Season Update - COVID-19
Update: 6/12/2020
- All COVID Refund and Season Transfer Requests received were processed
- Unpaid Spring registrations were deleted, please just register for Fall
- Coaches you need to re-register to Coach for Fall season
- If your status has changed, you can request refund using COVID-19 FORM
FALL REGISTRATION is NOW OPEN. Please go to REGISTER ONLINE. Please let your friends know we are taking registrations again! We hope you are staying safe and healthy; and we look forward to seeing you back on the ball fields soon! Enjoy your Summer!
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HEADLINES  | | | COVID-19 Spring Season Status 5/4/2020 May 4, 2020
Dear League Member,
GMBL has processed all COVID Form Requests have been processed that we have received through today, May 4th as of 1pm.
REFUND REQUESTS (less Admin Fee):
If you requested a refund to be processed against your child’s Spring 2020 registration, it was completed. Please note, if you paid by credit card and 90 days had lapsed from the date your original payment was made to the league, GMBL had to issue the refund via a manual check. All check refunds were mailed out as of 5/1/2020. The checks were sent to the parent guardian address which made the original payment. For electronic refunds made within 90 days, they were processed back to the original form of payment. Please remember GMBL kept a small admin fee of no more than $20 per registration as originally communicated. For families with multiple players enrolled, we prorated the admin fees retained based on the number of registrations per family (1 Child, 2-3 Children, and 4+ Children). If you do not see an electronic refund transaction posted to your account or have not received a check refund within a few days, please contact Kimberly Payne, GMBL Registrar, at
. When doing so, please confirm the player’s name and the division in question to assist with the investigation.
APPLY 100% of REGISTRATION to FUTURE SEASON:
If you requested the league to apply your child’s Spring 2020 registration to a future season, it has been processed. Your child’s registration has been posted to the upcoming Fall 2020 or Spring 2021 season (registrations were noted and will be moved to Spring 2021 once we close out Spring 2020). While GMBL kept registration prices the same, if your child naturally aged up to an older division, you may see a small price adjustment and balance due. Please note, your child was placed in the age appropriate division based on their actual birthdays. Those that moved up from Tball to Rookies or 8U Softball will see a $40 increase, Minors to Majors will see a $10 increase, and Majors to Babe Ruth will see a $10 increase. If you had qualified for last year’s 2019 Early Bird discount, we applied the same $20 Early Bird Discount price to your Registration placement.
DONATION REQUESTS:
You graciously offered to donate your players Spring 2020 Registration Fees to GMBL’s general fund. The league will also send you a letter (please give us time) documenting your donation to our 401c3 organization that you can include with your tax records for 2020.
NO COVID REQUEST MADE:
Per the original communication, GMBL will transfer all registrations to Fall 2020 for those paid players where we have not received a formal COVID request otherwise directing us to handle it differently. If your personal situation has changed and you would like the league to issue a refund or handle things differently. Please submit a request using the COVID-19 FORM. We will transfer the remaining Spring registrations starting May 10th and formally closing out the COVID-19 FORM.
Once GMBL finalizes the Spring 2020 season process for all players around May 15th, we hope to fully open Fall 2020 Registration for your awareness. This will allow you to register other family members and tell your friends. We hope that your family is staying safe and that we will see you soon back at the GMBL Complex.
Thank You,
Kimberly Payne
GMBL – Registrar
| COVID-19 Spring Season Update - 4/17/2020 April 17, 2020
GMBL Families,
Unfortunately, the Board has made the decision to cancel our 63rd Spring season. We have successfully managed crisis situations in the past with 9/11 and the Beltway Sniper which resulted in us having to cancel only part of our season. However, the challenge of COVID-19 has been different. The Commonwealth of Virginia has issued a “stay-at-home order” through June 10 and an indefinite restriction on gatherings of more than 10 people. Both of these orders restrict our ability to hold a spring season; in addition, we do not know, and may not know for some time, if or when the stay-at-home order might be lifted and/or extended.
At this time, the City has not closed any of the City of Manassas parks. Therefore, the EG Smith complex can still be used by people affiliated with the League as long as there are 10 or less people and social distancing is being enforced. We will do our best to continue to take care of the fields. We can always use help weeding, picking up leaves, etc. Also, please ensure you park in the parking lot. Barriers have been put up as someone backed into an electrical box and caused extensive damage.
While we realize our website states no refunds, this is obviously an unusual circumstance. Unfortunately, with the costs of grass cutting, field maintenance, trash pick-up and the minimum usage fee for lights, we cannot offer a full refund. We can offer to transfer 100% of any 2020 Spring registration fee to this coming Fall or the 2021 Spring season. If you wish to receive a refund, we can offer one with a minimal fee of $20 deducted. The fee would be tax deductible as GMBL is a non-profit 501(c)(3). We would also ask those that can afford to donate their Spring registrations to GMBL to please do so as it will go into our General Fund which helps with the above costs, equipment, scholarships, etc. Please make your selection here: COVID-19 Form GMBL If you do not complete the form, we will assume you want to roll your registration fee over to the next season.
Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken Headquarters still has not made a decision about the All Star Tournament Trail. If the tournaments are played, we would still like to enter teams from GMBL. We will keep you informed of this once a determination is made. GMBL would still host the 16-18 year old State Tournament for baseball starting on July 9th.
Also, GMBL may be hosting a Quickball summer league. More information will follow.
Thank you and stay safe,
GMBL Board of Directors
by Kim Payne posted 05/04/2020 | GMBL is currently seeking sponsors for our 2020 seasons. If interested please fill out the Sponsor Application.
| 2020 GMBL Mark Shain Memorial Scholarship Calling all Seniors from the Class of 2020 that played at GMBL!
