"Twinsburg represents community baseball at its best. Their teams are consistently strong fundamentally and more importantly they play the game the right way; with respect."

Former Cleveland Indians & Current Toronto Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro

MLB JUNIOR HR DERBY COMPETITION COMING TO TWINSBURG - MAY 19TH!!

Happy to report that TBL's application to be a host for one of MLB's local HR Derby competitions was approved! MLB's Junior Home Run Derby contest is a new initiative started under commissioner Rob Manfred to become more connected to youth baseball. The 12U and 14U winners of our competition will advance to a regional qualifier in June, from which the winners of that will participate in the finals at Nationals Park in Washington D.C., just before the start of the MLB Home Run Derby competition on Monday, July 16th.

Below are some additional details on the event ...

Saturday, May 19th – Liberty Park, Field #2

12 and Under: 9 AM -12 PM
14 and Under: 12 PM - 3 PM
12U Finals: 4 PM
14U Finals: 5 PM

Number of finalists to be determined by number of entrants and weather (most likely 4 – 8 per age division). Division is determined by players age on July 17, 2018 (the date of the Derby finals).

There is no cost to enter. You can register your player by clicking here.

Entrants need to bring proof of age and fill out the entry form here.

Players need to supply their own pitcher. Any TBL approved bat is allowed (does not need to be the new USA Bat standard). They can warm up in the batting cage prior. We will have balls in there they can use.

Hitters will get a 2 minute running clock. Pitchers cannot throw the next pitch until the previous pitch has landed (safety for shaggers).  Any ball that clears the fence on the fly counts. 12u fence – 170’, 14u – 200’.

3RD ANNUAL TBL CELEBRATES OUR MVP'S EVENT - JULY 22ND!

TBL is super excited to host our third annual TBL Celebrates Our MVPs game! This event is intended to celebrate our MVP players who may have physical or other challenges that may prevent them from playing the game of baseball in a traditional setting.

The event will take place on Sunday, July 22, 2018 from 3-6 PM at Liberty Park, and is open to all players ages under 18 years old in Twinsburg and other communities. The baseball game will feature our MVPs and baseball buddies, include live announcements, introductions, and special participating gifts for our MVP players! A cookout for MVP's, their families and volunteers will follow the baseball game!

There is no registration fee to participate in this event! MVP players and their families are all welcome! To register your child or volunteer to help at the event, please email Stevie Romano at tbl.mvp@gmail.com.

REGISTRATION STILL OPEN FOR 7TH-11TH GRADERS

Registration for our 2018 spring rec season is now open for our Majors and Seniors divisions. Registration for our Instructional, Coach Pitch, Juniors, and Minors seasons closed on Feb 28. Below are TBL's divisions by school grade for the coming season:

Instructional (tee-ball) - kids currently in kindergarten or entering kindergarten in fall 2018
Coach Pitch - kids currently in 1st or 2nd grade
Juniors (kid pitch) - kids currently in 3rd or 4th grade
Minors - kids currently in 5th or 6th grade
Majors - kids currently in 7th or 8th grade
Seniors - kids currently in 9th, 10th, or 11th grade

For all players in 6th grade or younger, practices will begin on Saturday, March 31. Games will be played from late April to early July, with seasons wrapping up by the July 4th holiday. It is impossible to determine at this point which nights teams will practice or play games. Generally speaking, teams will practice 1-2 times a week in April and have an average of 3 combined games/practices per week in May & June.

Also, in the event you were unable to make it, below is the presentation we went through at our Parents Meeting on Friday, March 9th.

LESS KIDS PLAYING BASEBALL? NOT IN TWINSBURG!

We're putting the finishing touches on what was a record setting year for TBL, with more kids out on the baseball diamonds in our city than ever before! Remarkably, TBL enjoyed all-time high levels of participation in 2017 for every single league and event we facilitate:

~ 67 teams participated in our spring recreational league.

~ 49 teams participated in 7 age divisions (8U-14U) in the Stars & Stripes Travel Baseball Tournament. Furthermore, all six Twinsburg travel teams advanced to the championship game of their divisions and four of them won Stars & Stripes titles!

~ 92 teams played in the 4th Annual Twinsburg World Series of Wiffle Ball, which is now America's largest Wiffle Ball tournament.

~ 30 teams participated in our Fall Ball league.

