Travel baseball is offered to players who will turn 13 prior to May 1 of this year or older or players currently in 7th grade and above. All teams under the travel baseball program will play on a 90 foot baseball diamond with a 60 foot distance between mound and home plate.
Travel baseball should not be confused with tournament baseball. While some tournament teams at the lower age levels do participate in travel leagues, the teams are primarily formed as tournament teams and are recognized as tournament teams.
Participants in the Travel Baseball Program must be current members of Springfield Athletic Association. Participants are also required to pay a $40 travel fee.
Team rosters are filled via tryout selection.
Teams travel across Delaware County with some Chester and Montco games.
Schedule and commitment varies with teams and coaches. Younger teams tend to practice more then older teams. For 13/14’s parents should expect 2-3 games per week on average along with 2 practices. 15’s and older tend to play 3 games a week and 1 practice. Weeknight games start at 6PM. Weekend start times can vary.
High school, middle school and CYO baseball do not usually interfere with travel baseball. In the event of conflicts in the seasonal overlap our coaches will normally work around the conflicts.
Conflicts with track, lacrosse, basketball and outside summer baseball programs are generally not received well after the fact. Players involved with any of the above should discuss their commitment level and schedule conflicts with coaches before accepting a roster spot on a team. This does not mean don’t play. It simply means communicate your potential conflicts up front so that your coach can adjust accordingly.
Family vacations in the summer are a fact of life. If you can’t schedule your family vacation after the season you should discuss your vacation schedule with the coach prior to accepting a roster spot on a team. Again, this does not mean don’t play. It means be up front.
Bottom line on commitment and attendance- persistent absence from games and practice can impact your standing on the team. Please discuss these other commitments with your coach prior to accepting a spot on a team.
Preliminary Info for players moving up from Cal Ripken:
Note: For players younger than 7th grade: Tournament teams are formed out of the Cal Ripken Major and Minors leagues. You must play in the CAL RIPKEN LEAGUE to qualify for tournament teams.
If you are in 7th grade and your age qualifies you (you won’t be 13 until after April 30th of this year) to play for the Cal Ripken League tournament team, and you wish to play Cal Ripken, you must play in the Cal Ripken League and tryout for the tourney team. You may not play in both the Travel Baseball program and Cal Ripken league.
All 13, 14 and 15 year old players who play Travel Baseball are also encouraged to join our Teener league for more baseball. However your primary commitment is to your travel team. Since tournament season coincides with travel baseball playoffs, travel players cannot play for SAA tournament teams unless the travel team participates in a tournament as a team.
All travel teams play on a regulation 90 foot baseball field. Our 90 foot diamonds are:
Memorial Park- used by 7th/8th grade teams
Springfield High School- used by Teeners Intramural League
ETR middle School- Used for some Teeners intramural league games
Church Road Park- Used by Teeners Intramural league and Senior American Legion team.
Crowell Park- Used by 9th 10th and 11th grade teams that play in Jr Legion and EDCO Intermediate level league.
Projected Schedule for Travel Teams:
Tryout/Evaluations: Tryout evaluations will be organized in 2 groups.
Group 1 - Juniors will tryout at Memorial park. This covers ages 13/14 and grades 7th and 8th and any qualifying 9th graders wishing to play. This tryout will most likely start around the last weekend of March and last about 2-3 weeks. Games schedule usually starts 1st week of May and finish up in late July.
Group 2 - Junior Legion, EDCO Intermediate and Senior Legion will tryout together at Crowell Park. This covers 9th/10th/11th and 12th grades. This tryout will also start around the last weekend in March and last about 2-3 weeks. EDCO Intermediate game schedule usually starts with weekend games in mid May. Game schedule usually starts last week of May for Junior Legion and American Legion (Senior). We plan to field 4 teams within this group, 1 Jr American Legion, 2 EDCO Intermediate and 1 Senior American Legion. Coaches at this level know that players can have jobs and other outside interests. Please be up front with your level of commitment.
So that team schedules, field schedules, and tryout schedules can be developed it’s extremely important that we know if you are interested in playing travel baseball in Springfield. Please register and signup as soon after January 30th as possible.
To sign up, go to our registration site and look for and select “Travel Baseball” in the pull down menu or sign up form. Once you have registered and selected travel baseball you can look forward to a letter confirming you have successfully signed up.
