[Dolphinsfan]

[quote author=Gatortater link=topic=19658.msg211917#msg211917 date=1142450291]
And what would have been your suggestion to get these other kids to sign up for PLL in prior years?  You can't go out and drag kids and make their parents come in and sign up.   As well, many of PLL board members in previous years have been directly affiliated with the county schools...if that was the case, why didn't they step up to the plate and bring in these kids years before?


[/quote]You didn't answer my questions. Please elaborate.

[The Guru]

[quote author=Gatortater link=topic=19658.msg211917#msg211917 date=1142450291]
And what would have been your suggestion to get these other kids to sign up for PLL in prior years?  You can't go out and drag kids and make their parents come in and sign up.   As well, many of PLL board members in previous years have been directly affiliated with the county schools...if that was the case, why didn't they step up to the plate and bring in these kids years before?


[/quote]
I have always thought that more could be done as far as getting more kids signed up at PLL. I always thought that a more agressive approch should have been taken, not just this year, but for several years.
Sure it is put in the paper, and asked to be announced at schools, but face it....people are just too busy to remember everything. Why not spend a couple of weekends set up at Wal-Mart and have people actually see you there and maybe it would jar their memory to sign up lil johnny!!!
If you stay inside of a building that is not where people are going to be and just wait...then you get the die hards, but bunches get left behind. "Out of sight, out of mind!"
I hope both leagues the best. but a question has popped back in my mind....If cAL is a county School thing only, then why am I asked all the time to sign my son up there???
he wants to play ball, but he feels a loyalty to PLL, just doesn't seem as they will have a team for him.

[Gatortater]

[quote author=Dolphinsfan link=topic=19658.msg211866#msg211866 date=1142445161]
[quote author=Gatortater link=topic=19658.msg211769#msg211769 date=1142433061]
Having recently visited several of the Johnson County Elementary schools, I wonder if anyone can tell me why they didn't post or announce Little League Sign ups?   I guess that should be an easy answer to figure out, but I feel like parents, employees are beeing forced to participate in this CRL.   And has the public been informed of the pressure being placed on everyone?

And the work on the fields, are they using tax payer's dollars to build those fields?  Is this allowed since CRL is not school affiliated?
[/quote]
What evidence of pressure needs to be made public? Please be specific.

Reverse the situation. Someone from Paintsville plays in the new league. Think that would really put a new definition into the meaning of the word "pressure" on someone?     
[/quote]

I am only going on what I have been told.  I don't imagine these people would want their names told on a public forum.

[Gatortater]

Just wondering how the progress is going on the new CRL facilities.
Will they be ready by their anticipated opening day?  I don't see much going on over there when I'm down that way.

[Eagle Pride 90`]

Just wondering how the progress is going on the new CRL facilities.
Will they be ready by their anticipated opening day?  I don't see much going on over there when I'm down that way.

Have you had your eyes open while driving. WE have been assured they will be ready by opening day. As for the work being done did you see the new score board, the dugouts under construction, the sod and new dirt on the infield,and the work being done on the new warning track. The other new field has been hydroseeded and just needs some time for grass to grow. The lights are being put on poles,ready to erect. Fences have just come off bid and will be going up anyday. This is a first year league and every thing will not be done immediatley. We will have a place to play! After the work is done I will stack that facility against any youth facility in this part of the state.

[The Guru]

Have you had your eyes open while driving. WE have been assured they will be ready by opening day. As for the work being done did you see the new score board, the dugouts under construction, the sod and new dirt on the infield,and the work being done on the new warning track. The other new field has been hydroseeded and just needs some time for grass to grow. The lights are being put on poles,ready to erect. Fences have just come off bid and will be going up anyday. This is a first year league and every thing will not be done immediatley. We will have a place to play! After the work is done I will stack that facility against any youth facility in this part of the state.

