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Baseball Oshawa President Ken Babcock provides an update on the upcoming season.

Update on 2020 baseball season

By Admin, 05/04/20, 4:30PM EDT

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Baseball Oshawa President Ken Babcock provides an update on the upcoming season.

Baseball Oshawa Players, Coaches, Umpires, Volunteers and Parents;
 
Hoping you and your families are safe and healthy and are coping with the on-going COVID-19 situation.  The health and safety of our Baseball Oshawa members and families is paramount and as such, we are monitoring the COVID-19 situation regularly. On April 29th our volunteer executive had a conference call to discuss the 2020 season update.  Following the call and lengthy agenda we remain 100% committed to doing everything we can in preparation and planning for baseball to happen in 2020 Our House League registration continues to stay open on-line in order to try to forecast player numbers due to the logistics surrounding division makeup, diamond requirements, umpires, uniforms and equipment purchases etc.

We also continue to track the positions of both our legislative and sport governing bodies as guidance towards keeping our members safe.  There have been two significant changes since our last update:
 
1 – The province of Ontario has extended the state of Emergency to and including May 12 (https://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2020/04/ontario-extends-declaration-of-emergency-to-continue-the-fight-against-covid-19.html);
 
2 – Baseball Ontario, our sport governing body, has suspended all in-person baseball activities up to and including May 31 (https://www.baseballontario.com/filestore/htmleditattachedfiles/covid_19_april_20_release2020-04-20t13-28-12v001_by_292.pdf).
 
As a result of these recent initiatives, Baseball Oshawa reminds everyone that all in-person baseball-related activities are on hold until and including May 31st.  We will re-assess the environment at the end of May, or sooner if deemed appropriate by our governing bodies.  It appears the re-opening plan for the province of Ontario is changing daily and is creating some optimism.  Please note that baseball activities include: Team functions (meetings, practices, games, conditioning sessions), player clinics, Rec League player evaluations, organizational meetings, coaches meetings, umpire meetings and clinics. Furthermore, we are bound by the City of Oshawa on diamond permits and decisions they set forth.
 
These changes do not alter our commitment to getting on the field for the 2020 playing season.  Basically we will need 1-2 weeks, once the governing bodies provide us the authorization to resume normal activity, to get the season started.  This will allow us time to hand out equipment to coaches etc. and for our rep teams to prepare.  Therefore, the earliest the season could start, given this cancellation of activities, is early to mid-June.  We are exploring contingency plans in the event the season would start later than mid-June as well.
 
We assure you that if the worst case comes to light, the worst case being a complete season shutdown, that we have discussed a contingency plan.  Our volunteer board members are working on how we would be able to survive as an organization should the season shutdown completely.  This contingency plan would also include a refund plan.   We have a dedicated and talented volunteer board that is helping us work through this.  Our volunteers are putting their expertise to work in order to come up with appropriate and fair contingency plans for these unknown situations.
 
Once again House League Registration will remain open indefinitely so that if the environment changes in a positive manner, families will still be able to register for the 2020 playing season.  http://www.baseballoshawa.com 
 
I’m very proud of our coaches and players and the many on-line things our teams are doing: from zoom chats, to creative training shares and fun baseball posts. Very cool.  I would also like to point out the many on-line baseball supports, education and skills drills are available during this time from Baseball Ontario, Toronto Blue Jays and Baseball Canada.  
 
 
These are challenging times, but working together as a community in creative ways, will allow us to get through this difficult period of time.  And we will be better for it in the long run.    Until our next update, continue to execute safe practices and also follow our Baseball Oshawa website and social media for further updates.  

Yours in baseball,
Ken Babcock
President
Baseball Oshawa OLMBA