Two River Little League Community –

Well, it’s been over a month! On behalf of the whole TRLL Board, we hope that you and your extended family are doing well and that the troubles of the past weeks have only minimally impacted your loved ones, finances, and overall health.

As I explained in my last letter dated March 17th, I had planned to convene the TRLL Board this evening via Zoom and explore whatever options were before us. As of April 18th, our updated guidance from Little League International is that they continue to hold to a potential reopening on May 11th (which was the CDC’s original date). We also acknowledge that there are a few states considering a reopening as early as this weekend which may lead to playing baseball almost immediately. Little League notes that they expect to get back to leagues by “early May” with what we would expect to be a final decision (even if not all the details of how it will work are outlined).

Clearly, our state and peninsula community are not at that point. With schools being closed until May 15th, the very earliest we could hope to begin would be on Saturday the 16th. Further, we would expect to have at least one practice prior to starting any games (at the high school level, you must have 6 days of practice and a day of rest by rule before you can play an official game, so we need to have at least one!). So, the short of it is, in the best-case scenario and with whatever mandated precautions are put in place, that:

  1. Games would begin the week of May 18th
  2. We would schedule games on the Friday & Saturday of Memorial Day weekend

We do not know if Little League is still trying to have a worldwide tournament. If they do, then whatever season we have would be even more abbreviated or TRLL could simply choose not to participate; if they don’t have a tournament, then we just have an abbreviated season with playoffs and work with towns as to a season end date (probably before July 4th weekend). And, of course, LLI could come up with other options such as state tournaments only.

Again, this is if schools open on May 15th. We have confirmed with the recreation directors in four of our towns that it would take strong direction from the state to open for organized sports if schools remain closed through June. Not surprisingly, we hold little optimism for a 2020 season if schools remain in virtual mode.

Please know that we are not advocating for an outcome, merely preparing for one. If it is determined that we can play baseball safely, then let’s do it! And, if not, we will lament the lost season and begin to think about 2021. As usual, reach out with any questions you might have, but remember we are pretty much in the dark! Please expect another update from us no later than next Friday, May 1st.

Respectfully,

Chuck Jones

President, Two River Little League

 

PS – Of course, despite the thunder & lightning overhead as I write this, we’ve never had a better first three weeks of April weather to play ball!

Posted in Regular Season