Adult baseball league expanding in NWA
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Photo © David Kever
ROGERS — For Stephen Boudreaux, Sundays can’t come quickly enough.
Between a full-time job with MCI, family life and his band, Boudreaux still longs to be on the baseball field, and Sundays are his chance.
Boudreaux and about 240 other baseball players from Fort Smith to Joplin, Mo., make up the Northwest Arkansas Men’s Senior Baseball League, which starts its season today. The league features 15 teams in two divisions — the Men’s Adult Baseball League for players 18-and-over and the Men’s Senior Baseball League for 28-and-over.
Boudreaux, who is entering his sixth season as a player/manager and his first as the league’s president, said the attraction to the MSBL is that it’s real, competitive baseball for anyone who loves baseball. "The league gives us the ability to play legitimate hardball," Boudreaux said. "Everything in our league is the exact same as the Major Leagues. The only differences are we can use aluminum bats and we have unlimited substitutions. Everything else is the same."
In northwest Arkansas, MSBL is the only organized baseball league that goes beyond American Legion Baseball. Boudreaux said the league offers a perfect opportunity for anyone out of high school who still wants to play baseball. "There are very few opportunities outside of that age group for guys that are average players or for guys that want to play competitive baseball," he said. "There are only two or three organizations in the whole country that cater to that market space."
The MSBL is a national organization with 325 local affiliates, 3,200 teams and 44,000 members, and offers several national tournaments, including the World Series in October in Phoenix. In northwest Arkansas, the league is continuing to grow.
Although it lost two teams from the 28-and-over division, the NWAMSBL added four teams for this season in the 18-and-over division. But Boudreaux doesn’t want to stop there. "We’re covering a lot of ground right now, but expansion is my goal," he said.
Boudreaux said he hopes to continue adding teams in northwest Arkansas, including several out of Fort Smith and Joplin. Eventually, he would like to see the league grow into three leagues, one in Joplin, Fort Smith and northwest Arkansas.
To help continue the growth, Boudreaux recruits players and new teams year-round. His other presidential duties include organizing the managers, collecting league fees, working with city parks and recreation to get fields and making the league schedule.
Photo © David Kever
The NWAMSBL has six teams in the 28-and-over division and nine 18-and-over teams. Anyone can play on the 18-and-over teams while the 28-and-over teams can only have seven players under 28 on the team. The league, which features intersquad games between the two divisions, has players from all levels of talent and experience. Boudreaux said most of the players played little league and about 20 percent played college-level baseball at some time. There are even a few former Major League players on rosters in the league. Boudreaux said the mix of experience makes for competitive games and a balanced league.
Boudreaux said players and teams can still be added for this season. For more information on the NWAMSBL, go to the league Web site at www.nwamsbl.com.