How to quickly raise $1500 with a 100 inning game

Following is a short, updated guide on how to set up and run one of the most successful fundraising projects recently devised for baseball and softball teams--the 100 inning game.

Because you use the JUGS machine as your "Designated Pitcher," this game takes just ten hours or less to play. Here are the points you need to know:

1. Tell your players they will be playing 100 innings to raise money for your team. Each player must play at least 2-1/2 hours in the game, and each player must get ten sponsers to pledge 5¢ per inning. The team is pledging 5¢ x 100 innings, which is five dollars.
2. Your opponent for this game can be a cross-town rival, who might also decide to get sponsors, or an alumni team, or even an intra-squad affair--the blue vs. the gold, etc.
3. Write a brief "Dear Neighbor" letter, similiar to the one shown at the end of this article.
4. Print up 30 of these "Dear Neighbor" letters for each of your players, which they should distribute to their neighbors and friends.
5. Print up 100 sponsor sheets, using the form at the end of this article.
6. A day or two after your neighbors have distributed the "Dear Neighbor" letters, each player should visit those homes. When a neighbor agrees to be a sponsor, the neighbor should fill in his or her name and other information on the player's sponsor sheet. Players should not collect any money until you have actually played the 100 innings.
7. Try to find a fast food place to help you, by giving you free "two for one" coupons. For every dollar a sponsor pledges, you then give that sponsor one of the "two for one" coupons. Fast food places are surprisingly receptive to projects like this, so don't be afraid to ask!
8. Make sure you have done the following five things at least two weeks before the game:
   1. Reserve a field for a ten hour period, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
   2. Make sure your JUGS machine is in good running order. Practice setting the dials until you find the straight ball speed that is fast enough to strike out half of your team reguarly. Use that setting during the 100 inning game. (The last thing you want in a 100 inning game is a lot of hitting!)
   3. Try to get ten volunteer umpires. Two umpires at a time, working for two hours should be enough.
   4. Print up seventeen copies of the official 100 inning game score sheet.
   5. If possible, paint a scoreboard on a 4' x 8' piece of plywood. Here is a sample scoreboard:
   
   

   Inning	Teams	R	H	E
   100	Blue	14	70	13
   	Gold	20	81	6

   
   A photo of your players behind this scoreboard after the game should be sent to the local press, along with highlights of the game. This is especially important if you have worked out a "coupon deal" with a fast food place. Remember, that place will love the free publicity in the press,and will be more likely to help you out in future years with other 100 inning games.
9. At least a week before the game, make a time schedule of when your players will be playing. It's best to have four lineups, using your J.V. players too. That way, each lineup plays 2-1/2 hours.
10. Play the game using these rules:
    1. Pitchers will feed JUGS, then field their position.
    2. Each team should hit for nine outs, clearing the bases after every three outs.
    3. Pitchers get to hit. If a batter has two strikes on him, and then hits a foul ball, that batter is out.
    4. Set up a protective screen in front of JUGS. Any batted ball that hits the screen is a "do-over."
    5. Use leather baseballs. Have at least four dozen available.
    6. After the game is over, make certain you tell your players to "collect that cash!" Money not collected by three days after the game is very tough to collect.
    7. Write short personal "Thank you" notes to the umpires and to your opposing coach.
    8. Write a standard short "Thank you" letter, including some highlights of the game. Have each of your players copy this note on your team's stationery if you have it. A player who found ten sponsors should copy this thank you note ten times. Mail a "Thank you" to every person who sponsored your 100 inning game. This is time-consuming, and the postage will cost you money, but it is a real good investment, especially if you intend to play a 100 inning game every year.
    9. Count your money! If thirty players have found ten "nickel sponsors" each, you team will have raised $1500. (The average amount raised by 93 teams who played 100 inning games in 1983 was $1744. So, a goal of $1500 is very realistic.)
    10. One last favor--could you write to The JUGS Newsletter, Box 158, Tualatin, OR, 97062, telling us a little about your successful 100 inning game? Include a photo of the team if possible and tell us how much you raised. We will publish your team photo and the results of your fundraiser in a future issue of The JUGS Newsletter.

Thanks, and good luck, coach!

Here is the "Dear Neighbor" letter used by Housatonic Community College for their 100 inning game, which raised $4500.

Dear Neighbor:

On Saturday, October 22, the Housatonic Community College Hawks will play the Sacred Heart University Pioneers in the first annual "Great American Baseball Marathon." Our HCC team member is asking you to consider pledging a nickel for each of the 100 innings we will be playing at Pioneer Park on the SHU Campus.

