Ball By The Bay

Multimedia Pieces

2009-06-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

Ball by the Bay has been an interesting publication. The learning process of the past 10 weeks has been incredible and skill sets have been acquired that will be very helpful in future endeavors.
The past few weeks have been very hectic and blogging has been nearly impossible for some like myself to do when wrapped up in so much other work.

So here is the end result in two multimedia pieces for your enjoyment.

Enjoy!

Coming along quite nicely

2009-06-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

Today the multimedia piece started to come together in a efficient manner. All content has been gathered and now it is ready to be edited into a one-piece project and all Ball by the Bay publications will be linked in sequence of eachother.

Here is a few clips from the mixed league game that took place last week in Picton.

Enjoy!

Multimedia peice slowly coming along

2009-06-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry I have not been updating this on a regular basis but it does not mean that I have not been working on it.
A new ball by the bay website is currently being created as well a large multimedia piece.
The past week has been crazy- setting up interviews, recording, writing, photography and lots of editing has been done in order to polish a feature piece.
Hopefully everything will come together in the knick of time and will spread the message of recreational baseball to others!
The weather the past week or so has not been very accommodating to baseball players in the Quinte Region as last weeks games in the County were cancelled due to rain but the players are not letting it get them down.

Recreational baseball in Picton picks up with its third night

2009-05-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

Wednesday the Picton baseball field was filled with various co-ed slow pitch teams gathering for some friendly recreational baseball for the third game of the season.
Two diamonds had games starting at 6:30 p.m. and the last game starting at around 9 p.m.
Rapidfire beat Fatal Effect, County Rednecks beats Nuts and Bolts and Tapestry beat Rays.
“I’d play everyday if I could,” says Joe Chapman, 23-year-old former Loyalist College student and player for Fatal effects.
Chapman has played baseball since he was a kid and feels that having recreational ball is a great thing for the community.
“It teaches you to be competitive and brings people in the community together.”
Chapman adds that baseball is really well supported in Picton.
“I think that the community really supports recreational ball, there are plenty of companies that sponsor the teams but I don’t feel that it is very well advertised.”
Joshua Belanger who has been playing ball for 20 years agrees that recreational baseball is important to the community.
“For a newcomer to the area, like myself, it is an ability to meet new people. It allows for a lot of community interaction.”
Belanger plays for Tapestry and loves that there is no registration fee for this league.
“For the first time in 20 years I don’t have to pay to play ball. The local support and sponsorship from the community is amazing,” he adds.
Belanger feels there are other advantages to playing baseball.
“It creates a great team environment and getting out in the summer time, getting some exercise with a bunch of people who enjoy the same things as you, you cant go wrong.”
David Wallace, Capatin of Rapidfire agrees with Belanger.
"Not only does it give us all something to do in Picton, but it is an easy way to get together with your friends."
"The beers after is pretty sweet too," Wallace adds.
Lauren Deans, Loyalist College nurse thinks that all summer activities are great for adults.
“They are out there- communing with the environment. Exercise is involved which is always helpful, they are in the sun getting their vitamin D, cheering for teams helps with their cardio and breathing.”
Deans feels that every adult should take part in some sort of outside activity in the summer, and sports are a good way to go.
“It’s a good thing all around.”

"I'd play everyday if I could"

2009-05-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the third Wednesday that the mixed team league in Picton gathered at the baseball diamonds.

There was two games at 6:30- one on each diamond. The winners came out with Rapidfire, County rednecks, and Henry Tapestry.

The field was filled with men and women in baseball clothing, wives, husbands, kids, and dogs on the bleachers cheering the teams on.

Players from separate teams chat with each other and watch other games.
The crowd at the diamonds was filled with a lot of people who just love playing, watching and talking baseball.

The day was beautiful, subtle wind, lots of sunshine. Setting up the video camera in a stationary section was the first of things to be done, then watching the game with camera in hand was next and talking to people in the stands and players from he teams.

Players and family members were eager to talk and seemed happy by the idea that there was someone there to recognize that recreational baseball is a weekly event that a lot of hard work is put in to.

Tomorrow a variety of the work that was accomplished yesterday evening will be uploaded to this site.

Disappointing weekend...

2009-05-19T13:17:00.001-07:00

The Jays did not come to Belleville this weekend-it has been postponed to June 6. The long weekend was filled with rain and cancelled activities.
Tomorrow night in Picton there is a baseball game at 6:30 and 8 p.m.
Class today Rob teaches us about digital story telling. This is to help us take the information we have collected-video-audio-photography-text- into stories publishable for online.
Others in the class have gathered some interesting work, and it seems that I have fallen behind with a couple short interviews.
Our class was shown how to take a make a variety of media pieces suitable for our online publications as multiple media stories and also multi-media stories; in which we take all the different medias and interlock them with other forms.
But tomorrow Picton is calling my name. Hopefully some video, audio, photography and text can come from this game tomorrow and some future contacts to be made.
The images, video and audio that are collected will be put together in a multiple media story.

Troubles by the bay

2009-05-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a trip to Toronto and baseball was everywhere. Yes, it was a a Jays baseball game but queen street was covered in fans.

Blue Jays hats and t shirts covered Queen street.

But just because they are baseball fans does not mean that they are all alway that nice. People on the street were hesitant when I approached them (maybe because of the boston red sox hat on my head) but when baseball was brought up they did not mind talking about it, but not in great depth. Pedestrians were not comfortable with their photos being taken or with being recorded-which was unfortunate but the experience and knowledge was helpful nevertheless.

