Baseball season off to slow start, due to weather
By Tom Ellison

Major league teams, such as the Indians and Tigers, are not the only baseball teams being affected by the recent stretch of cold, snowy weather.

Right here in our own back yard, the King Township Baseball Association (KTBA) is having some difficulty getting its teams onto the various fields for spring practice. This is particularly galling to the association since registration numbers have been climbing steadily the past few years, as baseball begins to raise its profile in the community. This season is no exception. KTBA has entered 12 teams in YSIBA competition for 2007, in addition to three proposed select squads, two rep teams and its normal Tball program for young novice players.

New for 2007 are the two rep teams. Coach Ray Ryan has brought a junior team into Nobleton consisting of players 17 to 19 and drawn from many areas across York, Simcoe and beyond. From the King Township area come three players. Two of them, James Price and Dean Sterman from Nobleton, are under age but are looked upon by coach Ryan as building blocks for future years. Also joining the Ontario Cobras, as they will be called, is Sean DeCory from Schomberg. The team will host an exhibition game some time during the last week of April before beginning its home schedule the weekend of May 5 and 6. There will be three games each day in Nobleton to kick off the season. The next weekend sees the Cobras hosting a tournament involving several teams from its loop; teams from centres such as Brockville, Ottawa, Welland, Hamilton and Whitby.

Our other rep team for the coming year, the minor bantams, will be coached by Tom Ellison along with a very good staff consisting of Rob Forletta, Steve Lipscombe, Dan Brinovec and newcomer Rob Martel. Classified as Tier Two, the

weather

Cobras will face the likes of Newmarket, Aurora, Vaughan, Markham, plus seven teams from the Toronto Baseball Association. Their season should begin the second week of May and the Nobleton diamond will also be their home field. The minor bantam rep Cobras will be attempting to host either a league or exhibition game on their home field in Nobleton Victoria Day, so keep that event in mind.

Currently, the house league program is slowly coming together with coaches in the process of phoning parents and securing diamond time to begin practices. With three teams at each of the junior rookie, mosquito and peewee levels, look for some minor tinkering of team lists as coaches attempt to balance the squads for competition beginning the middle of May.

Next week, we will look at some of our house league teams in more detail.