Attempting a Game Picnic

Amy Singer and Eva Pronenko were going to try and get a couple more parents together to have a BBQ/Picnic for an upcoming game. The thought was during one of the double headers or a weekend game that occurs around dinner time, we could all bring a small dish to pass and/or BBQ some hot dogs and burgers. This sounds like a great idea to me. And I am sure the kids would just LOVE this.

Amy Singer circulated an email today about the possibility of doing this at the upcoming tourney in Vernon Hills. However, reading through the Vernon Hills Athletic Assoc. website, it seems they do not allow outside food or outside coolers into the park. This makes sense as most if not all parks/facilities that sell food usually do not want outside food brought in because it kills their sales.

So I was going to put together a food and participant list for the site to try and organize this. But considering we cannot do this at the tourney, we will have to do this in a couple weeks. So I will speak to a couple of the parents as I am sure Amy and Eva will, and we will try to determine which game would be best for this. So please leave a comment to this post with your ideas and your wishes to participate so we can get a list going. As we get closer and get more of this figured out I will also circulate an email.

Lets get some ideas discussed here guys! This is a great idea and will be a ton of fun for the parents and the team. If you would like to bring a small BBQ grill (like a smokey joe), or have some ideas on which game would be best or what food you would like to bring, start discussing it here. Its the best place for it.

Photos

Hello again everyone. I am working on two things at the moment. Getting photos (slideshow) to display how I want it to. And getting two more statistics 'sections' (batting and pitching stats) to display on the stats page.

At the moment I only have a couple (literally) pictures to play around with. If anyone has any good team pics they want to share please send thme to me via email at ssjtiamat@comcast .net

I am hoping to get these two items functional within the next couple of days. Time is really hard to come by of late, as I'm sure is the case for all of you. I just want to try and keep you all updated on what is happening on my end with the site. I wanted to get these (or at least one of) completed tonite. But with the Blackhawks game being on and my kids driving me nuts it is getting harder and harder. I will do my best to finish these in the next couple days. because once complete, adding new photos and stats should be a simple process. It's getting this all to work together that is the hard part.

I chose to use Blogger because I thought it would make things easier because some of the items that make up a web site are included in a nice package. Plus they let you use your own code to "adjust" or "add" things. However, some of their code does not play nice with some of my code. So there is a bit of a learning curve to get the two languages to jive. But rest assured I WILL get it working. And in trying not to bore you with the tech details of HTML, API, CSS, and PHP code... let's just say its like trying to get a Baseball player to play Hockey and vice versa. But they are both athelets and can LEARN to play the other sport. That's kinda how this is goin with the various languages at work here.

So keep the faith, and please be patient. And like always... if you have anything to share, please do.

Thanks!

Game Stats and Summaries added

Happy Sunday everyone! Posted a couple past game summaries that Coach Bragg wrote as well as some team stats. Mr. Lanphier has also been kind enough to write a couple and will have the upcoming summaries as well. We have decided to post the close games and winning games only. For one this saves on time which we are lacking lately. And helps keep all of this a positive experience. We all see the losses, no need to relive them :-p

To find the stats, follow the links on the left of the page. Game summaries can be found on the top left. Each story is labeled and labels are organized in that corner. At this point I am playing around with a couple different ways of doing this. So at the moment I have only added the Game Log. Jeff has also given me team pitching and batting stats. I will add these very soon. I want to decide how I will have them displayed before I code the rest in.

Also keep an eye on the text at the very top of the site page. I have been keeping the upcoming game info up there. Although I do not update it as soon as one game ends, I do usually get to it by the next day.

I also still have a couple pics to add. Mr. Black has also been taking some multi-frame snapshots that he will be getting to me soon. These will also be posted on the site in the very near future. I will try to get a few on tonite. I have a 6 year old birthday party to get through first.......

Thanks to all who have helped out. I must say, the games have been rather enjoyable. Everyone seems to be having a good time. The team has been pretty upbeat and continue to play hard until the very last out. And Opening Day was a rain free day! Lets Go Vikings!

Getting closer...

We are steadily getting things worked out with all of our website features. We have a couple parents who are going to be doing game summaries. And we should only be a couple days away from getting our stats on the site. We are just ironing out some details and we will be there.

