Extreme Baseball's Orlando Dragons Open Season April 25

Sports lovers looking for a unique, cutting edge new style of game are in luck and it just happens to be that the reigning champions of the National Extreme Baseball League are based right here in Orlando.

If you haven't heard of extreme baseball, it is a different kind of extreme sport that blends the easygoing aura of America's national pastime with complex changes designed specifically to provide a mental challenge to players and fans alike. Instead of playing on a typical baseball diamond as one might see at the field of, say, the Florida Marlins, extreme baseball is played on two interlocking diamonds with both teams playing the field at the same time. According to a Q&A on the Dragons' website, pitchers "alternate pitches to the opposing batters who run the bases according to the diamond on which they are playing."

Sound complicated? It is supposed to be. Regular baseball, it seems, is deemed somewhat boring to audiences who have grown accustomed to multitasking everything in day-to-day life. When faced with the question of how hard extreme baseball is to watch, the league's official answer is, "watching extreme baseball challenges the mental abilities of concentration by forcing one to expand their mindset in a multi-dimensional level." In other words, it the perfect spectator sport for people who would rather take Advanced Calculus and Quantum Physics than a couple of gym classes.

The game is still in its infancy, though the league already has a strong presence in the Sunshine State. Current Florida teams include the Daytona Stingrays, Orlando Dragons, Tampa Black Sox and Miami Pythons, though upcoming N-XBL expansion teams can be found in almost every state. Interesting team names-pending approval by the league, of course--range from the Nashville Sparrows to the North Carolina Lumberjacks, and players from Missouri gave a nod to their favorite superheroes by calling themselves the St. Louis X-Men. Further expansion into the northeastern United States is planned to occur this year, and additional expansion teams are expected to arrive in 2010 and 2011, according to a press release on the league website.

For each team, the season consists of 20 to 22 games, half of which are played at home and half played on the road. The Orlando Dragons plan to kick off their season on Saturday, April 25^th at 7:30pm against the Miami Pythons. The season opener will be played at Sanford's Memorial Stadium, and the team invites the public to come out and support the league's reining champions. Ticket prices are relatively inexpensive at only $7 for adults and $3.50 for children under 14. No student discount is available at this time, but part of the ticket sales revenue is donated to local charities. If you miss the season opener, the team's next home game will be played on May 16^th against the Tampa Bay Black Sox. Additional home game dates are still pending.

For more information on the Orlando Dragons, visit the team's website at www.OrlandoDragons.com or the league website at www.N-XBL.com. The league also has a presence on social networking sites MySpace (username: nxbl) and Twitter.