History

 

The HVNABA has a rich and extensive history. Here you can learn about the background of the league and see just how far we have come and changes we have made since being founded in 2007 by Angelo Fabrizio who remains involved 17 years later.

 

2007 - Small 4 team league founded      

  - Angelo Fabrizio creates small 4 team fall league under the umbrella of the National Adult Baseball Association based out of Colorado. At the time leagues in the Hudson Valley were suffering from lack of leadership and overall quality of play. This would all change....

 

 - 4 teams were recruited by the league president in June and July with play starting in August.

 

 - The 4 teams included his Black Sox team which still exists to this day.

 

 - Another team was the Spartans who later became the Arsenal and now better know as the Marlins.

 

 - The Quiet Storm was a team from NY City that actually came up every Sunday to play competitive baseball.

 

 - The 4th team was the Bears led by Mike Sine and Jay Dileo. Dileo remains loyal to the HVNABA and is the only player still active that was here since the first pitch!

     
     
     
     

 

2008 - Hudson Valley takes notice, 9 new teams join      

  After playing in other leagues for years, new teams began to notice the hardwork and dedication that was being put into the Hudson Valley NABA. After being frustrated in other leagues due to lack of leadership and quality of fields teams started knocking on the HVNABA's door. Nobody had any idea how quickly the league would grow.

 

 - League begins their 2008 season with an amazing 12 teams.

 

 - League gives birth to the NL and AL divisions where teams were divided up based on talent

 

 - HVNABA becomes the first adult league to begin playing games at Dutchess Stadium ( 6 regular season games, All Star Game and Championship series )

 

 - League hosts first annual HR Derby

 

 - League president creates loyalty and sportsmanship program. Teams that end the year without any infractions ( suspensions, fines or forfeits ) would be rewarded the following season with a credit towards their league fee. This money came from any extra funds the league would have leftover after paying their bills for the year.

     
     
     
     

 

2009 - HVNABA grows to 14 teams      

  After finishing 2008 with teams excited to be a part of a league that was far more organized and competitive than any of their previous leagues the HVNABA grew again to 14 teams.

 

 - League begins their 2009 season with the most amount of teams so far - 14.

 

 - League sees first ever triple crown winner

 

 - Leagues books Dutchess Stadium for 14 games during the year ( more than double their first season )

     
     
     
     

 

2010 - HVNABA sees league jump to 16 teams      

  During 2016 the league would climb to 16 teams allowing us to split the divisions into the very popular NL East, NL West and AL East and AL West. We welcome the Cardinals to the league who had previously won Championships 3 out of the last 6 years in another league and were looking for better competition.

 

 - Cardinals prove age is nothing but a number winning the HVNABA Championship with a much older team then the rest of the league.

 

 - John Barone has the greatest season the league has ever seen, setting numerous offensive records while winning the triple crown

 

 - League books Dutchess Stadium for 34 games during the year !

     
     
     
     

 

2011 - HVNABA plays at a MAJOR LEAGUE STADIUM      

  In 2011 the league offered players an opportunity to play at Progressive Field in Cleveland, home of the Cleveland Indians! The Black Sox, Expos and Indians ( non league team ) made the trip out for a tremendous day of baseball. We had access to the clubhouse, indoor batting cages and were treated like pros! It was a trip that none of the players will ever forget. To see more about our trip CLICK HERE

 

 - League president comes up with an idea of allowing teams to add Emergency players last minute before game time. These players were fill-in players to help prevent teams from forfeiting. This small addition ended up helping numerous teams avoid what would be games they had to forfeit and made a major difference in overall games played throught the league.

     
     
     

 

2012, 2013, 2014      

  Over these 3 years the league would float between 11 - 13 teams. Down from previous years of 14 - 16 teams the league would attempt to slowly build around its existing teams.

 

 - Teams would start to add much younger players and rebuild insuring a competitive future for the league.

 

 - Through recruitment and tryouts the league would begin to reload its player base adding on average 30 - 40 brand new players each year.

 

 - The league also saw a few teams load up on talent, 1 dynasty ( NY Mariners ) would fall while a new one ( NY Black Sox ) would emerge.

     
     
     
     

 

2015 - HVNABA introduces strength of schedule      

  In 2015 the HVNABA would introduce a very light strength of schedule. With the league starting to notice they were losing teams and players due to their inability to compete with some of the top teams in the league we knew something would have to be done. We also wanted to prevent as many blowout games as possible and create a better competitive balance. A 2 year plan was put in place to fix this problem.

 

 - Each team would still play a 24 game schedule but would now play each other twice. Their remaining 4 games would be against teams of like competition.

 

 - We did see more competitive games and less mercy rule wins than we have in our entire leagues history but the competitive balance still was not where we would like it to be.

 

 - The # 5 seed Marlins would prove that anyone could win the league as they would take out the # 1 and # 2 seeds on their way to winning their first HVNABA Championship.

     
     
     
     

 

2016 - HVNABA adds brand new division and 9 new teams!          
It's 19 teams is the most ever in league history and in the Hudson Valley!        

After seeing the benefits of their light strength of schedule in 2015 the league and our managers decided to go even further with this. For the good of   all teams and to promote fair and compatible competition the league would now implement a full strength of schedule. This would allow the newer or rebuilding teams to play each other more than they would have to play the top teams in the league. Same would go for the top teams as they would play each other more than playing the newer or rebuilding teams. The goal was to create more competitive games through out the league every Sunday for all teams in the league.

