Though we all understand why the time restrictions are in place, it is (in my view) unexceptable to schedule 2 games at Bob Moore when other fields are not being used. Last night's Reds/Yankees game was a barnburner that ended in a tie because of the time restrictions while there were NO GAMES being on ANY of the Central Park fields. What can be done??!! Please chime in with thoughts and solutions....
While I agree with the sentiment that games like last night's Reds-Yankees game as well as countless others in the past should be allowed to continue, the only solution is more available fields.
In my opinion, it should not be the job solely of the league President, the Board of Directors nor the individual divisions' Commissioners to procure fields for us to play on. Managers of individual teams in all divisions need to do a better job of getting fields for us to use - this includes managers exactly like me. I need to do my part and will take a proactive approach in 2017 to get another field for our division to use. Managers need to step up and help out. We have players from all over the Capital Region and in some cases beyond who should have contacts to acceptable fields to play on.
One other proactive thing we can do as managers and players is to get all of our players to understand that field usage is not just for showing up and playing a ball game. We have been kicked out of many fields in the past because players do not respect the rules of field usage, litter the dugouts and parking lots, drink alcohol on school fields or in school parking lots, abuse the equipment at the fields, etc. When you own/manage a baseball field and you allow players to abuse the privilege of using your field, what are you supposed to do? We hold "field" days where we volunteer as an organization and less than 10 people show up - considering we advertise on our website: "The Albany-based chapter was established in 1989 with four teams in one division (30+). We now have 44 teams in four divisions with more than 600 members playing competitive baseball;" and we can't get even 10 guys to show up for a field day and help out? What decision would you make? We need to build relationships with these field owner-operators that benefits both the league and the field owners and we have a history of animosity with many locations.
Those are two that I can think of.
We need to stop relying on other people to do our jobs as managers and help our league get better on our own.
Rob I agree with you but there has been a lot of previous work done by Managers and Players to secure fields as I stated previously in a recent discussion on this subject. Central Babe Ruth, Legion Field, Cook Park were all available and relationships were established with these venues. One field is used by 18 Div. and others used sparingly or not at all!!!
I agree with Paul Miles. Baseball is not meant to end in a tie. I had 2 fields secured in Ravena, the high school and Mosher Park for FREE no charge to the league. The mayor wanted the Mosher Park field used 7 days a week if needed for FREE. He even offered what ever village equipment was needed with an operator to make the field the way the league wanted it. I informed the league of this and to this day no one has ever come down to look at the field. And no, Rob, Im not the league president, a board of director, or commissioner, Im not even a manager. Im just a player.
I appreciate what both of you are saying, but having played at Ravena and Central Albany BR in the past, I'd rather try my luck at a 7 inning game at Moore - unless significant work has been done at both of those fields. Overhanging trees, short fences and a patchy infield (at best) make CABR a less than acceptable field and Ravena is consistently wet, rarely mowed and rarely cared for during the non-school portion of the season. At some point the word "acceptable" needs to be considered when assessing a field's availability.
And if Mosher Park is the "Elm Street" then I guess that's acceptable, but the problem we constantly ran into was that stupid rule that a certain percentage of people playing in the game had to be from Bethlehem and it was impossible to do so.
Cook Park? I thought we were removed from that originally because of issues of field abuse and now Cook Park is really expensive.
I appreciate your efforts, Joe; but if you read it again I said that I was one of those managers who need to step up and help out. I am not exempting myself from the issue - I am trying to help solve it.
In rereading your post, I noticed that you said, "The mayor wanted the Mosher Park field used 7 days a week if needed for FREE. He even offered what ever village equipment was needed with an operator to make the field the way the league wanted it." If that is indeed the case, I volunteer my time to go to Mosher Park and take a look at the field and see what needs to be done and I can make recommendations and see if the league is interested. Can you put me in touch with the Mayor?
What about the fields we already play on (Schen. Central Park) that were all empty that night? Before we look into more fields, which is needed, we should at least maximize the ones we have. Seems like a no brainer to me.
There may have been something scheduled for that night that prohibited us from using those fields - the 55's use them, various Ruth-league aged kids use those fields, the 18's use them, etc. We can't just assume that since nobody was there at the time that there wasn't something already scheduled.
More fields will help us get more available dates.
I will work to get a fields committee started at the board level. Those of you who have contributed here will likely be getting an email or phone call from me as the season comes to a close. I'd like to see us carry some of the field prospecting into the offseason.
