The American Amateur Baseball Congress (http://www.aabc.us/) is one of three national baseball organizations that ENYTB affiliates with. NABF and PONY are the other two. Each of these sanctioning bodies sponsors its own National Championship Tournament Series (NCTS) each year at various age levels. AABC provides ENYTB with berths in the entry level tournaments of its various NCTS. AABC also covers the travel expenses for all even year World Series teams.

A player's current "baseball age" shall be his age on April 30 of the current year. A player's age eligibility extends from his baseball age upwards. His "natural age" refers to the youngest age division in which he is eligible to participate in league play.

To heighten the degree of competition within the league, ENYTB introduced skill-based, classified divisional play in 2002. The league divides each age division into up to five competition levels, depending on the number of registered teams and their range and distribution of skill levels. In consultation with the League Director, teams assign themselves a skill level when they register for regular season play, from Elite to Gold, Silver, Bronze and Supplemental.

Any club who as a regular matter, continues its teams in ENYTB as they age up. Such members are provided various membership benefits e.g., RFA credits and exemptions.

Rule 85 prohibits members from taking players from other ENYTB members to play them exclusively in another league. The penalty for a Rule 85 violation is the entire club is banned from ENYTB play indefinitely. To avoid this situation when we know in advance that a club is a non-continuing, we designate the member as non-continuing. W/o RFA credits/exemptions, the club can never be in violation of Rule 85. Both Rule 85 and the continuing/non-continuing member classification have been a part of ENYTB forever. Babe Ruth sponsored clubs and American Legion sponsored clubs are usually non-continuing members.

Any full-time travel program in the older age divisions, 16U and above, offering players a significantly higher level of competition than is offered by ENYTB. ENYTB players are allowed to participate on these teams, in ENYTB league play, without player releases (see Section 16.9).

The full franchise membership is the ENYTB gold standard, conferring to owners the maximum participation, territorial and player rights.
For a full definition and explanation of all rights thereto, see Article X1 of the ENYTB Constitution. (See League Info > Governance > Constitution)

To qualify as a full franchise member, an applicant must;
(1) Apply for a franchise area consisting exclusively of OPEN and/or non-discretionary area, consistent with the definitions in section 11.2 and 11.3.
(2) Register at least two different teams in the League for three consecutive years where at least one team is aged 15U or younger.
(3) Register teams in the same age division in any two of those three years (replacement participation).

Major League Baseball

The National Amateur Baseball Federation (http://www.nabf.com/) is one of three national baseball organizations that ENYTB affiliates with. AABC and PONY are the other two. Each of these sanctioning bodies sponsors its own National Championship Tournament Series (NCTS) each year at various age levels. NABF provides ENYTB with berths in the entry level tournaments of its various NCTS. NABF also provides all World Series teams with a travel allowance.

Any club who does not as a regular matter, continue its teams in ENYTB as they age up. Such members are not provided various membership benefits e.g., RFA credits and exemptions.

Rule 85 prohibits members from taking players from other ENYTB members to play them exclusively in another league. The penalty for a Rule 85 violation is the entire club is banned from ENYTB play indefinitely. To avoid this situation when we know in advance that a club is a non-continuing, we designate the member as non-continuing. W/o RFA credits/exemptions, the club can never be in violation of Rule 85. Both Rule 85 and the non-continuing member classification have been a part of ENYTB forever. Usually Babe Ruth sponsored clubs and American Legion clubs get caught in this net.

Any restricted free agent (RFA) residing in the territory of an ENYTB franchise member is termed a "franchise player", regardless of what ENYTB member he actually plays for. The franchise player exemption (FPE) entitles such players to a "free move" i.e., exempted under our RFA CAP System, IF they are moving to a team owned by their home area franchise.

NOTE: Each team owned by a franchise member has a lifetime head-to-head limit with every other ENYTB team of three such exemptions.

Example: Player residing in BSPA territory is playing for Devil Cats team. Since BSPA is a franchise member, the franchise player exemption rule allows a BSPA owned team to sign the player as a free move.

NOTE: This assumes the BSPA team adding the player has not exhausted its lifetime head-to-head FPE limit with his current team.

The public school district serving a player's primary home residence shall be his "home" area. Disputes regarding a player’s residency or claims of dual residency shall be decided by the League’s Player Agent.

ENYTB's Player CAP System divides the player population into two groups: Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) and Restricted Free Agents (RFA).

Any player who has been inactive in the league for the prior two complete seasons. This includes all players who have never been active in the league.

Any player not qualifying as an UFA is by definition, an RFA. This includes all players that are currently active in the league or have been active at any time over the past two seasons. Active means the player was registered as an active player on the roster of a registered ENYTB team (spring/summer only).