LOL!!! We could stack parking lots against youth facilities in this part of the state!!
I am glad to see the progress!! I noticed it yesterday as I was driving on the old road!

[Gatortater]

Have you had your eyes open while driving. WE have been assured they will be ready by opening day. As for the work being done did you see the new score board, the dugouts under construction, the sod and new dirt on the infield,and the work being done on the new warning track. The other new field has been hydroseeded and just needs some time for grass to grow. The lights are being put on poles,ready to erect. Fences have just come off bid and will be going up anyday. This is a first year league and every thing will not be done immediatley. We will have a place to play! After the work is done I will stack that facility against any youth facility in this part of the state.

Geesh...sorry if it's hard to drive and observe that area at the same time. I guess I need to open my eyes a little wider. The next time I'm down that way, that's what I'll do. I thought everyone had a place to play already, but I guess that depends on who you talk to. The Paintsville area has always had good youth facilities. But I have already heard there is dissention within the league....who's going to draft who, who's going to have the best team, mine's not going to play for this one....but then again, I guess this is just part of sports.

[Eagle Eye]

Geesh...sorry if it's hard to drive and observe that area at the same time. I guess I need to open my eyes a little wider. The next time I'm down that way, that's what I'll do. I thought everyone had a place to play already, but I guess that depends on who you talk to. The Paintsville area has always had good youth facilities. But I have already heard there is dissention within the league....who's going to draft who, who's going to have the best team, mine's not going to play for this one....but then again, I guess this is just part of sports.

Everyone will have a place to play. You will see a lot of work being done now that the fences can be put in place. The t-ball field will be fenced, the rookie field will be fenced, and of course the major field will be fenced. If you have not actually seen this field then you need drop by and actually look at it close up. I have not heard any dissention within the league about drafting but I am sure that the kids are wanting to be on one anothers team and that is understandable. When everything is finished and it will take a while this will be a great place to watch some baseball in the summertime.

[Eagle03/06]

This question of public money being used to fund Cal Ripken is kind of funny, considering that the CR fields are at least on Johnson County School property and funds are all JoCo school money. Even if it is taxpayer money, it goes to school improvements, and getting all these kids out is a benefit to the school community. PLL fields are city property, and for the record so is the high school baseball field. So city employees are the ones who take care of PHS and PLL fields. And the baseball field used to be a public recreation area until it was turned into a baseball field for PHS. So alll activities, such as the softball league Paintsville used to have for adults, couldn't be played on it anymore.
Now, I bet that Cal Ripken sign ups weren't done at any city school. Don't they always do sign ups at the Rec Center? Anyone is free to get on the radio and advertise as many sign ups in a public place as they want. PLL shouldn't ask CR to do their sign ups for them. If a PLL member had asked, they might have been allowed to come do sign ups at the same time as CR was doing sign ups. It wasn't the obligation of anyone from CR to proactively ask PLL.
I'm not taking one side or the other, but I hardly see how this hurts anyone. PLL numbers were going down anyway. This is just a way to give more kids the opportunity to play without having to be a superstar. Cal Ripken has room for more kids in wider age ranges to play. How does that hurt anybody? If there are kids and parents who feel loyalty to PLL, they can stay there.
Everyone seems to agree that the goal here is what's best for youth baseball. You can see that everyone agrees that there are 500+ kids between the two leagues, as compared to a much smaller, and declining, number of kids when we only had PLL. So, by that standard, Cal Ripken is great.

