Learn how JD Magee expanded the DFW Adult Baseball Association (DFW-ABA) from 10 teams to over 65, sharing 30 years of valuable insights on balancing competitive play, managing field challenges, and fostering lasting player engagement.
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Welcome to Episode #18 of the Sold Out podcast, where we interview league organizers across the country for tips on how to sell out and grow leagues.
In this episode, we’re joined by JD Magee, President of the DFW Adult Baseball Association (DFW-ABA), which has been running since 1992 and now boasts around 65 teams in the spring and 40 teams in the fall. JD shares his journey of growing the league, from its early days with 10 teams to its current size, offering divisions for multiple age groups and ensuring a variety of skill levels can participate. He discusses how he balances organizing competitive and recreational play, overcoming challenges such as securing quality fields, and fostering a strong community of players that spans decades.
This episode is packed with insights for league organizers on scaling a sports league, managing operations, and creating lasting player engagement. Whether you’re a seasoned organizer or just starting out, this conversation offers valuable strategies and lessons learned over 30 years of experience.
Key Takeaways:
Listen to the full episode now!
Below is the full transcript from this episode. The Sold Out Podcast is available on Spotify and Apple, or you can watch the entire interview on our YouTube Channel!
Tune in every other week to hear AREENA interview the country's best league organizers about their success in selling out leagues consistently.
https://youtu.be/XvsmXsyHy-Y
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Lance (00:01.145)
Alright, today we have JD from DFW Adult Baseball Association, ABA. Thanks for being here JD. So yeah, let's start with the basics. So you run a baseball in DFW, got that. How many teams and where and what are some of the basics of the business?
JD Magee (00:17.622)
Okay, last spring we had about 65 teams playing. This fall I think it's right at about 40 teams in the fall season, usually a little bit less in the fall than the spring. We pretty much play throughout the Metroplex on different high school fields, city fields, that kind of thing. But yeah, I run two seasons per year basically, a spring summer and then a fall.
Lance (00:46.105)
Got it. So you say all over, so are people having to travel? Because DFW is a big place.
JD Magee (00:52.916)
It is at times. mean, usually some of the weeknight games we try to, we try to get fields in the middle of the Metroplex. but then, I mean, we, we have fields currently like in Carrollton, Arlington, Ulysses, Cedar Hill. so we're pretty much some Fort Worth fields. So we pretty much all over now. The majority of our games, are on Sunday. So traffic's not as bad and stuff.
But we do have some weeknights too and we try to keep, do our best to keep those in the middle of the Metroplex. So if somebody's coming from Dallas or somebody's coming from Fort Worth, Hopefully they can get there in time.
Lance (01:27.737)
Got it.
Lance (01:33.901)
Yeah, so I would imagine is this like a higher level part of the obvious quarter question is, you know, softball versus baseball. I see a lot of softball. Don't see a ton of baseball. So I'm kind of curious about that. And then I would imagine that means that this is kind of probably a higher level of play and people who maybe played baseball at a somewhat high level before or yeah. So maybe what's the backstory of this thing and getting into it and yeah.
JD Magee (01:56.974)
Well, we do have some certainly high level guys that played some college ball. We've even got some guys that played some X-Probe, but we honestly, our goal is we have different age groups. Currently we have seven different age groups. We have 18 and over. We have a 25 and over, a 35 and over, 40 and over, 50 and over, 55 and over, and then a 60 and over.
So, but even when within those age groups, we do our best honestly to try to break down and have like a double A division and an A division whenever we can when we have enough teams. So hopefully, we're accommodating people that have played that college ball or high school ball, as well as guys that have never played before or stopped playing when they were 12. We try to have those levels as long as we have the teams to be able to do that. We try to break that down.
Lance (02:54.649)
I've, that's interesting, I've never heard of age groupings being so close, I've never heard of like an 18 and up and a 25 and up. It's usually 18 and up and then maybe like 35 and up and then 55 and up or something, a little bit more sort of spread out. So what's the thinking on how close those age bands are?
JD Magee (03:13.294)
we just ended up as I've continued to run this felt the scene, the need for it a little bit. Plus some of those will play on different dates on different days, where we've got maybe the 16 over plays on Sunday and 55 and over plays on Thursdays, 40 and over plays on Wednesdays. So guys that maybe work on the weekend or can't be there on the weekend can still play in some of the other, some of the other leagues and stuff there. So,
Lance (03:42.169)
Got it.
