OT: my Little League

[TheJON]

Gotta give some props to the Urbandale Little League team for making the Little League World Series. Why do I care about this? Because that's the Little League I played in. Was pretty cool seeing kids from my old Little League playing ball on ESPN. Rack them!

[King Crimson]

that is cool. one of my best friends' older brother was on that NFL Punt, Pass, and Kick finals thing when i was young. pretty surreal watching the dude who, the day before, was whipping our asses around the lot in a baseball-styled game we used to play called "Impossi-ball".....standing at midfield at Cowboy Stadium on TV.

[SoCalTrjn]

Little League is the retard of youth baseball. rubber cleats, no leading off, 45 foot mounds, 60 foot base paths for 13 year olds, retarded

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Well, that's what we grew up with you taint suckling dickbag. Little League is as American as apple pie.

[TheJON]

Mgo is correct. I can't imagine being deprived of playing Little League as a child. Some of my best childhood memories come from little league. Still have my Teeball championship trophy. Was the only little league team I was on that won much but I was on one of the best AAU squads in the midwest every year. As for leading off, we could leadoff in 13-15 year old and we had 90 ft base paths at those ages too. Full infield is too big for anyone under that age and what the heck do 12 year old kids need to be leading off for? Like any catcher is going to be able to throw them out if they steal. Come on, that's just stupid. Please off yourself loser.

[SunCoastSooner]

Mgo is correct. I can't imagine being deprived of playing Little League as a child. Some of my best childhood memories come from little league. Still have my Teeball championship trophy. Was the only little league team I was on that won much but I was on one of the best AAU squads in the midwest every year. As for leading off, we could leadoff in 13-15 year old and we had 90 ft base paths at those ages too. Full infield is too big for anyone under that age and what the heck do 12 year old kids need to be leading off for? Like any catcher is going to be able to throw them out if they steal. Come on, that's just stupid. Please off yourself loser.

I played catcher and could pick off a kid with a lead off the bag to second base at 12...

[TheJON]

You could pick off the shit players. You could not have picked someone like me off. No way. I doubt I once got caught stealing until 15 year old. Even in AAU I didn't. Now granted, I was amongst the fastest runners but even if I were slower I still could have gotten 80% at least, if not 90%. You would have had to have been an exceptional catcher and not the norm to throw guys out at that age- if they were getting a lead.

Actually, as I think back on it, we may have been able to get a lead in 11-12 year olds but I'm not certain. Going to have to call my dad and ask him since he coached all my teams.

[Laxplayer]

Actually, as I think back on it, we may have been able to get a lead in 11-12 year olds but I'm not certain. Going to have to call my dad and ask him since he coached all my teams.

Well that explains a lot.

[War Wagon]

If you were allowed to lead off at age 11-12, you weren't playing Little League. Their rules are similar to softball in that you can't leave the base until the ball is at the plate/caught by the catcher/or some other silly rule...

In girls fastpitch softball, they can leave the base once the ball leaves the pitchers hand.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

^^Yeah, I remember that was the rule when I played LL.

[King Crimson]

as soon as we had a live pitcher, you could steal, not sure about leading off until the next step up in leagues (we called it Midget and then Pony). at the very least, i know we were throwing out stealers in "Midget" because i played 2b and i remember the coach teaching me how to cover the bag properly (in addition to double play fundamentals) and us getting a lot of people out trying to take the base. i think that was 6th and 7th grade. i also remember we had "signs" on those teams, so yeah. Coach would go threw a series of BS and once he hit his belt buckle or tip of cap (depending on the game) the next sign was either "live" or bogus.

[War Wagon]

Little League is the retard of youth baseball. rubber cleats, no leading off...

Always working hard to prove what a dickhead you are again, I see.

So, do you coach your kids to go in spikes high?

Somehow, that wouldn't surprise me.

