Wooden bat league
Encyclopedia
Wooden bat leagues are amateur baseball
leagues in the United States that use wood bats instead of bats made of aluminum or composites. Most such leagues play in the summer months, during the traditional break in the academic year, and are approved by the NCAA
.
Because professional baseball exclusively uses wood bats—with the exception of some low-level minor leagues that allow approved composite bats to ease young players' transition to wood—these leagues are heavily scouted by Major League Baseball
teams, who can determine how well a college prospect can hit with the same bats used in MLB.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
leagues in the United States that use wood bats instead of bats made of aluminum or composites. Most such leagues play in the summer months, during the traditional break in the academic year, and are approved by the NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
.
Because professional baseball exclusively uses wood bats—with the exception of some low-level minor leagues that allow approved composite bats to ease young players' transition to wood—these leagues are heavily scouted by Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
teams, who can determine how well a college prospect can hit with the same bats used in MLB.
Wood bat leagues
- Atlantic Collegiate Baseball LeagueAtlantic Collegiate Baseball LeagueThe Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League is a collegiate summer baseball league operating in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The league has experienced moderate success in having alumni appear in Major League Baseball...
- Cape Cod Baseball LeagueCape Cod Baseball LeagueThe Cape Cod Baseball League is a collegiate summer baseball league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, in which many college baseball stars play during the summer. Many future Major League Baseball players have started there during their college years; MLB has provided...
- Clark Griffith Collegiate Baseball LeagueClark Griffith Collegiate Baseball LeagueThe Clark C. Griffith Collegiate Baseball League is a collegiate summer baseball league, with teams located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. All league players must be enrolled at a National Collegiate Athletic Association school, have at least one year of NCAA eligibility remaining...
- Coastal Plain LeagueCoastal Plain LeagueThe Coastal Plain League is a wood-bat collegiate summer league, featuring college players from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from a Class D minor league baseball league which operated in the same area from 1937 to 1952. The modern league was formed with six teams in 1997...
- Florida Collegiate Summer LeagueFlorida Collegiate Summer LeagueThe Florida Collegiate Summer League is a six-team wood bat collegiate summer baseball league located in the central Florida region of the southeastern United States. The league was founded in the fall of 2003 and began play in the summer of 2004...
- Great Lakes Summer Collegiate LeagueGreat Lakes Summer Collegiate LeagueThe Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League is an collegiate summer baseball league in the Great Lakes region of the United States that is affiliated with the Alliance of Summer College Baseball and comprises teams with collegiate baseball players from around North America. Players are not paid so...
- KIT LeagueKIT LeagueThe Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League is a summer collegiate wooden bat league. The league's name is formed from the initials of the states that originally hosted the first iteration of the KIT League...
- Mountain Collegiate Baseball League
- New England Collegiate Baseball LeagueNew England Collegiate Baseball LeagueThe New England Collegiate Baseball League is a 12-team collegiate summer baseball league founded in 1993 and sanctioned by the NCAA and Major League Baseball. Each NECBL team plays an eight-week, 42-game schedule during June and July, with a playoff in early August...
- New York Collegiate Baseball LeagueNew York Collegiate Baseball LeagueThe New York Collegiate Baseball League is a 12-team collegiate summer baseball league founded in 1978 and sanctioned by the NACSB and Major League Baseball. Each NYCBL team plays an eight-week, 44-game schedule from June to July with a playoff in early August...
- Northwoods LeagueNorthwoods LeagueThe Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball league comprising teams of the top college players from North America and beyond. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate...
- Prospect LeagueProspect LeagueThe Prospect League is a collegiate summer baseball league comprising teams of college players from North America and beyond. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. Players are not paid so as to maintain their college eligibility...
- Scenic West Athletic ConferenceScenic West Athletic ConferenceThe Scenic West Athletic Conference is a sports association for junior colleges located in Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada...
– a junior college league, sanctioned by the NJCAANational Junior College Athletic AssociationThe National Junior College Athletic Association , founded in 1938, is an association of community college and junior college athletic departments throughout the United States. It is held as Divisions and Regions. The current NJCAA holds 24 separate regions.-History:The idea for the NJCAA was...
, that uses wood bats in conference play during the standard college baseball season - Southern Collegiate Baseball LeagueSouthern Collegiate Baseball LeagueEstablished in 1999, Southern Collegiate Baseball League is a non-profit, wooden bat collegiate summer league with eight teams throughout the Carolinas. College players from four-year institutions as well as junior and community colleges are eligible to play...
- Texas Collegiate LeagueTexas Collegiate LeagueThe Texas Collegiate League is a collegiate summer baseball league comprising teams of the top college players from North America and beyond. The TCL is based in Coppell, Texas, and shares its headquarters with the Coppell Copperheads, the DFW Metroplex-area team...
- Valley Baseball LeagueValley Baseball LeagueThe Valley Baseball League is an NCAA-sanctioned collegiate summer baseball league in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. Each Valley Baseball League season consists of 44 games played during summer. Many Valley Baseball League players have continued on to play in Major League Baseball.The...
- West Coast LeagueWest Coast LeagueThe West Coast League is a collegiate summer baseball league founded in 2005, comprising teams from Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. The league is designed to develop college talent. As such, only current college players are allowed to participate in the league...