2010 North Toronto Minor Bantam "AA"

We are sending out this email to let you know we will be holding tryouts on Sunday September 27th at 11:00 a.m. @ Talbot Park (located at the SE corner of Eglinton and Bayview) for the North Toronto Minor Bantam (born in 1996) 2010 AA All-Star Baseball team. We would like to introduce you to our All-Star baseball program so that you can decide if the commitment is appropriate for your situation.

All-Star baseball provides your child with an opportunity to play at a much more competitive level than the House League has to offer. We practice 1-2 times and play 1-2 games against other teams in the Greater Toronto area every week throughout the summer. In addition, we participate in 2-3 weekend tournaments during the spring and summer. Our playoffs are usually on a weekend in the middle of August. The Provincial championships, if we are fortunate enough to make them, take place on Labour Day weekend.

Another exciting possibility for our season is that we may enter the New ERA Cap Classic, a Tournament in Buffalo. In addition, some of the boys attended NT Baseball Camp together for a week last summer.

We will be practicing indoors with professional instruction once a week during the winter and summer this year at the Homerun Baseball Academy or one of the other indoor professional baseball facilities, beginning late January or early February. The cost for this last year was approximately $500 per player.

As a coaching staff, we have 5 primary objectives that we believe to be equally important:
1) Help your child develop the skills and fitness necessary to be successful at this level.
2) Ensure that your child has fun so that he/she develops a love for the game.
3) Teach your child about the importance of teamwork and good sportsmanship.
4) Give positive reinforcement based on effort rather than results.
5) Provide a safe and healthy environment for all the children on the team.

Our past experience tells us that in order to be competitive, we need our players to attend the vast majority of games and practices. Therefore, we will give priority to players who will be in the city for most of the summer. In previous years, there have not been enough players available for the entire summer, so our line-up has included players who go to overnight camp. However, if your child is going to camp for more than one month, we feel that he/she will not be able to make an appropriate commitment to the team. We also understand that the Canadian summer is very short and most of you will be taking a vacation at some point.

For those of you who do not make the AA team or feel the commitment is too great, a “Select” Bantam team may be available for you. If so, the
tryouts for this team will likely be in the Fall.

Any players who played for another TBA team in 2009 must have either a “Release” or a “Permission to Tryout” letter from their previous team’s association. Players who played for North York last season do not require these.

We apologize for the long email but we wanted you to have as much information as possible in order to make your decision about committing to the team. If you are interested or have any questions, please email us at neilsilver@rogers.com to let us know so that we will continue sending you emails regarding this program and further details about the tryout sessions. Please pass this on to anyone else you think may be interested.

Thank you,
Rob Fishbaum & Neil Silver