There's a Hawaiian kid switch-pitching in the West region championship

When does Schloss start recruiting Gavin Weir from South Dakota? He threw a 15 K no hitter on Saturday and hits a three run bomb today for the win.

Tiny dimensions, no leading off. Not real baseball. Change my mind.

mosdefn14 said:

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Tiny dimensions, no leading off. Not real baseball. Change my mind.

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Agree. Most kids at that age are playing bigger fields and allowed to lead off. Still fun to watch

Still fun to watch, but it will be the death of little league.

All of these kids playing play real baseball on the weekends.

It is only a matter of time before little league changes their ways or goes away forever.


I am ok with closed base thru 9u. But after that they are too big.

mosdefn14 said:

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Tiny dimensions, no leading off. Not real baseball. Change my mind.

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It's called Little League for a reason.

Fat Bib Fortuna said:

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mosdefn14 said:

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Tiny dimensions, no leading off. Not real baseball. Change my mind.

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It's called Little League for a reason.

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Yea I ****ty reason.

Our kids play open base starting at 9u. So to these the majority of the time. Keeping closed base thru 12u-13u is ridiculous. Neuters the game.

But yes I still watch some of it. I would probably watch more if they played actual baseball.

Well my other answer was that nobody cares.

agsalaska said:

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Fat Bib Fortuna said:

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mosdefn14 said:

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Tiny dimensions, no leading off. Not real baseball. Change my mind.

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It's called Little League for a reason.

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Yea I ****ty reason.

Our kids play open base starting at 10u. So to these the majority of the time. Keeping closed base thru 12u-13u is ridiculous. Neuters the game.

But yes I still watch some of it. I would probably watch more if they played actual baseball.

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The kids you are watching on tv are way better than the standard little leaguer

astros4545 said:

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agsalaska said:

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Fat Bib Fortuna said:

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mosdefn14 said:

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Tiny dimensions, no leading off. Not real baseball. Change my mind.

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It's called Little League for a reason.

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Yea I ****ty reason.

Our kids play open base starting at 10u. So to these the majority of the time. Keeping closed base thru 12u-13u is ridiculous. Neuters the game.

But yes I still watch some of it. I would probably watch more if they played actual baseball.

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The kids you are watching on tv are way better than the standard little leaguer

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The point is that these kids play open bases on bigger field already and there is no reason to have them play dumbed down ball in the LLWS

Yes. Exactly.




And edit to my original post. Our kids start at 9u. 10u in league which doesnt have a 9u.

closed base is for coach pitch and t ball.

The field is so flippiin small that it seems borderline dangerous

agsalaska said:

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Fat Bib Fortuna said:

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mosdefn14 said:

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Tiny dimensions, no leading off. Not real baseball. Change my mind.

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It's called Little League for a reason.

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Yea I ****ty reason.

Our kids play open base starting at 9u. So to these the majority of the time. Keeping closed base thru 12u-13u is ridiculous. Neuters the game.

But yes I still watch some of it. I would probably watch more if they played actual baseball.

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Pony baseball has been around for some time and they allow for "actual baseball." Where's their 12u WS on ESPN?

astros4545 said:

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The field dimensions work well for the average team in a Little League

They dont work for All Stars from the best towns in America


I could see leadoffs and real baseball at the 12year age in LL...but 9-10 year old is the first year of kids actually pitching, they are not ready for leadoffs and steals unless you want the worst baseball to watch in history

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I used to think the same thing until I watched a full season of 9u baseball. My son just finished a 9u season of select and 10u league. I would say that with some of the lower quality teams it may have been better if it was closed base. But the better 9u teams can play open base just fine.


At any rate, by the time they are 12 it should all be open base, especially considering these kids are already playing open base in travel ball and are the best kids.


It is the number one reason our town does not play Little League. It gets brought up every year in the board meeting and every year it gets voted down almost unanimously.

I'm talking strictly LL, not select ball

The average little league player is not any good, and the game would be unwatchable at 9-10 years old with lead offs, pick offs, stolen bases and no hitting due to all the walks

Select ball has players that can do that

astros4545 said:

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I'm talking strictly LL, not select ball

The average little league player is not any good, and the game would be unwatchable at 9-10 years old with lead offs, pick offs, stolen bases and no hitting due to all the walks

Select ball has players that can do that

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Thats fair. I can agree with you on rec ball thru 10u, but at 12u I think they need to play real baseball.

I used to think open bases at 9-10 was bad. While it is not great, it teaches the kids those rules earlier and makes the 11-12 year old teams better when they get there.

In our local league, the 11/12 players have the following dimensions Rubber to home: 50 feet, Base to base: 70 feet. They also have open bases.

The 11/12 year old kids playing in the LLWS are playing with rubber to home at 46 feet and base to base of 60 feet. These are the dimensions the 9U/10U kids play (along with the ability to lead off (up to 10 ft) and steal once the ball crosses the plate).

I have a feeling there is eventually going to be a safety issue with the pitching distance of 46 feet. Either a pitcher is going to hit someone that doesn't have enough time to react or a pitcher is going to get nailed with a hit.

I am not crazy about open bases for 9/10 in rec league. All you are going to see is kids going from 1st to 3rd in a couple pitches. In select, you will have a decent amount of catchers that can make the throw.

If you're playing 50/70, it's not Little League.

The problem is that for 95% of Little League, 60' closed bases are fine for the kind of kids that play and there needs to be a place for those kids to just have fun playing baseball. It's when you bring the actual talent back in from select/travel.......which literally every team that makes it to Williamsport is............that it becomes an issue.

The kids may be little league, but this ump looks major league ready

Of course, filter. Replace the stars with the s word

lil99chris said:

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In our local league, the 11/12 players have the following dimensions Rubber to home: 50 feet, Base to base: 70 feet. They also have open bases.

The 11/12 year old kids playing in the LLWS are playing with rubber to home at 46 feet and base to base of 60 feet. These are the dimensions the 9U/10U kids play (along with the ability to lead off (up to 10 ft) and steal once the ball crosses the plate).

I have a feeling there is eventually going to be a safety issue with the pitching distance of 46 feet. Either a pitcher is going to hit someone that doesn't have enough time to react or a pitcher is going to get nailed with a hit.

I am not crazy about open bases for 9/10 in rec league. All you are going to see is kids going from 1st to 3rd in a couple pitches. In select, you will have a decent amount of catchers that can make the throw.

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Doesn't LL require bats to be no bigger than 2-1/4" diameter and be the USA standard? If so that's less dangerous than the typical 2-3/4" USSSA -10 bats. But the point does remain.

At this point (and it's been a while) the best teams competing to go to and play in the LLWS are all kids who play select ball and then go play LL for their 11 & 12-year old seasons to make All Stars and get to Williamsport. I know the teams from Post Oak LL in Houston that made it a couple years ago were all on one select team. Then they played league for that year- granted they were dispersed onto separate teams in league play but it was pretty much a given they'd make up the All Star team. Same for the Slidell, LA team recently. And I believe that was the case for the recent Pearland team too.

I think they probably do if for the tradition of it. But most of these kids are playing a lot better quality of ball and playing on the smaller fields is kind of a joke to kids who are hitting bombs on 250' fields at 12.