This article was written by Yannina Pacis of New Relic's marketing department. The original article can be found here. 

For all you baseball fans out there, this is an exciting time of year—post-season is almost upon us, and that means teams battling for wild-card contention, clinching their spots, all for a shot at the World Series.

New Relic is joining forces with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) to present the “Bases Coded technology challenge,” an exciting app development competition open to small (2-3 person) developer teams and U.S. residents who are 18 or older with a creative idea for a new baseball-themed app and the skills to build it.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, don’t miss out on this opportunity, because the winning Bases Coded team will win tickets to attend Game Four of the World Series!

State of Play

Bases Coded is your chance to create your own new baseball app (and, let’s be real, you probably already have one in mind). Now through Friday, October 7, 2016, Bases Coded will be accepting applications from small teams (2-3 eligible individuals) with an idea for a new baseball-themed consumer app. Maybe you have an idea for an app that tracks no-hitters in real time. You’ll get to build a working prototype of your app using private data and APIs provided by MLBAM. Whatever your idea, be creative and swing for the fences—the sky’s the limit!

Step Up to the Plate

New Relic and MLBAM will be selecting up to five teams as finalists for Bases Coded in the National League World Series representative’s city (location to be determined, obviously!). These teams will receive travel and accommodations to participate in a 24-hour hackathon (think coding, coffee, and more coffee!) to build their app. During the coding challenge, participants will have access to MLBAM and New Relic technologists, an Amazon Web Services instance on which to build their application, and New Relic’s products to verify the performance of their app under a simulated load.

Batting a Thousand

Here are some tips for those thinking about participating in Bases Coded:

1. Be original. How original is your idea? Would it have a competitive advantage in the marketplace? How does it help or enhance the fan experience?
2. Provide value. Does this product provide use or value to a consumer? If you saw this app, would you want to download and use it?
3. Think performance. How efficiently does your product perform? New Relic software may be used to evaluate your app’s performance.
4. Prepare your presentation. Did your team present clearly and concisely? How successfully did you and your team members describe the business and/or customer value of your app?

Game Winner

Are you ready to compete to win tickets to Game Four of the World Series? I repeat, tickets to the World Series. Need I say more? It’s time to round up your heavy-hitters, switch your rally caps for thinking caps, and get coding!

If you’re ready to play ball, visit basescoded.com.