Announcement
OVLL families,
This week, April 4-7, the Little League Baseball International Congress will convene in Minneapolis to discuss a variety of things such as policies and rules. One of the items on their agenda is a proposed “league age rule change” that calls for the league age cutoff date to be extended to Dec. 31.
What this means… the league age will be whatever age your son/daughter will be in that season’s calendar year (Jan. 1- Dec. 31).
Example 1 – If your child turns 10 this year between May 1 and Dec. 31, he/she is considered to be league age 9 this year. Next year, if the proposed rule change goes into effect, he/she will be considered to be league age 11, since your child will turn 11 between May 1 and Dec. 31.
Example 2 – Kids that turn 3 in Dec. will now be eligible for our 4 year old Wee Ball division (remember, the new league age is whatever you child turns that year). Being as involved in the lower divisions as long as I have, I can confidently tell you that this division will not be here next year, as most of the kids available under current age guidelines will be 5 next year, not 4. The ones eligible will only be 3 years old! (Absurd… some kids are still in diapers!).
To summarize how the rule change will impact us:
Ø It takes one year of Little League away from your child – 66% of our entire population
Ø It eliminates two of our age groups – Wee Ball division and 12 year olds of Majors division
Ø Most players will never reach the age Little League restricts them to be
Ø 20% of our potential players will not be allowed to play – 1 out of 5 players
Ø This will financially cripple our league, not to mention the leagues with small populations
My son is league age 10 this year, but will be considered league age 12 next year (as an 11 year old) under the new rule – he will lose an entire year of Little League. After I explained the new rule to him, he said, “That’s not fair dad! I can remember since Tee Ball thinking about Majors. Majors is everything me and my friends have been waiting for.”
Why would Little League want to kick 12 year olds out of what is, for more than 90% of them, their last year of Little League and youth sports? It occurs to me that this is when they need it most!
It has been said that the intent of the rule change is to eliminate having 13 year olds play in Majors post-season (aka International LL tournament leading to the LL World Series). HELLO, the percentage of kids still playing baseball at that time of the year is so small; it is astounding that they would change the rule for the “one in a million” while tossing aside the rest.
I urge you to join me in writing Little League Baseball and tell them not to change the league age rule. Feel free to express your personal reasons or re-state the obvious that this proposed rule change serves no purpose other than to take away a very special time in the lives of kids and families.
Send your emails by April 4, when the LLBI Congress convenes. You may send to:
Stephen Keener, President
Little League Baseball International, care of:
Scott Rosenberg Public Relations/LLBI Congress srosenberg@littleleague.org
Dave Bonham, Asst. Director, Western Region Headquarters dbonham@littleleague.org
Brian Pickering, Asst. Director, Western Region Headquarters bpickering@littleleague.org
Sincerely,
Toby Reece
OVLL President
