Post by coldspot on Nov 16, 2013 22:44:28 GMT
Having played amateur baseball in both North Dakota and Minnesota, it's evident to me that North Dakota greatly lags behind Minnesota when it comes to amateur baseball. There are several problems that keep ND am ball from being successful like it was in the mid 1900s. some of the problems are out of anybody's hands (socioeconomic evolution across the state, geographic distance, etc.), but some of the issues could be fixed with some tinkering.
one of the big problems is the structure of amateur baseball across the state. a few dozen teams spread across 3 classes, with the top class having 4 or 5 teams, depending on the year. the college player rule they added this past summer was a good start to even the competition level, but it only had a drastic impact on the AAA teams. they need to eliminate the current class system and move to a two class system.
based off of the teams that competed last season, I would have the classes look something like this:
Upper (16 teams)
Jamestown teams (all 4 of them)
Mayville
Valley City
Fargo (both teams)
Wahpeton
Grand Forks
Bismarck (All 6 teams)
Lower (at least 10)
Hillsboro
Thompson
Larimore
Enderlin
Lamoure
Lisbon
Casselton
Kindred
Fairmount
Beulah
everyone else (not sure who all the other teams are)
-Teams have to play a minimum of 10 in-state games to qualify for state (no more teams sneaking in with 4 games under their belts)
-top 4 teams from each class advance to state
-state is one weekend, double elimination. (that's 3 games friday, 3 games saturday, 1 sunday if necessary. nobody plays more than 2 games a day)
-If a team in the lower division wins the state championship 2 consecutive years, they will be moved to the upper division. If a team finishes two consecutive season with the worst record in the upper class, they will be moved to the lower class for the following season (both of these help to keep each class competitive, a la European soccer)
-the site for state will rotate on a yearly basis (no more having it at the same field every single year, give somebody else a shot to host and make some money on the gate/concessions. can't tell me nobody else wants to host it)
-players must participate in a minimum of half of the games for their respective team to be eligible to play in the post season (stops the college town teams from having guys show up for post season without playing at all in the regular season)
-players must sign a contract with their respective team. they will not be eligible to play for another team until their prior team releases them from contract. if a player is released from a team, they cannot play for said team again that season (creates solidarity of rosters and eliminates players from playing for multiple teams or hopping back and forth through out the season)
-any player found to be violating their player contract will be ineligible to play for the remainder of the season and half of the following season (keeps players from playing for multiple teams)
-state champion and runner up are to receive a portion of the gate/concession sales from the state tournament (incentive to win and to get fans to come to games)
-team rosters are capped at 20 players (keeps teams from having outrageously big rosters like some of the upper class teams are notorious for)
this is just a small handful of things, but it would help tighten the entire state organization up and would greatly improve the level of competition across the board. teams that want to be competitive and win will, and teams that don't want to be competitive and dont care wont win (and they can go play adult tee ball instead).
one of the big problems is the structure of amateur baseball across the state. a few dozen teams spread across 3 classes, with the top class having 4 or 5 teams, depending on the year. the college player rule they added this past summer was a good start to even the competition level, but it only had a drastic impact on the AAA teams. they need to eliminate the current class system and move to a two class system.
based off of the teams that competed last season, I would have the classes look something like this:
Upper (16 teams)
Jamestown teams (all 4 of them)
Mayville
Valley City
Fargo (both teams)
Wahpeton
Grand Forks
Bismarck (All 6 teams)
Lower (at least 10)
Hillsboro
Thompson
Larimore
Enderlin
Lamoure
Lisbon
Casselton
Kindred
Fairmount
Beulah
everyone else (not sure who all the other teams are)
-Teams have to play a minimum of 10 in-state games to qualify for state (no more teams sneaking in with 4 games under their belts)
-top 4 teams from each class advance to state
-state is one weekend, double elimination. (that's 3 games friday, 3 games saturday, 1 sunday if necessary. nobody plays more than 2 games a day)
-If a team in the lower division wins the state championship 2 consecutive years, they will be moved to the upper division. If a team finishes two consecutive season with the worst record in the upper class, they will be moved to the lower class for the following season (both of these help to keep each class competitive, a la European soccer)
-the site for state will rotate on a yearly basis (no more having it at the same field every single year, give somebody else a shot to host and make some money on the gate/concessions. can't tell me nobody else wants to host it)
-players must participate in a minimum of half of the games for their respective team to be eligible to play in the post season (stops the college town teams from having guys show up for post season without playing at all in the regular season)
-players must sign a contract with their respective team. they will not be eligible to play for another team until their prior team releases them from contract. if a player is released from a team, they cannot play for said team again that season (creates solidarity of rosters and eliminates players from playing for multiple teams or hopping back and forth through out the season)
-any player found to be violating their player contract will be ineligible to play for the remainder of the season and half of the following season (keeps players from playing for multiple teams)
-state champion and runner up are to receive a portion of the gate/concession sales from the state tournament (incentive to win and to get fans to come to games)
-team rosters are capped at 20 players (keeps teams from having outrageously big rosters like some of the upper class teams are notorious for)
this is just a small handful of things, but it would help tighten the entire state organization up and would greatly improve the level of competition across the board. teams that want to be competitive and win will, and teams that don't want to be competitive and dont care wont win (and they can go play adult tee ball instead).