PM. Plans for the 2004 season will be presented for comment. This will include a proposed 2004 budget prepared by Bill Neyen and approved by the Board on February 11, 2004. It was expected that all teams would have a formal sponsor. Currently we have four sponsors and need from three to four more. The cost of sponsoring a team is $300.00. This includes the name on the jersey, on the web page as a team in the standings, and on the web under sponsors. The sponsor listing will include their business description, location, address, telephone number and web page. Discussion was held on the potential games and make up of 2004 Tournament Teams. First, discussion was held as to make up of Tournament teams. OTS will form one team from each division, using the best players available. OTS players (and those in the night league), when invited, are encouraged to play on OTS uniformed and managed team. Currently OTS fields three teams, one each in the 60-64, 65-69, and 70+ divisions. A 55-59 team was also fielded but not uniformed by OTS in 2003, but uniforms are available for 2004. Players on tournament teams are provided with a hat they may keep once but must return the jersey each year. In 2003 OTS player John Brandau, who will also manage in 2004, managed it. . For 2004, the 60-64 team will be managed by Glen Chisholm, the 65-69 Team by Gary Meredith, and the 70+ Team by Jim Stradley. Assistant managers have not been named. Mike Carta serves as the OTS Tournament Identifier and Scheduler. In the fall of 2004,the Delaware Senior Olympics will be held in Dover in September of October. This year’s games will serve as a qualifier for the National Senior Games to be held in Pittsburgh PA in the late spring in 2005. Carta also reported that the 65-69 and 70+ Teams have been invited to play on July 25 in Olney Maryland. He is trying to get an invitation for the 60-64 team. The Board decided not to play in this year's Eastern Shore Games on April 23-24, due to the lack of competition and fees. Carta was asked to look into a tournament held up state in the same time period, as well as other possible tournament sites. It was also suggested that we might want to consider sponsoring our own tournament in the new Sports at the Beach facility. Plans are for Spring training will be held in the new Sports at the Beach playing fields on Route 9 just east of Georgetown on the way to Lewes. Three fields are being made available on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10am to 12 noon. Direction to the field will be distributed at the Players meeting and will be posted on the web site. Gary reported on the results of the player’s survey from about 40 players. The results will be updated at the Players meeting. It was agreed that unless a player can commit to playing a full schedule with the team he is assigned. That he should be classified as a permanent sub. He will receive no uniform and will be charged $35.00 for the season. Permanent subs will be the first players selected when a team is short. If no players are needed, for the games at hand, the player can wait for another game, but in any there will be no guarantee the player will play on any given day, if there is no need for a substitute. A proposed schedule for eight teams was distributed with a listing of playing dates. A final schedule will not be developed until teams are selected. In case of an odd number of teams, double headers will be scheduled on any given day for one team to play the team who would ordinarily not be scheduled to play. There will be no playoffs in 2004. However dates will be held open at the end of the year to make up rained out games Copies of the by laws are in the handouts section of the web page. A limited number will be provided to the managers and officers and will be available for review at the Players Meeting. The league will be getting U S Postal Box in the near future. (It was also suggested to Gary after the meeting that OTS look into the renting of a small storage unit for uniforms and other equipment) The final order of business was the review of the managers 2003 rating of players. Each player was rated from, a low of one to a high of four, on four criteria: hitting, running, fielding, and throwing. A total high of 16 points to a low of 4 points resulted for each player. The points for each player will used to equalize the strength of each team if we maintain existing teams or form new teams through the draft.