Blue Ridge Spring Dinger Baseball

Blue Ridge Spring Dinger Baseball Annual amateur men's baseball event held in April in Enka, NC for players aged 60 and over. Maybe even feel like a kid again when they drive one over the fence!

We created this event as an opportunity for older players (60+) to shake off the winter rust before starting their summer leagues and potentially re-visit the thrill of hitting home runs. The ballpark is by definition a youth-only facility, however we have been granted this unique opportunity by Bob Lewis Ball Park and some very good friends of "old guy baseball". The infields we use are set up fo

r adult play but the fences are closer which makes HRs a possibility. Teams that want to participate in this event should send us an email requesting an invitation, but be aware that we are limited to the number of teams we can accommodate in each division and receive more inquiries and requests than we can accept. Also, know that this is NOT a competition-driven event - it's a laid back mini-vacation for players and their significant others that includes time off the fields to enjoy the area, the camaraderie on the fields and have a great time playing the game they have loved since they were kids.

08/31/2026

Almost all of the confirmed teams for 2027 have submitted the team registration form, thank you. We now have a single slot open for the 65+ Division and two slots open for our 60+ Elite Division. If you are a manager that wants to bring your team to this popular event in either of these openings, please contact us by phone or email to discuss. 65+ teams play May 3, 4, 5th (M-W) and the Elite squads play April 19, 20, 21 (M-W). Talk to your summer teammates as you finish your seasons and consider playing in Asheville in the spring of 2027 to get warmed up for next summer's play.

08/28/2026

Those of you who participated in our 75+ Division of the Dinger in 2026 might remember that at the end of the event, some of the uniforms, hats and items were donated by many of the players to Jim Tamarack and his efforts in promoting the game of baseball in Africa. This video was sent to me by Tom Faherty and shows the impact of learning to play this "American Game" in Kenya, Africa. If you have a minute to watch, please do so; and if you ever have an opportunity to help out this organization in any way I'm sure it will be appreciated.

08/03/2026

Dates are set for the 2027 Blue Ridge Spring Dinger. 60+ managers have been sent the Team Registration link for their dates and we're in the process of determining the need for a lottery in the other two divisions. All 60+ teams will have 5 game guarantees with a sixth for the Championship game, playoff style.
Dates:
60+ Open American Division - Weds, April 14 - Fri, April 16.
60+ Elite Division - Mon, April 19 - Weds, April 21
60+ Open National Division - Mon, April 26 - Wed, April 28
65+ Division - Mon, May 3 - Weds, May 5
70+ Division - Weds, April 29 - Fri, April 30
75+ Sandlot Style - Mon, May 3 - Fri, May 7 (1 game / day) EMAILS AND DETAILS FOR THE 75+ DIVISION COMING SOON!

One important thing to note: 60+ Open teams may only have 3 players from Elite teams on their rosters.

Any 65+ or 70+ teams who have not indicated their desire to participate already should email us to let us know pronto so we can get you in the lottery, if needs be.

07/30/2026

We have made some important decisions and finalized some details for the 2027 Blue Ridge Spring Dinger. Again, we thank all our teams and managers for their interest and for making this process difficult in a good way - more teams want to play! We were fortunate enough to be able to secure Enka High School's field so that we can expand the number of teams per division and avoid having to turn away so many players. It's minutes from Bob Lewis Ballpark, no highways to take, and is regulation for varsity HS with a grass infield. (Yes, you can wear spikes on that field only) That means we can accommodate 8-team divisions when necessary, and avoid a lottery. We've also listened to the 60+ managers who like a playoff formula and will add a sixth game in all 60+ divisions and the 65+ Division. All teams in those divisions will get a 5 game guarantee but the top two teams will play the championship in the sixth game.

The Elite Division teams remain invitation only and must consider themselves to be 3A quality for the sake of competition. As we DO NOT employ a geographic integrity rule, it's understood that the players in that division can be from anywhere and encourage those manager in seeking out the best players possible. One of the rules that we are instituting for 2027 is that NO MORE than 3 Elite players can be on any 60+ OPEN team roster. Period. We need to keep the Open teams as competitive with each other as possible.

