Marlboro Babe Ruth League Information
Marlboro Babe Ruth
Click for the 2010 Marlboro Babe Ruth Registration Form
Team Selection (Draft)
The draft for Marlboro teams will be held late March. Managers should be in touch with you within a few days. NOTE: Only players who have PAID their registration fee will be drafted. The Marlboro Babe Ruth league re-drafts all teams every year. Requests to play on a specific team will not be accepted. The draft is 100% open and fair, honoring requests always invites criticism of "stacking teams".
General Information
Marlboro Babe Ruth participates in the 495 League with Northboro. We are currently in discussions to play with Southboro and Westboro. Games on Stevens Lower Field are played at 6:30pm weekdays. All other fields have a start time of 5:45. Weekend games are generally 9am, 12noon, 1PM, 3PM, and 5:45 or 6PM. Teams generally play 2 times per week, some weeks will have 3 games. The season will be approximately 15 -16 games.
The 2010 season runs from late April to mid-June. The schedule has not been created yet.
Games do not conflict with high school games, many players play high school and Babe Ruth.
Games do conflict with AAU weekend games. A player who participates in both programs will miss some games. We ask that parents of these players communicate plans with the Babe Ruth Manager and give Babe Ruth priority sometimes and during the playoffs.
Equipment
There are no bat restrictions. Players normally do NOT use bats from youth (2+1/4" diameter) and should use bats that are 2+5/8" diameter. 2+3/4" diameter bats are also used. 13 year old players are NOT allowed to wear metal spikes. 14 and 15 year old players may use metal spikes or plastic spikes. Groin protection is highly recommended for all players and required for catchers.
Facilities
Marlboro is fortunate to have the only lighted field in the league as well as two other fields. We play on Stevens Lower Field, Stevens Upper Field, and Assabet HS field. Directions to all fields are on the 495 League website. Stevens Lower Field has a concession stand that all parents are required to work in some time during the season.
Rules
The 495 League adheres to standard National Babe Ruth League rules and some local 495 League rules. The rules are posted on the 495 League website. Local rules include minimum playing time for all players, continuous batting order, time limits, and pitching inning restrictions to protect players arms and insure more players get the opportunity to pitch.
League Structure
There are 2 divisions for the Spring season.
Prep League is for league age 13 players only. Because of all the new aspects of the game being taught, this league includes learning about advanced baserunning, pitching, balks and strategy. Balks are not enforced during the first half of the season so players can learn and understand this part of the game.
Jr Babe Ruth (also called Majors) is for league age 14 and 15 year old players.
Callup Rules
We always want to avoid having forfeits, so when a team knows they will have less than 10 players for a game, they can "call up" a player to play that game. Prep League managers can recruit ANY player in the Marlboror league to come play, Jr Babe Ruth Managers will draft 4 callup players from the Prep League who they can call to come play in a Jr Babe Ruth game. This gives more playing time to the callup player, and insures more playing time to the calling up team since they will not forfeit the game. Callup players cannot pitch and will be placed last in the batting order by rule.
The League Playing Schedule
The schedule will be posted on the 495 League website. In general, teams will be scheduled for 2-3 games per week with a 15-16 game season. The exact numbers depend on field availability and the number of teams in the league. We do not observe any blackout days except Memorial Day weekend Fri-Mon. However, Marlboro does run an All Star tournament on Saturday. Games are normally not scheduled for the 9am slot on Sunday. Make-up games for rainouts will be scheduled for the next available slot on the same field whenever possible. Milford Prep teams will not have games scheduled during the Washington trip dates.
Summer Baseball
For 2009, Marlboro anticipates participating in the Lou Tompkins League. We anticipate fielding teams in 4 divisions:
A Division: 13 year olds
B Division: 13 & 14 year olds
C Division: 14 & 16 year olds
Senior Division: 16 - 19 year olds
Each division will get approximately 18 games. Marlboro has participated in the Senior Division of Lou Tompkins for the past several years and we believe this is the best league for our program, guaranteeing a lot of baseball for players of all ages.
Please check back later for more information including tryouts.
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