Published June 24, 2020
The following is an update from Lynnfield Little League’s Board of Directors about a potential start date for their summer season. Updates can be found on their website: www.lynnfieldlittleleague.com.
Like every Little League Board of Directors across Massachusetts, we have been agonizing over whether to hold a summer baseball season, and if we do, how it would function within Governor Baker’s Phase 2 and (hopefully) Phase 3 guidelines for physical distancing, masks, sanitization, and occupancy limits. We are pleased to report that at our board meeting on Wednesday, June 10, we laid the groundwork to conduct a summer season for certain age groups, based on the numbers of players who participated in our survey as well as the realities of what the Governor’s guidelines mean for the sport.
We’d like to start by thanking everyone for their patience as we met with town officials, Little League administrators from neighboring towns, and combed through written guidance from Little League International and the Commonwealth. We’d also like to thank you for taking the time to fill out our survey, which gave us an accurate count of who was interested in playing this summer.
Here is how the 2020 summer Lynnfield Little League season will look: We will offer a baseball season for players enrolled in AAA, Majors, 50/70, and Big Diamond.
Unfortunately, like most towns in Massachusetts, we do not believe that we can conduct a season with proper distancing and sanitization for the younger players, so we made the extremely difficult decision to cancel the season for the Tee Ball, A, and AA levels. We are heartbroken about this outcome, but please know that we made it with the health and wellbeing of the players, coaches and families in mind – and with coaches from these divisions, who are also board members, in attendance. All families with players in these divisions will receive a 100 percent refund, and as they still have many years of baseball ahead of them, we cannot wait to see our younger players back on the diamond in 2021.
For initial planning purposes, we wanted to provide a brief look at the mechanics of the summer season. We are currently working with the Town of Lynnfield to draft safety procedures, expectations, and guidelines, which we will share with you when they have been finalized. Once those guidelines are in place, teams may begin practicing. Games cannot start until Phase 3, which is currently scheduled to begin on July 6. We will post schedules as soon as we are able to do so.
Big Diamond: We will have two teams, and a 12-game season. There will be two games per week, and they will take place on Monday’s, Wednesday’s or Friday’s at 5:30 p.m. The league will consist of seven total teams from five towns.
50/70: We will have two teams and a 12-game season. There will be two games per week, and they will take place on Wednesday’s and Sunday’s at 5:30 p.m. The league will consist of seven total teams from five towns.
Majors and AAA: Each division will have four teams and play a 15-game season. There will be three games per week, generally on weeknights with occasional games on Sunday evenings. All games will start at 5:30 p.m. or later, and will take place at Newhall Front. A playoff format for these divisions is still TBD.
Again, we are deeply grateful to all our LLL families for their patience while we worked through these decisions. Every one of us wishes we could offer a season for all our players, but we believe this is the best decision for our league as we continue to navigate these uncharted waters.
As always, if you have any questions, we encourage you to email us at lynnfieldlittleleague@yahoo.com.
