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SJMSBL Season Preview - 2011

2011 sees some exciting changes. The League is adding one new team, losing one team, and reclaiming one team from a wayward journey to another league. New baseballs will be used, the first-ever all wood bat division evolves, and points in the standings are modified.

New Baseballs

We will be using new baseballs this season — the Rawlings R100-CCC (California Community College). This will be a step UP in quality — the R100 is a quality grade above the MSBL ball.

New Sponsor - All Out Baseball

All Out Baseball in Santa Clara is our newest league sponsor and are the league supplier of our new baseballs!

Umpires

Ed Costa takes over as the new Umpire in Chief with the recent passing of Dave Nicewonger. Ed will be responsible for assigning all umpires.

Divisions

The League will have twenty-one teams spread across the same four divisions as last year — National(25+) will have six teams, the Pacific(24+) four teams, the American(25+) five teams, and the Atlantic(18+) will have six teams.

There are two distinctive changes to two of the divisions.

The 2010 Pacific Division champion Astros are moving up to the National division.

The Phillies(18) are back from their one-year wayward journey to another league and will return to the Atlantic division. "After realizing that saving money on team fees resulted in getting an inferior experience, the Phillies knew what they had to do. By coming back to the SJMSBL, the step up in competition and playing fields will result in a much better time out...", said Phillies manager Larkin Castaneda.

The Atlantic division is losing the A's(18) and picking up a new team, the Diamondbacks(18). The Diamondbacks(18) are managed by Brian Benson and Matt Labbie.

You can view this year's division lineups on the Teams page.

Age Requirements

The age requirement for the National and American divisions remains 25+ and the Atlantic Division will remain 18+. The Pacific division is adopting a 24+ age requirement — though 24-year-old players must turn 25 by December 31, 2011.

Standings

The standings will still be based on a points system, though this year ALL games will count in the standings, even crossovers. Every win will count two points and a tie will count as one point. Forfeits will result in points being taken away.

Schedule Preview

Opening Day will be May 1st and the regular season will conclude on August 14th for the National and Atlantic divisions. Due to the complications of scheduling, the Pacific and American divisions will end their seasons on August 21st.

In 2010, every division had five teams and scheduling was much easier. This year's creation of the schedule has been complicated by having divisions containing four, five, and six teams.

The two six team divisions (National, Atlantic) opted to play all divisional games. Each team plays their five divisional rivals four times for a total of twenty games (5 X 4).

The Pacific and American divisions will continue to have crossover games. The Pacific (four teams) will play each of their three division rivals five times and have five crossover games. The American division (five teams) will play each of their four division rivals four times and have four crossover games.

Playoffs will begin August 21st for the National and Atlantic divisions and August 28th for the Pacific and American divisions. The Championship rounds are scheduled for September 11th and 18th (if necessary).

You can view the complete League schedule on the Schedule page.

Playoff Preview

All divisions will follow the same playoff guidelines.

All-Star Game

July 20 at Municipal Stadium. Details will be announced later.

Good Luck to Everyone and Let's PLAY BALL!