The Commissioner’s Blog

Hi Guys:

Feedback about the website continues to be shock and awe sprinkled with oodles of positive feedback. Kudos to Wally!

This is a reminder that pitchers can pitch for only 1 team in the LEAGUE, not 1 team per division. But anyone can play as a roster player one 1 team in each division. Subs can play for any team (no ringers!) and must never replace a roster player who wants to play.

Rosters are frozen as at June 15th! So get the finalized rosters in now or before June 15th to Barb at Barb@HPSA.ca. to ensure your players are eligible for the playoffs. After that, your roster as it is stands.

It’s better to have more than less players in case of emergencies, but a player can be on only 1 roster per division.

The freezing of the roster is to ensure proper roster players are used, especially in the playoffs. Although up to 3 subs (not 5 as in 2008) can be used for all league games even after June 15th, they can never pitch,cannot take a spot of a roster player who wants to play, and cannot play in the playoffs. This is important so read it again!

We need ALL of you to bring teams into the Rod Black Classic July 4th and 5th!!!

Welcome to the First June Blog.
Thanks to all of you for supporting the website. In May, we had over 4,000 visits! This is a staggering number for a league of 22 teams. We expect the numbers to increase in June.
For those who would like to do a little less work on stats, we are making the RBIs optional. Another optional stat is strikeouts and wins by pitchers. The other stats and score sheets are still due by 8 pm to Wally the day following your game. Thank you for keeping to this. The results have been a fun to view webpage which is getting better and better.
Wally is turning out to be a talented and fun to read writer. He brings our games to life. If you want your team in on the action, add highlights to the appropriate section before sending your score sheets which are also due by 8 pm the next day. To get the scores right, make sure you check with the other team every half inning.
How about more comments and feedback on my Blog. I’d love to hear what you think. What is going wrong, and what is going right?
Remember, if you have the first game of the day on a field, the Home Team is responsible for getting the field ready if it has puddles and such. Bring an earth rake and shovel just in case. We have been unsuccessful in finding a suitable groundskeeper for Sundays.
Lastly for now, lots of good news about the Rod Black Softball Classic for Plan Canada. Although we still don’t have the complete list of celebrities, I can confirm that Pinball Clemons and Damon Allen are playing. We also have the authentic Raptors mascot who will play the game as the Raptor! On a sad note, Peter Zezel, the former Maple Leaf who passed away last week, had already agreed to play. He was a great guy, an enormous contributor to the community, and he will be sadly missed.
Chuck Kochman, official Blue Jays photographer will be there to take your picture with the celebrities. So they can be autographed, he will print them for you on the spot. Proceeds to Plan Canada.
The Toronto Argos have agreed to be, over and above Michael “Pinball” Clemons and Damon Allen. Details to follow.
Bring the kids! The Toronto Marlies will be there too! They are bringing a portable “ice” surface and will be conducting a clinic to teach some hockey skills to the kids. In addition, they are bringing a replica of their dressing room which is like going to the actual Leafs or Marlies real dressing room. Duke the Dog (Marlies Mascot) will be there too. The kids will love it!
Many more surprises. But we need more teams. Please get about 3 or 4 people together. Then call Barb at 905-764-7704 to reserve a spot. Then get the rest (10 to 12 total). The deadline is coming up in barely more than a week.
We have a Co-ed Slo-Pitch Division (3 women or more on the field), a Men’s Slo-Pitch Division, a Men’s Modified Division (that is what our league plays), and a Men’s Fast Pitch Division. Each team is guaranteed 3 games at least. It takes place at the Powerade Centre on July 4th and 5th. All 5 fields are as good as they get and all come with Home Run Fences.
Food and drinks will be available.
If your company wants to bring in a team of help, we have an Event Tent where they can show off their latest products or services. Just call Barb at the above number.
Signing off for now.
DACOMISH

