Congrats To USA Baseball

MLB, USA Baseball announce deal
Ten-year partnership to foster grassroots development
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

PITTSBURGH -- Major League Baseball and USA Baseball announced a 10-year partnership on Tuesday that will enable the grass roots group to focus its attention on developing baseball in the U.S.
Over the course of the agreement, MLB will give USA Baseball $10 million toward that effort, effectively ending the necessity for the non-profit organization to raise money so it can fund its annual commitments.

"MLB is excited about this significant expansion of our relationship with USA Baseball," Commissioner Bud Selig said on Tuesday only hours before the All-Star Game at PNC Park. "By strengthening bonds between the National Governing Body for amateur baseball and MLB, we will be able to better understand both the needs and the opportunities that exist and put initiatives in place to encourage growth of the game at all levels."

USA Baseball and MLB already work in tandem to select Team USA for both the World Baseball Classic and the Summer Olympics. To that end, a 60-man provisional roster of MLB Minor Leaguers was submitted on Tuesday in anticipation for the America Olympic Qualifying Event to be staged from Aug. 28-Sept. 5 in Havana, Cuba.

The top two teams in that tournament automatically qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing. The teams that finish third and fourth will get another shot at qualifying in a final preliminary event in 2008. If the U.S. qualifies at Cuba, that event will be held in Taiwan. If Team USA finishes third or fourth, the event will be held in the U.S. at a still to be chosen site.

Davey Johnson is being brought back to manage the team going to Cuba, with Reggie Smith as the hitting coach, Rick Eckstein as the third base coach and Marcel Lachemann as the pitching coach. The same quartet piloted the team that qualified to play in Cuba when it won a pre-qualifying tournament in Phoenix last year.

The latest U.S. Olympic qualifying team is scheduled to report to the Houston Astros' Spring Training facility in Kissimmee, Fla., on Aug. 16. The U.S. will share the facility with Team Canada and Team Puerto Rico, and will prep for Cuba by scrimmaging against each other. The three teams depart to Havana on Aug. 25.

The new financial agreement ended about a year of negotiations and will allow USA Baseball officials to concentrate on these kind of commitments.

"The pressure is really off," said Paul Seiler, the president and chief executive of USA Baseball. "The partnership is going to give us financial stability as well as the leverage MLB has in marketing, media and all these different areas. Our charge is helping the development of the game as well as elite level athletes. It's going to take that one burden away from us -- finding that money on an annual basis."

As a major part of the deal, MLB Properties immediately acquired the rights to USA Baseball sponsorships and licenses, and MLB.com acquired USA Baseball's Internet rights.

Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

With the weight of MLB taking the lead, I wonder what the chances would be of a sports network such as ESPN or Fox SportsNet or a regular broadcast station (including the Latin stations on UHF) covering the team trials and/or international tournaments.

Nothing promotes children's interest more than seeing children of similar age playing well on television.

Just a thought.

COLUMBIA, MD, July 20, 2006 – The Baseball Factory and Team One have announced that MLB.com will serve as the broadcast partner for the second annual Baseball Express Cape Cod High School Classic. The game, which will take place on Friday, July 28 at Noon, will be streamed live on the home page of MLB.com and MiLB.com (MinorLeagueBaseball.com).

MLB.com is part of the advanced media arm of Major League Baseball and provides web casts of numerous Major League Baseball games through MLB.TV. The Baseball Express Cape Cod High School Classic will be the first ever high school baseball game to be broadcast on MLB.com. The game will also be available to view live on MiLB.com, BaseballFactory.com, TeamOneBaseball.com and BaseballExpress.com.

MLB.com will provide an unmatched platform for broadcasting the game to millions of baseball fans. MLB.com has over one billion visitors each year and over 4.5 million visitors per day during the baseball season. MLB.com currently runs the websites for the 30 individual Major League Baseball teams, all of the Minor League team sites, the MLB Players Association site, the MLB Players Alumni Association site and the National Baseball Hall of Fame site. "We are committed to growing the sport of baseball at every level and are very excited to bring the best of high school baseball in the form of the Baseball Express Cape Cod High School Classic to our fans at MLB.com" said Joe Inzerillo, SVP of Multimedia and Distribution for MLB.com.

