Announcement

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Letter to Parents

Posted by Martin County Marlins Baseball, Inc. on Dec 10 2018 at 04:56AM PST

Dear baseball families,

As you may of heard by now, our organization Martin County South Little League has changed affiliations from Little League Baseball to Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth Baseball. We are now known as Martin County Marlins Baseball. Since our change announcement, there has been many questions raised regarding what this means to our baseball families. Please allow this message to serve as a general explanation as to what this means for our organization, and why we made the decision to change affiliations.

For the past several decades, our organization has strived to provide a positive baseball learning and development experience to the youth of Martin County. Our mission to provide a fun, family-friendly sports experience has remained unwaivered, and our board members have continued to pursue the very best options to ensure positive growth for the betterment of our league.

As you may know, Little League Baseball sets strict geographical boundaries on leagues, leaving no choice for families on where they can play baseball. In Martin County, the geographical boundaries have been split between three Little League organizations: Hobe Sound Little League, Martin County North Little League, and Martin County South Little League. The Little League boundaries restricted Martin County South to a small geographical area in between the boundaries of Hobe Sound and Martin County North, thus severely limiting our ability to grow and bring more families into our organization. In recent years, all efforts to expand the boundaries to a fair distribution of geographical area have been ignored by Little League Baseball.

In an effort to foster positive growth in our league and provide better overall competition for our baseball families, our Board decided to change affiliations to Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth Baseball. The opportunity presented to us from Cal Ripken offered expansion of our geographical area to include all of Martin and St Lucie Counties! This opportunity provided more choice for families to be able to play baseball with our organization, regardless of where you live in Martin or St Lucie County. As a result, our league should grow in numbers and provide a more fun, competitive baseball experience to everyone in these two counties.

Many have asked how will this change impact our families. The overall difference between Little League Baseball and Cal Ripken baseball is minimal. If your child is playing T-ball or Coach Pitch, absolutely nothing will change in the baseball program you have experienced with us in the past. There are a few minor rule changes affecting our 50/70 Division and above. In Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth, players are permitted to lead off base and the minimum play rule for each player is one inning and one at-bat, however the organization provides our league to tweak these rules as the Board of Directors deems necessary. Aside from those two changes, baseball as you know it will not change. Games will still be played at Wojo Park, with the possibility of away games being played in St Lucie (same as past seasons), Jupiter, and Palm Beach Gardens. Our interleague play will most likely be limited to these close, neighboring areas as they have been in the past. All other rules basically mirror what you have been accustomed to with Little League Baseball. The USA Bat Standard remains in affect so there is no need to purchase new bats.

To dispel any rumors, we are NOT a “Travel Organization.” Absolutely nothing has changed in the recreation baseball experience we will provide to everyone. However, a benefit provided by Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth affords the league to form Allstar Teams that are eligible to participate in travel baseball tournaments at the discretion of the league. This affords families an additional opportunity not provided through Little League.

We remain available to answer any additional questions and look forward to providing an improved, awesome experience to our current and future families!

All the best,

Martin County Marlins Baseball Board of Directors

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