News and Other Information

Recently one of our fields (Shelbourne Road Field) was vandalized.  Someone drove a 4 wheel ATV type vehicle on the field and seriously damaged it.  We can not use the field for the foreseeable future because the tire ruts in the field are very severe and it is not safe for anyone to use the field for anything right now.  I am working with Baltimore County Rec and Parks to come up with a plan to repair the field, but it will take some time for them to assess the damage and then come up with a plan to fix it.  We have told the county that we would work with them to make the field playable and would provide whatever support, expertise and labor we can to return the field to a useable condition as soon as possible.

The loss of this field impacts our scheduling considerably and the effects will be most felt in the Instructional, Minors and Majors leagues.  I have been working with the coaches who have been impacted and we will be making adjustments to the practice schedule so that everyone will be able to have their practices.  I am in the process of getting a permit to use fields at other locations, and while these fields are away from Arbutus Middle School, they do provide a temporary solution.  So, I'm asking that everyone understand the difficult circumstance that we find ourselves in and work with us as we try to keep things as fair as possible and allow everyone equal time to practice.

I apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause and ask for your understanding.  If you have any questions, you may email them to me.

Jeff Smith

President, Arbutus Little League

Important - Ravens Raffle Information 2011 - Important

The winner of our annual Ravens Raffle wins two season tickets to all eight of the Ravens home games for the regular season.  The second and third place winners win tickets to five games and to three games.  As you are probably aware, the NFL Owners and Players are involved in a protracted legal battle that imperils the 2011-2012 NFL season.  Because of this, we are announcing that in the event that the NFL does not play any games this year, the prize for the raffle will convert to a cash prize.  The cash prize will be equivalent to the value of each ticket for each game that is not played.  In the event of a partial season, the raffle winners will get tickets to all played games and cash for any games that are not played.

Cash Value of 1st Place Prize - 2 Tickets to 8 Ravens games is $1,440

Cash Value of 2nd Place Prize - 2 Tickets to 5 Ravens games is $900

Cash Value of 3rd Place Prize - 2 Tickets to 3 Ravens games is $540

Note that there is no parking pass associated with these prizes. 

Also please note because of the possibility that it may take until August or even later for the NFL to resolve the issues that they have, we (Arbutus Little League) reserve the right to not award the cash prize until the NFL has determined that there will be no season in 2011-2012.  In the very unlikely event that the NFL uses replacement players, the winner(s) of the raffle must take the tickets, there will be no cash prize if this occurs.  We apologize for any inconvenience that may occur in either of these two scenarios.

If you have any questions, please contact either the Fundraising chairperson or the League President via email and we will respond as quickly as possible.

Little League Inc. Baseball has ruled that ALL baseball bats that are constructed from composite metals are now illegal to use in Little League Baseball.  These bats will not be allowed in ANY LEVEL of Little League Baseball.  Little League has published a list of bats that are legal for use in Little League.  Any bat not on this list may not be used in practice or in games.  You can see this list by clicking on this link.  Also to see the press release from Little League for the reasons behind the ban on composite bats you can click on this link.

If you have purchased a bat and are not sure if it is legal or not, you should show the bat to the league President or league Safety Officer.  Do not remove the plastic wrapping off of a purchased bat, you will be unable to return the bat to the store in the event the plastic wrapping has been removed.  If you have any questions about this ban, please contact the President or the Safety Officer.

**update - March, 2011 - A small number of composite bats have been approved for Little League/Junior/Senior/Big League play.  Click here to see the list.

Also please note these additional bat restrictions

Little League Majors and Below - bats can have a maximum barrel width of 2 1/4" or less

Little League Juniors - bats can have a maximum barrel width of 2 5/8" or less ( no drop weight restriction)

Little League Seniors and above - bats can have a maximum barrel width of 2 5/8" or less ( a -3 drop weight restriction)
 

Arbutus Little League Junior All Stars

2007 Maryland State Champions

In 2007 we had a mission. After finishing runner-up to Rising Sun LL in the 2006 Jr State Tournament, we were not going to be denied in 2007. The returning 5 players from that 2006 team had a goal from Day 1, that nothing less than State Champs was acceptable for 2007. Those 5 plus the 8 others achieved that goal. Way to go!

In the Maryland District IV tournament held at Cardinal Gibbons High School, we faced Forest Park in a best of 3 tournament. We defeated them 14-3 in the first game behind the pitching of Eric Drechsler and John Blasy. In Game 2, we defeated them ?-? behind the complete game effort of Chris Peltz. Other highlights.

The 2007 Maryland State Junior Tournament was held in Waldorf, MD and hosted by Waldorf American Little League. The seven district winners from all over Maryland were in attendance including Rising Sun from District V. In the opening game, we defeated West Salisbury, 8-6. The following day we defeated North Caroline LL 11-7. On Tuesday night, we had a much anticipated rematch with Rising Sun. We managed to get by them this year defeating them 9-6. This put us into the championship game where we faced off again with North Caroline LL. We defeated them 5-0 in a much closer game than the score indicates. Chris Peltz pitched a complete game, 4 hitter. We are State Champs!!!!

Eleven state champs came together in the Eastern Regional Tournament held in Freeport, New Jersey. We opened the tournament with a tough loss to South Wall LL, the New Jersey State champ, 8-0. Then because of a scheduling quirk, we had to sit for 2 days until our next opportunity. In our next game against Pawcatuck LL of Connecticut, we won 6-0 with a complete game, no hit effort by Chris Peltz. It was the first no hitter at the Eastern Regional in 6 years. But we couldn’t rest on our laurels. We had another game that same day against the New York State Champ, East Meadow LL. We defeated them 5-4 in a great baseball game. The next day, we were back in action against South Wall LL in a rematch from the opening day game. This time, we got the upper hand, defeating them 10-9 in a huge come from behind win. And again, we had to play again on the same day, this time against the Pennsylvania State Champ, Greencastle LL. Despite being nearly out of pitching and dead tired from already playing 3 games in 24 hours, our guys gutted it out and nearly pulled it off. We lost 2-0 despite an outstanding pitching effort from Scott Brach.

By finishing 3rd out of 11 teams in this regional tournament, we had a tremendous run, accomplished much and have so much to be proud of. The wins by this team were the first out of state wins for Arbutus LL since our Big League team in 1979.

Postlude:
Greencastle LL (PA) was defeated in the championship game 14-0 by the NJ host district champion, Middletown LL. Middletown LL traveled to Taylor, Michigan to participate in the Junior League World Series, where they finished 3rd out of 5 teams in their pool. Pearl City LL of Hawaii won the International Junior League title by defeating the Asia-Pacific champs from Illan Central LL of Makati City, Philippines 6-2 in the championship game.