12 Orange

It’s tournament time! Please read the following fully.

At tournaments things get a bit amp’d up: The highs are higher and the lows are lower. Our organization is about positive cheering and reinforcement only. It is not appropriate to make any comments to the umps, either team or coaches, or the league officials. The managers will take care of any issue they feel is appropriate to raise.

Please make sure your player has all parts of his uniform, mitts, bats, shoes, batting helmet, protective gear, and sunglasses at all games.

Uniforms – Please bring all three shirts to all games. For all teams other than the college showcase 15U and 16U teams, Saturday teams will wear either orange or green jerseys (whichever the coach decides). Sunday and Monday teams will wear the white tournament jersey for all games. College Showcase team uniforms will be determined and communicated by the team admins.

Sunglasses – Please make sure they are packed in your player’s equipment bag. It is a matter of safety.

Bats/ Bat Restrictions: This is a metal bat tournament.

All bats must be little league approved (stamped with bpf 1.15)
9U/10U- No barrel larger than 2 ¼ will be allowed. No weight restrictions.
11U/12U- No barrel larger than 2 5/8 will be allowed. No weight restrictions.
13U- All bats must be minus 5 or less (i.e. length 32” weight 27oz.)
15U/16U- must meet current High School rules & standards. All non-wood bats must meet Batted Coefficient of Restitution (BBCOR) standard of (-3).

Food & Travel – Breakfast is not included, but there is a full service restaurant on-site as well as a Starbucks.

Traffic is unpredictable Memorial Day weekend. If the weather is nice it could be bumper-to-bumper as you will be travelling towards the Jersey shore. We recommend you use a GPS app such as WAZE to plan your travel and help navigate around traffic. You can look up the GPS address for the fields on the following webpage under the Fields/GPS tab. http://www.usabl.com/mdw17

Parking – Please respect all parking restrictions at all fields. Do not park in the firehouse lot at the Marlboro complex.

Schedules, field information, and game results – we suggest you download the USABL app at the following webpage to track results and confirm schedules, especially should there be weather related changes to game times: http://www.usabl.com/mobileapps

You can confirm your team’s schedule by clicking on the links: Schedules

Tournament Rules 

Birth Certificates – If you haven’t already done so, provide your team admin with a copy of your child’s birth certificate. If your child’s age is challenged and no birth certificate is provided your child, the team’s game will be forfeited.

USABL Rules – The tournament uses USABL Rules plus specific USABL Tournament Rules that can be found here: http://www.usabl.com/rules 

One of the most frequently asked about rule is the Tiebreaker rule. The details are on the rules webpage under the tournament rules tab. In short, if teams are tied after pool play, seeding is determined by other factors such as the number of teams tied and their record head-to-head, followed by fewest runs allowed, etc. Refer to the paragraph 3 of the USABL Tournament Rules to determine the outcome for your team’s specific situation.

Hotel – Sheraton Edison Hotel Raritan Center
125 Raritan Center Pkwy, Edison, NJ 08837

Call Time, Practice, Curfews and Hotel Behavior – Teams must be ready to play when the umpire says “play ball.” There is usually limited time to warm up and in some venues there are batting cages. In addition we have found local school fields where your manager may want to practice. Your manager will update you with your call time for practices and games. Please be there early enough so that your player is ready to start at the precise time noted by your manager. Also, the manager should be setting curfew times; please make sure they are followed.

Please leave an extra 10 minutes for your first trip to the fields. Going back to the hotel we strongly suggest you avoid the Garden State Parkway North. On Saturday and Sunday night it is jammed with beach traffic returning to NY. It is best to use a navigational device.

At the fields there is no food allowed in the dugouts and only drinks in plastic containers. If you are playing at a turf field gum and seeds are not allowed. As we do now, keep the eating between games to a minimum – no heavy meal or sugary snacks. Feed them bananas, health bars, rolls, etc. (there is a Whole Foods and Target close where you can purchase between game snacks). Their performance will suffer if they eat hamburgers, hot dogs and fries. It is better to give them a couple of light snacks than one big meal in between the games. Not allowed at the fields are smoking, pets, and alcoholic beverages.

Bulldogs Hotel Conduct Policy – You are responsible for your child once the games are over. At the hotel parents must chaperone their kids – the coaches are not responsible. Things can easily get out of hand so please make sure there are parents watching over the kids. There are few hotels in the area that can accommodate our size – we cannot alienate them.

Finally, we have a policy whereby not more than 3 players can be in a room together during team hotel trips without the presence of an adult. If a fourth enters the room and a parent is not there or brought in immediately, the players must ask that player to leave. If that player does not leave immediately, the other players must promptly contact a parent and one of the four MUST leave the room. The consequence will be suspension of all those players for future non-tournament games. However, if the situation escalates into inappropriate behavior, those players will be suspended from play in that tournament and will put in jeopardy the team’s ability to complete the tournament.

Swimming and similar activities should occur after the day’s games are over. If you have a lot of morning time to kill, spend it in an air-conditioned movie, etc.

Playing Time and Positions – Please understand that the allocation of playing time and playing positions will tip towards development for exhibition and regular season league games but will shift towards success in league playoffs and tournaments. This is consistent with the application of a merit-based approach in the context of our goals.

