by
posted 01/26/2019
On behalf of the board, thank you for registering, volunteering and supporting the league again this season. We are looking forward to another fun, competitive year.
Our league year started on a sad note with the passing of longtime snack shack and umpire volunteer, Dave Struck, in November. Dave was an Osage Park regular for most of the last two decades. We will miss seeing him at the park this spring.
You all saw my note recently about helping the Little Leagues in District 47 impacted by Camp Fire. With your help, we delivered 8 boxes of donated cleats, pants, belts, gloves, bats, helmets to the Paradise LL. Even though most Paradise families lost homes and property, and the league itself lost all three of its fields, their board intends to play the spring season with the help of others. Our donations reached those families in December and got them started in that direction. I feel really good about what we did there. We'll have other opportunities to help in the spring.
The on-field part of our 2019 schedule starts next week with tryouts for 9-12 year olds. Our Majors, AAA, and AA drafts are scheduled for Saturday 1/26. Tryouts for upper division Intermediate, Juniors, and Seniors House teams will be on January 13th and 14th as communicated recently. Registration for our younger divisions stays open divisions through 2/1/19. Rosters for those teams are published in late February and early March. It's also not too late to register to coach or umpire. And we're always recruiting team and league level sponsors. If you have a small business in Danville and want to advertise on our jerseys or Osage fences, register here.
Our board intends to build on some of the new activities we added last year like Friday Night Clinics and MLB Pitch, Hit & Run. We took your feedback and intend to play some interleague games with neighboring Little Leagues. We will do a better job introducing our Majors players and families to Little League's upper divisions with practices and interleague games on a larger diamond. Finally, we are planning a tryout for 8-year-olds and controlled draft for Single A players, which we expect will help to balance the competition in that division.
You may have noticed the investments that MLB and Dick’s Sporting Goods are making in Little League. We will benefit from both of those. One exciting change for 2019 that our board decided to take advantage of is an Oakland A's promotion called "Future A's". In addition to events at the Coliseum, the A's are supplying jerseys and hats for all DLL players and coaches. All of our younger division players will be wearing different styles of A's jerseys this season. AAA and Majors teams will remain with the MLB teams we have previously had. In addition to the Future A's promotion, look for some in-store and online Dick's Sporting Goods promotions for our families in the spring.
Keep an eye on our league calendar for upcoming board meetings as well as umpire, player, coach, and safety training dates. We anticipate the Town opening grass fields for play around March 1, weather permitting. This year's Carnival and Challenger division games will be on Sunday 4/28. And we'll have our usual Little League Days with the A's (Sunday 3/31) and Giants (Sunday 4/8).
I am looking forward to a great season. Thanks again for your support. Any questions or suggestions, let me know.
Kevin Salmon
DLL President
president@danvillelittleleague.net
510-913-5583
