The calendar is about to change, once again, and on Thursday we welcome the month of April.  That means the weather will soon break (it's actually supposed to be sunny and 25 this weekend) and the Niagara Metros will be moving outside to begin their outdoor workouts in preparation for the 2010 baseball season.  In the meantime, the team will continue their indoor workouts at Thorold High School, at 8:30 every Tuesday (including tonight).

We have a couple of updates, here at the website, to inform you of.  First of all...right after the C.O.M.B.L. schedule was accepted and announced, a monkey wrench was thrown into the works.  The Oshawa Royals Invitational Tournament, that was scheduled for the weekend of June 19th, was moved to June 12th, due to park availability.  Of course, this one week change will affect the schedule for the COBA Major League.  Metros' GM Mark Walters has already addressed the issues, however, and the Metros' schedule is, once again, set to go.  The two changes are as follows: 

The Oakville at Niagara game originally scheduled for Thursday June 10th has been moved to Thursday June 17th.

The Niagara at Glanbrook game originally scheduled for Sunday June 13, has been moved to Sunday June 20th (and the Mississauga at Glanbrook game orginally scheduled for the 20th, is now on the 13th).

These changes are now reflected in the Metros' schedule, which has been posted on the website.  Just click on "2010 Schedule" (to the left of this page) for the complete, and up-to-date schedule.

Also new this week, is the updated Metros' "Management Team" page.  This page features a picture and bio of the people responsible for making the Niagara Metros go...including a look at the two new members of the team for 2010.  The two are Business Manager, Leo Magarian, as well as his associate, Larry O'hagan.  Once again, welcome guys!

And check back later this week, as we'll have some new pictures posted to our "Photo Album".  These are some candid and action shots of the Metros indoor workouts, currently ongoing.  

That's about it for now.  Enjoy your long Easter weekend, and we'll check back with you next week.  Till then, stay on the field.   

The Central Ontario Major Baseball League met last night in Burlington, with the number one topic of receiving and accepting their 2010 schedule and Playoff format, on the agenda.  And the league is proud to announce that both the schedule, and the Playoff format and were accepted, and will be announced this week.

The regular season schedule for the C.O.M.B.L. begins on May 7, and wraps up on August 16...with each team playing the other 9 teams in the league 3 times each.  This makes for a 27 game schedule.  The league All-Star game has also been scheduled - for July 25, in Burlington. 

As for the Metros, they open the season on May the 8th, as they travel to Milton for a 1:30 start.  The team will play 10 Thursday night, and 3 Monday night home games, at Community Park, in St. Catharines.  They will also be attending three tournaments over the course of the year...the Oshawa Royals Invitational (on June 19th), the Hap Walters Memorial (in Mississauga on July 17th) and the Ontario Senior "A" Elimination Tourney (in London on the August 1st weekend).  We hope to have the entire Metros' schedule posted on the "2010 Schedule" page of this website, later in the week. 

After the completion of the regular schedule, beginning on August 19th, the C.O.M.B.L. Playoff tournament will begin.  All 10 teams will be competing over a two-weekend span, with the Champions being announced on August 29th.  The preliminary round will see 9 of the 10 teams seeded, according to their final placement in the regular season.  The higher the finish, the fewer games the team will have to win, in order to make it to the 5-team Championship Final, the following weekend.  The 1st place team during the regular season, will receive a bye to the final weekend.

Also at the meeting, the league was proud to announce that the first members of the Central Ontario / Halton County Senior Baseball League "Hall fo Fame" have been elected.  The 152 former players, from some 40 teams over 80 years, will be announced to the public later this month.  You can check out who has made the cut, by going to the C.O.M.B.L. website at http://www.cobamajor.com/main.html .  The page will be posted, later this month.


INDOOR WORKOUTS CONTINUE

By the way, the Metros take to the gym, once again tonight, as their 2010 indoor season continues.  A reminder that there has been a time change for this (and all subsequent workouts).  The start time is now 8:30! and they go until 10:00.  The workouts are at Thorold High School, and will continue every Tuesday night, until we get outside.  See you there.

