Miami Open Baseball Tournament

Florida Hardball is proud to present the 15th Annual Miami Open Baseball Challenge.  The tournament, which is open to any and all teams in the region regardless of affiliation, takes place in Miami, Florida on Memorial Day weekend, May 26 – 28, 2012.  The tournament features some of the best competition in Florida with teams coming from various leagues including the South Florida Baseball League, Fort Myers Hardball, the Orlando – Central Florida Baseball League, the Federal League and the Liga Nica.  The registration fee is $850 per team, regardless of player count. The deadline for team registration is Saturday, May 19, 2012. All interested teams and players should contact the tournament director immediately.

Tournament Contact Number – 305.496.2962 – Mickey Filippucci

  Tournament Teams

The tournament will be played in an open division format (18+). All teams are guaranteed a minimum of three games played in round robin format against teams within their respective division. Two games are played on Saturday, May 26 with the third game played on Sunday morning, May 27.

Playoffs:  The first place team after the 3-game elimination round will earn a bye and automatically advance to the championship game.  The second and third place teams will play a semi-final game Sunday afternoon May 27, with the winner advancing to play the first place team in the championship game, which is scheduled for 10am Monday May 28.  All ties are resolved based on tie-breaker rules listed below.

Playoff Qualifiers: Teams qualify for the playoffs based on the following point system:

Points:    Win = 2 points, Tie = 1 point, Loss = 0 points.

Tie Breaker Rules: Tie breakers are applied in the following order:

1.  Head-to-head result

2.  Fewest Runs Allowed: If no head-to-head result, the team with the fewest runs allowed will win the second tie breaker.

3.  Net Runs: In case of another tie, an equation of net runs will be employed and the team with the greatest number of net runs wins the third tie breaker.  Net Runs = (Runs Scored – Runs Allowed).

4.  Coin Toss:  In case of a third tie, a best-of-three coin toss will determine the final tie breaker.

Tournament Rules

The Miami Open is played under the rules undertaken by the South Florida Baseball League.  A copy of the SFBL Official Rules and Regulations will be provided to each participating team.  To access the rules immediately, click on the underlined reference.  Some imperative rules are as follows:

1.  In each team’s offensive line-up, a minimum 10 batters must be used.  You may add to this minimum at any time during the game but you may not shrink the line-up once expanded.

2.  Free defensive substitution.  As implied, no restrictions on defensive changes except for the pitcher re-entry rule.

3.  Pitcher re-entry rule:  In the case of a pitching change, once a pitcher is removed, he can only be re-entered as a pitcher after one complete inning  has been played.  This move can only be done once per game.

4.  No deliberate physical contact between base runners and defensive players, i.e. NO BARRELING INTO THE CATCHER, SECOND BASEMAN, etc.  Automatic ejection penalty.

5.  Elimination round and games are subject to a 3 hour time limit = no inning shall start after 3 hours has elapsed.  Tie games are permitted – see tie breaker rules.  Semi-final games are also subject to a three hour time limit, except that there are no ties permitted, meaning play will continue until there is a winner.  The championship game will play without time limits.

6.  In case of rain, official game only after 5 full innings completed.  Games started but not registering 5 complete innings will be suspended and completed later.  Offensive line-ups remain frozen and the suspended game must pick up where it left off.

7.  All team managers must call in game results – win or lose- to the SFBL office 305.496.29621 within 30 minutes of game completion or suspension.  All results will be posted to this website page live throughout the tournament.