Vol. 15 No. 3
September 2004
 
 

Table of Contents

Newsworthy Items

  • Congratulations to the Taiwan Home Run as our 2004 NBBA World Series Champs!
  • Letters verifying visual impairment will be required for all NEW athletes participating in the 2005 World Series. Call the secretary with any questions.
  • The dates for the 2005 World Series are July 24-July 30, 2005. The meetings will be held on Tuesday, July 26th. Games will begin on Wednesday, July 27th, and continue thru Friday, July 29th. The Championship games will be held Saturday, July 30th. The tournament will be held in Houston, TX.
  • 2005 Regional Tournaments –
    Information will be posted, here and on our website, as it becomes available.
  • Nominations – Congratulations to Sam Jo, Jan Traphagan, Lenny Williams, Marty Skutnik, Wilbert Turner, Stephen Guerra, Ed Bradley, Kevin Barrett, Dave Smolka, and Jeana Weigand on their elections to the NBBA Board.
    Please submit your nominations (remember the person must be willing to run) for 2005 NBBA Board positions to Dan Kelley at (614)848-4681 or email to dkelley55125@sbcglobal.net
  • Visit us on the web at: www.NBBA.org
  • Information regarding current or former NBBA members who have passed away may be submitted to DAN GREENE – 1611 S. Aida Ave., Tucson, AZ 85710, OR may be sent online to dan@g-ware.com
  • The 2004 NBBA Fall Board meeting will be held in Oklahoma City, OK on November 6th. For more info contact the NBBA secretary.

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2004 World Series All-Star Teams and Other Awards

2004 Beep Baseball World Series – Columbus, OH
Final Results and All-Stars

First Place: Taiwan Home Run
Second Place: Kansas All-Stars
Third Place: Cleveland Scrappers

OFFENSIVE All-Tournament Team
MVP- Darryl Minor (Bayou City) .625
Wang Chen Kuang (Taiwan) .606
Mike Dell (Cleveland) .594
Craig Cotton (Austin) .586
Chou Chih Chung (Taiwan) .571
Chance Cranford (Bayou City) .556

DEFENSIVE All-Tournament Team
MVP- Frank Guerra (Long Island) 7.429
Juan Hernandez (Chicago Comet) 6.5
Dave Benney (Indy Thunder) 6.5
Clint Woodard (Chicago Bluff) 6.0
Jeff Dell (Cleveland) 5.143
Keith Edgerton (Tyler) 5.0
Neal McDonald (OKC) 5.0

Spotter Award
Glen Hopkins – Austin Blackhawks

Pitcher/Catcher Award
Tim Hibner and Daniel Greene – Oklahoma City Bombers

Sportsmanship Award
Columbus Vipers

Dan Tracy Award
Dave Horne, plate umpire

Jim Quinn Award
Jerri Orr

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Board Meeting Minutes - Pre-General Assembly 2004

August 3rd

Present: Terri Smolka, Dave Smolka, Jeff Dell, Stephen Guerra, Dan Kelley, Ken Bailey, Joe Wood, Neal McDonald, Tim Hibner, Wilber Turner, Jim Wolfe, Ed Bradley, Jeana Weigand, John Lykowski, Jan Traphagan (guest), Kari Biesendorfer & Roy Trujillo (via teleconference).

Call to order.
Invocation by John Lykowski.

Motion to accept minutes from the fall board meeting as mailed, 2nd, passed.
Treasurer’s report read. Waiting to move funds from the tourney fund into the other funds after the CD matures. Motion to accept as read, 2nd, passed.
Endowment report read. Motion to accept as read, 2nd, passed.

Tournament report for 2004 given. Still no host city for 2005.

By-Laws: updated to currently reflect the Articles of Incorporation. Nothing going to General Assembly for vote. By-Laws will be available on the web in both printer & Braille friendly formats shortly. Asked for both a Brailled & large print copy of the By-Laws to be included in the WS inventory as equipment and shipped to each host city. Next project scheduled is to work on an NBBA “policies” manual.

Nominating: 9 total positions up for election this year – 5 board of directors, 4 executive offices. Explained the new idea for casting votes this year. Neal McDonald resigned his position as a board member. This leaves a 2-year term up for election. Will include this in the Gen. Assembly election process.

Rules: Received a list of proposed changes. Two have been tabled, 1 was scratched and the 1 remaining will be brought to vote at Gen. Assembly – Elimination of the bunt rule. The Competition Committee has a proposal/suggestion for future host cities: to institute a Continuing Play Bracket for teams eliminated from the tournament on Thursday and early Friday. These games would take place on Friday and they would not count toward the tournament statistics. These games would be for fun and education. One discussed feature is a mentorship program for pairing new teams and veteran teams to help teach them more about the game. This can take place as early as next season.

Old Business: The committee is still working on “sanctioning” and the NBBA’s liability.
Still working on purchasing the new NBBA laptop. Shooting for a fall board meeting deadline.

