Sunday's Lineup

Manny says he will be in front of the Coca-Cola Park entrance 6:15 to 6:55 p.m. Friday in advance of LV MSBL night. He will have the tickets. It should be a good time and all are encouraged. Please contact Manny (contact sent by email) if you can/want to attend.

Jon Gibson has arranged practice 2 p.m. Saturday at 1708 Coronado Street in south Allentown.

We play the Hawks 1 p.m. Sunday at Tuskes.



Here is Sunday's lineup:

PITCHING
Jarret Stair through the fifth inning.
Kevin Weidner through the seventh inning.
Dan Erney through the ninth inning.

FIELDING
1. Jarret Stair through 5. Kevin Weidner through 2. Dan Erney through 2.
2. Furat Mousa
3. Jim Finnen-Manny FQ, alternating innings.
4. Ricardo Rios-Dan Erney, alternating innings.
5. Mike Solvible-Willie Peguero, alternating innings.
6. Ory Ball
7. Vince Ditulio-Jonathan Gibson, alternating innings.
8. Kevin Weidner-Kelvin Villar, alternating innings
9. Rob Colon

BATTING
1. Ory Ball
2. Willie Peguero
3. Ricardo Rios
4. Danny Ravelo (EH only)
5. Rob Colon
6. Kevin Weidner
7. Dan Erney through 5. Jarret Stair through 4.
8. Mike Solvible
9. Vince Ditulio
10. A: Jim Finnen-B: Kelvin Villar
11. A: Manny FQ-B:Jonathan Gibson
12. A: Tom Koop (EH only)-B: Furat Mousa

FUNDAMENTALS:

0. Have fun: I neglected to mention this before the last game, but it goes without saying: Have fun. We're privileged to be adults playing baseball.

1. Be gentlemen: You might wonder why I harp on this or you might think it's corny that I harp on this, but it's because being a gentleman is a failsafe way to walk off the field a winner every time. The Vipers shortstop hit a grand slam last week yet left the field as a veritable asshole.

2. Help the team: Manny FQ, Tom Koop, Furat Mousa and Jon Gibson have been great recently in handling some logistics. From logistics to thoughtful advice to smart play to great play, there are countless ways to help the team.

3. Make the outs: We're improving. From our first game to our second, we eliminated three dropped outs at first, three dropped strikeouts, a botched rundown and a dropped double-play pop-up. It's good we eliminated nine lost outs. Still, we left too many possible and shouild-be-outs unconverted last game, particularly on ground balls and bloops played too slowly and/or timidly.

Batting Practice Tuesday, Iron Pigs

Manny has arranged batting practice for 8:15 p.m. Tuesday at In The Zone Sports. In the Zone Sports is at 6870 Chrisphalt Drive, Bath, Pa.

It's a batting cage and it costs $2 for 20 pitches. I plan to be there and all are welcome, although attendance is entirely voluntary.

Friday, April 29 (next Friday) night is LV MSBL Night at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown. I received 17 tickets, one for each member of the team, to see the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs host the Pawtucket Red Sox at 7:05 p.m. that night.

The tickets will be available at the practice and at Saturday's game.

Game, sponsors, practice

Next Game: The Lehigh Valley Royals play the Washington Nationals 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Harmony Township Recreation Center, Route 519 and Municipal Lane in Harmony Township, N.J.

Use this link to find the field. Click on the appropriate push pin, in this case the one halfway between Phillipsburg and Belvidere. Click 'Directions' in the pop-up menu. Enter your own address next to 'A' and click 'Get Directions.'

Use this link to see our schedule. Enter 18+, American and 18 Royals.

Sponsors: The sponsorship form letter is unfortunately behind a password-protected portion of the league website. I will have hard copies at our next game.

Practice: Furat has agreed to catch pitchers 3:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Tuskes Field, and there will likely be opportunity for fielding or batting practice. I can't make it and I haven't heard from Steve, so for now this is Furat's undertaking -- he's coordinating it.

Umpires, Sponsors, Practice

Umpires: Umpires are $64 per team per game. Please bring $5 to the game Sunday for umpires.

Sponsors: There is a league-prepared letter to provide to sponsors verifying, for tax purposes, that they sponsored. I will have that linked here as soon as I can find it on the league site, and feel free to ask business owners and others to contribute however little they might.

Practice: We've had talk of practice Friday, Saturday and Sunday but nothing is set due to the logistics of fields and availability. But any practice will be posted here as soon as it's known. 

Uniforms

Hats:  Updated again. Buy this $25 hat from lids.com. or get a very similar one, per Steve the manger's instructions. If you're getting the hat in the link, you're going to have to buy on or before Tuesday and pay $10 for express delivery, which is 2-3 business days, or else buy later and pay $25 for overnight.

There's an option to buy two and get the second one half off, so I'd encourage you to pair up with a teammate. I'm ordering for me and Steve, for example, and we'll split a $47 cost ($25 plus $12 for the second hat plus $10 to ship both) instead of paying a combined $70 ($25 twice and $10 twice).

Updated. Steve e-mailed links to various hats and we will pick one tomorrow. If you want to state your preference, say so through the email thread or text message to Steve. The link to the team hat will be right here at lvroyals.blogspot.com and likely through e-mail.

My plan is to talk to Mike who got the uniforms and Steve the manager and pick either a single hat or a few acceptable hats at different prices. A link to buy the single hat or one of the acceptable hats will be right here at lvroyals.blogspot.com.

Socks: Updated. Royal blue socks. You can have the pants high or low or whatever, but have Royal blue socks.

I didn' even think about or hear anyone mention socks until I bumped into our teammate Jim the lefty at Sports Authority, so this will take a moment. Again, the instructions will soon be right here.

Cleats: Most of you have them but some don't. They are a must, per Commissioner Ron. I bought a pair today for $25 at Sports Authority, Route 248, Lower Nazareth Township, 10 minutes from practice. There is also a Sports Authority, McArthur Road, Whitehall.

Baseball Pants: They need to be white baseball pants. Sports Authority had them for $20 to $40 (and probably more), depending on the brand. Pay as much as you want, but you need white baseball pants.

Baseball Belt: A Royal blue baseball belt. They'll probably be right next to the baseball pants. Sports Authority had Royal blue ones for $6. I you're in a pinch, get black or go beltless, but a Royal blue baseball belt is preferred.

Practice Sunday

Practice for the Lehigh Valley Royals is 2 p.m.. Sunday at Tuskes Community Park in the Nazareth area, Upper Nazareth Township,  north of Nazareth borough, where the first practice was held. It's about a half mile west of the intersection of Routes 248 and 946 on this map.

Logistics: Fill out the signup, pay the league fee, bring $34 for a jersey -- your teammate Mike Solvibile fronted money, so don't eff him -- and have fun.