Baseball Knowledge Base Article Summaries

Little League(r) consitutional crisis? - Jon Toner (length=4117)
Being Jon Quixote, jouster of windmills (with apologies to Cervantes), I'd make a stink. Of course idealism is proportional to one's distanc ...

Running A Youth Baseball Fall League - Marty Schupak (length=2087)
Youth baseball seasons seem to be going longer and longer. Some leagues enter All Star tournaments which run through August. Come the fall, ...

Why Little League? - Jon Toner (length=3086)
Coaching in LL minors, I agree that 1st and 3rd is an "automatic" steal more often than not, however I ALMOST ALWAYS contest the steal. I ...

Why Little League? - Jon Toner (length=1935)
I "inherited" a 45 year legacy of Little League affiliation. The area of our district is heavily affiliated with Little League. Little Le ...

AAU v LL {Rec} No Difference @ Allstar Time(Long) - Walter Kiriaka (length=1592)
Well, In your part of the country yes, in mine no way. The travel Teams have too much bickering and stealing each others players that it t ...

Little League has changed - Jim J. (length=2447)
Runners in LL aren't allowed to lead off and they aren't allowed to leave the base until the pitch has reached the batter. That is very sign ...

Playing AAU and Little League with a new twist - Fred (length=1942)
You may recall back last winter I inquired regarding the pros and cons of AAU baseball and any insights on playing both. Here’s the new twis ...

Little League - PONY League - Will (length=1114)
I agree generally with Wayne and Jon. Little League uses 60 foot bases through age 12. Pony gradually increases the distance, so at ages 11- ...

Why Little League? - Coach Mike (length=705)
I don't have as much experience as the previous postings regarding your question but; I think LL is a good program for the younger rec playe ...

Why Little League? - Gary (length=1136)
I would agree that little league pitching/base distances may be too short for the cream of the crop 12 year olds. However, I will say that a ...

Why Little League? - Gary (length=841)
Jeff, I appreciate your comments. All youth sports must/should be fun otherwise kids will not want to participate. I feel,however, that t ...

Why Little League? - Jeff T. (length=1262)
Gary, this is fun. I have a travel team that is 10-U and has played both sets of rules in various tournaments. All our players play L.L., to ...

Why Little League? - Jeff T. (length=575)
I am a board member of our local L.L. and would change in a heart-beat. My primary beef is the rules. I am interested, that as an Independen ...

Why Little League? - Jeff T. (length=1415)
You are correct, as am I, I feel. Certainly the basic fundementals need to be taught (AT ALL levels)--the meaning of Spring Training. Unfort ...

Why Little League? - Joe Zander (length=1006)
Jon, you are absolutely right! Great post and very instructive. For my own teams, I publish a team manual that I distribute to players ea ...

Why Little League? - Neill Riddell (length=833)
I have been watching this board for several weeks now. I have been impressed by the thoughtful insights offered by the posters, both on the ...

Why Little League? - Roger (length=976)
Make no mistake about it LL is not for everyone. It can be and is often very political but has structure even at a national level which is m ...

Why Little League? - Ron Bing (length=1308)
Neill, you are absolutely right when you said that the stole base was almost a given. As highly competitve as our 11 year old league is, no ...

Why Little League? - Ron Bing (length=659)
Our league is also independent and I like it that way. Why shouldn't 11 and 12 year olds be allowed to lead off? Our bases are 70' and the p ...

Why Little League? - Steve Condie (length=849)
We run a separate summer league for our 7 -12 year old non-tournament players after our regular season is over. (I don't know how this would ...

Why Little League? - Steve (length=1362)
When we established our league four years ago, we chose LL, primarily because it provides a ready-made administrative structure and rules fo ...

Why Little League? - Wayne (length=1745)
There is a very good solution for the independent league. I served for a number of years on the largest youth baseball league in our area. W ...

1st Game at Williamsport - Scorekeeper (length=1879)
It does look that way, but the camera angle for one really does foul perception. Pitches that look like they're at least 6" inside or low ar ...