[The Guru]

This question of public money being used to fund Cal Ripken is kind of funny, considering that the CR fields are at least on Johnson County School property and funds are all JoCo school money. Even if it is taxpayer money, it goes to school improvements, and getting all these kids out is a benefit to the school community. PLL fields are city property, and for the record so is the high school baseball field. So city employees are the ones who take care of PHS and PLL fields. And the baseball field used to be a public recreation area until it was turned into a baseball field for PHS. So alll activities, such as the softball league Paintsville used to have for adults, couldn't be played on it anymore.
Now, I bet that Cal Ripken sign ups weren't done at any city school. Don't they always do sign ups at the Rec Center? Anyone is free to get on the radio and advertise as many sign ups in a public place as they want. PLL shouldn't ask CR to do their sign ups for them. If a PLL member had asked, they might have been allowed to come do sign ups at the same time as CR was doing sign ups. It wasn't the obligation of anyone from CR to proactively ask PLL.
I'm not taking one side or the other, but I hardly see how this hurts anyone. PLL numbers were going down anyway. This is just a way to give more kids the opportunity to play without having to be a superstar. Cal Ripken has room for more kids in wider age ranges to play. How does that hurt anybody? If there are kids and parents who feel loyalty to PLL, they can stay there.
Everyone seems to agree that the goal here is what's best for youth baseball. You can see that everyone agrees that there are 500+ kids between the two leagues, as compared to a much smaller, and declining, number of kids when we only had PLL. So, by that standard, Cal Ripken is great.

WOW!!! so much could be said about this post. I am not against CRL/BRL and am not just pro PLL.
But since my tax dollars that go to JCBOE are being spent on a public youth league, it just seems that this should have been advertised as an agenda for a JCBOE meeting. That way I could have felt I had every rightto attend and voice opinions.
PLL leases the properties fromthe city and the grass infield was not put their for PHS, it was put their for the now defunct, Pro team that Johnny Lemaster put together.
Just trying to get some facts straight. Now,... let's playy some ball!

[Eagle03/06]

I'm just addressing some of the people who brought up the taxpayer issue. I mean, no one who lives in the city limits that goes to Johnson County schools was complaining about city taxes that go to Paintsville. I just didn't think that tax money would be a legitimate complaint. And you can act like I have this all wrong, but my dad used to play in that softball league. But definitely don't think I'm disputing who put the infield there because I'm not trying to make Paintsville or PLL look bad and I'm not saying PHS took over that particular field, just saying that PLL is played on city property (leased or not) and that all the Cal Ripken fields are on Johnson County schools property. I myself don't think it really matters though. (My dad's gripe about the PHS field is that it used to be a public area, but it was essentially turned into a private field. But I won't say any more about that because it doesn't really have anything to do with this.)
I agree with you though. Until kids and parents start complaining for a legit reason, I say let the kids play and see how they like Cal Ripken or Little League. I bet most people on here, me included, don't play in either league and probably quite a few don't even have kids that play in either league. Really, it's supposed to be for the kids and it seems like too many people want to see political conspiracies one way or the other.

[Gatortater]

First of all, there are probably very few folks that live in the city limits that have kids that go to the Johnson County schools. Sure there are few, but not enough to squabble about.

Second, I certainly don't think that taxpayers have a problem with their money going to improve facilities for the youth in that area. It's the way it was done and were the proper procedures followed? That was a question that I had.

Third, I think all this has done has divided the community. That area is not large enough to support 2 youth baseball leagues without hurting one of the leagues. One of the gripes I seen was the fact that at least PLL was run by folks from both school systems. This CRL league is ran ONLY by those involved with the Johnson County School System. If they were doing it truly for the best interest of ALL youth in Johnson County, which Paintsville is in Johnson County, then that would have been just fine. I'll agree with you in that too many people want to see political conspiracies. I can't help but think that someone at some time didn't get what they wanted and decided they would start their own league so they could be in charge....but what most folks don't see is those people will move on and out and up and leave it for others to try to take care of and clean up someone elses mess.

I agree with Guru that since tax dollars are being spent on a public youth league, on public school property, that whatever improvements they are making should have been advertised to the public. I thought that was how it worked...jobs were put out to bid, and local businesses got to bid via sealed bids, and the job went to the lowest bidder. But maybe I've got that procedure all wrong. Had someone had some farm land they wanted to donate to the CRL and they wanted to do the improvements on, then that would be a different story. They could let whoever they wanted do the work on it.

