GOFL Winter Meeting 2010 - minutes

The GOFL annual winter meeting was held last week. Significant points of interest:

- Greely is moving to North Gower and will be known as the "Marlboroughs"
- North Gower will host the Showcase
- The semi-finals series will now be best-of-three in the interest of completing the season earlier
- The league has adopted a 4-game minimum for players to be eligible for the playoffs

See below for the full details.

GOFL meeting, 2010

Greater Ottawa Fastball League organizing meeting February 17, 2010 at I4C Office in Kanata

Attendees:
Adam Brown (WC Electric)
Tony Riches (Manotick)
Trevor Lahey (Manotick)
Steve Edgerton (Manotick)
Cory Morrison (Easton)
Dan Bradley (Stittsville)
John Craig (Stittsville)
Mike Barrett (Stittsville)
Will Mood (Blitz)
Derek Bergeron (Blitz)
Andrew Bruce (Blitz)
Neil Cooke (I4C Victory)
Eric Rosenquist (I4C Victory)
Joe McCleary (Quyon)
Gary Hargrove (Orleans)
Anil Hayne (North Gower)
Tyler Cox (North Gower)
Dave Norris (Umpires)

Umpires:
- Dave Norris is League Umpire in Chief (UIC) as well as Deputy Zone UIC. Harry MacIntyre is Deputy League UIC, Dave Herbst is the Zone UIC, George Findley is the assignor/treasurer.
- Dave is again asking for each team to sign a “letter of understanding” with the terms and conditions for the officials.
- Once again the umpires noted their preference for doubleheaders as much as possible.
- Payment time frames: May 1st (50% of regular season fees), June 15th (50% of regular season fees), July 15th (playoff payment).
- George Findley will schedule umpires and be the contact for rainouts and make up games. Any changes to the schedule to be communicated to George (copied to Dave N) and are the responsibility of the home team.
- Illegal bat rule: Dave asked for clarification - see later in the minutes.
- Tar on the softball - pitchers are not to use pine tar. Umpires will remove / have cleaned softballs that are getting dark - see later in the minutes re: Gorilla Gold.
- Umpire fees same as 2009 since we have a two year deal: $48 per man per game for singles, $45 per man per game for doubleheaders.
- Dave mentioned that there will be occasions where new officials will be “mentored” and given games to work in the GOFL.
- Dave stated that there were very few discipline problems with ejections etc. (only one in 2009) with the GOFL.
- For any concerns over performance of umpires, contact Dave N.

