Kevin's Ramblings…

Well, I have sent out an email to the contacts that I was able to find – 24 of them or so… Thus far I haven’t heard back from anyone as yet. I am hoping that I will mind you. I’d love to be able to get a good team together. According to MM, the team isn’t interested in being "competitive" … Well, as far as I am concerned, that’s not All-Star.

Here is an email from today and my reply:

Original email:

On 9 February 2010 09:06, <address@removed.ca> wrote:

Kevin, I have heard through the grapevine that you are considering entering this team into AA tournaments. This concerns me in that I think that you are trying to create some elite level team at this age group. I worry that you will not be able to form a team at all. Nine of the twelve kids from last years team simply wanted to play at a level above house league. Most played some form of summer hockey or lacrosse which was their priority. Of the three more serious parents, one is Ralph whose son is underaged and not playing at all due to arm problems/desire/overbearing father?, another played Bullet last fall and will continue this spring, the third may be back but I have not been in contact to know for sure. My son goes through this decision process every year because hockey is so busy all winter and is a long season. When spring arrives, he will want to play baseball. Our whole family plays and enjoys baseball, but if it is going to be more than a couple of league games and a practise per week, along with a few (competitive for the group) tournaments, we will have to consider playing Bantam house league.

I understand that you are enthusiastic but make sure that their are enough players and families interested in your vision first.

Matt

Reply:

Hi Matt,

I am rather concerned with a few things regarding this team. Yes, I have attempted to enter a AA tournament in Vaughan where I have brought teams to since 1997. To date, I haven’t received a cheque for the tournament entry fee so I would guess that the window of opportunity to get into that tournament may have passed already. The difference between A and AA is not a major difference – there are of course some teams that go to AA tournaments that indeed are AAA caliber clubs – this happens all the time.

If the players commitments are not with baseball for the 2010 season than this will be an issue with me. The purpose of All-Star baseball should be to improve ones skills to get to the "next level" which may be playing baseball at a College or University in Canada or the US. I do realize that this is Major Peewee and that the players are only 13, but if the commitment isn’t there on the players and parents end then I am not sure that I want to commit my time and efforts to it.

I am also concerned that I have parents, thus far Dave and yourself perhaps attempting to dictate how I run the team that I was given. With all due respect, if I want opinions from Board members, I will ask and I have never asked for opinions from any parents. With that being said, I do respect that some parents don’t want to commit to a summer of baseball – this also presents a challenge for me.

Perhaps I should step back and allow someone else to run this team if your feelings are similar to other parents on this club.

I will consider that position and will inform the Board of Directors of my decision in the next week.

If either of you would like to discuss, I am available in the evenings at home, <number removed> or on my Blackberry, <number removed>.

Kevin

So, that is that… It is 9:43PM and no responses. That’s OK though… I am hoping that we’ll have some responses before the winter clinics start. If not, I will step down – perhaps someone else will take the team, perhaps not. If the same people that had it last year take it, the team won’t exist from what I have heard.

I am sure there will be more on this. Stay tuned.

UPDATE, 5:46AM on Wednesday, February 10 – I received an email last evening from the SCMBA Treasurer.  I have applied for three tournaments and SCMBA only pays for two…  Yes, I know that – does SCMBA not cover the expenses until we are able to do fundraising?  It is tough working with a BOD that has no clue about All-Star baseball and appear to be closed-minded about the entire process…  Fun, fun, fun…

I think that I mentioned that we had our first registration for baseball this past Saturday. I must have also mentioned that I was given the Major Peewee team for the 2010 season.

After our meeting last Tuesday, I asked DV for a copy of the 2009 registration list so that I could contact the players from last year and let them know about registration. He said no problem or something to that effect. Didn’t hear back, asked again on Thursday – reply was that he would work on it when he got back from the rink – nothing…

So, Saturday comes along, registration starts and I make a comment about not having the list yet… I email DV again on Saturday night, forwarding his previous reply. He answers back, “I don’t have a computer so I will have to enter the information” … Well, if you don’t have a computer, perhaps you can give me a written copy? No?

