B and E Tires

Present: Bo Wood, Harry Gowl, Keith Purdy, Dick Mullins, John Walker, John Bokop, John Mancuso, Don Clements, Jesse Bare, Mike Fleetwood, Johnny Allen, Terry Shifflett, Paul Litwin, Chris Houlday, Ed Gole, Terry Thomas, Mike Krieg and Neil Fleming.

1) President Wood brought up the matter of working on the fields, etc. The priorities are a fence for field 2 and fixing the outfield. John Walker said they planned to kill the grass, smooth out the dirt, and replant seed on Field 1. This will make it unusable, not sure of the timeline.

2) Moving the 150’ line back to increase opportunities to get hits. Discussion on whether to make it 160’ or 170’. Motion Mancuso, second Bare to move line to 165’. Motion passed.

3) Letter from Joe Gahm, sponsor of LTCI, asking that their team be allowed to be kept intact as it is for 2014 and take all the players on this team out of the draft. Discussion, no support showed, could not be allowed for only 1 team, opening up a can of worms, etc. Motion Purdy, second Don Clements that no team may stay intact from one year to another. Passed unanimously.

4) Balls: Stay with current .44 core or go to a .52 core (mush ball). There was also discussion on bats, not allowing “hot” bats. Discussion on making bats match the balls, i.e. too hard a ball on bats that could break, or those that would injury someone. Motion Thomas, second Fleetwood to stay with current balls and bats, and stay with ASA guidelines as amended by OTS. Motion Passed.

5) Number of Innings: Stay with 7, go to 8, etc. Motion Mancuso, second Fleming to stay with 7 innings, remove the slaughter rule and remove the time limit. Discussion, if we say 7 innings, play the whole 7 innings without a time limit. Also, get rid of the slaughter rule, we’re here to play. Passed unanimously.

6) Number of players per team: Current rule is 14 per team; do we want to change it? Discussion, 14 is too many on a team to manage, too many players sitting, etc. We also need to plan for if we get over 156 people registered next year. Do we split the league, if so how? Do we have 13 teams, with 1 team sitting out each game day, and move the upper limit to 169? Motion Keith, second Ed Gole to cap the number of people on a team to 13 players, with 12 teams for a total of 156. Anyone over that number goes onto a wait list, with registrations accepted as first come – first served with payment. Motion passed.

7) Replacing players after the draft: Discussion what to do with players who quit, are injured, etc. during the season. Bo discussed using the total team number after the draft, which is the rating of all the players added together. Discussion also took place about developing guidelines for the Executive Committee to use when placing players on team mid-season. Motion Purdy, second Thomas, once a team leaves the draft, their total number is their “cap”, and that no player can be placed on a team if that player’s rating would cause the team rating to exceed the team’s cap. Must be player for player, i.e. if you are missing two 12s, you cannot get a 20. Motion passed unanimously.

8) Running rule: Discussion on how to apply the running rule, should we allow substitute runners, etc. Issues including using last out automatically as the runner, moving the rubber back to behind the catcher, or letting anyone run. Motion Wood, second Thomas that the last out will be the next substitute runner. If, in the first inning, a team has no recorded outs, then anyone can run. If a team goes into the next inning with no recorded outs, the last batter in the previous inning will be the runner. Passed unanimously.

9) Player Ratings took place.

10) Makeup games: The last Wednesday of every month will be used for making up games in 2014.

Richard B. Mullins Secretary, OTS

The Board of Directors, which consists of the four league officers and the team managers, met on September 13, 2013. You can read the minutes from the meeting by going to the Meeting Minutes page.

Several rules changes were approved. They have not yet been incorporated into the by-laws but when they have been, the updated By-Laws will be available on the website.

For now, here's a summary of the rule changes. The corresponding By-Law section is referenced. Final wording has yet to be worked out.

1. The 150' line will be moved back to 165'. (Not currently in By-Laws, rule will probably be added to Section VIII, 8.3-e.)

2. Games will consist of 7 innings with no time limit. (Section VIII, 8.3-h.2)

3. The mercy rule (slaughter rule) will be eliminated. (Section VIII, 8.3-m)

4. The maximum number of players per team will 13. (Section I, 1.6-1)

5.  A team's total rating (after the draft has been completed) cannot be exceeded if a replacement player is needed. (Section I, 1.6-2)

6. When a substitute runner is required, the player making the last out will be the runner. (Section VIII, 8.3-j3)

7. The last Wednesday of every month will be used to make up postponed games. (Section IV)

The 2014 Bowling Tournament will be held on Friday, February 7, 2014.

Details will be posted here when available.

These are the team rosters for the fall season. There are 6 teams for the fall, imaginatively named Team #1, Team #2, Team #3, Team #4, Team #5 and Team #6. Players were assigned to teams and the teams were announced at the fields last Thursday.

Games for the 2013 Fall Season start this Tuesday, September 17th. The complete fall schedule is below. The season ends October 31st.

For additional information, contact one of the league officers.

Vice President Harry Gowl at (301) 471-4497  or hfgowl@mediacombb.net

Treasurer Keith Purdy at (302) 292-1000 or ktpurdy21@aol.com

Secretary Dick Mullins at (443) 614-9347 or OTSsecretary@aol.com

The rosters and the schedule can be downloaded by clicking on the Handout link below.

Despite unusually hot September weather, everyone had a great time at this year's picnic.

Trophies were presented to regular season winner Delmarva Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) and to tournament winner Custom Woodworking.

A special trophy was presented to our Grounds Crew headed by Johnny Allen with crew members Pat Sherry, Johnny Walker,  Carl Pierce, Ed West and Terry Thomas.

Bubba Stack, now 84 years young and still playing softball, received a special award commemorating his many years in the league.

The votes have been counted and league officers were announced for next year. Bo Wood (President) and Keith Purdy (Treasurer) will serve the second year of their term, and Dick Mullins (Secretary) was re-elected to a new two-year term. Harry Gowl was elected to a two-year term as Vice President.

A special Thank You was extended to our outgoing Vice President, Tommy Farrah. During his years of service, in addition to his role on the Executive Committee, Tommy was responsible for the scheduling of games and umpires. Tommy was the key factor in getting wells and water lines for the fields. He also was the chairman of a special committee to update and document OTS rules, regulations and by-laws.

And finally, congratulations to Bob for winning the 50-50.