We have received interest forms from 13 teams in the 60+ Open group and are confident that we'll get another, giving us one 6-team (American) Division and one 8-team (National) Division. No lottery will be needed as we will divide them into those groups. So all who sent in the form should look for your confirmation email with your dates and the link to register your team. All other information will be in that email.
The list of 60+ Open teams for 2027:
Carolina Thunder (returning champs), Canton Tigers, Keystone Hawks, Triangle Braves, Carolina Rockies (host team), Minnesota Posse, Dundalk Nationals (returning champs), Nashville Hawks, New Hampshire Hammerheads, Cleveland Buckeyes, Raleigh Braves, Atlanta Baseball Club, and Southeast Top Cats.

In the 60+ Elite Division: Yonder Travelers (returning champs), West Coast Gamecocks, Americans Baseball Club, Motor City Firebirds (formerly Pittsburgh), Raleigh Braves. One more team TBD. Emails will also be sent to you asap.

In our 65+ Division we will have to have a lottery, as 9 teams have signed up. So we will be in contact with those managers to do that asap so plans can be made. One the teams are set we'll send all other info.

In the 70+ Division, we will continue the same format as in the past - traditional 5 game round robin. As 8 teams have sent in forms, we won't have to lottery for this group either and we will use Enka HS for the games. The teams in this division are:
Florida Storm (returning champs), Massachusetts Chiefs, Detroit 70s, Huntsville Havoc, Asheville Sox (host team), Florida Yankees, Cropdusters, and Brewers 70s. Watch for you emails, as well.

Questions can be emailed to us at [email protected] or call us at 234-200-8449. More information will be posted as we have it, along with all division dates. The 75+ Sandlot Division will also be held again and those players will get their notifications in September.

07/10/2026

We've been asked numerous times to try to create another Dinger event for the fall, similar to the Blue Ridge Spring Dinger and we have found a great complex in up-state NY near the Fingerlakes and only a couple hours from Cooperstown. We have sent out inquiries to about 25 teams (65+ and 70+) to see if there is enough interest to plan this for Sept. 2027 but we've only received three emails from teams who would want to participate. We would absolutely need a minimum of 6 teams in each of those divisions, but we could actually do 8-team divisions.
If you might have an interest, please email us at [email protected] and in the meantime, check out "The Lumberyard" in Courtland, NY, also known as Gutches Lumber Sports Complex. It's a 4 field cloverleaf with all-turf fields, convertible to our specifics and lots of amenities that make it ideal for a "Dinger" tournament. Same format as Asheville. Questions? Email or call us. We need to make this decision by October of this year to get it on the complex calendar for 2027, so we need a team count.

07/03/2026

We are incredibly sad to find out that our friend Gary McDonald passed away yesterday morning. Gary managed Bob Lewis Ballpark for the past several years and has been our go-to guy for the Blue Ridge Spring Dinger event. He was kind, helpful and our biggest supporter of what we do there. We will miss Gary and extend our sympathies to his family and friends in the Asheville area. RIP Gary

07/01/2026

Players and fans. Just an update ahead of announcing the drawing for slots for the 2027 Dinger.
First of all, we have been successful in acquiring a fourth field. Enka High School will work with us and their field is less than five minutes from the complex so we can take two more teams in each group for a max of 8 per division. So great news there.

We sent out the inquiries, and at this time:
In 60+ Open, we have 13 teams that have indicated they want to play. Options - if one more team signs up in this age group, we could do an 8-team group and a 6-team group; if three more teams want in we'd do two 8-team Open divisions. In either scenario, we would not have to turn away any teams, but we'd need even numbers (14 or 16).

In 60+ Elite - we only have 3 teams (possibly four) that want to play at this level. That is an issue. We COULD do a 4-team event, but that's our last resort. Two more teams would give us the solid 6 we need, but it's very difficult to find teams for this group as they need to be AAA competition. If we cannot get the number, we might not be able to do an Elite division, and then we'd have to brainstorm. Don't panic yet!