JD Magee (03:43.214)
That's kind of it, but plus, you know, when you get to, if you're playing 25 and over and the next age group's not till 50, you know, we've got that 35 and we've got that 40. Well, there's some guys that just got out of college at 25 and over just a couple of years ago, still coming in and throwing some heat and stuff. So we had that little breakdown to hopefully separate out. You know, if you're 38, you don't want to be playing in 25 and seeing that.
Still 85 mile an hour fastball coming at you,
Lance (04:15.705)
Totally, yeah. I would have thought like, but the difference between 18s and 25s, wouldn't imagine there's that much difference. They're still pretty young.
JD Magee (04:24.398)
Yeah, that is true. And we actually used to have it where it was 18 and over and then 30 and over. We just ended up bringing it back several years ago down to 25. Again, just seeing the need for that. And we've changed the age groups a few times over the years. When we started our 55 and over this year, we used to have a 57. So we bumped it up to a 60. I mean, I can probably still put two, three teams together that are over 70.
Lance (04:33.325)
Hmm.
JD Magee (04:54.158)
We still have some guys out there that are
Lance (04:55.053)
Wow. Yeah, yeah. So what is your thinking on why, cause I mean, I don't know this space as well. I've never put together any kind of baseball or softball league, but why do you think softball is more popular than baseball? guess my thought is it's probably really hard to hit a baseball. I feel like I would really struggle maybe. Whereas softball sounds like a little bit more approachable and easy. Is that the reason for it?
JD Magee (05:18.894)
I mean, hitting a baseball certainly you hear it all the time that it's one of the most difficult things to do. I when you're batting 300, obviously that's a good thing in baseball. But I think, I mean, I actually played softball for a little bit as well right before I found this league in 1992. But softball is a shorter period of time. Most of those games are an hour long where our games are
Lance (05:46.392)
Mmm.
JD Magee (05:48.622)
two and a half to three hours long depending on the league and stuff and how many innings we're playing. So it's a longer time commitment. That could be it. So, you know, certainly there's some, there's certainly some competitive softball teams out there as well.
Lance (05:56.761)
Hmm.
Lance (06:04.845)
Yep, interesting, yeah. So two and a half hours is a long time. So that means you gotta have a rental out there for a long time. So is it more expensive than softball typically because you need a lot more time? Okay.
JD Magee (06:19.574)
Yes, for sure. Yeah, the expense of the fields and then the umpires also, you know, the umpires are out there for two and a half hour time limit as well. So they're obviously probably getting paid more than just one softball game. You know, it's an hour.
Lance (06:27.789)
Yeah.
Lance (06:32.397)
Yeah. So what's the cost look like for a player for a season?
JD Magee (06:38.894)
Our spring and summer season, I mean, we have team fees, then the coach pays the team fees and stuff. But for a player to play probably in the spring, it runs about probably $250 to $325 per guy. That's including the league fee, everything that it takes to run the league, the league fee, the baseballs that they get, the liability insurance, all that type of stuff. And probably,
depending on how much a uniform is, basically. You some guys wanna look like the New York Yankees with matching pinstripe pants and shirts and wristbands and socks and stuff like that. Or some guys just wanna go out and have a t-shirt and a hat. We just require matching t-shirts and matching hats as our requirement. Some type of baseball pant, some type of baseball shoe. So it just kinda depends on how much they want that uniform cost to be.
Lance (07:17.913)
That's right.
JD Magee (07:37.518)
But it should run about $250 to $325 per guy. Fall season, a little bit less, we play a few lesser games. We play a 10 game fall season. And that usually will run approximately $225 to $300 per guy.
Lance (07:37.805)
Got it.
Lance (07:53.828)
You're including like the uniform cost that
JD Magee (07:56.908)
I'm including basically, yeah, all that kind of stuff, equipment.
Lance (08:00.567)
Which for people who are playing over and over again, they don't have to keep buying new uniforms, right? It's a little bit less expensive.
JD Magee (08:05.102)
Correct, correct. So if it's an existing team, you've got a uniform that, you know, from the previous season, it's a little bit less money,
Lance (08:12.249)
Got it, okay. And then, do you guys do any kind of stat tracking or anything with this stuff? Do you have somebody out there that's doing that? Do the teams do it or is that not a part of it?
JD Magee (08:21.71)
Most of the teams do their own stats and stuff. With the scoring software that's out there now, there's a software called Game Changer that does it. We've looked several times at trying to force everybody to use that Game Changer, which is an electronic gadget. Some of the 60 and over guys and 55 and over guys, they're used to the old scorebook.
