To our membership, on behalf of the Oshawa Slo Pitch League Executive, I wanted to reach out. I hope that everyone has been self isolating, social distancing and staying safe. The pandemic of COVID – 19 has really changed the world we live in, and it may never be the same again. We will have a new normal going forward. How that will translate into slo-pitch, that is still uncertain as of now.

With respect to the Oshawa Slo Pitch League, we are on a wait see approach. We have to wait for Premier Ford to release the state of emergency and allow for gatherings to exist again. As of right now, gatherings are a maximum of 10 people. This will need to happen for team sports like we play o enable us to get back out on the field. Once Premier Ford does this, then we have to see what the City of Oshawa is planning on or willing to do. All permits with the City are on hold status due to the pandemic. We were hoping to get an update from the City by the end of May, but we only received a survey to complete. But as you may already know, Premier Ford has extended the state of emergency another days which put out to June 19th. With this announcement, the City of Oshawa has cancelled permits for the month of June.

Last week, I completed the survey for the City of Oshawa on behalf of our league with respect to a season, what our season would like and what our plans were. From our standpoint, we would like to see permits granted by Mid July and would be interested in extending our season into October with our playoffs at the end of October. I am not saying this will happen, it is a best case scenario to have a average size season. We will not be able to get a full season in at this point. We are remaining optimistic that we will have some kind of a season this year, as long as the permits get released, without a permit, we can not play.

Slo pitch affiliations along with Softball Canada, Baseball Canada, and other associations, are looking at and deciding what a “new normal” might be for a team sport such as ours. The answers to questions you may have, I do not have the answers for just yet. As more information is shared with us, we will pass it along. There are rumours and speculation out there right now, but they are just rumours. I would not put any faith in them until we have something concrete that we can share and we know is accurate.

Please, everyone continue with social distancing, wear face coverings to protect those around you and please stay safe. We hope to see you all on the diamond soon.

On behalf of your 2020 Executive,