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!