Local baseball will soon be hitting the ball parks.
The NSRBL held their annual general meeting Sunday night to plan for the 2014 spring season.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss potential issues the league faced last season, how to fix them for the next season and for teams to officially register for the league.
One of the major problems facing the league is ensuring players are able to make it to the diamond for their games, according to league commissioner Kelvin Colliar. The teams range from Meadow Lake to Macklin, which is about a three-hour drive. Colliar compared the start time to the North Saskatchewan River Hockey League as it has a similar area of operation. The NSRHL is able to start games later in the evening because they play indoors.
"For us, we're playing at 6:30 at night," said Colliar. "We have to start then otherwise we run out of daylight."
It poses a challenge for players being able to get away from work to travel to a game. Colliar said that in certain situations, a player might have to leave work at 3 p.m. to make it to the diamond for a 6:30 p.m. start.
This caused one of the teams to take a leave of absence from the league prior to the meeting. The Lloydminster Juniors will not be participating in the league this year due to problems finding players.
Also not participating in the NSRBL this season are the Lloydminster Midgets. They will be playing in the Alberta Midget AAA league and will not have time to participate in both.
On the fence is the defending league champion Lloydminster Twins. They had previously indicated to the league they would be taking a leave of absence, but were present at the meeting. The team said they would let the league know by the end of the week.
To make up for the teams leaving, two new teams will be in the league. Edam takes the field again for the first time since 2010 after a leave of absence. Also joining the NSRBL is Macklin. The league will have 11 teams competing for the title and could expand to 12 after a decision is reached by the Twins.
One of the strengths, Colliar said, was the level of play in the league. He points to success in previous years in provincial tournaments. The Unity Cardinals won the senior A2 championship over the Bruno Bisons. The Border City Blue Jays, who finished the NSRBL regular season in first place, defeated the Carlyle Cardinals to win the senior A title.
The league addressed the issue of players from the Western Major Baseball League playing for teams. The NSRBL decided that no player from the WMBL will be allowed to participate in games. They also restated that no team was allowed to pay mileage or give performance bonuses to players, though Colliar was emphatic when saying no team has yet to try this tactic.
A year-end tournament was an idea presented at the meeting, but was turned down. Colliar said it would potentially change the composition of the teams.
"The way the teams are built right now [is they] have two or possibly three starting pitchers," said Colliar. "If you're playing that over a week-long period rather than having to go play a tournament on a weekend, you're going to have to have a different pitching core to get through a tournament. You have to have more arms to do that."
The NSRBL schedule will be announced within the next two weeks. The regular season will begin around the holiday weekend in May and run until early July. The best-of-three playoffs are expected to start July 14 and will feature the top eight teams in the league.
