ENYTB has always welcomed dual-participation by teams from other Leagues (a process known as double registrations). ENYTB provides these teams with additional opportunities for competitively balanced play and sanctioned tournament eligibility. Most of these teams also register with us to be eligible for NABF Regional tournaments hosted locally by E... read more

Approximately half of our members are also responsible for operating their own house programs. Those that run smaller house leagues often are faced with the problem of having too few teams to provide them with a sufficient diversity of opponents. In addition, many house leagues, big and small, also desire to offer their house level players an exten... read more

When ENYTB was established in 1996, it affiliated with the AABC Sandy Koufax Division. Later we added AABC sanctioning at 15U, 13U, 12U, and 11U. Since there was an existing Mickey Mantle and Connie Mack League in the local area, AABC for many years would not sanction ENYTB at 16U and 18U. That prompted ENYTB to seek out other national affiliations... read more

In the last couple of years ENYTB teams have increasingly inquired about the possibility of ENYTB forming its own "Elite" division, with the possibility of including other elite teams from other regions. The ENYTB Constitution recognizes elite teams beginning at age 16, provided they participate in a higher level organized program of play than ENYT... read more

About 75 persons attended the recently concluded NABF annual meeting in King's Island, OH. I was accompanied by my oldest son Pete, who is now our principal webmaster. We were both made to feel very welcome by VARCHARlie Blackburn, NABF's Executive Director, and the entire NABF fraternity. Like most annual meetings of national baseball organizations, the majority of attendees consisted of organization officers, tournament hosts (both last year and those who submitted bids for the upcoming season) and honorees. From what I observed, NABF officers are generally quite devoted to the NABF and the cause of amateur baseball, and have been for most of their adult lives. All business was conducted in a very open, professional and democratic manner. Charlie celebrated his 70th birthday during the meetings and it was quite evident that he is the unquestioned leader of the organization and beloved by all. NABF enjoys excellent financial health today largely because of VARCHARlie's 30 years of outstanding leadership. When VARCHARlie became NABF's third ever Executive Director, the organization had no liquid or capital assets and membership was stagnant or declining. Membership at that time was focused in the big cities and in the older age divisions. VARCHARlie changed that, introducing new programs in the youth divisions as well as other programs that appealed to those in suburbia. Membership trends have been positive for the last 20 years and the NABF now has a diversified portfolio of assets well in excess of one million dollars. NABF also maintains a scholarship trust fund of approximately one quarter of a million dollars that ENYTB contributes to each year. NABF SCHOLARSIP AWARDS - NABF received only 13 scholarship applications this year. Ten of the 13 applicants received $1,000 scholarships. That is a phenomenal ratio. The Long Island Connie Mack League alone produced three NABF scholarship winners this year. We need to get our members excited about taking advantage of this outstanding NABF membership benefit. NABF has a brochure outlining its program and I will address this issue again at our kick-off meeting. NABF HOST BIDS - For each tournament event, NABF provided a list of all organizations that had already entered bids and took additional bids from the floor before adjourning and going into executive session, where it selected the winning bids. ENYTB was once again granted four Regionals, one each at 14U, 16U, 18U and 22U. This is a tribute to the job we have done together hosting these events the last two years and the positive feedback from the teams we have hosted. 2006 NABF Tournament Info and Request for ENYTB Member Host Bids.............. 14U World Series - will be held in Cincinatti, OH, beginning July 18. Regionals - Unlike the older age divisions, the World Series at 14U, 12U and 10U are offered on a direct buy-in basis. For this reason, NABF has suggested that ENYTB conduct a Qualifier Tournament instead of a Regional at this age division. We can purchase as many berths as we wish and award them as prizes. For example, we could purchase four berths and give one each to our Gold Division Champions and the other two to our Qualifier tournament finalists. We might be able to open our Qualifier up to other NABF Leagues as well. We could play the Qualifier on any date we wished - an interesting possibility would be the 4th of July weekend. ENYTB hosts needed. 16U World Series will be held in Northville, MI, beginning July 26. Regional play will begin on July 19. ENYTB hosts needed. 17U World Series Direct Only - Play begins July 20 in Greensboro, NC. ENYTB can purchase as many of these berths as desired. Last year we sent two teams, the Capital District Thunder and the Albany Yankees. 18U World Series will be held on Aug 2 in Jackson, MS. Regional play can begin on July 19th or 26th. The 19th would seem preferrable given the distance to the World Series site. Last year we hosted the 16U and 18U Divisions on the same weekend and it actually worked out quite nicely. ENYTB hosts needed. 22U World Series will be held in Toledo, OH beginning Aug 3. Regional play will begin the week before, July 26. ENYTB hosts needed. Major Division (Unlimited) World Series will be held in Louisville, KY. Play begins Aug 17. Regional play will begin Aug 9 in West Haven, CT. --------------------------------------------- NABF Classics The NABF also offers a group of direct buy-in "World Series" tournaments called NABF Classics that are available to NABF members at 9U, 10U, 11U, 12U, 13U and 15U. Currently, all NABF Classics are held in the deep south and played early in July. A few ENYTB members have participated in these tournaments in the past e.g., the Albany Yankees and Clifton Park Bulldogs, but in general, the considerable distance has precluded many of our teams and I presume other northern teams from participating. At this year's NABF national meeting I proposed that the NABF establish a northern Classics and offered to host tournaments at 13U and 15U. I offered to attempt to secure Doubleday Field in Cooperstown for the Championship games. Why 13U and 15U? At present, ENYTB teams in the 13U and 15U age divisions pay the same tournament host fee as the even year age divisions but they are actually offered fewer tournament opportunities. The addition of these tournaments would equalize tournament opportunities across all age divisions. ENYTB now offers its 13U teams a single berth to the PONY 13U Regional and numerous berths to the AABC State Tournament at 13U (one per every four registrations). The 15U teams have the same AABC option and must compete with 16U teams for the lone PONY berth. The entrants to the AABC tournaments at both 13U and 15U are limited mostly to teams from our League since we are about the only League in our AABC Association that sends tournament teams at these age divisions. Consequently, ENYTB teams largely play other ENYTB teams in the AABC tournaments at 13U and 15U. In addition, AABC offers neither a Regional tournament nor any financial assistance to its tournament winners to advance to their World Series, which can be as far away as OK. For all these reasons, I thought it would be good to offer our 13U and 15U divisions a supplemental local tournament opportunity that brought a wide range of outside teams (new blood) to our area to play. The NABF accepted my "conditional" proposal but if we want it, they need to know for sure by the end of November. I need to know if our members would be interested in co-hosting this event. The preferred dates are late July or early August. I am hopeful that the NABF would be able to provide us with as many as 24 outside teams and that ENYTB would enter as many as 12 teams (6 hosts and 6 competitive). On that assumption, and with the format I have in mind, we would need as many as 12 fields for 3 games each on THUR, FRI and possibly SAT. On Sunday we would need only one field (three semi games) and all championship games would be played at Doubleday on Monday. The same deal as always - the League provides baseballs and umpires and the host gets concessions less any bid amount. I estimate the League would need an additional $5,000 per tournament to run these tournaments on a breakeven basis. I would propose that this cost burden be shared by tournament hosts (imposition of a minimum host bid), eligible teams (entry fee), and the overall League membership (the latter through an increase in the tournament host fee that all teams currently pay). As stated above, this change is easily justified since presently, the 13U and 15U age divisions pay the same tournament host fee as the even year age divisions but they are actually offered fewer tournament opportunities. The addition of these tournaments would equalize tournament opportunities across all age divisions. An increase of $25 per team in the League's tournament host fee, combined with a $25 per game host bid would generate sufficient additional revenues to host these events. If your organization has a strong interest in co-hosting such a tournament at either 13U or 15U please respond to this email ASAP and no later than Thanksgiving. Provide me with the dates you would prefer (1st, 2nd and 3rd choices) along with the age division you prefer (if both OK say so). Also indicate whether the $25 per game host fee would be acceptable to you. Preference will be given to facilities with two or more fields at a single or nearby sites as well as to facilities with lights and facilities that hosted ENYTB events in the past.

