There is a new game in town and it's called Nations Baseball. It is headed by Ron Mathis, the former Texas Director for USSSA. Here are a few new features:

• Advanced Technology The most complete roster system and team classification system in the country.
• Insurance Teams can play anywhere, with anyone at any time during the season and always be covered.
• Accountability Website interaction with the parents of every player so that there is an accountability mechanism for every roster move made.

We'll follow the developments of this new association closely. More info coming!

UPDATED August 25, 2008:

I attended an informational meeting on Friday night for parents, coaches, and managers. It was hosted by Ron Mathis, the former Texas State Director for USSSA and now the National Director for Nations Baseball. These are some of my notes from that meeting:

Why Another Baseball Org?

Nations Baseball is the tournament arm for the new Cooperstown Dreams Park II, to be built in Louisville, KY. "Why Louisville?" someone asked. Apparently, after a few years of searching for land, traveling, and negotiation, Louisville offered the best deal to get all that baseball business: $76 million in property. Ok, then - done deal!

"Why another huge baseball development?" Out of over 4,000 teams that try to book tournaments at Cooperstown, only 1,000 actually get booked while 3,000 go on a waiting list. There is plenty of demand for another deluxe ballpark!

New Playing Rules

One difference between Nations Baseball and USSSA (and perhaps other associations as well) is that their teams will play by Federation rules, not MLB rules. Umpires will usually be high school umpires and will know those rules inside and out, hopefully eliminating less-than-knowledgable umpires who sometimes confuse Little League rules, MLB rules, and tournament-specific rules.

Insurance

Not a whole lot was said about insurance, probably because it's pretty simple. Teams are insured for the annual playing season - from September through August of the next year. Apparently, this is an improvement on the calendar year arrangement provided by USSSA. For more infromation on insurance, please see this page.

Player and Team Ratings

Teams will be divided into four classes roughly equivalent to USSSA's A-levels:

• Metro = A
• Select = AA
• Elite = AAA
• Premier = Majors

Now this is where it really drills down and gets specific...each boy is rated according to his age plus playing level. The playing level is determined by the last level he played at and is assigned one point per level. (Metro/A = 1 point, Premier/Majors = 4 points) For example, a boy who is 13 years old, and has played in another association at the Majors level, is given a rating of 17 (13+4). Then, a team is mandated to play at a certain level depending on the player ratings of their top five players. Less than five boys allows the team to play at a level lower than their rating.

Example: Let's look again at the example using the player rating of 17; five players with a rating of 17 will mandate a team to play at the following levels.

• 16 Metro
• 15 Select
• 14 Elite
• 13 Premier

In other words, the lowest level that team can play at is 13 Premier (Majors). If the team wants to play 13 Elite (AAA), they must drop a rated 17 player. It's as simple as that.

The system may seem complicated at first (I know there were tons of questions at the meeting), but I think it's because of the new nomenclature as well as the addition of the player rating. In practice, it seems quite simple.

Parental Accountability

Another thing that Nations Baseball is doing on their website is the Parents Module. This tool has the effect of tying a player's roster status to his parents, so that parents are always fully informed (and must approve, I believe) of the addition of their son to a roster. This will hopefully eliminate roster manipulations and much of the confusion that we all live with on a daily basis at other associations who shall remain un-named.

I've got more info forthcoming on "World Series" tournaments. But right now I've gotta go pick up kids from school. Stay tuned...

World Series/End-of-Season Tournaments

Mathis announced that there will be no World Series. "What?!", you ask. That's right, no World Series tournaments...instead, the big end-of-season closing tournaments will be billed more appropriately as National Championships. Mathis pointed out that they really are NOT world championships, per se, and that the only true World Series is the Little League World Series that hosts teams from other nations. Good point.

Teams will qualify for the National Championships through state and regional qualifiers. In the 2009 season, only teams age 9-11 will have qualifiers and a National Championship. Then, the next year, 2010, those tournaments will be expanded to include 12s and 13s.

Personally, I think it may be a mistake on the part of Nations Baseball to phase in the National Championships by age. After all, the boys' whole season is geared toward those big end-of-season tournaments. I understand that Nations Baseball may be constrained by logistics, being a brand-new organization, but I think we'll see a lot of cross-over back to USSSA as the older teams work to qualify for a big national-level tournament. I could be wrong, but I do see the lack of big tournaments for 12-14s as a big problem. And I say that as the mother of a 14 year old, and the aunt of a 12 and 14 year old. Their teams are going to want play at the national level, and if Nations Baseball can't deliver, I see that as a big problem.

As for the location of the National Championships, Mathis pointed out that they are doing everything they can to scout out exemplary ballparks located in great areas for travel. They recognize that a lot of families use the big tournaments as a family vacation and it's no fun to be stuck out in the boondocks with nothing to do when the team is not playing. Nations Baseball wants to host their big national-level tournaments in the nicest ballparks with the most vacation activities available.

Website

Ok, now here are my observations on the website: there is not nearly enough information available yet. This could pose a problem for Nations Baseball, as they need to first educate parents and managers before anything else. Their website needs to drill down the details as closely as possible. Information is key. I have few quibbles with the search functions on the site but right now while there are so few teams, it's not an issue. Yet.

Conclusion

One point that was emphasized during the meeting is that while Nations Baseball is new, it is by no means a flash in the pan operation. They are here to stay. They have State Directors in all of the busiet states, and will soon have directors in all states. Tournaments are already on the books and my last perusal of the website shows multiple teams registered in most age groups already.

All in all, it looks like Nations Baseball is positioning itself to cater specifically to the demands of the youth baseball tournament business. They have a lot of ideas that were fielded at USSSA, but never implemented. It appears to me that State Directors in Nations Baseball will be accorded a lot of authority in dealing with the issues within their states, and there will be much less micro-management from the national level. There also appears to be a concerted effort at cracking down on fraud within the roster system, by providing a level of accountability that is lacking in other baseball associations.

That's everything I know right now. Feel free to ask questions in the comment area and I'll get the answers for you. Also, if anyone would like to clarify some info or correct anything I've written, please leave a comment.