Little League to hold ground rules meetings tomorrow

The board of directors of the Saipan Little League Baseball, Inc. held a closed-door meeting last weekend to prepare for its upcoming ground rules meetings scheduled for tomorrow, Jan. 21, at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium conference room.

The board elected to hold its majors division ground rules meeting separate from the other divisions since the groups play on different fields.

The majors fields the most teams and separating groups allows the organization to address the divisions’ respective issues with more fluidity.

The junior, senior, and big division meeting is scheduled for 9am followed by the majors division meeting at 1pm.

It is vital that all coaches and managers have their official membership and international volunteer forms submitted by Saturday’s meetings because afterwards the board will gather all of the forms and send them in bulk to the Little League Baseball head office in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

This is last meeting that the board will deal with international requirements of its coaches and managers.

In the last general membership meeting held last Jan. 11 the board announced its decision, which requires all members to pay an annual $5 membership fee. They also passed out official sponsorship-agreement so that teams can begin searching for potential sponsors for the upcoming season.

Teams will have to find their own sponsors this year.

For all potential sponsors, half of the $500 entrance fee is due by opening day and the other half is due by the start of Game 6 on their team’s respective schedules.

Government-sponsored checks are to be made payable to the SLLBI.

Teams are also required to take the field fully dressed in their uniforms by game six.

Managers and coaches present at last week’s meeting also decided on Feb. 18 as opening day of the 2012 season.

The SLLBI board is currently working on acquiring mandatory insurance coverage for the players. The teams are required to satisfy the insurance requirements. Various packages are available and parents are urged to contact either their child’s coaching staff or the SLLBI board if they need assistance.

Rosters are still being finalized, after which the game schedules can be formulated. The board is still collecting required paperwork from all active members, which is needed before the background check process can begin.

The board has also announced plans of starting a yearbook to showcase photos of the teams and individual players.

Tomorrow’s meeting will be open for members to suggest and recommend local ground rules to the board for their approval. The postseason all-star selection process is another topic on the agenda.

Any coaches or managers that have rulebooks from last year are requested to bring them along and take notes because there will be some changes this year, according to SLLBI president Juan I. Tenorio in a phone interview yesterday.

This year’s major division is expected to field 12 teams in one large pool.

The junior and senior age groups are expected to field nine teams each and the big division is expecting six squads.