I mean, I can remember when we first started, they didn't have anything like that. And I mean, I certainly kept the stats, but I'd come home, have it on an Excel spreadsheet. You have to transfer it all over and stuff like that. But, so we used to, we used to keep track of that a little bit, at one point, but, but it's tough to get every team. And then, you know, was that a base hit? Was that an error? You know, it, there's always some questionable calls in there.
Lance (09:15.246)
Yeah.
Sure. Yeah, makes sense. Have you guys ever thought about hiring somebody to be out there? I mean, that would make it even more expensive, I guess. And so that's tough to...
JD Magee (09:25.41)
Yeah, yeah, it's come up in different meetings that we've had, know, to have a scorekeeper at every game and stuff like that. But again, it's the cost, it's making sure that they show up. Probably the inconsistency there has been the hesitation on doing.
Lance (09:41.987)
Got it, okay, interesting. So yeah, what's the story of ABA? So you said 1992 earlier is when you heard about or got involved or something. So what's the story of this organization and yours?
JD Magee (09:54.286)
yeah, we've, we've actually been around in the Dallas Fort Worth area since 1992. I was not the league president that very first year. when I got involved, I remember I, I basically saw an ad in the newspaper in the sports section. Said, Hey, there's a, an adult baseball league starting up here in the Metroplex. Come to the meeting. It was at the Marriott courtyard. lived in Arlington at the time right across from the ballpark. That's where the hotel was.
Lance (10:24.302)
Mm.
JD Magee (10:24.526)
I just told my wife at the time saying, I'm going to go check this out. And I'd been playing softball for a few years. I'm going to go check this baseball thing out. went to the meeting. There's a guy there that, that actually started the NAB across the country. We're national, we're affiliated nationally and stuff. Basically came to, you know, gave the spill of, we want to do this.
You remember back in, you know, when you were a kid playing and blah, blah, blah. We got this, we have all start games, we have this, this. And I mean, I was, I was in that meeting saying, hey, I want to do this. I want to do this. And, and then at the end of the meeting, you know, it was, it was, all right. Well, now that you guys are all excited, want to play, who wants to be a manager here and, and, raise your hand if you want to be a manager and we'll stick around for a little bit afterwards. Tell you what we're going to do to get this started. That was pretty much the spill.
Lance (10:54.647)
Yeah, you're like, yes.
JD Magee (11:14.956)
And I think there were about maybe 10 guys that raised their hands. There were 40, 50 guys in the room at the time for this meeting. And so I stuck around. didn't want to, I didn't necessarily want to manage. I, but I wanted to kind of, is this for real? Is this going to happen? That kind of thing. So I stuck around and everything. And then I left the meeting and then, you know, we all had to sign in and stuff. And I got a call from
Lance (11:28.397)
Mm.
JD Magee (11:41.634)
the league president at the time that was running the league that first year. And today we need another manager, and I said, I can't, can't. Decided to start asking about asking my friends playing softball, hey, you wanna look at doing this? They're playing on Sundays, this and that. And I think I had about seven or eight guys at the time that said they would. So I said, all right, I'll manage a team. I'll put a team in the league. And they had their first tryout, I think.
Their first tryout, I know it had over 100, 150 guys at the first tryout. And so I ended up.
Lance (12:17.465)
So interesting, is that the tryout, is that something that still goes on today? Is that like a part of it? What does that look like?
JD Magee (12:22.062)
It is. is. Yeah, well, basically it's, it was just guys at every age group and stuff. But at the time, I mean, we only had the 10 teams. There was only going to be an 18 and over division. And I was actually turning 30 that year. I turned 30 in July. think that trial might've been in April, that timeframe. I was turning 30 and then they said, well, we're only going to have 18 and over age group this year. So I ended up drafting and I
You know, drafted a few guys at the tryout. So we ended up having a team. I think I had like 13 guys on the team. Played that year. I was, I mean, I was just so excited to play. I can, I remember making out my lineup, you know, Tuesday or Wednesday for my Sunday game and stuff. So, still get chills now thinking about that first year, honestly. Cause I hadn't played, I hadn't played since high school in 12 years.
to play real baseball, you know, versus softball. so just ended up having a blast that first year. ended up going to our national championship world series that very first year that they had it in 1999. 1992 was actually the first year that Mike McKaylee, the guy that started this, he was out of San Diego and they had a large league there and he just decided to take this, his idea national.
Lance (13:21.923)
Mm-hmm.