League Meeting:
- All nine teams from the 2009 season confirmed that they are returning, with one change: Greely Eagles are becoming “North Gower Marlboroughs”
- Home diamonds and nights are as follows, generally speaking:
o WC Electric: Fitzroy Harbour on Tuesday
o Manotick: Manotick on Wednesday
o Blitz: Manotick on Wednesday
o Stittsville: Stittsville on Wednesday
o Easton: to be determined, to advise
o I4C Victory: Carp on Thursday
o Quyon: Quyon on Thursday (note change from Tuesday)
o Orleans: Orleans Pierre Rocque Park on Thursday
o North Gower: North Gower on Tuesday
- Adam has volunteer to create the schedule. Teams were asked to forward any special scheduling requests to Adam. North Gower indicated that they want to play on Canada Day, possibly against Easton once again. Gary asked that we be aware of the dates for the Canadian Junior Nationals (first week of August) as Orleans could have several players away.
- Doubleheaders will be scheduled whenever practical. Manotick will continue to host a doubleheader every Wednesday. Other locations (Carp, Fitzroy Harbour) should also be able to host some double dips and Anil indicated that North Gower may be able to host some doubleheaders this year as well.
- Regular season will start the first week of May, with the original schedule running for 12 weeks with rainout make ups and playoffs to follow.
- Teams will play an unbalanced schedule of 20 games, similar to last season, ensuring that opponents played three times in 2009 are played twice in 2010 and vice versa.
- Anil and Tyler indicated that North Gower would like to host the Showcase - weekend TBD. Adam also indicated that he would like to host a series of games in Fitzroy Harbour on a weekend - dates also to be determined.
- Game cancellation: if a team needs to cancel a game (for any reason other than weather), 24 hours notice should be given to the opposing team’s representative. If a visiting team fails to show up with enough players or cancels too late to notify the umpires, then the visiting team will pay for the officials’ fees. If diamond fees are going to be charged to the home team, the offending team will have to pay for the make up diamond rental fee.
- Rain shortened games: games will count in the standings for regular season even if only one inning is completed, going back to the last completed inning. For playoffs, the game will resume at a later date from the point at which the game was delayed.
-Game stories can be sent as soon as possible so the blog can be updated. Report should at a minimum include the score, the winning and losing pitcher and any home runs hit. Statistics should be updated by team representatives as soon as possible on GOFL.ca.
- Each team should ensure their club contacts are updated on GOFL.ca
- For the regular season, each team is responsible for their own expenses, including by not limited to diamond fees, umpire costs, balls, etc. (see exceptions below re: playoffs).
- Regular season tie-breaking: 1) points (2 for a win, 1 for a tie) 2) wins 3) head-to-head 4) run differential in head to head 5) coin flip
- Playoff format slightly changed from last year to get things over with quicker:
o 9th vs. 8th play-in single game
o Quarter-finals: best of three, 1st vs. winner of play-in, 2nd vs. 7th, 3rd vs. 6th, 4th vs. 5th
o Semi-finals: best of three (instead of five), Top remaining seed vs. Lowest remaining seed, 2nd remaining seed vs. 3rd remaining seed
o Finals: best of five, remaining two teams
- Playoff extra innings: if a playoff game is tied, the ‘international rule’ shall being in the 8th inning.
- The cost sharing formula for playoffs will continue. The loser of the play-in game shall pay the costs of that game plus the $100 playoff winner fund fee. The remaining eight teams shall each pay a $250 playoff charge, of which $100 will be contributed to the playoff winner fund. The remaining money will be used to for the costs of the quarter-finals. For the semi-finals and finals, the teams in each series shall split the costs of diamonds and umpires.
- Playoff winner fund: $600 to the winner and $300 to the finalist. The I4C Trophy will be awarded to the playoff champion.
- Tony will order the softballs for the league through Softball Canada. Each team to contact Tony with the number of softballs (in dozens) each team requires. Same model/colour to be used at last year. Tony will also be ordering 4 packages of “Gorilla Gold” for each club to eliminate the need for pitchers to use any other substance. Costs are estimated at $80 per dozen for softballs and about $5 for each Gorilla Gold package.
- “8 man rule”: in order to continue to ensure minimal defaults (we had none in 2009), teams will be permitted to start games with 8 players. There will be no “auto-out”. If the ninth player shows up late (or a lucky fan is found), then the team can insert this player in the ninth position in the line-up. However, if a team has only 9 players and one is ejected, the team will then forfeit the game. If a team has 9 players, and there is an injury and the player cannot continue, the team may still play with 8, but then the auto-out will apply.
- “Mercy rule”: 7 after 5 or 6
- “2 out catcher rule”: optional.
- “Discipline”: Same as last year: first ejection player at a minimum receives a “yellow card” - next ejection automatically results in one game suspension, minimum. Each ejection will result in an umpire’s report and a team’s report. Suspension could be given for any ejection depending on severity. In the past few years this has not been a problem with the GOFL and hopefully that will continue.
- “Bat rule”: The GOFL will use the ISF / ISC bat rule. Joe will provide information to all teams as to what bats are “banned” under this regulation. Any bat with the ISF stamp or ASA 2004 stamp would be legal.
- “Playoff eligibility”: It was decided by a consensus that a player to be eligible to participate in the playoffs would need to participate in four regular season games. Teams can file an appeal prior to the playoffs, considering injuries or other factors and requests will be reviewed by the team representatives of the GOFL.
- “Pitching rule”: continue with last year's pitching rule
- Other Softball Canada rules apply.
- There are no restrictions on team rosters (any player, junior, senior, etc. can play). Once a player participates in the league for one team, he cannot play for another team that season.
- There is no ISC Eastern Ontario Challenge Cup in 2010. GOFL can participate in the Ontario Challenge Cup in Mitchell (near Stratford) on Sept 17-19. Winner gets a berth to the 2011 Worlds.
- Eric will look into possible insurance coverage for the league that would be paid for on a team-by-team basis.