[Eagle03/06]

That's true. I could probably find out how it was all worked out, but I don't know for sure right now. I was just speaking to the few people who didn't really explain why/how the tax money would upset them and who seemed to just not want any taxpayer money to go to CR period. I'm not sure how that works, but I'm sure Johnson County had to get some kind of approval. I'm not sure who's doing the construction of the fields. I know the company doing all the other renovations is from West Liberty, so maybe that has to do with why a bid wasn't put out here. Just speculating.
But what about the person who said the PLL area could only be 20,000? Johnson County has 23,500 people. I think we have enough people to support both leagues, since we have over 500 kids out. Besides, for Cal Ripken, isn't the rule that kids from surrounding areas that don't have a league can play in Johnson County's? I think I heard my dad talking about a county that we might get some kids from. I could be wrong, but I'd almost swear it.
About having city and county people running Cal Ripken, I agree that it would look really bad and be unfair if no one outside the county schools was allowed to participate. All I'm going to say is that I think it won't hurt anyone to try Cal Ripken for a year. If everyone hates it and kids don't play in it, then they'll probably quit. But I think it's a good idea to give it a try. Already the number of kids signed up is great. I only want as many kids as possible to get the chance to play a fun sport. I'm not really upset if some people get mad over perceived politics. The kids having fun is what's important.

[Eagle03/06]

I just spoke to my mom, and she said she wouldn't swear before she checked with my dad, but the reason there wasn't any bid is because a construction company isn't doing anything. (She works in the county school system and knows the people doing this) All the work right now is being done by people involved in setting Cal Ripken up and people from the county schools. One of them had a bulldozer he brought over. Some others volunteered and are doing all the work. I'll have more details later when I talk to my dad. But there you have it on the taxpayer issue. The land was already Johnson County schools, and labor is donated thus far.

[Eagle03/06]

My five minute edit time ran out, but I just wanted to add once again that I could be wrong. I don't think so, but I will know for certain when I talk to my dad. And then if I need to correct myself, I'll do so.

[Gatortater]

Thanks for the info. You've been very helpful. I know the land already belonged to the school system, but don't you have to go through the Kentucky Department of Education when you are making renovations or improvements to public school property? I think there are construction forms and processes that they require....I think they are called BG-1 or GB-1 (not sure) and the processes that follow with that. And can they make those improvements for an organization that is supposed to be a separate entity from the school system and not affilicated with the school...such as CRL?

[Eagle03/06]

I'm sure there is some kind of approval process. But the land they are building on is, I think, some of the land that they only recently filled in and that wasn't really usable before. So maybe they got approval to build on it at the same time they got approval to fill it in? Speculation, since I haven't found out anything new in the last little bit. All I know is I have to get some errands done, so I've got to pull myself off here. I don't know why reading this website gets so addicting. lol.

[The Guru]

All I can say is that CRL/BRL is here and My son will be trying out Sat. morning!!! Anyone know who the Babe Ruth coaches are??? And also, I had heard that there wouldn't be any all-star teams in this first year. Anyone know???

[Eagle Pride 90`]

All I can say is that CRL/BRL is here and My son will be trying out Sat. morning!!! Anyone know who the Babe Ruth coaches are??? And also, I had heard that there wouldn't be any all-star teams in this first year. Anyone know???

I think Kevin Stacey is one of the coaches, not sure about any others. I know they have high hopes on this age group doing well in all-stars. I know there is a concern about getting alot of games in while middle school is going on but I THINK they are going to try and schedule the middle school trough the week leaving Babe Ruth for the week end until school is out. I'm not sure but at least there is concern and something is going to be done to try and get more playing time for kids who are not on the middle school team or don't get much playing time on it. Contrary to SOME belief this league has put the kids first and I'm sure your son will feel welcome.