To even further this idea of creating a competitive balance the league president decided to take a chance and attempt to add a brand new division. First he would rename the division that we have had since 2007 to the Premier division. This would give way to his new idea - the Rec Division. With a deadline of just 2 months before the targeted opening day date he knew this would be a tough task but was confident in his marketing strategy. The idea was to build a Recreational division that would allow players of any ages to continue or restart their baseball career who might not have the same extensive baseball background as some of our players in our Premier division. The main reason for this is that we noticed we have lost a lot of players over the last few years because they felt like they could not compete in our Premier division. He also knew if we really wanted a competitive balance that this was something that needed to be done. Well the response was overwhelming. 4 teams were planned but the division grew to 7 teams in less than 2 months! Now what would be called our Premier division also added 2 new teams bringing that division to 12 teams and the league to 19 teams total. Since day one the league has always prided itself in building their own teams through marketing and word of mouth through out the community rather than trying to take teams from other leagues. We are proud to say that in our 10 year history we have only added 2 teams from other leagues ( The Bears and the Cardinals ) and that was only because they contacted us looking for a new start. The rest of our teams have either been built or recruited by the league president, managers or players.

     
     
     
     

 

2017 - HVNABA adds 6 brand new teams bringing league to 25 teams and 500+ players!
         

As word continues to spead the HVNABA keeps growing and GROWING! Our always stable PREMIER division is at a steady 13 teams this season with many of them establishing themselves as powerhouses in the amatuer baseball community. Each of our 11 returning teams made some key additions in hopes to get them to the next level. Our 2 new teams - Reds and Cubs also look to jump right in and make a run into the HVNABA Playoffs. With the addition of the 2 new teams and more and more ex college players joining, the Premier division looks to be in the best shape ever with a strong group of stable teams. 

 

The growth of our Recreational division continues to amaze. In 2017 we have added 6 more teams to the Rec division bring it to 12 teams in just its 2nd year! There are a lot of players out there that do not want to compete against a 23 year old kid straight out of college. The Rec division gives them a place to play and a place to compete. 

 

We even sent teams to Cooperstown NY to play at Doubleday field for the first time this season! Rec and Premier division teams were scheduled to play actual regular season games at one of the most famous fields in America.

 
2018 - 52 teams and rising! 7 new teams join Sunday divisions bringing league to 32 teams! 6 teams kick off the Twilight Division! 14 teams in Fall!
         

Our steady growth continues in 2018 with now 16 teams in our Rec and 16 teams in our Premier division giving us a total of 32 teams in our Sunday divisions! Most of the new teams we have added look to be actual contenders rather keeping the HVNABA as the most competitive mens league in NY. 

 

We have also brought back our Twilight Division. We planned on starting this off with just 4 teams but to noones surprise we had even more interest than anticipated! 6 teams - HVNABA teams make up 5/6 of the division - Cardinals, Nationals, Black Sox, Rays, and Rockies. We also welcome the cornerstone of the now defunct Newburgh Hardball League to the HVNABA - The Newburgh Royals!

 

We will return to Doubleday field in 2018. The HVNABA will take over Cooperstown this year reserving an entire weekend for our Rec and Premier division teams to play regular season games once again!

 
2019 - NEW ERA BEGINS in HUDSON VALLEY ADULT BASEBALL
 

In a blockbuster deal that would shock the entire Hudson Valley Adult Baseball community, the HVNABA would agree to run all 17+ divisions in the area and would agree to not compete with the older 35+ and 45+ divisions. With this agreement

the organization we are affiliated with will continue to run their 35+ Midweek and 45+ Saturday Divisions with the HVNABA offering their divisions to our older players. On the other hand, the HVNABA will run all 17+ divisions in the Hudson Valley including our Sunday Rec, Intermediate and Premier Divisions as well as our 18+ Midweek Twilight Division. The organization we are affiliated with will bring over their 4 remaining 17+ Sunday teams ( Mariners, Cubs to our Premier Division, Yankees to our Intermediate Division and the Royals to

our Rec Division ) to join our existing 34 Sunday teams for a total of 38. They will also send over their 3 remaining 18+ Midweek Twilight Division teams ( Brewers, Phillies and Tigers ) joining our 7 Twilight division teams for a total of 10. With the 2 leagues teaming up players now have more options than ever when deciding

what days or divisions they would like to play in.

 

Our Sunday divisions will be stronger than ever as we introduce another level of competition - Intermediate. This division will fall between our Rec and Premier divisions for a middle ground for players who may excel in Rec but struggle in Premier. This was a huge step forward for the league as a whole. With 3 competitive divisions we can now move away from the strength of schedule so each divisions teams can play each other an even amount of times. Since all teams will be playing the same schedule this will allow us to get a better picture of the top teams and top players ( for All Star voting, awards etc ).

 

Due to popular demand we also created a Westchester division bringing the same organization and commitment to teams and players to that area as seen in our Hudson Valley Divisions since 2007. The division will debut with 4 teams ( Tigers, Indians, Dodgers, Braves ) but we fully expect it to grow in the immediate future! We are very excited for the HVNABA's footprint to continue to spread in the Hudson Valley and now in the Westchester area! 

 
2020 - COVID YEAR...BUT WE STILL PLAYED BASEBALL!!

Coming soon