SOUTHERN CALFORINA FASTPITCH LEAGUE

2008 Manager October setup meeting minutes can be found HERE

Minutes for the January 12, 2008 meeting:

*Recap of last meeting by Fred Hanker and Robert Hernandez

• 2008 SCIFL League Schedule
• schedule is finalized and available on SCIFL web site
• World Series and league dates are all correct
• Masters Travel League will be played on Sundays and not conflict with SCIFL. Still in process of finalizing locations.
• Concerns about 3 travel weekends in a row was addressed by spreading out the 3 weekends and making 3 of the last 4 league dates at Santa Fe Springs.
• Las Vegas tournament will be played at Hollywood and Shadow Rock Parks. Only one of the fields has lights so the championship games may be played around 5 pm on Sunday.
• All league events are NAFA sanctioned events. The two Palm Springs events are still pending whether they will be NAFA or ASA.
• Same format as last year will be used for all the tournaments with the possible exception of Las Vegas and the last league weekend in Santa Fe Springs. These 2 weekends might use the 3-game format which is used in NAFA World Series.
• Rosters
• The classification team will once again be Robert Hernandez, Lou Enriquez and Clyde Bennett
• Any player drops or roster moves must be submitted as soon as possible
• The classification committee can move a player up or down at any time throughout the season.
• A lower division may play in the upper division at the risk of being moved up to the upper division.
• The league is still in the process of classifying teams
• Players may change teams only with the approval of the manager and the classification committee. The board moved to allow this type of movement only once unless there is circumstances that warrant multiple team changes.
• Each player must sign a liability release before league play begins.
• Final World Series rosters must be submitted by last league weekend.
• It was decided that each team will be allowed 3 pickup players for the World Series.
• With proper notice Robert will accept late player pickups if teams have not reached three.
• Bats and Balls
• The new ball for 2008 is made by D Sports. It is similar to the Worth K Master.
• The ball is more cost efficient for the league and much safer.
• The SCIFL will use the Governing Body bat list for all events.
• The league is still deciding on bats that have 2000 or 2004 stickers will be allowed.
• If an illegal bat is used a protest is allowed.
• The league is still deciding on how to distinguish bats that have been deemed legal by the legal. Robert suggested a zip tie and Fred suggested a piece of colored tape like red on the handle.
• Formats
• Same format as last year. Three game guarantee on Saturday and single elimination on Sunday will be used again. The 2 possible exceptions are Las Vegas and the last tournament of the year where we may use the NAFA World Series format.
• Locations
• The locations of each tournament was covered earlier in the meeting. The Masters locations are still pending. Artesia Park was discussed as being used more next year. The problem being they only have 3 working fields as Robert mentioned.
• Master League
• Will play on Sundays and players must be 40 and over. If you turn 40 in 2008 you are eligible to play in the league. The league has determined that you may have 3 players 37 or over but they cannot be pitchers. This may change based on the input of managers. The early count looks like their will be at least 5 teams in the league.
• SCIFL Board
• Their have been 2 new board members introduced. David Carrillo was named the new A Minor Supervisor replacing Bobby Cole. Fernie Ramirez was named as a player rep replacing Chris Minogue. Robert brought up the point that it is best to voice any concerns by managers after or before the tournaments are done and not during the tournament. Managers can also feel free to email or speak to any board member anytime during the week.
• Tyler Vilander has agreed to assist the league with the accounting portion of the league on a voluntary basis.
• 2008 NAFA World Series
• The A Major and AA Major dates in Mankato, Minnesota are August 13-17 2008
• The A and AA dates in Mankato, Minnesota are August 20 – 24, 2008
• Exact playing dates to be determined by March by the NAFA Executive Committee
• Teams would fly into Minneapolis and its about a 1 ½ drive to Mankato. Clyde mentioned flights are around 250.00 last year. Everyone qualifies to go if they play in at least 1 league event.
• The Masters World Series is in Carson City, NV September 20-21. Robert mentioned it is approximately an 6 hour drive, Cecillo Smalling corrected him and said it was more like 9 hours.
• Umpires
• Robert and Clyde mentioned that we have much more contact from umpires and they will work our league games.
• Player and manager conduct was discussed and how players and managers should approach umpires.
• Several managers expressed concerns about certain umpires being unprofessional and that will be addressed by Clyde.
• Clyde spoke to the managers about addressing umpires in a respectful way.
• Some umpires are being monitored based on their conduct and performance.
• Hotels
• Robert is trying to work on a deal on hotels for all league events. Mitch suggested The Hampton Inn which he uses frequently. John Simmers is working on hotels for Las Vegas.
• Robert suggested a Best Western type hotel.
• Each team is responsible for letting Robert know how many rooms each team would need.
• Open Discussion
• Robert mentioned he will be contacting sports manufactures to help with the league for the 2008.
• Mitch mentioned we could try to talk to airlines about sponsoring and we could advertise for them on the league web site.
• Two outside league tournaments were mentioned by Clyde
• Best of the West June 7-8 Santa Barbara
• Red Rock , St George May 2-3
• Bob Chapel will also be having a No Cal tourney May 2-3 for upper division teams
• The fee once again will be 375.00 per tournament and of this 40.00 goes to league recovery fee and 10.00 to grounds keepers.
• Talked about the difficulty with selling alcohol and insurance problems.
• The entry fee for the Masters League has not yet been determined.
• Open pitchers will still not be allowed to pitch on Sundays. This really only is 3 pitchers: Travis Price, Sonny Perkins, Tony Peoples. This may eventually come to a vote by board members to allow anyone to pitch Saturday and Sunday.
• Robert encouraged everyone to get rosters in as soon as possible.
• The web site should be up and running soon
• Once we get a non profit tax ID # sponsors can use this to write off contributions.

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