2018 USA Baseball Organizations Bat Changes

2018 USA Baseball Bat Changes

The bat changes noted do not apply to travel baseball at the time this article was written.  
No Baseball Players Association (BPA) changes for 2017.

January 1, 2018 ushers in new bat changes for the national member organizations (NMOs) of USA Baseball. American Amateur Baseball Congress (AABC), Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), Babe Ruth Baseball/Cal Ripken Baseball, Dixie Youth Baseball, Little League Baseball and PONY Baseball will adopt USA Baseball's new bat standard (USABat).  The standard looks to have manufacturers create bats that perform like a wood bat and will apply to bats that are classified below the NCAA and NFHS level of play.  "The new standard will not have a drop-weight limit, so young players can use bats made with light-weight materials." - USA Baseball website.

All the USA Baseball NMOs approved bats can be used during game play until December 31, 2017 using the current standards.  The plan is for the bat manufacturers to release the new bats in the Fall of 2017 in time for the 2018 season.

Sources and More Information:
Little League Baseball http://www.littleleague.org/learn/equipment/baseballbatinfo.htm

Little League Baseball Media http://www.littleleague.org/media/llnewsarchive/2015/May-August/Little-League-USA-Baseball-Bat-Standard-2018.htm?utm_source=ll.org%20bat%20page&utm_medium=2018%20USA%20Baseball%20Bat%20Standard%20Link&utm_content=LL.org%20Bat%20Resource%20Page

USA Baseball Announcement http://web.usabaseball.com/article.jsp?ymd=20150807&content_id=141742668&vkey=news_usab

Part 4 Special - 10th Anniversary

We continue this month clearing paths for others to be able to do bigger and better things! See all the 10th year anniversary specials at http://www.onturfsports.com/forms/10year.php  For the OnTurf Sports 10th Anniversary fourth  special, we have offers surrounding the OnTurf BPA State tournament.

Special 4 - For all teams:  Play in the OnTurf Sports BPA Steal Into Summer May 19-21, 2017 and be the winning team in your age group, you will receive $100 discount towards the OnTurf Sports BPA Indiana State Championship June 16-18, 2017.

Place first or second in your age group at the OnTurf Sports BPA Indiana State Championship on June 16-18, 2017 and OnTurf Sports will pay your entry fee into BPA Midwest Championship at CCAC June 30 through July 2!

Two wins could turn into $100 plus a free tournament!   Enter early for these tournaments as the BPA Midwest Championship will be cut off at 96 teams!

Part 3 Special - 10th Anniversary

We continue this month clearing paths for others to be able to do bigger and better things through OnTurf Sports 10th Anniversary.  Our third special has offers for teams playing in the OnTurf Classic or OnTurf Softball Classic tournaments powered by DICK'S Sporting Goods.

Special 3 - For all teams, the OnTurf Softball Classic and the OnTurf Classic Baseball tournaments July 6-9, 2017 will be feature a skills competition!

The softball skills will feature the Around The Horn (9 team members) and Road Runner (Individual) challenges while the baseball skills will have the Around The Horn (9 team members), Road Runner (Individual) and Home Run Derby (Individual) challenges.  All the details for both tournaments can be found on the tournament listings pages or the specific Classic Tournament page found in the menu of www.onturfsports.com

Softball Tournament Page http://www.onturfsports.com/forms/Softball.php
Baseball Tournament Page http://www.onturfsports.com/forms/Baseball.php

Softball Classic Page http://www.onturfsports.com/DSG/SBClassic.php
Baseball Classic Page http://www.onturfsports.com/DSG/DSGClassic.php

OnTurf Baseball League and OnTurf Softball League teams receive a $150 discount for these tournaments when they register and pay before February 1, 2017.

Part 2 Special - 10th Anniversary

As a part of OnTurf Sports 10th Anniversary, we will be sharing the special features available through OnTurf Sports for the 2017 Season.  Our second special has offers for teams joining the OnTurf Baseball League and an offer for all teams.

