PONY coaches,
We will be having all-star games for each of our three PONY divisions (Mustang, Bronco, and Pony) on June 3 at Silver Terrace.
If you have players you would like to send to this game, the limit is as follows:
Mustang: two players
Bronco: two players (plus alternate)
Pony: three players
Please email SFYBL the players you wish to represent your team by Friday, May 25.
We have most of the play-off information (35 total games) scheduled out. It is published on the “2012 Play-Offs” page of our web site.
The only changes we will be making are to correct any errors or missed information. We should have the brackets complete by Monday (May 14) evening.
Today marked the end of regular season play in our PONY divisions. We are working on the play-off schedule, but will be taking a complete break from it on Sunday (don’t forget Mothers Day!!). You can expect to see substantive play-off info posted here on Monday, May 14 (all PONY coaches will be emailed detailed play-off info).
The first play-off games will be on Wednesday, May 16, 5:30 PM for the top eight Bronco and Mustang teams; Thursday, May 17, 5:30 PM for all Pony teams and four of the bottom six Mustang teams; and Saturday, May 19 for most teams. The Mustang play-off structure for teams not in the top eight in the final standings is being redrawn to accommodate one of those teams dropping out of the league today.
Although we will have detailed pairings and fancy brackets for your viewing pleasure…for now you can click the Calendar menu item just below the banner on our site to get a rough idea of where we’re at now with play-off scheduling.
PONY divisions play-offs will begin on Wednesday, May 16 for the Mustang and Bronco divisions and Thursday, May 17 for the Pony division.
Our planned structure is as follows:
Pony (8 teams) – 1 seed vs 8 seed; 2 seed vs 7 seed, 3 seed vs 6 seed, and 4 seed vs 5 seed. Teams who lose their first game will go into a consolation bracket.
Bronco (11 teams) – The top eight teams in the final regular season standings will be in the championship bracket: 1 seed vs 8 seed; 2 seed vs 7 seed, 3 seed vs 6 seed, and 4 seed vs 5 seed. Teams who lose their first game will go into a consolation bracket. The bottom three teams in the regular season standings will start off in the consolation bracket.
Mustang (15 teams) – this division has two conferences formed arbitrarily at the beginning of the season: Willie Mays (8 teams) & Jo DiMaggio (7 teams). The top four teams in each conference will be in the championship bracket with cross-conference 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 initial pairings. The bottom four teams in the Willie Mays and bottom three teams in the Joe DiMaggio conferences will start off in a 5th place consolation bracket.
Play-off seeding will be determined by the following criteria (in order):
1) season win percentage
2) head-to-head results (first tie breaker)
3) head-to-head runs allowed (second tie breaker)
4) overall runs allowed (third tie breaker)
Again, the play-offs will be starting in just over two weeks with the championship games currently scheduled for:
Pony: May 21
Mustang: May 23
Bronco: May 24
PONY Coaches and Players:
Through the first half of the season we elected to ask our umpires to issue warnings only for balks. We ask our umpires to explain to the pitcher what he/she did to cause a balk…but there has been no penalty.
The second half of our season begins this Saturday, April 28. From this Saturday on, all balk calls will result in the base runner(s) being awarded a base.
PONY Mustang Coaches:
There has been some confusion with respect to secondary leads, so we would like to clarify the rules.
1) Base runners can not take a secondary lead until AFTER the ball has crossed the plate.
2) there is no base stealing allowed (at least not this season)
3) If a base runner takes a secondary lead, he/she does so at his own risk. A defensive player can (or at least attempt to) throw out a runner who has taken a secondary lead if he wishes.
4) If the catcher (or any other defensive player) attempts to throw out a runner who has a secondary lead and the thrown ball is missed; the ball becomes live, and the runner can then attempt to advance.
We’re pointing this out for two reasons:
a) some Mustang team runners are taking leads before the ball crosses the plate (in some cases, before the pitch is even made)
b) some runners are taking secondary leads more than half way to the next base under the mistaken impression that there’s no risk in taking dangerously long leads.
SFYBL 2012 PONY Day Parade at AT&T Park
It was a great experience for the kids to be able to parade around the stadium field in front of tens of thousands of fans.
Prior to the parade our kids participated in an insightful as well as at times funny Q&A session with: Giants 3rd Base Coach, Tim Flannery; starting 1st baseman, Brandon Belt; and reliever, Sergio Romo.
Then we got to enjoy a game with beautiful weather. After the game, the kids all had the opportunity to go onto the field and run the bases.
Next year we hope to get many more tickets and invite the entire SFYBL to this event.
Here are some photos from the event.
P.S. If you took pictures at this event you would like to share, please send them to pictures@sfybl.com, and we will add them to the event photo album for all to see.
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.
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.
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.
Our weather forecast is from Wunderground for WordPress