OPENING DAY: Welcome to Dunbar Baseball’s Best Day of the Year.
This Saturday, April 16th, is a great day for the Dunbar community, as we get together at Memorial Field to open the Baseball season with so much opportunity in front of us for fun and growth with sport. There is a full slate of activities for the day and many games to be played. The highlight is the “roll call” of all the teams on to Currie Field for one
great assemblage of Dunbar’s finest. As you can imagine this involves a lot of people. I have included some key points and times below to keep in mind to make this an enjoyable and safe experience. The weather is looking promising and I look forward to seeing everyone there.
GO Dunbar!
Joe McDermott
Dunbar Little League President.
9:30 – 9:45 am Teams gather outside the Majors field fence, a “herder” will help coordinate the teams running on to the field. There will be signs where teams will line up. The parents should leave the players with their teams and move away from the staging area. The Teams will enter by oldest Division First (Majors) and by alphabetical order within division: Majors, Minor A Senior, Minor A Jr., Minor B, Tball Y2, T ball Y2, Blast Ball.
10:00 Welcome followed by Roll Call of teams entering field.
Opening ceremonies including:
- O Canada
- Opening Pitch
- Opening Remarks
- Little League Pledge
- Volunteer Call
- Take Me out to the Ball Game
- Closing remarks
- Rapid exit from field.
11:00 Games Start in all divisions. Play Ball!
The weather forecast looks great but the ceremonies go rain or shine.
Other Key points.
1- Please walk to Memorial Park if possible. Given that there will be in excess of 2000 people there, by the time you park you might not be much further ahead than walking. BE CAREFUL WITH THE CONSTRUCTION ON DUNBAR STREET.
2- Please do not bring any dogs Saturday, as given the organized chaos, even the best behaved family pet may get jittery, and some children are not comfortable around dogs.
3- We will ask each team’s coaches and manager to run onto the diamond with the kids, but please no other adults (unless your team is short a coach or manager that day). Also, for those adults running in, please do not also be pushing strollers as they can damage the outfield grass and also obstruct other parents ability to see their very special DLL’er on this day.
4- As you know your child best, if you do not think they can handle the approximately 45 minutes of the ceremony it may be best to watch it with them from the stands or the outfield. We do try and break up the ceremonial parts with some fun things (like an energetic rendition of Take Me Out To The Ballgame), but I appreciate that is a long time for a younger child and we will try and get everything done as quickly as possible.
5- Kids Free Snack: Each year on opening day the league provides the kids with a free bag of chips and a free pop. This year, instead of distributing a ticket to each child that they redeem for a bag of chips and a pop at the basketball courts behind the concession after the opening ceremony, we ask that each team assign their manager or team parent to come to pick up the chips and pop for their entire team. Each team will be checked off a list so send only one parent. This will make it much faster for your teams and parents as it will avoid any long lines of kids, sometimes lasting 1.5 hours.