Thursday Practice, Pizza Party, Friday Practice, Schedule Changes

Braves Parents & Friends:

Lots of Braves news in emails from Coach Dave this week. I'll try to summarize the key items here.

Thursday April 23 practice and party: Practice at 4 p.m. at lovely WATER TOWER PARK. Then, following practice, pizza party for players and their families at the CAHILL PARK WARMING HOUSE, hosted by the lovely and talented Karen Higgins (kwhiggy@hotmail.com).

Friday April 24 practice, post-practice field trip: 4 p.m. practice at Cahill/Cumberland/wherever the coaches can find a field. Coach Dave notes that practice may end a little early Friday (a) to keep the guys fresh for their first game of the season the next day and (b) field trip.
After practice, some folks are planning to head for Miller Park to watch the so-called "Border Battle," featuring a Midwest League matchup between the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Brewers farm team) and the Peoria Chiefs (Cubs farm team).
For this game, any seat in Miller Park costs only $10. The game begins at 7:05 p.m. Let Coach Dave know if you are interested and want to talk about transportation.

Uniforms: Dave says, "The LL board does not know when uniforms will arrive. A call is in to the supplier, and the board HOPES that the uniforms get here before the season opens Saturday. If the uniforms don't show up in time, then kids will play the way they've played through most of history since Abner Doubleday walked the earth -- wearing t-shirts and battered hats from random teams or farm-implement manufacturers."

Schedule changes, issues: First, six players on the White Sox have a church function at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 30, which is when we are scheduled to play them. The White Sox coach has asked whether we'd be willing to move the game to Saturday, May 23, at 11 a.m.
Dave says, "I wouldn't want to make the switch if a lot of you will be away that day, which is the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. If we had enough guys to play, however, the benefits of the switch would include (a) the likelihood of better weather, (b) having one less game on a school night, (c) giving us a game in the 16-day gap between May 14 and May 30, and (d) helping out White Sox coach Carl Fuda, who doesn't have too many other options."
If your player would NOT be able to make a game on May 23, please let Dave know as soon as possible.
Second, Dave has received good news from our league commissioner about our request to change the game we were scheduled to play on Saturday, May 30. The game (against the Dodgers) has been moved to 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 17. This change is good for the Braves because it gets us out of a back-to-back game situation on May 30-31, and because it gives us another game in mid-May.

Pizza Party, Post-practice Baseball Game

Little League baseball is more than boring drills and screaming coaches. It's also about getting to know people and fun.

So please consider the following two events:

This week, THURSDAY after practice, we will have a pizza party in the warming house at Cahill Square for all of the guys on the team, their siblings and their parents. Our practice at Water Tower will end around 5:30 p.m., and we have rented the warming house beginning at 6 p.m.

This will be a great opportunity for Braves parents to get to know each other while the kids play. The pizza party is a rain-or-shine event, so we hope you come even if practice is canceled because of bad weather.

Please let Karen Higgins (kwhiggy@hotmail.com) know how many people from your family will be attending so that she can know how much pizza and soda to have. We will ask each family to contribute a few dollars toward the cost of the food and the rental of the warming house. In addition, it would be great if each family could bring some uncomplicated snacks like cookies, chips, carrot sticks, etc.

FRIDAY we practice at 4 p.m. After practice at least a few of us are planning to head for Miller Park to watch the so-called "Border Battle," featuring a Midwest League matchup between the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Brewers farm team) and the Peoria Chiefs (Cubs farm team).

For this game, any seat in Miller Park costs only $10. The game begins at 7:05 p.m., and it would be great if lots of Braves (and some of their parents) wanted to go. Let me know if you're interested and I'll organize transportation.

We may end practice a little early Friday (a) to keep the guys fresh for their first game of the season the next day and (b) to be able to get to Miller Park in time to get great seats to see future Brewers and Cubs.

Coach Dave