** SCHEDULES ARE NOW POSTED AS OF THURSDAY, JUNE 4th at 8:00 PM (CT) NOTE, the HOME TEAM in POOL PLAY is the FIRST TEAM listed on the schedule! Home team is bracket play is determined by seed except in Championship game where the undefeated team will be the home team. In the "IF-Necessary" game, the home team will be determined by a coin flip conducted by the umpire at home plate prior to the start of the game and relayed to each head coach.
WORLD SERIES SESSION I WILL BE PLAYED EXCLUSIVELY AT THE NEW PCB SPORTS COMPLEX!
1. IF you have not already paid your entry and/or gate fees, you will need to do this ASAP! We have the website set up where you can pay BOTH of these fees from your team clubhouse. The entry fee is $750 and the team gate fee is $650. The team gate fee gets EVERYONE from your team into the park as we will not be selling admission at the gate. Please don't call or text asking if we have you paid as we will not take any team out without checking with you first. If you took advantage of an early bird gate fee reduction promotion, you can pay your gate fee at the coaches meeting on Sunday, June 14th at Rockit Lanes.
3. IF you have not already secured lodging for the event, I suggest you do so ASAP! Click on this link to see who our 2020 Lodging partners are https://www.grandslamtournaments.com/baseball/Hotels/Details/12/panama-city-beach-lodging-partners
4. NO team will be able to take the field without a fully completed Economic Impact Report. You will need to print this form, fill it out completely and email it to us prior to arrival to grandslamtournaments@gmail.com This form is now available https://www.grandslamtournaments.com/baseball/Events/Details/1020/the-2020-grand-slam-world-series-of-baseball-session-i
5. Schedules for the event will be posted on the website no later than 9:00 PM (CT) on Monday, June 8, 2020. Note that with no pre-game home plate meetings, we will be determining home teams in pool play prior to the start of the event. This will be denoted on the schedules. In bracket play, the home team is always the highest seeded team OR the last undefeated team in the winners bracket.
6. Unfortunately there will be no opening ceremonies parades this year at Pier Park. There is no way to practice social distancing with this many people at one place at the same time.
7. We are still going to have Opening Ceremonies and Pin Trading as follows: 8U through 12U age divisions will meet at Rockit Lanes on Sunday, June 15th at 3:00 PM in the Skating rink area. Each team will have a designated area to stand in the skating rink. We will announce all the teams in attendance and then teams will be able to trade pins one team at a time. It will be set up like a booth setting at an expo. The 13U & 14U teams will meet at Rockit Lanes at 4:30 PM to do the same thing. Each group of teams is allowed an hour and a half for opening ceremonies and pin trading.
8. Skills competitions will be held on Monday and Tuesday, June 15 & 16 at a TBA field at the PCB Sports Complex. You will sign up for the skills competitions at the coaches meetings.
9. YES, we will have coaches meetings at Rockit Lanes, Richard Jackson Boulevard, PC Beach, Florida. Please, a max of 2-coaches and/or team mom at this meeting so that we can adhere to social distancing guidelines. This will take place at 10:00 AM (CT) on Sunday, June 14th. EVERY TEAM must have a representative in attendance. IF by chance you have not turned in necessary forms, you can do so at this time. You will also pick up any pre orders for WS merchandise at this time. Unpaid fees will also be due at this time.
10. The Pre-Order form for Official World Series Merchandise is now available under the documents tab. We apologize for the delay in getting this posted. We encourage you to share this information with your parents as this year we will have a very limited amount of tournament T-shirts on site at the park. We have extended the Deadline for turning in pre-order forms for merchandise to Wednesday, June 10, 2020.
11. Please familiarize yourself with both the Grand Slam Rules and the PCB Sports Complex Rules. The Grand Slam rules are here https://www.grandslamtournaments.com/baseball/2019-2020-grand-slam-rules and the PCB Sports Complex Rules are here https://www.grandslamtournaments.com/baseball/Events/Details/1020/the-2020-grand-slam-world-series-of-baseball-session-i
12. World Series Session I is an open event this year due to the number of teams that dropped out because of Covid-19 and the fact most teams were not able to play a full spring schedule of games to get classed appropriately. With this in mind however, we will still award the top-3 or top-4 9U, 10U, 11U, 12U, 13U and 14U teams after bracket play. For example in the 9/10U combined bracket, if a 9U teams finishes 4th overall in the bracket, but is the highest remaining 9U team in the tournament, they will be crowed 9U Champions and receive the bat trophy, rings, championship banner, etc... Same applies for 10U, 11U & 12U since these are combined brackets. In the 13U age division and 14U age division, we will award the top-4 teams. Again, no separation of classes this year only, however in large age divisions, Grand Slam still reserves the right to separate by class if we feel it is best for a particular age division.
