Travel Baseball
Medford Baseball offers the following travel basbeball teams:
7U, 8U, 9U, 10U, 11U, 12U, 13U, 14U
Travel baseball requires more commitment from players and parents. The skill and competition level is higher. Beginning at 7U teams typically play in a minimum of three weekend long tournaments. Older travel teams may play more tournaments.
When appropriate, each age group can have multiple teams.
Player evaluations and tryouts are held in mid-October to form teams for the following Spring.
7U, 8U, 9U, 10U, 11U, 12U, 13U, 14U
Travel baseball requires more commitment from players and parents. The skill and competition level is higher. Beginning at 7U teams typically play in a minimum of three weekend long tournaments. Older travel teams may play more tournaments.
When appropriate, each age group can have multiple teams.
Player evaluations and tryouts are held in mid-October to form teams for the following Spring.
The Medford Baseball executive board met on October 5th, 2021 and voted on how to deal with age eligibility for the travel program, specifically the issue of allowing players to “play up” from their natural age division.
In an 8-0 decision we voted in favor of the following:
Travel baseball players will adhere to the Cal Ripken baseball age rules for each division based on a player’s birthday. Players will not be allowed to “play up” above their age division. The current Cal Ripken age chart is shown below.
This rule will be implemented now at the 7u and 8u level for all players.
At the 9u-12u levels we will allow players who have previously been “playing up” to try out with their current teams. This applies to players who at a minimum "played up" in the Spring 2021 season and who may have played up for multiple consecutive seasons through Spring 2021, making them part of an established team. We are allowing these players to be “grandfathered” in from the age rule because our intention is not to prevent kids from trying out for their current teams where they are already established, having played there in Spring 2021 and possibly multiple consecutive seasons.
We believe enforcing play at the appropriate Cal Ripken age division gives the Medford baseball program as a whole the best chance to build stronger teams into the future by giving younger players more time to learn the game, beginning at 7u.
It is certainly possible that younger age players may not play with their grade all the time, but in those rare cases we still think the player ends up on the better team and becomes the better player by sticking with their appropriate age.
The executive board does not take this decision lightly. We have spent many hours discussing the issue and have arrived at our decision in the best of interest of serving youth players.
As with any rule, we understand there may be rare instances that require special consideration. In such instances the executive board will discuss and vote on a case by case basis.