Special LL waiver???

Of course the rules will be stretched and even broken, but you shouldn't imply that LL is the worst any more than you should imply that USSSA is the best.

If the waivers are the only problem you have with LL, I can assure you many of us who love LL have issues with it that we feel are far more serious.

Of course you like your suggestion! But I like mine better, so what got accomplished? Nothing!

Unfortunately, All Stars has become a very big part of LL and there's no turning back. I for one would rather they do away with the whole All Star mess entirely, and let the season end with the TOC. Then, anyone who wants more could find some good souls like you and RAD to start a whole new program that has perfect rules to allow the players to go on to a higher level of ball.

That's exactly what used to happen with HS aged athletes and still does with college and professional athletes. There are all kinds of leagues around the country where players go to improve their skills and get more experience.

We have a friend who played this summer in St. Joseph Mo. for a team in a league that's basically for college Frosh and Sophs to play after the college season. The players are allowed to play and take a small stipend without jeopardizing their status.

The reason that doesn't happen very much for kids 8-15 is, it doesn't mean anything for a 12 YO to be the biggest, baddest stud in the country! The scouts just don't care, and if the scouts don't care, the people they're scouting for don't care. If those guys don't care, there won't be any reason to have leagues like that!

LL was never a "neighborhood thing" only, except in the cities where there was a concentration of bodies. My LL league covered the area from one side of Youngstown, Oh, all the way to the Pa state line or about 200 sq miles. There were some other small burgs like ours that had some teams of their own, but no one really got too upset about kids crossing lines.

We had a couple of kids in our town play in leagues their cousins played in all the way on the other side of Youngstown. Nobody got all upset about it because that's when all anyone really cared about was watching the kids play.

I could had thrown a rock and hit Williamsport, but none gave a rat's patoot about it until some genius decided it would be a "great" thing to have one central place to have the kids shoot for. Its importance has gotten way out of hand!

USSSA is a fantastic program, but don't ever think the playing field is level. If it was, LL would fold up due to lack of participation, then what would you have? As soon as USSSA became the big Moo Moo, they'd be the one's stuck with the fat kids and the runts who couldn't play very well, and what would they do? Probably get out the LL Inc constitution and copy all of the same things into theirs.

If you don't like LL, don't participate! It would be a shame to lose even one kid, but it would be better for the kid if dad didn't get his blood pressure up over something like this and croak.