Pitch Hit and Run Competition

Opening Day this Sunday will feature the Aquafina Pitch Hit and Run Competition.  This is a lot of fun and it's free for boys and girls ages 7-14.

If your son is interested, register online at http://www.smileboston.com/phr.

Opening Day Details

Needham Little League Opening Day is Sunday May 1. While we do not play our first game until Monday--when we take on our arch-rival River Cats--Sunday's festivities are a wonderful way to celebrate Little League Baseball and kick off the 2011 season.

Here's what's happening:

• 10:00 Arrive at Greene's Field. Meet near the team photo area (not sure exactly where that will be yet).
• 10:15 Team photo
• 11:00 Little League Parade leaves Greene's and heads towards DeFazio
• 11:30 Parade arrives at DeFazio. Opening Day address, hot dogs, pitch, hit and run competition, raffle drawing, and other attractions.

I will distribute team photo forms at tomorrow's practice. Please fill them out before you arrive at Greene's on Sunday to ensure an efficient team photo.

More details about Opening Day will be posted on the Needham Little League site soon. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Regular Practice Tomorrow (No Scrimmage)

The rain date for last Saturday's scrimmage was going to be tomorrow evening during our practice time. For the Mets, this would have been a last-minute addition to the schedule. Mets manager Brendan Connelly put the word out to his team as soon as we were rained out on Saturday, but only a few of his players were available for a scrimmage tomorrow. A valiant effort, but it looks like we will have to wait for May 12, when we have a regular-season date with the Mets.

Tomorrow, we will hold a practice as our schedule originally indicated. We'll be at Eliot from 5:30 to 7:30.

Third and Fourth Grade Fantasy Baseball

I have put together a makeshift fantasy baseball league for Tom and some of his friends. Really, it's a way for me to get him to do some math over the summer--and it should be fun.

I've bypassed Yahoo and MLB and set up our own wiki-site for the league. Currently there are seven teams, and we're looking for an eighth or tenth or twelfth (looking for an even number of teams). Each week, I will post the number of hits, at-bats, HRs, innings pitched, earned runs, etc. for each MLB player selected in our league. Each manager (third/fourth-grader) then must compute batting average, ERA, etc. for his team. Teams are matched up each week and compete head-to-head. Teams earn points for best team batting average, ERA, etc.--and, of course for accurate calculation.

For more details, check out the site:

http://needhamfantasybaseball.wikispaces.com/Welcome+to+Needham+Fantasy+Baseball%21

Email me if your son is interested. We will hold the draft sometime in May.

Today's Practice and Scrimmage Cancelled

I'm looking at standing water covering most of the right half of the diamond at High Rock. We are hoping to reschedule our scrimmage with the Mets for this coming Tuesday 5:30 at Eliot (instead of our practice). I'll let you know when that's firm.