From the President
I guess that winter has finally set in for the year. Nonetheless, your
newly elected baseball/softball board is hard at work getting ready for
the upcoming 1999 season. We generally meet on the fourth Thursday of every
month in the Community Room of the Police station. All are welcome to attend
and your opinions are valued. Come on down and share your thoughts and
listen to what is going on behind the scenes with your program. Get involved
and you will meet some extremely nice people. Also, enjoy the gratification
of being a volunteer
The annual meeting has come and gone and we are pleased to report that
we are in sound financial state. The new list of officers is published
in this newsletter. We have lost four board members from the previous year's
board. Elizabeth Conlin, Tom Sheehan, Bob Trakimas, and ex-president Bob
Sullivan have all retired. Tom and Elizabeth made greatly appreciated contributions
during their relatively short tenures. The two Bob's each served for several
years and will be dearly missed. I will certainly miss Bob Trakimas' conscience
and Bob Sullivan's levity along with their many tangible contributions.
We welcome three new board members and one who has returned after a
year off. We have done many things with our facilities over the past five
years. Last fall we completed an automated irrigation system for West Side
Field. This will guarantee great field conditions throughout the playing
season. It is also a great relief to many of the board members that have
been watering the field manually for the past eight years.
We also have a new infield at West Side A that should be ready for
play in the spring. The Shane Wyse Memorial has been put in place and looks
wonderful. We send our thanks to Jay Gill and the employees of the DPW
for their help in building this memorial as well as the infield.
The new plaques for the building will be installed this spring to thank
the many friends of Sachem Youth Baseball/Softball and dedicated on Opening
Day along with the Shane Wyse Memorial. This year, Opening Day will take
on Sunday, April 25, and hopefully you will visit West Side for the
event.
After I was reelected President, I made comment to those present at
the Annual Meeting that we had done an awful lot of work on our facilities.
Although that will never end, it is now time to concentrate more on the
product on the field, i.e., the ability of our kids' to play as well as
they can. I believe that they will enjoy themselves more if they do.
To that end, we are continuing to emphasize the importance of our annual
coaches' clinic. We are always trying to improve the clinic and the presentation
of material to our coaches. All coaches should plan to attend the appropriate
sessions. I attend several clinics each year outside of Winchester and,
even after 32 years in this program, I still pick up bits of information
that help me each season. The more knowledge that you have, the better
coach you will be. And the better you are as a coach, the more fun that
both you and your players will have during the season.
Please look in this newsletter for the specifics of the clinic. Also,
please feel free to give any board member a call should you wish to volunteer
as a coach or anything else. It is never too late.
Bob
Coaches Get March-April Clinics Planned
As promised last year, SYBS is expanding its
offerings to help coaches be the best that they can for the kids. Last
year's clinics provided an overview of baseball/softball mechanics and
skills for all coaches. This year we enter a new phase where skills and
strategy will be broken down appropriately based on the training already
received by the coaches and the proficiency level of the players they will
be working with.
All coaches will be required to attend certain sessions. In addition
they may attend any other sessions that interest them, as may prospective
future coaches and other interested members of our community.
The sessions will take place on weekday evenings in the latter part
of March and early April. Please talk to your league commissioner about
the specifics. Or if you wish to attend but are not planning to
coach this year, please leave a message for Ed Interess at the SYBS hotline,
756-0055.
And the Winner Is
Congratulations to Ms. Suzanne Gill, who was the lucky respondent to
the Readers' Feedback contest in the last edition of The Rundown. Suzanne
was one of several readers who were kind enough to let us know what she
thought of the newsletter. Each of their names was entered into a drawing
and as the winner, she earned a refund of the registration fees of her
two daughters who play softball in the junior and intermediate leagues.
Among the feedback we received were some positive comments about how
thoroughly they read the newsletter, what they find most informative like
dates of upcoming events and news of the organization. Constructive
comments about timeliness - the last edition was a bit late - were also
helpful. We especially appreciated suggestions for future articles
of interest such as gender differences among our leagues, expectations
of players and parents regarding commitments for practices, and scheduled
games, and the backgrounds of coaches in our program. We thank our
readers and hope to continue to receive your comments in the future.
Mom and Dad, "How Can I Be a Better Ball Player?"
You may hear this question from your youngsters or you may read it between
the lines. How should you respond? Should you send them to camp? Should
you enroll for private lessons? Buy video tapes?
These all can help at the right time.
But in our experience, the kids who have the best chance to achieve
their dream are those who frequently play catch or other informal versions
of the game with their dads, moms, or older siblings. And in so doing,
they emulate the motions that they see, becoming more conscious of what
it takes to improve. They also tend to watch major leaguers and how they
do it. What aspiring youngster doesn't think about how his favorite pros
swing, throw, catch and even run. This is natural. And they get to learn
from the best in the business. Then they become anxious to get outside
and emulate some more.
So our advice is to play, play, play. The more formalized activities
offered by SYBS are the icing on the cake.
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You Make the Call.
756-0055
In the past you probably had to make several phone calls to find the right
member of our organization to get your questions answered or to resolve
administrative issues. Not any more. Sachem Youth Baseball/Softball now
has a telephone line to serve you better.