Ok, as I write this, the Blue Jays are losing their 3rd in a row to the Red Sox. Why did Cito arrange the rotation so that Doc misses both the first Yanks and Sox series?
Okay, I’ll stop beating that dead horse.
Ball Hockey: Thanks to lots of hard work by Daniel Steinberg (Daniel@HPSA.ca) our Ball Hockey Convener, Ball Hockey is back on the rails. Great work Daniel. Every game has been fun, competitive, and safe. It is Pick Up and the game has been in existence since 1976 without stop. We play Mondays and Thursdays and you can sign up as a sub or Mondays only or Thursdays only. It is almost full so contact Daniel asap if interested in trying it out. We play in a hockey arena with the ice removed. No crappy parking lots or gyms. This is as good as it gets! See you there!
Feedback and Reminders:
Feedback on the schedules, umps, and fields is good. Bridlewood Park is short in left, but so far we have been unable to find a better solution. Please just go with the flow. Ensure you listen to the Umps in the pre-game meeting to get the ground rules.
Agincourt Field (really in Scarborough FYI): At our request, the City has moved the plate back closer to the backstop. This has resulted in far fewer balls being lost over the train fence. This field is now really getting good feedback.
Remember, no jewelry or you are OUT, and the Umps are Kings of the Diamond. That’s a big reason why HPSA is a safe place to play. The Umps have control and the league backs them up as does Softball Canada and Softball Ontario. If you have any problems, please speak to them with respect, and don’t do anything that could be perceived as showing them up. Complaints should be addressed by your GM or Captain or Designate to your Division Convener if you feel they are significant. They will in turn forward them to me if necessary. You won’t win the battle as we back up our Umps’ decisions, but you may eventually win the war if an Ump is constantly not for us in attitude, temperament, or ability. But remember, no one is perfect and our Umps are way better than most. Wanna keep having good Umps? Then keep up the good work as you have been…treat them with respect.
Remember, no swearing in the Park. No liquor, no smoking anywhere in the Park either. It’s not the image we want, and it could result in us losing the permits. Don’t be the one that causes that. Other leagues are salivating at the chance to get our permits. We have already heard from the Cities in past years about this due to resident complaints and complaints by City Auditors sent to watch permit users. No problems reported so far this year. Our Umpire-In-Chief, Howard Kornbluth reports things are running extremely smoothly this year compared to past years. And people raved about the league in past years! We are always trying to improve and not rest on our past success. That means getting great teams and players who cooperate. Pat your selves on the back!
Congrats to all of you on getting your scores in regularly and on time. Wally has the website up to date with respect to standings. We are doing much better with the stats as most teams are now up to date. Just a few more of you need to learn how easy it is to send in the stats after each game (we accumulate them for you). The average time it should take for your statistician to send the stats in to Wally (stats@HPSA.ca) is 3 to 5 minutes. That’s it! In return, your team will enjoy seeing their info along with hundreds of fellow league members. Don’t forget to include the Game Highlights and interesting info on your score sheet in the special section devoted to it. Wally will take that info and turn it into an enjoyable story for all the world to see on our home page. Don’t get left out.
Stats and scores are due by 8 pm the day after your game.
Remember never to bring rules on the field with you. Umpires don’t appreciate it. Also, remember to check scores with the other team every half inning.
Hits to the website are now in the thousands per month. Let’s keep it there at the very least.

