League News

Summary of ENYTB Roster Rules
re: Number & Use Of Over-Aged Players

Several years ago, ENYTB began allowing teams to roster a limited number of "over-aged" players.

DEFINITION: Any player whose official baseball age is one year greater than his team's registered age level is referred to as an over-aged player. Such teams are marked with a "+" and are referred to as plus teams.

NOTE: A player's official baseball age in any year is his age on APR 30 of that year.

IMPORTANT: The intent of allowing teams to use over-aged players is to help organizations have enough players to form viable travel teams. Anyone using these rules contrary to their intention i.e., to stack their roster to build a powerhouse team or otherwise gain a competitive advantage shall lose the right to have over-aged players.


LIMITS: Teams are limited to four (4) players that are one year older than their registered team age.

*Pick your age division based on your pitcher's ages. If you have a 14+ team and rely on pitchers who are baseball aged 15, they will not be eligible to pitch in certain games and you will have a very hard time playing your schedule in a competitive fashion.

There are three restrictions on the use of over-aged players. They are:

1 - Over-aged players should be of ordinary ability level for that age team.

2 - All teams, regardless of age or competition level shall be limited to a maximum of four (4) over-aged players.

3 - Pitching Restrictions On Over-Aged Players.

There are two pitching restrictions applicable to over-aged players. They are:

A - Pitchers are never allowed to pitch from a distance that is less than that associated with their natural age. This means:

i - 11 yos are not allowed to pitch from a distance less than 50'; and,

ii - 13 yos are not allowed to pitch from a distance less than 60'6".

B - For teams registered 13U through 16u, over-aged players are NOT allowed to pitch against teams that are two or more years younger than the pitcher's official baseball age. This means:

i - 15 yos playing on 14+ teams are not allowed to pitch against 13U or 13+ teams;

ii - 16 yos playing on 15+ teams are not allowed to pitch against 14U or 14+ teams; and,

iii - 17 yos playing on 16+ teams are not allowed to pitch against 15U or 15+ teams.

C - There are no pitching restrictions on over-aged players who are 18yo or older.

NOTE: There are no pitching restrictions on over-aged players who are 14 yos and playing on a 13+ team. They are eligible to pitch against 13U and 13+ teams because 13U teams already play 14U teams and the maximum age difference is only one year. And the question of 14yo players on a 13+ pitching against 12U or 12+ teams is moot because 13U/13+ teams are never scheduled to play 12U/12+ teams because of the smaller field size. If a 12U/12+ team chooses to play games against 13U/13+ teams it will be on the 90' diamond and they would play as a double registered 13u team.

What do you give up by being a "+" team?

Plus teams are NOT eligible to compete for competitive berths to sanctioned tournaments based on regular season play. Because of the weak interest in sanctioned tournament berths in recent years, beginning 2018, ENYTB no longer offers competitive berths to sanctioned tournaments.

Plus teams are eligible to purchase DBI berths to sanctioned tournaments but they are required to abide by the age restrictions of the sanctioning body for that berth i.e., in most cases (see exceptions at the bottom), the over-aged players will not be age-eligible to play in sanctioned tournaments. This would very likely be also true for any other outside for-pay tournament.

ENYTB Sponsored Tournaments - ENYTB allows over-aged players to play in all its tournaments, including June Madness, July Madness, Super 8 and Last Man Standing tournaments. Over-aged players may play in ENYTB's Fall Classic at Joe Bruno Stadium provided the player is still enrolled in high school.

In large part, ENYTB's "relaxed" age rules have been beneficial to players, teams and ENYTB alike.


Sanctioning Body Age Exceptions:

(A) 18U teams with 12 or more 17 yo players (or younger) shall be eligible for competitive or DBI berths to NABF 17U tournaments, consistent with NABF's player eligibility rules.

(B) Similarly, unlimited teams with 12 or more 22 yo players (or younger) shall be eligible for competitive or DBI berths to NABF 22U tournaments, consistent with NABF's player eligibility rules.

(C) 17u or 18u teams with three of fewer 19 yo players shall be eligible for PONY 18U tournaments, consistent with PONY's player eligibility rules.