Opening Day 2011
We already have all the photos posted online and they look fantastic. Click here to view all the photos and download your team’s photo at no charge. The teams are grouped by team name. For example: all Angels will be together from Farm through Juniors. It is so easy to search through and download that someone as technologically challenged as myself was able to do it.
Our Opening Day Parade, by virtually all accounts, was an outstanding success and a number of us are still in a bit of shock that a bunch of volunteers were able to pull it off this year, especially with all the logistics surrounding the picture taking of teams with the World Series Trophy. Volunteers from SF State, Lowell High School, and One Brick, all chipped in as well as some experienced SFLL moms keeping the drop off area running smoothly. Many other SFLL volunteers came out as well as many sleepy eyed Juniors kids who ended up having a good time and did a great job.
What a great time for all the kids and to get their team photo with the SF Giants World Series Trophy is something they can treasure for a lifetime. As always, no matter how many times you warn people to be on time or their kid might not get in the photo, a few kids did not make it on time. It ended up that somehow we had things running so smoothly that we went back to all the trucks and asked if they got all their kids in the team photo. For the few teams who had some late stragglers, we were able to go back and have the entire team reshot. We hope we got everyone, but if we did not it was not for lack of trying.
Some of the folks who missed the parade and ceremony unfortunately missed a fabulous day full of great energy, great weather, and an excellent BBQ where over 1,700 people were served. The streets of the Marina were also jammed more than I had ever seen previously. Over 2,000 people attended the ceremony, with approximately 100 trucks and 1 Cable Car (our Majors and Seniors Girls’ softball teams thought traveling in a Cable Car was more befitting their style). After the ceremony at Moscone, Lou Seal showed up and stayed around to sign autographs and visit with a lot of our kids. All in all it was a great day.
We were able to publically thank all our friends who helped us including our Sponsors who really stepped up big for us this year by donating approximately $40,000 in cash and services. Also, about 200 of our families contributed approximately $17, 000 in extra dollars over and above their registration fees. All this goes to defraying the costs of operating our League and helps keep our registration fees lower. All income received, as well as our registration fees also helped approximately 80 families with financial assistance for their registration fees to the tune of almost $9,000.
Phil Ginsburg, General Manager, of SF Rec and Park, who has two girls playing in our Softball Division, reassured the SFLL crowd that he would do his best to continue to help us in the future as he had this year. He also officially started our season off by throwing out the first pitch.
