Eighteen diamonds, four boroughs
In the Bronx the league plays at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Governors Field, Harris Park, Field of Dreams, Kennedy High School, Bronx Park East, Roberto Clemente, St. Mary's 1 and Bronxchester. In Manhattan it uses Randall's Island, George Washington High School and DeWitt Clinton Park. Queens has PALS Oval and College Point. Brooklyn has the Parade Grounds, Red Hook, Monroe Cohen Park and Old Boys High School.
Holding eighteen permits across four boroughs is the hardest administrative job in New York amateur sport, and the league treats its grounds as relationships rather than bookings: its Team Up programme commits it to helping maintain and improve the fields that partner with it, on the stated principle that it is more than a tenant. It publishes before-and-after photographs of that work at Field of Dreams, Clinton High School and Kennedy High School.
Eighteen venues is also eighteen chances for a player to drive to the wrong one. A High Cheese schedule puts the right field on each game and into every player's phone, which is a smaller thing than restoring a diamond but the one that decides whether nine men show up.
NYC Metro Baseball League in detail
- A 501(c)(3) adult league of 24-plus teams across five divisions, playing weekend doubleheaders in all five boroughs.
- Weekend doubleheaders, April to August and September to November, with no public fixture list.
- Five divisions, competitive balance reviewed each season, and no table published.
- The league has a GameChanger manager on its board and no results on its site.
- Eight expansion clubs since 2017, each with a founding season and a best finish on record.
- The league keeps a Victors' Vault for record holders and publishes no numbers.
- One league email, one published phone line, and a board of eight.
- Free agent registration costs $4.88 and buys priority for placement, tryouts and discounted winter work.
- The NABA rulebook, a league rules-and-regulations document, and a form for proposing changes.
- A newsletter, a news page and a podcast whose archive stops in 2015.
- A photo gallery, a video gallery, and a Hall of Champions organised by division.
- Two sponsors named on the homepage, with ad rates on the bulletin board.
- Playoffs in both seasons, and a travel side that plays NABA's Atlantic City weekends.
- Eight teams in April 2006, thirty within a few years, and four distinct administrations since.
- Eight officers, every one of whom played or managed in the league first.
- Ages, divisions, season length, game day and playoff format are all answered on the record.
- Rules and regulations, the NABA rulebook, a rules proposal form and a privacy policy.
- Winter workouts January to March, spring ball from April, fall ball from September.
- The league sells nothing of its own; only its national body has a shop.
- Officiated by the New Rochelle Umpires Association, founded 2021, and recruiting.
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