Little League Baseball Tournament - A wonderful tradition since 1947

[pawineguy]

Spent the last couple of nights officiating Little League District games, as we are now in week three of one of America's and now the world's great sporting events. As an official we approve each substitution in the game, make sure all the rules are followed, keep the book, and document and sign off on all the pitch counts. Those pitch counts follow each team all the way to Williamsport if they make it that far. Each team also carries a binder that is approximately 2.5 to 3.0 inches thick that contains all of the documentation on the eligibility of each player as well as signed affidavits verifying that it's all truthful.

My own small town has won a couple of state championships in the last few years but haven't made it to Williamsport yet. Last year's team lost to the now famous Taney team in the state championships, and so far all of our age groups are still alive in District play or have already won Districts. One of my sons will play in the sectional finals starting on Thursday in a three game series, meaning a two hour drive north for game one.

LL tournament play is much different from regular season, with strict rules about not stepping out of the batter's box between pitches, very fast play encouraged, and with an emphasis on sportsmanship and fan behavior before each game. Yes, it's intense at times but it's also some of the most enjoyable baseball you can watch.

 

[Babydoll]

Our nephew down in Texas is on a team that has made district finals. They will be playing while we are visiting next week, and we hope to catch a game.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Some of my fondest memories as a kid are playing Little League, including the LLWS tournament. I made it to the state level, but never to Williamsport.

But there have been some changes since I was a kid. For one, they've changed the cutoff date for age determination. It used to be August 1st. So if you turned 12 years old by July 31st that year, you were considered a "12 year old" for LL purposes. Since I was born July 28th, I was always the youngest kid for my age, and played my entire "12 year old" season actually being 11. They've moved the date, so now I'd be consider a year younger by playing age. However, they are changing back the other way, and pushing back the date to December 31st. So if you turn 12 at any point in the calendar year, you'll play LL as a 12 year old. This will eliminate 13 year olds from the LLWS tournament.

The other change is when you can put your tournament team together. When I was playing, you couldn't have your team together or practice before July 1st. If you're already on your third week, they've obviously moved the tournament start date.

And don't get me started on all the "select" garbage out there who have a team together 12 months a year, groomed just for this one tournament. That's a whole other rant.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My hometown had a pretty good team in the late 70s-early 80s, and made it to the regional tournament, but stalled at that level. My youngest cousin was a catcher-third baseman on that club -- he preferred third base, but because even at 12 he was built like Smokey Burgess, the coach insisted on using him most as a catcher, with the result that his knees were completely shot before he hit puberty.

Our town field had the distinction of being the only baseball field in the league with a road going thru the outfield. It could get complicated when the groundskeeper forgot to close the gate before the game.

 

[pawineguy]

Some of my fondest memories as a kid are playing Little League, including the LLWS tournament. I made it to the state level, but never to Williamsport.

But there have been some changes since I was a kid. For one, they've changed the cutoff date for age determination. It used to be August 1st. So if you turned 12 years old by July 31st that year, you were considered a "12 year old" for LL purposes. Since I was born July 28th, I was always the youngest kid for my age, and played my entire "12 year old" season actually being 11. They've moved the date, so now I'd be consider a year younger by playing age. However, they are changing back the other way, and pushing back the date to December 31st. So if you turn 12 at any point in the calendar year, you'll play LL as a 12 year old. This will eliminate 13 year olds from the LLWS tournament.

The other change is when you can put your tournament team together. When I was playing, you couldn't have your team together or practice before July 1st. If you're already on your third week, they've obviously moved the tournament start date.

And don't get me started on all the "select" garbage out there who have a team together 12 months a year, groomed just for this one tournament. That's a whole other rant.

June 15 is now the team selection date, so most leagues hold a tryout immediately preceding that date, and then commence practicing daily the first legal day. Yes, most of the top players in each town play together for most of the year, on their town's travel team and/or an AAU team. It has gone from being an advantage for certain teams to the standard for almost every organization. The current challenge for most kids is hopping back and forth between 46/60 dimensions and the 50/70 that is played in most tournament baseball and travel leagues.

