Little League Tournaments

[Bagman]

Does anybody else think that these little league tournaments are getting way out of hand especially for the younger kids (8 and under coach pitch) ? My son will be playing 7 games in 9 days. At what point do we burn these kids out ? Or are we exploiting these kids for the almighty $$$$ ?

[youhavenoidea]

Here is a major problem that I have seen with the rushing in of little league tournaments. Football. Although your son is 8 years old, he is feeling the impact of the older kids. Everything baseball almost needs to be done by early August so kids can prepare for football. We live in an area where we have a school district every 5 miles (well Jtown area) and the same kids that play baseball, also play football, basketball, hockey, wrestling, soccer. We have small districts (except Johnstown) and the same kids are expected to be 2-3 sports athletes.

As far as your point about your son, that is a decision that you have to make. I cant remember the last time I have seen a child playing sports getting themselves into trouble. If there is something else you would like to be doing with your child, then dont allow him to particpate in all-stars. If your kid enjoys it, why suppress it!

[Bagman]

I think you are missing my point. I agree that sports helps keep kids out of trouble and helps them socially but at what point is over the line. Tourneys now are starting to creep into August and with Football starting mid August when do they get a break.

[bball22]

"Bagman" you sound like the kids I coach in high school sports. "I need a break", "I need my summer coach", I am always doing something coach", I need some time to lay around and do nothing coach". You get to play organized sports from the time your 8 to 18 and then it all stops. Enjoy it now and quit complaining is what I tell my players.

[say_oww]

Little league tournaments are a joke. Nice fund-raiser for the leagues, but what do they need with $22,000 in the bank. To buy some more trophies and some cheap caps.

Tournaments burn the kids out really fast. Count how many kids on your son's all-star team are still playing when they are 16. I am going to bet there will 3 or 4 left, and thats it. I am not being a jerk, I am just saying that I have seen it happen every year for the past 15 years. You don't have to believe me, but you can bet it will happen.

[Crimson09Crazy]

Can someone answer me this?

Whats the point of Ferndale,Arbutus, and GJYL? Why not play under sanctioned little league? What can it hurt?? Watching the LLWS is a great thing, and its a shame that Johnstown never has any chance because West Suburban is the only team in town that plays sanction. I mean why not? It makes 0 sense to me. I mean the chances of making it aren't high, but why not provide an opportunity or chance to the youth of our area. You don't think little leaguers from Ferndale aren't watching that on ESPN? Hey if they are good enough they keep moving on, if not they get eliminated and can play in all these local garbage tournaments.

[davesandstorm]

Can someone answer me this?

Whats the point of Ferndale,Arbutus, and GJYL? Why not play under sanctioned little league? What can it hurt?? Watching the LLWS is a great thing, and its a shame that Johnstown never has any chance because West Suburban is the only team in town that plays sanction. I mean why not? It makes 0 sense to me. I mean the chances of making it aren't high, but why not provide an opportunity or chance to the youth of our area. You don't think little leaguers from Ferndale aren't watching that on ESPN? Hey if they are good enough they keep moving on, if not they get eliminated and can play in all these local garbage tournaments.

I've often wondered why we don't have many little leagues playing sanctioned LL in the area. Whenever I was in Little League about 12-15 years ago, we had three different sections in District 11. Now there was just a team from West Suburban, Mt Union and Huntingdon this past year. We used to have to get through Huntingdon, Tyrone and Bellwood to get out of the eastern section. There was a section that teams from Somerset, North Star and other locations played in, as well as one with West Suburban, V.E. Erickson and other Johnstown area teams. It's a shame to see our area down to so few teams.

[Opinionguy]

Can someone answer me this?

Whats the point of Ferndale,Arbutus, and GJYL? Why not play under sanctioned little league? What can it hurt?? Watching the LLWS is a great thing, and its a shame that Johnstown never has any chance because West Suburban is the only team in town that plays sanction. I mean why not? It makes 0 sense to me. I mean the chances of making it aren't high, but why not provide an opportunity or chance to the youth of our area. You don't think little leaguers from Ferndale aren't watching that on ESPN? Hey if they are good enough they keep moving on, if not they get eliminated and can play in all these local garbage tournaments.

One simple answer: Williamsport. You and others wandering this have obviously been out of little league for a while. From new pitching count rules, age divisions, boundaries, insurance stipulations, lights on metal poles only, pitching distances, ect... Many of these leagues just say "Why not do it our way, the way that works for our little league". All of these teams can still compete at any local tournament.

Arbutus is currently the local Johnstown powerhouse of Little League. They are huge.

Little League is dying a slow painful death in this area. Many leagues don't even have enough teams to play a regular season. I look for many local leagues to start adopting an inter-league regular season schedule within the next couple years.