FAQs - Brookline Youth Baseball

Can my child play in Brookline Youth Baseball?

What are time commitments in a typical week?

T-Ballers practice once a week, typically Sundays at Lawrence Fields.
A-League participants practice once during the week (usually a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday) and have a practice or game/scrimmage on Sundays typically at Lawrence Fields.
In AA-League, AAA-League, and Majors, there are typically three to four events per week with a mix of practices and games in addition to post season play. Games are played on weekdays and on Sundays at fields in Brookline including Amory, Pierce, Baker, Larz, Waldstein, Robinson, and Eliot.
The Majors teams play the majority of their games at Eliot.
Challenger League meets weekly.

Most leagues typically start near the end of April and finish near mid June. Schedules and teams are available once registration is complete and the number of teams is known.

What equipment do you provide?

What is the cost and what does it cover?

Costs vary by age (T-Ball is $120 up to AA/AAA/Majors which is $250) and by league and are commensurate with other town programs in our region. We are a non-profit organization and have no paid employees - the fees are set to cover team and league costs. THERE IS A $10 DISCOUNT IF YOU REGISTER ON or BEFORE FEB 15.

Costs cover insurance, field rental and maintenance, t-shirts and hats that are provided and practice equipment.

We do provide need-based waivers for those families who cannot cover the costs. Please reach out to us if you would like to request a waiver. BYB President

What if my player is new to baseball?

BYB offers a number of introductory programs for younger players.

For older players who are new to the game, we also provide a number of options in the Spring and Fall Seasons to get your child more exposure to the game in a fun and supportive environment.

Go to the Home Page and click "PLAY BALL!" for more information across each season. If you have more questions, please select "Contact Us" and we will reach out to discuss your options.

How do I determine my child's "LEAGUE AGE"?

Should my player play above his or her League Age?

What does AA Spring Ball entail?

AA League is for players who are League Age 8 or 9 years old.

The AA season runs approximately two months, starting in mid-April - the exact date depends on when the town says the fields are dry enough to use.

Each team has a Head Coach and usually several assistants who are almost always fathers, mothers or guardians of players on the team. BYB provides these coaches with training and orientation, and many have played baseball or other sports and have coached for BYB previously.

The season:
• For the first 1 - 2 weeks, there will be 3x per week practices,
• Then moves to 1 week of 2-3 of scrimmages,
• Then we move to a regular game season (2 six inning games and 1 practice per week for 3 weeks),
• This will be followed by 3 weeks of playoffs (2 six inning games and 1 practice per week for 3 weeks), and for the top 4 teams, pennant games (2 teams from American League, 2 from National), and
• Finally, a best-of-three World Series in the first half of June

Your player is given and a hat and a team jersey. You must provide a glove and helmet and footwear, either sneakers or baseball shoes.

The season starts off with machine pitch but by the World Series 1/2 of the innings will be player pitch.

The schedule is either M/W/Su or Tu/Th/Su, depending on the team, with some occasional variation, approximately 2 hours per session, weekdays at 5:30PM and Sundays at Noon, 2PM or 4PM, varying each Sunday by team.

Practices normally are either Monday or Thursday depending on your team's schedule with games W/Su or Tu/Su, with some occasional variation.

All teams play at multiple fields throughout Brookline including Pierce, Amory, Lawrence, Baker, Cypress, and sometimes Waldstein or Larz Anderson.

Players on any given team will attend multiple schools, but there will always be several, normally never less than 3, from any one school on the team. In terms of assigning players to teams, our first goal is to have teams of roughly equal capability with each having an equal chance to win or lose since we do keep score.

During the season, your player would have about 60 hours of training and playing and having fun.

You will be contacted by your player's head coach by email during the first week in April announcing the team your player is on and the field where the first team practice will be held.

There will be a schedule provided on the website in April for your player's team, which will be updated in the TeamSnap app if there are changes due to weather / other cancellations or changes to time or field.

Do you hold Tryouts? What does that determine?

As our players get older, and we hold regular seasons and playoffs, we seek to bring a level of parity across teams.

To better assist us and make this a more objective process, we hold mandatory tryouts in the Spring for players 10 - 12 years old.

No player is excluded from playing Spring or Fall Ball. This is simply to aid in creating more parity across leagues.

9 year olds are not required to participate unless they want to tryout for a limited number of positions available for 9s in Triple A. Triple A positions are mostly reserved for 10s and 11s but BYB may allow a limited number of experienced 9s to join the Triple A League.

For more information, click here

TRYOUTS, MANDATORY

How are your coaches selected and are they vetted?

Are there equipment guidelines, restrictions?

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