I thought that since we were kicking things off with a lot of excitement, that it was only right to make our first league blog about our journey. We are committed to delivering the best possible league to you and make adjustments to fit the needs of our customers. Having years of experience in the various leagues of NJ (which there are a dozen or so), there was always something missing or felt like some corners were cut. Most of us are playing for the fun of it, but it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some nice perks along the way. We wanted to re-invest the profits to the league and ensure our players get what they are paying for. It’s true that regardless of where you play, you get a similar level of competition. One commissioner can’t promise you the best teams possible or the best competition because the reality is that teams are self-owned and move from one league to another all the time. Our goal is to grab your attention, bring you the quality you deserve and never lose your business or trust. Essentially, not give you any reason to leave.

We wanted to bring a league that rewarded the top talent with an opportunity to play in a professional stadium, one that was local and did not require a long drive during an off month. We wanted to award managers for their hard work during the season, with a chance to play on that stadium field as well. Our major difference is that teams are now part of the mobile app technology. We invested the money to get a state of the art website, where each team has their individual microsites where stats, photos and videos can all be uploaded from games in real time. Live scoring updates directly to our site, you can’t go wrong there. It’s all included in your league fee. What’s better… you can tune in and see what your opponents across the state are doing in their games, so long as they are also using the app. This approach gives players the ability to see live scoring, upload photos from the games as the action is happening, and removes the process of keeping a book and then logging into a site to upload stats later that evening or night. It’s a task a lot of teams don’t do. We think this may help eliminate that problem. Let us give you a demo of our technology, as we are sure you have not seen anything like it. Some teams have dabbled with Gamechanger as a way to broadcast games from the field. That does not tie directly to their league pages, and just becomes a novelty in addition to your normal league work. Essentially the use of that program creates double the work for you, since you still have to score the book at the game to enter it on your league website later. Our app is included and synced with our site, and the best part is your fans can follow you for free.

The one difference with our Spring league is that our regular season is only 18 games. We did this on purpose. We know through experience that most leagues don’t play their entire 20 game schedule. In fact, if you scroll through leagues you will find that only 40% of spring teams play a full slate. So why charge everybody for games that don’t get played, seems like a snafu. We reduce the regular season and increase the playoffs. We wanted to institute college style playoff structure where it’s double elimination style of play. You play the regular season for a chance at the title, we don’t think you shouldn’t be penalized for one bad game in the playoffs. This means more guaranteed playoff baseball for all who make it there.

During our quest to bring you the best product we did some research on one item of importance, baseballs. This may sound crazy, but we unraveled an interesting bit of information about some adult leagues. Did you know that to save costs, some actually use baseballs that are manufactured specifically for Little League use? Some use balls that are meant for High School Batting Practice? Granted we did find one league using certified Diamond’s that collegiate programs use… however the A1030 Wilson baseballs are considered Little League caliber. Little league balls for an adult league? Sure, they are probably ok for gameday… but the life isn’t great on them and they were meant for to withstand the power of an 11 year old, not a 30 year old repeatedly. We decided to use a collegiate baseball which is categorized as a scrimmage ball. The quality is better than the high school BP and Youth leagues baseballs for sure. We aren’t spending the money for the high level Diamonds, so we are able to invest that money into stadium rentals for our all star games.

We wanted to go away from the trophy structure other leagues institute. You will not be disappointed with our selection for league champs.

Instead of putting umpires on our payroll, we opted to hire a umpire association and pay them ourselves. Sure, it requires us to pay a fee per team for scheduling, however it allows us to ensure professional umpires for the league and gives us more flexibility to control other aspects of the league. This structure helps to control forfeits we feel and removes managers from handling money on gameday. Get the finances done before the season starts… then just enjoy the season.

Another item that we feel is important… giving teams necessary equipment they need included in their fees. Each Spring season, we will allow managers who pay on time the opportunity to pick equipment for their team. In our inaugural season, we are offering teams who are paid in full by March 15^th the opportunity to select a Juggs Soft Toss Net as their team equipment choice for the season. This will allow soft toss before games or between innings while pitchers are warming up. We will also have raffles each year for sought after equipment like portable pitching machines, team bats, etc.

So why trust us?

We have a history playing in leagues and have an idea of what players enjoy and deserve in their baseball league. We believe we have built a product and brand that will prove its value the first season you play. We want to grow as a premiere league in NJ and want you to be part of our movement from the ground up. This is an exciting time, and you have nothing to lose… and everything to gain.