Men's Baseball of Ocala

Here is the new page for the Ocala league. Please direct all questions to this page and address them to Bobby. Thank you.

It appears that the Rotary is unavailable this weekend for use. For now, scrimmage games for this weekend are off. Thank you.

Tryouts/Scrimmage Games THIS Sunday at 11am and 2pm! If you can, have your league fees with you in case you get picked up so the managers know you're serious. League fee is $175. This does not include a jersey. If you can't scrape that together this quickly, that's fine. Just know your spot may not be held for sure without some commitment. Bobby Slattery, our new league president will be out there. Ask for him so you two can at least meet. Tim and Jose will also be out there.
Metal cleats, wood bats, personal helmets, and some water to drink are recommended. There are usually spare helmets out there. Metal bats can work in a pinch. Get there at least 30 minutes early to warm up and get assigned to a team. Feel free to look up Robert Slattery on FB if you have any questions. There will be more opportunities throughout the month of January so don't feel obligated to make this one if you can't. No worries. This always takes place out at the Rotary Sports Complex of Marion County. It pulls up in Google Maps. It's right next to Forest High School and the fields back up to the school. It's the next entrance past the school if the school is coming up on your right. Thank you.

Please be aware that our Ocala adult baseball league will be under new leadership beginning January, 2025. Please follow this page for updates as things progress. I will list contact information and updates here when they become available. Bobby Slattery has agreed to take over the league for me. Thank you Bobby!

The Spring 2025 season should begin around late January or early February with tryouts/scrimmage games beginning sometime prior to that. For potential new players, please know that this league is an 18+ wood bat-only league. Games are typically played on Sundays at either 10am or 11am each week. League fees are typically between $160-$200 per person. Metal cleats are recommended, as is always having a backup wood bat with you for every game. Uniform costs are NOT included in the league fee. Team roster size typically ranges between 12-16 players. No new inning can begin after 2hr 50min. Games making it beyond 9 innings due to a tie start with a runner on 2nd.

If you have any further questions, please reserve them for new management after the 1st of the year. Thank you.

Congratulations to the Ocala Lightning on another big Championship win to end the 2024 Fall Season! McGlovin had them down early, but after several lead changes and a tie going into the 10th inning, the Lightning pulled it out in one of the most exciting games ever! Nice job gentlemen.

Thank you all for another great season. Happy early Thanksgiving! Stay safe. See you next year!

Congratulations to the Lightning and McGlovin on winning BIG in the playoffs and making it to next week's Championship Game!

Congratulations to our 2024 Spring Season Champions, the Ocala Lightning!

In a very exciting back-and-forth game between the Lightning and Marlins, we saw home runs from Jeff Shaw (2 hr), Tyler Dale, and Paul Walker. The Marlins out hit the Lightning 11 to 10, but the Lightning came out on top 7-4 in the end.

Thank you everyone for a great season! Thank you to our umpires for sticking it out with us as we got delayed into the hot summer months! Fall season is just around the corner.

I’m going to go ahead and jump up on the soap box for a minute, even though I loathe doing so, because I want to put this out there for your consideration. Maybe it will lead to more mutual respect, which is what the whole world needs right now anyway.

How many of you have I played AGAINST, in a game, where I have complimented you on a nice hit, or a great play, or making a smart decision? How many times have you done that for someone else you were playing against? When I play this game, it’s not ME against YOU. It’s YOU AND ME against the game. Basebal is a game of failure. To succeed for even a moment, can be a monumental victory. It can change your entire week. Maybe your entire life. You might be across the field, in the “enemy” dugout, but you’re not my enemy. You’re my ally. We’re in a fierce battle against some of the most cynical and snarky gods in the universe, the baseball gods. They can be little MFers. No one should look across the field in anger or spite, but instead, with respect. Believe it or not, we’re all fighting very similar battles in life, and for 3 hours every Sunday, we can all share the SAME opponent. The game of baseball. It’s a love/hate relationship, and both feelings are strong, but never should the hate side be projected towards you human “opponent”.. That’s not what we’re out there for. Maybe you’re one of the ones that can’t see that yet. Hopefully someday you can. Baseball is not available everywhere, and softball is no substitute. I ask that you be grateful for the game being available in your area, because it wasn’t always the case. I played softball for 20 YEARS before baseball came to town. I tried playing it once after a season of baseball in between seasons. . . it was awful! It’s not the same, I don’t care what anybody says. There’s no game like this one and it is what you make it. Make it something positive. For yourself. For your opponent. And even for the fans/families that come out to watch. You’ll get out of it what you put in. S**t in-sh*t out, as they say. But if you show the game the love it deserves, you’ll be amazed at what it will give you back.

If all of this is over your head or seems silly, just know you’re still too young and maybe you’ll understand later, and hopefully before it’s too late.

ADULTS . . . playing a children’s game. That’s all we’re doing. It’s the rare opportunity to put all of our cares, all of our worries, and all of our responsibilities on hold for just a few hours a week. It’s supposed to be stress-free, fun, challenging, rewarding, and safe. It’s supposed to be what brings us together. It’s here to remind us. . . teach us. . . about empathy and the best parts of the human spirit. It’s Baseball! The best damn sport there is! Here in Ocala, as long as I’m running things, I’m going to do all I can to ensure that’s what baseball is. It’s terribly unfortunate that I have had to tell individuals, “you’re not allowed to play here”, because they bring anger and animosity to the field that have caused physical altercations that are dangerous to other players and are embarrassing to the league. Families come out and watch these games. We have very responsible adults with a lot of responsibilities to those families out here. They are relied upon for providing a safe and stable livelihood to those families. And they’re just here to play the game. There is no room here for showing up with the potential, or worse, the likelihood, of starting a brawl. I have probably shown more patience than I should have for this. I try to be empathetic towards guys going through things. Baseball is great therapy. It can be a tremendous outlet for stress. . . but only to a point. It cannot be an outlet for anger and animosity. If you’re out here to trigger, bully, fight, or otherwise disrespect anyone else in this league, you will no longer be welcome here. I only run this league because I love the game and I want to be able to play it without having to travel for hours or pay through the nose to keep a bunch of administrative people’s pockets fat. It’s more work than you know and I damn-near do it for free. All I ask in return is that you come out, be respectful, show some love, and help make this something we’ll always look forward to and always remember. I apologize to the 98% of the guys in this league, and their families, for the poor behavior of the other 2%. I am doing all I can to keep this family-friendly and ensure your husbands, boyfriends, dads, and sons, all stay safe and have a good time. Thank you for continuing to come out.

Hey all, I definitely appreciate everyone's willingness to help get the fields playable prior to games and practices, but please be aware that we are not permitted to rake any water or sand/soil into the grass from the dirt infields, nor are we permitted to move large amounts of dirt around within the infields. If there happens to be a little bit of standing water, we can lightly use the smooth side of the rakes to try to slide the water over some drier soil to help soak it up, but we cannot make any major movements of dirt that will leave behind a mess when we're done. We will absolutely get banned from using the fields at the Rotary if this happens. The budget out there is very limited and they do all they can to charge us a little money as possible to use their fields. Please respect this as this league and the county currently have a very respectful and mutual relationship that we do not wish to tarnish. Thank you all for your efforts and your cooperation. I have someone checking the fields tomorrow to see how they're looking. If they're looking rough, I will be out extra early Sunday to start fixing them if they're fixable. Thank you.