What, a Tee in Minors?

[ohiogray]

I manage a team in the boys minors (ages 7-10), in my hometown Little League organization, this year being my first. In the past I have managed T-Ball. Having a son in the system I have done just about everything to help this league out. Not only do I manage but I also serve on the board as public relations and boy minor division commisioner. I believe in teaching the gentlemen (players) the correct way to play and educating them in hopes that they will learn something and continue to build off of that in the following years to come. I have also surrounded myself with just as equal assistants. I have the players parents who have no complains about our team or the way in which we conduct it.

In the years past I have been told that former managers, which most are out of the boys minor system, complained that scores got out of hand. So they enforced the 10 run rule which did nothing but end the game sooner. I can respect this rule and understand it.

The Board decided that something needed to be done to stop the walkathons. This year the Board decided to try the following: The pitcher will pitch to the batter and if after ball four is called, if not called out on strike 3 prior to that, the batter will no longer be awarded 1st base. Instead, the tee comes out and the batter is given one swing at the ball and if hit fair resume with regular rules. If swung at and missed, or hit foul the batter is out.

This ruling has me along with my assistants and some parents terribly upset and displeased with their lack of thinking. I have stated that the problem lies within the "so-called" baseball managers who do not take the time to educate their pitchers on the art of stance, windup, delivery, follow through and then recovery or fielding. I have also stated that the umpires should open up the strike zone to force the players to take more swings. I have already instructed my players to swing at balls that are 2 maybe 3 ball widths on either side of the plate. I refuse to have my players golfing or swatting flies though.

What the mentally challenged board also cannot understand is they think they may solve the problem in the boys minors when in all actuality they have moved it upward and into the boys majors. At this I chuckle. To me this hurts the players. They have lost the true pride of America's sport. Players leave Tee Ball to go to the minors in hopes of no longer hit off of a tee, use a ball that is not so spongy (RIF), have an umpire calling balls and strikes, base advancing, sliding and keeping score. Their claim to fame is the boys minor division is now an instructional system. As you notice I have referred to Boys Minors, this rule for some reason does not apply to the girls minor. To me our league has a T-Ball lower division and a T-Ball upper boys division. When registering the players the cost difference between Tee-Ball and Boys Minors is $5.00 but at time of registration they failed to inform the prospective boy minor players' parents of this rule.

Yes, other solutions were talked about to try like coach pitch or machine pitch, but the problem there is the pitcher is now not given a chance to develop and the majors would be relying on a player that has the given talent to pitch.

I have been asked to umpire some games in the minors but have refused to do so for 2 reasons: most importantly I manage a team in that division and it would not be just let alone what others would think. Even though the UIC has said if I wanted to ump he would clear it with the 2 managers. The other reason why I will not is because to me, I would not be doing my job as an ump in stopping this travesty of stripping a walk away from a batter after he has earned it and then call him out for hitting a ball foul off of a tee.

Sorry for the length. Does anyone out there have any suggestions. I have every intention of finishing this year with the players being I did make a commitment to my players, parents, assistants and myself.

[Roger Greene]

I watched a few games in an instructional league last fall that had the following rule.

No walks. If pitcher was charged with four balls, the offensive coach went to the mound to releive the pitcher. (pitcher remained in the center of the infield to play defense) The Batter kept any strikes in the count, but the offensive coach pitched unitl the batter was put out or hit safely.

It coach threw a pitch through the strike zone, it was charged as a strike if swung at or not. Foul balls were foul balls. 3 strikes = out.

Worked pretty good. Games went fast. Run totals were kept down. Developing pitchers got a chance to pitch instead of the regular summer pitchers. Coaches and parents understood going in it was an instructional league.

Roger Greene

[brandda]

Your league is set up a little different than ours if you are lumping everyone 7 and above into the same division. In our league, we have the following divisions:

5-6 T-Ball
7-8 Machine Pitch
9-10 Minors
11-12 Varsity and Majors
13-14 Junior
15-17 Senior

By the time they are nine, there should be a few who can find enough of the plate that you can have a real game. You might want to consider breaking your groups up a little more.

Also, myself and most other umpires I know who drop down to call minors' games expand their strike zone dramatically. In my case, it is high chest to low knees (or sometimes just not in the dirt) and a full ball off the plate. That seems to help a lot also. At that level, parents are still pretty low key and as long as you keep it huge the whole game, no one seems to mind.

[jicecone]

First of all having coached myself from T-ball through 17-18 yr old teams, the one thing I learned is that the Tee is NOT used enough in instructional basball. As much as you may not want to here this, 7-10 is by all means instructional baseball.

The use of the tee is valuable in teaching a player to keep there head down and see the ball.

It sounds like you spend a lot of time with your players and take pride in what you do however, there is a lot more to this game than just batting or doing things your way only. Make sure they understand getting along as a group.

Creating controversy among them to get others to see your point of view is not developing a love for the game. Instead its developing an attitude of I wanna get my own way.

It sounds like you have a positive attitude however, dont let other peoples decisions that you are not in favor of, get in the way of coaching your team and making sure that everyone of them wants to play again next year.

Why dont you want to ump? I really dont think this thing is a travesty. Do you feel that you cant be fair umping in the same league? This is minor/instructional baseball.

Ive been there, done that. Dont let the opinions and ideas of others ruin your ability to relate to your team and interfer with you teaching them to enjoy the game. There are many things in this world we disagree with. If your ability to keep the kids interested in this game and keep them off the streets is succesful, the rest of the things are of little consequence.

I always judged my abilty as a coach by the number of players that came back to me just to say hello and talk or ask advice. Remember there is a much larger percentage of kids that dont become a superstar, than those that do.

[Danny R]

I have much less experience than you, but I wouldn't put as much emphasis on developing pitching abilities in the 7-9 yr-old age group as you seem to do. At that age level I think develop solid fundamental teamwork, fielding, and batting skills is more important. So I would opt for coach pitch or machine pitch. I'm noticing that in Minors there are a lot of walks and steals. So much so that the kids aren't getting enough fielding work during games, especially outfielders. However, your league's invention seems kind of weird. It seems like pulling a tee out all the time would slow things down too much. BUt don't quit. Stick with it. LL Baseball desperately needs good coaches to make it successful.

[danvers]

We addressed this in our Mustang (PONY ages 9 & 10) by going to a pitching machine for the first half of the season. Basically, this buys your coaches some additional time to work with the pitchers and catchers. Of course, it doesn't do a whole lot to keep the batters from bailing out of the box :-)

~~Dan