Please call 756-0055 any time. You will hear a brief message
telling of any upcoming events, or during the season in the event of inclement
weather, postponement information.
If you wish to leave a message, press:
1 for registration
2 for the Fund Raiser
3 for the Booster Club President
or wait for the tone to leave a message for any other person.
Registration: Around Third and Heading Home
Registration for the 1999 spring baseball and softball season is well
underway with many families taking advantage of the early bird discounts
that were available in the fall. For those who have not yet registered,
parents are urged to do so by mail soon as possible.
Parents, if you are unsure whether your children are already registered,
please check the address label on this newsletter. Each child that
is registered for spring 1998 is so noted as "Reg" or "Not Reg" immediately
after his/her name. Look for a separate notation for each individual
child.
Please mail the completed form and payment as specified at the top
of the form. Make a photocopy if necessary for multiple children
or acquaintances; we require a separate form for each child. For
those who prefer to register in person, the one opportunity to do so this
year will be on Wednesday February 24, 1999 in the Mystic Valley Room at
the Town Hall from 6:00 to 8:30 PM.
Also this is a perfect opportunity for parents to volunteer to help
our organization by checking off one or more boxes on the registration
form. A description of the duties of each volunteer position is
shown on the reverse side of the form along with a description of the available
leagues.
We would like to remind all players and parents that in order to be
eligible to play baseball or softball in the summer, the player must participate
in the spring. This important restriction contributes to the quality of
both the spring and summer leagues; exceptions cannot be granted.
Baseball 101 (Part 6) Bunting
We don't seem to see bunting as often as we used to. Is bunting important
in baseball and softball today?
Perhaps, but the question for us is whether it is important at the
youth level.
The chief argument against bunting is that it "takes the bat out of
the player's hands." The concern expressed is that a child will have a
limited number of opportunities to hit during a week, so telling him or
her to bunt eliminates one such opportunity. And strategically, you forego
the chance of a big hit that can do more damage.
In contrast, we believe that bunting should be emphasized more in our
practices and games for a number of reasons.
Primarily, it helps young hitters with hand-eye coordination. Hitting
a pitch with a relatively stationary bat when the batter can see both
the ball and the bat seems like a straightforward place for a beginner
to be. If a youngster has trouble bunting, it stands to reason that hitting
a ball moving at 50 miles per hour with a bat moving at the same speed
in the opposite direction will be even more of a feat. So we maintain that
better bunters make better hitters. Therefore, bunting should be practiced
regularly with proper emphasis, not as an activity inferior to batting
practice.
In addition, bunting is an integral part of a manager's offensive
strategy, i.e., a way to "make something happen" on the diamond.
So when a manager signals a batter to bunt, the player should know exactly
what is expected of him. When he executes successfully, he knows
that he has contributed in a very tangible way to the fortunes of the
team, even in sacrificing his at-bat to by making an out.
In time, as batters become more proficient at bunting, they can use
it as an even more versatile weapon, to get base hits or to squeeze runners
home from third base.
Another side benefit of bunting is to the defense. The possibility-even
likelihood-of a bunt in a situation keeps a defense on its toes and prepared
to react appropriately.
We are encouraging our coaches to use the bunt more frequently in games.
So you may anticipate seeing more of them as you come out to the park
this spring.
Guest Column
By Dick Beradino,
Boston Red Sox Minor League Assistant Field Coordinator
I have been a coach in the Boston Red Sox Baseball organization
for over 35 years during which I have had various major and minor league
assignments. My fondest was as the third base coach for the major league
club under manager Joe Morgan. Last season I managed the Lowell Spinners
of the NY-Penn League at the Single A level.
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to instruct and coach
many of the great players that have been developed by the Boston Red Sox.
Players that your parents may remember like Cecil Cooper, Ben Ogilivie,
Bob Stanley, Fred Lynn, Jim Rice, Bruce Hurst, Wade Boggs, and my all time
favorite Dwight Evans all played for me in the minor and major leagues.
I have also worked extensively with some of the contemporary Red
Sox and ex-Red Sox players who are currently on major league rosters. Tim
Naehring, Scott Cooper, Jeff Bagwell, Mo Vaughn, Nomar Garciaparra, Lou
Merloni, Donnie Sadler, and Trot Nixon are just a few of these players.
As talented as all of these players were, are, and are going to
be, they all have one thing in common as a result of their time in the
Red Sox organization. They have all listened to the spring training opening
day message that I have given at the start of every season to the organization's
minor league prospects over these many years. My annual credo is as relevant
to the young Bambino baseball players of Winchester as it is for any aspiring
big leaguers, and I would like to pass along a few of them to you:
- The worst thing in life is wasted talent or potential.
- Always set goals and work your hardest to achieve them.
- Never second-guess your effort. Play the best you can at all
times. You will have fun and good things will happen.
- Play as you are coached.
- Everyone has talent for something worthwhile. Whether it in
baseball or otherwise always pursue this talent vigorously.
While these thoughts are geared to baseball, I believe that they
are equally pertinent to all aspects of life. Thank you for letting
me share these messages with you.
Have fun playing baseball and the best of luck to all the young
Sachems next season.
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