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Little League Rule Change?
by Dave
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Some of you may think I have absolutely no regard for Little League and that can never change. I do have some beefs with Little League rules but I'll be the first to admit that when they have the good sense to change them, I do appreciate it and they still have the opportunity to pull me over to their side.
I had a genuine dislike of Little League's age cutoff differences and this they rectified in the last couple of years. Now LL uses the same January 1 cutoff which had been used by other sanctioning bodies.
I really despised the rule requiring use of the 11 inch ball at ages up to 12 but this disappeared, I think, last year. Now LL uses the 12 inch ball in 12U ball and the 11 only for ages 10 and under. That was an important change, at least as far as I'm concerned. Of course it took place too late for me and my girls.
One of the rules which bugged me was the prohibition against playing other games for other teams once international tournament play has begun. This morning I received a message from Patrick in Florida wondering what my reaction to LL reversing "its ruling that girls could not participate in travel ball programs while participating in their LL All-Star tournaments. How do you think this will effect things in the future?"
Patrick had already deleted the original message but promised to get a copy to me as soon as he was able to. Rather than wait, I decided to crawl the web to see if I could find it. It was no easy task but ultimately I found the following on a blog called "The Little League Coach"
"The rule that prohibits players from participating in non-Little League programs (dual participation), once Little League tournament play has begun, has been rescinded at all levels of play for baseball and softball. However, the local Little League retains the right to dismiss a player from a tournament team if the player repeatedly misses games and practices."
Now, I cannot vouch for the authenticity of these purported rule change. I receive e-mails from LL but perhaps I missed this one or it never reached me. But for the sake of argument, I'll act as if I know this rule change to be fact.
First of all, the way the rule previously read was:
"Participation in Other Programs
Little League, 9-10 Year Old Division, 10-11 Year Old Division: A player may participate in other youth softball programs prior to the first scheduled game involving that player's team. Once play begins for a tournament team, players named on that team's tournament affidavit may not participate in any other youth softball program until that team is eliminated from tournament play. After tournament play has begun, players added to a team's affidavit may not have participated in another youth softball program since their team's first scheduled tournament game. Junior League, Senior League, Big League Division: Participation in other programs during the International Tournament is permitted, subject to the provisions of Regulation IV (a) Note 2."
I'll be honest, I never realized that the prohibition against travel play did not apply to levels above "Little League" (12U). I don't know that my daughters would have participated had I known but I can't say that they would not have. As it is, assuming this rule has been changed, I'm going to ask my 2009 12 year old if she wants to give it a go. I'm also going to ask her big sister if she wants to play rec ball with the potential opportunity of playing in the international tournament for (I guess they call them) seniors.
I have had a couple experiences in Pony and travel ball which were related to the LL prohibition against playing travel ball simultaneously. A few years back, we had a kid on our all-star team who continued to play travel ball. Everyone knew it but nobody acted to prevent her from participating on the LL tournament team. Honestly, I think she played one non-LL tournament day for her travel team and that was about it. She didn't flagrantly violate the rule. The kid was young and she wanted to play the LL tournament. But she was a good ball player and needed to play travel to improve her game. I can see why the parents would permit this to go on and I don't hold anything against them.
Last year we were involved in Pony State championships and faced what is usually a very difficult team in the elimination round. My stomach was sick as I drove to the fields that day. I was afraid my very young, inexperienced team would be experiencing what I like to call one of those "character building" days. We werre eliminated that day but we won the game against the usually very tough team. I was left speechless by that one ... at least until ... somebody explained what had happened. The day before, four or five girls had left the team to go join up with their LL tournament teams. They were gone for the duration of their LL team's participation in the international tournament.
On another occasion, we were playing in a Pony national qualifier hosted by our organization. My team went out early and everyone went home. I had to stay because I was the site director and would give the closing speech while also handing out the banner that goes with the bid to the winner. The final game was a great one and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. But the team which won the game, tournament and bid, had already won a bid to nationals so they relinquished it. I turned to the runners-up and told them they had earned a bid. They replied, rather sadly, that they would not be accepting it because this was their final game together. The team had voted to disband so girls could go play with their LL teams in the tournament. I understood what they were doing but what struck me was their sadness. These girls and their coaches really wanted to go to Pony nationals. They also wanted to participate in the LL tournament. Realizing they could only do both by breaking the rules, these folks decided the best course of action was to give up travel for the remainder of the summer.
So, my first reaction to Patrick is I think this development is great. It will avoid much sadness and allow girls to just play ball. Also, I suppose that had it been implemented one year sooner, my team might not have experienced that win! But kidding aside, I think this is a very positive development for Little League, for travel teams of all sorts, and most of all, for all the girls who are the core of all this jazz.
The whole schtick about playing travel is you get to play tons of games. When I was a kid, our rec league was something like 12 or 16 games. Fior several years there wasn't even an all-star team in my town. Then they got that going and we doubled our bounty of games. That was great but you know, if somebody had come to me and said, "kid, you can play 50-80 ball games per year if you want, but your life will be shortened by ten years," I would have said, "that's OK, I've got nothing planned that far into the future - play ball!"
The LL thing doesn't really get going until the ? end of May ? / ? beginning of June ? Most tournament teams have played about 5 or 6 tournaments by then. They are just beginning to gel at that point. It doesn't make much sense to form up a team in the fall, practice all winter and then fold up your tent in May when the team should just start getting serious. So girls are left with a huge decision about whether to play travel ball at all. That's not particularly fair.
I understand that what LL was after with this rule was preventing little kids from becoming softball machine who had nothing else in their lives. But what about those few kids who live for softball? I'm not talking about kids who have nothing else in their lives but there are some kids who, while doing well in school and participating in plenty of other activites, would like to spend every other waking hour doing something with a 12 inch yellow ball with red seams in one hand and a composite bat or glove in the other.
LL also wanted to limit sport-related injuries. But limiting the younger kids while permitting older ones to play as much as they like seems wrong-headed to me. In older age groups more injuries occur due to the higher intensity of play. Also, the LL tournament doesn;t involve the sort of play many girls are already used to. There's none of those 5-game days like the ones we have experienced. There's also no time limit which is more like the school games - that's a positive thing about playing LL.
Many travel teams don't want LL kids on their rosters because of the potential mid-season disruption this can cause when they leave for their LL tournament teams. Many LL tournament teams don't want the kids who play travel on their rosters because they know they will be available for fewer practices, may sometimes be late for games, or possibly put the entire team in jeopardy by playing travel tournaments after the LL international thing has started. The net effect has been that kids had to choose which kind of play they would sign up for. The result was kids got to play less than they wanted.
I don't know how my kids will react to this news. They've been playing travel, PONY, FAST, NSA and ASA for so long, they may not care. But I sort of hope they do care and want to sign up for LL rec ball next year. There are other problems with rec ball generally but maybe we can overcome those in order to get a shot to play the LL tournament. Well, I'll leave the final decision up to them. It's their game.
I applaud Little League for making a sensible rule change. My thoughts on it are all positive, Patrick. Now if they can only get rid of the grass infields and the pitching limitations which exist nowhere else!Labels: little league, Travel vs. Recreational, youth tournament teams
 
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