2021 MMPL Team Registration Open

We are moving ahead with the plan for the 2021 season to look more like normal. Team registration is now available at https://forms.gle/nzEuRtGfTEznTExaA. It is our goal to begin league game play in early May. While we will continue to adopt temporary rules for this season to follow CDC guidelines - especially in the dugout, we do anticipate regular playing rules to be back to normal for the upcoming season when the players are on the field.

We also want to take this opportunity to remind you of other rules decisions that were enacted for the 2021 season:

• The age cutoff date for all age groups was moved back to April 30th. A baseball player's age as of 4/30/2021 will dictate the youngest age group they are eligible to play this season.
• For the 2021 season, we will utilize 'Upper', 'Middle', and 'Lower' divisions in lieu of the former A-G division levels at each age group.
• For 2021, the 9U/11U/13U divisions will just be one division. Teams not wanting to play the other teams in that one division should sign up for the an appropriate division of the next oldest age group. IE, an 11U eligible team that doesn't want to play 11U should sign up to play 12U middle or 12U lower depending on their skill level.
• We are now going by USSSA bat regulations. See page 7 here for details; MMPL rules will be updated to spell this out in detail, but be aware of the limit in allowable length/weight drop based on the age group a team is playing in. Of note is that 12U has a maximum -10 allowed. The 13U division will use -8 as the max, as will the 14U middle and lower divisions. The 14U upper division have a maximum -5 allowed. Anyone can use a -3 as long as it is BBCOR. USA Bats will still be allowed.
• The rules trialed at the 10U middle and lower divisions in 2020 that introduced a coach pitch element to eliminate walks after the second walked batter of an inning will remain in place. We will allow teams at 12U lower to sign up for these same rules, and may implement them there if enough teams want to use those rules.

While we do anticipate a normal start date for early May for games, we would like to hold out a bit longer before asking for team payment. We are keeping tabs on the use of school facilities in the area, as well as the MHSAA pushing back the end of the winter sports seasons, as well as the movement of some fall sports leagues into the spring of 2021.

We will send more details later this week regarding pricing for the 2021 season as well as the team registration deadline date. The registration fee per team will be  $155 per team, as it was before the pandemic. This would be adjusted downward if modifications to the standard league structure are necessary due to covid. We will remain as flexible as is reasonable this season given the special circumstances we're all still facing. Here in Mason we opened our player registration up a couple of weeks ago, and plan to have our teams assembled by March 14th.

Please reach out if you have any questions. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing everyone back on the field this season!