New Scoresheets for Download:
NOTE: DOWNLOAD THE LATEST SCORESHEET FROM THE WEBSITE. MAKE SURE IT SAYS “REVISED MAY 21, 2009”. This is the correct one. If it says “REV: Sept 4, 2007”, it is the WRONG one! The new score sheet will have room for 14 players, not 10. This is the one you’ve been waiting for! Note: The diamonds are still not coming through on the score sheet (aka score card) so you need to draw your own for each inning until we figure out how to fix this. It’s still easy to use. Any ideas people? If you want a proper copy with all the diamonds intact, email me at ron@hpsa.ca and I will send it to you directly.
Notification of Updates: The www.HPSA.ca website now has a new sign up feature by www.changedetection.com. On the HPSA homepage you will see a place to click and sign up. When you sign up, you will be notified by email whenever the HPSA site is updated. This will help you know when to look at the Blog, stats, standing, stories, etc.. Thanks to Adam Lebow for the heads up on this. Note: this feature is down at the moment, but check back in a few days and sign up.
Pictures: Send your action or team pics to Wally and he will upload them to the site. If you want it labeled, be sure to include it.
Videos: We can also link to YouTube and such so your videos can be on the HPSA site as well. How about a video of all your players introducing themselves? Or something fun (but in good taste). A Home Run display to intimidate your opponents? Who are your fans? Cheerleaders? Be creative.
Rules: Due to lack of time we have not yet rewritten the rules to make them easier to follow by making them in the format that says rules are the same as Softball Canada except for…Despite this, the rules are correct as they stand and will be rewritten when time allows, probably sometime after the July 4th and 5th Fundraiser at the Powerade Centre..
The few teams that are not getting the stats in will soon be contacted and nudged. Please get to it before we call you because we are ultra busy with the Fundraiser. Be nice . Remember, if it is taking you more than a few minutes, you must be doing it wrong. Ask Wally for help (Stats@hpsa.ca) or download instructions from the website.
Fundraiser/Tournament: The Rod Black Classic continues to chug along. The time has come to send in your cheques for $300 per team. Let us know if you want Men’s Fast Pitch, Men’s Modified Fast Pitch (Orthodox), Women’s Fast Pitch, Women’s Slo-Pitch, or Co-Ed Slo-Pitch. We hope to have the ability to accept VISA in a few days. Note the added categories. You can be in more than one division. We will schedule around you so you don’t miss any games. DEADLINE IS WED. JUNE 10th at 8 PM.
High Quality Baseball Jerseys will be provided and the sponsorship is still available for them to have Company logos on them. They will be high quality so people will wear them in public for years afterwards. The price for Sponsorship is reasonable too. 2009 Sponsors will have RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL for future Annual Fundraiser Tournaments.
We will have an Event Tent (still need a sponsor) with food/drinks and corporations letting you know about their latest products, events, and services. We are also looking for a food and beverage supplier. We are also collecting sponsor donated prizes and could use more. We also need lots of volunteers to help with just about everything. We need a lot of support to help Plan Canada raise funds to save lives. Rod Black reports he is still signing up Celebrities and we can expect to be on TV and newspapers a lot. TSN plans to be there all weekend and is doing a short special on us. Sponsors will get a table in The Event Tent. The Canadian Open will be there. The Marlies will be there. We are expecting more surprises.
Please contact me at 905-764-7704 or Ron@HPSA.ca to make suggestions or to help. The time is now!
Have you signed up a team yet. Now is the time! Did you do it yet? No? Then get at it! This is your league and we need you.
Make cheques payable to Ron Gerskup or Brian Gerskup. By next year, everything will be in Hendon Park’s name to make the optics better. Once the $300 fee is paid, you will be registered with Plan Canada to raise sponsorship money eligible for charitable receipts. All profits to be donated to Plan Canada. No one will make any money from this except for the obvious things like umpire and field costs and similar. The league and its executives are investing hundreds of hours and risking personal money and are vowing to you they are doing it for free. Please help us make this a success so we can keep this going annually with different deserving charities. HPSA wants to help the community. It’s a big “Raison d’Etre. We need your help to do this. Our goal is small this year, but in my lifetime (and I’m no spring chicken) I want to see us donate $1,000,000. Impossible? That’s what we were told when we said we were starting this league. That no one would be interested. With your help, we have proved that wrong. Why not again? Let’s dream in Technicolor.
Yours in Softball
DACOMISH

Commissioner’s Blog May 9, 2009
Hi
Ordinarily I will be trying to write at least once a week now that the season has started so please keep your eyeballs close by.
The first thing I’d like to talk about before we get to the successful start of the season, is the news on “THE FIRST ANNUAL ROD BLACK SOFTBALL CLASSIC FOR PLAN CANADA” aka “The Rod Black Classic”.
We have a lot of exciting news for this July 4 and 5th weekend FOLLOWING Canada Day and plan to make it an annual event for either the first weekend in July (if it is NOT a long weekend) or the 2nd weekend in July if the first is a long weekend. It will never be on a long weekend.
We are having an important 1 hour meeting this Saturday May 16th at 11 am at 51 Faye Court, Thornhill, L4J 5B6. Please feel free to come and to bring people you feel care about helping others and are capable. RSVP with Barb at 905-764-7704.
We are currently looking for Corporations to help. We offer 500 or more mostly men and some women in the critical 25 to 45 demographic. We will also have a TSN crew there all weekend to do a story, and Plan Canada is planning an all out media blitz to publicize Rod Black and his Celebrity Team’s participation. We will have a big tent for corporate sponsors to have booths. We will sell food and drinks and are hoping a sponsor will help provide their products as all proceeds go directly to Plan Canada so the less we pay, the more they get. We also need a uniform sponsor. The name of the sponsor will go on every uniform they sponsor. The uniforms will be worn by the participants all summer as they look good on and off the field. Sponsors will get noticed! It will be family friendly.
We will also need volunteers to help sell food and drink tickets, and cook food.
We need people to help attract teams. The event will be held less than 30 minutes away at The Powerade Centre. It has 5 amazing fields with fences. We have room for 40 teams and want to sell out. That is why the cost is only $300 per team. It does not have to be a league team. Each team will play a minimum 3 games. All games will have Softball Canada trained umpires.
Note: $300 is a minimum donation. We encourage you to get sponsorships for your team to raise as much as you can for this cause. Plan Canada does wonderful work in Africa and every dollar you raise will help more children by sponsoring projects to get them healthy food and clean water permanently. Rod Black is counting on us. Plan Canada is counting on us. Can we count on you?
We are working on incentives for those who raise the most money. Tax receipts from Plan Canada will be provided for proceeds which will be transparent and, with your help, maximized.
So see you this Saturday?
Teams will be made up of a minimum 10 players. We suggest at least 12 or 13. There will be 2 divisions. The first will use the same Modified (Orthodox) rules as HPSA and will be men (over 18) only. The other division will be Co-Ed Slo-Pitch. Each team here must have a minimum 2 women on the field at all times. All participants must be at least 18 years of age.
So you need to begin finding teams NOW. Please contact our League Convener, Brian Gerskup at Brian@hpsa.ca or 416-879-3158.