JD Magee (13:47.3)
and so 1992 was that very first year we had a world series that very first year out in Phoenix, Arizona. I met Mike out there, and, and. Talk to him a little bit and stuff that, and then, that whole off season, I mean, I was ready to play next year. was, I was already pumped to go play, you know, my second season and stuff. And we're to get an earlier start, you know, to start earlier than what we, than what we did. And then, I got a call from Mike.
And he said that the guy that was going to run, that ran the league last year, isn't going to run it. He's, he's going to do some kind of job, different jobs. So we can't run it anymore. And asked if I was interested in running the league. And I pretty much said, I'm, mean, at the time I'm working at a restaurant, Crystal's pizza in Irving, you know, 50, 60 hours a week. And I said, I can't, I just, don't have time. I can't do the commitment for it. And I, and I bet Mike called me.
Lance (14:30.443)
you
JD Magee (14:46.048)
over a dozen times. Hey JD, I still haven't found anybody. And he got to the point one time, we were probably into January, he said, JD, if I don't find anybody this week, we're probably, we're not gonna have a league in Dallas, Fort Worth. And I just like, I don't know what, I just spit it out. said, okay, I'll do it. I wanted to play. I just wanted to play. So I told him I'd do it. Not knowing exactly what I'm gonna do and what was involved in it.
Lance (15:07.175)
Yeah, yeah.
JD Magee (15:16.238)
But I was taking, you know, between the lunch shift and the dinner shift, I was going out trying to find fields and stuff like that to get it up and running. So 1993 is when I actually took over running the league and stuff. I mean, I had my, my share of mistakes for sure. Those first few years and trying to get fields and finding umpires and not knowing really what to do, but I do know I love playing and I wanted to play. So.
Lance (15:23.001)
Mm-hmm.
Lance (15:33.422)
Yeah.
Lance (15:42.944)
Was it set up as a job with compensation, like a part-time job, or was it just pure volunteer?
JD Magee (15:50.67)
I think at the time and again This was nationally affiliated. He started these leagues nationally basically and all the money that was collected got sent there and I mean I got a small little commission or something like that, but It wasn't it wasn't nothing really for the amount of of headache and all that I had for starting off and stuff, but but but yeah, so just
Getting it up and running those first few years were, they were tough. And more and more people were finding out about it. So I was getting more teams, which I need more fields, need more umpires and stuff like that. So.
Lance (16:24.141)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was the...
Lance (16:33.753)
What were some of the most difficult parts that you think that sort of stuck out to you or lessons learned? Yeah.
JD Magee (16:36.878)
finding good fields to play on are, are certainly still the, I'm sure that's the case with just about any league around, especially for adults, especially for adults, because the kids will always come first, you know, and we need adult size fields, baseball fields. so there's a very few of those compared to the, you know, the kids that are playing at 10, 11, 12, 13, they're, they're on smaller fields and there's plenty of those. So we have to look at the high schools and.
Lance (16:45.911)
Yes, common.
Lance (16:53.955)
Mm-hmm.
JD Magee (17:06.338)
You know, there's not a ton of cities that have those and have them available, you know, around the kids stuff. And kids should come first, but, we're just a bunch of old guys that still want to play ball.
Lance (17:18.841)
Yeah, well I'm biased. I'm in the adult space as well. think, you know, healthy adults make for healthy children and so you know, you don't want to totally neglect the parents or I know I have a couple little kids and if I'm happy and healthy then it's easier to be a good parent. yeah, cool. So that was in the early 90s and you've been doing that like ever since then. So how have things progressed or changed over the years? At first you said 18 and up.
JD Magee (17:26.766)
Yeah
JD Magee (17:35.824)
yeah, for sure.
Lance (17:49.113)
10 teams, now you're 60-something teams and many more divisions. Was that just sort of natural growth over time or have there been ebbs and flows?
JD Magee (17:57.11)
Yeah, yeah, pretty much, you I think that, well, Mike McKinley, the guy that started it, you know, they had a hundred some teams in the San Diego area. So he kind of had the model to go off of, you know, and trying to, again, you don't, in order to get those guys that are playing that are in their forties and stuff, they don't want to face that 18 year old. So just trying to build those number of teams of those different age groups, you know, to, build those leagues up, you know, and
It's kind of the same as, you if you only got three or four teams playing against each other, you'd rather have eight teams. You know, and then if you've got the one team that's dominating all the time because they've got the ex-pro, ex-college guys playing, you'd want to try to divide those levels of play up. Because not everybody's college level talented. But there's still guys that love the game and want to play. So trying to create those levels, we feel like that's pretty important.
