A couple of weeks ago, we told you that the Central Ontario Major Baseball League had completed all the preliminary leg work regarding the "Hap" Walters Invitational Baseball Challenge.  The event became "Official" this week, as tourney contact person, Tim Gasparotto sent out invitations to 24 of the best Senior "AAA" baseball programs in the province.  The Niagara Metros received theirs on Sunday, and have already returned an enthusiastic and positive response to the tournament committee.  Here are the details regarding the 2012 "Hap"...

Like last year, this year's tourney will be played out of the Erindale/ Clarkson / Etobicoke and Oakville parks on the same weekend as it has been traditionally held...July 20 to 22.  And, once again, with 5 parks being used, the field will include 20 teams, making it the biggest Senior tourney this side of the Eliminations (which will be held in Windsor two weeks later). 

The tourney will feature a 5 Division round-robin, with each division winner advancing to the playoffs.  In addition, 3 "Wild Card" teams will advance, making the round-robin games more meaningful, and if the games are anything like last year, the playoff teams will not be decided until after the last pitch of the early round games.  The quarter-final will be played across 4 parks on Saturday evening, while the semi-finals and a finals wrap up on Sunday.  Like last year, more teams means more games and more baseball! 

Also like last year, the tournament will feature David Huctwith (Mississauga) as Convener, Greg Cranker (Erindale) as Head of Operations, and Michelle Wood (Burlington) as Treasurer.  As mentioned, the lone change on the tournament committee sees Tim Gasparotto (Erindale) become the new contact person, replacing outgoing Tourney Chairman Mark Walters.  Walters will represent his father ("Hap") as he hands out the "hardware" to the winners of the event. 

As mentioned, invitations have already gone out via email this week.  Any team that is interested in attending the 2012 "Hap" is urged to contact any of the above listed tournament officers, for information.  All of the details are available on this website, by clicking on the "Hap Walters Tourney" link...to the left of this page.


METROS START-UP MEETING...WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 22ND

Just a reminder that the Metros 2011 Informational startup meeting will be held Wednesday night (February 22nd) at the Thorold Legion.  The Branch 17 Legion is located at 3 Ormond Street South in the "Canal City".  There is plenty of free parking behind the building, and the meeting will be held in the upstairs hall, beginning at 7:30. 

The Metros have traditionally gotten the year started with an informational meeting of the players and management, to go over the plans and basic operations of the club, prior to the start of the indoor season.  We invite all current and prospective Metros to attend the meeting, and give us input on decisions that need to be made.

We'll post some of the decisions and announcements that arise from the meeting...next week.  Talk to you then. 

After a long, long fall and winter, it's time to get the 2012 season officially started...and we always do that with our annual "Winter Kickoff Meeting".  The first event on the Niagara Metros calendar for this season will be Wednesday, February 22 at the Thorold Legion, beginning at 7:30.  The Branch 17 Legion, for those who don't remember, has traditionally been the location of our past 5 winter startup meetings, and is at 3 Ormond Street in Thorold.  For you "Google Maps" people, the Postal Code is L2V 1X9.  We ask you to please park in the spacious parking lot at the rear of the building and enter up the back stairs.
 

A few of the topics for discussion at the meeting are...

1. "The State of the Metros"

2.  Fundraising and Registration

3.  Changes to the Team

4.  Changes to the League

5.  Prospective Schedule and Tournaments

...as well as any topics that arise out of the discussions.

We invite all current and prospective Metros to attend the meeting...and bring your ideas and thoughts.  This is an interactive process, and as you know, most of the decisions we make as a team come from you.  You must attend in order to be heard.

Once again, that's Wednesday, February 22...7:30 at the Thorold Legion, on Ormond Street.  We just can't wait to get started.  See you there!


BIG DAY FOR WALTERS AND HIS FELLOW HONOREES

Back on February 3rd, the Metros' G.M. Mark Walters was invited to a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new City of St. Catharines Sports "Wall-of-Fame".  Mark was inducted to the Wall in April of 2009, but up until recently there was no "Wall" to be seen.  The city had been working on a plan to open their "Wall of Fame" after studying how other cities had gone through this process, and after budgeting came through clouncil. 

That process was completed this past fall, and the official dedication ceremony took place on February 3rd.  Some 41 "Hall-of-Famers" showed up for the ceremony, and according to Mr. Walters, it was a great evening of reminiscing and talking about local sports.  To read the entire story about the event, and the plans to make the Wall-of-Fame bigger and better in the future, please click this link.


NEW BASEBALL FILM FEATURE POSTED

Finally this week, we have posted a new video to our "Baseball Film Feature" section.  It's a hilarious "home-made" film by what looks like a group of U.S. College ballplayers with a great idea about how we talk about the game we love, but in a language that only we can understand.  It's a little 3 minute masterpiece entitled "Shit Ballplayers Say".  And believe us when we say, "These guys can really bring the chedd..."

