The Dog Bowl

I have a few things to talk about, so let me just get straight to it. Make sure you read the whole thing. I don’t want to hear from anyone that they “didnt’ know”.

Friday’s Game:

Friday nights game is at 6:30pm. I need to know who is not going to be there this Friday. Also, please send me any dates now that you will not make this season. I need to hear from everyone by end of day tomorrow regarding this Friday’s game.

Money:

Everyone’s known that the cost of playing this summer is $60. I need to start getting your money ASAP. If you have not paid, please send me a check or bring it on Friday. If you know you won’t be there on Friday, please send me a check in the mail. There is a fund raiser that has been doing real well, that we will talk to the rest of the team about on Friday and the upcoming weeks.

For information on where to send the check, please send me an e-mail.

Jerseys:

The jersey’s are finally on order. It’s been one hell of a process getting this done, but I think all of you will be happy with the final product. We’re going through Shirts and Logos again this season. We really like the work these guys are doing and they are the only people I have found who do not have a ton of hidden fees. They aren’t even charging us for “setup” fees! Just a straight cost per jersey.

I’m not going to spoil the surprise, but I will tell you some things that might make you happy.

1. The “flames” are gone! I heard you loud and clear. I wasn’t fond of the flames either, but it wasn’t our design. It came with the generic logo.
2. No “shirtsandlogos.com” or “Dirt10Designs” in our logo! It’s our logo, that’s one of the things we’ve been working hard on. We’re branding on this new logo and you’ll see something (cool) soon on the Bulldog Softball Club Web site.
3. Sleeveless! We have sleeveless jerseys (See below for more info on this)
4. No more “white”. The base color of the jersey will be Navy with a nice touch from a couple of other colors. It looks great!

That’s it. That’s all you get from me, right now on the jerseys. I don’t have an ETA for the jerseys, but more then likely they will not be here by Friday. S&L has worked some magic in the past, but I’m playing devils advocate. I would say next week might be the earliest and it’s possible it could slip a week. We’ll do everything we can to get them here and on the field. In the meantime, if you have a jersey from last season, that’s what we’ll use in the meantime. If not, a navy or red shirt will do.

Regarding point #3 above. These jerseys are “sleeveless”. There was a lot of debate about which way to go here. We’re going to try this out and see how it works. Everyone is to wear a “red” undershirt. No exceptions (ok - one exception, keep reading)! I don’t want to see a variety of colors on the field. You are responsible for your own undershirt (I am working with S&L to get some pricing on undershirts for you). A couple of us have already made our trip to Dick Sports and purchased some Under Armour shirts. I have asked S&L to provide me with some pricing on undershirts for you guys. They have a relationship with WickID (www.wickidgear.com) and can get them to us for less then retail. I’ll fill you in when I get the details.

There is only one caveat that I will allow. For those of you who feel you have the goods to flaunt the guns, I will allow you to wear it as a muscle shirt on one condition. You must still acquire a red muscle shirt to wear underneath the jersey. Preferably an Under Armour or WickID style muscle-shirt. Either compression or loose fit. That’s it, no exceptions.

Hats & Visors:

We have a design for a hat, as well, and will be taking orders for hats and visors. These were fairly cheap and many of the guys did purchase them last summer. These hats will, more then likely, be on a white or grey background if we go with the custom dye. However, there may be an outside chance that we will pay to setup our logo for “screen printing” or “embroidery”. I don’t have the pricing on that setup, but once it’s setup, we can screen print and embroider on any garment. In other words, we can do jackets, knit caps (for fall), colored baseball hats and visors, etc.

Kenny already has purchased a jacket from S&L that is really nice. It is navy in color, but doesn’t have a logo on it. If we pay for the “screen printing” or “embroidery” setup, he may send it back to have the logo put on. If anyone is interested in these types of things, let me know.

Pants, Shorts and Shoes:

Kenny has been working on putting together some combinations for softball pants and shoes from Boombah (no, not the clown pants). He’s got a couple of good options that will work real nice with the new jersey. If we can get 10 orders (the magic number) we can save $5 per item. If you’re in the market for some new shoes, pants or shorts for the season, I encourage you to look at what Kenny has put together. Boombah, believe it or not, is outstanding “professional” style quality but not with the Dick Sports pricing.