The second annual Baseball Express Cape Cod High School Classic will showcase 36 of the most talented high school rising seniors from across the nation. The Cape Cod Baseball League will serve as official host for the game, providing a historic setting for this event. The High School Classic will precede the Cape Cod League's annual All-Star Game, which will take place on July 29 in South Yarmouth, MA.

"We are thrilled to have partnered with MLB.com for the Baseball Express Cape Cod High School Classic," said Steve Sclafani, CEO and Founder of Baseball Factory. "MLB.com is far and away the leader in the industry when it comes to providing quality advanced media baseball programming. We are excited to have the game shown live on MLB.com and feel strongly that this opportunity will benefit the players and give them a great opportunity to be seen by millions of baseball enthusiasts."

Scouts from Team One and Baseball Factory have selected the Cape Cod High School Classic teams. Thirty-six players will form two teams that will face off in front of numerous scouting directors and influential decision makers within Major League Baseball. Almost 100 scouts and college coaches attended last year's game to evaluate the talented baseball players. As a result, 17 players from the inaugural game were selected in the 2006 MLB Amateur Draft including six players taken in the first 50 overall picks.

In addition to streaming the game live, the game will also be archived and available for replay on BaseballFactory.com, TeamOneBaseball.com and BaseballExpress.com.

For more information on the game please go to:
www.baseballfactory.com
www.teamonebaseball.com
www.baseballexpress.com
www.mlb.com

National team games broadcast available on USA home page.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/usa_baseball/schedule_national.jsp

Oh cool, TPM and family will be at cape during that time!

Be sure to wave to us all.

quote:

With the weight of MLB taking the lead, I wonder what the chances would be of a sports network such as ESPN or Fox SportsNet or a regular broadcast station (including the Latin stations on UHF) covering the team trials and/or international tournaments.

Odds are any broadcasts of these games would be pre-empted for Compeititive Eating, Spelling Bees, High Stakes Poker, or the World Series of Darts.

$10 million will help take some fundraising pressure off, but it won't put a better product on the field. MLB would be better served spending that 10 mill plus more on helping subsidize wood bats for college or HS ball.

I was hoping that something of an athletic nature would be grabbed up by a sports network.

While I have issue with some things about the way USA Baseball has squandered its existence and the reputation of our young ball players, it appears that they are finally reaching out to others better suited to the task of talent selection and marketing to name a couple of issues.

Maybe Disney will think about covering the games or one of the Latin stations since they may have more access to Cuba and Venezuela.

Seeing the games on TV or on the computer would be a double edged sword. It would either bring praise or criticism to USA Baseball. I would hope that they have grown in recent times and will be presenting the most elite teams possible to represent this nation. They would have to be open to the praise as well as the criticism.

I would hope that their thinking has cleared from the failed policies of the past and they are on a road to success in marketing themselves, the game and the players representing the nation.

I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt since they have taken this step thus far.

quote:

Davey Johnson is being brought back to manage the team going to Cuba, with Reggie Smith as the hitting coach, Rick Eckstein as the third base coach and Marcel Lachemann as the pitching coach. The same quartet piloted the team that qualified to play in Cuba when it won a pre-qualifying tournament in Phoenix last year.

I find this very interesting and especially seeing Coach Davey Johnson getting back in. Could this be signs of a possible play in regards to Washington NATS managing situation.
I do believe that Davey Johnson is already a special assignment scout according to my recent conversation with NATS farm director and it just seems like a perfect fit and a WIN WIN idea with my hero, Coach Frank Robinson, getting close to retirement, but then again, Coach Johnson isn't too much younger than Frank Robinson, so who knows. Only God, NATS and Jim Bowden. peace

Wow, not even a GameTracker for the YNT Trials.

What a shame.

Willie,

Still having a hard time dealing with it all?

Not having a hard time at all.

The more people across the country become aware, the more people will speak up.

Are you seeking a revolution? It sure seems it

Of course.

I am seeking a revolution against this standard of mediocrity that has become the norm in this nation.

Maybe the FISU site will be broadcasting the games.

It was a requirement that the stadiums had accomodation for television.