Lance (18:32.046)
Mm-hmm.
JD Magee (18:55.15)
You know to have that double A level and that single A level and and pretty much if you're playing in that single A level and not all of our age groups have that I mean when we've got You know ten teams that are in our 50 and over or only eight teams sometimes it's just one level but sometimes I start to get to that ten or twelve Teams in each age group. I try to divide that out and have an A and a double A double A being a little bit better And then but if you go and you you win the A division
You're automatically moving up to the AA that next year. So start recruiting, start getting some good arms and stuff. And then the teams that do poorly in the AA have the option and usually will move down to the A division. So.
Lance (19:27.917)
Hmm.
Lance (19:43.395)
Got it. But how did these divisions evolve? like I said, he started with 10 teams. Was it a pretty steady evolution since then to get more and more teams? Or were there other, was it all just sort of word of mouth that led to the growth?
JD Magee (19:54.584)
Yeah, we would start an age group once we have the desire and finding the managers, if you find the managers, they'll pretty much help find the players for you. If you've got that guy that's playing in the 18 and over that just can't hang and stuff and he wants to play at the older level, he'll start trying to find buddies and friends. And normally if we get to about four teams, we would start that age group. And then it just kind of would grow from there. You'd have a guy in the...
Lance (20:16.461)
Mm-hmm.
JD Magee (20:23.566)
this plane in the 25 and over and we've got a 40 40 and over age group and he wants to start that help start finding his buddies or a lot of those teams just gradually progress. I mean, I've been playing since 92 and I have had a team or sometimes two teams since 92 and we pretty much progressed with we don't play in the 18 and over. I mean, I guys that have played with me for 25 years now and we progressed up knowing that we can't compete against those young guys anymore either.
Lance (20:52.877)
Yep.
JD Magee (20:52.974)
We think we can a lot of times until we get out there and play and you get a ground ball, shortstop position and stuff. My team used to play a lot in the older age groups where we need to play. But then sometimes we go in the fall and we would play the younger age groups because we would do well in the spring. Hey, let's go get some competition, get ourselves ready for the tournaments. Let's go play in the 18 and over.
And then get that first ground ball and that guy's already at first base and they run faster, they throw harder, they hit the ball harder. So it makes it tough to compete. So we kind of just progressed. I think a lot of the teams the same way. just, they've aged as we've gone. We've got several guys that have been playing since the mid 90s that are still playing, still playing today. So.
Lance (21:22.785)
Yeah.
Lance (21:40.749)
Yep. Cool. Yeah, that makes sense. So you kind of would just as it grew, just start the next little seed and let that grow and then go from there.
JD Magee (21:48.684)
Right. I'm thinking about starting at 17 over and we can play on Monday afternoon because most of them are retired and are Monday morning and there's all kinds of fields available Monday mornings. Who is out playing so?
Lance (21:55.127)
Yeah.
Lance (21:59.979)
Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. So I'm curious to hear more about the the tryouts and then and sort of player registration and you you mentioned like you have a manager who's getting who's aging out and they've got some buddies and they recruit them and but it doesn't sound like they're building a team it sounds like they're building people to come do the tryouts who then sort of get drafted into teams is that how it works or the teams do stay together but new players have to go through tryouts or how do tryouts and
Yep, the player registration software.
JD Magee (22:31.286)
Yeah, the team managers and the teams, they can stay together. They can recruit however they want to and just build their own team if they want. The tryouts are basically for guys that want to play, don't have a team and want to get hooked up. And then some of the teams that are out there, whether they're just getting started, whether they've been around for a long time, the teams, it might be a team that's been around a long time. They just need another pitcher.
They got a guy that left and moved because of work and stuff like that. They need to add one or two guys. Some teams come out at the tryouts looking for one guy. Some teams come out looking for 10 guys. So each team's a little bit different. We have the tryouts. It's usually towards the end of January. I know it seems early. We'll have a manager's meeting actually early January, trying to get all set up, trying to find how many teams are coming back and any new teams that we have.
Then we have a tryout usually about end of January Sometimes it's it's 70 degrees in January and DFW sometimes it's 40 degrees and drizzling with a 20 mile an hour wind but We have that tryout and then we have a draft right after the tryout So hopefully guys get on teams You know the guys that are looking to get on teams and teams that are looking for a few more players That's kind of what it's about. I call it
Lance (23:46.094)
Mmm.
