League Calendar

The general membership of the league meets four times each year, usually beginning the first Sunday following the Super Bowl and again each month thereafter. A league email list is maintained for the purpose of meeting announcements and other league informational purposes. You do not have to be a member to be on the league email list.

Most league business between teams and the league is now conducted directly with the League Office through the website while talking on the phone, rather than in league meetings. This process is amplified below. However, much related information is disseminated at these meetings. Our league meetings focus primarily on issues related to how to continue to improve the ENYTB member experience. This includes discussions of revisions and extensions to:

• The League's portfolio of registration options for the upcoming season

• The structure of regular season qualifying competition for berths to sanctioned NCTS events

• The rules that will govern regular season play

• The policies that guide us.

Website development and use is another frequent topic. The league is considering offering a computer lab on website use in 2005, depending on interest.

Members have four basic but extremely important responsibilities to perform to be eligible to participate in ENYTB regular season play each year. Each of these responsibilities and the timeframes in which they must occur are identified and briefly described below. The timeframes apply directly to teams 13U and older. The younger aged teams 12U and below, are on accelerated schedule to allow those teams to begin their regular season play as early as the beginning of April. These deadlines are less rigid for non-member teams, but to maximize league scheduling opportunities, it is best if non-members adhere to a similar timetable where applicable.

REGISTRATION and SCHEDULING

THE 4 STEP APPROACH

Step 1: Team Activation

The first step for both members and non-members alike is to contact the League Office to get "activated". Beginning in mid-November of each year, existing owners can renew their franchises and establish their League teams for the upcoming season. New members can do the same. This is accomplished via a phone call to the League Office (518-356-9089), entails a minimal amount of information e.g., team name, team age, manager's name (if known). There is no fee for activation.

During the activation process, the member owner and each of the owner's teams is assigned website access codes for the upcoming season. The same would apply to new member owners after they submit the required initiation fee ($100/nonrefundable) plus the base registration fee for one team ($275/refundable until April 1). The activation process for non-member owners is the same unless the non-member has not selected a fee-based non-member service, in which case, website access would not be granted. The names of all activated teams will immediately appear on ENYTB's Team Activation Board, located on the Front Page of the website under Teams & Affiliations.

The main purpose of activation is to gain a good idea of the likely number of league teams in the upcoming season and their distribution by age and skill level. This also is the first step in collecting and updating league contact info for the upcoming season. Last, it provides everyone with website access.

Step 2: Team Registration

By no later than April 1, all owners should have registered each of its teams for the upcoming season with the league. Registration is a two step procedure.

• Select registration options.

Like activation, this procedure involves collecting basic information from the member over the telephone and entering it to the website. Each team has its own online ENYTB registration form on the website. This form lists all possible ENYTB registration options, including all sanctioned NCTS events that the team qualifies for based on its age and ability level. Prior to contacting the League Office, each member should familiarize himself with this form and all underlying tournament information. Each tournament name is linked to a pop-up providing complete tournament information. The same information is available in a single table on the Front Page under Sanctioned Tournaments.

Either the team owner, manager or business agent can complete Step A. To do so, he must phone the League Office and inform the League Director of his selections. The League Office will enter those selections on the website. The website will use this information to create an itemized team invoice that appears in both the owner's and team's home area. Selections can be changed up to the time registration closes, if necessary.

• Make payment to the League Office.

Your team is not registered until full payment is received by the League Office. No team will be eligible for league scheduling until full payment is made. Upon receipt, payment will be recorded on each team's online registration invoice and the yeam will be marked as paid on the team activation board. This qualifies your team to be scheduled by the league. Once scheduling begins, registrations are no longer accepted.

Registration and activation can be done in the same phone call.

Membership fees vary widely by team depending on the registration options selected by each team. The 2005 regular season base fee for teams 13U and older is expected to be approximately $250/team. Entry fees for NCTS eligibility and ENYTB sponsored tournaments would be additional. The 2005 regular season base fee for the younger aged teams, 12U and below is expected to be approximately $200/team. The registration fee for non-members depends on the service level it selects but the procedure is the same. See menu item to the left - Fee Summary - for a complete listing of all non-member fees.

Full payment of all registration fees is due in the League Office no later than April 1.

