Roger Dean Stadium hosts 27th annual World Wood Bat Association Championship for five days starting Thursday.
The 2024 champions, CBA Marucci, celebrate their victory at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter. (Photo: Perfect Game)
The biggest October baseball spotlight outside the major league playoffs will shine on Jupiter this weekend.
More than 2,400 top high school players in the United States, including most of baseball’s top teen prospects, will converge on Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium from Thursday to Oct. 13 for the 27th annual World Wood Bat Association Championship.
Considered the premier amateur baseball showcase, the WWBA Championship will attract more than 700 Major League Baseball scouts and college coaches, armed with radar guns and notebooks, looking to stock their rosters with the best up-and-coming players in the country.
“If you want to see the next generation of major league players, the future stars of MLB, this is the place to be,” said retired Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres star Ryan Klesko, a special adviser for Perfect Game, the tournament organizer.
Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Freddie Freeman, Bryce Harper, Jose Fernandez and Buster Posey are among the 1,347 teen prospects who played in the championship since 1998 on their way to the major leagues.
“This is the biggest amateur event on the planet. It’s an absolute spectacle,” said Jered Goodwin, vice president of scouting operations for Perfect Game.
A big part of that spectacle: a fleet of some 300 golf carts, rented to coaches and scouts so they can zip from field to field on the 110-acre complex, the spring home of the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter’s Abacoa neighborhood north of Donald Ross Road.
“It makes it such an entertaining event just to see all the golf carts,” Goodwin said. “But from a scouting perspective, it makes it easy to be able to see an at-bat on the Marlins side and be able to jump to the Cardinals side to catch an at-bat of another player without missing anything.”
Fans can watch all the action, with a $15 charge for a day pass. Tickets are available only at the gate.
About 300 golf carts are expected Thursday at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium to accommodate Major League Baseball scouts at the five-day World Wood Bat Association Championship. (Photo: Perfect Game)
Games played on 11 fields
Thanks to its 13 fields, including the main spring training stadium, the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium has hosted the tournament since 2000 except for two years: 2004 when Hurricane Charley moved the event to Fort Myers and the 2020 pandemic postponement.
But for the second straight year, this weekend’s event will be limited to 11 fields because of a $108 million expansion of the Marlins and Cardinals clubhouses. The main stadium field and one Cardinals field will be off limits for safety reasons.
Those restrictions won’t dim the spotlight on amateur baseball’s most heavily scouted annual event, organizers say.
“Construction will be visible from several of the fields, most notably the Cardinals quad tower, but the games will take place like normal,” said Mike Bauer, the stadium’s general manager.
Games will be played simultaneously on the 11 fields, with a two-hour time limit for each game and a 20-minute window in between contests for the grounds crew to prepare the fields.
“We are going to improvise and create a great experience,” Goodwin said. “We have worked really well together with the staff at Roger Dean Stadium for a number of years. We couldn’t be more thankful that they’ve been able to create some opportunities even with the construction going on.”
Meanwhile, Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, about 12 miles southwest of Jupiter, will host some games, along with a Perfect Game event focused on 2,000 freshman players.
Ryan Klesko, retired Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres star, is a special adviser for Perfect Game, the tournament organizer. (Photo: Perfect Game)
‘It’s where everybody wants to be’
The ballfields around Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium will host the majority of the action.
“It’s the most sought after tournament for a kid. It’s where everybody wants to be,” said Klesko, who will coach a team and whose son, Hunter, will participate.
“I know several guys I’ve talked to over the last few years, guys who played in minor league and major leagues, who told me Jupiter was the reason he got drafted because he went down there and had a really good weekend,” he said.
Among the top high school prospects expected to participate: Striker Pence, nephew of former major league star Hunter Pence. The 16-year-old California high school pitcher’s fastball has been clocked at 100 mph.
“You’re going to see kids throwing up to 100 miles per hour. It’s crazy,” said Klesko, who won a World Series with the Atlanta Braves in 1995.
Crazier, he said, is the spectacle of “golf carts everywhere. Major league scouts, the head coaches of teams like LSU, Tennessee, Georgia, they’re all driving around looking.”
Klesko joked that he might attach an air horn to his golf cart. “I’ll tell you what, it can be hard to get around there. There’s so much traffic,” he said.
Watching future baseball stars last year at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter. (Photo: Perfect Game)
Big names and a TV broadcast
The event will attract other retired big league players, including Alfonso Soriano, Jose Contreras, Gary Sheffield and Brett Myers.
Former slugger Mo Vaughn and former pitcher Tom “Flash” Gordon will host separate podcasts at the site.
Perfect Game TV will broadcast three games Thursday. Calling the action with ESPN’s Dani Wexelman will be former MLB broadcaster Daron Sutton, son of the late Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton.
The event will also feature a dozen sporting goods companies offering merchandise on Vendors Row between fields 5 and 6 on the Marlins side.
It’s the largest of several Perfect Game events hosted at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium when spring training and Florida State League games are not being played.
It’s a boon for Jupiter-area hotels, restaurants and other businesses for the five days.
“We are thrilled to host eight of their events on an annual basis, bringing the best high school level stars to Jupiter each year,” Bauer said. “Their tournaments are a large part of Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium’s economic impact, bringing thousands of players, families, baseball fans and scouts to Palm Beach County.”
If you go:
Tournament Pass, good for all games over all five days: $45.
Daily Pass, good for all games on a specific day: $15.
Senior Citizen (65+)/Military Daily Pass: $10.
Age 14 and younger: Free.
Joe Capozzi is an award-winning reporter based in Lake Worth Beach. He spent more than 30 years writing for newspapers, mostly at The Palm Beach Post, where he wrote about the opioid scourge, invasive pythons, and Palm Beach County government. For 15 years, he covered the Miami Marlins baseball team. Joe left The Post in December 2020 and launched ByJoeCapozzi.com,