To Players and Parents: Allow Me To Introduce Myself

I am thrilled to have an opportunity to work with each of you and to manage the Pelham Twins in the 2008 Boys Majors Division. Last Fall I managed one of the League's Travel Teams. I have coached multiple teams in the Tee Ball (Instructional) League, American, National and Boys Minors in the Pelham Little League program. I also have served as an Assistant Coach for a number of the League's Travel Teams in addition to managing a 2007 Fall Travel team. I also have coached in the West Side Little League in Manhattan. I played baseball for 14 years and have played and managed softball teams for nearly three decades.

Thank you to Sun and Moon Fitness and Colleen Walsh for sponsoring our team. To visit the Sun and Moon Fitness Web Site, go to http://www.sunandmoonfitness.com.

Second, although this site is not being indexed so that it can be found in search engine search results, I soon will be password-protecting the site. I will send you access instructions at that time. Here are some quick announcements:

We likely will have a late afternoon / early evening practice one day next week. I will not know the date or time until late Monday evening, March 31. Please check here and check your email for the date and time.

In addition to practices, I plan to conduct a number of instructional sessions with the players. The first such session will revolve around the fundamentals of hitting. I will schedule that session after we receive our first field permit for the first practice.

Since all of us have been through the League before, this may not be that necessary, but please be aware that there are five ways to determine whether a practice / game is rained out:

(1) Call the league office and listen to the message on the answering machine - 914-738-7555;

(2) Check your email because I carry a Blackberry and can send you email messages on the go as soon as I know field status;

(3) Check this Web site where I also will post rainout announcements as soon as I can get Web access after learning of field status;

(4) Check the Pelham Little League Web site at http://www.pelhamlittleleague.org where there might be a rainout announcement; and

(5) Go to the field -- if there is a red flag on the field, the event is rained out.

Finally, my contact information is as follows:

Blake A. Bell
Home: 914-813-0221
Office: 212-455-2935
Email: B_Bell@stblaw.com
Blackberry Cell Phone: (646) 283-1809

Home Address:
20 Beech Tree Lane
Pelham Manor, NY 10803

Office Address:
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
425 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10017-3954

I know it will be a great season and we will have a lot of fun. I will be posting copies of all email communications to this site so that each of you will have a running record of such materials.