The familiar sounds of metal bats colliding with baseballs, leather gloves snagging screaming line drives and the grizzly roars from umpires howling “Play ball!” will return to over 50 baseball fields throughout New Jersey as the Last Dance World Series gets underway July 14.
The 222-team tournament, which is the brainchild of St. Joseph (Met.) head coach and athletic director Mike Murray, may feature plenty of stars from local high school teams, but it is not a high school tournament. It isn’t even being sanctioned by the NJSIAA and instead, will be run by the United States Speciality Sports Association.
The only NJSIAA rule tournament officials must adhere to is the summer coaching guideline, which this year states that high school coaches may not coach their own players until July 13.
Other than that, this tournament isn’t going to look much like the NJSIAA state tournament that we’re used to.
Right from the get-go, the tournament opens with three days of pool play, guaranteeing each participant a minimum of three games played. Thirty-two teams will advance out of the pool play round, which features 56 groups.
Instead of being broken up by school size like the NJSIAA state tournament, the Last Dance breaks things down geographically pitting teams against each other that wouldn’t imagine facing off with a state title on the line.
“It is really exciting,” Gill St. Bernard’s coach Dave Pasquale said. “It has the feel of a combination between a county and state tournament because we’re facing teams that would never be in our state tournament bracket. Then, if you advance past your geographical pool, you move on to play other schools that you probably wouldn’t even see during the regular season.”
Pool play also presents a new set of rules.
Teams will be allowed to bat as many as 11 batters and make unlimited defensive substitutions - encouraging coaches to give as many kids playing time as possible.
“I think that the unlimited defensive substitutions really emphasize what this is about,” Waldwick coach Dan Freeman said. “It’s not necessarily about cut-throat decisions and winning at all costs. It’s about celebrating the seniors and everyone else that worked their tails off from the end of last season until now.”
Another rule change will be that pitchers will not have a pitch count or innings limit. The NJSIAA implemented a pitch count rule in 2017 that capped pitchers at 110 pitches in a single outing and 140 pitches over a five-day period. While there is no limit for this tourney, the Last Dance staff has asked coaches not to overuse pitchers.
“I think that the coaches will be pretty responsible,” Hamilton West coach Mike Moceri said. “I know that as soon as the kids were allowed to start practicing, they’ve been throwing. They’re working up to getting anywhere from 50-75 pitches by the 14th.”
The pitchers will be throwing to a different looking backstop.
After observing other organizations that have returned to play, Murray and umpire Warren Bennett decided that traditional home plate umps will call games from behind the pitcher’s mound instead of crouching behind the catcher. Umps will continue calling games from behind the mound through at least the pool play round.
While the umpires won’t be in their traditional spot for safety reasons, Egg Harbor Township coach Bryan Carmichael doesn’t see that as an issue.
“I played college baseball and when we did intrasquad games, we always called the games from behind the mound,” he said. “I don’t think it is that big of a deal. I know that some of the umpires in the area have been working travel ball and doing scrimmages so they’re going to have their mechanics down. I don’t think it is going to be that big of an issue.”
Moving the umpires was not the only safety precaution that the tournament has taken.
Every coach, player and umpire will have their temperatures taken by paid, certified athletic trainers upon arrival at every site before every game. Anyone with a temperature of 100.4 or higher will be sent home. Players and coaches are required to wear masks in the dugout and social distance as much as possible.
Fans have been asked to arrive no more than 10-15 minutes before first-pitch and are not permitted in the dugout or backstop areas. While fans are not subject to temperature checks, social distancing down the left and right field lines is required and will be enforced by site managers. Masks are recommended for all fans.
“It’s kind of similar to what you hear in Gov. Murphy’s briefings,” Murray said. “You need people at a macro-level to be smart and to have commonsense. Throughout the tournament, we have site directors and athletic training personnel at every site. For the most part, we’re hoping that parents and fans are going to be smart.”
While this may not be the state tournament that we’re used to, baseball is back in New Jersey and this year’s seniors get to suit up with their high school teammates at least three more times to try to make up for a lost spring.
“This is great for the kids,” Moceri said. “I’m looking forward to it. I know that the kids are itching to get onto the field and play a real game. They’re itching to get on the field and practice. It’s going to be good to see them out there laughing with each other.”
