Pearland has a little 3rd baseman named Malachi Clark. Kid has a terrific arm, accurately throwing bullets to first and making athletic defensive plays you seldom see in a 12-year old. Check him out in the LL SW Regional Championship game against Tulsa at 12:03, 14:20, 16:17 and 17:16.



I'm certainly no basesball scount but believe with 6 years of development he might make a great Aggie addition around 2028.

Charlie Wallace, AMC '62

I've lived in Pearland for over 20 years now and been actively involved in youth sports there for the last 11 years...

Hope the kids do well...

I am NOT a fan of Andrew Solomon...disappointed to see that tool on the PLL coaching staff...

He puts on a good act for the cameras, but that dude is a real piece of work behind the scenes...

We've played in PLL for 6 years now, this season my son took off, but i gather there's a lot of fake persona's out here. There's even one coach we have on "not on your ****ing life"list to draft our son. However, we've made some great friends and had some terrific coaches as well.

I don't have any recent experience with actual Little League and it's changed a lot since I played but what's the general attitude about select kids coming in and playing with the primary intent of making All Stars and the LLWS?

I live on the select softball side of the world these days, but my understanding is that what you are talking about is actually quite rampant...

Select kids coming back to league in the 12/13s just to make a run at the LLWS...

It's been a common complaint in Pearland for years...

FireAg said:

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It's been a common complaint in Pearland for years...

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Yeah, that's what I was wondering- would all these families who's kids don't play travel ball get bent out of shape about select kids sort of parachuting into the league solely to try to make a run at Williamsport. I know Post Oak LL does this all the time and it's pretty common almost everywhere. Hell, this probably is a driver for kids playing select as much as anything- folks want to get to the LLWS but there's not enough competition in LL so they go to select to develop.

The league my boys played in before moving to select was affiliated with Nations before it got bought by V Tool and I think it's USSSA now since I don't think PG sanctions league ball. They went with PONY for a season but everybody griped about the age cut-off (August 31 vs. April 30) and USA bat requirements.

But there's not even a Little League here on the Upper East Side where we can play because most all of Humble, Kingwood, and Atascocita are outside the boundaries for the closest one, Sheldon Little League. There is "league" but it's not Little League- Kingwood has Forest Cove but that's PONY and then there's Humble-Atascocita Baseball Association (which is where my boys played) and both are pretty hollowed out by 10U at the latest.

my experience is from way back but I assume still sort of holds true. Our kids all played Little League in our area because it was the thing to do and the social center of the community. All our best kids then formed three summer teams that played all summer in nations/usssa tourneys. We did that from 8 years old thru the summer of their 11 year old years.

in 10's we went to state and lost the title game to Lamar Little League. In 11's we went to state and went undefeated winning State. Both 10 and 11 years we had to play in sectionals against a Pearland team. Pretty sure we run ruled them every time we faced them. Our 12 year old year we again went to sectionals and faced a Pearland team that had all new kids - it was the first year all except one had ever played Little League. They beat our ass and they were within one out of going to Williamsport but lost to Lafayette La on an amazingly series of events.

One of those Pearland kids went on to play lower college ball - and a few high school ball. We have three kids from our team currently in the minors (Rays and Reds) and another that might get drafted next year, and four others that played at some level of college ball. But that Pearland team had a couple of kids who hit the puberty lottery early and they just overpowered us.

Short answer - there is probably not one team at Williamsport where the vast majority of their kids do not play year round.

Four Seasons Landscaping said:

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Quote:

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I don't have any recent experience with actual Little League and it's changed a lot since I played but what's the general attitude about select kids coming in and playing with the primary intent of making All Stars and the LLWS?

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If they're in Williamsport, that is exactly what they are doing.

The idea that any of these teams are 'just Little League kids' is as naive of youth sports as you can get.

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Right, I assumed that's what's going on. My question was more about what the vibe is from the parents who's kids don't play select and then have these select kids join the league for one season solely to make All Stars and make a run at the LLWS.

TarponChaser said:

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I don't have any recent experience with actual Little League and it's changed a lot since I played but what's the general attitude about select kids coming in and playing with the primary intent of making All Stars and the LLWS?

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This is the norm, not the exception. Any LL team that's making a run to make the LLWS is a team of select players who did LL for their 12 year old season. This won't change, and frankly it shouldn't. The best players don't play in LL, they play in the more competitive leagues.

kb2001 said:

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TarponChaser said:

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I don't have any recent experience with actual Little League and it's changed a lot since I played but what's the general attitude about select kids coming in and playing with the primary intent of making All Stars and the LLWS?

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This is the norm, not the exception. Any LL team that's making a run to make the LLWS is a team of select players who did LL for their 12 year old season. This won't change, and frankly it shouldn't. The best players don't play in LL, they play in the more competitive leagues.

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Yeah, I got that. It's been a thing for at least 15 years. But seeing as how there are posters here with direct experience in Pearland LL I'm asking to hear about the parental drama and whining about how little Jonny got left off the all stars team because little Timmy from the select team came in and took his spot and it isn't fair.