Opening Day 2025

We sat down with Commissioner Jeremy Washington to talk about the 101st year of RCBL Baseball. After a successful celebration of the 100th anniversary season, the RCBL is set to start play tonight.

With all the excitement and celebration of 100 years, now what? Can the league keep the momentum going? 

I live by this philosophy…’every day is the first day of the rest of your life’. May 22nd will be the first day of the next 100 years of RCBL baseball; the only difference is now we have 100 years of experience. The league has moved into a good place in the last few years.  I feel like we have a good presence amongst the valley baseball players and interest in the league keeps growing.

How do you see the competition shaping up?  

I expect a few changes within the standings this year.  There have been some significant changes to a few teams that may impact their performance.  On any given day, any RCBL team can beat any RCBL team.  All 8 teams in our league are very competitive and have some of the valleys most talented players.  The difference in our 8 teams is not so much who has the most ABILITY as it is who has the most AVAILABILITY.  I can’t wait to see who can field the best team the most often!

Has the league considered expansion? Where would you like to see the league expand?  

We’ve had some interest from a few groups recently.  Location was a big issue that ultimately prevented a new team from joining us last year.  We have a large footprint and lengthy travel to game sites for some players creates a big problem.  I think getting established in the Greene/Madison County area could be a benefit.  There is great baseball in that area, and it is very central to our teams.

The league is playing a 24-game schedule again this year. Is this the new normal? 

Our league uses players from high school and college, as well as a few old guys.  Fitting our schedule into a window that accommodates both sides of that demographic creates a lot of issues for those players.  An earlier start date makes high school aged players not eligible until their high school season is over.  A later end date makes many college players ineligible due to returning to college and starting fall practice.  I expect we have found that 24 games can work well for everyone.

Last year the league switched statistic programs from PointStreak to GameChanger. Now it is switching back. What is the reason for this? Will fans be able to see stats from last year?  

A few years back we implemented a real-time scoring expectation for our teams.  Pointstreak, for some scorers, proved to be difficult to navigate and that created some issues with finding reliable staffing that could accurately use their [somewhat] difficult system.  Switching to Game Changer alleviated some of the staffing issues due to their product being easier to use, but we found that Game Changer did not offer as thorough of a statistical package [or technical support] as the league desires.  2024 stats will only be viewable from Game Changer at this time.

Rosters sizes have been expanded to 35 players. Why? 

For many players within the league, LIFE gets in the way of the ‘most important thing’, baseball.  Increasing to 35 players per team will allow teams with less-than-available players to be more competitive by having more players at the games to create their lineups from.  However, only 30 players of the 35 will be available for the playoffs as teams will be required to cut their roster down at the start of each playoff round.

Last year the league changed to college rules. How did that work out?  

Our league is comprised of a large quantity of college players and many players that will be going to college.  We found that the transition from MLB rules to NCAA rules was very seamless.  The league reserves the right to exempt many of the college rules that do not apply to our style of baseball. We have done a great job identifying those rules. I do not anticipate any issues moving forward.

Are there other rule changes this year?  

There have been very few changes to the NCAA rule book for this year, and I expect to find that those changes will not be very impactful to the league.  One change that may show itself more than others is the batter must be in the box, alert and attentive to the pitchers’ actions by 8 seconds of the 20 second pitch countdown. Last year it was 10 seconds.  The batters will be given a few more seconds to prepare between pitches.

Where will the All-Star game be played this season?  

Elkton will be hosting the All-Star game, and I expect their group will have a great event planned for us.

Any final thoughts?  

My focus as commissioner is to assure that our players, fans, and sponsors are provided the best possible product available.  Our community-based baseball games are some of the finest around and I am very proud to be part of this organization.  The fans and sponsors are as much a part of each team as the players.  I feel we are doing a very good job of providing that quality product!

…………………the 100th anniversary exhibit of RCBL Baseball can be seen on the RCBLBaseball.com website.

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