Roster protection means the player is covered by the league's Player CAP System. The league uses the Player Cap System to regulate player movement between and among ENYTB members. (See Constitution for exceptions.)

NOTE: Player rights shall extend to all affiliations regardless of the sanctioning choices of that player’s team.

Any player who has NOT been active in the league during any part of the prior two complete seasons. This includes all players who have never been active in the league.

Protect Our Nation's Youth (http://www.pony.org/home/default.asp)is one of three national baseball organizations that ENYTB affiliates with. AABC and NABF are the other two. Each of these sanctioning bodies sponsors its own National Championship Tournament Series (NCTS) each year at various age levels. PONY provides ENYTB with berths in the entry level tournaments of its various NCTS. PONY also provides all Zone and World Series teams with a travel allowance.

ENYTB Constitution
Section 17.5 Open Tryout First Contact Exception

For protected players, the only exception to the First Contact Protocols described in section 17.2 is when a player attends an open tryout (public announcement) at his own initiative. Contact of individual players to make them aware of the public tryout or to invite them to the public tryout is expressly prohibited.

RULE 123 It is permissible to allow any league protected player to participate in an open tryout attended at his own initiative without first contacting his current team owner. Under this exception no player is allowed to participate in more than one open tryout for any particular league club in any calendar year. Also, it is the responsibility of the club/team conducting the public tryout to determine the player's league status BEFORE discussing intentions of bringing the player back for more activity or making any offer of a roster position. A club/team shall not offer another member's league protected player a roster position before the player obtains his release from his former club/team. Any violation of this clause shall constitute tampering.

Protected Players - A discretionary release or permission for unlimited contact must be obtained from a protected player’s current team owner or designated representative BEFORE a player can be offered a roster position or begin participating in regular team workouts/practices or other organization activities.

Note: An invitation directed to an individual protected player to attend a tryout is not allowable without a release or permission for unlimited contact.

AABC requires their regular season rosters to be signed by each player, a parent/guardian and the team manager. All AABC registered teams must submit a signed official AABC roster form, printed from the website, no later than three days after the AABC deadlines for adding new players - June15 for teams 14U and under and July 1 for teams 15U and above. Teams should keep their original and send the league a single copy for certification. Also, teams may file an amended AABC roster with the League until 3 days after the AABC deadline for doing so. The website will not let you add players to your AABC roster once the official deadline expires.

The online roster of any ENYTB registered team, certified by ENYTB for purposes of regular season league play at a specific age level. To be eligible for ENYTB play, a team must have at least 9 players on its online eligibility roster by May 15th. This roster serves as each team's official roster list as far as player eligibility for ENYTB regular season play is concerned. Players can be added/dropped from this roster list at any time. To legally participate in an ENYTB League game, a player MUST must appear on a team's ENYTB roster BEFORE he appears in a League game and the League must have a copy of the player's birth certificate (faxes or letters postmarked within 24 hours of player's first appearance are acceptable).

All ENYTB registered teams 11U and older must maintain an updated online NABF roster. The League can print each team's NABF roster from the website because it does not require any signatures. Teams in all age divisions from 11U thru 14U may add players to their NABF regular season roster until June 27. In age divisions 15U thru 18U, the NABF cut-off is July 5. Above 18U, the NABF cut-off date is July 12. Players not appearing on a team's NABF regular season roster are ineligible for NABF post-season play, including as a pick-up player with another league team.

All PONY registered teams must maintain an updated online PONY roster. The League can print each team's PONY roster from the website because it does not require any signatures. Teams in all age divisions may add players to their PONY regular season roster until July 5. Players not appearing on a team's PONY regular season roster are ineligible for PONY post-season play, including as a pick-up player with another team.

Similar to MLB, ENYTB groups teams into divisions for regular season competition. Each division is assigned a specific number of berths in a specific sanctioned National Championship Tournament Series. Individual teams can be placed in multiple divisions or even none, depending on their registration choices e.g., AABC, NABF and PONY. A team's position in the Standings is used to determine which team(s) win berths.

Under FLEX scheduling, all games count as tournament qualifying games in any age division standings where both opponents are age eligible for that standings. Under non-FLEX scheduling i.e., competitions where all competing teams are required to play identical schedules, a tournament qualifying game is any game required to meet the MPR or must play requirement between any two teams (see MPR). The first games played count i.e., if two teams play more than the required number of times for divisional standings purposes, the games count in chronological order that they are played. Teams may be in more than one division together and the MPR in each division may differ. Example: Division A has a MPR=1 and Division B has a MPR=2. The two teams play each other a total of four times. The first game played would count in both standings. The second game played would count in Division B standings. After the second played game, all additional played games between the same opponents would not count in either division standings.