Sanctioned Tournaments

ENYTB believes an important reason for League participation is to have your games actually count for something. Every ENYTB registered member team begins the season with a chance to be a national champion. It all begins with ENYTB Divisional play, where member teams compete to qualify for berths to National Championship Tournament Series (NCTS) events.

In 2004, ENYTB registered approximately 120 full-time teams and approximately 40 ENYTB teams qualified for more than 50 berths in 18 different sanctioned NCTS events across all age divisions and all three affiliations. ENYTB teams won several AABC Association Championships (State) at 11U, 12U, 14U and 15U. ENYTB also produced the runner-ups in the AABC State - Unlimited Division, the NABF Regional - Unlimited Division, the NABF 16U Northeast Regional and the PONY 14U Regional.

As a member League of three national baseball organizations: AABC; NABF; and PONY, ENYTB provides teams with centralized access to all three. ENYTB is really three leagues in one. Each of these affiliations sponsors or sanctions National Championship Tournament Series each year in the various age divisions. Each ENYTB member team can choose to compete for berths in NCTS events under any or all of the three affiliations, where available. ENYTB Divisional games not only count for something but they may count more than once! When two ENYTB teams play a game it counts in every affiliation that both are registered in. Thus, a single game between two teams competing in all three affiliations could count in as many as six ENYTB Divisional standings (depending on how many ENYTB "Wildcard Divisions" the two teams participate in) and for berths in as many as three sanctioned National Championship Tournament Series. No mater the number of divisions a team competes in, all its Divisional Standings are always available and up to date on a single website page in its home area, making it very easy to follow all the action of exciting multiple pennant races. Many NCTS berth winners aren't decided until the last league game is played. The outcome of a single game could decide the berth winner in several divisions. As the game scores are posted on the website, all Divisional Standings are updated in real time.

In the past, ENYTB teams could register to compete for berths in as many different sanctioned NCTS events as they wished but if they qualified for more than one berth they were restricted to one berth (their choice). This restriction produced a couple of undesirable effects. In some cases it resulted in teams with very poor records going to highly competitive tournaments and suffering lopsided losses. In other cases, teams with poor records would accept the berth only to back out at the last second. Because of these undesirable effects, ENYTB has eliminated this artificial restriction beginning with the 2005 season. Thus, teams that win berths in all three NCTS in the same season can now play in all three NCTS when possible i.e., when the tournaments are all held on different weekends. Should a team win an NCTS event it is committed to advance in that NCTS. If this results in a conflict with its berths in other NCTS events, it must forfeit those berths immediately and the next highest qualifier shall be awarded the berth in its place.

ENYTB also hosts several sanctioned NCTS tournaments each year. In fact, there is now a locally hosted sanctioned tournament in every age division from 11U to Unlimited. ENYTB hosts the AABC State Tournament at 11U, 12U and 15U. ENYTB also is an official host center for the NABF, and will be hosting the NABF Regionals at 14U, 16U and 18U in 2005. ENYTB also is considering hosting the PONY Regional at 13 and 15-16. ENYTB members and non-members are both eligible to hold ENYTB hosted events on their fields but preference is given to members.