JD Magee (23:55.086)
It's a tryout, but it's more a team formation to help get guys going. Can't ever guarantee that everybody's gonna get drafted. But those guys that don't get drafted, I do try to form teams out of those guys. And if there's six or seven guys left in a particular age group, say, guys, sorry you didn't get drafted. But if you wanna play this year, you need somebody to kind of step up and manage the team, and we can get you guys going.
Lance (24:22.445)
Mmm.
JD Magee (24:24.554)
I always, there are guys that register throughout the season, not just at the beginning, not just for the tryout. And so there'll be guys in that player pool list all the time that I can try to help feed those guys to get, know, to help them get enough players. I would venture to say that most teams carry maybe an average of about 13, 14 guys. You can't just go with nine because you can't have nine or 10 on the team because always some guy's got to work or he's got to...
Lance (24:47.853)
Right.
JD Magee (24:54.178)
you know, wife wants him to clean the garage that weekend, whatever it may be. So you got to carry a good 13, 14 guys usually is about the right number.
Lance (25:00.791)
Yeah. Were there any things, so the tryout and the draft model, I've seen variations of it. There's not a lot of leagues, I think, that do tryouts. There's some that do some draft type stuff, but the tryout obviously sounds very cool. Were there any tips or anything that you sort of learned by doing tryouts and the draft process that made it work sort of a lot better or?
JD Magee (25:23.656)
in order, I mean, the last few tryouts we've done probably the last two, three years were average and usually between 70 to 80 guys in all the age groups and all different age groups. So in order to get through that tryout, there's not a lot to it. They get a couple of fly balls in the outfield, throw it into third base. They get a couple of ground balls at shortstop, throw to first pitchers and catchers will get together. They get like eight, eight pitches and then everybody gets to hit and they get like eight pitches.
So it's not a lot. You can't tell a lot necessarily from the trial. But again, it's really to get those guys together. But a lot of times you can look at their athletic ability. You can look at their mechanics and stuff like that. But again, it's just to get those guys. And then once the tryouts are done, we draft each age group. And then the manager gets with those players. They just draft it, whether they have a practice, you know, tells them about their team.
Lance (25:53.561)
Hmm.
JD Magee (26:23.17)
you know, the team name and that kind of stuff. And then, basically tells them how much it's going to cost to play. So, and then kept collect their money so that they can get their fees turned into me. So.
Lance (26:37.475)
Sure, cool. So then I guess that's kind of the front end, getting the season off the ground. What about the back end, so playoffs and also, you know, this national association started in 92. I guess you guys are still a part of that. So how does it work for players as they're progressing and do you have playoffs in yours and a champion and then that championship team gets to go play somewhere else in a national tournament or anyone's invited to the net? Like what's that relationship like?
JD Magee (27:04.298)
Yeah, we definitely have playoffs. mean, our spring season, our spring season, basically after the tryouts, we'll start this. There's about a four or five week period there. We'll start our season usually about end of end of February, early March, depending on kind of where those weekends land and stuff. And I know it's pushing it sometimes weather wise here in Texas. But then we'll play the spring season. We'll play a 16 game season for the spring.
Pretty much we don't play certain holidays. We don't Easter weekend. We don't play Memorial weekend. We don't play Fourth of July weekend. We know those are family holidays and family weekends and stuff. We don't play Mother's Day. I think it was 94, 95 and we'd had so much rain like this past spring. And I told, I said, guys, we have to play. We're getting too far behind. And I scheduled Mother's Day games.
I will never do that again. I had grandmas calling me and emailing me. I'll never ever, every once in a while, Father's Day, try to take it off as long as we're going. But if we're pretty far behind, sometimes I'll play Father's Day. I figure we ought to be able to do what we want on that day, right? But anyway, so that season generally are run through July, again, depending on rain.
Lance (28:03.105)
Wow.
Lance (28:20.343)
There you go.
JD Magee (28:27.95)
And then we'll start our playoffs usually first part of August, that kind of thing. In the spring summer, we do a two out of three series, a best of three series for our playoffs and stuff and determine a champion. And champion gets some awards and stuff. But to go to the tournaments, you don't necessarily have to be a champion because I mean the tournaments generally, and we have tournaments with our association as well over the Fourth of July weekends and Memorial weekend and stuff. So there's regional type tournaments if guys wanna go.
Lance (28:32.153)
this place.
Lance (28:35.896)
Hmm.
JD Magee (28:57.848)
But it's guys that can get off of work, can afford to go and that kind of stuff. So, and a lot of teams will form together. There might not be one whole team, but they might pick up some guys from other teams and stuff. And then the World Series tournaments, most of those are a week long. We have a World Series in Phoenix, Arizona, where we get to go play on spring training facilities out there, you really nice facilities and stuff. Actually, I leave this Saturday to go to our first one in Phoenix.