1st game of the LLWS Regionals - RD (length=1543)
Not to be funny but in this case, size does matter. However, these kids will be tested when they get to the next level. Here(in NY) in most ...

1st game of the LLWS Regionals - Scorekeeper (length=2109)
I'm so glad there are people like the announcers they get for the LLWS in this world! People like that make people like me feel superior! ...

Anyone else disgusted? - Scorekeeper (length=2453)
I didn't see it, but probably would have been PO'd too. But what do you expect? Everyone wants these kids to be miniature Major Leaguers, wi ...

Anyone else disgusted? - Scorekeeper (length=1747)
I totally agree! However, I honestly don't think what that kid did with the monster walk was directed at the other team nay more than when ...

Anyone else disgusted? - Scorekeeper (length=1886)
It all depends on your mindset. Like I said, I laughed, BB mom and CoachJT were disgusted. During today's game, Brent Mushberger had the aud ...

Article: Little League Losing it s Grip on Kids - Baseball mom (length=8985)
Little League Losing Its Grip on Kids Thu Aug 12, 7:55 AM ET Add Top Stories - Los Angeles Times to My Yahoo! By Dave McKibben Ti ...

Freedom From Little League - Repost for Knowledge Base - Baseball Nut (length=42628)
Great Post......And you see I do agree...I can tell from your written thoughts that you are not the guy that I am realy trying to get after. ...

Going to Williamsport? - Floyd (length=1282)
I remember posting last year about our AS major team that I thought had a chance to at least get to the west regionals. Pitcher 1 - 5'11", ...

Guam v Canada and Ca v NY - Scorekeeper (length=2827)
To tell the truth, I wasn't too impressed with either Guam or Canada. Canada's #1 was a good pitcher, but certainly not great, and when he g ...

How would I restructure Little League - Navy (length=1660)
I have coached LL for five years from coach pitch to juniors and while I would not object to a return to wood bats, I do not believe it woul ...

I'm Sort of Sad - Splitter (length=4923)
Coach9, I really didn't take Bean's post the way you did. I saw it as a lament that there are so many well meaning and under trained coach ...

Interesting LL Article - Navy (length=1466)
Little League's problem is twofold. It is losing the marginal players to other sports or activities(i.e. soccer, lacrosse, skateboarding, c ...

Japan Vs Curacao - RD (length=1740)
You hit the nail on the head by saying if an adult acts in a sorry way how can you blame a kid for his actions. That should also go for your ...

Japan Vs Curacao - Scorekeeper (length=2667)
I don't often openly criticize an ump, but the guy behind the plate at the Japan/Curacao game left a lot to be desired! In the top of the ...

Japan Vs Curacao - Scorekeeper (length=2657)
I guess that those things just don't bother me as much as they do other people, and maybe they should. Its not that I'm an angel about it ...

LL vs Pony - SJC (length=1677)
I serve as president of a local youth baseball association that has an official little league program and then jumps to Pony and Colt. The p ...

LLWS Championship - Scorekeeper (length=1315)
A lot of throwing isn't going to affect every kid the same way, or even affect the same kid the same way on different occasions. My beef wit ...

LLWS Championship - Scorekeeper (length=1106)
Great post and I couldn't agree more on just about everything. I'd go a bit farther on not taking Alvey out and say it was no different t ...

LLWS antics so what's wrong with hav'n fun - Scorekeeper (length=1415)
OK, OJ is a good guy and they should leave it up there. How about those other princes of sport who were drunks, addicts, wife beaters, child ...

LLWS antics so what's wrong with hav'n fun - Scorekeeper (length=1785)
When I was 11, my mom took us to Chicago to visit our relatives. My cousins invited to play ball with the kids in the local neighborhood. It ...

LLWS kicks Selects butt - Scorekeeper (length=2253)
All I know is our 14U team played a lot of 54/80 games and the rest were 60/90. I don't mean to demean the play of kids below that age, bu ...