We have posted a new video in our "Baseball Film Feature" section.  It is the first of a series of funny films made by amateur film makers, simply known as Greg and Lou.  The series is called "Rejected Yankee Stadium Memories", and gives us a little insight about what it means to be a "true" Yankee fan.  Hilarious stuff!  Scroll to the bottom of the page to check it out.

Finally, this is your last chance to check out the pictures from Mark and Kerry's Mexico adventure, in our website "Photo Album".  Later this week, we will be taking them down to make room for some new ones of our indoor workouts.

Till next week...stay on the field.      

In an effort to raise awareness in the Niagara region, and to help restore the Metros to financial viability, the Niagara club believes they have taken the first corrective steps.  They have hired a new business manager for the 2010 season and beyond.  The Metros recently hired Leo Magarian to come on board and help out a drastically under-manned management team. 

For the past 4 seasons (ever since the retirement of Bob Namtzu in 2006), all of the duties of running the club fell to 3 men...GM Mark Walters, Field Manager Kerry Hedden, and Coach Carey Spiece.  After Spiece retired prior to the 2009 season there were just two remaining members, and the work began to pile up.  Some of it, including sponsorship recruitment, and fundraising, fell through the cracks.  Mark and Kerry felt that, in order for the team to continue to compete at such a high level (and, indeed, combat the rising costs of running an elite operation) they would need some help.  Enter Mr. Magarian.

Leo comes to the team with an outstanding resume behind him.  He most recently held a similar position with the St. Catharines Minor Hockey School for over 20 years.  In addition, he has held management positions with various minor hockey teams in St. Catharines, over the years, as well as working closely with the minor baseball programs that his son, Chris, has been a member of.  Chris, a young lefthanded pitcher, was a member of the Metros in 2009.

With Mr. Magarian on board, the Metros management team feel that they can now address some of the important issues that the previous management team were too thin to handle.  Some of these issues include: everything to do with money (banking, registration, fundraising, sponsorships, etc.), hotel bookings, Community Park liaison, and acting as an assistant to GM Walters.  Eventually, Leo will, hopefully, be in a position to act as the team's General Manager, if it became a necessity.

Leo has not been sitting on his hands, since accepting his new position.  He has already attended his first meeting...representing the team at the yearly City of St. Catharines Park Allocation meeting.  He has also enlisted some help of his own, hiring Larry O'Hagan (a longtime friend of Leo's, with a similar management background) to assist him with some of his duties.  And he is currently working on securing a PA announcer and scoreboard operator for the Metros home games, this summer.

Welcome aboard, Leo!  We know you'll do a great job!


C.O.M.B.L. SCHEDULE TO BE UNVEILED NEXT WEEK

Next Monday, March 22, is the date of the C.O.B.A. Major League meeting, in which the main agenda item will be the acceptance of the C.O.M.B.L. 2010 schedule.  Metros' G.M. Mark Walters is responsible for the schedule, and he reports that this year's schedule "looks great, and is ready to go".  At the meeting, (assuming there are no major conflicts) the schedule will be accepted by all of the teams, and shortly afterward will be made public.  We'll have a report on this meeting posted on next week's blog.

Till then, stay on the field...   

Well, after a fantastic week in Mexico, we're finding it hard to get back into the swing of things back here at home.  So we'll keep it short and sweet this week.

The Metros started their 2010 indoor season last Tuesday, and although there was a sparse crowd, the guys got their work in.  Just a reminder that there will be no indoor workouts for the next two weeks, due to events at the school.  We'll pick things up again on Tuesday March 23rd.  The workout start times have switched as well.  They'll begin at 8:00 and go till 10:00.  And a reminder they take place at Thorold High School on Ormond Street.  Please goe to the rear, middle doors, and get there aas close to 8:00 as possible.  That's Tuesday March 23rd at 8:00.

That's about it for hard news.  But we have added some photos from the Mexico trip to our "Photo Album".  We'll leave them up for a couple of weeks.  Enjoy!

In addition, we've added a new Video to our Baseball Film Feature area.  It's hard to describe what it's all about, so you'll just have to check it out.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and press "Play".

That's it for this week.  Till next week, stay on the field!