~ For the first time ever, TBL will field 7 travel baseball teams (8U-14U) in 2018. The travel baseball program is coming off its best collective season yet, with last year's teams combining to win an astounding 22 tournament championships despite being a true community program competing against largely club teams that are comprised of kids from large areas or multiple communities.

DATES TO REMEMBER - 2018 SEASON

Mar 31 - Practices begin
April 7-8 - TBL Weekend at Dick's Sporting Goods in Bainbridge - 20% off everything in entire store
April 28 - Opening Day festivities at Liberty Park
May 19 - MLB Junior Home Run Derby Contest 
June 2 - June Summer Kickoff at Liberty Park
July 5-8 - Twinsburg Stars & Stripes Travel Baseball Tournament
July 9-23 - Registration for Fall Ball
July 29 & Aug 5 - Tryouts for our 2019 travel baseball teams
Aug 25-26 - 5th Annual Twinsburg World Series of Wiffle Ball

NEW USA BASEBALL BAT STANDARDS - DO NOT AFFECT TBL

We've had a few questions come into the email inbox about a new USA Baseball Bat Standard (USABat) adopted by Little League Baseball effective January 1, 2018 that will allow larger bat barrels (2-5/8") but also mandate that all bats must be marked with the new USA Baseball stamp. These changes do not impact TBL, which is not affiliated with Little League. So all bats purchased last year or for the holidays this year are still fine for kids to use in 2018, provided they are in compliance with TBL's bat restrictions, which can be found here in the rules for each of our respective divisions. Any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at twinsburgbaseball@gmail.com. Thanks!

ADULT BASEBALL!!!!!

It was only a matter of time, right?

Finally succumbing to years of inquiries and requests, TBL facilitated a series of adult (in age only) baseball games this fall. Amazingly, everyone had a blast, no one was injured (badly), and the games were (shockingly) well played and competitive! We're not quite sure where we're going with this yet, but we know we'll be playing more adult baseball in 2018 after a successful beta test this fall! To be added to the adult baseball email list, shoot Jim Porach a note at jporach@gmail.com. 

RECORD 94 TEAMS PARTICIPATE IN 4TH ANNUAL WORLD SERIES OF WIFFLE BALL

Another World Series of Wiffle Ball is in the books, and this year's event was our best and biggest yet, with 94 teams from five states coming to Twinsburg to participate! This was up from 72 teams a year ago, and from 41 teams when we started this event (as a joke) four years ago.

Click here for a full recap of the event.

Click here for all of the final results by age division.

Pictures can be found below. Many thanks to all that participated in the event! We'll be back with the 5th Annual next August!

TIGERS DOMINATE AT STARS & STRIPES!

For close to two decades, Twinsburg has been hosting the Stars & Stripes Travel Baseball Tournament, bringing some of the top youth baseball teams in Ohio and the surrounding states (a team from Canada this year!) to our city. This year's tournament saw 49 teams come to Twinsburg in seven different age divisions. And the home teams had their best ever performance, with all six Twinsburg teams advancing to the championship game of their divisions and four of them winning Stars & Stripes titles!

The full results for this years tournament can be FOUND HERE on our Stars & Stripes home page. Big thanks to all the teams that came out to play!

TBL 2018 FIELD SCHEDULE 

Below is the link to the real time updated TBL master field schedule.  Coaches, please schedule practices and rained out game makeups through your league commissioner. 

CLICK HERE FOR THE TBL MASTER FIELD SCHEDULE

RAIN OUT ALERT UPDATES

Click here to sign up!

THANK YOU TO OUR TBL SPONSORS!

A reminder to all of our coaches, players and parents ...

1. These are kids
2. This is a game
3. Our coaches volunteer
4. The umpires are human
5. This is not professional baseball

 We are always looking for new TBL board members.  TBL is an all volunteer, non city affiliated entity that manages the many different aspects that go along with providing a positive youth baseball experience for well over 1,000 children each year.  Our board is a great group of people that meets roughly once a month, and we'd love to add a few new good people to the board this winter.  Email us at twinsburgbaseball@gmail.com if you have any questions or potential interest. 

TBL mandates that our volunteer head coaches take an online training course to become registered members of the National Youth Sports Coaching Association and also that they take an online concussion awareness training course.  Both courses are also highly recommended for our assistant coaches and any other parents that help out with their children's teams.