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I agree that Cal Ripken rules on baserunning are a bit too vague. But it does clearly state in the "Suggested" Rules for Rookie League (7 & 8 year old machine pitch) that stealing is not allowed.
Of course, when it says "Suggested," local leagues tend to make up all their own rules. About three years ago, the local leagues had all played by the rules in the book all year long. Then, come tournament time, a rules sheet got passed around to all the coaches by the state commissioner that said that stealing was allowed. This pissed off all the coaches, because this now meant they had to put a good player at catcher (where during the regular season they can pretty much "hide" a bad player).
The instance that is not specifically addressed in the rule book that keeps everyone here in a perpetual argument: When does the runner have to stay on the base?
This is what they have come up with in my league: They draw a big circle around the pitching machine, and there is a player playing the position of pitcher, although the umpire is feeding the machine. When the "pitcher" has possession of the ball inside the circle, the ball is immediately dead. If a runner is less than halfway to the next base, he has to return. If he is more than halfway to the next base, he is allowed to advance.
I don't like it, but it's at least a way to keep rabid, rules-ignorant parents from literally jumping out on the field. And it keeps from having a runner score on literally every hit because coaches simply tell their fielders to throw the ball to the pitcher and not try to get the runner out.
Of course, the main problem is that they let baseball at this level be competitive, and that they actually pick All-Star teams for tournament competition. I don't think there should be all-star teams until the kids are actually pitching.
Babe Ruth League needs to revamp their entire rule book and print some VERY specific rules about Rookie League instead of the ambiguous stuff they put in there now.
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