2026 Preseason Updates
Hopefully you have been conditioning your bodies, hitting BP, and getting ready for the season because it’s going to be a fun year! I wanted to talk about a few things that will be new this season, as we’ve made a couple of changes to the rules, what we envision for the schedule, added new sponsors, adding some prizes for certain achievements, and more. Let’s get into it…
Rules Changes
Our rules document has been in need of some editing for a few years, so with the consultation of Mark Sweeney and Mike Cacy, I revised a handful of sections to either add, remove, or edit the content. Here’s what has changed:
Cleanup up verbiage in 2.3
Created section 3.3.5 to prohibit being thrown out at first base from the outfield (60’s only)
3.6.3: deleted “Shin guards and a mask will be supplied by the league prior to each game.”
Created 3.7, it was missing and assumed deleted on purpose in the past
Edited language in 3.10 regarding 1-1 count and foul to give
Cleaned up verbiage in 3.11.1 for clarification (and added the limitation of applying only to 50s)
3.14: Changed the home run rule to 6 and DBO, was previously 5 HR’s with an equalizer and “home runs as singles” component.
Added 3.18.2 to address behavior towards umpires.
3.19.2 rewrote same verbiage, was previously in all caps
4.2: revised courtesy runner rule, added the following verbiage: (this rule enforced only in the 50’s division, no limits or restrictions for courtesy runners in the 60’s division)
Revised 4.3.1: subs to sign up via email or thru scorekeepers, managers are not to solicit subs on their own.
Schedule
The city has informed me that there will be no other events or tournaments this year to conflict with our schedule, which means we will be able to play straight through without any forced bye weeks from the city. Each year in March we seem to have a rainout or two so we are thinking to start the season in April and play into September like always.
60’s will have (6) teams this year, so they won’t have doubleheaders like last year.
50’s will have (7) teams again, so they will rotate bye weeks to accommodate the odd team, just like last year.
I haven’t penciled out the schedule yet but I think that because 50’s teams will have bye weeks, it will take more weeks for 50’s to play the same number of games as 60’s. I’m not sure how to work this out but offhand I’m thinking that either the 60’s can have a couple of bye weeks built into their schedule for the entire division, or they just play more games than 50’s. We will need to run the numbers for the budget to see which solution is most feasible. We will have answers to this in the next couple of weeks and will send out another communication to let you know what we have come up with.
Evaluation and Draft Night
We have not yet decided upon a date, we will know soon, please watch your emails. As we’ve done in prior years, 60’s will conduct their evaluations first, followed by 50’s. After evals, each group of managers will head to a location to draft; right now we are thinking Round Table Pizza on Sierra College near Douglas.
We will need a pitcher for the 60’s, please let us know if you’re able to help.
Mr. Dan Arevelos has graciously agreed to pitch to the 50’s on evaluation night, plus he’s going to stay after to allow players to discuss and possibly demo his Onyx bats. See more on bat demos below…
New Sponsors
We are excited to announce that we have four new sponsors this season! Legacy Sports Bar & Grill (Lincoln), Epic Sports Cards (Lincoln), Incredible Pets (6 locations from Sac to Grass Valley), and Hunter’s Barber Shop (Roseville). These sponsors will be in the 50’s division, we are moving Efficient Energy to the 60’s.
We are happy to welcome back BJ’s Restaurant, Mill Construction, Efficient Energy, Realty Management Company, Wholesale Outlet, Scott’s Exterior Property Service, Hayes Auto Sales, and New Dawn Awning. We have one other sponsor in the works for 50’s, they will be announced later.
We will have a sponsor page on our website with info about these companies, including links to their websites and social media accounts. Please keep your ears open for opportunities to recommend these companies to your friends and family, as they have been wonderful supporters of our league and we appreciate their investment in our club.
Prizes and Awards
I have entered in a line item in the budget for prizes in both divisions for certain remarkable achievements, it hasn’t been decided yet but so far we’ve talked about tracking highest batting average and most RBI’s. I’m hoping to give away four bats for these awards, two for each division, one for batting average and one for RBI’s. For the home run leader in each division, I’m thinking they will have their choice of a hat, shirt, or trophy.
I will be working to raise additional money for these items, we will be selling hats (see below), plus I’m thinking about a fundraiser drawing and seeing which of the brands might like to sponsor somehow. Stay tuned for more on this later.
Stats
Mel James will keep the stats this season, the goal will be to have them uploaded to the website weekly. Mel is going to create a new document for the scorekeepers to use in conjunction with the scorebook for easy tracking and calculating, hopefully it’ll help keep the numbers accurate and easy to follow. Each week we will upload them to the website and send an email link, plus highlight one “sponsor of the week”.
Hats
I’m working with Skylar Zetz on a hat for the 2026 season that we will sell for an approximately $10 markup to help with league overhead. We are trying to design something with a great look that’s also durable, I think they will end up selling for $25-30 and I’ll post them to the website when we have a design ready.
Bats
We have several reps in our league, I’m going to try to coordinate some demo days with them. There may be a $5-10 demo fee, we haven’t worked it out yet. As I continue to learn more about the bat rep business, I’m finding out the manufacturers only provide the occasional demo bat to their reps, which means the bats they let us try are paid for by the reps. Reps only make $20-40 per bat sale, they aren’t getting rich off the business, hence my idea of paying for the swings we put on them. If you are, or know of, a brand who would like to participate in something like this, please reach out. Dan Arevelos sells Onyx, Chris Dauria sells Spartan, and I’m told we have reps from Suncoast and Demarini in our league as well (I just haven’t met them yet).
In Closing…
As you can see we have a lot of ideas for the season, some will work while others may not. This is a club, we can be as creative as we want as long as people are communicating and contributing. This is my first time coordinating a league and I’m doing my best to be as comprehensive and communicative as possible, but I don’t know all things about all the things…please be patient. Lol.
Our fees are very low compared to other leagues, which is why I’m trying to come up with some fun ways to raise money for certain things. I hope you are as excited to play and participate in our community as I am, please let me know if there is anything you can think of that may benefit the club and this special community of ball players!
Let’s gooooo!
~ Mel