Here is our schedule for the 2007 Summer season. Please let me know if you are not going to be available on any particular day.

1. 4/27/2007 at 7:30 pm: at Southside Hitmen (Central Park)
2. 5/4/2007 at 6:30 pm: at Cardinals (Central Park)
3. 5/11/2007 at 8:30 pm: vs Tailgaters (Central Park)
4. 5/18/2007 at 8:30 pm: vs Lincoln Mutual (Central Park)
5. 5/25/2007: No Games
6. 6/1/2007: Bye
7. 6/8/2007 at 6:30 pm: at Ball Slappers (Remington West)
8. 6/15/2007 at 8:30 pm: vs Ronin Risk (Central Park)
9. 6/22/2007 at 6:30 pm: vs Dasbach (Central Park)
10. 6/29/2007 at 7:30 pm: at Ronin Risk (Remington West)
11. 7/6/2007 at 6:30 pm: at Lincoln Mutual (Remington West)
12. 7/13/2007 at 8:30 pm: vs Sojourners (Remington West)
13. 7/20/2007 at 8:30 pm: at Fury (Central Park)
14. 7/27/2007 at 7:30 & 8:30 pm:

Well, it’s official, Ray Bahaman and Rancho Santa Fe Mexican Restaurant are officially the primary sponsor of the Bulldogs Softball Club for the Summer of 2007.

Ray was eager to continue our relationship where we left off in 2006! He is excited to see what we will be able to do in 2007. The contributions from Rancho Santa Fe Mexican Restaurant have been an integral part in the operation of this team. With the support of Ray Bahaman and Rancho we have been able to not only afford to register to play softball, but have been able to outfit our players with jersey’s and equipment.

We are glad to say that with the generous support of Ray Bahaman and Rancho Santa Fe, we will be able to continue to build upon the services that we are able to provide to each player on The Bulldogs.

Rancho Santa Fe Mexican Restaurant is located on Remington Blvd in Bolingbrook, IL. They are just northwest of the I-55 exit at Route 53.

For a map to Rancho Santa Fe, simply click here and be sure to mention you heard about Rancho through the Bulldogs Softball Club!

Well it was a tough tryout for the Bulldogs this year. With players returning from Summer & Fall and having to take into consideration many factors, the decision was not easy but the preliminary roster for the Bulldogs Summer 2007 team is, as follows (no particular order):

• Ken Benson
• Sean Killham
• Tim Howe
• Jim Jano
• Mark Wambay
• Brandon Aiken
• Bill Channell
• John Kontek
• Milo Phelps
• Angel Cortes
• Jeff McMahon
• Nelson Rivera

Here’s to the Bulldogs defending their 2007 Championship! We have a great group of guys for 2007 to make a run for League Champion, as well as Playoff Champions. We will miss the guys who will not be taking the field this season with us and we wish them all the best. Some of them have agreed to be put on the sub-list, so hopefully we’ll get to see them sometime this season.

Go Bulldogs!

Well, the polls are now closed and the survey results are final. The Bulldogs will be back to defend their 2006 Friday night Playoff Championship!!

There was a 50/50 preference for Thursday/Friday nights and unfortunately we had to pick a night, which means that some guys who could only play one night or the other would not be able to play with us this season. It was a tough decision, but we elected to side with seniority as the deciding factor. However, after calling the park district to get availability, it didn’t much matter. As it turns out, both leagues on Thursday night are already filled for 2007.

So, tomorrow I will be putting a deposit down and registering us in the Friday-B league. This is the same league that we won the playoff championship in 2006. If you need a reminder (cause I know I did), we ended the season with a 12-2 record tied with PB & J, but since PB &J had the tie breaker over us, they won the league championship.

Based on league rules, the “league champion” is required to move up to the next division in the following season. However, this does not apply to the “playoff champion” if they are not also the regular season champion, as well. Therefore, we will be able to re-enter the Friday B league.

