Many of you lamented losing the ability in 2007 to enter your own team availability data directly to the website. The reason this was done was that the old forms were confusing to some members and as a result, we were not getting accurate information for a good number of teams. Solution: The website forms for collecting team availability informatio... read more

Tournament Manager (TM)Piece-by-piece, over several years, we have been assembling an online tournament management capability. (1) We have an online tournament board listing all tournaments available through ENYTB. Basic pre-tournament information is available as well, including a tournament contact person, entry fees, awards, field directions, and... read more

Many times our protocols on player restrictions don't get followed because telephoning a fellow manager to request a release for one one of his top players is not a fun thing to do. Beginning in 2008, years will be able to request player releases via the website. Roster Players - When you use ADD PLAYER to add a player from another team's roster to... read more

The Free Agent Claim function has been available to teams for several years but in the past, this search function has been limited to free agents actively seeking new teams i.e., players listed on our Free Agent Board. Beginning 2008, this function will provide teams with access to ALL free agent player's that are age eligible for their teams. Beca... read more

2007 was a banner year for ENYTB in many regards but if there was a disappointment, it was with schedule reliability. ENYTB has always enjoyed an excellent reputation for schedule reliability but the league experienced a noticeable decline in 2007. Schedule reliability is of crucial importance to member satisfaction. Much time, effort and resources... read more

Gentlemen: Below are the 2008-2009 rates for Officials from 12 and under to College Levels. All tournaments are $5 per official more per game. The Assaigning fee is $4 per game. As is the past 1 1/2 fee for one official when two were scheduled. 1/2 fee for any weather related problem when the game is not started and no call before 1 1/2 h... read more

Last year, ENYTB began offering rebates to its larger club members based on the number of teams they registered as well as for registering multiple teams in the same age division. ENYTB is announcing six different rebates for 2008:(1) UABA Members - UABA includes Utica Area teams at 13U, 14U and 15U. With the creation of UABA, these teams are payin... read more