[SoCalTrjn]

It's not our Little League, I'm 39, when I was in Little League there were tryouts and players were cut from the team, when you got to 13 on May 1 you went to Pony, its not the same anymore. Little League is now watered down and isn't about the best playing and the team winning, you have to play Travel Ball or Club ball for that. Pony is now its own sanction and plays by the travel ball rules and regulations but without the travel.
People tune in to ESPN thinking that the Little League they're watching now is the Little League of their youth and don't understand that it's a Little League ran by soccer moms that are actually voting on removing strike outs from the game and trying to get ESPN to air the Junior league (13/14 year olds on April 1) games on TV since they feel the 11 and 12 year old kids losing on TV is too much pressure for them. The lack of leading off, the fact that any kid that signs up has to be put on a team and get to play no matter how worthless and clueless they are, or whether or not they even want to play (mind you that it is all star teams that are playing on TV now)
I know it feels good to feel nostalgic but its only the baseball we played as a youth by name only

[TheJON]

Well, I stand corrected. I guess we could NOT lead off in 11-12 year olds. Must have been AAU I was thinking. Shit, that was a long time ago. 17 years in fact. 13 year old I am 100% certain we could leadoff. I know because I pretty much just took off every pitch since our team was so god damn terrible, I was trying to do anything to win a game. That was the year we pulled an 0-fer. Fucking brutal season.

[SunCoastSooner]

It's not our Little League, I'm 39, when I was in Little League there were tryouts and players were cut from the team, when you got to 13 on May 1 you went to Pony, its not the same anymore. Little League is now watered down and isn't about the best playing and the team winning, you have to play Travel Ball or Club ball for that. Pony is now its own sanction and plays by the travel ball rules and regulations but without the travel.
People tune in to ESPN thinking that the Little League they're watching now is the Little League of their youth and don't understand that it's a Little League ran by soccer moms that are actually voting on removing strike outs from the game and trying to get ESPN to air the Junior league (13/14 year olds on April 1) games on TV since they feel the 11 and 12 year old kids losing on TV is too much pressure for them. The lack of leading off, the fact that any kid that signs up has to be put on a team and get to play no matter how worthless and clueless they are, or whether or not they even want to play (mind you that it is all star teams that are playing on TV now)
I know it feels good to feel nostalgic but its only the baseball we played as a youth by name only

Soccer moms fuck up everything including soccer.

[TheJON]

Soccer moms ruin sports not soccer. Soccer has always been incredibly lame and for the simple minded. Its glorified keep away.

[SoCalTrjn]

glorified keep away, nice.

Having 2 sons that started in Little League and knowing all the people I did from Travel Ball who tried to keep their kids in Little League so they could do the all star stuff I have become pretty well versed on how that sanction runs things. Them voting to remove strike outs from the game for players under the age of 13 is a joke, you give a pitcher 60 pitches and he cant strike anyone out? Teach the kids baseball, its a disservice to let pitchers throw from the windup with runners on base, its a crime to not let runners leave the base til the pitch crosses the plate, its not softball, its baseball. the reason so many kids quit baseball after their 13th birthday is because they grew up in Little League playing by Tee ball rules on a Tee ball field. In many cases it gives them 1 year to prepare for High School baseball on real baseball fields and drop 3 bats, many of those kids were playing on 60 foot bases and hitting the ball over a 220 foot fence with a drop 11 all the way through 7th grade.
Unfortunately Little League is banking on its name and old folks like us remembering thats what we played but the kids going to Williamsport are too big and the equipment is too good to play by those rules and on that size of a field.
They actually have Little League divisions for kids up to 19 years old now because they have realized that have a generation of kids who arent ready for competitive baseball by the time they reach high school
Majors is 11-12 year olds on April 1st, Juniors is 13-14 year olds on April 1st, Seniors is 15-16 year olds on April 1st and Big Leagues is 17-19 year olds on April 1st
AAU, USSSA, Pony, you want your kids to play good baseball, put them in those types of ball and not Little League

a 6-2, 205 lb 12 year old from Chula Vista swinging a drop 11 Easton composite bat just hit a ball 150 feet beyond the fence and a kid hitting behind him who is a tad smaller has hit 12 home runs in 6 games at the San Bernardino regional.

