Amount of Little League Games

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: boogie49</div><div class="ubbcode-body">They have LL meetings every year for the public to come to. Someone can nominate you to be on the board. They have a vote from the ppl that show up for the meeting. Everyone there votes for the board members, and then the board members, once voted on, nominate someone to be president and then the board members take a vote for who they want to be president. I hope that made since. . . lol </div></div>

Yes.. I understood it.. I was just kidding though.

This is a catch 22 if there ever was one.

First off you have to keep the kids interested, which is really hard to do these days.

Plus you gotta keep kids coming out. Just because a kid doesnt make the all star team when he is 9 years old doesn't mean he potentially couldn't go on to be all state when he gets in high school.

Then you got the scenario of kids being overworked on the mound, which little league finally put in a rule on pitch count this year (86). Not to mention the IDIOT coaches who have kids throwing curve balls in little league. You might as well send your little leaguer across the middle against Brian Urlacher. STUPID STUPID STUPID. In the big picture it doesnt matter if your team goes undefeated if your pitcher won't be able to pick up a baseball by the time he 14.

but to get back to your question, there is no answer it depends on the kids and the league. If the kids are having fun and there is no risk of a young pitcher (or catcher) getting injuried from being overworked there is no set number of games that you should or should not play. That being said, as a kid begins to mature they should play in more and more games each year, something that really hurts highschool kids in the VH$L. We get in 26 games if you make it to the state tournament. Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, etc gets in atleast 35 before there conference tournament even begins. And I think this hurts kids the most trying to make the transition from highschool ball to college ball/pros in Va.

As far as pitching machines are concerned there great. We used them at Kelly (one for fastballs and one for breaking stuff) and we used them when I was playing college ball.

I see nothing wrong at all in having a few intersquads a month where all you see is the machine. This saves pitchers arms, you can play a 7 inning game in about an hour, and you can work on every aspect of the game (besides stealing).

In all honestly I have never hit off of a pitching machine that threw it the exact same spot every time, it really depends on the ball you stick in there. But as long as you are getting some cuts in, and surrounding yourself in a game-like atmosphere I think it can do nothing but help.

I think we should remember that LL is an all inclusive community program. The amount of games should be reasonable based on the age group. There are other leagues and travel teams for kids that are more into sports. I have an 8 year old boy and a 9 year old girl that both play LL and have no interest any doing anything more than being with their friends. I also have 2 older kids that play in USSSA and ASA travel baseball and softball teams that play 75-100 games a year. It's what they like doing and it is designed to be more serious than LL.

Well said.

My problem with so many games being played is this: my son plays little league, his team has 4 scheduled practices for the season, the rest are games. Last weekend he played in 3 games. he never had a ball hit to him in the field during any game. He walked every time he came to the plate except his last at bat, he grounded out on the first pitch. So, he swung the bat once and fielded no balls. Practice time is definitely needed.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Greeny</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Is it just me, or have the amount of Little League games played skyrocketed over the past several years? </div></div>

I just finished up a book by Cal Ripken on this subject and his son was still at the little league age. He brought up a great point in that by playing too many games the kids lose the chance to learn the fundamentals of baseball in practice. Plus, the kids could get burnt out on the game at an earlier age by playing too many games during the season. I'd like to see more practice time and less games. They'll have plenty of time to play in games once they reach the senior leage and high school age with fall ball and summer ball.

I would agree that more practice than they have scheduled is needed. I also think 3 games in a weekend is way too much. LL prohibits more than 1 double header a week and does not allow Sunday games. As someone pointed out in an earlier post there are pitching limits, and a team playing 4 games a week would have to have 6-8 pitchers which isn't impossible but is not likely every team will have that many capable pitchers.

what is the right amount of games for 11-12 year olds? nobody knows for sure. i like the idea of getting kids playing more games for some reason. i like the fact that kids are playing america's pastime though. it seems that in the past decade, lpd and swva baseball has dropped off significantly. more kids are concentrating/specializing in basketball these days it seems. tell me the last kid from swva or mainly the lpd that went on to play pro/college basketball. now tell me how many kids have went on to play college/pro baseball from around here. my point being, kids have a greater opportunity to play beyond high school in the sport of baseball.

I think its more about qualitity then quantity when it comes to practice. If the coaches know the ball game then thas gonna help the players while practicing.

I remember in little league we had coaches teaching us everything from double cuts to hitting the ball the other way when a guy's on third.

As long as the coaches are teaching proper fundamentals and the kids are having a good time while learning, thas all that really matters at this age.

wrong.12 & under The new rule is 1 to 20 pitches can pitch the next day. 21 to 40 1 day rest 41 to 60 2 days rest 61 to 85 3 days rest. The only diff. is maximum pitches in a day . Age 9 & 10 75 pitches 11 & 12 85 and 13 & 14 95.