Minor Baseball News

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the Minor Baseball News. They'd heard about all the excitement that is going on with baseball out here in Devon and asked me to write an article for their magazine as well as submit pictures.
This is what is being published in next month's edition:

Baseball sees major up-swing in Devon

Great things are happening in Devon this season, and baseball fans have taken notice. The Devon Minor Baseball Association has experienced a dramatic increase in its registration numbers this year, to numbers beyond their expectations.

“We have more than doubled our registrations over last year,” says Devon Minor Baseball President, Mark Tinis. “There is a renewed interest in baseball here and everyone is very excited for this upcoming season. Devon’s baseball program is currently playing at a community house league level. We hope to enter both a Mosquito and a Pee Wee team into provincial play in July this season. Our long range goal is to provide both community and competitive team options to our players in all divisions.”

Tinis, a second term president and sixth year coach, attributes the rise in players to having a full and dedicated executive committee, one that has worked very hard to build up the image of Devon Minor Baseball Association since the group formed in February at the AGM.

In an effort to increase their previously dwindling registration numbers, the Devon Minor Baseball Executive has been continuously working on a communications blitz that included advertising, press releases and articles printed in the in the Devon Dispatch, placing monthly notices in each of the Devon and surrounding areas school newsletters and using the community message boards at the entrances to town along the highway to promote the AGM and early bird registration. They even formed their own Facebook group (Devon Minor Baseball) and update it constantly with recent news, registration event dates and information on the indoor clinics. They have been spreading the good word of baseball and it has definitely paid off with a huge increase of players and parental involvement.

Devon Minor Baseball was also busy during the pre-season bringing in much needed sponsorship dollars, an initiative also played out by the executive committee. Thanks to the generous donations of many local businesses, most of Devon Minor Baseball’s teams will be sporting brand new uniforms this year.

“Finally, we can now retire our old, worn and torn uniforms. They had to be at least 10-15 years old and had definitely played their last game. By this time next year, we hope to have the remaining teams in new uniforms as well so we can have a cohesive look for Devon Minor Baseball.” notes Tinis.

For the first year ever, Devon Minor Baseball T-ball players will also get to play in corporate sponsored team t-shirts. As an added bonus, they will get to keep the t-shirts as a memento of their season.

Thanks to additional donations from local businesses, Devon Minor Baseball has been able to start purchasing much needed equipment for the teams. Some of the old equipment was broken or missing parts or just simply worn out. Also, with the rise in player numbers, they needed more equipment like helmets, pitching machines and tees to accommodate the additional players.

Because of the short, nine week baseball season, Devon Minor Baseball decided to expand their community program by hosting three indoor pitching camps and three indoor fielding and hitting camps. By utilizing indoor facilities like the hockey arena and the school gymnasiums, the coaches were able to hold practices indoors, even while there is still snow on the ground.

“The turn out and response we got to these indoor clinics was outstanding,” said Tinis. “A huge number of players came to each event that we held. The coaches, many of the parents and even a couple of my former college baseball teammates helped run the stations so that every player could get a significant amount of practice in. Both the players and coaches now feel confident and prepared for when we can finally get out on the field.”

Devon Minor Baseball is looking forward to an exciting season ahead. All home games for every division are played at the Field of Dreams at the corner of Highway 60 and Highway 19. The two Mosquito division teams will even be hosting their league’s tournament this year out at the diamonds on the weekend of June 6^th and 7^th.

“We invite the whole community to come out, not just to the tournament but to regular evening games as well,” encourages Tinis. “We have a lot of ideas and plans for the Field of Dreams and our ultimate goal is to make game night in Devon a family and community event.”

Did you like all the baseball cliches in there?? haha! I feel I went a little overboard but they like that so I had to provide it.

Here are a few of the pictures I submitted with the article:

The issue will be published May 15 and I am told we will have 100 copies sent to Devon Minor Baseball by early to mid July?? July or June? Wonder if that was a typo on the editor's behalf? We will see!