Receipts were submitted for reimbursement for extra buzzers for bases.
2005 bids discussed.
Motion to have the NBBA reimburse COBBA $1000.00 as a contribution to the fund to allow Taiwan to compete in the 2004 WS, 2nd, passed.
Motion to reimburse Dave Horne for the cost of purchasing additional size 2XL NBBA head umpire shirts, 2nd, passed (1 opposed).
Discussions of several fundraisers: any grants known of for our purposes, “Hole-in-One” golf tourney, “NBBACard” credit card.
Adopt-a-ball funds sent to John Lykowski each year are to be given to the host city.
Gofor Sport, a company with an “adaptive” section has made a request to market our bases. Currently we cannot make them quickly enough to do this.
Motion made that if any NBBA officer, board of director or member that is to be mentioned (representing the NBBA) or associated with any type of media (video/photo/radio) it needs to go through the NBBA PR (to ensure the NBBA is aware of it & feels portrayed in a proper manner), 2nd, passed.
Motion to adjourn.

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General Assembly Minutes

August 3, 2004

Call to order.
Invocation by John Lykowski.

Minutes from the 2004 General Assembly were read. Motion to accept as read, 2nd, passed.
Treasurer’s & Endowment reports read. Motion to accept as read, 2nd, passed.

Tournament report given for 2004.

By-Laws: By-Laws currently are a reflection of the NBBA’s Articles of Incorporation. Nothing new for vote at this time.

Rules: Rule 7, section D, part 4 “Bunt rule”. Committee makes motion to eliminate this rule, 2nd, discussion, passed.
A Competition Committee, led by Jan Traphagan, came up with the suggestion to institute a Continuing Play Bracket for teams eliminated from the tournament on Thursday and early Friday. These games would take place on Friday and they would not count toward the tournament statistics. These games would be for fun and education. One discussed feature is a mentorship program for pairing new teams and veteran teams to help teach them more about the game. This can take place as early as next season.

Old Business: none
New Business: none

PR: Fanfest report given. LCIF grant almost finished. New teams in: Minnesota, Nebraska, Joliet, IN & Ft. Lauderdale. Beepball chat room is available at beepbaseball@topica.com

Nominations:
President: Ed Bradley from committee. No nominations from the floor. Elected by acclamation.
1st Vice President: Kevin Barrett from committee. Kevin Sibson declines by proxy nomination from the floor. Nominations closed. Elected by acclamation.
2nd Vice President: Dave Smolka from committee. No nominations from the floor. Elected by acclamation.
Secretary: Jeana Weigand from committee. No nominations from the floor. Elected by acclamation.

Board of Director positions: Jan Traphagan, Leonard Williams, Marty Skutnik, Wilbert Turner & Stephen Guerra from committee. Floor nominations:
Ron Whaley, 2nd, accepted.
Darnell Booker, 2nd, accepted.
Sam Jo, 2nd, accepted.
Rob Weigand, 2nd, declined.
Elected for the 3-year term are: Jan Traphagan, Leonard Williams, Wilbert Turner, Stephen Guerra and Sam Chou. Marty Skutnik elected to fulfill the 2-year term vacated by Neal McDonald.

Announcements: Canned food drive reminder. Cash donations accepted at this time.

Motion to adjourn.

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Board Meeting Minutes - August 6, 2004

Present: Terri Smolka, Dave Smolka, Stephen Guerra, Dan Kelley, Ken Bailey, John Lykowski, Joe Wood, Jan Traphagan, Michael Garrett, Ed Bradley, Tim Hibner, Jim Wolfe, Sam Jo, Jeana Weigand, Jeff Dell, Lenny Williams, Kevin Barrett, Wilbert Turner, Marty Skutnik. Kari Biesendorfer via phone. Absent: Roy Trujillo.
Guests: Ron Barton, Cora McKiernan, James Gong.