Apply today for the 2020 Mark Shain Memorial Scholarship
Go to GMBL Scholarship
| Southeast Region Hall of Fame
Mary Clarke
Year Nominated: 2019
Year Inducted: 2019
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Deceased in 2019
Mary Clarke, better known as "Baseball Mary" throughout Virginia Babe Ruth and the SoutheastRegion, joined the Greater Manassas Baseball League (GMBL) in 1972 and served continuously until her death in March 2019. Her 47 years of service to Babe Ruth baseball included 17 years as GMBL President as well as service in every league capacity short of fields and grounds. Mary was the tournament director for many District, State, and Regional tournaments and was instrumental in starting the Manassas Memorial Day Tournament, an event that has continued for over 25 years. Throughout her many years of service to Babe Ruth baseball, Mary always held the interest of the kids, both those playing on tournament and recreational teams, as her foremost priority.
Having had eight children and five grandchildren participate in the league, Mary contributed many times as manager and commissioner in the T-Ball, Rookies, Minors, Majors, and Babe Ruth divisions, winning several league championships during those years. She was an extremely knowledgeable coach and a fierce competitor with a winning record. She was a standout in the 1970s when female coaches were very uncommon. She helped mentor countless children both on and off the field and gave so much of herself volunteering and giving back to the community.
Mary was well known to be a very persistent and persuasive fundraiser. She served as GMBL's primary sponsorship chairperson for many years and consistently performed above expectations in that role during both strong and weak economic conditions. In the early 1980s, when the league had outgrown its facility at the time and had nowhere to go, Mary was instrumental in coordinating a door-to-door effort looking for a benefactor to donate some land to build new fields. After partnering with the Mayor and local city government officials, they were able to convince IBM to donate the land that the current GMBL complex now occupies. Then, partnering with many area merchants and construction companies, they were able to complete the site preparation and facilities enhancements to make the complex a reality in 1983.
In more recent years, Mary spent a large amount of time pursuing donations to support The Ann Clarke Dollard Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit started in her late daughter’s name to provide direct relief for individuals with cancer living in northern Virginia and the surrounding area or towards supporting community health programs. When not at the fields, taking care of her grandchildren, volunteering, being Woman of the Year, organizing fundraisers, serving on the city’s Safety Advisory Board, or a host of other altruistic pursuits over the years, she enjoyed spending time yelling at the TV during Redskins games, watching Judge Judy, and texting her older granddaughters her uncensored opinions of various Bachelor/Bachelorette cast members.
Baseball Mary attained incredible levels of accomplishment and recognition—her tenure, contribution, and desire to provide for the greater community continue to provide inspiration to her fellow volunteers. She was a Lifetime Board Member and a fixture at the GMBL complex. She truly loved the game and there was no bigger fan of the kids who played the game!
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James Guzdowski
Year Nominated: 2019
Year Inducted: 2019
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Jim Guzdowski has been umpiring baseball and softball for 31 years and has been a member of the Babe Ruth National Umpire Association (NUA) for the past 26 years. He has umpired 15 Babe Ruth Southeast Regional Baseball tournaments and has served as the Umpire-in-Chief (UIC) in 8 of those tournaments. He has also umpired 9 Southeast Regional Babe Ruth Softball tournaments and has served as the UIC in 8 of those tournaments. Jim also has umpired in many Virginia state and district Babe Ruth baseball and softball tournaments, and has served as the UIC in many.
Jim has been consulted on numerous occasions with the Babe Ruth Southeast Regional Commissioner regarding rules changes for the Rookie division in baseball and the 8U division in softball. His recommendations are presently reflected in the current Southeast Regional rules for those age groups.
Jim is also a Virginia High School League (VHSL) varsity official in baseball, softball, and basketball. He has been a member of the Bull Run Officials Association for 26 years, and he serves on the training committee for that association.
Jim is a retired major crimes detective with the Prince William County Police Department in Virginia. He was a patrol officer for 6 years and a major crimes detective for 22 years. Interesting to note that he has assisted Scotland Yard in a homicide investigation and participated in the investigation of the DC sniper case. In addition, Jim has appeared on the national television show Unsolved Mysteries regarding a 10-year-old murder case. As a result, the suspect was apprehended in Phoenix, AZ within 24 hours, extradited to Virginia, and convicted.
Jim lives in Manassas, Virginia with his wife, Susan, and continues to serve his community as a civilian crime analyst in the Violent Crime detective division of the Prince William County Police Department.
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| CPR / AED Certification for Coaches IDear GMBL League Coaches,
GMBL has been offered an amazing opportunity to share with you reduced cost CPR/AED training through Florian CPR, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide low-cost CPR certification to Manassas area volunteers. The organization was founded this July when our own GMBL Senior Babe Ruth League Member, Steven Smith, was saved by teammate, Paul Dow, after a freak accident during baseball practice as the team prepared for their Southeast Regional appearance. Their story made Local, State, National and International news. If you have not heard about the miracle, you can find the story link below as published by Babe Ruth Headquarters and local Inside NOVA:
Babe Ruth HQs Article
Inside NOVA Article
GMBL strongly encourages all league members to be CPR/AED certified as volunteers. Do you want to Learn CPR? Now is your chance! Florian CPR wants to help you. They will certify you in the life saving skills of CPR and the proper use of the AED for just $21.
Go to www.savewithcpr.org to learn more about them, sign up for a class or donate.
All instructors and staff are volunteers. The $21 pays for equipment, instructional supplies and your certification with the National Safety Council. CPR and AED training saves lives. Simply select the $21 – Volunteer Coach Pay for Yourself Option on the Class Sign-In, identify yourself as a GMBL Coach/Volunteer.
Sign up today! You never know when you may be able to save a life tomorrow!
Thanks,
Your GMBL Board of Directors
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