OPENING DAY for Bantam AAA League!
Posted April 3, 2013
Tonight the 2013 Bantam AAA season gets underway with 3 games on the docket. After a one year hiatus the Okanagan A's return to the league and will be hosting the Kamloops Riverdogs. Two other games on the mainland tonight have the White Rock Tritons hosting the Cloverdale Spurs, and the Abbotsford Angels will be travelling to Aldergrove to play the Dodgers.
As usual all teams are optimistic at this time of year and no one has more confidence than the Richmond Chuckers (the 2013 version of the Dream Team) who after returning 7 players went undefeated throughout the pre-season dominating all opponents. Also optimisim is high in Kamloops and Aldergrove as both teams have already respectfully qualified as the host teams for the Provincials and Western Canadian Championships.
This year it will be a 14 team league (down from 15 last year) with each team playing a balanced schedule of 39 games and playing each other team a total of 3 times. Okanagan A's (A merge between Kelowna, Westbank, Rutland, and Vernon), Burnaby Minor (A merge between Burnaby and New Westminster), and Vancouver Minor are new to the league this year while Cloverdale Red Spurs, Ridge Meadows Royals, Cowichan, and Vancouver Community have declined to put in teams this year.
There are other changes this year including the import rule which unfortunately has caused many teams to go with smaller rosters and has had an ill effect on some players who were talented enough to play AAA but were unable, due to the limited opportunity of import spots. This was a highly debated and controversial rule and many are still waiting to see if the rule achieves the spirit that it was intended of providing more parity in the league to provide better overall player development.
One significant change this year will be that the regular season schedule will have far less importance as 273 games will be played and NO TEAMS will be eliminated from the Provincial tournament.
The top 7 teams, plus host (Kamloops) will qualify for Provincials through league play. If the host is in the top 7 the 8th place team qualifies. The remaining 6 teams will play in a double knockout Wild Card Tournament on July 27-28 where the top two teams will get the last 2 Provincial playoff berths.
If the host (Kamloops) places in any of the top 9 positions they will receive that seed for the Provincials. If Host places 10th or lower they will be seeded 10th. Host will not participate in the Wild Card Tournament if they qualify for it.
It should be an exciting year of Baseball for B.C's Premier 15U Division best of luck to all of the teams.
Let the games begin...................
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