What I see from the 8 and 9 year old recreational teams as I travel around the country and hear from parents all the time is that the quality of pitching from 8 and 9 yr old rec players is usually so weak that this alone makes the passed ball count from wild pitches ridiculous.

Again, this is my opinion as it relates to the day to day play of recreation teams within youth town programs. I do not expect these restrictions to apply when you cross the line into travel or tournament ball.

I teach our catchers your passed ball drills, as well as the pitchers. The catcher/pitcher passed ball play results in maybe 1 in 7 are thrown out at the plate. I manage a 10U travel team too and we play MLB rules. Yes we play to win, but its primary objective is to be developmental with an entire team of players who can make plays all around the field. Steals are attempted more cautiously because these all-star caliber catchers can make the throw with 60′ bases. We recently played in an 11U tournament with 70′ bases and we got gunned down trying to steal as liberally as we normally do so we backed off. Our more aggressive and fast runners were able to steal successfully.

Some of our travel players come from neighboring little league teams and do not have the same base running skills as the players who come from Pony league do. They hesitate, they don’t trust their capabilities to take a healthy lead, etc., because they don’t play these rules in their recreation league.

Yes they will learn when they play Pony division at age 13, but the transition will be slower than those kids who have already been doing this since they were 9 year old. On the 70′ field and the 60′ field with the travel players, stealing is not an automatic occurrence. The dropped 3rd strike instinct also lacks in our little league players. What a great play this is for catchers to exercise. In Mustangs dropped 3rd strike plays happen at least 3 or 4 times per game. The Catcher either tags him or throws him out at 1st. Maybe 1 in 4 reach 1st safely. Great play-for batters too!

One stop gap Mustang does incorporate to keep the scores even is a 5 run rule per inning until the last 20 minutes of play when the innings are all open so the other team can have a chance to catch up if they are more than 5 runs behind in the last inning.

I would rather the kids steal away all day long and learn these skills for 3 years before they have to exercise caution and the scores reflect that level of play when they turn 13. Holding them back may keep the scores more like MLB, but it does not teach them how to lead off, how to dive back, how to pick off as a pitcher or keep the pitcher and catcher alert because the ball is live at all times and not just on mishandled balls.

Thanks Coach!

RD

In our league in town 11 and 12′s play majors and at that age level there is no restriction on scoring from 3rd on a ball past the catcher and runners do not have to wait for 2 strikes to advance to 2nd or 3rd.

The rules we put in place were for our Minors Division ages 8-9.

You wrote that your league is ages 9-12 in the same division. What are the ages of the catchers on your 9-12 teams?