For the second item, I am including the email (edited) I got from Brian “Wally” Walderman, our League Statistician, yesterday. I follow that with the email I sent to each Division Convener. I believe this will

From Wally:
Everyone is doing a great job sending in their scores. The timing is quick and I have no problems to report. On the website the Standings are 100% up-to-date, and this morning, I have added the up-to-date Game Results section.
Just like last year, stats are mixed, in terms of delivery. Most of the teams have sent scorecards but no stats. I’m working on them, but I’m hoping as the season progresses and the league leader board gets put up, the players will start placing pressure on their stats managers.
As of right now I have scorecards AND cumulative stats for the following teams:
TEAMS UP-TO-DATE ON STATS ARE ON THIS LIST. ARE YOU HERE?
D1
Big Red Machine
Hendon Blue Devils
Joe Mamma
D2
Team Gugger
D3
Daddario
Hustlers
Mayhem
Panthers

ALL MAPS ARE NOW ON THE WEBSITE.
Feedback: The guys who go to the site, and send in their stats are giving very good feedback to me and the league. The only problems that have come my way have revolved around the lights not turning on, and the left field hill at Bridlewood Park, both cases I’m sure you have heard about.
Commissioner’s Note: We are promised lights will go on this week. The left field so far at Bridlewood Park is more problematic. We suggest safe ground rules be discussed with the umps before the game. We are asking players NOT to go on the hill. If a ball lands on uneven ground there, it will be a ground rule double up to a certain agreed upon area. After that, it is a Home Run. But stay off the hill!
NOW HERE IS MY EDITED EMAIL TO THE CONVENERS WHICH WILL ADD A LOT OF INFO FOR YOU
Well, we have the first week under our belts and so far nothing went wrong that we could have predicted. So all in all, a great start to our season.

Brian “Wally” Walderman, our League Statistician, has taken it upon himself to send me a weekly report which follows this note below. I think it is a great idea and I welcome his taking the bull by the horns. I have a feeling his report will be the basis for a lot of positive and negative feedback so that we can know when we can pat ourselves on the back, when to pick up our boots, and when to kick some butt.
Commissioner’s Added Note: Wally is happy to do a short story on the highlights of your games. There is a place on the score sheet for highlights so take advantage.

In reading the report below, you will note that the main thing that needs attention is the stats reporting. Wally has just so much time. If he spends it chasing people, our website suffers. With Wally’s talent, if he doesn’t have to chase people, he spends this saved time making the website spectacular. A spectacular website is good for the league now, and in the future as we turn it into an asset that could bring in some bucks to lower fees, or to help us promote each others’ businesses in a networking way. It will also help us with our annual tournaments if we look spectacular. As well, stats figure prominently in the Banquet trophy presentations.

But to do this, we need eyeballs on the site, and the key to this is the stats.

So if you could please see Wally’s letter (above), it tells you which teams ARE up to date in your Division with respect to stats. By deductive logic, that means the ones NOT there must be reminded that this is a must in order to be part of HPSA.
Stats must be in by 8 PM the day after each game to Wally at Stats@HPSA.ca.

Each team MUST also have a designated “Stats Manager” whose responsibility this is. Wally must know their names and info. Send them to him NOW if you haven’t so far. If they do not send in the stats, and Wally gets no name, then the team GM will be responsible. Team fines will follow after that.

