Read carefully... Return to Baseball: Reopening Stage 3

News Article

Jul 15, 2020 | WOBA Secretary | 935 views

As you are likely aware, the Premier announced yesterday that a significant portion of the province will move into Stage 3 of the provincial reopening plan on Friday, July 17th.

Intra-Company Correspondence

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Local and Affiliated Associations

Baseball Ontario

July 14, 2020

Return to Baseball

Stage 3 Provincial Reopening

As you are likely aware, the Premier announced yesterday that a significant portion of the province will move into Stage 3 of the provincial reopening plan on Friday, July 17^th.

At first we were excited by the announcement and there is some good news, but as we read through the stage 3 document on their website, that excitement has morphed into confusion, and perhaps a little disappointment.

Baseball Ontario is fully supportive of teams getting on the field for competition as soon as possible, and we have communicated with the Minister for Sport regarding our concerns, which you can easily see from looking at the impact of the requirements below. We encourage you to reach out to your local MPP to discuss your association’s concerns with the current outline for baseball as opposed to other team sports under Stage 3 of the Province’s reopening plan.

Currently, as we understand it from the Ministry of Sport, Recreation and Community Programs what stage 3 means:

If you live in a Stage 3 centre, you can:

· resume full team practices (full team to mean those individuals who appear on one team roster) and those practices can include scrimmages.

· start games, however:

· Leagues (loops) must contain no more than 50 participants total. Players are not yet permitted to play against players outside of their league or group.

· Example: ICBA has 6 10U teams from Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford and Guelph.Each team has 13 players and 3 coaches.ICBA can create 2 loops of 3 teams each, and those teams can play each other, but cannot play any of the other 3 teams in the other loop, or any other teams from any other leagues or loops.The same limit of 50 participants would apply to a local house league program and the teams within it.

· Umpires are included in the maximum of 50.

· Example: in the ICBA example above, 48 of the 50 participants in each loop will be players and coaches.That leaves 2 spots open for umpires.

· Spectators at all sporting events will be subject to gathering limits and physical distancing measures, with assigned seating where possible. Currently, we’re recommending that spectators:

· Ensure physical distance from participants and between spectators

· Spectators are encouraged to bring their own chairs for personal use or bring disinfectant wipes to clean the area where they sit. Municipalities and/or facility owners may or may not be cleaning bleachers on a regular basis.

· Spectators are encouraged not to wander to other areas of the park in which the diamond is located.

· For fall tryouts, all sessions must be restricted to 50 participants, including coaches/evaluators.Participants, including coaches/evaluators, must stay within the same group of 50 for all events.

· Facilities and shared equipment must be sanitized between tryout sessions.

If you live in a Stage 2 centre:

· You can continue to practice in groups of 10, with up to 2 groups on one diamond as long as they are physically distanced and participants don’t go back and forth.

· You cannot travel to a Stage 3 centre in order to practice or play.You are restricted to the activities permitted within the area that you live.