Open Letter from Ron Mathis

[Nations]

After 10 years with USSSA, the time has come to move on in order to keep the state program heading forward.  Several obstacles were making this impossible, and it was time to make a change and start a new organization, Nations Baseball. This organization not only benefits the state of Texas but incorporates the nation as a whole.

Nations Baseball is a partnership with Cooperstown Dreams Park.  The structure is similar to what we have been used to in the state over the last 10 years.  Single age and class play in the metro, select, elite and premier divisions.  Teams play year round in tournaments around the state and the country, advancing to World Series play.

The biggest difference in the program  is the management of it.  The Nations Baseball website will do a much better job of monitoring the team rosters and team classification rather than placing that burden on the directors, coaches and concerned parents.

The roster system will incorporate the parents of each player.  Parents attach themselves to the player and are advised of every roster move that their son or daughter is involved in and have the opportunity to approve or disapprove each move.  A method of monitoring players so that they can’t play under different names will be employed as well.

Most all of the tournament directors in the state have had to deal with roster issues and team class issues in their tournaments, and we seem to always be on the defensive regarding these issues.  Subsequently, the response to move on with Nations Baseball has been almost unanimously accepted amongst all of them.

The insurance dates will now run for the baseball season and not the calendar year.  So fall teams will be registering and purchasing insurance for the entire 2009 season, with rates significantly lower than what teams are used to paying. Now registration and insurance are a one-step process, rather than making managers or administrators go back into the system and conduct separate transactions at different times during the year.

By the 2010 season, Nations Baseball will be the tournament affiliate of Nations Baseball Park in Louisville, KY.  The 50-field baseball complex will be the host of several premier events for Nations baseball, as well as weekly tournaments similar to Cooperstown Dreams Park for ages 9 to 13.  Look for Nations Baseball to possibly host some qualifiers for Cooperstown in 2009.  With over 2000 teams being wait-listed each season at Cooperstown, this will be a highly attended event that gives teams the chance to attend Cooperstown that might otherwise not get the opportunity to do so.

This is an exciting time for baseball in the state, and I and all the Nations tournament directors are looking forward to working with every team in the coming season to make their initial experience in Nations Baseball a positive one.

Ron Mathis

Nations Baseball

[Slider]

USSSA classify teams into AA, AAA and Major based on prior year's performance by tainting the player.  Will Nations use prior USSSA results to insure that teams are playing in the correct classifications? 

[Nations]

Obviously as a new entity Nations does not have roster history on players.  After the first year, we will have roster history and the computer will be able to use it to determine a teams class based on the roster rules that we'll have.  Every year, I did alot of work on classifying teams and we were basically answering all roster questions by researching this manually all season long because the computer did none of it for us.  I had to research every single roster issue that was brought to my attention.  If I have to do that one more year, so be it.  I'd gladly do that if I know that I'll never have to do it again.

[Nations]

In reading your post again Slider, I realized that I didn't answer your question about what would be done about illegal players.  Until roster history is obtained, we'll research each questionable player manually as done in the past when it pertains to class issues.  However, another way that players are playing illegally is by using multiple names that slightly differ.  This is a concept, so not actually how the system will work, but this should give you an idea:

A player is put on a roster and his name appears in gray.  This player is not eligible to play with that team until he is approved by the parent.  Parents establish a log in and attach themselves to a player.  Alerts are sent to the parent every time there is a roster move regarding their son.  The alert will attempt to explain and educate them on how the roster system works let them know the consequences of their approval, so they have the ability to approve or disapprove of that move.  Once approved, the color of the players name on the roster history appears in red.  This means the player can play, but is not certified.  Players in red can be challenged at any time in a game to see their birth certificate.  If the first and last names do not match the birth certificate, then the player comes out of the game immediately.  Eventually coaches and parents will scan their birth certificates and send them to Nations Baseball.  The birth certificates will never be viewed online and will be stored in a secure manner, but what it does is to establish a name for a player.  Once the player is certified by Nations Baseball, then the color that the player name appears on the computer is changed to blue.

This doesn't mean that a coach cannot alter a birth certificate, but like every other inaccuracy in rosters, they are all eventually found.  However, in the past, ignorance was everyone's best ally and there was really no way to prove whether a coach was ignornant, misled or blatantly cheated.  Some were strongly suspected of cheating, but there was simply no proof of that and thus no consequence.  If a player is found under duplicate names with duplicate birth certificates, then someone has lied and that person is likely to never coach again.

