Well, its official...the 2007 C.O.B.A.
Major Baseball League Season is underway. The first order of business for the new year is the January meeting, where
a number of important decisions and agreements are made.
The big news...there is a new team in
and an old team out for 2007. The Clarkson Twins will not be competing this summer, and have asked for a one-year hiatus
to deal with some internal issues. They hope to return in the future. Their spot in the Johnson Division will
be taken by the "expansion" Mississauga North Tigers. The Tigers have been a force in the minor ranks of COBA for a
few years now, and have assembled a lot of players who have graduated from Junior and are ready to play at the Senior level.
They will play out of the Meadowvale North park and will probably be using Wednesday or Thursday as their home night.
The Metros would like to welcome the new club to the league and wish them the best of luck in their inaugural season.
The league has opted to continue with
the same playoff format as last year, with one new wrinkle. The bottom 4 teams will play a 2 out of 3 preliminary series,
with the 2 winners advancing to join the other 6 teams in an 8-team double knockout tourney. The wrinkle is the fact
that there is a "guaranteed" end to the regular schedule...2 days before the start of the preliminaries. Any team not
having all of their games in by this cut-off date, will not be allowed into the playoff tournament. The tourney (and
season) will wrap up on August 26th.
There will be a slight change to the "shotgun
start" to the season, this year. Instead of each team playing 3 7-inning games on the opening weekend, they'll play
two nines. As always, these games will be played at neutral parks, and this year will be on the May 5th weekend.
The Oakville A's have volunteered to host
the League All-Star game, this year. It will take place on Sunday, July 22nd and will feature a home-run derby and a
refreshment garden.
The new C.O.B.A. league Commissioner in
David Huctwith of Clarkson. He was on the Staff of the Clarkson Twins for the past couple of years, as well as being
on the C.O.B.A. Board of Governors. He is also the current President of C.O.B.A., and the league will benefit from his
insight, experience and leadership. Glenn Turner, Greg Cranker and Bruce Evans will stay on in their current roles
as League Governors, while George Moore will also help out on this committee. Mark Walters will continue in his role
as League Scheduler.
Other than a few constitutional issues,
that was "meat and potatos" of the meeting. Next is the assembly of the schedule and each team getting their individual
operations out of hibernation. The Metros are planning on holding a start-up meeting sometime in February. Talk
to you then.