Special 2 - For all teams, register and pay for the BPA Lead Off Hit tournament April 28-30 before February 1, 2017 and receive a $100 discount!  The regular entry fee of $500 includes gate for everyone but teams registering and paying by the deadline will pay no gate fee! 8u teams get this tournament for $225 and that includes the gate fee!  $25 Discount for West Point Insurance still applies to all teams!

Additional tournament discounts are available for all the paid OnTurf Baseball League teams 
(NEBL, NWBL, SEBL, SWBL).

1. Register and pay for the April 21-23 Opening Weekend tournament before February 1, 2017 from the OnTurf Sports website and get a $50 discount! $300 is the regular entry fee including the gate fee.  8u teams get this tournament for $200 and that includes the gate fee!


2. Register and pay for the May 5-7 BPA Spring Fling tournament before March 1, 2017 from the OnTurf Sports website and receive a $50 discount on the entry fee!  An additional $25 Discount for West Point Insurance still applies to all teams!  Also the winning team in each age group receives a 50% discount to the June 9-11 BPA Diamond Gladiators tournament. The BPA Diamond Gladiators registration and reduced entry fee will be due within the week after the Spring Fling.

Stay tuned for the more specials coming in October!

Part 1 Special - 10th Anniversary

As a part of OnTurf Sports 10th Anniversary, we will be sharing the special features available through OnTurf Sports for the 2017 Season.  Our first special is for teams joining the OnTurf Baseball League.  This offer is available to all teams in the State of Indiana and beyond. The purchase must be made through the online PayPal option located at the bottom of each specific baseball division of interest.  Special arrangements will be made for teams outside of Indiana.

Special 1 - For teams wanting to take advantage of the all the OnTurf Baseball League discounts, there are two options.  Since the OnTurf Baseball League is sanctioned by BPA (Baseball Players Association), all teams are required to have or secure a BPA Sanction Number. In turn, the winner of each age division of each geographic region receives a berth to the BPA World Series!  With these two options OnTurf Sports does all the preliminary preseason work for you and sends you the information you need for the full season of games.

Entry Fee Breakdown (Total varies by age group)
League Entry $150,  
(Optional) OnTurf Classic $225,
BPA Sanction Number $30,
Insurance Discount for League teams varies by age group

1. Pay for the League, year end tournament (OnTurf Classic), a BPA sanction number and one year team West Point insurance policy.  OnTurf Sports will
1.  Fill out all the paperwork and pay to secure the BPA sanction number and the West Point insurance policy.  When the BPA sanction number and insurance certificate are completed (usually 2-3 days), all the information will be emailed to the team representative.  
2. Secure a spot for the team in the League and the OnTurf Classic and will be kept informed of all the special features of both as we get closer to the season. 
2. Pay for the League, a BPA sanction number and one year team West Point insurance policy.  OnTurf Sports will
1.  Fill out all the paperwork and pay to secure the BPA sanction number and the West Point insurance policy.  When the information BPA sanction number and insurance certificate are completed (usually 2-3 days), all the information will be emailed to the team representative.  
2. Secure a spot for the team in the League and will be kept informed of all the special features of both as we get closer to the season.

If a group of teams from Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, or Nebraska would like to take advantage of these discounted rates, please contact Joel at onturfsports@gmail.com.

The specific links to each OnTurf Sports Baseball League in Indiana are as follows.
NEBL  http://www.onturfsports.com/League/NEBL.php
NWBL http://www.onturfsports.com/League/NWBL.php

The full list of benefit details of the league can be found on each web page.  The League brings teams together to set their own schedules at the day, time and location that they agree to.  OnTurf Sports tracks all the results, awards the winner of each age group in each division, distributes all the benefits, provides administration for the League including rules and guidelines and empowers teams to take full advantage of a central organization that understands the demands of baseball teams looking for more games.

10th Anniversary Celebration

A lot is in store for 2017 and the 10th Anniversary of OnTurf Sports!  There is so much that we will be sharing the choices over the course of the Fall through all of our social media and our website.