So the system isn't going to stop illegal players 100% of the time, but it will drastically reduce the chance of it happening and every time it does happen, it will be highly likely that a suspension will result from it.

[Slider]

Thanks for your response.

To rephrase the question:  Since Nations does not have player history in the database, would a player that was on a 10U Major in 2008 under the USSSA system be able to play in the 11U Select Division (I’m assume this is the equivalent of AA) in 2009?   

[Nations]

First year we'll basically have to do this like we have the last several years and that is to post the team reclassification and then manually look up any questions that people have.  With director, coach and parent accountability, we've been somewhat successful in monitoring players playing out of class.  We'll have to do this the first year until we have our own roster history.  After year #1 though, the computer will monitor everything so that the rules are followed.  There will be two big improvements to the roster system.  First is the addition of the parent attachment to the player.  When a player is posted on a roster, the parent will receive a message that will alert them to a roster move regarding their son and attempt to explain the consequences of that move to them.  They can then approve or disapprove of the move after understanding what the roster move means.  Most of the problems that have arisen in the past have been because of ignorance of what the consequences of a move will mean to the players ability to play at a certain level.  Understanding that before the move is approved will certainly result in less problems.  Second, the use of birth certificates to establish the correct name for a given player which is explained in the previous post.

[Slider]

As is the case with most things, we are often suspicious of change even if the change is for the better.  The anxiety associated with change is always reduced if we can address the concerns created by the change.  I appreciate that you are taking time to respond to these concerns.

We are looking forward to a better product. 

[bbdad]

I am amazed that all these city organizations are going strictly Nations Baseball.  It seems to be a gamble for them, they could stand to lose a lot of money in doing this.  Just wondering, on a national scale how many states or major cities are going strictly or partially Nations Baseball? Here in Houston it seems that Nations Baseball are trying to force teams to play in their tournaments since the big organizations are going strictly Nations. There are other facilties that are popping up in USSSA with tournaments, now that Cy Fair, Spring Klein, Katy, Humble, La Porte, etc. are gone. I guess the question will be which way (USSSA or Nations) will the area teams decide to play?  I bet that if more pick USSSA and play in more of those tournaments then the Cy Fair's, La Porte's, etc. will start hosting USSSA tournaments as well.     

I looked at the 9U teams that have registered for Nations, a total of 15 teams from all the US states in all divisions. 

New and better locations for World Series would be a nice change but will they have enough teams to make?

[AngelsParent]

I also find it eye opening that these tournament sites would follow without knowing of any World Series for this coming year which is what they will be trying to sell to the tournament teams.  I understand Cy-Fair going Nations as on their tournament weekends Nations gives them exclusive rights with no other Nations competition and I understand Sam Bass as they got ALL STATE AGES for Nations down at their fields which should be more teams and money than they would get in an entire calendar year but I really dont understand everyone else.  All of them are now not only fighting other Nations tournaments for teams but now also have the now smaller parks offering USSSA to contend with.  BABA for joining lost its Big League Dreams weekends and of course Mathis lost his but what could Nations possibly offer BABA that could compare to their ties and agreements with Big League Dreams.  In the Fall tournament teams wont really care about tournaments for World Series but in the Spring when tournament teams are deciding where to go for World Series a really dont think that they will pick Houston or North Carolina as those are the only two places that are Nations sites.  They publish ties to Cooperstown but if any of them have been to Cooperstown lately they will know that Cooperstown has become a vacation for teams that arent picking up 5 to 7 players that are considered the best around.  The best select teams from Houston are going up there with 3 and 4 pick-ups and getting beat like a drum by the teams that have multi-millionaires that are bringing in kids from all over Florida, New York, and California.  Are you really telling us that this is something that the AA and AAA league teams of SKSA, Cy-Fair, and the likes are to take their teams to.  You have to eventually figure that its all money related as Ron Mathis walked away from the cash cow of USSSA when he was making over 100,000 on State tournament weekend, had nobody to answer to for not responding to anyone that he didnt want to deal with, and didnt even care enough to hire atleast one office worker to deal with the day to day operations of something as big at USSSA in the Houston area.

[Nations]

At this point (and the number will grow), you will see Nations tournaments and directors in the following states for 2009:

Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania and the northest, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama.