Call to order.
Invocation by Michael Garrett.
Committee Reports:
Tournament: 2004 Columbus – brought everyone up to speed on tournament to date. Discussed format for Championship games to be played on Saturday and the awards banquet.
2005 – Bids received by Rochester, MN and Houston, TX.
Rochester bid has some contingencies, one of which is that the NBBA provide them with up to $20,000.00 in funding if they cannot raise the money.
Houston bid has no contingencies. Maximum room rate of $79/night. No rental fees for one of the two field choices. Two options for hotels (depending on which fields used). Volunteers and funding have been assessed and should be no problem. Ed Bradley would be the local tournament director.
Motion by Jan Traphagan to accept Houston, TX as the host city for the 2005 NBBA World Series, 2nd, discussion, passed.
2006 – No formal bid has been received at this time.
Telecom Pioneer: Next meeting scheduled for Jan. 21-22, 2005 in Texas. Information will be on their website in November (telecompioneers.com). Discussed fundraising, the NBBA George Haas Sportsmanship Award which is sponsored by the Telecom Pioneers, and the plans regarding the Pioneers group from Atlanta, GA who has expressed interest in ball production and, potentially, base production. Three members will be coming to Denver to view the ball production facility. The Atlanta group is currently fundraising to help expedite getting a facility up and running to assist the Denver group.
Equipment: Three full sets of buzzers & wires were made & brought to the WS to replace those taken from the NBBA stock, along with and extra switch box and 2 sets of buzzers. A new source has been found for buzzers. Tim recommends that the batteries be removed before shipping the bases and have the batteries replaced at each host city before the WS.
Jim has receipts for bases shipped at his expense and requested reimbursement.
Currently we have requests for 18 sets of bases, plus we have the money for 4 sets. The NBBA has no source for the electronics (Tim is currently unable to keep up with the demand.). Motion made to ask Lou Weigand to produce 4 sets of bases (since we have the money for those requests), 2nd, passed.
Motion to reimburse Tim & Jim for a trip to Denver, when the Pioneers come to visit the ball production facility, to discuss the possibility for base production, 2nd, passed.
Balls: Roy not present, so no report on production.
Taiwan purchased balls for a tournament and did some statistics on their performance. Ten percent of the balls were dead after only 1 hit. 40% were dead after 2-3 hits. In a 2-day 15 game tournament over 100 balls were dead before they were even recharged.
Any further issues regarding balls will be discussed at the November meeting.
Projects: new chairman is needed.
Budget & Finance: LCIF grant application is in process. If given, will allow $75,000.00 over 3 years. Also will look into the Qwest Foundation grant and continue the yearly raffle.
Umpire Evaluation: comments will be sent out from the forms after the WS. Request for feedback regarding the form has been made.
Jim Quinn: Jan Traphagan will present the award.
OLD BUSINESS:
Due to potential issues with continued donations from the McCormick Foundation via the Colorado Rockies to the Rocky Mountain Eagles, Ron Barton is again requesting the NBBA return excess funds from the 2003 WS. Discussion. Arrangements will be made by Ron for a conference call involving Ron Barton, Ed Bradley and Jim Kellogg to attempt to resolve this recurring issue.
NEW BUSINESS:
Due to stipulations in the LCIF grant, a motion was made to have the NBBA put up 25% (approx. $1000.00) in “seed money” each year for the next 3 years so that, if we are awarded the grant, LCIF will release the funds to a local Lions club (who will govern our use of it), 2nd, passed.
Newly elected members, please get your information to Jeana.
Motion to print/publish the next NBBA newsletter, 2nd, passed.
Fall meeting: Bid placed by Tim Hibner for OKC, OK, on November 6-7, 2004, 2nd, passed.
Dave Horne to head up the Championship game at noon. Dave Lykowski to ump the Consolation Championship game at 8:30am. Head umps for both games were determined in combination with scores from head umpire evaluation sheets and Ken Bailey, the NBBA head umpire. All NBBA head umps from the WS will be used in umpiring both championship games (as base & field umps).
Motion to adjourn.

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Board Members Information

For these details contact the NBBA Secretary

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Committee Chairpersons

Nominating: Dan Kelley
By-Laws: Stephen Guerra
Projects:
Public Relations: David Smolka
Membership: Jeana Weigand
Balls & Equipment: Tim Hibner
Rules: Jim Wolfe
Hall of Fame: Kevin Barrett
Budget & Finance: John Lykowski

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Board Member E-mails and Phone Numbers Only

For these details contact the NBBA Secretary  

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NBBA Equipment List

The following is a list of names & addresses for beep baseball equipment: Revised: 08/2004

Bases: Base Switch Boxes:

$350 for complete set PLUS shipping $50 per box
and handling, contact for details
Jim Wolfe Kerry Kuck
PO Box 422 – 10129 206th Rd. 1385 S. Harlan
Nortonville, KS 66060-0422 Lakewood, CO 80232
(913) 886-2009 (303) 934-9103
e-mail: jimwolfe@sprintpcs.com
For electronics only, contact Jim for information.

Beep Baseballs:

Denver Beep Ball Group
$30 each PLUS shipping and handling
****MUST contact first, via phone, US mail or e-mail, to get exact amount with shipping included then SEND PAYMENT WITH ACTUAL ORDER for balls to be shipped to:
F.H. Reid Beep Ball Manufacturing
C/o Roy Trujillo
2020 W. Pine Ridge Ave.
Littleton, CO 80120
(303) 798-6597
(303) 738-9997 Fax number
e-mail: beepball@earthlink.net
Repair of Beep Baseballs: $21.00 per ball (will replace entire chamber)

Blindfolds:

\Mindfold (888) 705-3805
8043 E. 7th St.
Tucson, AZ 85710

Cleveland Sight Center (216) 791-8118 Crafts for Sale Dept.
1909 E. 101st St.
Cleveland, OH 44106

**NEW
maggs51@wideopenwest.com
(Maggie Braddock) $5 each

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