I would consideer my DD an "A" TB pitcher. as a 14 YOA pitcher in the 8th grade last spring, she had no choice as to play rec if she wanted to keep pitching. While all of her teammates were in HS, she needed to play. She signed up and played LL. Some games were brutal and she would only throw an inning. There were two teams that were competetive out of the 5 she would play. She would pitch those games. When the spring season ended, she left and went back with her TB team and played a very difficult "national" type schedule. As we were approaching the end on the summer season, she was asked if she wouldn't mind pitching for the LL All Star team. She had no intention of doing so and even had a trip to visit family planned. The LL coach was persistent and finally he was able to convince my DD to go and help her friends, who she has played with and known for the past eight years, to try and win the State tournament. Much like everyone else here, I thought it a waste of time. She needed her rest and time to heal from the summer. She went and pitched great and they won the state championship. The teams they beat were not very strong until the semi finals. Still, no team from our town had EVER won a LL state title. They went on and played in regionals. The teams there were better. Not great, but better. They went undefeated in pool play. Beat a pretty good Georgia State Champ. Ended up losing a 2-1 thriller in the semi finals. DD pitched all but 2 innings of Regionals. She was tired, sore, and sad they lost. When she agreed to play for the coach, she thought like the rest of us. Then she got out there and was with her longtime friends. Most of which will never play in HS, let alone college. She helped them experience winning a state title. They didn't care if it was ASA, PGF, USSSA or Little League. It was what they played. I actually went from anti Little League to a supporter in just a few weeks.
Pitching speeds at LL World Series.....
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I would consideer my DD an "A" TB pitcher. as a 14 YOA pitcher in the 8th grade last spring, she had no choice as to play rec if she wanted to keep pitching. While all of her teammates were in HS, she needed to play. She signed up and played LL. Some games were brutal and she would only throw an inning. There were two teams that were competetive out of the 5 she would play. She would pitch those games. When the spring season ended, she left and went back with her TB team and played a very difficult "national" type schedule. As we were approaching the end on the summer season, she was asked if she wouldn't mind pitching for the LL All Star team. She had no intention of doing so and even had a trip to visit family planned. The LL coach was persistent and finally he was able to convince my DD to go and help her friends, who she has played with and known for the past eight years, to try and win the State tournament. Much like everyone else here, I thought it a waste of time. She needed her rest and time to heal from the summer. She went and pitched great and they won the state championship. The teams they beat were not very strong until the semi finals. Still, no team from our town had EVER won a LL state title. They went on and played in regionals. The teams there were better. Not great, but better. They went undefeated in pool play. Beat a pretty good Georgia State Champ. Ended up losing a 2-1 thriller in the semi finals. DD pitched all but 2 innings of Regionals. She was tired, sore, and sad they lost. When she agreed to play for the coach, she thought like the rest of us. Then she got out there and was with her longtime friends. Most of which will never play in HS, let alone college. She helped them experience winning a state title. They didn't care if it was ASA, PGF, USSSA or Little League. It was what they played. I actually went from anti Little League to a supporter in just a few weeks.
Great story Joe. How did she qualify for All Stars, if she hadn't been in LL all summer?
Amy- All Stars is picked from players in the rec league. She played the entire spring in the rec league. Unfortunately, that is one of the issues with Little League. Her regular season ended the beginning of May. The first All Star game was the end of July. Even at the lower age groups the All Stars usually start around July 1st for tournaments. They do take a long time to play one tourny.
- Jul 26, 2010
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Most college softball players aren't good enough to play in the NPF or for the National Team. Does that mean they should just hang it up now and quit? Little League is what it is is and it serves a great purpose. Don't hate just because LL is organized enough to get TV coverage whereas the boneheads that run the alphabet soup orgs with a higher concentration of softball talent lack the skills to actually run their organizations.
I watch and I see a bunch of young girls smiling and having a great time. If you're watching it because you want to critique little girls, then more power to you.
-W
I watch and I see a bunch of young girls smiling and having a great time. If you're watching it because you want to critique little girls, then more power to you.
-W
- May 27, 2013
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That was a great read, Joe - thanks for posting that!
I wish our LL season ended that early! Ours went through the second week of June and then our tournament games started 2 weeks later - it would have been much nicer to have our girls be able to practice together as one team for a little bit longer (although they do in the off-season).
I'll share my story with LL if anybody cares to read on - my dd stopped playing softball x 1 year because she is also a competitive dancer and that takes up a ton of time. Luckily, I was able to convince her to give it one more try this past year (although she didn't play, I continued working with her on pitching that off-year). She agreed since several of her dance buddies were playing, also. Let me just say, this past year's LL experience instilled in her a competitive/leadership spirit which I never knew existed in her! She then made the All-Star team and they were a very young 10u team, but did very well in the tourney. Now, she is taking a break from the dance comp. team and is going to play softball all-year around. She just savored going out there and playing in front of a pretty large crowd (many of our LL baseball parents and the older LL softball parents would come out to cheer them on) and being with her friends enjoying every moment of it. Now she is going to pitching lessons and just can't seem to get enough. Let me just say, being a former player myself, I am doing a happy dance every day!!!
I wish our LL season ended that early! Ours went through the second week of June and then our tournament games started 2 weeks later - it would have been much nicer to have our girls be able to practice together as one team for a little bit longer (although they do in the off-season).
