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© Copyright 2018 – 2024 FIRECRACKER SPORTS. All Rights Reserved. TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY
© Copyright 2018 – 2024 FIRECRACKER SPORTS. All Rights Reserved. TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY
Thanks for checking back in with Boomer’s Blog! This week, Firecracker Sports has decided to continue highlighting some of our personal favorite events, while also touching on some notable news from Major League Baseball and Firecracker Sports. We hope you learn a little bit more about our longest running event, The Northeast Spring Championships, while also hearing about some of the biggest moves to come out of the MLB offseason!
The Northeast Spring Championships, formally known as the Battle at the Border, will be returning to the greater Westchester, NY area this season for its 20th year of operation. We are thrilled to continue hosting this event, which sees some of our most dynamic competition early in the year. This event is exclusive to the 17U division (no seniors), which means all the lights are shining on one of our most pivotal age groups; many of the players who participate are beginning or continuing their journey to play at the next level, hoping to be scouted or increase their overall exposure on and off the field.
This wood-bat, invite-only tournament features a similar format to most of our larger events, however there are a few notable differences. As mentioned, this is one of our more exclusive events in terms of size and amount of teams overall, which in turn leads to changes in the tournament itself. For example, some of our larger events are 4 game guarantees, due to their size and availability of divisions. The Northeast Spring Championships feature a single, highly-competitive age division, so only the best of the best continue playing on, hoping to advance to the playoffs. Teams are placed in pools of 4 teams so only the pool winner advances to the next round as all teams play each other in their pool (weather permitting). This event, located in and around Westchester County, NY at premier venues like Purchase College, Flowers Field, Westchester Community College, Nyack High School and hoping to add Pace University back for 2025. Annually welcome teams such as the Long Island Titans, Next Level Baseball, 5 Star Metro New York, FTB Mid Atlantic and many more. We couldn’t be happier to see some of our best programs from the area make an appearance year-in, year-out, all in the hopes of taking home the trophy.
In order to provide a more detailed perspective on the event, we spoke with John Liberatore, who recently became a member of our Marketing & Communications team after working as one of our Game-Day Operations interns this past summer. When asked to share his experience(s) with the tournament, John said; “I certainly like to think that I have a unique perspective on the tournament itself, outside of having worked it, considering I participated as a player years ago. Going back almost a decade ago now, I participated in the (then-known-as) Battle at the Border tournament. As someone from southwestern Connecticut, this event featured top teams from the surrounding areas, reaching into Westchester County, and even further into New York. Not only did this provide a more competitive experience in comparison to similar tournaments, but it also gave my team and others the ability to face off against programs we typically wouldn’t encounter.
Experiencing this tournament last year, now from the other side of things, was definitely interesting as well; the venues and teams involved have changed, but being at events such as the Northeast Spring Championships still bring about that same sort of nostalgia for me. Personally, I had the opportunity to spend a good amount of my time at Purchase College for last summer’s event, and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of their baseball field and the park itself. Being from the area, it was a bit shocking to find out that the field was only a 20 minute drive from where I live.
After having worked a variety of Firecracker Sports events over the last year, I can say that there is a tangible difference in the level of play and energy that is brought to the Northeast Spring Championships; players and teams recognize the importance of a challenge early on in the season, and the more effort you put into this event, the more your team will get out of it by seasons’ end.” We at Firecracker Sports hope to see you and your squad at the Northeast Spring Championships in June!!!
Before we wrap up this week’s blog post, we wanted to highlight some of the biggest storylines coming out of Major League Baseball since the end of the 2024 season. Firecracker Sports works in the field of events and tournaments, but a passion for baseball is what brings us all together! With that being said, here are some of the offseason’s most striking developments…
Juan Soto finds new home in Queens:
Coming off a phenomenal year in a single season with the New York Yankees, Juan Soto made history, signing a 15-year contract for $765 million with the Yankees crosstown rivals, the New York Mets. The contract is the largest and longest in MLB history, beating out Shohei Ohtani’s monstrous $700 million contract which he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers ahead of last season. The Mets added Soto, who batted .288 with 41 home runs and 109 RBIs last season, after falling to Ohtani and the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series last season. The Dodgers then of course went on to beat Soto and the Yankees in the World Series. Either way, Soto and the rest of the Mets roster will look to combine their talents in the hopes of making it past the dominant Dodgers, looking to make their first World Series appearance since 2015, and hoping to win their first since 1986.
Can the Dodgers repeat in 2025?
After winning the World Series over the Yankees in 2024, the Dodgers have their sights set high once again, as they’ve fired off a flurry of free agent moves since the season’s end. Their biggest splash came mid-January, as they landed Roki Sasaki, the Japanese All-Star pitcher that many teams had been vying for once he announced his plan to come overseas. Sasaki joined the Dodgers, who already rostered fellow Japanese-born players Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Dodgers also signed former Cy Young winner Blake Snell this offseason, further bolstering their already formidable pitching staff. Off the mound, the Dodgers retained Teoscar Hernandez, a top bat from last year’s lineup, and they signed Michael Conforto, a decent bat that they’ll hope to improve in a way only the Dodgers can. To round out their shopping list (for now), the Dodgers signed two former All-Star relievers in Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott. The Dodgers are primed to win it all again, considering their roster certainly looks stronger than last years, but we’ll see how things shake out once playoffs come around again.
Will the Yankees “Plan B” be enough?
Having missed out on their #1 target in Juan Soto, the Yankees have gone back to the drawing board. The offensive side of the Yankees roster was in a much better place before Soto packed his bags and moved boroughs, so it seems they’ve decided to try and even out the team’s ability. While they still have potent offensive players in Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, the new game for the Yanks seems to be run prevention. Their two biggest moves so far are the signing of SP Max Fried, who has been a solid arm for the Braves since he came into the league. The Yankees then traded “Nasty” Nestor Cortes and infield prospect Caleb Durbin to the Milwaukee Brewers for Devin Williams, their All-Star closer. Another trade then broke through, with the Yankees receiving former NL MVP Cody Bellinger from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for reliever Cody Poteet and some cash. There have been some other moves the Yankees have made, shoring up their bullpen, and adding veterans like Paul Goldshmidt at first base. The Yankees have definitely made moves in the wake of a World Series loss, and the additional gut-punch of losing Soto to the Mets, but we’ll have to wait and see if they really are better off.
