So, You Want To Be A Manager?

Author: Troy Barber

I’ve played in various adult baseball leagues for 30+ years, and for 28 of those I never had to worry about setting lineups, paying for umpires or fields, or anything other than showing up on time.  It was comparative bliss.  But, when a change in management of my NELBL 50+ team presented a few years ago, e.g., our then-managers were leaving the state for warmer climes, and the team would fold if no one else stepped up to take over the reins, I perhaps thought—naively—that it couldn’t be that hard.  Well, it wasn’t that hard, but it was definitely not easy, especially since I really didn’t know what I was getting into ahead of time.  This text is my attempt to educate on what an adult baseball league manager is getting into, and hopefully give prospective managers a checklist of what will be required.  The world needs more adult baseball league managers, so if this helps with that, then we all win.

First off, there are some costs that you can’t avoid, and need to be understood when you’re trying to figure out budgets for your new team.  Most importantly, every league charges a team fee for the right to participate and be covered by that league’s liability insurance.  Currently, the NELBL is planning to charge a $750 team fee for the 2026 season, which will likely consist of sixteen (16) games.  That needs to be paid in full before the season starts. 

The next significant expense will be the cost of a home field.  For example, the City of Manchester charges $25 / hour to rent a baseball field, so if your home field is in Manchester, you would need to budget $75 for each three (3) hour game, plus $12.50 if you want to reserve 30-minutes ahead of the game for warming up.  Half of your schedule will be home games, so you should budget $700 for eight home games at that rate.  Please note: other cities charge more for fields, so if your field cost is higher—say, $200 per game, for example—then you would need to budget 8 home games x $200 = $1,600.  After the team fee and eight home games at $87.50 / game, your team budget now sits at $1,450. 

The third significant expense to budget is the cost of umpires.  In the NELBL, each team covers the cost of one (1) of two (2) umpires for each regular season game; the NELBL pays for umpires in the playoffs.  In a 7-inning game, the umpires are paid $85, and in a 9-inning game they’re paid $110.  In a sixteen-game season, the full rate for one (1) umpire per game would be $1,760.  So, the kitty of minimal team expenses now equals $750 + $700 + $1,760 = $3,210.  If your roster is made up of fifteen (15) players, for example, $3,210 / 15 = $214 / per player.  If you have twenty players on your roster, that fee drops to $3,210 / 20 = $160.50.  You now have a team without uniforms!

The next expenses to consider are finding uniforms for your team.  I typically let my players figure out their own pants, belt, undershirt, and socks solutions, although I may recommend suppliers that I’ve had luck with in the past.  When it comes to hats and shirts, I favor custom solutions, but there are off-the-shelf solutions that may be less expensive.  Most custom embroidery hat suppliers have a minimum order quantity ("MOQ"), and the supplier I favor has a 12-piece MOQ.  I would budget $25 / hat, with an extended cost of 15 x $25 = $375 for a fifteen-player roster.  If you think you will add players in the future, order more hats than you need, whether you choose to embroider a random number that a future player will need to use, or just keep them numberless for greater flexibility in the future (otherwise, re-ordering twelve new hats just to get a few new hats for new players gets expensive).

I also favor custom jerseys, and the supplier I use charges $49.99 per jersey, plus shipping.  Their MOQ is nine (9) jerseys.  Again, for a fifteen-player roster, you should budget 15 x $50 = $750.  The custom shirt supplier I use will let you order individual jerseys after you meet the 9-piece MOQ, so future players can order their own jersey more easily.  I've successfully rolled in the cost of a jersey into the player fee, e.g., $250 gets you a roster spot AND a custom jersey to get you to the 9+ piece MOQ, but if a late signee joins after that order is placed, I've asked them to "just" pay $200 for the team fee, and they can order and pay for their own jersey(s) through the team page our jersey supplier sets up after our initial order.  You could do the same for hat orders, but I've also paid for those as a team if I was confident that we had enough money in the bank after collecting team fees...but, FYI: YOU ALMOST NEVER HAVE ENOUGH MONEY IN THE BANK AT SEASON'S END.

If you add the initial $3,210 cost of league fee, fields, and umpires to fifteen budgeted hats and jerseys, your team cost now stands at $3,210 + $375 + $750 = $4,435.  If you divide that total by fifteen players, your team fee shouldn’t be less than $295.67…if you want to break even.  If your roster is twenty players, then your per player team fee could be as low as $221.75 to break even.  So, in sum, you need to account for the following expenses to truly gain a deeper understanding of what managing a team in an adult baseball league could require:

• League Fee
• Cost of Home Playing Field(s)
• Cost of Umpires
• Hats
• Jerseys

Once you’ve accounted for those expenses, you can start recruiting your players.  I’m happy to offer my own suggestions for recruiting your team in a future post!

With kindest regards,

TAB

Suggested suppliers:

Hats, etc.: https://www.homegrownsportinggoods.com/stretchfitcaps.html

Custom jerseys: https://www.teamtriton.com/

Socks: https://tcksports.com/

Pants: Monkey Sports (https://monkeysports.com/derry/)

(If a reader has others, please feel free to suggest!)