WHY LITTLE LEAGUE?
In today’s world, families have so many options when it comes to deciding where to play baseball. From travel ball to local tourney clubs to recreational leagues, the options can be overwhelming. On the spectrum from “just for fun” to “be the best you can possibly be”, where does the Little League experience fit into the picture?
THE DIFFERENCES
There are some key differences to how the game is played in Little League at the Majors (12U) level and younger compared with other area leagues or tournament team clubs:
-No Lead Offs/Balks
While many competitive programs allow leadoffs beginning as young as 8U, Little League baseball maintains that the integrity of the game is best preserved by not having runners leave the base until the ball crosses home plate on the pitch. Watch any weekend tourney and you’ll see why. At these younger age levels, stealing second base with a leadoff is not a risky proposition at all- kids just don’t pitch fast enough or throw hard enough to stand a chance at catching a runner who leaves for a base, with a head start, as soon as the pitcher moves toward the plate. Base runners who make it to first are often at third two pitches later, with little risk involved. At Little League, we believe stealing a base should always be a risky endeavor, and with the rules we have in place, we see many close tags and put outs on the bases because of it.
This also means that there are no balks in Little League. We believe this helps pitchers develop their mechanics by being able to focus on throwing good pitches at these younger ages instead of stressing about holding runners on. We do call ‘illegal pitches’, which result in an automatic ‘ball’, in certain situations to make sure pitchers are playing with proper mechanics and timing that are fair to the batter.
-Emphasis on arm health/safety
Little League enforces strict guidelines on pitch count limits and required rest days to ensure that players are protected from any potential overuse injuries. Guess the age at which the most Tommy John surgeries are performed in the U.S. today? 15. You read that right. Many other leagues/clubs play tournament style baseball in which pitchers are limited only by innings pitched in a weekend, which pays no mind to the fact that a pitcher could throw 100 pitches in two innings and still be eligible to pitch FOUR more innings the next day. I’m sure you’re thinking no sane adult would ever do that to a child, but it happens far more often than you’d expect. No win is worth the long term health of a player, and the rules Little League puts in place prevent your player’s future being jeopardized by shortsighted decisions in their youth.
-The USA Baseball Bat Standard
Little League only allows wood bats or bats displaying the USA Baseball approved seal. While other bat standards such as USSSA have built an entire industry on making bats as “hot” as possible to sell equipment at higher and higher prices, the USA Baseball bat standard is committed to approving bats that perform similar to wood or BBCOR bats so that a hitter’s power is earned through good mechanics and clean contact. This also has the benefit of giving players realistic feedback on the quality of their swing, as opposed to providing the illusion of power that comes from hotter bats. We believe this builds fundamentally better hitters who excel as they move on from Little League.
-The Pitchers’ Mound
Little League uses a pitchers’ mound for all of our 10U and above divisions. While most club or tournament programs pitch from flat ground until they reach full sized fields at 14U, we believe that pitchers best develop when learning to pitch from a mound early on.
-Redrafting teams each season
Our league redrafts new teams at the beginning of each Spring season. We do this in order to maintain competitive balance year after year, not allowing legacy teams to collect the top talent and dominate their divisions. We also love that this allows all of our players the chance to play for our top coaches- building the strength of our program by building up all of our players and making sure no kid gets stuck on a team with the “leftovers” year after year.
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS
“Little League isn’t competitive baseball”
A lot of parents mistakenly come to the conclusion that Little League baseball isn’t competitive because, as a no-cut league, not all players on every team play at the “competitive” level that the more developed players play at.
On one hand, Little League does not embrace a “win-at-all-costs” approach to the game of baseball, and our practice and game schedules are more relaxed than 5-6 day a week club programs, typically practicing once or twice a week and playing a weeknight and Saturday game each week.
However, we take pride in equipping, empowering, and retaining high level coaches that excel at teaching the game of baseball and molding their rosters into teams that play winning baseball. Winning DOES matter in Little League; the games are intense, the level of play is often very high, and the victories and defeats are matched with emotional highs and lows. However, we still place a high value on developing every player, giving an entire roster varied opportunities to play all over the field to become more well rounded ball players, and making sure that no matter the skill level, every kids gets a chance to contribute.
We have found that many times, kids who leave our league to play club ball often return to Little League after being stuck at a single position (or the bench) for an entire season for the sake of winning. We believe these younger years are the time for kids to fall in love with the game, and what better way than to let them explore and learn various positions?
We have also found that players who come up through Little League excel when they move on to higher levels of competition, as their fundamentals are sound and they have grown to appreciate the ups and downs of baseball apart from the specific results of an at bat, a play, or a game. Many of our alumni can be found on current area high school rosters.
“You have to play club or be on a feeder team to make a High School team”
We have relationships with many area High School Coaches, and when asked what they’re looking for in players, they all say the same thing: “I could care less where a kid comes from, if he’s got good character, is coachable, plays with hustle and has good fundamentals, that’s the kind of kid I’m looking for.”
High School coaches don’t look at your club team stat lines in Gamechanger. They don’t look at your videos or photos of tournament wins or over-the-fence home runs off a trampoline bat. They are looking for kids who can play, kids who are coachable, and kids with a solid fundamental understanding of the game. We believe that the Little League experience, with it’s varied opportunities and focus on development over results breeds the kind of players High School coaches are looking for, and the evidence is on the rosters for High Schools all over our territory.