Our season is off and running. We have had a few close plays, a few big innings and also our sshare of mistakes. But that is how we learn is it not? I think (from a parents'/fans point of view) some of the boys are finding their stride. While a couple are still trying to get into the groove. Regardless of where any of them are in their seasonal progression, I have yet to see any of them give up. A couple more games and these kids might begin to really gel together. When that happens, watch out! We have what looks to be a great team. When they all start playing to their full ability we will be very hard to beat.

I will have another profile up by tomorrow. A couple days late... sorry... but it will be there. For all those who have yet to submit their answers for the profile please email them to me. If you need another copy of the questions I can resend them to you. At the moment I only have enough profile answers for two more kids.

There has been some interest in submitting pics. Please do. If you have digital pics, even if they are just of your kid. That is fine. I can hold them until we have a variety. Also any video you may have of a game or portions of the game. I can format the video for the site.. so submit what you have and I can take it from there. Thanks.

Thank you to all who have offered to help. I am always open for ideas. Anything you would like to see on the site or if you have an idea for something cool to do. Or even if you have a team announcement or message...

Upcoming site additions.

Well.. we knew there was a win in there somewhere for us! Those games were great. And in the next couple days we should have all the stats up for you to enjoy! Speaking of which.. here is what you can look forward to.

We should have game recaps up soon. The plan is to do a short news story like game recap after each game. Of course we are not even going to try and get the stories up on the site right after the game. But a day or two after should be doable. We shall see. So far it is just Amy and I doing them so if anyone else would like to join the fun just shoot me an email and I can give you the specifics.

Statistics. This is a bit more time consuming. But I myself am a stats freak. I just like numbers I guess. But after game stats are recorded, we have a preliminary process in place to get the stats to me so I can input them on the site. This way everyone can see their own kids stats along with the rest of the team. Some of this seams like a big endeavor, but we will do our best!

The chatbox (shoutbox) seems to be working out pretty good. If anyone notices any issues, please let me know so I can get them corrected. Speaking of corrections... there was a snafu on the schedule down below. Picture day was inputearly in the creation of the site and as such the schedule I had was final, but certain things like picture day did not have any details as they were slated to come later. Then when the time came, I neglected to change the sites schedule. So I hope there was no confusion. But all is fixed now and I will try to double check the rest of the dates as they stand on our site calendar.

That's all I have for now. I will be doing some maintenance on the site tonite after dinner. So look for them then. Thanks for your patience.

A few little changes. New profile coming soon.

You may have noticed a few slight changes. Or maybe not.. :-p

I switched from a 2 column layout to a 3 column one. Gives  the site a bit of a cleaner look. I also added a shoutbox. Just a place for realtime messages to be posted on the front page of the site. Just put in your name and your message. That's it! If your registered on the site then when you log in it will put your name in for you. Its a good place for some quick thoughts, or for the kids to chat.

The next player profile is almost ready. A day overdue, but I wanted the layout to be clean and tested before posting anything else. But that is done now so we can continue with business as usual. I just a have a couple other small additions to add behind the scenes and we should be ready for the upcoming first couple of games. Looking forward to it. As always, stay tuned to the site for continual updates and new info!

Site news and our first game!

I know it's not an "official" game, but I for one am excited! I know this is going to be a hectic summer for all of us, so anything we can do to help eachother and the team out goes a long way. To this end I would like to include a contact page to the site. This way, if there are any parents out there who are anticipating a rough time getting to the field on time for pre-game warm ups there is a place for them to get phone numbers. Or another idea maybe is a car pool list? I'm not sure, maybe just the contact page will be enough. So, if there is a phone number or numbers you would like added to the list just shoot me an email and I will add it. If there are any aversions to this idea just let me know. Maybe we can just do a list and email it.

The site is starting to finally get some content. And once we get some games under our belt there will be more. Amy Singer and I will be doing game recaps, and we will have a team stats page once we get some stats to report that is. And as always any pics or video you capture at the games can be included on the site as well. All you need to do is email them to me. There is still room for another writer or two. If anyone would like to contribute an article please let me know and I can give you authoring access.