When an ENYTB club/team is activated, much of the website content that each club/team sees is customized to that club/team. Part of this customized content includes a registration page that is fully customized to each team. The availability of each ENYTB program is specific to team age and power rating. For example, NABF sanctioning is available to all ENYTB teams but the NABF 18U National Championship Tournament Series is available only to teams that are registered as either 17U or 18U and are rated at least low silver. Thus, from the universe of all available options, the team registration page shows only those ENYTB programs that are available to your team according to its age and power rating. Most of the listed options, are just that, optional. But a few are mandatory. The team has only to place a check in the check-box next to any optional item that it wishes to be registered for. The team then clicks save to create an itemized team invoice. A team's record of payment will be entered on this invoice when it is received by the league. Teams can change their options at any time up until registration closes, usually March 15 at 12U and under and April 1st at 13U.SANCTIONED TOURNAMENT HOST FEES - Benefit/CostAs soon as your team is activated, its online registration page is waiting for you, with all ENYTB programs available to your team for the upcoming season listed along with their associated fees. Most optional fees relate to various sanctioning choices and associated tournament eligibility fees (hosting co-pays). Sanctioned tournament hosting cost alone is expected to top $30,000 in 2008. The $30,000 covers the full cost of umpire fees, baseballs and other miscellaneous tournament hosting expenses for 15 sanctioned tournaments, two more than last year. In 2008, ENYTB will be hosting at least one sanctioned tournament in every age division and at least two at every age division except 22U. Some age divisions have as many as three sanctioned tournaments that teams are eligible for. And at 17U, ENYTB will be hosting three separately sanctioned tournaments. Teams can also double register to gain even more post-season opportunities.Obviously, one of the great cost advantages of being an ENYTB member is knowing that when you qualify for a berth in a sanctioned National Championship Series through ENYTB, the first tournament in that Series will be hosted locally, saving your team significant transportation, lodging and food expense, not to mention lost work time. It has been conservatively estimated that the $30,000 the league spends on hosting these tournaments saves our 80 plus tournament teams a total of about one quarter of a million dollars. That is about a 10-1 payoff. And, of course, another significant benefit to hosting sanctioned tournaments is that ENYTB host members receive a free berth and keep all their concession and other associated revenue from hosting these tournaments with us. And, lastly, tournament winners often receive a travel expense allowance to help them advance. NABF gives each winner $2,000. PONY gives each PONY Regional winner an expense check and AABC pays all expenses for each Regional winner at the even year age divisions. Thus, hosting tournaments, especially with the rising cost of travel, is a win-win for the league, including ENYTB hosts, teams and families. For about $20/family upfront, its a cheap form of "insurance", especially when you consider that each year, more than half of all ENYTB teams earn a sanctioned tournament berth. ENYTB has always recouped its hosting costs through a blend of mandatory and optional team registration fees. We continue to seek corporate sponsors to underwrite all or a portion of these costs but thus far, we have not been successful in drawing interest. We remain optimistic that this could change at any time but, until it does, we have no choice but to recoup these costs from those who are directly benefiting from these expenditures - our teams.Last year, almost 100% of ENYTB teams aged 13U and up registered for at least one sanctioned tournament. To increase the chance of qualifying for at least one tournament, about half of all teams registered to be eligible for two or more sanctioned tournaments. Hence, from the start, ENYTB has believed the fairest way to recoup these expenses was through a blend of mandatory and optional hosting-co-pay fees. This produces a result where those teams that register for more, pay more, but everybody is paying a share of tournament overhead. Approximately half of all hosting expense is recouped through a mandatory per team co-pay. This fee varies by age divisions, to reflect differences in expenses by age division, starting at $75/team in the youngest age divisions and increasing to $200 by 22U. (The majority of our hosting expense benefits the 13U through 22U age divisions.) The other 50% of hosting expenses is recovered from teams choosing to be eligible for individual sanctioned tournaments that we host. Where ENYTB does not host the sanctioned tournament e.g., AABC 13U, 16U, 18U and UNL, teams are not charged an optional tournament eligibility (hosting co-pay) fee.Last year, the mandatory fee was included in each team's base registration fee. In 2008, it is being shown as a separately itemized expense on each teams customized registration form.SANCTIONING FEESAABC and PONY sanctioning choices remain optional while NABF sanctioning is mandatory in all age divisions. Unlike AABC and PONY, NABF sanctions all teams in a league for a flat fee and charges separately for tournament berths. Thus, ENYTB offers NABF sanctioning free in all age divisions except those where ENYTB incurs a direct expense for tournament berths (13U, 14U, 16U, 17/18U and 22/UNL). NABF also offers teams in various age divisions direct buy-in tournament opportunities, as listed on each team's ENYTB registration form, but ENYTB does not charge an NABF sanctioning fee for teams buying berths in buy-in tournaments. Buy-ins are defined as situations where the team pays the full berth cost and owns the berth outright from day one. Some tournaments are direct buy-in but most are based on regular season competition. All tournaments are one kind or the other, not both.In each age division that we host an NABF Regional tournament, ENYTB purchases six tournament berths at a cost of about $2,000 per age level. To keep the per team sanctioning fees modest ($100/team), ENYTB makes NABF sanctioning mandatory in these age levels. It makes little sense to pay $3,500 to host a sanctioned tournament and then not maximize the number teams entered from our league.The ENYTB website has been fully updated for all 2008 programs and fees, and is immediately available to all activated clubs/teams. Exact tournament dates won't be fully known until early to mid January.

I recently attended both the PONY and NABF national meetings. Below is a list of important changes that will affect us in 2008.PONY(1) Player eligibility in all age divisions has been redefined as "And Under" i.e., no more age minimums. For example, 12 year olds can now participate on 13U teams. NOTE: This change goes through the Zone level. At the... read more