Can you believe that it is already February, cupid has come and gone, registration is in full swing (3 weeks remaining), the message board is buzzing about all that is the KMSPL and a sure sign that the season is fast approaching, the ratings committee has begun deliberating over the ratings.

One of the most hotly talked about topics in a long time was the proposed fence in left and center fields. First off, I could not believe the amount of participation that we received on this matter, a question that was posed in January and run through to February garnered over 125 votes! And here I thought no one visited the web site during the off-season. Of those, 116 were in favour of the idea for a fence. All I can say is thank you for your involvement and concern over league affairs.

As most of you already know, the request for the fence was denied by the city of Kirkland. City council felt that the building of the fence would limit and restrict the use of the field to softball only. While I would like to thank them for the consideration that they showed on this matter, I do not share that point of view. We pushed our point in front of council and managed to get this on their docket on two different occassions but to no avail. C'est la vie.

As we do every year, we put together various committees to help us with areas that are very important and crucial to the functioning of our organization. None more so than the high profile Ratings Committee. No other committee comes under more scrutiny than the folks who have the challenge of rating all our players in our league. There is no tougher job, open to second guessing and criticism in this league than this one. Let's support these guys as they do the best that they can.

Ratings Committee: Pierre Hupe, Joe Rainone, Mike Kennedy

We also have the Disciplinary Committee who are mandated with ensuring that the sanctity of our league in maintained and should any member curtail the rules or act in a manner that is unbecoming, they have the responsibility of proposing and handing down the appropriate punishment.

Discipline Committee: Ian McGregor, Steve Woodsworth and Rob Sonier.

The Competition committee consists of a set of league members that are mandated to look at different aspects of our game and league that can be improved. They then offer up recommendations to be considered by the executive and all the players in our league. This year they have been asked to try and find ways to condense the round robin portion of the playoffs by trying to find a more efficient tie breaking scenario. We'll see what comes of it. Members of the competition committee are: Howard Sorin, Al Groombridge, Joe Rainone, Bruce Hnatyshin and Rick Corsi.

Also, coming back this year as spare coordinator: Tony DeLuca.

It has been a very busy month since we last corresponded and I hope that this offers all of you an insight on what is going on in our league.

PS: Our golf tournament, due to course restrictions, will be held on the 18th of June and the Family BBQ day has now been moved to the 13th.