2011 marked another significant year for the Milwaukee Baseball League.

In 2012 the MBL enters its tenth season as an independent league after Milwaukee County ceased running adult baseball leagues.  In 2011, the MBL again improved the stability and competitiveness of the league.  In 2011, our Open divisions, the American and National, added more players with varsity high school and college experience which culminated in a Championship between two teams with substantial talent.  The Veterans division crowned its second champ in an many years and showed that players in their late 20s, 30s and 40s can still ball.  In general the league is healthy with a good group of volunteers managing it and is in the black financially.

Looking forward we see three divisions comprising the league on a long term basis: American Division, National Division and Veterans Division.

 

For 2012 the American and National Divisions will each expand by one team.  Moving from the American to the National are the two time MBL champion Milwaukee Tigers who will add an influx of new players to their roster from the Langsdorf League.  The American Division will add the Tarahumara Pirates from the Liga Latina League in Milwaukee and the New Berlin Bullfrogs.  The Pirates are three time champions and bring another very competitive squad to the Milwaukee Baseball League.  The Bullfrogs come from a very strong Land of Lakes region and will offer another high quality influx of players to MBL. 

The MBL American Division and National Divisions will play a 16 game regular season schedule with the primary game day being Saturday in the American Division, and Sunday in the National Division.  Teams will play all of their doubleheaders on their primary day.  Single games will be spread out among Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with a handful of American games on Thursdays. 

The MBL will go to the BBCOR bat standard in 2012 as the high schools and colleges have already done.  This has been done to maintain a level competition consistent with the high levels MBL has achieved the past few years and to avoid liability issues with super charged BSER bats.  Wood bats are legal, though all bats require BBCOR certification and be NCAA legal. 

The MBL Veterans Division is targeting organic growth to ten teams over the next several years, but will also accept new teams or teams composed of players from other leagues that meet certain competitiveness standards. This division is for players age 28 and older (though we allow a few 26 and27 year old players per team in order to help keep groups of players together who have been on the same team in the past) and is the natural transition for teams and players as they approach their thirties.  This division will play primarily Sundays with most also playing some Thursdays and Fridays, we anticipate about a 20 game schedule with playoffs in September.