As informed recently on this site, the Jays instructors are coming to Belleville tomorrow to teach instructional videos to kids 7-14 that are interested in baseball.

When hearing of this event, I found myself getting extremely excited to cover it. I did research and got names and numbers of everyone that I would be able to talk to so I would be able to get media access into the event.

Wednesday-the calls began.

Thursday- the calls continue. The program developer, publicity manager and president of the BABA all have had their answering machines filled with my messages as the days have progressed.

Friday-the calls continue and still no calls back, as of yet.

This is a huge predicament and has left mixed feelings on my end. But the event is tomorrow and I am going to go and see if I can work my magic and get myself into the event.

Its almost as if my life depends on it…

Toronto Bound!

2009-05-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

The weekend is coming up closer and I have still not made contact with program developer for the Jays coming to Belleville-hopefully that contact will be made today.

Today is trip to Toronto day. Getting some shots of the rogers center is the first thing to do on the schedule. The shots that will be gathered today will be able to better explain the multimedia package that I hope to get together for the Jays on Saturday.

Also I hope to do some research today on the baseball phenomenon in Toronto to allow a better understanding of rec baseball in big cities in comparison to smaller cities like Belleville.

Questions I hope to ask are:

Does baseball have an impact on you?
Do you play baseball or know of anyone who does?
Are you aware of small baseball leagues throughout the city?
Are you cheering for the Jays?
Are you aware of the baseball phenomenon in your city?

All I ask is a little bit more thinking before typing

2009-05-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

Barry Bonds, Mark Mcgwire, Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada, Bud Selig and most recently Manny Ramirez have all been a part of the controversy of steroids and baseball-and after the bad press and blogging from sport fans-they are still loved by the baseball community.
Being an avid Internet searcher I have seen many sports fans blogging about Ramirez-mostly trashing him for what has been uncovered in the past few days.
But why are people so quick to judge this baseball legend?
In the past five years Ramirez has passed up to 15 drug tests-which is something people need to remember.
Ramirez has only had one public statement since his suspension that The Times was the first to report on Thursday morning.
The medication that was found in his test was human chorionic gonadotrophin, HCG, which is not a steroid but has been outlawed by the MLB because of its use to replenish men’s testosterone levels after a cycle of steroids.
Ramirez said that his doctor for a ‘personal health issue’ prescribed the medication to him and that he was unaware that it was one of the outlawed drugs in the MLB policy.
Yes, the drug is outlawed. We all understand that. And yes, Ramirez has received a 50 game suspension-which, in my opinion, he may or may not deserve.
Sure, in a way the drug is outlawed and maybe he was taking it because he did just do a cycle of steroids. But maybe, when he was younger and playing recreational baseball, hoping to get into the MLB he took steroids and his testosterone levels are still suffering.
Or maybe, just maybe Ramirez was telling the truth.
Ramirez is a public figure to many in the world of baseball. His decisions become public knowledge and he has apologized to the fans, the league, and the public- what else can we ask from him?
The law states that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, so bloggers- think before you type and consider all the options.

The Jays in Belleville!

2009-05-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

Baseball lovers-The Toronto Blue Jays are coming to Belleville on Saturday!

They are teaming up with local associations across Ontario to present young baseball players, ages 7-14 to be partake in the Toronto Blue Jays Instructional Clinics at Parkdale Veterans Park.

The Blue Jays people! I know I am excited to see a great team come to Belleville.

It brings me to the question of what does this mean for the Quinte area baseball community? Young players are going to be able to meet and learn from the jays instructors, people that their young and imperishable minds look up too.

These kids have the opportunity to learn a lot from the session-mostly fundamental skills. This could be a turning point for a lot of young baseball players to decide what they want to do with their life in accordance to Belleville.

I look forward to making contacts this week and hopefully getting a chance to go and cover this exciting event!

Link to the site!
http://www.bellevillebucs.com/

It's not the size of the stick, it's all about hittin' the sweet spot!

2009-05-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Baseball is a dynamic, fun, controlled sport. Through out life many people can say that at one time or another they have played ball-whether it was in public school, league or pro. It is a sport that most people can identify with.
Growing up I was surrounded by baseball. Being the youngest of five siblings made it difficult to avoid. Two of my older sisters as well as my older brother played the game religiously. If they weren’t playing with there recreation team or the high school team they would be in a diamond in town just having some fun and practicing.
Also my mother was a baseball fanatic- it was always playing at home on the television or she was bringing my older siblings to their games all over the county, which I would go to as well.
Late at night my mother would be watching the game and I could here her from the living room yelling ‘GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO’ as they would run around the bases.
Now I have the same passion.
As I got older I realized that sports are important. They add physical activity into people’s lives-something in our lazy generation needs to have. Sports allow people to grow in many ways-healthy competitions, developing friendships, sportsmanship, and how to mold with a team.
Also, playing a game of baseball is a good way to let loose and have some honest fun with a group of friends and/or family.
The past summer baseball became a large part of my life again, as I went home for the summer. My brother and my one older sister still play the game- sometimes they compete in co-ed tournaments together. I would go to watch and cheer on my brothers team on a weekly basis.
This is when I started to notice the craft of the game. Watching how well a group of men can get together-all different ages and have a great time doing something they love.
I began to go to the games often and would shoot photos while I was there- to keep my journalist side up to par. The way they run the bases, pitch the ball, the bat dancing in the wind when it smokes the ball all came together to produce beauty.
Then I realized that I loved every aspect of the game and I look forward to spending the next few weeks watching and getting to know baseball in the Quinte region and sharing it.