[12U DIVISION NEWS]
to find any errors/problems with what I have done. By Monday at noon,the schedule will be official. At that point you can schedule umps,hand out to your players, etc. Until noon Monday, your schedule isstill subject to change depending on what changes I may have to makebetween now and then based on your feedback. Please limit yourself toreal proble... read more

It's been a busy weekend and I appreciate that many of you are doingyour best to get your registration and scheduling informationsubmitted to us on time or close to it. Thus, I have extended thedeadline by three days while I finish up scheduling for the 10-11-12divisions. THIS WEEK's EVENTS(1) On Thursday-Friday of this week (4/5 and 4/6), following theclose of registration, I would like to put all of the teams competingfor tournament berths under the various sanctioning bodies intodivisions (both regular and wildcard).(2) I will then give all of you that weekend to review your teamplacements and to contact me to make changes (either because I made amistake or because you would like to make a last minute tournamenteligibility purchase). (3) Scheduling will begin on Monday 4/9 so everything will be finalon Sunday night (4/8). (NOTE: As I've been saying all along, stragglers will lose theopportunity to obtain a customized schedule from the league and theywill not be tournament-eligible.)re: Registrations for ENYTB Sponsored TournamentsPrizes (pay more) or No Prizes (pay less)? By the end of Friday I will also provide a summary of tournamentregistrations for the ENYTB sponsored tournaments (the DLC and LMS).A preliminary check appears that is going to be a close call whetherthere will be sufficient registrations to conduct these tournaments(the Division/League Championship (buy-in with 5 game min and 8 gamemax) or the Last Man Standing (buy-in with 4 game minimum and 5 gamemax). I am still hopeful that registrations will be sufficient sothat these tournaments will be held as planned and I urge all of youto consider these options, especially the DLC. I think the DLC hasthe potential to become as important or more important thansanctioned tournaments in the future, especially if we are forced toabandon hosting tournaments because of lack of hosts, which is a veryreal possibility with the recent loss of Clifton Park and Waterford asleague hosting centers. The $200 fee for these tournaments consists of $175 for prizes and a$25 admin fee. Leagues members at the Annual Kick-Off meeting votedoverwhelmingly (95%) that they preferred to have significant prizesand to pay for them. However, with registrations lagging, I amquestioning if those not present at the Kick-Off meeting (amajority) may feel differently, and would have preferred a tournamentwith minimal prizes to keep the fee down ($25 to cover team trophy forthe winner and runner-up). NOW IS THE TIME TO LET ME KNOW IF THIS ISSO. Email me stating that your team would register if the price waslowered to $25 and minimal prizes. I will make a list. If thosewilling to pay $200 for prizes are insufficient in number to have atournament, and those willing to play for the lower price withminimal prizes would make the difference between having and nothaving the tournament, then we will go that route.NOTE: Those that want the prizes and are willing to pay for them,should continue to register for that option and send their money in.If tournament plans change, full refunds will be made. So, if you want this JulyMadness tournament package to be available in this league, with orw/o prizes, show your support by registering for them or by emailingme that you would register at the $25 price. Please state your teamname and age in the email.Remember, this is your league, you can shape the program any way youwant. We have no agenda to oversell tournament participation oranything else.Please read below in its entirety.A word about league fees vs league costs....Every ENYTB registered team pays an admin service fee as part of itsbase fee, usually $325. This fee is comprised of admin expenses and a$50 contribution towards overall tournament hosting expenses. Also,the net base fee revenue is actually less than $325 when you includeclub rebates (estimated between $5,000 and $10,000 for 2007).The admin portion of the base fee includes the league rep fees whichtotal $10,000 in 2007, a director's fee of $150/team and amiscellaneous admin overhead charge of $25/team. The remainder of thebase fee, approximately $50/team, pays for less than 25% of theleague's total sanctioned tournament hosting costs (we are hosting 14sanctioned tournaments this year, collectively saving our winningteams a quarter of a million dollars). The director's fee was added in 2004, when the league became so largethat it became a year round full-time job and required the developmentof a custom website to assist in the administration and scheduling ofthe league. It was set at $100/team in 2004, $125/team in 2005 andcapped at $150 beginning 2006. In the 8 years prior to that I askedfor no compensation and received none. Since 2004, I and I alone have funded all website development andmaintenance activities. Most may not recognize it but as baseballwebsites go, what we have is unique and world class. W/o it, therewould be no ENYTB, trust me. The annual website cost has been between15,000/year and $20,00/yr since 2004. It is easy to see that thewebsite costs alone have consumed any proceeds derived from thedirector's fee. In addition to the website costs, I also am the"pocket of last resort" for all league financial deficits. Forexample, each of the years beginning 2004, the college division alonehas run a deficit of $4,000 or more. LIES and DAMN LIESIt is laughable when I hear people say that Ed Frye is "doing it forthe money". Unfortunately, everywhere I turn, this is what I'mhearing these days and I know where it's coming from, the Henkels.And we all know what their motivation is. Clifton Park recently parroted this mantra as one of the main reasonswhy it was choosing to abandon its franchise in this league andjoining the leagues organized by the Henkel brothers, Jerry Francisand Jack Soch. The latter two have guaranteed salaries from Babe RuthInc., far in excess of any income this league could ever generate, yetthat is apparently no problem for the supposed pure of heart. TheHenkels apparently come cheap, as long as they have a roster full ofnon-Lansingburgh players while everybody else is in their league islimited to 3 outside players: to assure themselves of a berth in theMickey Mantle and Connie Mack tournaments every year, they are morethan willing to whore themselves and do the bidding of those who pulltheir strings. (Remember the pocket veto of the merger vote by theirleagues - 100% for it, nobody against it, but it somehow neverhappened?) I've said this before to my own ex-Board members, if anyone out therewants to devote the thousands of hours to this league that I do eachyear, for the NEGATIVE NET CASH FLOWS I have laid out above, all theyneed to do is ask and the job is theirs. That is a standing offer.Lest anyone still needs convincing, just last week our books wereaudited by the IRS and other than a warning about not issuing 1099s,our revenue/expenses were fully documented and accepted withoutadjustment! MY MOTIVATION FOR DOING THIS - THEN and NOWI co-founded this league in 1996 to provide an alternative to theexisting "exclusionary" travel leagues run by the Henkel brothers andvarious Babe Ruth affiliated people such as Jerry Francis, Jack Socketc. Those leagues excluded people like myself, who resided in a BabeRuth area, from participating in local travel league baseball. Aftersome difficult early years, against opposition by the powers that be(named above), and with much hard work, ENYTB took off and grew intosomething much more than I ever envisioned. To grow from 8 teams tonearly 200 at our peak was truly amazing. To be able to offerclassified skill level play so as to eliminate the all too frequent30-1 games and to create a local level of play - the GOLD Division -heretofore unseen, and that players can't even match in school play,has been personally very rewarding to me. To send 75 teams/yr tonational sanctioned tournament competition and to host a dozen ormore tournaments locally every year, saving our members a quarter ofa million dollars in travel expense makes me feel good too. And everytime a player from this league signs a Division I or II scholarship ora professional contract, I also take great pride. I also take pridewhen I see managers spend hundreds of hours of their time, year afteryear, orgainizng, building and training their own teams. Many aremotivated by their love for their son and the game and there isnothing wrong with that. This leagues provides everyone, regardlessof reason, or what other organization, if any, they affiliate with,with the opportunity to have their own summer baseball team. Is thatnot a good thing? I custom schedule more than 3,500 travel gamesevery year. That is a lot of baseball for a lot of people, includingmanagers, coaches and players alike. Were it not for this league, andmy willingness to serve it, how many fewer games would be played everysummer in our locality? How many players would be discouraged by nothaving a team to play on and leave the game prematurely? So when youhear how evil and/or money motivated I supposedly am, remember what Ihave written above and consider the source, and run as fast as youcan.Sorry, but I had to get that off my chest.Ed

