Equipment Question - Baseballs

Our AD bought us Champro practice balls for, well, practice and I can definitely tell a distinct difference in even hitting those balls, let along how horribly they hold up. 

Champro....wow, they are still selling baseballs?  I had a sporting goods store for quite a while.  Champro was ok for equipment....bases, catchers gear for younger ages, etc, but their baseballs were by far the worst I ever saw.   Even their best practice ball was good for no more than about 6 hits before it had a noticible dent or worse was more the shape of an egg than a baseball lol

"Effective January 1, 2019, the ball shall also meet the NOCSAE standard at the time of manufacture and the mark will also be required on all balls."

Do current baseballs (for instance the Wilson A1010 currently include the NOCSAE stamp?  I was thinking if a coach ran across a good deal, perhaps he should stock up if the cash is available.  That said, are most NFHS baseballs being sold today going to be ineligible for play starting next season?  Should coaches work to limit purchases on non-complying 2019 balls (one might assume there could be some decent sales later in the summer on some NFHS balls missing the NOCSAE stamp).

2017LHPscrewball posted:

"Effective January 1, 2019, the ball shall also meet the NOCSAE standard at the time of manufacture and the mark will also be required on all balls."

Do current baseballs (for instance the Wilson A1010 currently include the NOCSAE stamp?  I was thinking if a coach ran across a good deal, perhaps he should stock up if the cash is available.  That said, are most NFHS baseballs being sold today going to be ineligible for play starting next season?  Should coaches work to limit purchases on non-complying 2019 balls (one might assume there could be some decent sales later in the summer on some NFHS balls missing the NOCSAE stamp).

Very good question, I just ordered 6 dozen which should get us well through this year but those would be really good practice balls with that being the case for next season. 

The catchers equipment and batting helmets all have to have that stamp next year as well don't they, or something pertaining to concussion testing?

2017LHPscrewball posted:

"Effective January 1, 2019, the ball shall also meet the NOCSAE standard at the time of manufacture and the mark will also be required on all balls."

Do current baseballs (for instance the Wilson A1010 currently include the NOCSAE stamp?  I was thinking if a coach ran across a good deal, perhaps he should stock up if the cash is available.  That said, are most NFHS baseballs being sold today going to be ineligible for play starting next season?  Should coaches work to limit purchases on non-complying 2019 balls (one might assume there could be some decent sales later in the summer on some NFHS balls missing the NOCSAE stamp).

Current NFHS baseballs DO NOT include the NOCSAE stamp.  Current NFHS baseballs by rule will not be acceptable in the 2019 season.  

It is understood that the reason this rule was announced this year (2018) with the actual implementation (2019) was to allow the manufacturers time to include the NOCSAE testing in the manufacturing process and allow HS teams to deplete their stocks of then ineligible baseballs.     

Buckeye 2015 posted:

Our AD bought us Champro practice balls for, well, practice and I can definitely tell a distinct difference in even hitting those balls, let along how horribly they hold up. 

Champro....wow, they are still selling baseballs?  I had a sporting goods store for quite a while.  Champro was ok for equipment....bases, catchers gear for younger ages, etc, but their baseballs were by far the worst I ever saw.   Even their best practice ball was good for no more than about 6 hits before it had a noticible dent or worse was more the shape of an egg than a baseball lol

Yes, Champro has historically been a budget/price point brand with relatively low quality and that has certainly included baseballs.  However, again, you can find diamonds in the rough.  A while back, they made a run at entering the high end baseball market.  A few models were quite good.  And since they were not able to gain any significant traction in the performance ball market, there were closeouts.  For two years, I was able to get a professional grade baseball from them at the price of a moderate practice ball.  Best practice ball we ever had by far.  Like I said before, if you get educated on cores and covers and get a feel for "the feel", you can shop smart with baseballs.

Conversely, Diamond was always known for a quality practice and moderately priced game ball.  But, for a 2-3 year period, they changed the cover on one of their most popular practice balls,  It was way too slick.  First time I grabbed a new one, I knew it was time for change.

We're using Champro NFHS balls this year which have higher seams than the Rawlings.  We haven't had a home game yet so I don't know how they perform but we'll see soon.  I don't like the Rawlings because after one game they look just like a Diamond practice ball.  

Buckeye 2015 posted:

hsbaseball101 posted:

 and the opportunity to sing the national anthem and throw out the first pitch.  

As long as it brings in $$$$ lol.  I see the potential for a lot of people waiting to show up just as the 1st inning starts lol

It's always visitors who enjoy it the most.  

Jeez, and here I was thinking they added the NOCSAE thing for 2019 because the baseball ball vendors wanted to generate more revenue now that the baseball bat vendors have siphoned $$$'s from the parents . Years ago when I ran our local CR league - the Treasurer and I went to our equipment supplier and asked the simple question about price of balls - it was 2 hours before we could get the owner to stop talking about all the variables. We came away more confused than we entered.  Personally, I liked the Diamond product and really disliked the Wilson product. I figured Wilson must have been providing money up the chain somewhere because the National would "require" usage of the Wilson product when you brought balls to tournament play. Could have changed since I was involved - but the moral of the story is - follow the money trail. The "official equipment supplier of" is a nice way to say we got a buttload of money from some company and in turn they need to make it back off the backs of you all, so you must buy their product.

JohnF posted:

Jeez, and here I was thinking they added the NOCSAE thing for 2019 because the baseball ball vendors wanted to generate more revenue now that the baseball bat vendors have siphoned $$$'s from the parents . Years ago when I ran our local CR league - the Treasurer and I went to our equipment supplier and asked the simple question about price of balls - it was 2 hours before we could get the owner to stop talking about all the variables. We came away more confused than we entered.  Personally, I liked the Diamond product and really disliked the Wilson product. I figured Wilson must have been providing money up the chain somewhere because the National would "require" usage of the Wilson product when you brought balls to tournament play. Could have changed since I was involved - but the moral of the story is - follow the money trail. The "official equipment supplier of" is a nice way to say we got a buttload of money from some company and in turn they need to make it back off the backs of you all, so you must buy their product.

THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It's all about the money.  I remember when I started 20 years ago you could get a dozen ball for about $35 and it didn't matter about practice or game ball.  They were cheap enough they were the same.  When I was in KY we switched to the Rawlings R200 (maybe R100 - can't remember now) because it was the official ball of the KHSAA.  Take a wild guess which ball was $10 - $15 more than the Wilson A1010.  Now a dozen Wilson A1010 is about $65 and it will soon need every stamp under the sun.  Already has to have the NFHS stamp, next year has to have NOCSAE on it and in NC it has to have the NCHSAA stamp.  Baseballs are turning into NASCAR racing cars.  I guarantee the price of a dozen will be up to $75 - $80 next year from all the stamps.  I wonder if I can get the local grocery store to give us a few thousand dollars and we put their stamp on the ball?