Here are some important dates/deadlines that we have to meet, and we will appreciate everyone’s cooperation in ensuring that we make these dates.

• Thursday, April 12: Captains meeting at 8pm. Some of us will be meeting for drinks, but everyone is welcome to join us.
• Friday, April 27:

• Remainder of league fee must be in.
• Initial roster is due.

We are going to be meeting with Rancho Santa Fe to secure our primary sponsorship for the summer season, however we will need all of your help to make this season a success. The more money we are able to raise, the more things we are able to provide you guys to enhance your experience.

In order to raise funds we are going to be sending out “sponsorship” forms to local businesses. We have put together some packages for them and we’ll see what kind of result we will get.

In addition, we are looking into a couple of fund raising ideas. Sean is working with an ex-Bulldog on a “golf card” that we could sell. In the past, when we looked at this, we would net $20/card sold. There’s another fund raising option that we are looking at that would net the Dogs $15/account sold. Just by selling two to three cards/accounts you make up the majority of your cost of playing for the Dogs. If each player on the team were to sell 5 golf cards, that would net the team $1200. We will be finalizing the “wish list” and will let you know what our target will be. All of this money will be used to fund all of our activities, equipment, gear, possible tournaments (separate Bulldog Tourney team?) and increase our fun factor for both the summer and fall.

Kenny has been looking into a new jersey for this season. It would be thinner then the jersey we used last season (similar to Under Amour’s Loose Gear). We also won’t be held to the standard white/gray color shirts and can now mix and match colors. So we could get a navy based jersey with silver and red mixed in to the shirt.

Hats and visors will be available and Kenny has also purchased a jacket for the season. Kenny has also done some research on pants/shorts and shoe options for the team from Boombah. The more we purchase at one time, the more money we save.

We are looking for additional ideas for fund raising and sponsorship ideas. Please feel free to e-mail me with your ideas. Also, tell us what you’d like to see us provide. No “wish” is too big. If we don’t know about it, we can’t ever provide it. It’s just a “wish list”, don’t be afraid to open your mind to what is possible.

Alright, that’s enough from me for now. I’m looking forward to a successful 2007!

Go Bulldogs!

Ok - it’s been a while… Ok - a long while! Give me a break, you think this is what I do everyday?

Alright enough of that. That’s in the past and the Dogs are looking forward to 2007. Already this year, we have a new Bulldog Softball Web site. The site is “under construction” (what else is new), but there’s some cool features to the new site.

First, we’re using Google’s Apps for Your Domain service. This will allow us to create a “community” around the Bulldogs. Each and every member of the Dogs will have their own account established. Each account will be outfitted with the following features:

• Personalized Home Page
  • Modify look/feel of the Personal Home page.
  • Add various modules to the Home page (i.e. weather, news, etc)
  • Allow us to better communicate news and updates to the team (i.e. rain outs, schedules, updated news, etc)
• E-mail Address (user@dogsoftball.com)
  • Uses Google’s powerful Gmail application
  • Every account will have 2 GB of storage
• Google Chat (IM and Voice Chat with team members who are online)
• Google Calendar
  • Allows you to create your own calendar with many powerful features (i.e. schedule meetings, invite guests, reminders via e-mail or cell phone, etc)
  • Group Calendar will allow everyone to see the Bulldogs schedule and any changes.
• Blackberry / Cell phone integration

We’ll be able to integrate some other features that Google offers separately to round out our community. Features such as Google Groups, which we can use for our forums.

Also, I’d like to announce that we have enlisted the help of a couple of other Bulldogs to help make this year a success. I would like to thank both Sean and Kenny for taking a big role in the Bulldogs operations this season. Tim and I will be grateful for the help.

These guys are right in line with my vision for the Bulldogs and have come up with some great ideas already. We’ll be sharing those ideas with all of you, as we get closer from taking our ideas and making them reality.

Please make sure that you have access to our new site. Also, do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Just send an e-mail from your Dog Softball mail system to my e-mail address. All address books will be pre-loaded with everyone else’s e-mail address.

Thanks and Go Bulldogs!