Parents and Players, Welcome to the 2010 season of Cal Ripken Baseball in Groton. Please read the following information carefully as it provides evaluation dates and team information that you will need for the upcoming baseball season. General Information The following list presents some key information regarding the 2010 season: * We will have 4 teams at the Majors level. * We will have 4 teams at the Minors level. * Player Evaluations will be held on Monday, March 22nd. Please see below for details. * In keeping with our new policy (see here ), all 12-year old players (age 12 on or before April 30) will evaluated and placed in either the Majors or Minors, depending on their ability. * All players who played in the Majors last year will automatically be placed on a Majors team. Please see below for more details. * Teams will be formed early in April. Practices will start as soon as the fields are open to us. This is usually around the first or second week in April. * The season starts April 24th and continues through the first or second week in June. * Opening Day festivities will take place on Saturday, April 24th at Cow Pond. We will be providing more details as we get closer to the date. All Players Player evaluations will take place on Monday, March 22nd at the Groton School Hockey Rink. Evaluations will be done in two sessions, 6:00-7:30pm and 7:30-9:00pm, as follows: Monday, March 22, 6:00-7:30pm - Groton School Hockey Rink - Majors and Minors, last name A-L. Please arrive at the rink by 5:45pm for checkin Monday, March 22, 7:30pm-9:00pm- Groton School Hockey Rink - Majors and Minors, last name M-Z. Please arrive at the rink by 7:15pm for checkin All players must attend evaluations. For those unfamiliar with evaluations, the players will be put through a series of baseball drills that will expose them to many aspects of the game. The drills include pitching, catching, fielding, hitting and running. The purpose of the evaluations is to provide the coaches with an accurate assessment of the various skill levels of the players. This information is used to draft teams that are as balanced as possible. What should players wear and bring with them: Players should wear sneakers (no cleats) and bring their baseball glove and bat and baseball hat if they have one. If you don't have a bat, we will have a selection of bats available for the batting drill. Please do not bring any baseballs. GYBL will provide them for the warmups and drills. Returning Majors Players If you played on a Cal Ripken Majors team last year, you will automatically be placed back on a Majors team this year. Nonetheless, It is mandatory that all players attend evaluations so we can establish balanced teams. Since we will only have four Majors teams this year, players who played on the Brewers last year will be placed back in the draft to be selected by another team. For those who played for another team last year, if you wish to re-enter the draft and do not want to play on the same majors team as last season, please send an email to cr@gybl.net by March 14th with your request and we will do our best to accommodate it. Please indicate your coach and team name that you played for last year. If there are any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at cr@gybl.net. Tom Fitzpatrick GYBL CR Coordinator