I'll share my story with LL if anybody cares to read on - my dd stopped playing softball x 1 year because she is also a competitive dancer and that takes up a ton of time. Luckily, I was able to convince her to give it one more try this past year (although she didn't play, I continued working with her on pitching that off-year). She agreed since several of her dance buddies were playing, also. Let me just say, this past year's LL experience instilled in her a competitive/leadership spirit which I never knew existed in her! She then made the All-Star team and they were a very young 10u team, but did very well in the tourney. Now, she is taking a break from the dance comp. team and is going to play softball all-year around. She just savored going out there and playing in front of a pretty large crowd (many of our LL baseball parents and the older LL softball parents would come out to cheer them on) and being with her friends enjoying every moment of it. Now she is going to pitching lessons and just can't seem to get enough. Let me just say, being a former player myself, I am doing a happy dance every day!!!
The girls Junior World Series is on ESPN2 at 2:00 Pacific. Host Kirkland takes on Tampa from our home field. One women had a pocket radar yesterday and got readings topping out at 59 from these teams. Go Kirkland!
This gets to be a tired subject every year for the elitists who think they are too good for Little League. If you read what is posted you will note that these are NOT travel teams that recruit, but community based teams that represent their area. Do some of them play in some travel tournaments to prepare? YES! But the pitching rules do not allow for one pitcher to dominate and win it. So there really is no comparison for the two types of teams. But with the pitching rules and area limitations, I can guarantee you that the best 12U pitcher from PGF, ASA, or wherever could be placed on her community LL all-star team and be lucky to win the LLWS title maybe once every 10 years. She would need at least one other pretty good pitcher, a catcher who could catch her, and some offense to score some runs- all from her community! This is not as easy as you might think. If you do happen to win, there is nothing in softball that a 12 year old girl can do to match the notoriety and exposure, let alone the community and state celebrity status. As was mentioned, Jackie Traina didn't win it and many other great pitchers failed to win it as well. So if you think they are "trophy hunting", step up and see if your All-Star can win it! I will take the field and give you odds!!!
- Dec 7, 2011
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I would ask if you have ever been through LL SB to go to Regionals...?
DD & I did the LL scene, in fact it is the only scene we knew of back then.
We took our cute community backed team to LL (community = the player parents & a piece in the local useless newspaper that if we urged hard would give us some small print in the back of page 50 in the sports section).
We then got there thinking we had a darn good chance to at least compete at that age level because we new we at least had two very strong pitchers.
Well we met up with at least three other states "community" teams that handed us our lunch as they at least put the ball in play in a regular basis and exercised our lacking defense.
Later in talking with parents from these teams I asked how do you get that good as a LL team - I mean the majority of the team!
Well the parents told me in a somewhat condescending way, "c'mon man don't ya know, you got to have a team that plays all year long to get through regionals". In my naivety I asked "how is that done when there is just very low level middle school ball and then the still low level community LL". Again these elitists scoffed and said "sir, these players of ours play all year long together in TB and in LL. If you aren't playing TB then you really have no hope here at regionals."
So does this follow your sweet little community thoughts on LL?
Is the LL environment easy? No way. I agree with you completely on that. Will a TOP ASA pitcher dominate in LL regionals and make it look like she is beating up babies? Yes, and anyone who is a fan of that needs to have their head examined.
You are watching the TB-based teams at the post regional level where all the community "babies" have already been beaten to a pulp.
Is that an environment I can support knowing what I know now? No way (clarifying that LL IS STILL the boiler plate for SB talent. BUT to send a true community team to regionals that is made of TB hired guns is like throwing money at politicians.....It just stinks.
Yep, one of the teams at LL Softball World Series was the exact same team we played in a couple of tournaments this season. Just a different uniform. All you had to do was enter one of the girls names into the USSSA 'find an athlete' function and you will find her team and you will see the names of all the other girls on the LL team as well all on the same team (and with a pretty good travel record).
Our rec league is LL but we have never bothered with all stars for this exact reason. Once rec is over we just play travel and be done with it. The last year our LL went the coach who took them said they basically ran into a 12U-A travel tournament at the LL regional and it was ridiculous.
The boys side is much the same but since LL is taken so much more seriously by baseball there is a path to technically stay in LL only and get further than in the softball side. That isn't to say they don't skirt the rules 100 times per week - because having been on the board they absolutely do. Pitchers magically come back from travel in time to qualify. Someone technically lives with some third-cousin's close friend. And so on.
And then when asked about it they just go ahead and deny everything. The other teams are not going to protest because they are all doing the same thing and frankly LL only puts on a show of caring unless of course politically they decide to keep you out on a district level.
I look at the makeup of our TB team and when they get to 12U they could go far in LL - how far that would depend on how many other travel teams doing the same thing entered. Rec-only community teams wouldn't stand a chance. We have 5 girls who dominate pitching in rec and 2 who are considered strong A-pitchers - we would just need to make sure we had our 'A' pitchers available when we run into another travel team. We have 3 catchers and at least 2 elite infielders. Plenty of strong hitting up and down the order.
And to be fair - it isn't just LL. All the other 'rec' nationals are exactly the same. LL is just more visible because they get on TV and everyone can see it. And travel is no different when players magically appear on teams for State and National tournaments.
Biscuit- I get what you are saying. I would still say it is a community team. The players must live within the boundries. The pitchers have to follow the rest rules. The fact that they are playing TB year round means that they understand they have to play better teams to get better. Little league is a little behind the times on the way the schedule their tournaments. The fact it takes over a week to play a 4 team tournament is a little sad. What Little League does is eliminate the recruiting and team hopping that happens so much in TB. But like anything, it has it's good and bad points. No recruiting and team hopping is a poor trade off for some of the over the top politics that can take place. I enjoyed the experience with my DD. She also plays TB and understands how to compete at higher levels. Not all LL players do.
