All good things come to an end (and then start again in 6 months!!!)

Hi folks

Well, as the Starks say, winter is coming, and that means the end of another wonderful season of T ball.  Firstly, here are some housekeeping matters:

Baseball Pants

Please return your childs baseball pants either tomorrow night at training to your coach, or at the game on Saturday.  For the final game the players will be able to wear track pants by preference, or shorts.  

If you cannot return them at either opportunity, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get them to me at the prizegiving on Sunday.  These pants are in relatively short supply (as some of you well know) and we need to make sure we have them all back ready to give out to a new season of T ballers next summer.  

If you have any problems getting the pants back at one of these opportunities, please contact me via thie comments or email.

Remember, the shirts and caps are yours to keep so the players can all show off to their mates until they join up next season.

Prizegiving

For those that haven't heard, prizegiving has been shifted to 11am to accomodate both our Premier teams playing each other in the Auckland Baseball final at 1pm.  The prizegiving is being held at the Pakuranga Rugby Club clubrooms (they're the rooms across the rugby fields behind the baseball diamond).

Premier Baseball Final

As noted, the HP Hawks two Premier Men's teams, the Blackhawks and the Redhawks have made it through to the Premier Club finals, to be held on the No.1 diamond at Lloyd Elsmore Park.  Please take the opportunity to wander over after the prizegiving and give your budding superstars a chance to see the best baseball players in our Club (and in the country) warm up and display their skills.

Thank you!!!!

Finally, a big thank you to absolutely everyone involved with the T ball season this year. The coaches, for their tremendous hard work and patience, and for helping get our kids out on the diamond each week getting better and better.  Thank you too to all of you parents that dedicate yourselves to getting up early on a Saturday morning to allow your children to learn and engage of the great game of baseball.  And thank you to all the hard work of the unseen volunteers running the Club and allowing us to do what we do.  

Particular thanks to the tuck shop ladies, to Mike Long, our gear man, and to Darryl Fairclough, our head groundsman.  These folks put hours and hours into allowing us to play our game, so if you see them on Saturday or Sunday, please take a moment to really thank them for all their time and hard work.

Tell your friends, neighbours, cousins and school mates, T ball is AWESOME!  Lets make our T ball program bigger than Ben Hur.  Spread the word and lets keep growing our great Club and great game.

Best regards and see you this weekend and next season!


Paul Wansbone

Training to go ahead tonight except for Dodgers/Pirates 6 March 2015

Hi folks

It's not the finest weather of the summer, but hopefully the rain will hold off enough that we can have a bit of a run around for the teams tonight.

Dan has advised that he's pulled the pin on the Dodgers and Pirates training tonight and will see you folks tomorrow.

Take care all.

Paul

T Ball restarts Sat 7th Feb!

Hey T Ball fans! 

Just an FYI that T Ball will recommence on Saturday 7th February. 

As Friday 6th is Waitangi Day, there will be no practice that day to leave you all free to celebrate this great country of ours.  :)

Take care all and see you soon!

Oceania Baseball U18 Champs

Hi folks

A reminder that this Friday through to Monday you can get to watch top quality baseball as the NZ U18 team take on their Aussie and Guam equivalents in a battle to qualify for the IBAF World U18 Champs later this year in Japan.  The game schedule can be found here.

For those that can't make the game, Sky Sport are covering both games of the NZ double header on Saturday on SS2 at 11:30am and 3:30pm.

A great excuse to break out the hotdogs and popcorn (or toasted sandwiches and piklets) and catch a bunch of our HP Hawks boys representing the silver fern with pride!

Baseball kicking into high gear!

Hey folks.

Happy new year everyone!  Wow, some awesome weather out there to kick off the new year.

While T ball and junior baseball are both still a couple of weeks away, there is a bunch of stuff coming up in the next few weeks for our budding superstars (for full details see www.baseballnewzealand.com ):

We have the MLB Playing with the Pros roadshow hitting Lloyd Elsmore on 19th January It is a great chance to get the kids some fantastic advice and help them advance their game further.

NZ U18s have a qualifying tournament vs Aussie and Guam (23 - 26th Jan, McCleod Park, Te Atatu) to qualify for the IBAF World Championship in Japan in August.  It was watching the U15s in the same qualifying tournament a few years ago that got me hooked on baseball.  I can't wait to get out there and watch our own home grown HP players representing NZ at this high standard of baseball!

Finally, Manager of the Milwauke Brewers, Ron Roenicke, will be holding a FREE!!! clinic at our very own Lloyd Elsmore Park on 30 January.  Register through the Baseball NZ website.

A final reminder, T ball will start up again on the 7th February. I look forward to seeing you all then.

Take care!
Paul.

Put the bats and gloves away and put the Christmas stockings up!

Hey folks

Thanks for an awesome first half season finale down at HP T Ball central this morning.  It has been a wonderful first half of the season, with a couple of learning opportunities for all of us here and there, but know that all your coaches and assistants are working hard to give the kids the best HP Hawks T ball experience we can.

I'd like to thank everyone who has helped the kids out in any way for their efforts this year.  Thank you also go to you parents for making sure the kids are there each week to help out their teams and improve their skills.

It was great getting to catch a small portion of each of the Sluggers games this morning and it was great to see the effort, hustle and great attitude of all the players.  You should all be proud of how your children have progressed over the season to date.

The Junior Sluggers also looked great out on the diamond - we've hardly had anyone running to third base after hitting the ball, and the throws to first base are getting better and better.  Everyone is hitting the ball hard, running hard and looking more like superstars of the future every week.

Here's wishing all of you and your families the very best, safest and satisfying Christmas and New Years, and we'll see you all on 6th February for the first training of 2015, ready to put the Sluggers and Junior Sluggers skills to the test.

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

IIIIIIIITTTT'SSSSS CCCCHHHHRRRRRIIISSSSTTTTMMMMMAAAAASSSSS!!!!

Hi folks and Merry Christmas!!!

We're now in our final week of T ball before we break for the Christmas holiday, and as a special treat the lovely folks at the Club's tuck shop have a whole bunch of yummy treats for all of our T ball superstars and their support crew's to appreciate after the game on Saturday!

Please get out and support the Club by buying some tasty post game treats - and make sure to give these awesome volunteers an extra hearty "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!" when you see them!