[15U DIVISION NEWS]
one is the concept of age division directors!ENYTB introduces its new league rep/club rep system.(1) ENYTB calls its member organizations clubs.(2) Each club may have any number of teams.(3) Each club designates a club rep. In the case of independent clubs, this person is usually the club owner but not always. Members that are a part of a basebal... read more

[10U DIVISION NEWS]
to find any errors/problems with what I have done. By Monday at noon,the schedule will be official. At that point you can schedule umps,hand out to your players, etc. Until noon Monday, your schedule isstill subject to change depending on what changes I may have to makebetween now and then based on your feedback. Please limit yourself toreal proble... read more

[18U DIVISION NEWS]
one is the concept of age division directors!ENYTB introduces its new league rep/club rep system.(1) ENYTB calls its member organizations clubs.(2) Each club may have any number of teams.(3) Each club designates a club rep. In the case of independent clubs, this person is usually the club owner but not always. Members that are a part of a basebal... read more

[22U DIVISION NEWS]
Final Team Count = 12 teams registered for 22U play and another 4teams signed up for the Unlimited Division. 22UGold = 5 Silver = 2Other = 5 (includes 22U teams not registered for NABF22 TournamentEligibility)UnlimitedGold = 1 (West Albany Direct Buy-In NABF Unlimited) Gold/Silver AABC Unlimited = 3 (room for one more) Other = 4 (playing for extra... read more

[22U DIVISION NEWS]
College/Unlimited Teams,We have 12 teams currently activated in this division (a recordnumber) but only 8 were accounted for in yesterday's meeting. I needthe following teams to confirm via email that they still intend toparticipate in the league this year.(i) Schdy Community College(ii) Queensbury College Guys(iii)Pittsfield(iv) West Albany Vario... read more

Many of you keep trying enter your team and field availabilityinformation to the website and don't understand why you can't.We no longer allow you (clubs or teams) to enter your own team orfield availability data to the website because of the high error ratein doing so last year. This was one of the many changes enacted thisyear to cure some of las... read more

[Unlimited DIVISION NEWS]
one is the concept of age division directors!ENYTB introduces its new league rep/club rep system.(1) ENYTB calls its member organizations clubs.(2) Each club may have any number of teams.(3) Each club designates a club rep. In the case of independent clubs, this person is usually the club owner but not always. Members that are a part of a basebal... read more

SAT, MAR 31 (a week from tomorrow) is the deadline for everything butrosters, including:(1) Team Registration ChoicesEven if you want no postseason options, please save your registrationpage once on the website so that it records the date as confirmationthat you want nothing extra. I apologize to Jeff Pexton and the UticaFalcons for not taking noti... read more