The time that we have put into the game has been enjoyable and gratifying.  In 2008, we started with baseball and softball tournaments.  We soon developed baseball and softball leagues for ages 8u to 14u.  We have advanced to be a resource for teams to ask questions, get answers and play games with teams in the same point in their game.  Now headed into our 10th organized season, we have had a quarter of a million people reading our blog articles, watching our Spotlight videos, connecting with teams and viewing over 400,000 pages of our website content!  We hoped we have helped players, parents, coaches and teams in achieving their goals.  We will continue to work to highlight your achievements and bring the games and to you so that you can experience the impact the game has made on and continues to have on us.

Check back often and watch for announcements on our website (www.onturfsports.com), Twitter (@onturfsports) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/OnTurf-Sports-127092820694824/) pages for the more details.  Loyalty has played a huge role in the development of the game over the years.  In honor of those loyal teams, the OnTurf Baseball or Softball League teams will see the largest benefits.  So make sure your a part of the 2017 leagues and score for your team!

Best of luck on your 2017 season and 

we will see you on the diamonds!        

Parents Take An Active Role - College Opportunity

Parents: Take an active role in your son or daughter's sports interest.  If your child is not interested in pursuing the opportunity to play at the college level, this article is not for you.  We see opportunities for players to take that important first step with the college coach missed by the inability to complete the most basic information sharing.

At a recent 17u Perfect Game event, several reminders were sent to coaches, well in advance of the tournament right up to a week before the event, to complete their online roster. Perfect Game provides an enormous benefit to players through their the online roster and player profile system for players of all ages.  The system is used by colleges coaches and professional scouts at all levels. Completing the roster and profile can be a time consuming task that draws the disgust of some that it is even suggested that they do this step.  We get it.

1. The coach has his own spreadsheet list with all the information.
2. The team is only playing in this one event and since each tournament asks for this information why even do it.
3. The coach is busy.  Between work and coaching, there is not much time left for doing paperwork.
4. Maybe the players do not want to play sports in college.

We want you to have a sense of the other perspective on the Perfect Game team roster and player profile.

1. College coaches search to find the best players to fit into their program.  They travel to multiple tournaments in a variety of states to find their players.  They may be tracking up to 100 players through the spring and summer for a year or two.  All these players have a very similar set of skills and a desire to play in college.  When the college coach wants information on a player, the online roster and player profile from Perfect Game serves as a fast and informative resource.  When that information is not online, they can choose to go looking for that information or move on to the next player.  If your son wants to play baseball in college, do not let the lack of information be the reason.  Do not make the college coach go looking for that roster sheet in the coaches backpack for contact information, grades or the high school where they play.
2. How many colleges need to be interested in your son or daughter for them to play at the next level?  One.  They need one college to commit to bringing them into their college program.  So if it is just one tournament, couldn't that be the only opportunity they need to impress a coach.  You do not know when the right person will see your son or daughter at the right time and that is all it takes!  Get one college to commit to your son or daughter and then they can decide if they want to commit to the college.
3. We sat and talked with a college coach who did not understand why teams do not take the time to showcase their players with the online roster and profile.  College coaches can not be at every tournament.  They can not see every game played at one tournament or even every inning in one game.  They talk to people who suggest they look into a player.  That coach needs a reliable resource to start their research.  Make it easy on the college coach.
4. As we mentioned earlier if your son or daughter does not want to play sports in college,  then there is no need to have a team roster except to fill the tournament requirements.  Are you sure the player does not want to play in college?

How can you as a parent be active and play a role to help?

1. Look at the rosters for the other teams online in the tournament.
2. Make sure your team has an online roster completed.
3. See if the players have profiles.
4. Make sure your son or daughter has accurate information shown about them on any roster or profile that is created.
5. Keep the information and picture, in the case of Perfect Game, updated.
6. Repeat as needed!

Best of luck to all that are pursuing that college sports commitment! Work hard, play smart, make sure there is an online roster and fill out your profile! 

No Limits - Prepare for the Opportunity

From time to time, coaches and parents share their opinions or thoughts with us on issues outside of one game or tournament.  People will react or respond to a question or in this case a service that is a big picture view of an athlete's amateur career.  One interaction made us wonder if the story they were telling us was an isolated case or one that more people had experienced.

Whether your son or daughter is a great athlete right now or not, there will always be opportunities that will present themselves that your son or daughter may want to take advantage of.  A roman philosopher wrote "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity".  You can't cheat or take short cuts in the preparation.  If you do, it will catch up sometime.  Do everything you can to stay ahead of it.