I decide to email MM and ask him – he coached the team in 2009 – see if I’ll get anything here… he replies back quite quickly and says that he’ll forward my contact information to the contact list from 2009. Ummm, thanks, but that wasn’t what I asked for…

So, I am wondering if both of these gents want this team to succeed or not? FI has done a fair amount of work trying to secure gym time for us to be able to workout inside. I have worked on getting a team of volunteer coaches to assist – both the Prez and Vice-Prez don’t seem to give a rats ass about baseball and haven’t, by the looks of it, got a CLUE…

Anyway, I have the entire Major Peewee contact list, House League and All-Star and will be sending an email out to the entire group. We are supposed to start inside on Friday the 19th of February – that is a week away…

Well, that is my rant for now. I do hope that things improve, I sorta doubt it though. TG claims that this Board is just “laid back” … Perhaps, but that is a little too laid back. Those two guys don’t have a clue and don’t seem to care if the league works or not. If they don’t like me, that’s fine, but do they have to be dicks about it? Oh well… Let’s see how all of this plays out…

Today was a good Sunday – very relaxing… Started early, not sure why I am waking up so darn early, 4:37AM this morning… I do get a lot done so that is ok I guess…

Went out for Breakfast this morning. I had French toast with bacon and a side-order of home fries. It was all good BUT the home fries must have been like $5.00 or so which is a tad insane… Oh well – I won’t make that mistake next time around.

Did the coffee thing @ Timmies this afternoon, napped and now watching the Super Bowl. The Colts are up 10-6 @ the half… The Half Time Show was great – The Who did a selection of their songs but only in snipets – very cool.

Back to work tomorrow – should be the last time that I will have to work OT for a bit, I hope. Won’t be home until after 7pm most likely, but that’s ok…

Later…

Well, this appears to be my 100th post – congratulations to me I suppose. Shouldn’t there be something special to celebrate?

Anyway, it has been a few days since my last post – not sure why… I have been on, perhaps too busy, I don’t know.

So, Friday – typical day I guess. We had a lunch day in the Support / Service Desk area. It was a good lunch. KT made an excellent cake, likely the best cake that I have ever had. Did some shopping on Friday evening – was looking (just looking) at LCD TV’s and wow, have they ever come down in price.

SCMBA had their first registration on Saturday morning. We had a good number of kids sign up. A LOT of Rookie aged kids – looks like that will be a strong division. A good base will help for years to come though as well.

I had my dinner party on Saturday night – went really well. I made jalapeno peppers with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon – they are SO good… The seeds are gone as well so they don’t have much kick but that is OK. Had a taco layered dip as well and some cheese and crackers. The main course was my world famous chicken cacciatore – it went over pretty well and everyone seemed to have a good time – I will have to do another one next month or so.

That leads into today – Super Bowl Sunday. I am taking the Colts over the Saints – I have said that all along… Should be a good game.

I might zip to Hamilton today and check out the RV show – not sure though… Would like to see MO as well, see how he’s doing.

Anyway, enjoy Super Bowl – have a good one 🙂

What’s new? Not sure. I fear that as in life I may be repeating myself in my blog. How am I supposed to remember what I post from day to day… Well, I will admit that I repeat my stories, so, in considering that I should admit that I will likely repeat myself, from time to time, in my blog. I can live with that.

I have been rather busy at work still. It has been something else. We are getting a co-op student at work – this time it is slave labour. He is a high school co-op – hopefully it will work out well, I am sure that it will.

We are having a pot-luck type lunch tomorrow @ work. I am making the main course – chicken cacciatore. I will be making this two days in a row actually – once tomorrow for co-workers and again on Saturday for friends that are coming over.

Nothing else new really – same old I guess. I am going to have to start working on a coaching staff and I hope that I will get the contact list of the 2009 players shortly. A certain DV doesn’t seem to be forthcoming with information…

Anyway, guess I will get the day going. 🙂

Good baseball meeting last night. I was named the Head Coach of the 2010 Major Peewee baseball club. It is a good age group, Major Peewee’s are 13 year olds. Our home park is Walkinshaw Park, over near Ridley College. I have coached there for three years previously, really nice, well kept park. There aren’t dugouts or anything, but there is shade on the home side for evening games. The only down part of that park is trying to get there around 5pm, the traffic can be bad.

I have already registered us in one tournanement for early June – we are heading to Vaughan. The CNE is a must-do as well for the Major Peewee age group. I don’t know what to expect with this group, guess I will have to see.

We are having workouts on Tuesday evenings starting February 16. I can’t wait to get outside and get the season going. Will be a good summer for sure.

The mortgage application doesn’t look too good. Some credit issues from my past still haven’t cleared… Oh well, I love where I am living so it is all good. There will be other houses.

That’s it – Kevin is a happy camper today 😉

Up early again, earlier than “normal” … Of course, I went to bed @ 9pm last night and slept well. Am I getting old already? Going to bed @ 9 and getting up well before the sun? OK, I can tell you this much, I am NOT going to become a farmer… LOL

Well, I do seem to get a fair amount accomplished when I am up this early. I still have a fair amount to do to prepare for my dinner party on the weekend. How about a list – that doesn’t seem to help…

1. Wash kitchen floor
2. Wash bathroom floor
3. Connect speakers in the kitchen, dining room, bedroom and basement
4. Clean stove
5. Vacuum and dust

That should be about it… Not too bad of a list.