Communications – If you have any questions before the tournament, contact us at bulldogs@78pyc.org and be sure to include “USABL Tournament” in the subject line. At the tournament, parents should direct questions to the team admin, admins should then communicate with coaches who will work with the Directors, if necessary.

Tournaments are all about competing at a higher level of competition and under more pressure. They are important to building self-confidence and realistic self-appraisal. One thing we’ve learned is that, regardless of the outcomes, all teams will improve.

Have a great time, support our kids, and enjoy the weekend. While we want to win, it is more important that they come away feeling good about their effort. Remember that they will probably always remember these experiences and regardless of the outcome, as soon as the games are over, they will be itching to watch the other teams, eat, and get to the swimming pool.
Thanks,

Eddie Albert & Luis Monell
Directors, Brooklyn Bulldogs

SCHEDULE UPDATE- APRIL+

Weeknights (April 1+)
PS 230
Mondays:  10 Orange 6:00-8pm
Tuesdays: 10 Green 6-7:30; 12 Green 7:30-8:50pm
Wednesdays: 12 Orange 6-8:00pm
Thursdays: 13 Orange 6-7:30pm
Fridays: 9 Orange 6-7:30; 13 Green 7:30-8:50pm

Tournament Schedules have been provided to you by your admins.  We won’t go into that here.

Spring schedules for leagues and our internal play during the week and some weekends is still uncertain as we have to rely on the other organizations to create their schedules or to make teams available for us to play games with them.

For the Bulldogs teams who are playing many tournaments on the weekends, on the non-tournament weekends and weekdays they will be scheduled in our in-house games or against opponents we are working on obtaining.  Other Bulldog teams are playing in outside leagues.

Outside Leagues
NJBL:
10 Green – Saturday Doubleheaders – Schedule posted

Kiwanis:

9 Orange – Saturday Doubleheaders, Wednesday single games – Schedule posted

12 Green – Saturday Doubleheaders, Monday single games – Schedule posted

WBA & PPBA

13 Green – Sunday doubleheaders in WBA (except Saturdays 5/13, 5/20 and 6/10 at Parade Grounds 2pm start time); Most Tuesdays – PPBA.

Internal Play (or against opponents we arrange):
We have set aside the following days for this category of play starting the first week of April through the end of June.

To that end, we are independently booking games with other organizations or using the slots to play between our teams (when they are not playing in tournaments).  Teams will be grouped for the full time period (such as 1-7pm).  We will allocate them to specific times within the full time period as soon as we can (such as 1pm-3:30pm and 3:30pm-6pm, for example):

Saturdays Van Voorhees 1-7pm: 10 Orange, 11 Orange and 12 Orange
Sundays at Van Voorhees 1-7pm: 9 Orange, 10 Green
Sundays at Bush Terminal 2-6pm: 13 Orange
Mondays at Parade Grounds 6-8pm 13 Orange
Tuesdays 5:30pm+ at Van Voorhees field:  10 Orange & 11 Orange
Wednesdays 5:30pm+ at Van Voorhees field:  9 Orange & 10 Green
Wednesdays 5:30pm+ at Van Voorhees field: 12 Orange & 12 Green

We expect to have these scrimmages/exhibitions finalized by April 14 – the delay is a function of the late start all leagues have gotten this year.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Eddie Albert & Luis Monell
Bulldogs Directors

The USABL Memorial Day Tournament is approaching!!!!

The Hotel for the May 2017 Memorial Day Tournament is ready to accept reservations. Please do it right away to avoid being shutout. You just have to leave your credit card which will not be charged until you check in.

Book online directly through this link: https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/BrooklynBulldogs

Details:

SHERATON EDISON
125 Raritan Center Parkway
Edison, NJ  08837
732-225-8300

It is a full service hotel with an indoor pool and gym.
Free wifi is included in the rates.
Free self parking
It is about 20 minutes to fields.

– 3 Nights: Friday, May 26^th through Monday, May 29^th – Nightly rate of $149 regardless of room occupancy (so single, double, triple, quad all pay the same)
– They are holding 125 rooms per night.  The block consists of 55 rooms with Two Double Beds and 70 rooms with King bed (can request rollaway)
– Rooms will be allocated on a first come- first serve basis; so those families preferring two beds should book NOW!
– Individual reservations must be made PRIOR to March 12, 2017 EXTENDED TO APRIL 14.
– Two night deposit required at time of booking (same as last year)
– Must book a minimum of two nights (same as last year)
– Must cancel individual reservations prior to May 23, 2017 to avoid full penalty.
– Breakfast is not included but full service restaurant on-site as well as a Starbucks.

2017 Brooklyn Bulldogs Winter Workout Schedule

Workouts Start Sunday, January 8, 2017

No sessions: January 15, 16 February 18-24.
Indoor workouts end Sunday, March 19.

Locations:

Sundays

• K142 | 610 Henry Street
• PS 58 | 330 Smith Street
• PS 177 | 346 Avenue P

Weeknights

• PS 230 – 1 Albemarle Road (Entrance Directions below)