Lance (28:57.966)
Hmm.
Lance (29:06.041)
Mm.
JD Magee (29:27.97)
But, but it's guys that can get off work and take that time off work. So you don't have to win and qualify necessarily to go to those. But some of those, some guys have been going over 10, 15, 20 years straight, then going to these world series and stuff. And then there's another world series in Florida, down in Florida and stuff too, that again, a lot of times those world series are on spring training facilities, which is really nice. You know, go out there, you get to sit down, you know, where the big leaguers sat, you know.
Lance (29:52.505)
Hmm.
JD Magee (29:57.516)
Gosh, this guy sat right where I'm sitting, he was sitting one day.
Lance (29:58.999)
Yeah.
Yeah, So the National Association puts all that stuff together, runs it, and then you guys kind of feed, are able to provide access, I guess, for your players. Are there any other benefits? I guess probably insurance and stuff, but to that sort of relationship.
JD Magee (30:10.958)
Correct. Correct.
JD Magee (30:16.664)
Say that again? The.
Lance (30:17.783)
Are there other sort of benefits to that sort of relationship, the National Association, like insurance or anything like that?
JD Magee (30:25.23)
Yeah, for sure. Insurance certainly, that support. When they start up new leagues and stuff too, they've got the support of that national office. I've been doing it for a long time here, obviously. But I ended up after I took over the league in 1993 here in the Dallas area and stuff, the guy that started it, Mike McKaylee, actually asked me to come. He was continuing to grow leagues across the country.
because he just started 92 and I think that first year he opened up 20 different leagues and he had plans to open up more. So I actually went to work for him at the national office and I worked there for about 10 years. So I ran a lot of those tournaments and stuff for him as well. yeah, I quit my job at the restaurant and went work for him. It was good timing for me because it allowed me to work out of the house. I actually worked more then than I did at the restaurant.
Lance (31:11.801)
Cool. Yep.
Lance (31:24.088)
Yeah, yeah.
JD Magee (31:24.174)
But it was out of the house a little bit more on my own time. My kids were getting to that point where they were into sports and stuff. So it was a good opportunity for me to do that.
Lance (31:33.411)
Cool. So another kind of question I have is around, I guess, like, there other baseball associations in the DFW area or other national associations? Is there sort of competition between you guys and how do you think about, I guess, differentiating your product and your service?
JD Magee (31:48.67)
yes, there are. There's, there's a few other, adult baseball leagues and stuff in the area. some have been around for a long time. I think that what I try to do, it's kind of a basic thing that I learned from the restaurant business. I mean, you probably go out and eat with your family, right? And I bet you probably go to a lot of the same restaurants all the time. Cause you get good food, good service at a good value.
That's kind of what I try to do with my league here. When I'm running it here, I try to do that and I try to take that philosophy. I have to be aware of the other leagues because I have to be aware of how much they're paying for umpires versus all that kind of stuff. But I pretty much just focus on taking care of mine. If I do the right thing and I do what I think I should do and what those guys want. I mean, it's a customer service.
oriented business for me is the way I look at it. And yeah, you get your guys complaining about this umpire, this or that, and the sprinklers came on at this field. I mean, that kind of stuff happens. It just happens. But the more proactive I can be to prevent those types of things, I think that just helps stay organized. I can remember those first few years when I started and how rough it was, but you start to get your systems in place and
Lance (33:10.765)
Yeah. Sure.
JD Magee (33:15.426)
And that kind stuff by now, be proactive on all that kind of stuff. It's definitely helped. So that's kind of my philosophy. And nothing's better than to go out in a field and somebody tracked me down and I don't know him. And he comes up to me and said, JD, hear that you're running this league and this is my first time to play. I haven't played in 22 years and man, this has just been the best summer I've ever had.
Lance (33:21.177)
Sure. Yeah, yeah.
sense.
Lance (33:44.065)
Yeah, yeah, Yep.
JD Magee (33:45.068)
Those kind of comments make it worthwhile. I mean, I get my share of complaining about that umpire called me out and I was safe and I don't know where you get these guys, that kind of stuff. So there's always the good in there too.
Lance (33:52.235)
Right, all that typical stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sure. I think I have about one more question here, which is how do you think about sort technology? mean, you've probably seen everything evolve from 92, which I mean, you found out about it from the newspaper and I imagine payments and everything were certainly not online at that time. So how has that evolved over these years?
