| Sunnyvale Little League News |
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New Field
Protocols
SVLL Families –
We received a
facilities alert from the City of Sunnyvale earlier today, informing us of
undue wear and tear on city fields. While we are not entirely to blame, the
city feels that areas on city baseball fields in particular have started to
show more soil degradation than in other parts of the parks. Years of drought
and improper field maintenance following games has resulted in in the tilting
of fields.
The effects of this problem is creating a safety issue as
the soil grading down most first base lines are not even with the grading
between second base and third base, as well as the area between third base and
home plate.
Effective immediately, games played
on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday will adopt new field protocols. These
include:
1) Base runners will be required to run from home plate to
third base, third base to second base, second base to first base and first base
to home, rather than the traditional counter-clockwise direction.
2)
Cleats will not be allowed on these days. The city has provided recommendations
on approved footwear for games on these days, which will include: bedroom
slippers, crocs or rubber soled flip-flops. Flip flops with any type of tread
will be prohibited.
3) Runners will be allowed to short-cut the base
paths and run through the infield from third base to first base in order to
reduce wear on the infield dirt if the umpires are not looking. If you are
detected by an umpire short-cutting the base paths, you will be assessed two
outs.
4) Base coaches will be required to coach while laying on their
backs in order to eliminate additional soil disruption.
5) All fans are
asked to bring a milk jug filled with water, so that teams can help with field
watering. Budget cuts with the city have reduced field watering to once every
14 days.
While these are not typical requests, we agree with the
direction that city is taking in preserving the athletic fields in Sunnyvale.
We ask that you do speak with your children and go over these new protocols, so
that everyone is prepared to implement them with games, starting tonight,
Thursday, April 1st.
Should you have any questions, please reach out to
head grounds keeper for the City of Sunnyvale, Carl Spackler.
Regards,
Sunnyvale Little League Board of Directors
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