[The Guru]

I think Kevin Stacey is one of the coaches, not sure about any others. I know they have high hopes on this age group doing well in all-stars. I know there is a concern about getting alot of games in while middle school is going on but I THINK they are going to try and schedule the middle school trough the week leaving Babe Ruth for the week end until school is out. I'm not sure but at least there is concern and something is going to be done to try and get more playing time for kids who are not on the middle school team or don't get much playing time on it. Contrary to SOME belief this league has put the kids first and I'm sure your son will feel welcome.

That is great!!! Kevin is a great guy!!! My son just wants to play!!
So, they are having All-Stars? I can't remember where I heard that. but I really just never paid a lot of attention to it.

[The Guru]

BTW...What is the cutt-off date on age??

[Eagle Pride 90`]

I know they have full intentions on having an all-star team. Some of the try-outs were tonight for kids who could not be there on satuday. Ages are the same as LL.

[Gatortater]

All I can say is that CRL/BRL is here and My son will be trying out Sat. morning!!! Anyone know who the Babe Ruth coaches are??? And also, I had heard that there wouldn't be any all-star teams in this first year. Anyone know???

Will he be attending school there in the Fall? So what happens when BRL has a game on Saturday and your son might pitch on Monday for his team? And what if the HS/JV has a game on a Saturday as does BRL. I know people want their kids to get to play as much as they can, and that is great, but some team is going to suffer at some time.

[Eagle Eye]

Will he be attending school there in the Fall? So what happens when BRL has a game on Saturday and your son might pitch on Monday for his team? And what if the HS/JV has a game on a Saturday as does BRL. I know people want their kids to get to play as much as they can, and that is great, but some team is going to suffer at some time.

How does playing in the Cal Ripkin league have anything to do with where anyone goes to school? :dontthink

[Gatortater]

How does playing in the Cal Ripkin league have anything to do with where anyone goes to school? :dontthink

I thought originally that it didn't, but unfortunately as time has gone by that is the way it has appeared. CRL appears to be a county league and PLL a city league for the most part any way. I know they say everyone is welcome, but someone said they hadn't been at the city schools for sign ups. If it is truly for ALL of Johnson County, then sign ups should have been at a neutral location, board members should have been represented by all schools within the county (private included), and fields located in a neutral place as well.

[Eagle Eye]

I thought originally that it didn't, but unfortunately as time has gone by that is the way it has appeared. CRL appears to be a county league and PLL a city league for the most part any way. I know they say everyone is welcome, but someone said they hadn't been at the city schools for sign ups. If it is truly for ALL of Johnson County, then sign ups should have been at a neutral location, board members should have been represented by all schools within the county (private included), and fields located in a neutral place as well.

I just say play ball and have a good time! Don't worry about anything else!

[The Guru]

Will he be attending school there in the Fall? So what happens when BRL has a game on Saturday and your son might pitch on Monday for his team? And what if the HS/JV has a game on a Saturday as does BRL. I know people want their kids to get to play as much as they can, and that is great, but some team is going to suffer at some time.

No...My son will be at Paintsville as far as I know!! I am sure that CRL/BRL will be very understanding in that if a kid has just pitched or is being planned to pitch for their schools team, that they will not pitch that kid. If a coach tried to pitch my son after he had just pitched for his HS team, I would just let them know that he couldn't pitch and I feel sure there wouldn't be a problem....actually, I know there wouldn't be a problem. He bleeds Blue thru and thru and the Tigers will always come first with him. Unless he got shit on of course!!! LOL!!!

[The Guru]

I got a tour of the facilities today and they will be ready to play in about a week or less depending on the weather! IMO
Looks great and very impressive!

[Whos next?]

Anyone know how tryouts went? How many tried out? Did they have enough for 13-15 olds?

[The Guru]

Anyone know how tryouts went? How many tried out? Did they have enough for 13-15 olds?

Tryouts went very, very long. They have (4) 13-15 yr. old teams with 13 players on each.