NECBL

Great league...congratulations to your son!

Don't know the Vermont specifics.  League utilizes host families so costs were minimal.  Lots of games and bus travel throughout NY and New England.  Competition was excellent.  One or two teams were loaded with draft picks (Newport).  All others had picks too.

Your son will have a blast!

I agree with Branson with the exception of the travel in NY.  I don't believe there is a NY team so they wouldn't travel there.  Vermont has done well the past few years and has a good reputation.  They are an geographical outlier in terms of the travel so there will be some long bus rides.

I did look up the travel, minimum travel time for him is 2 hours one way, up to 4 hours for his side of league. He did that last year in prospect league. I am gonna have to get the unlimited data plan so he can watch movies, games, etc while on bus . He about killed my phone bill last summer.

One of nice things is 2 of his college team are going with him, last year he was on his own. though he did love Terre Haute, the team and his host family

Read the fine print on unlimited data plans. The user is throttled down to 2G or 3G (useless for video) at a certain usage level.

RJM, thanks. Truth is I doubt we could afford an unlimited data plan. He will just have to read a book- GASP!!

Great news Chef. He will have a blast.

The NECBL team that was based out of New York is gone. I really think they should go back to the NYCBL, they are a good fit travel wise, even though the league does not have the same reputation any longer of the NECBL or the PG league.

Have you son download movies books etc while on WiFi, then he will have them to watch when not connected and you do not need to kill your data plan. 

Saratoga was in the NECBL when my son played.  Great little town!

Yes, I believe they only lasted one year. Too bad, they no longer have a team in a collegiate league. Thebowner of the Brigade had some big plans for their park.

Chef MIke,

son is considering an offer from Kokomo in the prospect league for this summer, since your son played in it last year can you give any information about it teams, level of competition, travel anything would help to make our decision thank you

My son was in the NECBL last year.. He has also played in prospect league for parts of two seasons...

According to him travel was easier in the NECBL, at least shorter trips. He was on the southern most team, Danbury, CT.  Which made some of his trips longer than the more centrally located teams.

Some of the trips in the Prospect league are 8 hour plus bus rides.  Son thought the level of play was a notch higher in NECBL.

There were no out of pocket expense for him other than his own spending money, gas etc. in either league.

No league fees and he stayed with the greatest of host families in CT.  He was spoiled by his summer mom and two new little brothers. I didn’t think he was going to come home.

NECBL seams to play a lot less games than prospect league so a little more down time, He received use of a local gym as part of the team package, he spent a lot of time there. In the prospect league players were given free access to the local YMCA .

Catcher-  Kokomo has a really really nice stadium. Down side for Kokomo specifically is they play in the west side of Prospect league and is the most Eastern team, so some of the bus rides are 5 plus hours.

The competition is good, I would guess middle of the pack as far as summer leagues. What I generally saw was a lot of D1 players on rosters, mostly boys finishing their freshman or sophomore year. Then sprinkled was other divisions, JUCO, and a few seniors to be. Pitching wise lots of high 80's fastball with some 90's, defense for my son's team did not seem as strong as his college team, but his college team had an outstanding year last year. Hitting wise, I think a lot of boys were getting used to wood bats vs metal in college season so pitching dominated early and as they got used to the bats, the good hitters did well 

Another downside is no webcasts for entire league. You can listen. I see that Kokomo only does home games audio, but the rest on west side do home and away so you would be able to listen.

Cost for his team was nothing except personal expenses, I think it is that way for whole league but don't quote me on that . His host family was Awesome. If you have never been to Kokomo, it seems like a nice Midwest town. The night we went there to watch my son pitch, lots of fans and very enthusiastic.

I am attaching the link to prospect league. Lots of good info on it. Really easy to navigate.    http://www.prospectleague.com/...summer-baseball-home 

MMM, thanks. I think for my son travel will be about the same since Vermont is the northern most team (closest other team is about 2 hours). At least in his division of it. I agree when son when from Terre haute to Jamestown NY, long long trip. They actually made a stop, played a game, went to Jamestown, played two, then stopped back halfway to play a game. Straight would have been like 12 hours.

Does NECBL to cross over games and if so, how often? I think Prospect league only did maybe 8 games out of 60.  It does seem like less games, which is nice. Prospect league was 6 days a week, Mondays off. If I read website correctly, NECBL played about 40 in about a week less. I know my son wanted to get a job last year and that was not possible even though they had lined one up for him, simply because of travel. Maybe playing 4-5 games a week, he can earn a little money.

AS a starting pitcher, son really only played once a week anyways but traveled so very little down time

If I remember the NECBl has a north and south division.. They do crossover and play but north and south crossover isn’t an equal split.  They may only have one road trip to each team. 

I know they played more games in division than crossing over.

Here is link to website.

http://necbl-westerners.bbstat...4&seasonid=28998

I was hoping my son, also a pitcher, would get some part time job in, volunteering done for his post grad need, etc.  but he really enjoyed the summer, trips to Boston, fenway,  NYC, Long island, etc. he was always off doing something..   He also went to Boston numerous times That was the big difference because in the prospect league that one day off was cherished and saved for catching up on sleep.

thank you every one for the information. should help with the decision. we are still hopeing college coach can get him into NECBL or Futures league which is closer to home. Kokomo is 14 hours away not much of a chance to see him play.

Catcher, we are just opposite. Son will be 13 hours away in Vermont. Terre Haute was 3 hours away and some of the other teams were less than 2. how about if your son gets put in Prospect and we go cheer each others on. .

MMM, My sons and I did a baseball stadium tour on east coast a few years ago, great memories and he saw all the stadiums in NE, I can see him driving down to Fenway, he hated NY city. I think that he is going to Vermont might keep him away just popping over for a game. So maybe he will get a small job, My wallet would appreciate it.