The player profiles are turning out great. I have gotten back about 5 or 6 so far and it seems the kids are having a good time answering the questions. Please remember to send a pic or two with the answered questions. For those of you who have already included a pic, thanks. If you have sent your sons answers back but did not include a pic please do so when you get a chance. Something baseball related would be best, but is by no means required. Again, these will be posted at an interval of one per week. Every Saturday is what I am shooting for. The current list looks like this (first come first served): Singer, Lanphier, Black, and Weede. Also, there will always be a section of the right sidebar with links to the profiles as they get posted.

I have made a couople "fixes" to the schedule. Originally the practices were scheduled for 5:30 during the week. This has been changed to reflect coach Bragg's wishes that they start at 5pm in order to ensure we have enough daylight. I also adjusted game times from 5:30pm to 5pm. This is because the coaches would like players at the field early for pre-game warm-ups. So just be aware that times that are on the schedule are the times the players need to report. NOT the games start time.

I have added a couple links as well. One for the Eteams site itself and one for that site's field locations. This will be where any other links will appear in the future as well. I have been trying to also get in touch with the webmaster from BaseballRox, but I have yet to get a response. I wanted to get permission to embedd their videos on our site as opposed to a link to the videos. I will continue my efforts on this front.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be adding a couple more items to the site to try and get the kids involved a bit more. The first thing I want to add is what is called  a shoutbox. It works sorta like a wall post on Facebook for those who are familiar with that site. Kids can write a message and others can respond, all in real time. These work really well on busy sites and should work well here too. The kids can chat about video games, baseball, and anything else they so choose.

That's all I have at the moment. But remember, anything you want to share with the team by way of pics, stories, etc.. just send me an email and I can post it on the site in it's appropriate place. If you have any questions about anything, or have any ideas of something to add to the site, just let me know. I will do my best to keep things updated within 24 hours of the event (email, game stats, stories, etc..).

Calendar invites sent!!

Ok everyone. I sent off the invites to the team calendar. You should be getting those emails. Once you do just follow the link and sign up. If once you sign up and in your not seeing how to sync with your phone or email client, check the help section. It is pretty thorough. But if that does not help let me know.

Remember to keep checking back here on the site for any news!

Suggestions....

Here is what we could use to "round" out the site. We could use an "About the Team" article. We could also use someone to maybe cover the team... ? Just a thought.. a simple story about games, happenings, etc... Someone might also want to do a "Player" profile once a week. I don't know.

I guess whatever happens, at the very least, this will be one "central" site for all things 10W. If someone wants to donate digital files on anything the think would be good for the site, feel free.

Welcome to the GBA 10W Travel Blog!

OK. So all corny-ness aside, this seemed the easiest and most practical solution. Everyone is familiar with YouTube and should be familiar with blogs. Yes, FaceBook is technically one too. Anyway, here we can post stories (if we desire) throughout the year, coaching tips (the kids should hopefully get a benefit - they are allot more tech savvy then we sometimes give them credit for..), schedule updates, etc.. Just a central point of reference.



So.. here is what is happening here. We have videos at the top. All hosted on YouTube. Our YouTube channel is GBA10W. In case you want to search there. We have a column on the right side that we can use for updates, news, whatever. It will also store any of the "main" articles posted here.



Coaches.. I am in the process of sending you all the info you would need to post ANYTHING you should want. If there are videos you found somewhere else, and you want them showing on OUR blog (page, whatever you wanna call it). All I need is the link and I can embed the video into our site. You want to post a write-up on proper stance, power position, etc.. write it up and I will post it. Or you can log on and post it directly.

Here is where the call goes out to parents. Seriously, if ANYONE wants to get involved please email me and let me know what you would like to do. EVERYTHING is open. :) Anyone want to "cover" the team throughout the season? Photos, videos, anything!!

The cool thing is if we do this right... anyone who may want a "keepsake" of sorts can just let me know and I can package up all the pics, videos, stories, etc.. from the entire season, put them on a disc and there you go! Instant electronic scrapbook!

Also... when the coaches or anyone writes a story for this middle section, they will be scrolling down on the page as new ones are added. But they are always available.. and there is a comment section below each story. Team/Parents/Coaches, leave comments. You can further a discussion this way and that could be fun.