Perfect Game (PG) is an organization that does many things well.  One of the more outstanding tools and services that they offer players is the ability to track statistics, game performances, physical growth and school grades among numerous other items in a player's profile over the years.  The profile is initially built by the player before they play in a PG tournament.  During the tournament, the stats are recorded and added to a player's profile.  The profile becomes a single location for important data for recruiters and scouts to view the information to see if it supports what they see on the diamond.  You may think that "Billy" does not have a chance at the next level but the reality is no one really knows when a player is young.  In our conversation about entering a Perfect Game tournament, the team manager stated that there was no reason to complete the profile because these 11u ballplayers will never go to college to play baseball. 

That conversation still makes us cringe.  No matter the age, we encourage coaches and parents to have an open mind.  Prepare your players or find someone that can.  Feed them as much information as possible.  If they decide as a well prepared player not to take that next step, then the decision is all theirs.  Don't place them in a position of what if.  They will have an empty feeling when they realize that the time has passed and they can't make up for the lost time.  Take advantage of the free services such as the PG profile and other tools that build a picture of the complete player.  From our experience, we can now say that our sons have accomplished playing at a level that we could never have imagined for them at an early age.  They are prepared and now there are more opportunities to come! There are no limits!

The Power of Coaching Everyone Can Use

When you know someone for years, you know their character, their trustworthiness, their dependability and their experience.  It is difficult to explain to someone else that has never met, seen or even heard about an individual how they have so positively influenced you and your family.  For people you trust, there is an indescribable emotion that allows you comfort each time you have an interaction with them. You value their opinion and you enjoy the time you get to spend with them.

Four years is how long we have known Craig Faulkner, Joe Komaroski and Ray Sinibaldi, initially as coaches from a distance as my oldest son began playing high school baseball and now as more than just coaches.  These men possess and build those desirable qualities in kids that will last them a lifetime.  In or out of the classroom or sporting venue, the real treasure for the kids they instruct is simply to have an exemplary model of a teacher, coach and person to always be able to reach out for guidance.

There are times in your life when you recognize that you can learn substantially more from others than you can by yourself.  This is one of those times.  If you are a person that works with others in a capacity to improve their lives in sports or otherwise, the stories in the book "61 Motivational Stories For Every Coach of Every Sport" will improve your abilities to help others.  This will be your introduction to these great men.

The book is available on amazon
https://www.amazon.ca/Motivational-Stories-Every-Coach-Sport/dp/1614934355


A brief description of the book

Contained herein is a collection of stories. Stories of real people, stories of real life situations, stories which have the ability to motivate and inspire. Each story has the capacity to teach a life lesson and bring those who listen, to a deeper understanding of themselves and the challenges their lives present to them. If you are in possession of this limited edition of our book it is because each of you has provided a building block to a dream, and we are humbled and grateful for your contribution. Thank you...Craig, Joe and Ray

What Do You Believe?

What are your feelings about tournaments?  What meaning do they have for your family?  What is your answer to the question

"Why do you go to tournaments?"

Your mind immediately is flooded with a lot of choices!

For my daughter or son or both!

We are part of the team.  We go were they go.

The coach picks the tournaments.

It's a family vacation.

It's part of summer baseball or softball to play in tournaments.

It's fun for the family.

For the challenge

To Win!

Why do we host tournaments? 

Simple answers come to your mind.  The real answer isn't what you think. 

After some less than stellar experiences as parents when our sons were younger, our perspective on tournaments changed.  The league our boys were in played by a special set of baseball rules that they had generated to "simplify the game".  At the end of one season, a team was selected to go play in a tournament.  No problem.  Our boys were good young ballplayers and they would go and compete like they always did.  Oh but there was one detail.  Instead of the modified rules, we were going to play real baseball.  Dropped third strike and stealing were all new concepts but we had two weeks for the coaches to teach them. Fast forward.  As we discussed the frustration from our sons after the run rule defeats and the new desire that they had to play real baseball, we transitioned from parents to coaches to tournament directors.  Our belief...let's have the kids learn the game the way they will play it from here on out.  No more time was going to be spent teaching special rules.  The game of baseball is hard enough.  It doesn't need special rules.  The boys were extremely excited about the change and the game was now even more fun than it was before!