JD Magee (34:16.909)
I'm off.
JD Magee (34:20.686)
It's evolved a ton and I wish I could say that I've kept up with it. I'm not the most technology advanced guy and I lean on a lot of other people. But especially my wife all the time is like, hey, can you come help me up? Or I'll send her an email. I'd like to schedule some tech support to come help me out with some of this stuff. But technology's definitely made it easier for sure.
Lance (34:33.943)
No.
Lance (34:40.28)
Yeah.
JD Magee (34:48.084)
And I do my best to keep up with it. I'm just not always on top of it like I should. I mean, just the Facebook. I mean, I can probably reach down social wise with all that stuff a lot better. So.
Lance (34:59.245)
Yep. Okay, cool. Actually, so yeah, one more question. What are your plans for the next sort of few years? mean, you guys are got a good thing going, sounds like, with a lot of teams. Are there thoughts on changing anything in the next sort of three to five years, or is it sort of stay the course and keep doing it?
JD Magee (35:17.684)
always, always looking for fields, you know, to play on. And, you know, nowadays the turf fields, I can remember when we first got our first turf field and everybody's like, we don't want to do that. We want real grass and, and, and, but the turf fields are the way to go. Cause there's less rain out, you know, when you're 50, it's a little bit, you know, the guy hits a ball pretty hard. It's a little bit true or hop and stuff. So finally the turf fields I think are big, just hard to do.
Lance (35:20.921)
Hmm.
Lance (35:35.43)
yeah.
JD Magee (35:46.03)
You know bad, especially bad, you know, the high school fields There's so many there's so many recruiting Supposedly recruiting tournaments out there for high schools That they're they're gobbling up some of those fields and and it's hard to compete Price-wise because these tournaments when you know, the kids are entering they're paying $1,300 to go play four games. Those high schools can't turn down that money, you know, because it's good it's it's
Lance (36:12.598)
Right.
JD Magee (36:14.498)
promoting their baseball, helping their booster club or whatever. And for us to be able to do that and pay that, it increases our cost a ton. So it's hard to compete with some of that. And there's so many tournaments like that, not even from here that are run from here, but they're run from Indianapolis or another state and stuff. So constantly looking for good fields to play on. Looking at if we need to make those H.
Lance (36:22.489)
Sure.
JD Magee (36:42.37)
I don't know that we're going to change much in our age groups over the next three to five years. So I think that's a pretty well set time frame. We're always looking at rules and adjusting rules to help accommodate, you know, our age groups and stuff like that. And we've got like non-runner rules, you know, that if you've got a guy that pulled a hamstring or he just can't run, he's slow. You can, you know, we can mark them down as a non-runner and let them get up and hit.
Lance (37:03.801)
Mm-hmm.
JD Magee (37:10.388)
hit his three or four hits a day, gets the first base and we get a runner for him. Just things like that to help. We've got rules that allow you to, you know, it's everybody's paying to play. We want, so we've got rules out there that you can bat. You don't have to just bat nine guys. You know, you can bat 13 guys if you got 13 guys that show up. It gets them in the game so they're not sitting on the bench. So different rules like that. And you can have, you can have,
Lance (37:33.389)
Yeah, that makes sense,
JD Magee (37:39.886)
You know, you've got 13 guys and you've got two guys that play first base. You can have one guy play the first, third, fifth, and seventh inning and the other guy play the second, fourth, and sixth. They just rotate out. So you've got that free substitution and stuff to help get guys in the game. So a lot of different rules like that. Those are just a few of them.
Lance (38:00.855)
Yeah, that makes sense. Makes a lot of sense. Awesome. Well, I think that's all I got. Anything else you wanted to cover?
JD Magee (38:07.982)
No, appreciate you having me for sure. Try to get the, you know, there's still a lot of guys out there that don't know that adult baseball exists. They're still playing softball and they say they may still play softball. We still have a lot of guys that do that, but a lot of them don't think, don't know that adult baseball exists out there.
Lance (38:10.615)
Yeah, I appreciate you as well. Yeah.
Lance (38:18.157)
Yep, yeah, well.
Lance (38:28.705)
Yeah, well hopefully a few more of them will after this and I'll certainly spread the word as well. Like I said, I live in DFW and I did not know that it existed, even being in the sports space. So yeah, I imagine a lot of people love it. Awesome, well thanks JD, appreciate it. Take care.
JD Magee (38:40.483)
Ha!
JD Magee (38:46.136)
Yep, thank you again.
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