LLWS kicks Selects butt - Scorekeeper (length=1099)
I don't care who you have hitting, a kid who throws between 75-80 at 46' is going to dominate the batters. If he throws the ball around the ...

LLWS - RD (length=2374)
One thing I hope parents teach their kids is commitment. Yes it is a privilege to play LL All Stars after your season but it should also be ...

LLWS - Scorekeeper (length=2119)
There is only one person I've seen on the BB during any of the recent back and forth about LL vs Select who does nothing but bash LL and che ...

Louisville vs Aptos - Scorekeeper (length=3955)
This game was not exactly exciting for me to watch because there was so little action. It seemed more like a FP softball game. That didn't m ...

Major Leage Equivalent Pitch Speed during LLWS?? - Scorekeeper (length=2724)
Whew! I'm sure glad no one got nasty with me, and I'm sure you know the question was more to make people think about what they were really d ...

My Son did!!!!!!!!!HELP!!!!! - Mel (length=2591)
Dear DAD: You sound like my husband about 21 years ago when our second son made his first All Star team. Like you, both of us were ver ...

NC coach is an idiot! - Scorekeeper (length=1106)
Ya know, I've asked LL and NFHS why an umpire can't do something about this problem. After all, he is in charge of the game and the safety o ...

Official Little League - Eligibility - Playing on 2 teams - Mel (length=1191)
If your league is indeed Official Little League then the player can not be on two rosters. Since the All Star teams are decided by age, ie; ...

Open Letter to Parents of Little Leaguers - Coach Bill (length=2925)
To: Little League Parents From: Your Little League Coach In striving to make our team the best around and to insure that the kids ...

Special LL waiver??? - Scorekeeper (length=6913)
"LL did this to themselves by putting themselvs on national TV... and claiming they are the game for everyone" I understand what you're sa ...

Special LL waiver??? - Scorekeeper (length=1469)
I don't understand why you're so vehement on this one. There are probably 5,000 players in the country where this is an issue, and probably ...

Special LL waiver??? - Scorekeeper (length=2843)
I'm not absolutely positive, but I am pretty sure about this. Our league encompasses something like 400 square miles south west of Sacrament ...

Special LL waiver??? - Scorekeeper (length=4062)
I'm not disagreeing, but why 9-12s? Why not 0-8 or 13-18? See, we do agree that the problem is when the rules are stretched just because ...

Special LL waiver??? - Scorekeeper (length=3040)
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 USSS ...

The NW Regional game - Scorekeeper (length=6076)
Well, I couldn't stand it anymore and just had to score a game! Withdrawal is a terrible thing! So, I sat and watched the entire Idaho vs ...

Wooster vs Texas - Scorekeeper (length=3393)
This game was a little different. Again there was a great contrast between the two pitchers, but the way the two teams played seemed differe ...

happy to see new york go! - Scorekeeper (length=1126)
I don't want to get into a pissing contest with you, but I think you're confusing self righteousness with compassion. I just wanted to se ...

happy to see new york go! - Scorekeeper (length=1662)
I'm glad Worchester won because they played hard and didn't give up. But I'm sorry Harlem lost because of the same thing. I don't know abu ...

little league hypocracy-again - Scorekeeper (length=1553)
It might not be a "common" occurrence, but there are a some people who send the kids off for the summer to Gram or Aunt Ethel. I'll give you ...

little league world series (under-rated) vs AAU,USSSA (over-rated) - Scorekeeper (length=1585)
All of the arguments I've seen so far don't prove anything conclusive, at least to me, other than drawing from a larger talent pool will gen ...

little league world series (under-rated) vs AAU,USSSA (over-rated) - Scorekeeper (length=2019)
I'm amazed at the total disagreement on LL vs any other program. In general, as Rich has pointed out so many times, anytime you can draw f ...

little league world series (under-rated) vs AAU,USSSA (over-rated) - Scorekeeper (length=2562)
Is it safe to say that at least it seems we all agree that a larger "pool" or "base" from which to draw talent is likely to provide more tal ...