ENYTB Members and Friends, Later this week I will be traveling to Kings Island, OH to accept NABF's Man Of The Year Award for 2005 on behalf of ENYTB. While I am greatly honored by this award, it is really an award for the entire League to share. In the last six years the NABF has gone from being a sidelight for our League to one of its main attrac... read more

It took us three weekends to get the Fall Super Showdown Series completed in all three age divisions but sunny skys prevailed this weekend and play was concluded in both the Intermediate and Senior Divisions. The Senior Division enjoyed a Halloween Bonanza as two of the three teams that played on Sunday had already been eliminated from the tournam... read more

Our 10th season was our biggest and best yet. The League grew by another 40 teams (160 total), played over 3,000 games and produced an incredible number of sanctioned championship tournament winners and runner-ups. ENYTB teams won every AABC State Championship Tournament from 11U through 18U. And, we put SIX teams in the AABC World Series!!!AABC Wo... read more

A berth in the 14U Division was decided last night on the basis of forfeits of unplayed games that had been pp'd for non-weather related reasons. The two teams involved in these unplayed games both received berths but a third team, lost a berth as a result of these forfeits. That team was rightfully upset but they handled themselves in a gentlemanl... read more

For the past several years ENYTB has sponsored a season ending weekend open tournament for all age groups called "Last Man Standing". These tournaments have been played in mid to late July, varying depending on both host and team availability. These tournaments were a pay your own way as you play (i.e., no tournament fee) and the League donated t-s... read more