A description of the meeting, who was there, action items and the next meeting date.

Note: all minutes are marked “Draft” until official approved by the next committee meeting.

VPA BASEBALL COMMITTEE
Monday, December 10, 2007
VPA Office

Members Present: Frank Pecora, Ed Hockenbury, Chris Antonicci, Vince Buttice, Bruce James, Jeff Stetson, Marty McDonough, Bill Flory, Bob Johnson

Minutes:

- motion by Jeff S., second by Ed H., to have Frank P. serve as committee chair. Vote – motion approved unanimously.

- motion by Ed H., second by Jeff S., to accept minutes of 12/5/06. Vote – approved unanimously.

- correspondence – Jeff S. mentioned that in championship game, umpires did not know the ground rules for Centennial. They should have had these in writing before the game began. Discussion on how officials are assigned to tournament games. Bob J. will write a letter to Bruce J. stating that it is the Baseball Committee and VPA’s desire to have the best umpires at the games based on rankings and not longevity. This is an issue in other sports as well as baseball.

- review of 2007 season – all went well. Some concern from umpires about the number of ejections due to crashes at home plate.. Coaches did seem to be following he coach uniform requirement.

- discussion on pitch count vs. innings. Biggest concern is the safety of the young pitchers arms. Little League uses a pitch count system that seems to work. Discussion on how we would implement this. Jeff S. recommends a 120 pitch count maximum for varsity pitchers. Further discussion on JV/Fresh. And middle school pitchers. Final proposal:

Note – this proposal supercedes the 72 hours/12 inning rule. This proposal uses calendar days (example – if a student throws 76 to 120 pitches on a Saturday, they would not be eligible to pitch again until Wednesday). If a pitcher reaches 120 pitches during a batter, they can continue until that batter is finished.

Revise the old pitching chart to reflect pitches, not innings. During the season each team is responsible for maintaining it’s own records. During the post-season, the home team will provide someone to track pitches and will let the umpire know between innings. Umpire is to keep the game card in case there are questions about a pitcher later in the tournament.

- discussion on divisional alignment criteria to be used by baseball for next year. Frank met with ASC in November with soccer and basketball chairs. All three Committees have agreed to use 1) enrollment (5%), # of sports a school has in a season, strength of the program over the past 3-5 years, number of youth programs in the community that feed a program, number of teams per division (attempt to create even numbers). No other criteria recommended by baseball committee. Recommend baseball/softball meet together in Fall when doing alignments. Committee will probably need an extra meeting next Fall in order to deal with this.

- discussion on NFHS 2007 Rule Changes. No major changes this year. Will be listed in the Guide.

- updated 2008 Guide

- adjourned