With our inaugural tournament in 2025 being a huge success,
we plan to do it again in 2026. Get your deposits in early to hold your spot.
Generations Baseball Wood Bat Tournament Rules and Guidelines
2026 tournament dates: Weekend of October 3rd and 4th Rain dates: following weekend
Player eligibility guidelines as follows:
- Teams to be composed of multiple different family combinations,
not just 1 family.
Examples: Smith father/son, Gray grandfather/son/grandson,
Miller father/daughter, Jones brothers, etc...
Plus you are allowed up to 3 players with no family ties.
- Minimum age is 16 (14 and 15 year olds will need to be cleared by tournament director) No Max age.
Roster size and playing time:
- Unlimited roster size, but no player can be on 2 rosters.
To be eligible to pitch in a championship game, player must
have played in at least 1 other game during the tourney
(not necessarily at pitcher).
- It is strongly recommended (but not mandatory) that every player,
at the game, gets at least 1 at- bat
and plays at least 2 defensive innings each game.
Offensive Lineup Rules, courtesy runners:
- Only 2, 39U players may bat consecutively in the offensive batting order. However, if you run out of players in an age group,
you may bat up to 4 similarly aged players consecutively,
but only at the end of the batting order.
All 39U players must be marked in scorebooks with *asterick.
- Players not in the starting batting order, may be added to the bottom
of the batting order at any time during the game
thus creating a new lineup going forward and must follow above age rules.
- You do not have to take an out for a player who has a game ending injury if no subs are available.
- Line-share batting rule: 2 players are allowed to share a spot in the offensive lineup. Any similarly aged hitter in the lineup
can share their batting order spot with another similarly aged player who is currently not in the offensive lineup. Sharing player must declare to the umpire that he/she is line-sharing or be listed in the original lineup as an
offensive line-share (batting out of order rule applies).
- No courtesy runners allowed with 1 exception: (The last similarly aged batted out may run for the catcher with 2 outs and can steal).
Line-share or regular substitution must be used for all other pinchrunners.
- If there are no subs or line-share players available, and a player is ejected from the game, an out must be taken when that spot comes up in lineup.
Defensive Lineup Rules:
- A minimum of 2 defensive players playing in the field (not including pitcher) must be 40 or over. Penalty: extra out
for offensive team if brought to umpires attention before 3rd out is made.
- Unlimited defensive substitutions and positions are allowed
(except pitchers).
- The defensive lineup is completely separate from the offensive lineup. Defensive players do not have be in the offensive lineup and visa-versa.
Pitching Rules:
- Combined players under the age of 40 can only pitch a maximum
of 3 innings per 7 inning game.
- Players 40 and over must pitch the remaining innings.
- Only starting pitchers may re-enter the game as a pitcher again, but must sit out 3 outs or more.
- If game goes into extra-innings, a 39U pitcher may pitch 1 additional inning in that game.
- **Players still playing or planning to play, High School, Jr High, College, or Summer Travel Ball, at anytime during the next calendar year
may only pitch 1 inning per game and must be marked in scorebook
with **double asterick.
- Penalty for pitching rules violation: extra out for offensive team after legal pitcher goes in.
General Rules, Points of Emphasis and Special Tournament Rules:
- The “Official Rules of Major League Baseball” will be used as the main rule book, with additional tournament specific rules listed in these guidelines.
- This is a wood bat tournament, no metal or composite bats are allowed.
- All games will be 7 innings, rainouts considered complete games after 4-1/2 or 5 innings.
- 15 run rule after 5 innings or 12 runs after 6 innings. Losing team has option to take their last at- bats consecutively to finish the game, but game winner will not change. Runs against will still count towards playoff tie-
breakers.
- No new inning may start after 2 hours and 15 minutes from start of game. Umpires will be instructed to keep games moving along and will try to keep to the MLB rule of 2 minutes between innings.
- No time limit on championship games.
- Extra inning games will start with last batter from previous inning on 2ndbase and 2-1 count.
- MLB rules that cannot be accomplished, such as pitch clock, bigger bases, etc. will not apply.
- This tournament is intended to be competitive, but good sportsmanship is required.
There will be zero tolerance for dirty play, malicious contact, foul language, taunting, drugs, alcohol, equipment throwing, umpire riding, and the like.
- A team may play with 8 players but no less.
- All runners must avoid contact with defensive players, by sliding directly into a base or away from the fielder,
veering off on a force out, or dodging the defensive player.
- Defensive players cannot block the base with or without the ball. Runner must be given a lane.
- Ejected players will be ineligible to play the remainder of the tournament, but may appeal to tournament director
- Any offensive or defensive rules violations, including all tournament specific rules, must be brought to the attention of the umpire
at the time of the violation, before a pitch is thrown to the next batter, and is not retroactive (standard batting out of order rule applies).
Rosters, Line-up Cards, Scorekeeping, Uniforms, Miscellaneous:
- Rosters must be turned in to tournament director, no later than September 15th. You can still put additional players
on your roster after this date by notifying tournament director.
- Rostered players must be listed in their family groups with first & last names, birth year, and relationship to other family members.
Anyone born in 1987 or younger will be considered 39U. No limit on how many players you can put on your roster, only that they cannot be on another teams roster.
- All 39U players must be marked in scorebooks with *asterick. Double **asterick for players still playing baseball in high school or college.
- I will try to have scorekeeper for all games, but just in case, please be prepared to keep score yourself.
- All players must be in full uniform with baseball hats. Jerseys must have numbers on back. Duplicate numbers are allowed. Uniforms and hats do not necessarily need to match.
- Teams must remove all trash from their dugouts after each game.
No alcohol, tobacco, or gum litter.
Cost, game formats, rain dates, baseballs, wood bats, bat boys, field locations:
- 2026 tournament dates: Weekend of October 3rd and 4th, rain dates the following weekend.
- Tournament entry fee is $600 per team, not including umpire fees. Umpire fee of $80 per team, must be paid, in
cash, directly to umpire before each game will begin. Deposit of $250 per team, to hold your spot. 8 teams max for
tournament.
- Tournament director will supply 3 new baseballs per game. If more baseballs are needed, teams must supply them
and they need to meet the approval of the umpire.
- All games to be 7 innings, unless rain, run rule, time limit, or extrainnings.
- Exact pool play and playoff format, to be determined,
based on number of entered teams.
- All teams to play 2 pool games on Saturday. Sunday games will be single elimination. Seeding will place the top 4 teams in the A Division and the remaining teams in the B Division. The most games any team will play for the weekend is 4. Teams with Sunday byes or teams not making the championship game will only play 3 games for the weekend.
- If first weekend is a complete wash-out, tournament will be moved to the following weekend.
- If spotty rainouts, we will try to get in as many games as possible. Teams will then have the option to finish tournament the following weekend,
drop out, or take 50% refund if only 1 game is played. $500 refund if both
weekends are a complete washout. No refund if at least 2 games are played.
- Seeding to be determined by win/loss record, head to head, least runs allowed, runs scored, and coin flip, in that order.
-Wood bats will be available for sale at Grays Field all weekend, or you can pre-order custom bats from Bob Gray 419-271-5302 cell
-No non-players in dugouts or as batboys (too dangerous)
-Grays Field of Dreams is located at 6910 County Road 249, Vickery, Ohio 43464
-Margaretta Varsity Baseball Field is located at 305 S Washington St, Castalia, OH 44824
-Cell phone for tournament director, Bob Gray is 419-271-5302, email: teaklumber@gmail.com
