FORT MYERS, Fla. – Perfect Game launched its unique Super25 tournament series in 2014 based on the concept of promoting true “team” baseball where squads with set rosters can progress through regional or qualifying tournaments on their way to winning a PG national championship.
The PG Super25 sets sail for its third season in 2016 with new National Director Bob Barth intent on further developing the “one team, one roster” concept the original organizers promoted while increasing opportunities and doing so with the full backing of PG ownership and upper-management.
“I think as a whole … (President) Jerry Ford and the rest of the people at Perfect Game have decided to continue Super25 and make it better,” Barth said late last month. “We think it’s a very viable program and we think it’s good for baseball all the way up and down the spectrum.”
Barth points out the PG Super25 tournament series is Perfect Game’s only true national championship that is progressive. Teams must win at the Super Qualifier or Regional tournament level in order to reach one of the seven age-group PG Super25 National Championships, all played in Fort Myers.
Incentives have been added to make the process even more attractive to the participating teams, including paid berths to the National Championships for the champions emerging from Super Qualifier and Regional tournament competition. These free invitations are similar to those awarded to the champions at PG WWBA Qualifiers which allows team to participate without having to pay an entry fee into the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla.
It is a format Perfect Game National Vice President for Tournaments Taylor McCollough has seen work successfully during his tenure at PG and one he fully endorses for the Super25.
"We are excited with the changes to the Super25 in year three,” McCollough said. “It started as an idea in 2014 and now are looking to make it a staple in the PG tournament division in 2016. We have brought on our top Regional Director Bob Barth and his staff, who have built the (PG Super25) Mid-Atlantic Region to 500-plus teams annually, to lead the charge and implement his system nationally. We feel that this is exactly what we need to get the Super25 over the top."
The goal of Barth and his staff of assistant directors is to put the PG Super25 national championship events on an equal footing with PG’s other prominent tournament national series: World Wood Bat Association (WWBA), Baseball Championship Series (BCS) and the PG World Series (PGWS). This will be accomplished by keeping the Super25 distinct with its “one team, one roster” philosophy.
The biggest change being made in year three involves the PG Super25 calendar of events, which will see a sizable increase in the number of Super Qualifier and Regional tournaments all across the country. The goal is to get more teams and players involved and make the championship tournaments truly “national” in scope.
“Right now our goal is to flood the areas we’re really big in to continue to try to get more teams involved from those areas while opening up new areas slowly but surely and giving people two or three events to chew on,” Barth said.
The PG Super25 tournament series has numerous selling points, with the progressive aspect of the championship firmly entrenched at No. 1. The events feature only a select group of teams that have been played together as unit throughout the series – rosters cannot be “stacked” for the national championships.
The best way to describe it, perhaps, is the continuation of a typical high school season where teams might play for a league championship and then advance to play at the district, regional and substate level before competing at their respective state tournaments.
“(Super25) promotes team baseball and at Perfect Game we’re all about what’s best for the game of baseball,” Barth said. “… The reason we have the Super25 as one of our important (series) is because we’re all baseball people who enjoy the progressive, team championship that we all grew up with.”
It’s important to understand this is not an “either-or” proposition. The WWBA, BCS Finals and PG World Series have grown into the most respected summer and fall high school-age amateur baseball tournaments in the country, bringing together the top prospects from coast-to-coast to perform at the highest level. The PG Super25 simply provides an alternative for teams looking for roster rules that differ from those respected travel ball series.
An example of this cooperative effort enjoyed between the PG tournament series can be seen on PG’s 2016 tournament schedule: All of the PG Super25 National Championships will be played in Fort Myers on the same dates as their respective PG BCS Finals (both tournament series use composite bats).
The duplicate dates will result in a bonanza of teams from the same age-group brought together in one place for five days of non-stop play on Fort Myers’ vast array of major league quality playing fields.
“To me there is nothing in baseball that should be promoted more than the team; that is what the game is about,” Barth concluded. “That’s why I love the Super25 platform because I believe it’s pure baseball. (PG runs) some of the best events in the world but we wanted was to have a progressive world series where teams have to win to advance.
“We’re going to do our best to make sure that anyone that attends any of our events nationwide in Super25 has a great experience and enjoys what we’re trying to do.”