One of the goals is to improve the World Series sites, not only for Texas teams, but for the whole nation.  We absolutely want to post the World Series destinations up as early as possible this year so that teams have a good understanding even in the fall of the scope of Nations baseball.  It is not a local start up organization, but a nationwide push for something exceptional in youth baseball.  Yes, it is driven by Cooperstown and will have ties to that tournament and will be the tournament arm of Nations Baseball Park in 2010, but will also run Select, Elite and Premier World Series events around the country.

Regarding the tournament hosts in the area and the state, they deal with the particulars of tournament hosting that the teams don't see and aren't privy to.  The push to this new organization isn't about money.  No one stands to gain anything monetarily, but obviously they don't want to lose anything either.  But the thrust of this is to provide a better product by dealing with many of the issues they've had over the past several years that have gone unchanged.

Historically, the start of the fall doesn't start with a bang.  Labor Day is usually a difficult weekend to find teams to play.  Teams have just got done playing the 2008 season and many just want a break.  By the middle to end of September, things begin to pick up some.  If we are around the 1200 mark by the end of the fall, then we're on target with any other season in the past 5-6 years.

BLD awards their tournaments by calendar year and you will see Nations events at BLD in 2009.  There are going to be a few at both BLD locations in the fall.

Hope this answers some of your questions.

[baba]

BABA for joining lost its Big League Dreams weekends and of course Mathis lost his but what could Nations possibly offer BABA that could compare to their ties and agreements with Big League Dreams. 

Let me just answer this part of the post. BABA "lost" one BLD weekend for 2008. This was not in essense a BABA slot, but was originally awarded to BABA by USSSA. As Ron said, BLD assigns slots by the calendar year, and this slot was a USSSA slot. When BABA switched to Nations, this slot was no longer available to be run by us.

Our Big League Dreams league slots have not changed. Those weekday league slots were assigned directly to BABA, and BABA still has all of those slots. We are still the ONLY organization that offers league play at Big League Dreams.

As far as what Nations offers to BABA, Nations offers an opportunity to host tournaments with an organization that has integrity at the highest levels on down. This organization has a well-organized plan in place and is following that plan. It is a team-driven organization, open to suggestion and input from its directors, who get input from you, the teams. You will not find another organization where you have so much influence.

BABA is a forward-thinking organization. We do not look merely to what is happening next week or next month. We plan to be here for you years from now, and we always make decisions based on how to best serve you, our teams. With that thought in mind, we fully support and are fully supported by Nations Baseball.

[baba]

  I looked at the 9U teams that have registered for Nations, a total of 15 teams from all the US states in all divisions. 

USSSA currently has 10 9 AA teams registered in Texas and Nations has seven Select teams in Texas. I'd say this is comparable given that this is just August and most teams aren't even thinking about playing yet.

Here in Houston it seems that Nations Baseball are trying to force teams to play in their tournaments since the big organizations are going strictly Nations.

No one can force anyone to play in their tournament. If we have a good product, then you can choose to take advantage of that offering. The fields are the same as what you had last season, the rules are basically the same, the World Series sites will be better, the main difference is that now you have a responsive national organization behind the local tournament director and regional directors.

[bbdad]

As a coach I worry about Nations on a National scale, we attend a world series every year.  There are 80 9AA teams registered with USSSA, and 65 9U Major teams (nationwide) as of now, which is what our team is.  This is why I think some people worry about this being a local startup, granted you have to start somewhere, but these organiations like USSSA, Super Series, Triple Crown, etc. are established and their Championship tournaments are established.  Teams know that many other teams from around the country will attend.  With just 15 or so 9U teams registered in all the US with half from Texas, is not convincing to most teams compared to the 145 of USSSA's 9U divisions.  Yes teams will play in local Nations tournaments but in the end the teams wanting to compete for a national championship with Nations may not have the oppurtunity to because of lack of support of teams from around the nation.  Who wants to play only local teams you have played all year for a national championship in another state?

[Nations]

bbdad - you'll see the scope of this organization in the next week.  It isn't a local deal, but a nationwide movement.  We already have about 15 state directors and by the end of the calendar year will have many more.  Several of these directors already have established programs similar to Texas that they are bringing over to Nations Baseball.  The World Series sites are being worked on right now and we know that teams what to know where those will be held.  Our intent is to get these set up and posted as quickly as possible.  Look for that to happen in the next 4-6 weeks.