Due to the heavy rain last night and early this morning, all SF Rec & Park grass fields in the city are closed today…meaning no games or practices on them.
Tonight’s Bronco division game between the CL Wolfpack and the West Sunset Redsox has been relocated from West Sunset 3 to South Sunset 2 (turf).
Effective immediately, base runners in the Mustang division are now allowed to take secondary leads when on base. Such leads can be taken only after the pitched ball has crossed the plate.
We would prefer to have our Mustang division be as close as possible to PONY rules (which are a near mirror image of MLB rules aka “real baseball”). Real baseball includes base stealing. However, due to the season already being in progress we are not going to suddenly allow base stealing in the Mustang division this season.
You can expect base stealing to be part of the Mustang division (as it already is for Bronco and Pony) next season. Therefor, it is important that coaches work with their catchers on catching or stopping pitched balls as well as throwing out base stealers. In addition, catchers need to get used to making catchable throws back to the pitcher and pitchers need to catch throws from the catcher. All of this is an important part of baseball.
This rule change has been incorporated into the “2012 SFYBL PONY Rules Modifications and General League Rules” located in the Rules section of this site.
2012 SF Giants PONY Day agenda
PONY Coaches, players, and parents:
For those of you who are attending the SF Giants PONY Day on April 15; please reference the agenda (embedded in this post) for the day.
Players attending need to be in uniform to participate in all the extra events the SF Giants are putting on for PONY Baseball.
FYI: we are sold out of tickets for this event
Tee-ball through 3rd grade division coaches: please reference your email for a survey regarding a proposed make-up schedule for some of your rained out games.
PONY Coaches:
Please check your email for information about make-ups for some of your rained out games.
We ask that you make sure your players and their parents are aware of the schedule revision. All changes are reflected within the current schedules posted in the Schedules/Schedules/Standings section of our web site.
Coaches: April 14 (two weeks from today) will be the last day teams can add players to their rosters. After that date, all rosters will be frozen.
Here are the steps for adding a player to your roster:
1) coaches enter the player online using the same URL you used to enter the rest of your team
2) submit a completed and signed waiver for the player (blank waivers available in the Forms section of our web site)
3) if the player is in a t-ball through 3rd grade division, submit entry fee and uniform order form (please email info@sybl.com if you need details on this)
We will be happy to send coaches a copy of their roster as we have it at any time should they wish to verify we have all their players listed.
This is a reminder that no sunflower seeds are allowed in the dugout or on the field at Silver Terrace or South Sunset.
SF Rec & Park has informed us that their gardeners are continuously finding sunflower seed shells at both locations after SFYBL and other leagues have played or practiced there…sometimes finding them directly under posted NO SUNFLOWER SEEDS signs.
Starting immediately, SF Rec & Park will be fining leagues $100 for a first violation, $250 for a second violation, and $500 for a third violation.
SFYBL operates on a shoestring budget and is run largely by volunteers. Registration fees don’t come close to the costs we incur to run the league, and we depend heavily on the financial largess of SF Rec & Park and SF FLAME to make this league happen. We cannot afford to be paying out fines due to players who ignore posted signs.
If a SFYBL team is fined for any violation of Rec & Park field rules…the offending team will receive a one-game suspension and be obligated to pay the fine.
Coaches: it is YOUR responsibility to make sure your players are adhering to such posted signs at SF Rec & Park fields!
Unfortunately, even though the sun is out right now (at least for the moment); the grass fields in the city are saturated due to the amount of rain yesterday. As such, all SF Rec & Park grass fields are closed today for practices and games.
SF Rec & Park has asked us to remind our teams not to practice on a closed field. We know the kids and coaches are eager to play, but practicing on a closed field could cause a team to lose its practice permit.
We had six games scheduled for this evening. One of those was scheduled for a turf field, and we have relocated a second game to a turf field as well. The games schedules for turf fields will go on as scheduled unless it is raining at game time.
We know it’s frustrating to have so many rain-outs canceling practices and games. We will do everything in our power to make up as many rained out games as possible within the constraints of field availability in the city.
SFYBL PONY divisions (Mustang, Bronco, Pony) coaches and players:
Your San Francisco Giants will be holding their annual PONY Baseball Day on April 15 coinciding with the SF Giants/Pittsburg Pirates game. Since the SFYBL is now affiliated with PONY Baseball, we will be participating in this.
Tickets are $20. Here is what you get for that $20:
• Ticket to the April 15 Giants/Pirates game
• Pre-game Q&A session with Giants coaches and players
• League banner parade on the field
• Kids giveaway item for PONY Leaguers
• Scoreboard welcomes
• Kids run the bases after the game
We have purchased 500 tickets to this event for our PONY divisions players, coaches, and family members. If there is complete interest, we will have to limit the number of tickets to 15 per team. We don’t expect all PONY players will want or be able to go, so most likely, teams will be able to get more than 15 tickets per team.
If you are a PONY division coach or player/parent and would like to purchase tickets for this event, please let your Mustang, Bronco, or Pony division SFYBL team coach know by Saturday, March 31, so we can get an idea of the amount of interest. We will be informing all PONY divisions coaches how to execute the purchase and pick-up of the tickets.
A lot of people are asking what we do in the event of rain or possible rain. Our policy on rain cancellations is we do them as a last result.
If it’s raining heavily the night before a game, we most likely will cancel all the next day’s games. If it’s raining lightly the night before or the morning of a game…we will wait no later than two hours prior to game time before deciding whether or not to call games off. There’s always the possibility that even with the games on…it could start raining to the point where the umpires call the game off (in the PONY divisions) or the coaches call the game off in the t-ball through 3rd grade divisions.
When games are called off how will you know? As soon as we make a decision to call games off, we will promptly post that to this web site. We will also email all affected coaches.
Please keep all this in mind, as tomorrow we have Opening Day Ceremonies at Kezar Stadium as well as a full days of games in all divisions at fields all around the city.
Our weather forecast is from WP Wunderground