UPDATED: 5/25/2023
Coaches, we decided to share this information with you so everyone can be on the same page with why the schedule looks the way it does and why we can't move games after the fact. Please feel free to share this information with your parents.
Please read over this entire document and email me any questions or ask me at the upcoming coaches meeting. I will be in attendance at both meetings.
Starting Fall 2023, each team will have up to 20 blackouts. We are no longer able to accommodate unlimited blackouts.
A blackout is when a team requests to not play on a certain day or time.
7/8 & below play games Thursday through Sunday. Monday through Wednesday are not game days but can become game days at the end of the season.
Mon - Wed games will only be scheduled if we have too many rainouts. We will send communication before scheduling on Mon-Wed.
9/10 & above can play seven days a week. Sunday and Wednesdays are not typically game days.
Wednesday and Sunday games will only be scheduled if we have too many rainouts. We will send communication before scheduling on those days.
The league has a form that will be emailed to all coaches on Friday 8/4/2023. Coaches have until Friday 8/11/2023 @ 11:59PM to submit it. The league will not honor late blackouts.
The league needs every available day to get the schedule submitted to the cities and umpires for approval before it is published for parents and coaches.
Once the blackout form deadline has passed, the league will begin constructing the schedule.
CFBBA builds the game schedule by hand. The league is not able to use scheduling software like other leagues due to our blackout policy.
Games will NOT be played on the following dates (blacked out for the entire league):
If your team plans on playing in the Gann's Classic Tournament (Saturday 11/4 - Sunday 11/5), please note that Blastball, 5/6 T-ball, and 5/6 Modified will have games scheduled this weekend. CFBBA will automatically blackout this weekend for 7/8 and above.
Moving games after the fact is harder than it sounds. Please know CFBBA would move games if it were a feasible option. But it's just not as simple as it sounds. Here are some reasons why moving games is almost impossible.
Umpires: The umpire association needs our master game schedule before the season starts. Then the schedule has to be sent to them every Sunday for the next 2 weeks of play to confirm any changes (added rain outs etc). So they can be sure games are covered.
Umpires have daily minimums when working games. Weekday is 2 games & weekend is 3 games. Example: Monday has a 6pm & a 7:30PM game scheduled and the 6PM team asks that we reschedule this game. CFBBA would be billed for both games as the umpires expected to work both games. Then when the 6PM game is rescheduled, CFBBA will be billed again for umpire coverage.
Outside of player insurance, umpire cost is one of our biggest expenses. Moving games would drive our cost up and untimely drive up registration cost.
Umpire coverage:
Blastball: no umpire
T-Ball, Modified & 7/8: 1 umpire
9/10, 11/12 & 13/14: 2 umpires
The above umpire coverage will cause what looks like a gap in the schedule. Example: we could have two, 6PM games on Pepper North & Pepper South for the 5/6 division (using 1 umpire each). Then across the street we will have one late slot game at 7:40PM for the 11/12 division (the 2 umpires will walk from the 6PM Pepper games to the late slot Oran game). The schedule would look like there are 2 vacant slots after the 6PM games and one vacant slot before the 7:40PM game. But in reality there are zero slots available, since the umpires have maxed out on games on those fields.
When the above situation happens (which is often), a team from the later / older game will reach out and ask that the game be moved to the early slot, since only one game is scheduled on that field for the day. But we can't, or they won't have any umpire coverage, since their umpires already have games at 6PM.
Same method of sharing umpires applies at McInnish fields (between fields 12-15 & 6-9)
If you are in the late slot and your umpires have not shown up, they are most likely coming from an adjacent field.
Both cities: They also require the master schedule weeks before the season starts and require it 7 days in advance, to game play. CFBBA sends the updated schedule to each city once a week on Sunday.
Carrollton: Once we give them our master game schedule for the entire season, they will start to rent out vacant fields to other leagues for games, practices and tournament games. They do not want to pull a field from non-CFBBA teams with less than a 7 days notice, so we can move a game (not weather related).