In 65+ we currently have 9 teams. The max for the group is 8, so if three more teams sign up, we would do two groups of six. If no other teams come forward, we'd have one team that would be left out of a drawing for an 8-team tournament. Again, if we can get 12, we'd do two groups of 6 (as we do in 60+)

In the 70+, we currently have 8 teams, so unless we get another inquiry for this group, we'd be even and wouldn't have to lottery for berths.

AS IT STANDS NOW - THIS IS NOT FINAL UNTIL WE CONFIRM WITH THE MANAGERS AND SEND OUT INVOICING FOR DEPOSITS AND GIVE ALL DIVISIONS FINAL DATES. DO NOT MAKE TRAVEL PLANS YET!

We'll put the list of teams who have asked for a berth on our Website this afternoon so that any teams NOT ON THE LIST who want to sign up can contact us for that link. Stay tuned!

***We also have BIG NEWS about a future tournament, so keep watching for that here and on our website. Think Fall of 2027!

06/24/2026

We have sent out the team inquiries to all past Dinger teams and to those that either were not drawn last year or sent us emails to tell us that they want an invitation to participate. If you did not receive yours and want to bring a team, please email us through our website so we can send you the link. ALL teams (including last year's champs and host teams MUST submit the inquiry form). The next step will be to set up the division dates determined by the number of those teams. So far we have received 11 requests for the 60+ Open, only three for the Elite Division (we need a minimum of 6), 9 for 65+ and 7 for 70+. All divisions need six OR eight teams (if we get 12 for the 65's we can do two divisions as we do in the 60+ open). We'll give it a couple more weeks before we close the link and make our decisions. Send in those forms if you have one asap or let us know by email.

06/18/2026

Happy Summer! Managers - check your emails for the link to let us know you want to bring a team to the 2027 BRSD. ALL teams, including past Champs, need to send that form so that we can solidify dates and decide on a format for each division. We'd like to announce the dates of play and the date for the team drawing within the next couple weeks, so let us know if you want to participate. If you did not receive the link, check your spam or contact us via email and we'll send it.

06/03/2026

Thank you to all of the players who responded to our survey. Key takeaways were that the present scheduling of 5 games in three days received much more support than going to a 5-day event; driving to another field if we can find one close to the complex would not be a huge issue IF it means that more teams can attend; our umps do a good job overall; our welcome bag items seem to be a hit; and the present process of a lottery for teams seems to be the fairest way overall. All that being said, we will be sending out the team inquiry in a couple weeks, which will give us a good indication of how many teams/divisions we'll be dealing with so that we can set the dates. We have reached out to Enka High School to see if they would let us use their diamond, but have not heard back yet. Unless we can add that field we're stuck with 6 teams per division in 2027 and that would include the 70+ group - 8 teams and using the smaller field was not popular. Managers should watch for the email to indicate that they want to participate as it will determine who gets invitations.

There were a couple of suggestions that we will research: dry-fit, polyester tees instead of 50/50 blend; limiting the number of Elite players who also play on Open team rosters to three per open team; making all 60+ and the 65+ divisions 6-game playoff style instead of round robin.

Those who commented about concessions, field conditions, etc. - we do not control those issues. Please keep in mind that this facility is predominantly weekend-use, and heavily booked with tournaments from mid-March until the end of October and we're fortunate to have them allow us to use it on the weekdays. That leaves little time while we're there to do a lot of upkeep on the fields but Gary and his crew work very hard to maintain it. The concession stand is closed during the week and she has other responsibilities, so for her to staff it and get it open for us at all is a convenience for us that we're grateful for.

More information as we have it will be sent out at the earliest we can so that players/managers can plan for 2027. You can also keep an eye on our website for current news.

Again, we are extremely grateful to ALL of our players, managers and fans for your support of this event. We plan on doing whatever we can to make it better each year and get more teams involved. Thanks for your suggestions and thoughts - we take them to heart.
K&R

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Enka, NC

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