Also a reminder that we have added RBIs this year so we need the following 7 things for each player each game:

1…Plate Appearances
2…Bases on Balls
3…Singles
4…Doubles
5…Triples
6…Home Runs
7…Runs Batted In

No errors, they count as base hits, even “doubles” (2 base errors) etc.

Sac Flies only count as such if a runner comes home.

Fielders Choice is NOT a base hit.
Over and Out,
Wally

Back to Ron
I know you are all busy people. Be that as it may, the sooner we help Wally the better.

For those who did not keep stats and now don’t know them, recreate them as best as you can and send them in anyways. As this is better than nothing as it’s still early in the season.

Also, available for download on the website is Wally’s booklet on how to fill in a score sheet so that it gives proper league stats. In addition, the website provides HPSA Official Scoring Sheets and Batting Order/Fielding Positions Sheets. All are downloadable.

More suggestions you can give teams in your division:…

Keep score sheets on a clipboard with a pen attached to said clipboard with a string so it’s there when you need it always. In case it rains, keep a clear plastic 8 by 11.5 inch sheet as the last page on the clipboard which can be put on the front as a cover when it drizzles to keep the score sheets dry. An elastic band wrapped around the bottom of the clipboard keeps it from flapping around on windy day.
Keep checking the website, including the Commissioners Blog.

Any questions? Here I am.

Thanks for your help.

Enjoy the games and remember the key word at HPSA is RESPECT (the word, not the song).
Also, remember the tournament and Saturday’s meeting. We need you, and we need you NOW! Time is our enemy.
If you can’t come but can help in ANY way, my email is ron@hpsa.ca.

A few notes today before the schedule is released Saturday April 25th…

Remember that base and pitchers mound measurements must be exact and each team will be given a measurement instrument RMT – Rope Measurement Thingee). Do not lose it as it will cost $25 to be replaced and must be used if measuring tape is not used. Pitchers rubber is 46′ from the back of the plate, the bases are 65′ from the back of the plate.

We’re still looking for someone to hire as our Sunday groundskeeper. If anyone knows of anyone looking for a very part time job on Sundays, please let us know ASAP.

Finally please let us know by Monday if you’d like to buy a Softball Canada Rule Book. The rule book will be more important this year because Softball Canada rules will be followed except for certain league rules.

Although we don’t have all the details yet, and there may be more to come, it looks like all fields from last year will be renewed. In addition, we have obtained 2 Monday fields in Scarborough not for from the other Scarborough fields used last year. Whilst realizing this is not ideal, every year we have some improvement, and getting weekday fields is a huge “get” for us. One of the fields is classified as an “A” Field, the best there is. Part of the plan this year is to try to limit trips out East by making some double headers with the same 2 teams.

Did you know…

Your fees include admission to an all you can eat and drink (soft drinks) banquet complete with entertainment, trophy presentations, prizes, and guest speakers. It usually takes place about a month after the season ends.

Teams wanting all Sunday games should let us know asap.

We are incredibly excited to announce that our first annual charity tounament will be held July 4-5th 2009 at the Powerade Centre! The Powerade Centre is a state of the art complex about 30 minutes from Thornhill with 5 fenced, lit diamonds and is also home to the Brampton Battalion OHL Hockey team.

We are working out tournament details but please keep that weekend free. You can enter any team (not necessarily the one you play with in the league) and each team will be guaranteed at least 3 games.

Joining us this year is Rod Black and his celebrity team competing in the tournament.

This year the proceeds of the tournament will go to Plan Canada (formerly Foster Parents’ Plan) in honour of Rod Black and his dedication to both the charity and our league.

We look forward to seeing you at the Powerade Centre. Bring your best game!

For tournament registration information, please contact Brian Gerskup at 416-879-3158 or brian@hpsa.ca

This year, we have gone from 17 teams to 23. This is all word of mouth as we have done no recruiting at all. This is despite the deduction of 7 teams due to being a poor fit, poor communication, poor participation, defaults, and an inability to get rosters in etc. The decision has been made that the character of the teams must be strong for HPSA to remain strong. That includes good communication and reasonable participation in committees, meetings, and such. Our HPSA teams are like Partners, not customers.
We now have one more Division for a total of 3. Division 1 will be 9 man teams and will be the most talented. Division 2 will be 10 man teams and will be for the serious player who doesn’t want to compete with our most talented players. Division 3 will be reserved for a full 8 team Division that has joined us from another league. At an earlier meeting, it was agreed to let them in as a group for 2009 and see how it shakes out before we decide for 2010.