13. All weather updates and schedule updates will be posted on the website.
14. NO campers or overnight parking is allowed at either complex.
15. NO pets unless service animals allowed into the park.
16. NO motorized, electric or gas powered vehicles of any type allowed inside the park.
17. Grand Slam will provide two new Mizuno NFHS baseballs per game.
The Following are the COVID-19 guidelines that Grand Slam will have in place for World Series Session I
** The State of Florida will be in Phase-2 by the time this event takes place thus Phase 2 guidelines below will be followed.......
* Note that Grand Slam will NOT compromise the integrity of the game. We will play real baseball!
A) No pre-game home plate meeting. All Umpires will undergo a temp check every day prior to taking the field for a game.
B) During Phase I in Florida, the Home plate umpire will be positioned near pitchers mound. In Phase II, the home plate umpire will return to normal positioning behind the catcher. The State of Florida is currently in Phase I, however, it is entirely possible that we could be in Phase II by the start of this event.
C) During Phase I in Florida, NO spectators be will allowed in bleachers. No spectators will be allowed in the area from the first base dugout to the 3rd base dugout directly behind home plate. This area will be for extended dugout personnel only. In Phase 2, groups of no more than 50-people are encouraged.
D) Spectators are encouraged to bring your own chairs. Each team is also free to bring in a team cooler. Pop up tents are also allowed.
E) No post game hand shakes or post game team meetings on the field after a game.
F) No pre determined dugout rules. We will leave this up to each team to determine how best to handle this as it pertains to them and what they feel is safe. In other words, we will Not dictate how many players or coaches are in dugout and how the players & coaches should be spaced. We will let teams police themselves as they feel is best.
G) Hand sanitizer will be available in dugouts.
H) All scoreboards, dugouts and restrooms will be sanitized on a regular basis.
I) During Phase I in Florida, only groups of 10 will be allowed and social distancing will be practiced. In Phase II, groups of 50 will be allowed.
J) NO team will be allowed to leave their dugout without first having all trash and debris removed.
K) NO sunflower seeds, peanuts of any kind or any other kind of shelled snack in which spitting of the shell or discarding of the shell is involved.
L) If a coach wants to protest an umpires call and/or rule, he or she must ask for time and motion umpire to dugout. Umpire and coach will maintain 6-foot difference to adhere to social distancing.
** Grand Slam reserves the right to add and/or change any of these outlines prior to the start of the event depending on what phase of reopening the State of Florida is in at the time of the event.
GRAND SLAM WORLD SERIES OF BASEBALL SKILLS COMPETITIONS
**SKILLS COMPETITIONS WILL BE HELD FROM 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM ON TBA fields at the PCB Sports Complex on Monday & Tuesday, June 15 & 16, 2020 for age divisions 8U through 14U. There will be THREE Competitions, ONE TEAM competition and TWO INDIVIDUAL competitions. We will award champions in each age division. Coaches must sign their players up ahead of time at the coaches meetings on Sunday in order to participate.
** Dates and Times are subject to change based on weather and other factors.
THE TEAM COMPETITION will be the AROUND THE HORN competition (9-players)
• Each team will have 9 position players.
• Each outfielder will have a base placed in a standard outfield spot which they will have to touch before they can throw.
• Each infielder will have to touch the base before they can throw.
• A wrong throw must be thrown back to that player and player must re throw to correct spot
• A 5 second penalty will be given for each missed base
• How the competition works
• Pitcher throws to catcher
• Catcher to second (shortstop covers)
• Shortstop to first
• First to third
• Third to second (second baseman covers)
• Second to right field
• Right field to center field
• Center field to left field
• Left field to home
Time will start when the catcher has the ball and steps on the plate. Time will end when catcher has the ball and steps on the plate.
Make sure you have players backing up each throw, your other players my retrieve a missed ball and give it back to the player that has to throw it. The player backing it up may not throw the ball to the next base only the player that is playing that base. The player backing up the play must be one of your nine player's being used in the
competition.
THE INDIVIDUAL COMPETITIONS will be the HOME RUN DERBY & GOLDEN ARM competitions! We are going to increase the Max of players per team allowed to participate in the individual competitions to 6. ** This should allow most teams to include all their players in the competitions if you choose.