In our 9th year of hosting tournaments, we still run tournaments for those kids that just want to play that real game of baseball or softball.  The game they see the high schools, colleges or professional teams play.  The players they imitate in the yard or on the field.  Each year there is a new group with that same excitement, that same passion, to play the game they have watched their brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin or friend play.   As we begin playing again in April, our excitement grows.  Our passion for the game is renewed as we continue to bring all the fun aspects of the game to a new set of players.  That's why we do it.  We want to give back to the game some of what it gave us.

Best of luck on your season and enjoy every season that brings your baseball or softball family together.

OnTurf Sports Spotlight - Video interviews, news and more

Lights, Camera, Action!   

Good news, or better yet, Great news needs to travel faster! 

Players and coaches are doing fantastic things on and off the fields, courts, gridirons, rinks and tracks.  These topics and more will be highlighted at select 2016 OnTurf Sports tournaments through our new video series OnTurf Spotlight.

OnTurf Sports will select softball and baseball coaches and players, past and present, to discuss topics ranging from their current games to their positive experiences throughout the year. Interested teams should register for OnTurf Sports tournaments and watch for additional information shared through email and social media.

All the videos will be available through the OnTurf Spotlight YouTube Channel as well as from our website at www.onturfsports.com/events/Spotlight.php.  New videos will be added in the days following each tournament when the Spotlight interviews take place.

Please "Like" and "Subscribe" to give us feedback on what you want more of and to get the latest videos. The introductory video and more are now available!

Schedule Breakdown - 2016 Tournaments

Are you putting together the schedule for your team?  There are many tournament options to choose from close to home and across the country. What categories are important to you?  We have taken our 2016 tournament schedule and divided the events into different categories for you to look over and consider what OnTurf Sports tournaments are best for your team.  When putting together these events, we scrutinize the details of each tournament for the benefits to the teams for everything from the facility to the size of the tournament.

1. Meet your needs based on the date, location or both.  ✔  OnTurf Sports offers tournaments on almost every weekend in different locations.     
1. Baseball locations - Anderson University, Ball State University, Columbia City, Fort Wayne, Indiana Wesleyan University, Schererville.  
2. Softball locations - Columbia City, Huntington, Indiana Wesleyan University, North Manchester, Manchester University.  
2. Have teams you want to play - out of state teams, high quality teams, etc.   ✔  Pick the location and date that offers the variety you are looking for.   BPA and NSA tournaments are regional teams typically from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.  Perfect Game (PG) tournaments attract teams from the entire Midwest region stretching from Missouri to Ohio and Minnesota to Kentucky.  The non-sanctioned OnTurf Classic powered by DICK'S Sporting Goods draws teams from the Midwest region and occasionally a team from Canada. 
   
   
   
3. Winners advance to a prestigious tournament ✔ Teams winning in BPA or NSA qualifiers get a berth to the respective World Series.  Winning teams in the PG Indiana State Qualifiers receive a paid berth to the PG Indiana State.  The winners of the PG Super Qualifiers receive a paid berth to the PG Super 25 National Championship!
   
4. Tournament with Extras!  ✔ The OnTurf Classic powered by DICK'S Sporting Goods offers a full tournament plus Home Run Derby, Road Runner, and Around The Horn skills competitions!  Special awards, promotions and giveaways will be given by DICK'S Sporting Goods throughout the weekend.  OnTurf Sports will be adding some special features coming to select tournaments in the 2016 season. Stay tuned for the announcements!
   
5. Tournaments based on PRICE ✔ OnTurf  Sports Baseball League teams get the OnTurf Classic for $225 while everyone else only pays $375 for a 3 game format.  If you want more games, check out the Diamond Gladiators 4 game format tournament for $450 which includes the entry and gate fee for everyone!

The complete list of tournaments can be found for softball at www.onturfsports.com/forms/Softball.php and baseball at www.onturfsports.com/forms/Baseball.php