Just scroll to the bottom of the page and press "Play".  Talk to you next week.

The Central Ontario "AAA" Major Baseball League got "off and running" last night, with their first executive meeting of the 2012 season, in Burlington.  There were many issues discussed, from electing a new Senior League committee, to league finances, to O.B.A. updates, to a discussion about the 2012 schedule, All-Star game, and playoff format.  The membership also discussed any changes with the returning individual teams (that might effect the league) such as park, or various local city issues.

Here are the highlights of some of the league decisions made at last night's meeting:

1.  The league voted to return the same Senior League Committee to their respective positions for 2012, and the 5 league members agreed to continue on.  The committee consists of David Huctwith (League Convenor), Glenn Turner, Bruce Evans, and Greg Cranker (League Arbitrators and Disciplinarians), and the Metros' Mark Walters (Schedule Maker).  There have been very few problems facing the league since these 5 people have been elected to their posts, so they are obviously doing a great job.  The league thanks them for their dedication and for giving up more of their time to handle these duties.

2.  The league schedule will once again consist of 28 games for each of the 9 teams in the league.  The two divisions will play 4 times against teams from within their division, and 3 times against teams from the other division.  The Johnson Division (which has 4 teams in it) will play one extra game against a division rival to get them up to the 28 game total.  The season will begin on Friday May 4, with the Etobicoke Rangers opening the season at their Connorvale home park, while the Milton Red Sox will host a game in their brand-new facility (off of Derry Road) on Saturday, May 5.  The regular season will wrap up on Wednesday, August 15th.

3.  Speaking of the new park in Milton, the league members were happy to hear from the Milton contingent that the field is ready to go for the 2012 season.  And according to long-time Milton park "guru" Glenn Turner, the field is absolutely beautiful...with all the amenities in place to make it a first-class facility.  So, the league voted to use the Milton parks (there are two of them, side-by-side) to host their entire playoff tournament there.

3.  The Playoff tourney referred to above, will be a two-weekend affair, and will be similar in format to the previous couple of seasons.  To refresh your memory, the teams will be seeded according to their finish in the regular season standings, with the higher finishing teams needing fewer wins in the first weekend to advance to the second weekend.  The top 4 finishing teams from the first weekend will advance to the 2nd weekend, and play a double-knockout tourney, until one team is left standing.  The playoff tourney will get underway on the weekend of August 18th, with the second-weekend wrapup on August 25th.

4.  The league also announced that their 2012 All-Star game has been scheduled.  After much debate, the committee decided to move the game ahead 5 weeks, to aleviate schedule congestion heading into the elimination tournament.  It will be on Sunday, June 17 at Nelson Park in Burlington and will once again feature the All-Stars of the Johnson Division and the All-Stars of the Andrews Division in a head-to-head tilt.  The teams will be coached by the staffs of last year's Division winners, so the Coaching staff of the Erindale Cardinals (Tim Gasparotto and Greg Cranker) will take the lead for the Andrews squad, while the same duties fall upon George Moore and Matt McCandless of the Milton Red Sox, for the Johnson team.  It is always a great day at the yard!

5.  The Hap Walters Invitational Tournament, hosted by the Central Ontario "AAA" Major League will be back in 2012.  After the tournament's rousing success last year, the league is, once again, looking at hosting a 20-team event this season.  Once the park availability, and other logistical issues are sorted out, invitations will be sent out to all "AAA" teams in the province.  The invitations should go out sometime after the middle of February.  Erindale's Tim Gasparotto has taken the reins from long-time tournament Chairman, Mark Walters as tournament "contact person", and all inquiries regarding the tournament should go to him at the email address below.  Also, any "AAA" team representative that is interested in entering the tourney and has not received an invite in the past, is asked to contact Tim (his current email address is tim_gasparotto@hotmail.com).  The tournament will be played on the July 20, 21 and 22 weekend, and will once again, be based in the Mississauga-Oakville-Etobicoke area.

6.  Finally, speaking of tournaments, this year's Senior Elimination Tourney will return to Windsor, and will be hosted by Bernie Soulliere, and the Windsor Stars.  The very successful 2011 Eliminations were in the "Rose City" and will return for a second consecutive year.  You'll recall that London hosted the event in 2009 and 2010, but Windsor had been the site of the tourney for 7 years in the first decade of the 2000's.  It is always a very well-run event with great playing fields, and excellent umpiring when Bernie and the Stars are hosting.  The Elims, will once again be held on the August 1st "Civic Holiday" weekend.

That's about it for now.  Check back again next week, to get your February "baseball fix" in balmy Southern Ontario...right here at metrosbaseball.ca.