Good morning everyone! Thanks to all of our Town Coordinators and coaching staffs for their cooperation to get this 2020 summer travel season underway. This year in particular, all of our efforts as volunteers should be commended given the short time frame to get everything organized. After some weather delays, it was pure joy to see some baseball being played last night!

That being said, some important reminders:

Submission of scores and pitchers used: This must be completed within 3 hours of the end of the game. Use the link in the “REPORT GAME RESULTS” section on the right hand side of the home page to complete this task. Town coordinators, please ensure this is completed by your managers after all games.

Local safety protocol: Please communicate local Covid-19 policies with your opponents at least 24 hours prior to game time so that all teams have a clear understanding of what to expect at your fields. All visiting teams are responsible to respect and comply with local safety protocols. No matter where you are, please adhere to social distancing protocol for players, coaches and spectators, as well as wearing masks and using hand sanitizer often and properly.

Roster submissions: Roster updates will be sent to all team managers today, so please review them and report back any errors as soon as possible.

Our summer rules are posted, so please review them prior to play:
http://www.nebasleague.com/organizations/4054/documents/530143

As always, if you have any questions, please email your division commissioner. Their email addresses can be found on the Commissioner tab on the home page.

Thanks and have a great day!

Folks, Summer NEBAS will begin the week of July 6th. There will be two games a week, please check the “Summer NEBAS Game Days” tab for game days.

PLEASE register by this Thursday 6/25. REGISTER WITH WESTWOOD. Forms under 2020 Summer NEBAS Forms on the right. We need to get the schedules worked on immediately.

Also, historically we have had a LEAGUE meeting to distribute league books that includes schedules, rules, rosters etc.
This year due to Covid 19, we will NOT be meeting in person, and we will not be distributing league books,
Everything will be made available via email and sent to head coaches. THAT being said, we will need rosters by Sunday, June 28th so that we can create email lists for each division and be able to send out schedules, rules, rosters.

PLEASE submit your rosters VIA EMAIL ONLY to Westwood to :
Yash Risbud @ president@westwoodnjbaseball.com

We will be having a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, June 30th to review league rules and any questions by division. An invite with times for each division will be sent out.

Any questions, please send us an email.

Jim Oettinger
jjotto98@aol.com
cell 201-674-3413

Yash Risbud
president@westwoodnjbaseball.com

Folks, (this email is not going out to EVERYONE, just the town directors that we have on file- please send to your coaches that might be interested in participating in SUMMER NEBAS – Travel baseball)

I am sure that by now everyone has heard that Baseball can start up again in June? (as indicated by my phone and email exploding yesterday, 5 minutes after the governor spoke.)

That being said, the statement put out yesterday did nothing but cause more confusion as it was very very vague.

Our goal is to have a summer NEBAS league, starting WHEN WE CAN.

We are asking all towns to start checking your inventory for kids and teams and start to register using the NEBAS form that is on the NEBAS website. Disregard any submission dates that are on the NEBAS site or on the NEBAS forms.

Please register by June 12th if you plan on entering any teams into Summer NEBAS.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY PLEASE make sure that your numbers are true, meaning you might THINK that you have enough kids per each team, but some parents might not be comfortable with their children playing.

AND just as important, please review with your team/players and league directors that you have players that will be willing to be the catcher on your team? (Still no word on how social distancing will work with a catcher setting up behind the batter)

And note that one rule that will be put forth is the “NO SHARING OF EQUIPMENT”, so make sure that you have enough equipment. Catchers gear and batting helmets, bats.

As soon as we get more information from the governor we will move ahead quickly. We will start as soon as we can, play as many games as we can, and still have playoffs that might go until the 2nd week of August.

Reminder Westwood is the host town this year.

thanks jim oettinger/Yash Risbud

Jim Oettinger
jjotto98@aol.com
cell 201-674-3413

Folks, it is with a heavy heart that I am going to pull the plug and cancel the SPRING NEBAS season.

We look to Williamsport baseball for guidance and although we don’t follow their rules verbatim, we reference them often.

Williamsport announced on Monday March 16th that their season was delayed to open until the minimum of May 11th.

By following this lead, we would only have 3 weeks to play games for Spring NEBAS. Extending the spring season into the summer season is not a good idea and one in which we are NOT interested in pursuing.

I am a lover of the game of Baseball and I think it is in our best interests to focus on what we can look to accomplish for future seasons. To that end, I recommend we focus on working with Westwood to get the Summer NEBAS season up and running for 2020.

Summer NEBAS forms are posted now on the NEBAS website.

AND towns should focus on getting some kind of limited town rec baseball programs in place, just to return to a sense of normalcy.

I have great records of who has paid Closter Recreation for the spring season, and I would like to send everyone back their registration fees. Unfortunately, I shredded everyone’s mailing address :( when I got their reg fees.

PLEASE email me back where to send your refund- and WHO TO MAKE THE CHECK PAYABLE TO.

I know this is a tough call and a sad day, but we MUST do everything we can to stave off the spread of this virus and I firmly believe that we need to be following the recommendations of the authoritative organizations on this issue.

If you have any questions, please send me an email at jjotto98@aol.com.

Thanks – Stay safe

Jim Oettinger

We hope the Spring NEBAS will be able to start on 4/19. This date is subject to change.