[TheJON]

Sounds like a lot has changed in Little League then when I played. Games were competitive. We took them seriously. We wanted bragging rights at school. We didn't want to lose to our friends on the other teams. Hell no.......I was always fired up for games and wanted to win. When we lost, I was pissed. I had to listen to trash talk from my buddies at school. Fuck that shit!

We had TeeBall at 7-8, then we had 9 year old league and then 10 year old league. Then, once we got to 11-12 year olds you had to try out for Majors. If you did not make Majors you were put in the Intermediate league. Same field, same rules, just shittier players. Then everyone was back together in 13 year old on a bigger field with 60 ft 6 inches to home and 90 ft bases. But the thing is, most of the really shitty players had quit after 12 year old. So we were all at least decent. None of the tards that couldn't play ball wanted to be stuck in right field in a big park and have to bat against guys that were throwing mid 70's like I was.

Then, at 14-15 year olds we had to try out again. We had Senior League and for those that didn't make Senior League there was a separate league though I can't recall the name of it. This was played on an even bigger field than 13 year old. I think it was about 350 to dead center, maybe 360 and about 280 to the poles. This was great preparation for high school baseball. Most of the kids in Senior League were going to be on the HS team. Some were still in 8th grade, but most of us were 9th graders that would be on the Freshman team. We play HS ball in Iowa in the summer, so Little League was mostly over by the time HS ball had started- though we did have some conflicts. Obviously HS ball took presedence over LL.

Yeah, kids should be COMPETING at young ages. By 11-12 year olds, they should be keeping score, and playing to win. They need to learn how to win and lose with class and how are they going to do that if that's not the goal of the league? It's just stupid. When I was in LL, that was what it was all about. Parents just must not understand competition like they did when I was a kid. You can keep score, count strikeouts, and play hard and do it with class. Soccer moms are douchebags.

[War Wagon]

its not softball, its baseball.

Having coached both softball and baseball, girls are waaay more competitive at that age than boys. And girls don't sulk like boys do when things aren't going their way. Nope, they get pissed and redouble their effort, while boys go sit on the end of the bench and wait for mommy to come wipe their noses.

[SoCalTrjn]

the all star games are the only time in Little League they keep the scoreboard on if one team has more than a 5 run lead and thats because the guys running the TV feeds have the score on the TV screen. Even in Juniors they turn the score board off if one team gets up 5 runs.

[SoCalTrjn]

its not softball, its baseball.

Having coached both softball and baseball, girls are waaay more competitive at that age than boys. And girls don't sulk like boys do when things aren't going their way. Nope, they get pissed and redouble their effort, while boys go sit on the end of the bench and wait for mommy to come wipe their noses.

those would be little boys raised by soccer mommies, kids I coach will give 110% from start to finish or run til they puke every practice after that til they redeem themselves or quit the team, football and baseball.
I learned when doing the baseball draft thaqt if the kids mom brings him to tryouts, dont draft him, if his dad brings him and dad is of the correct moral fiber, draft the kid.

[TheJON]

its not softball, its baseball.

Having coached both softball and baseball, girls are waaay more competitive at that age than boys. And girls don't sulk like boys do when things aren't going their way. Nope, they get pissed and redouble their effort, while boys go sit on the end of the bench and wait for mommy to come wipe their noses.

I would agree on the not sulking when things aren't going well, but completely disagree on the competitiveness when it comes to baseball/softball. No way were girls more competitive than us growing up. I was around both having sisters that played softball, and I didn't notice them being more competitive.

[campinfool]

I coached a coach pitch YMCA team for one of my daughters a few years ago. The first game I was working a no hitter when my wife told me I was pitching for my own team. Still feel bad for throwing chin music at the black kid.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

The first game I was working a no hitter when my wife told me I was pitching for my own team.