Little League has gone way beyond the disheveled days of Walter Matthau and the haphazard playing on the proverbial sandlot.
Nowadays it is more structured and focused on the well-being of the kids, never mind winning or losing - especially when it comes to those stepping on a diamond for the first time.
"No score is kept in T-ball and there are no outs either," said Harlan Boyd, president of Queen Anne Little League, and father of five - three of which are QALL players. T-ballers are 5- and 6-years-old and are often brand new to America's pastime. "At that age, it's just placing an emphasis on having an experience as a team member. Some have played soccer, but for the most part, it's their first experience being a member of a team."
Years ago, the beginning age for a Little Leaguer was 7, and play included pitching, catching and stealing on passed balls. But now, partly for safety reasons, and for the plain practicality of it, leagues such as QALL are graduating kids as they go through the system.
"If we don't have limitations, the game is just a track meet," Boyd said, with players hitting the ball then running around the bases as the defense scrambles to get the ball in. So the game meets players in the middle. Outfielders merely need to get the ball into the infield to stop runners from advancing. Batters keep swinging until they hit the ball. Infielders just try to get the ball near the pitcher instead of throwing it to the first baseman, for example.
This year, QALL will be fielding 43 teams, three more than last year. To balance skill level, the minor division has been split into three groups: Rookie for 6-8 year olds, Central for 8-9 year olds and Coast for 10 and 11 year olds.
The league also hired Mark Linden of Baseball Positive, a sort of consultant on the game to give coaches teaching tools and also make the league more competitive in terms of quality of play.
Linden has been teaching coaches new terminology and drills to employ during practices that promote efficiency, consistency and positive behavior. And he's teaching the kids how to use their legs and feet.
"The reality is that the game is played with feet and legs. You move your feet to catch a ball and gain ground. You use your legs to generate power," Linden said. "We're trying to breed continuity, simplicity and structure. The coaches have been very receptive to it."
Elizabeth Hanning, who coaches the team Miller Hansen & Torphy of the minor league's central division, said Linden has made life much simpler for coaches.
"Before, people had different ways of saying things to the kids and now it's a universal language," she said. "So when a kid moves up to a team next year, he gets the same terminology for the basic concepts."
Instead of coaches standing at the plate and hitting grounders, or the normal, one-at-a-time batting practice, where the rest of the players are standing around, Linden's drills has players rotating positions in the field and at the plate.
"Youth baseball has changed a lot in the last 10 years," Boyd said. "It's a much bigger business like anything else. Bringing in somebody like Mark to help us train coaches has come off very well."
QALL leadership first brought in Linden to host the minor leagues summer program, which drew about 60 participants, twice as many as the previous year, and may have contributed to the uptick in tryout participants this season.
Boyd said other leagues within the Little League association have experienced attrition, but QALL is actually growing.
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