I am hoping to drop by the Hamilton RV show on Friday evening – it is my only night with some free time. I don’t think that I will be buying one in the immediate future but I do want to get home, hopefully before summer. Who knows though… I will more than likely buy a used one anyway, I will save some money. WB has said that he’d be willing to give me a deal on re-upholstering a trailer if I do get one and it happens to have flowers or something similar like a lot of older trailers seem to have…

As I indicated yesterday, we have a baseball meeting tonight. Lots to discuss I am sure. I do hope that DV will keep the meetings under a little better control than he has – the last meeting was a mess. Mind you, it was at Bugsy’s and it was LOUD in there. I do hope that I am given a team tonight. If the Board delays on it again I may withdraw my application and simply coach the Seniors with FI. I was the ONLY coach who submitted an application on time and was asked to “wait”… I won’t put up with it any longer … I have planning to do – tournaments will start filling up soon and I was lucky to get into the Vaughan Tournament and I did only because I saw DD at the Best Ever Clinic.

We’ll see what happens tonight I guess.

We also have our first registration this coming Saturday. I hope that we have a good turnout and that registration numbers go up for this season. If I am given the Peewee team then I will start on my recruitment right away.

More later…

Another really busy Monday driving all over hells half acre. Well, perhaps not that far but all over the Niagara Region anyway…

I haven’t done a lot tonight which was essentially my plan. I do hope to hit bed early seeing as I was up far too early today – 4:45am… I have no idea why I am getting up so early – I am not particularly tired during the day, but, waking up before 5am is insane…

We have a baseball meeting tomorrow evening and our first registration on Saturday. I am hosting a dinner party on Saturday evening and working OT on Sunday. I had thought that the OT was going to take nearly a full day but now it seems like it’ll be much quicker – the longest part of the day will be driving from site to site.

What else is going on … Hmmm, not a heck of a lot. No developments on the house. I haven’t followed up with the bank as yet. I was hoping to today but I was out of the office most of the day. I did finally get content insurance at home – likely a good idea if something should happen.

Well, time for dinner then hit the sack. Out.

So today is the Pro Bowl. The NFL is typically a very well run league. I REALLY don’t understand why they have moved the Pro Bowl to the weekend BEFORE the Super Bowl though, I really don’t… I understand why they moved it from Hawaii, very expensive out there and the stadium apparently needed a lot of upgrades.

Moving it to this weekend would pretty well ensure that ANY players who are in the Super Bowl WON’T be playing today. If you were playing next week in the Super Bowl, would you take the chance of getting hurt in the Pro Bowl? I doubt it and I doubt that any of them will.

Take for example Payton Manning… Now, I am not sure if he was named to the Pro Bowl but I am sure he was. Why would he take the chance of getting hurt (broken leg perhaps, broken throwing hand) and NOT play next week? He wouldn’t and I am sure his coaches and the owner wouldn’t let him either. If he did, what would stop someone (anyone) with money to hire a player to hurt him and knock him out next week? That would almost certainly spell WIN for the Saints…

So, in short, I don’t understand it. Can someone explain it to me? Please?

As I commented previously, I volunteered at a ball hockey tournament today that the Region was hosting. Proceeds went to Toque Tuesday and I believe that we raised over $6000 which is awesome. This morning @ 8am is was -14 celcius… That is pretty damn cold. Thankfully, there was no wind @ Regional HQ today which is really odd. Normally it is VERY windy up there. It would have been brutal if there was a wind.

We started by slugging bails of hay @ 8am, had 5 “rinks” setup by 9am and then had an hour wait or so until the first game. I was a ref today. I was dressed VERY warmly… It was fun, a good day all in all.

The Corporate Services team won the tournament and although I am in Corporate Services and was one of the refs for the Championship game, it was purely a coincidence. 🙂 The Corporate Services team played very well. Congrats guys (and gal).

So, came home, watched a bit of TV, had a nice nap and a hot shower, dropped off a toque for Joan and have had a quiet night.

I saw that the Leafs were up 3-0 and ended up losing 5-3… That would be, by my calculations five (5) un-answered goals. Pretty bad. I can’t really talk right at the moment though. My Flames have lost 9 straight and are facing the Oiler tonight who have lost about 13 straight… Well, at least one of them will get a win finally…

Nothing going on tomorrow I don’t think – we’ll see…