TO: Returning and New MembersThe ENYTB website is now open (NOV 11) and we are accepting club/team activations for the 2010 summer baseball season, the 15th consecutive year of travel baseball ENYTB-style!!! NOTE: ENYTB's Annual Kick-Off Meeting will be held on the last weekend of January, and the individual age division meetings will follow soon t... read more

Upstate Thoroughbreds 12U - A premier travel baseball team consisting of the top players from Ballston Spa and surrounding communities is holding its first public tryout for the upcoming 2010 season on:DATE: Sunday, November 1stTIME: 1 to 4pm.PLACE:Doubleday Fields in Ballston Spa(Go to Inside The League > Field Directory for directions http://www.... read more

But I have been sick since I got back so I haven't gotten back to my baseball chores as yet. There are lots of emails re: fall ball but I have only received a few completed registration forms (see article here re: fall ball registration). I hope to get everything organized next week and begin scheduling immediately thereafter. Soooo, if you want to... read more

->ENYTB Fall team E-Z Registration Form CLICK HERE.->Answer ALL questions on form. ->Mail me your completed form along with your check (fees shown on EZ Form and below). ->When your information and check arrives, I will enter your info to the website and you will be notified of your new password by email.->I will contact you if I have any question... read more

And Packering.....Til Aug 15See all you fall ballers when I get back.....and the rest of you, have a great rest of the summer and year and I'll see you the next time around....

Except for the AABC14 Association tournament, won by the Greenfield Yellowjackets (reported in a previous article) and the AABC tournaments at 9U, 10U, 11U and 12U, all hosted by and won by ENYTB teams, I received no written reports on the tournament results at the older ages but I will report on the things I've been told, both good and bad.13U - Twin Town DevilCats (Red) finished 2nd.15U - Niskayuna Red Storm finished 2nd.16U - No. Colonie Padres (Red) finished 2nd and the Rotterdam Rangers finished 3rd.17U - No tournament in 2009.18U - I never heard a thing.UNLimited - is going on now, hosted at Waterford (Kelts).There were some peculiar things reported to have happened at these tournaments that make you wonder if ENYTB teams are getting a fair shake at AABC tournaments hosted by Rogers/Henkels and their leagues.(1) Major League Rules Except As Explicitly StatedThat is how all sanctioning bodies set their tournament rules. AABC is no different. If they are silent about something, you follow the Major League Baseball Rule. By MLB rules, teams are REQUIRED to provide their opponent with a lineup card that includes ALL players eligible to play on that day. AABC has no rule stating otherwise. Yet, in this year's Mickey Mantle tournament (AABC16) won by the So. Troy Dodgers in extra innings vs the No. Colonie Padres (ENYTB), the Dodgers, managed by George Rogers REFUSED to identify his non-starters to his opponent (Rotterdam Rangers) and was allowed by the tournament director (henkel) to get away with it. Manager Jason Curcio put up the $100 protest fee and protested to tournament director Joe Henkel. Henkel ruled in favor of Rogers, claiming AABC rules did not require teams to provide the names of non-starters to their opponents, that is was only a "courtesy". Are you kidding me?(2) AABC Tournaments - Secret Bracket Draws, No Information Beforehand and Possible Mis-Application of AABC Rules re: BYESThis year, in the AABC tournaments hosted by Rogers and his cohorts:(i) ENYTB was not provided any information re: where the tournaments were to be played, when the tournament meetings would be held or when our teams would play their first games. That is not very good service for having paid George Rogers $10,000 in sanctioning fees. Intentional or laziness/incompetance? Either way, it is unacceptable.(ii) Everyone knows the most valuable BYE in any tournament is the last one. Let the two other strongest teams do battle and burn up their best remaining pitching on each other while you save yours for the depleted survivor. Well, it was reported that Rogers and Henkel teams invariably got the Final BYE in each tournament they won while ENYTB teams were forced to play each other or the other remaining team in the tournament. Now, I don't know the exact circumstances of these draws so maybe it was just a coincidence but I do know that teams entered in the AABC World Series Qualifiers hosted by Rodgers in early July complained of the same thing, saying that Rogers always placed his teams in an "easy" pool. I had even heard some teams resigned from his tournaments for this reason. It would be a sad day if Rogers and his cronies (hand picked tournament directors) were perverting AABC's tournament rules to give their own teams advantages. I would note that in all three cases, the tournaments were won by teams owned by Rogers and the Henkels. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. LESSON: ENYTB teams should think long and hard about these things before deciding whether to purchase AABC sanctioning next year. Our league alone paid George Rogers $10,000 in sanctioning fees this year and we got precious little in return. And what was that money spent on? Who knows, George never has a meeting or issues a financial report. He runs our Association with an iron fist and AABC backs him 100%. All I know is that you can better spend your money elsewhere, where you can be assured that all the cards are dealt from the top of the deck.

The Rotterdam Rangers 15U team, managed by Mike Saccocio and assisted by Bill Welch, Mark Little and Jason Curcio have accomplished what no other ENYTB team ever has - it has won a ZONE Championship in the PONY National Championship Series. The ZONE is the last level before the World Series. However, since the 15U tournament series was brand new th... read more

At 4-0, Spring was rolling over teams by big scores, including the eventual tournament winner 17-4. However, the flaw in most pool play tournaments is that pool play is followed by single elimination, meaning one loss and you are on your way home. Teams that make it to the final four of a World Series deserve better i.e., double elimination in the ... read more

AUG 03Northville, MIThe DevilCats organization made a great run at a 2nd World Series title in three years, before losing by a single run to the top team from the opposite pool in the first round of the championship phase of the NABF 16U World Series in Northville, MI.After returning home with his DevilCats 16 team, Manager Matt Terry expressed his... read more

I just received this great email from team manager, Mike Saccocio and I wanted to share it with all of you, unedited, because it states clearly and simply his belief of how participation in ENYTB has helped his team achieve great success beyond ENYTB and it echos many of the notes I've been getting from team managers this month on their return from... read more