Being that CFBBA has precedence on these game fields, we try to respect their 7-14 day rule when moving games.
Lights:
Carrollton: CFBBA sets the lights schedule once a week, when the game schedule is submitted to the city.
If you have a lighting issue during a game (i.e. lights are not coming on on-time or shut off too early), please reach out to me ASAP. I can get it corrected for you.
The above only applies to games. If you have a practice at McInnish that you reserved and paid for through the city of Carrollton, you'll have to contact them for light issues. CFBBA is not allowed to flip the lights on for practices.
Farmers Branch: They have a designated city employee that sets the lights schedule once the game schedule is submitted weekly.
If you have lighting issues, please reach out to Rodney Johnson (see contact tab). He will notify the FB employee on-call to see if it can be corrected.
Depending when (at what point during the game) the lights did not come on or shut off too early, dictates if the game will be resumed at a later date or if the score will remain as is. Please reach out to your age group VP for a decision.
Also, if you are in the late slot game please let me know if your game started late due to the first game. So I can log in and extend the lights for you.
Fields: CFBBA has dedicated individuals that open and close ALL fields every day. They rely on the game schedule that's sent out to them weekly, to know when to open and close each field.
If one game is moved at a coaches request, all the above bullet points have to be addressed, so everyone is on the same page. Plus the opponent will need to be notified. With the number of games we have on the schedule, it's impossible to continuously move games. Something will slip through the crack such as gates won't be unlocked, lights won't be scheduled to turn on, the city will schedule a non-CFBBA game at the same time I scheduled a CFBBA game (4 teams will try to use the same field), etc. .
When the above is void:
Weather related canceled games
Wet fields - when the city deem them not safe to play on
Extenuating circumstances - with the age group VP & The Board of Directors approval
These are guidelines we use when creating the schedule. Please note in some cases we have to schedule outside of these guidelines, but we really try not to.
Towards the end of the season, if there are more rained out games to be rescheduled than we have normal game slots available.
We will start to plug in games on non-typical dates and time. We might also have to put some younger teams in the late slot or early slot during Mon-Fri.
We will try everything in our power before we start scheduling non-typical games.
This is usually due to umpire coverage.
Example: If we put a 5/6 - Mod game in the early slot on all possible fields. We would be faced with putting another 5/6 T-Ball game in the late slot (where they don't belong) as both games only need one umpire. If we select an older division to go in the late slot, they would only have one umpire yet they require two umpires.
During the normal season we will create the schedule to avoid the above situations. However, we can not guarantee that at the end of the season when we are trying to get all the rained out games played to complete standings.
Double headers will be schedule to get games played, so standings can finalize and teams can see where they are seeded on the post season tournament.
If you coach more than one team, we will try our hardest to not let your games overlap (same date & time). And we will try to keep your games at the same complex, played one after another. Please know this isnt always possible once you consider all the moving parts that go into making a schedule (lights, opening and closing the fields, blackouts & umpires).
Spring Season ONLY:
Regular season ends June 1st and the tournament is from June 3rd-8th. Depending on the weather between now and then, we may need to use Sunday 6/2 to get games completed.
We do not offer blackouts during this week. As we have 6 days to get all games for this tournament played, for 90+ teams.
Please let your team know to remain available during this week.
NO pool players will be allowed; you must play with your current public CFBBA roster.
Failure to do so will result in a forfeit.
Depending on the number of teams in your division, your brackets could last all week or start and end in one day. Just depends on how many teams opt in for the tournament.
We will not schedule before 6:00PM during the week.
Standard start times: Mon.-Fri. 6PM, Sat & Sun: 9AM
There will be NO scheduling exceptions or black-outs considered
It will be single elimination, and seeded on regular season standings.
Champions & Finalists of each bracket take home rings.
Carrollton-Farmers Branch Baseball Association PO Box 815162 Dallas, Texas 75381