As you may know, Housatonic Baseball is a great success story, (eight state titles, two New England titles, twice Northeast Champions and two trips to the Junior College World Series).

Part of HCC's winning tradition has been the result of ambitious preparation which includes a five week fall program, a rigorous off season conditioning program, and a preseason southern trip.

Because the spring training trip to Florida is entirely financed by the student athletes and coaching staff, several fund raising events are held prior to our March departure.

Our first event of this academic year is the "100 Inning Marathon." Like us, our crosstown friends and rivals, Sacred Heart University, will also utilize the Marathon as a means to finance their spring trip.

Our HCC baseball athletes are seeking your support. Their participation in this eleven hour endurance test will require tremendous effort, but they are conditioned young people eager to meet the challenge.

Baseball and academics are important pursuits for them at this time in their lives. Please consider joining us in this major project. Remember your contribution is fully tax deductible.

What better way to say, "Go get 'em Housy, keep up the good work!"

Sincerely,
Edward Sylvia
Coordinator of Athletics
Head Baseball Coach

This is a sample to show you how to use this score sheet. The visiting team has just completed its first turn at bat, hitting for three innings.

Notice, when the team scored, an X was placed in one of the "runs" boxes. When an out was made, an X was placed in an "out" box.

Remember to fill in the "runs scored this inning" space, and the "total runs scored" space after three outs are made.

You must make 25 copies of this page to be able to score the entire 100 inning--good luck and have fun!

Tired of door to door fundraising? Then is the ideal fundraiser for your organization. We cannot emphasize how much fun and profitability there is at a competition.

can be set up for fundraising at all games or matches, and although most everyone wants the opportunity to measure their best fastball against the Big Leaguers, can be used for many other competitive fundraising projects.

Following is a letter from Carol Eckart, the Softball Club Advisor at Rainer High School in Rainier, Oregon. Carol's letter might help your team raise some much needed cash.

Dear Sirs:

My softball team has come up with a great idea for earning money--so great in fact, that the proceeds have allowed us to buy a JUGS pitching machine and a generator.

Last season the girls put on a "Kids Night Out" in our high school gym--pool--commons area. For five dollars parents left their grade school aged kids for five hours of fun on a Saturday.

The response was tremendous! Over 160 kids showed up, and we cleared $750. We put it on again before Christmas, and had over 150 kids participate.

The big advantage of this fundraiser is that all work is done, including money collection, in one day.

We have decided to do it twice a year from now on--once before Christmas and once during our season. It's a fast, fun filled money making event. The kids and their parents love it!

Sincerely,
Carol Eckart

Following is a letter from Sister Bernadette Ann, the Principal of St. Cecilia School in Beaverton, Oregon.

This letter describes an idea you might want to try.

Butch Paulson
P.O. Drawer 365
Tualatin, OR 97062

Dear Mr. Paulson:

I would like to submit an idea for a fundraiser. It is a "car wash-a-thon."

The idea is to get people to pledge so much for every car washed. Then, set up a washing station and wash cars free!

(The hardest part is to convince people that the car wash is free.)

A time limit has to be set for the car wash--something like two or three hours. It is quite profitable, but pledges have to be collected later.

Sincerely,
Sister Bernadette Ann
Principal
St. Cecilia School

Following is a letter from Gary Nyhus, the Head Baseball Coach at Newman High in Mason City, Iowa that you will want to read if your team could use some extra money.

To the Editor of TJN:

I would like to submit a fundraising idea that was worth over $3,300 for the baseball program at Newman High School in Mason City, Iowa. In the fall of the year we held a huge garage sale in the Newman gynmasium.

All donations were tax deductible and the school vans were used to pick up articles for the sale. We started gathering goods almost one and a half months previous to the sale. The goods were stored in a moving van which was donated to the school for a storage facility for a period of two months.

Baseball players started the project but help was received from the study halls, booster club members, faculty, and many, many interested parents.

To name just a few items: three color TVs, six stoves, five regrigerators, dozens of chairs and couches, lumber, washing machines, dryers, hundreds of knick-knacks, approximately 100,000 articles of clothing, and so much more I can't name them all.

We pulled in $2,600 on the Saturday of the sale and another $700 on Sunday. At the Sunday sale, we sold all you could carry out for a dollar.

After the sale concluded, it took seven trips with vans and trucks to empty the school gym and take the items to the local Salvation Army and Goodwill offices.

Sincerely,
Gary Nyhus
Baseball Coach and A.D.
Newman High School