Spring Softball - First Pickup Game of 2014!

Dust off your bats and gloves! It's time for Spring Softball!!

We are kicking off the season with a Saturday pickup game at Meineke Park. We will have staff on site to set up bases, organize the teams and provide fresh balls. This game will be 12" and open to players of all levels.

After the first few events of the season, we'll organize games that are set up specifically for different formats: i.e. 12", 14", 16", recreational, competitive, etc.

When playing in this event, we may play a warm-up inning or two to determine teams to have an evenly matched game. Regardless of skill level, we expect everyone to play with good sportsmanship and remember we're playing for fun.

Players must be 19 or older. Gloves and bats will not be provided by the organizers. However, players are usually ok with sharing their bats. (Please ask before using another player's bat.) To keep things fair, please bring ASA certified bats only.

Check in begins at the posted start time. Please check in with Sports Monster Staff when you arrive. After that, players may use the first 20-30 minutes for warm-up and batting practice. Staff will divide the teams up and the first game will begin by half an hour after the posted start time.

This event is open to males and females, but we will NOT mandate a guy-girl batting order. We will do our best to create even teams. We'll start with a 1-1 count to keep the games moving along quickly. If each team does not have a decent pitcher, we may designate someone to pitch for both teams. We intend on playing two 7-inning games in 90-minutes. Games may end after 45 minutes depending on the score. We may also call a game and start a new one if a team is slaughtering by 10 or more runs after four at-bats. We'll change the teams for each game unless both teams request a rematch.

PLEASE NOTE: The condition of the field may still be hard from sitting over the winter. The park district plans on beginning field maintenance on April 1st. Depending on the weather, this date may change. Please bear with us if we are playing on less-than-ideal dirt conditions for the first few games of the year.

PLEASE NOTE: We do NOT have a permit for this field. Meineke Park will not allow rentals because the field is reserved for Schaumburg's youth baseball organization. We have been playing pickup at Meineke for 4+ years on Saturdays and have only seen youth teams using the field twice. IF a youth team shows up for practice or a game, we will promptly and courteously end our game and issue refunds to our players (if less than one game is played). We do not expect this to happen, but we want you to be warned in case it does. Thank you for understanding.

When possible, we will lay down chalk foul lines. However, in some cases we may simply use cones to mark foul territory.

To maximize playing time for everyone, but also ensure we will have enough players for 2 teams, we limit capacity for each event to 11 people per team. This means in a sold-out event, each person might sit out of fielding for 1-2 innings.

What is your $5 going towards? Every event has a friendly, paid staff member to make sure the games run smoothly. This staff member may act as umpire or step in as an all-time pitcher at times. We provide and set up bases and a strike zone as well as new balls. When possible we will lay chalk lines for foul territory. We may do field maintenance to make the field playable in some circumstances. Sports Monster is a business and provides quality, well-organized pickup games, tournaments, and leagues. Why play with us? Because you know you can expect a well-run event.

Thanks for playing with us! We'll see you out there!!