SCLL Closing Ceremonies

Last Saturday, Santa Cruz Little League held it's closing ceremonies. Generally, opening day ceremonies is a big deal and we often do not even hold a closing ceremony. However, this year the opening ceremony was rained out, so we decided to have a closing ceremony. It's a great opportunity to thank parents, volunteers and sponsors for everything that they do during the year.

It's about 45 minutes before the ceremonies are scheduled to begin, yet the field and the grandstands are completely empty. It is eerily calm, considering that in less than an hour, there will be 400 or so kids and several hundred parents here.






About 15 minutes later, there are a few volunteer parents in the stands. They are preparing the stands for all of the kids that will be here shortly. These stands are around the corner from the main field. The players will be organized into teams before they march around the corner and enter the field.





The first sign of kids is the players gravitating towards the snack shack. Somehow, they always report here first. We are now about 20 minutes before the ceremonies.




About 10 minutes before the ceremonies, the stands are rapidly filling with kids. It is pretty amazing how the volunteers are able to organize 400 wriggling and screaming kids. Every year, they seem to be able to get all of the kids to the right place at the right time. Amazing!





John opens the ceremonies by welcoming the crowd. John is a long time volunteer for Santa Cruz Little League. You may notice the t-shirt that he is wearing. He is always careful to point out that it is a Santa Cruz Dodger T-Shirt, not a LA Dodger T-Shirt. Next, he introduces Ben.







Ben begins by thanking the league sponsors. Ben did most of the announcing for the ceremonies. I was really proud of him, he did a great job. Next he starts to introduce the teams.







I did not do a very good job of getting pictures of the teams. I had the responsibility to direct traffic from 3rd base. So I was trying to direct traffic with my right hand and take pictures with my left hand. It was pretty challenging, I kept pushing the on/off button, rather than the shutter release button.

One at a time, the teams run onto the field and parade before the grandstands. We begin with the Athletics and


continue all the way to the Yankees. The young ones are especially cute. They are so excited to be wearing their uniforms and to be running before a cheering crowd including their parents, family and friends. It's very touching.




After parading in front of the grandstands, the players line up with their teams in the outfield. Above is a picture of the AA League Teams.

The Salt Water Taffy Quartet sang the National Anthem. I was about 25 feet away from them and I thought they sounded pretty good. Unfortunately, they held the microphone so far away from themselves, that that PA system did not pick up their voices. Although no one in the stands could hear them, they got a warm round of applause anyway. When they came back to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", they held the microphone pretty close and everyone got a chance to enjoy their performance.





Amie (sponsorship co-chairperson) is giving a sponsorship plaque to thank one of our generous donors. Generally, we send the plaques to the sponsors. This year we decided to invite them to the closing ceremonies, so that we could present the plaques in person. Also the crowd is able to show their appreciation. The sponsors seemed excited to take part in the ceremonies. I hope we continue to do this in the future.





We give medals to the first and second place teams in the higher level leagues (majors, AAA and AA). The lower level leagues (A and T-Ball) are non-competitive. Since they are just for fun, we do not keep score of the games and do not have league standings. In this picture, Kellie (the other Sponsorship co-chairperson) is presenting medals to the Major National Champions.

The gentleman on the left (Aldo) and the gentleman on the right (Rich) have over 80 years of Little League coaching experience between them. Over the years, they have spent countless hours working with kids. They have coached several generations of kids from some families. Jan (in the middle) has been a team parent for her children for years. She has been such a large part of the Orioles for the last three years, that Aldo and Rich demanded that she come down to the field and receive a medal with the rest of the team. Their overwhelming generosity is one of the reasons that I continue to volunteer for Little League year after year.

The rest of my pictures can be found here. Note that I am now using Yahoo Pictures. The free version of Flickr has a limit to the amount of pictures that can be uploaded in a month. In the first week of June, I used up my allocation for this month. I took too many pictures of the GLBT parade and my Wilder Ranch ride.