national member organizations has adopted a new method for measuring bat performance in the testing of youth bats. Informed by the research of leading scientists on the USA Baseball Bat Study Committee, and supported by its National Member Organizations, — including the American Amateur Baseball Congress (AABC), Babe Ruth Baseball/Cal Ripken Baseball, Dixie Youth Baseball & Dixie Boys Baseball, Little League Baseball and PONY Baseball — USA Baseball has concluded that recent advancements in science, engineering, technology, and the materials available to fabricate non-wood bats, now allow the manufacturers to construct youth bats that can perform at a wood-like level through the entire range of lengths and weights of youth bats. The new USA Baseball bat standard (USABat), which applies to bats that are classified below the NCAA and NFHS level of play, will be implemented on January 1, 2018, allowing the bat manufacturers sufficient time to bring these bats to the marketplace. Similar to the NCAA and NFHS BBCOR standard, which helped to eliminate discrepancies with different length bats and thus provide a more direct measure of bat performance, the USA Baseball bat standard will allow youth baseball organizations in the United States to reach their goal of establishing a wood-like standard, a standard that will provide for the long-term integrity of the game. Golden Spikes Award Since 1978, USA Baseball has honored the top amateur baseball player in the nation with the Golden Spikes Award. The award is presented in partnership with the Rod Dedeaux Foundation and is given each year to the player who best exhibits exceptional on-field ability and exemplary sportsmanship. In 2018, California’s Andrew Vaughn won the prestigious award in a presentation on ESPN's flagship program, SportsCenter. Following the nationally televised announcement of the winner, the finalists and their families were celebrated at the Jonathan Club Los Angeles as part of the 2018 Rod Dedeaux Foundation Awards Dinner. In 2020, USA Baseball announced that it would forego naming a Golden Spikes Award winner given the canceled 2020 college baseball season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Past winners also include Terry Francona (1980), Will Clark (1985), Robin Ventura (1988), Jason Varitek (1994), J.D. Drew (1997), Mark Prior (2001), Jered Weaver (2004), Tim Lincecum (2006), David Price (2007), Buster Posey (2008), Stephen Strasburg (2009), Bryce Harper (2010), Trevor Bauer (2011), Mike Zunino (2012), Kris Bryant (2013), A.J. Reed (2014), Andrew Benintendi (2015), Kyle Lewis (2016) and Brendan