The move to get 13 year olds out of the LL tourney is long overdue, although it's causing great angst. Little League will probably make at least one more change before it's all over with, but either way, there will be a group of players who do not get a chance to compete in the tournament because of where their birthday falls. The current debate at the local level is what to do with those kids, as they will be playing on All Star teams up until they reach the transition year, and then will have to be replaced.

 

[AmateisGal]

My brothers both played little league and then went on to Legion ball in western Nebraska. They went to state a few times, but never advanced very far. In Nebraska, baseball is much more prevalent in the eastern part of the state, so the teams were always a lot tougher. My little brother did go on to play college baseball.

I always enjoyed watching them play. Fun times.

 

[HudsonHawk]

June 15 is now the team selection date, so most leagues hold a tryout immediately preceding that date, and then commence practicing daily the first legal day. Yes, most of the top players in each town play together for most of the year, on their town's travel team and/or an AAU team. It has gone from being an advantage for certain teams to the standard for almost every organization.

Our LL season ended in April, so the wait until July 1st was always a long one, as we didn't have select teams and such.

The current challenge for most kids is hopping back and forth between 46/60 dimensions and the 50/70 that is played in most tournament baseball and travel leagues.

We didn't have the 50/70 fields, so we went straight from 40/60 to 60/90. Me being young, it meant I went to a full-sized 60/90 field after having just turned 12. That was a pretty overwhelming jump, so it's good that there's that transition for the younger kids. But, it also means that a lot of kids don't play on a full sized field until high school.

The move to get 13 year olds out of the LL tourney is long overdue, although it's causing great angst. Little League will probably make at least one more change before it's all over with, but either way, there will be a group of players who do not get a chance to compete in the tournament because of where their birthday falls. The current debate at the local level is what to do with those kids, as they will be playing on All Star teams up until they reach the transition year, and then will have to be replaced.

Well, the "transition year" is only for one year, 2018, and only affects kids born between May and December of 2006. Those kids will get a chance to compete, they'll just have to do it against some kids who are under the old rules and may be a year older. Their 12-year old year will include kids born between May and December of 2005, as well. That's the affect of the phased in grandfathering, starting with 8-year olds. The only other option was to make it immediate, which would mean some kids actually *would* lose a year of eligibility. Some kids would play as 11-year olds, then suddenly be deemed to be 13-year olds. You couldn't do that, so the way they did it is probably best. After that one year, the playing field will be the same (it'll be like it used to be back in my day), and all kids will be competing against their own age. But that doesn't stop parents from complaining incessantly (they seem to think that's their role in LL). Most are just upset that their 13 year old will not be able to dominate on a 40/60 field.

 

[HudsonHawk]

My hometown had a pretty good team in the late 70s-early 80s, and made it to the regional tournament, but stalled at that level. My youngest cousin was a catcher-third baseman on that club -- he preferred third base, but because even at 12 he was built like Smokey Burgess, the coach insisted on using him most as a catcher, with the result that his knees were completely shot before he hit puberty.

Our town field had the distinction of being the only baseball field in the league with a road going thru the outfield. It could get complicated when the groundskeeper forgot to close the gate before the game.

Don't know much about LL in Maine, but the University of Maine has long been an outstanding college baseball program, which is rare for schools from the North. College baseball is typically dominated by teams from the South and California. I would suspect that a good many of the Black Bears' great players played LL somewhere up there as well.

 

[pawineguy]

Our LL season ended in April, so the wait until July 1st was always a long one, as we didn't have select teams and such.



We didn't have the 50/70 fields, so we went straight from 40/60 to 60/90. Me being young, it meant I went to a full-sized 60/90 field after having just turned 12. That was a pretty overwhelming jump, so it's good that there's that transition for the younger kids. But, it also means that a lot of kids don't play on a full sized field until high school.