Step 3: Team and Field Availability

Like activation and registration, this step involves the collection of information from the member over the phone and entered to the website by the League Director. This is the 3rd and final time such information is required. Depending on the number of teams, home fields and field schedules involved, this step is likely to be the most time-consuming. Simple cases can take as little as 10 minutes. The most complex cases could take an hour or more.

Detailed team and field availability information is essential to the development of customized team schedules. Following registration, each member or non-member, owner and/or team, is encouraged to submit all availability information to the League Office by mid-April. This is best done by a phone call to the League Office, or it can be mailed or faxed in as well. Teams can view the team availability forms (calendar format) in their website home area and owners can view the field availability forms (calendar format) in their website home area. The website was constructed to have infinite flexibility in linking teams to multiple field schedules and multiple home fields as well as multiple field schedules to fields. Non-members that elect to have the League Office provide them with a customized schedule must follow the same procedure.

The League must have all team availability information for opening weekend (Memorial Day weekend) by April 15 and all remaining team and field availability information no later than May 1.

Step 4: Team Rosters

There are two major hurdles for the submission of team rosters to the league.

• Each team needs to enter its roster information in the ENYTB website before it will be able to view its online schedule.

No schedule will be released to any team, on the website or otherwise, until it's ENYTB website roster includes at least nine eligible players. In other words, no team can play in this league without a roster. Teams that have met this requirement will be able to view their schedules on-line as they are constructed, game-by-game. League scheduling is usually completed by mid-May. Opening weekend schedules (Memorial Day weekend) are available by May 1.

• The League Office must have a signed, printed official roster form from each team BEFORE it plays its first regular season game. No exceptions.

Every team aged 13U and above must submit an NABF roster. Any team registered with AABC must also submit an AABC roster. Any team registered with PONY must also submit a PONY roster. All of these forms can be printed, already filled in, directly from the ENYTB website. Failure to comply with this league requirement can result in suspension and/or loss of post-season eligibility, at the discretion of the ENYTB Executive Board. Berths in sanctioned NCTS depend on team registrations. Team rosters are used by to verify team registrations. When a team fails to submit its roster in a timely fashion, the league usually loses a berth. This unfairly penalizes fellow league members submitted their rosters on time. This has been a major problem for the league in the past and is the reason why the capability to print official filled-in roster forms for each affiliation was added to the website.

Non-member teams do not have to submit player rosters to the league but if they want to use the League's website capabilities for player and team stats or its automated game reporting capabilities, it will need to enter its roster into the ENYTB website beforehand.

As already indicated, each team's roster information can be printed from the website on any of the official AABC, NABF and PONY roster forms. Roster information can be modified (drop/adds) during the season but each affiliation has its own deadlines for player eligibility.

• AABC divisional teams 14U and younger can not be modified after June 15;

• AABC divisional teams 15U and older can not be modified after July 1;

• NABF and PONY divisional teams can modify their rosters until two weeks before the tournament.

All three affiliations also allow tournament participants to draft players from other league teams. AABC allows a maximum of three draftees, NABF allows six and PONY is unlimited.

REGULAR SEASON, TOURNAMENTS and FALL BASEBALL

Following the conclusion of registration/scheduling process outlined above, ENYTB regular season play usually begins Memorial Day weekend with the League's official Opening Weekend. Depending on the high school schedule, Opening Weekend for the 18U and 16U divisions can be moved back to the first or second weekend in June. Teams are not required to participate in Opening Weekend. All teams have the option to begin their season as late as they wish.

Opening Weekend games are played on neutral host fields. Most or all of the games for any age division are played on the same field or fields. This allows players and coaches to see what their fellow ENYTB teams look like.

Teams can end their season as early as they wish. Sanctioned tournament play takes place in mid and late July. ENYTB sponsored tournaments are conducted throughout July, depending on the schedule of NCTS events within each age division. The summer actions winds down by early August.

The League also runs a Fall Baseball program beginning early September and lasting until mid-October. Fall baseball features a five week long, weekend only tournament, dubbed the Fall Super Showdown Series. Open play is available as well. There is interest in beginning a Columbus Day weekend tournament.

All questions regarding league participation or services offered non-member teams should be directed to the League Director, Ed Frye at (518) 356-9089 or fryes@nycap.rr.com or 5227 Bridle Pathway, Schenectady, NY 12303.