Well, the "transition year" is only for one year, 2018, and only affects kids born between May and December of 2006. Those kids will get a chance to compete, they'll just have to do it against some kids who are under the old rules and may be a year older. Their 12-year old year will include kids born between May and December of 2005, as well. That's the affect of the phased in grandfathering, starting with 8-year olds. The only other option was to make it immediate, which would mean some kids actually *would* lose a year of eligibility. Some kids would play as 11-year olds, then suddenly be deemed to be 13-year olds. You couldn't do that, so the way they did it is probably best. After that one year, the playing field will be the same (it'll be like it used to be back in my day), and all kids will be competing against their own age. But that doesn't stop parents from complaining incessantly (they seem to think that's their role in LL). Most are just upset that their 13 year old will not be able to dominate on a 40/60 field.

The problem with the age change is that it doesn't accomplish what would clear up the source of a lot of problems, which is to get kids to play with their own school grade. Many of us involved in Little League expect a decision before 2018 to change the date to 8/31, to match up to most school districts, while still eliminating 13 year olds from the tournament.

The kids that are affected in 2018 will play with a travel team for 3 years and then a group of them will skip their 12 year old year and thus not get a chance to compete in the big tourney, unless they are so good that they can bump a 12 year old off the team when they are 11. It's possible but not likely in most cases.

There's really no way to fix the problem and not have kids skipping their 12 year old year unfortunately.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The problem with the age change is that it doesn't accomplish what would clear up the source of a lot of problems, which is to get kids to play with their own school grade. Many of us involved in Little League expect a decision before 2018 to change the date to 8/31, to match up to most school districts, while still eliminating 13 year olds from the tournament.

As I understand it, the biggest reason for the change is to match LL up with the International Baseball Federation age rules. But it also eliminates 13 year olds, which has been a complaint for years. August 31st may be a better date (it used to be August 1st), but matching up with school grade still depends on where you are. Lots of places the school age cutoff is Dec 31st as well, so no date will be magical in that regard.

The kids that are affected in 2018 will play with a travel team for 3 years and then a group of them will skip their 12 year old year and thus not get a chance to compete in the big tourney, unless they are so good that they can bump a 12 year old off the team when they are 11. It's possible but not likely in most cases.

There's really no way to fix the problem and not have kids skipping their 12 year old year unfortunately.

They won't "skip" their 12 year old year, they'll just play it the year they turn 12 rather than the year they turn 13. Which means, yes, for that one season, there will be a group of kids who will have to compete for an All-Star spot against kids who are potentially a full year older than they are (in some cases up to 20 months older), and kind of get screwed in that regard. But that's the only way to change the age rule. A small group of kids is going to get the short end of the deal.

And based on my experience, I can't get too worked up about kids who play on a "travel team" for three years, then feel entitled to play in the LLWS tournament. I've seen what these "travel teams" have done to local LLs, and I don't like it.

 

[pawineguy]

13U Sectional title over the weekend, battling back from one game down to win two in a row against the defending Sectional Champ. On to Pittsburgh to play against the other top 5 teams in the state. My son was filling in for an injured player who will return for the state tourney, but it's been a great ride. Since he's just 11, he'll have a couple more chances to get back to states. Here he is with his Sectional Championship pin.

This was our little town's 25th banner since 2010, proving that you don't have to be one of the big leagues to be successful, which is another thing that makes Little League special.

 

[pawineguy]

Just returned from two great days with the twins at Williamsport. The atmosphere on Sunday night for the PA vs SC game was absolutely electric. Probably the best Little League game I have ever watched, at least in terms of the tension and excitement (and extreme noise) in the stadium. We saw three great games on Sunday and one more today before hitting the road back home in time for football practice. We're lucky in that we're only three hours away but if you ever find yourself in the middle of PA this time of year, it's really a special place. (and entirely free, including parking, if you can avoid the concessions)

Lamade stadium is a true gem, and if you are sitting inside the stadium and not on the hill, you will find the most legroom of any stadium I have ever been to around the country. Even out on the hill, because of the small size of a Little League field, it's a great view of the game.

Sunday night's pictures, the announced attendance was over 43,000.